Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

Chapter 1154 Seeds and Sprouts

On Monday, the weekly meeting of Yuxing Electronic Entertainment was held as usual.

Each department systematically explained its recent game development progress, hardware development schedule, and various issues in the meeting, and then brainstormed with everyone to come up with solutions.

Zhu Youxing listened quietly from the side. He wouldn't interfere in business operations, leaving that to the professionals. He would only provide clear directions during game development.

"The development of Resident Evil 6 is already on the agenda, and our team has already gotten into the swing of things."

"The maintenance of Cyberpunk 2077's online mode and the development of subsequent expansion packs are also progressing smoothly, without encountering any major problems."

"There are some issues with Grand Theft Auto V. We have a bug in one of our game features that is conflicting quite badly with other features. We hope someone can help us resolve this problem."

Zhu Youxing said, "The Stanford Legion is relatively free lately, I'll have them handle it for you."

"That would be best; the Stanford Legion is quite reliable."

The person in charge of copyright operations, holding a document, said, "Our sales of peripheral products have recently stagnated, and we may have to reduce some orders for peripheral production."

Matsuhashi Minoru from the remote communications team asked, "Why are sales in the surrounding area declining? Has our product become less appealing?"

The person in charge of copyright operations replied, "That's possible, but I think it's more likely that the Olympics have been taking up too much media space recently, and people have shifted their focus to the Olympics."

Matsuhashi said, "That makes sense. Then I could suggest launching some Olympic-themed merchandise, which could be considered as riding the wave of popularity?"

The copyright operations manager said with some concern, "But wouldn't this kind of opportunistic approach to riding the wave be a bit too blatant and damage our image?"

Matsuhashi Minoru had an indifferent expression: "This is just a very simple business adjustment, and it doesn't reach the level of damaging our image. You can design some peripheral products related to the Olympics and also associated with our IP, or simply license your IP to earn a licensing fee. These are all good options. If you want to be on the safe side, you can release some product designs online first and let players and netizens judge whether these are the peripheral products they want."

While taking notes, the copyright operations manager asked, "Can we sell our slow-moving products at a relatively low price? That way, we can at least recoup some funds."

"Unsold? Which ones specifically do you mean?"

"These were some small peripheral items that we initially planned to make, such as towels, keychains, ceramic mugs, and small ornaments. We tried making a batch of these items because they were inexpensive, but the sales results were not very good."

After thinking for a moment, Matsuhashi Minoru said, "Then let's sell them at a discount. The storage costs for these things in the warehouse may be higher than their value. There's no need to keep them for too long. If they really can't be sold, just throw them all away and destroy them."

Zhu Youxing's eyes flickered for a moment as he thought of something, and he said, "There's no need to rush this."

As soon as Zhu Youxing's voice rang out, everyone looked at him.

“Takeyu, do you have any good ideas?” Matsuhashi Minoru asked.

“I’ve come up with some ways to sell these things. You can listen to them first.”

"Simply put, it's a lottery, but not a simple lottery. Instead, a whole bunch of products are put into a prize pool. Each lottery ticket guarantees at least one product, but these prizes will be divided into different tiers. If someone has a collecting habit, they can buy all the lottery tickets to get all the prizes in the prize pool. This format can be called Ichiban Kuji."

"Ichiban Kuji..."

Zhu Youxing's narration was simple and straightforward, and everyone was able to understand what he wanted to say.

The goal is to maximize the value of these products.

Selling off items that were originally being cleared out through a lottery seems like a pretty good idea.

"Isn't this a bit like gambling?" the copyright operations manager asked with some concern.

Shiratori Yumi from the Second Development Department casually said, "Gambling is a kind of human nature. We've put a price tag on this and made all the prizes clear. With just a little research, you can see that this is a way to clear out inventory. I think the president's method is pretty good."

Matsuhashi Minoru's mind works incredibly fast; making a profit is her primary objective.

Zhu Youxing may not be able to make a profit from the games she develops, but she must find ways to make the games or other products profitable in her subsequent work.

The suggestion that Zhu Youxing just made sounds quite good and is very feasible.

"Let's do as the president says. Let's at least try it out first. Let's set up a lottery for Ichiban Kuji in our official flagship stores. Of course, we can't be too greedy, otherwise it will damage the company's image. The average value of the prizes we give out must not exceed the original selling price. That is, if there are prizes worth 100,000 yen in a prize pool, then the selling price of the Ichiban Kuji lottery ticket must not exceed 100,000 yen. That way, no one can say anything wrong."

Ichiban Kuji is essentially just a way to clear out inventory. Matsuhashi Minoru realized that it couldn't possibly involve adding gambling elements, otherwise it would lose its essence. Clearing out inventory was the main thing, and everything else was secondary. Moreover, he wanted to add some truly valuable items to Ichiban Kuji, at least products that would appeal to a wide range of consumers, such as high-quality game character models.

When it comes to management, Takeyusei gave an inspiration, and Matsuhashi Minoru could expand on it in countless ways to increase the diversity of management.

After explaining these things, Zhu Youxing fell silent again, waiting for reports from other game development departments on the game's development progress.

Matsuhashi pressed on, asking, "How's the plan to adapt our product line's IPs into films and television series going?"

"It's progressing steadily, and the Uncharted and Metal Gear series will be produced step by step."

Besides related industries, film and television adaptations have now become one of the sources of revenue for Youxing Electronic Entertainment.

As fame grows, the expanded industries can potentially bring unimaginable returns.

