Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

Not long ago, following Zhu Youxing's suggestions on the main storyline and presentation, the Resident Evil movie was released as scheduled.

However, this Resident Evil movie is not the original Resident Evil movie, but a different zombie movie.

It's called World War Z.

This is a benchmark work in the zombie movie genre, elevating zombie movies, which were originally only able to linger in low-to-medium budget development, to a high-standard production benchmark.

The result of such high-standard production was that the film became a huge hit.

The audience at the time had never seen such a crazy horde of zombies.

The visual spectacle of thousands of zombies scaling high walls and breaking through human blockades is beyond imagination.

The audience in this world, in particular, had never seen anything like it before. As soon as the movie was released, it became the box office champion for half a year. Later, it was dethroned by another high-profile work by a great director released in the same year.

However, in terms of profit margin alone, World War Z was absolutely a huge money-maker back then.

With an investment of around $200 million, and thanks to the Resident Evil IP and the fact that it was the first time audiences had experienced such a unique visual experience, the film ultimately grossed $1.2 billion worldwide, resulting in a 600% return on investment.

Clearly, Tukalev has truly tasted success. He believes that the film's greatest merit lies in Resident Evil, rather than the film itself being excellent enough. Therefore, he is eager to acquire more IP adaptation rights from Yuxing Electronic Entertainment.

Chapter 1010 IP Mayhem?

1010

"Um, Super Mario..."

We'll talk about that later.

"That Pokémon..."

"Hmm... I can consider it."

"Great! I can immediately arrange for a top-notch screenwriter to produce it..."

Can you imagine what a live-action Pokémon game would look like?

"This... is to present those Pokémon in a higher definition 3D form, and then, as you said, stay true to the original work."

"How can you be faithful to the original work? The story in the game is simply about fighting monsters and leveling up, then challenging different gyms step by step, and finally becoming the top trainer. The story in this process is almost completely blank in the game."

"It seems...so it is."

In any case, Tukarev was a very good friend, and the two cooperated quite well.

After thinking for a moment, Zhu Youxing said, "Let me recommend a few works to you. Adapting games like Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon into movies and TV series is actually quite difficult. I require you to take the players' feelings into account. Moreover, the stories of these games are often rather monotonous. Without a good enough director and screenwriter, it is very difficult to make them well."

Before the Bamboo Planet travels through time, Mario only had one very old live-action movie.

However, apart from the fact that the movie was called Super Mario Bros., everything else about it was completely nonsensical.

This movie is absolute garbage.

Before Zhu Youxing traveled through time, he knew that Nintendo had already partnered to develop an animated Mario movie. Unfortunately, he didn't have the chance to see it when he traveled through time, so he didn't know whether the Super Mario animated movie would be successful.

However, he was quite impressed with the live-action adaptations of Pokémon, which was the first attempt to portray Pokémon in a live-action format.

However, the movie takes a different approach. It doesn't develop the story from the perspective of a Pokémon trainer, but rather it's a live-action adaptation of a spin-off game in the Pokémon series: Detective Pikachu. This can be considered a clever trick; if it's not done very well, it can use the fact that it's a spin-off to convince players who like the game.

If successful, it proves that this approach is correct, and then we can continue to develop similar adaptations.

However, that work can only be described as neither good nor bad.

Upon hearing that Zhu Youxing seemed to have finally given in to his pleas and was willing to recommend and authorize some of his works, Tukarev immediately became interested.

"Whatever work you say it is, as long as it's popular enough, I will definitely do my best to make it a good one, and I will be absolutely faithful to the original work."

Zhu Youxing shrugged and said, "Why don't we just adapt the GTA: Liberty City arc into a TV series, focusing on Nico, an illegal immigrant from Eastern Europe? It could probably run for two or three seasons. What do you think?"

"TV series..."

Tukalev was slightly disappointed.

He doesn't look down on TV dramas.

However, he still prefers to work more in film, where he is more familiar with the film industry.

However, it must be said that GTA has been quite popular lately.

He also played the game and was moved by Nico in it.

He even felt that the Niko described by Zhu Youxing was practically another version of himself.

He can be considered an immigrant who came to the United States.

He was originally Russian, and came to the United States for various reasons to work hard and make a name for himself here.

If Zhu Youxing hadn't pulled him back when he was on the verge of disaster, making his Starry Sea Infinite film series a huge hit, he might have already slunk back to Russia to inherit the family business and do things he didn't like at all, living in the shadow of his elders for the rest of his life.

But now, he has his own business, and it's thriving.

If Nico in the game had someone like Takeyusei to help him, perhaps he would have taken a completely different path.

In this respect, Tukarev felt a strong connection to Niko.

