Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

Now, the baseline for a truly phenomenal drama has dropped to 35%. Of course, there's still the occasional appearance of a phenomenal drama with a 40% success rate, but it's still not very effective.

This is an inevitable trend, an irreversible phenomenon. Even if television stations try their best to compensate with higher-quality works, they cannot completely resist the tide of the times.

Mobile internet is already taking shape, and it seems that some kind of standard is being developed recently. In the future, mobile internet access will also come into people's view.

Television stations today are like people who have entered middle age. They no longer have the glory of their youth, but they still have some influence and can still maintain their presence with high-quality films, television dramas, and variety shows.

However, recently almost all TV stations have seen a significant drop in viewership.

This so-called obvious percentage is probably around one or two percent.

Don't underestimate that one or two percent; sometimes it can very well determine the future of a TV series or variety show.

In later generations, even a rating of a fraction of a percent would be taken very seriously by television stations, let alone one percent.

If a TV station's ratings drop due to a hit drama or variety show, then they can obviously accept it.

This is called competition among peers; even if you lose, you're willing to accept it.

However, it's not just one TV station whose ratings are declining; the overall ratings across Japan have dropped by one or two percent over the past six months.

This is a drop that has never happened before.

The decline will certainly be greater in the future, but it shouldn't be falling so fast now.

TV station staff began frantically searching for the cause: was there a problem with the dramas and variety shows, or were viewers simply tired of the current types of television entertainment?

In the previous season's programming, some TV stations even started to invest in producing large-scale dramas, some TV stations tried their best to produce good tokusatsu dramas for children to watch, and some TV stations worked overtime to have their staff produce a hit variety show to attract attention.

However, it had no effect.

The worst-performing programs were those specifically targeting men and children, which generally saw a decrease of about three or four percent.

Most dramas targeting women did not experience a significant drop in popularity.

They finally realized the seriousness of the situation.

It wasn't that they didn't do a good enough job; rather, the audience's attention seemed to be suddenly diverted by something else.

This time they began to conduct serious research and finally came to a conclusion.

Electronic products known as the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) have taken over the televisions in homes!

The head of the household and the children will immediately turn on the TV and play games as soon as they get home from get off work. As for the latest TV series, they can always rent DVDs to watch later, but playing games is a must.

Compared to the slow-burning nature of TV dramas, games offer a more direct and rapid sense of excitement. Most importantly, games don't require waiting for updates; you can play for as long as you want, just like watching an entire TV series for as long as you like.

Not everyone can afford to buy another TV just to play games, so game consoles have become a common sight in the living room.

Sometimes people bring it out to play together when they get together.

Good grief, we've been fighting tooth and nail for ratings here, only to have them snatched away by an outsider.

Most TV stations couldn't stand it when they came to this conclusion.

Ratings are their lifeblood; they're willing to fight tooth and nail over internal competition within the TV station, let alone dealing with outside intruders.

So on that day, everything related to video games was removed from the television station.

Remove any variety shows that promote video games, and cancel any video game promotional advertisements, even if it means paying penalties.

They've already reached our beachhead, and we're still greeting them with smiles, giving them ammunition and rations—it's utterly humiliating!

That Youxing Electronic Entertainment company, blacklist them immediately and never let them appear in any of our TV programs or advertisements again.

As for Surui Electronics... we'll talk about that later.

Anyway, the mainstream now is the Famicom, and the PN can't even sit on the sidelines.

The main problem is that many television stations use equipment from Surui Electronics or its subsidiaries for broadcasting and recording, making them difficult to deal with...

When Zhu Youxing learned of this news, he was stunned for a long time.

How did a huge black pot suddenly fall from the sky?

However, it seems that he is not entirely unjustified in taking the blame.

I am indeed one of the main culprits behind the current drop in viewership.

However, it was only a matter of time before the ratings generally declined; I had simply sped up the pace a little.

Television stations are already approaching old age, and they still think that even if they enter middle age, they will still be able to hold on for seventy or eighty years. But in reality, the speed will be faster every year, and in the end, many families' televisions will soon become decorations.

Even if people don't play games, the number of people who actually watch TV programs in later generations is decreasing rapidly.

Natsume Yasutaka, who was in charge of marketing and publicity, even went to Takeyusei's office to report on the matter: "President, many TV station executives have forcibly removed our advertisements, but TV Tokyo has not made any reaction. They are doing what they are doing. The video game advertisements were still airing this morning."

"Huh? TV Tokyo?"

Takeyusei immediately thought of that TV station with the bizarre mascot, which would later broadcast its own program every day without fail, and eventually survived by broadcasting anime.