All the excellent games we've made before are like sowing seeds. Game sales are like the sprouts that grow from the seeds and thrive. And the related merchandise and film and television adaptations are like the branches that branch off from the sprouts. They are also important components that help the seeds grow into towering trees.

Chapter 1155 It's Time for a Vacation

The meeting concluded with a summary of game sales and a brief introduction to recent industry trends.

Game sales figures for Yuxing Electronics Entertainment are no longer of much significance, and Yuxing no longer uses them as a standard for game quality, because Yuxing Electronics Entertainment has grown to the point where it can earn substantial profits from developing any game that is not bad in quality.

At this point, Zhu Youxing realized that if he continued to let these guys take sales as the only consideration in game development, then everyone would definitely end up doing nothing.

This is why those well-known game developers in the past and later developed games in a relaxed, hands-off manner.

With such a large scale, even if the games they make are almost reskinned versions of their predecessors, they still sell very well.

Examples that must be mentioned here are FIFA, as well as several games such as COD.

As long as they release a sequel, sometimes even if there are no fundamental changes, they can still achieve sales in the tens of millions, which is quite astonishing.

It seems that players buying their games has become a habit.

Therefore, in order to avoid this situation, Zhuyouxing sought other game development evaluation standards.

The sales statistics at the meeting were only briefly reported.

Next, a survey of players was conducted.

This is a strategy that Zhuyouxing is preparing to implement recently. We'll see if we can find some answers in the player questionnaires, answers that can help the game continue to thrive.

"Seventy percent of players want Final Fantasy XIII Versus to have a brand new battle mode, just like the previous Final Fantasy VII Remake. Obviously, there is a larger market for real-time action combat games now."

"Forty-five percent of players want a smartphone version of the Forza Horizon series, even if the graphics are worse."

percent……

Various data were presented to each participant, providing them with some reference for the subsequent game.

"Recently, the overall number of concurrent gamers has decreased, roughly to about 73% of what it was a month ago. We've analyzed the reasons, and it's probably related to the current Olympics. The Olympics are drawing away most of the attention, and I think we shouldn't waste too much money on advertising and promotion right now, as that would be counterproductive."

"So what do we do next? Develop the game step by step?"

"This is the only way, what else can we do?"

After the data report was finished, the remaining time was for the attendees to chat, which was also a good opportunity for everyone to learn about each other's departmental activities.

Especially the dozen or so department heads in the game development department, they all chatted like good friends, exchanging their latest insights on game development.

Zhu Youxing, however, caught a whiff of something from the side.

These guys seem a bit distracted too.

That makes sense, though. Most gamers and ordinary people have been drawn to the Olympics, and since my employees are also ordinary people, they're naturally interested in these trending news stories as well.

"Oh right, it seems like some new events have been added to the Olympics at the end of this year. There's skateboarding and speed climbing, I think. Have you guys been keeping an eye on them?"

"No, is this thing interesting?"

"It's quite interesting. I've been looking for related information lately. I'm actually considering making a game about extreme sports and putting all the extreme sports games I'm familiar with into the game for players to experience."

"Hmm, would anyone be interested in this kind of game?"

"I think it will happen. First of all, extreme sports can stimulate people's adrenaline, so extreme sports should also have this characteristic. In addition, the entertainment attributes and achievements of the game itself allow players to get different rewards at each stage, and the basic structure of the game is completed."

"but……"

"But what?"

"I've actually been considering doing more research and taking the team to see more about extreme sports, but I haven't had much time lately."

"Yes, the pressure on game development has been quite high lately. My Resident Evil project has just been approved, and all the preparations are about to begin."

"My Monster Hunter is the same, and a new Monster Hunter game is also in development."

Everyone looked distressed.

Zhu Youxing watched all this and found it somewhat amusing.

These guys are probably talking to themselves about everything they're saying.

They must really want permission from their side, permission to take a short break.

Moreover, this happened to coincide with the Olympic Games, so their purpose is self-evident.

Zhu Youxing said, "Alright, you guys, stop pretending. I'm not interested in watching you put on this act in front of me. There are still two weeks until the Olympics open. In these last two weeks, get all the existing work done and don't leave any loose ends. Make sure the work is at least at a level where it can be temporarily suspended without affecting development. Then, give the whole company a holiday and only keep the basic maintenance staff."

Everyone was delighted; clearly, the strategy had succeeded, and they had successfully gotten their president to take their opinions seriously.

"Hehe, President, you're much more understanding. I actually already made plans with my wife and kids to watch the Olympics together. Of course, I won't neglect my work!"

"President, I certainly won't let things get delayed. All the work will be arranged step by step."

"President, I can assure you that my game development plans will not be affected. Grand Theft Auto V will definitely be released next summer!"

At this moment, several heads of game development departments are in the United States, participating in the meeting remotely. However, at least two of them are actually in Japan, but they haven't dared to tell Takeyusei directly yet.

Now that Zhu Youxing has allowed them to take a proper vacation, they feel at ease.

In fact, Takeyusei also felt it was time to take a proper vacation.

Although the company has consistently adhered to a policy of avoiding overtime work in recent years, there has indeed been almost no formal rest time.

Only some officially mandated holidays are still in effect.

There were some companies that had previously given employees collective holidays.

The main reason is that the pace of game development is accelerating, and Yuxing Electronic Entertainment is no exception.

And since this happens to be during the Olympics, it seems that we really should take a vacation, and I can take a vacation myself.

Chapter 1156 What's Lost...

The Olympics will open in three days.

The entire city of Tokyo entered a state of high excitement.