Zhu Youxing said, "Of course, if it's just a license for GTA: Chapters of Liberty City, I don't need to waste my breath. I can also license you to develop film and television adaptations of Assassin's Creed and Metal Gear series. I only have one requirement, which is to stay true to the original work. Please please the players first, and then consider pleasing others."

In his previous life, Zhu Youxing had seen too many adaptations that were wildly modified and ended up pleasing no one.

In that case, Zhu Youxing felt that he should just focus on pleasing the players. Unless he could get a truly top-notch screenwriter and director to create a work that was outstanding enough, Zhu Youxing would not consider making any concessions.

Upon hearing that there were also licenses for Assassin's Creed and Metal Gear, Tukarev immediately beamed with joy.

"No problem! So, what can we adapt into Assassin's Creed and Metal Gear Solid? More TV series?"

"You can think about that yourself, I won't interfere too much. What I hope is not to ruin the reputation in the minds of the players."

“Absolutely no problem!” Tukarev said, patting his chest.

Tukarev has already begun to draw up a grand blueprint in his mind.

"Oh, by the way, I suddenly have another idea that should be pretty good, but I don't know if you'd be interested."

When Tukalev mentioned licensed IP, Zhu Youxing suddenly remembered a film or television work from his previous life that was quite historically significant.

This work can be said to be a combination of the strengths of many, with a seventy-year-old man skillfully using the elements that young people love most to create a worldview and story that young people yearn for.

At this moment, Zhu Youxing felt that this seemed to have some potential.

"What do you think."

"The idea behind this is actually quite simple: a chaotic battle of IPs."

"IP free-for-all?"

Zhu Youxing smiled and said, "Just like you said, I own an IP gold mine, but it would be a pity not to mine it. Sometimes I worry that if the mining method is not appropriate, it will cause dissatisfaction and distrust from my core player group. But IP licensing is not only for adapting a single IP. IP licensing can also be used to do some more interesting things."

"So what exactly is it?"

"I want to call it 'Ready Player One.' As the name suggests, it refers to the top level of video game players, and such players will compete for something in countless familiar video games. In the movie, there can be countless video game elements."

Tukarev blinked. He still didn't quite understand what was going on, but... what was this about something seeming to be on fire?

Chapter 1011

1011

Ready Player One can be considered a groundbreaking film.

The story itself isn't particularly compelling; the film didn't win over audiences with its story, but rather with something else entirely.

Easter egg.

In games and movies, there are things called Easter eggs.

This Easter egg could be a special item or scene left in a game by a game developer, or a hidden special element left in a movie by a movie director.

Sometimes it's a tribute to someone, and sometimes it's a replication of oneself.

Like Quentin Tarantino, a typical foot fetishist, every movie of his features feet... well, that analogy doesn't seem quite right.

So, it seems to be the first recorded Easter egg in the game, where a game developer hid his name in a hidden room within the game.

To enter this room, a series of complex operations are required. In the end, the players found this hidden room, which is the Easter egg.

Generally speaking, Easter eggs are accessories to some cultural and entertainment products.

However, in Ready Player One, Easter eggs are a core element of the film.

This 100-minute-plus movie contains hundreds of Easter eggs.

There are surprises almost every minute and every second.

This has become a carnival for gamers and moviegoers.

They won't be moved by the story, but they'll frantically search for Easter eggs in the movie.

However, since this world doesn't have Kubrick's The Shining, the second act will likely need some modifications. Takeyusei plans to change it directly into a Resident Evil setting.

Anyway, it's just a difference in setting, and it won't have a big impact on the main story.

Zhu Youxing depicted a future utopian cyberpunk world for Tukalev.

The people here embody the quintessential cyberpunk archetype: high technology, low lifestyle, and large corporations controlling everything.

Despite cutting-edge technology, ordinary people still struggle to survive, eating junk food and living miserable lives.

Zhu Youxing also plans to use this movie to reveal some more about the worldview related to Cyberpunk 2077.

Even directly incorporating the story background of Ready Player One into Cyberpunk 2077 wouldn't feel out of place.

They'll explain later that Ready Player One's story takes place in a different city, while Cyberpunk 2077's story takes place in Night City.

If the cyberpunk universe gains acceptance from players, the stories within it could be further integrated, leading to even more interesting narratives.

After Zhu Youxing's explanation, Tukarev was completely stunned.

It's another dystopian world, and yet again, people are hopelessly addicted to the virtual world.

The story setting isn't particularly novel; the film and television culture in this world is quite developed, and there are many works of this kind.

But as Zhu Youxing said, the story isn't the core of this movie; the Easter eggs are.

This... is indeed a rather novel idea.