That's certainly unconventional, but I like it. I like TV stations like yours that keep their promises and abide by the terms of contracts.

It seems like we could consider collaborating with TV Tokyo in the future. That quirky TV station probably wouldn't mind the invitation at all.

Zhu Youxing said nonchalantly, "It's okay, if we can't run TV commercials, so be it. Anyway, that's no longer the main battlefield."

Television ratings are declining, and TV stations are unhappy that game consoles are taking away their viewership. They've cut off advertising channels. Do they really think I'm helpless?

He had his advertising channels forcibly cut off before.

Upon hearing Takeyusei's words, Natsume Yasutaka also gave a strange smile.

The on-the-ground promotion efforts have never diminished, and a large number of on-the-ground promotion personnel are now spread throughout Japan.

This is all thanks to Masashi Ota.

Having a past he couldn't bear to look back on, it was incredibly easy for him to find a group of idle young people.

Young people also need to spend money to go out and have fun, so they naturally won't refuse job opportunities.

Most importantly, they can experience all the Famicom games up close for free. They think this job is incredibly cool, and they feel there's no better job than this. They're even promoting it quite enthusiastically.

"Leaving aside the TV station, has Su Rui Electronics made any moves lately? They seem to have been quiet for over two months now, haven't they?"

Surui Electronics was, after all, their first competitor. However, after Surui's initial bombshell, the other side suddenly went quiet, not even making a ripple, as if it were playing dead.

But he knew in his heart that such a company would never easily give up such a huge market.

If they investigate carefully, they will find that video games are sweeping across Japan and are showing a strong trend of becoming a completely new form of entertainment.

What's the easiest way to make money in this world?

That's entertainment.

Anything related to entertainment is the easiest way to make money.

Surui Electronics is absolutely not going to give up.

"Now that you mention it, I've heard some news about Surui Electronics from acquaintances. It seems they're about to unleash a 'big move'."

Chapter 78 The Third Parties

"acquaintance?"

"Oh, he's a friend I used to work with, and he now holds a position at Surui Electronics."

Oh wow? Did they find a spy?

Natsume Yasutaka seemed to see through Takeyusei's expression, and he said with a smile, "Actually, if you have the patience, President, you can also find the relevant information. Surui Electronics' security has never been particularly good, and they don't seem to care about these things."

"Then tell me in detail," Zhu Youxing said, intrigued.

“During this period, they seem to be in contact with some well-known software companies. Perhaps they want to learn from our approach and add more games to their consoles, instead of relying solely on internal staff to create games.”

"Mmm, and then what?"

"It seems that some progress has been made so far, and we are currently promoting it intensively. We may have accurate information in a couple of days."

Is this time planning to team up with others for a powerful alliance?

The people in this world are indeed quite clever; if one person can't handle it, they'll join forces.

This coincided with my future ideas, and the other party had a great advantage, namely, the company was very large, and perhaps they could not influence users' choices in the short term.

However, they can influence the choices of other companies or game development groups in a short period of time.

Offer incentives to encourage companies to prioritize creating games for your platform. As more people create games on a platform and the quality improves, players will naturally start choosing them.

"President, you don't seem worried at all. This time it looks like it will be even more difficult to deal with than before, unless we can keep making good games, and the output has to be very high."

"There's nothing to worry about. It's a good thing that more and more good games are appearing in the world."

If he could play more great games in this world, Zhu Youxing would also be very happy, because that was something he had been planning for a long time. He had said before that competitors could also be friends.

However... he still needs to be beaten up; his ambition to be the godfather of games in this world has never waned.

If he's suppressed now, he won't be able to remain the Godfather.

"So, President, you mean you have a solution?"

"Of course there is, but you don't need to worry about that. Just go about your business, and I'll contact you when I need you."

Natsume Yasutaka nodded and left.

Zhu Youxing began to check the current sales figures for game consoles and games.

Two months after the release of the shogi game, the development team released two more games.

These are Takahashi Meijin Adventure Island and Gold Rush.

Both classic games have also shone brightly in their respective categories. In particular, Gold Miner has added puzzle elements, making the game highly replayable, and both games sold more than 50,000 copies in their first week.

Previously, sales of 20,000 to 30,000 units were considered high sales.

However, with the increase in sales of the Famicom, it seems that selling 50,000 copies of a game in its first week is becoming increasingly normal.

The Famicom has now reached 800,000 units sold, getting closer and closer to one million. According to estimates, it could reach one million units sold in as little as one month or as little as two months.

It hasn't even been a full year yet, but the results are already quite impressive.

As for its competitor, the PN game console, it hasn't even broken 100,000 units yet.

In addition to these data, there is another new statistic below.

Number of third-party software added to the Famicom: 17.