With Suirui Electronics' scale, they wouldn't care much about how much a product from a small company would sell.
But when a product gained a certain amount of topicality, it was different.
Especially when it was a completely new product.
The president of Suirui Electronics was named Kentaro Hayakawa, who was already in his sixties this year.
Suirui Electronics was founded by his father in the early years, starting out with television sets.
Their first product was a television, which sold well in Japan, and then they began to expand their business, from radios to traditional home appliances, and then to portable personal audio devices, further developing into the film and television industry.
In any field they entered, they could quickly become the leader, unstoppable.
After Kentaro Hayakawa succeeded his father's company, the development of Suirui Electronics under his leadership was even more rapid.
Today, it had become an international giant corporation, especially in the field of electronics, where it had few competitors.
Even when Japan faced an economic bubble, the impact on them wasn't as severe as imagined; they were considered one of the few large companies that were doing relatively well.
On his desk were detailed documents about Gamestar Electronic Entertainment Co., Ltd.
From its establishment several months ago to the release of its first product named Home Entertainment Computer.
First, it gradually gained attention in the Tokyo metropolitan area, then expanded to the surrounding areas of Tokyo, and the topicality continued to increase.
Newspapers and magazines had begun to feature related sections, and the response was enthusiastic.
Whenever anything related to electronics caused a stir, it immediately became the focus of Suirui Electronics' attention.
"Electronic games, game consoles, are these the terms used for this product on the market?" Kentaro Hayakawa asked.
His assistant stood directly opposite the president's desk, and upon hearing the question, he immediately replied respectfully, "That's correct. The Home Entertainment Computer should be more of a gimmick. This thing hardly has any of the functions a computer should have, its only function is for electronic games."
"What kind of content does this electronic game have?"
"Well... it's hard to say. It should be controllable electronic images, controlled through specific button inputs."
He paused for a moment, then the assistant suddenly remembered something and added, "Oh right, this kind of entertainment has appeared before, but it didn't really make waves. People at that time still preferred watching TV shows."
In this world, the game industry could only be considered to be in a slump, and no one had truly established standards for the gaming industry.
But when it came to electronic games, there were indeed some traces.
The assistant said, "President, you can look at the details of the so-called electronic games in the documents later."
After hearing this, Kentaro Hayakawa turned to the last few pages and saw a brief introduction to an electronic game called "Plane War."
It was an electronic game made on a very rough radar imaging screen, and the display effect wasn't particularly good. It was said to have been popular in the United States for a while, but the popularity gradually waned, and there was no sign of it catching on in Japan.
"What do you think of this company's product potential?" Kentaro Hayakawa asked, looking up.
The assistant answered respectfully, "The potential is quite good. According to our secret statistics, this Home Entertainment Computer has already been owned by over a hundred thousand households in the Tokyo metropolitan area alone."
"And this is just within three months, achieved by a startup company."
"Arrange for the R&D department to dismantle their product and see if it's convenient to replicate."
"It's already been dismantled. The people in the R&D department said there's no difficulty at all; many of the components inside are even ancient relics from seventeen or eighteen years ago."
Kentaro Hayakawa's eyes widened slightly.
"Seventeen or eighteen-year-old things?"
"That's correct. Technologically speaking, it can be said to be quite outdated, but it has created a widely popular product, which is quite baffling."
After contemplating for a moment, Kentaro Hayakawa said in a deep voice, "It's understandable for a completely new category of product to have low user acceptance; it's not a big deal."
Then he asked, "But if we were to produce a better product than theirs, where should we start?"
"The people in the R&D department now believe that perhaps we could start by improving the hardware standards of the game console, such as upgrading the components like chips and memory to a higher level. This is how products in the past electronic field were made."
"Then let's give it a try first, make some samples, how long will it take?"
"With the strength of our R&D team, it can be done within a week."
"Good, then go ahead."
Meanwhile, other companies also noticed the brand-new entertainment products on the market.
Especially those companies that had been operating dance machines or Pachinko machines in the past were doing the same thing as Suirui Electronics.
Hoping to get a share of the pie.
And in one of the stores selling the Famicom, the store manager was counting the latest inventory of game consoles and games.
"Boss, now we already have more than five hundred boxes of 'Dragon Quest', but hardly anyone's buying them."
The store manager's heart immediately felt a pang at the mention of "Dragon Quest."
According to the contract, they now had to purchase game consoles and games in bundles, with Gamestar Electronic Entertainment determining how many boxes of game cartridges each of them would receive.
And they had no bargaining rights whatsoever.
This was tantamount to a tyrannical clause, but it was a tyrannical clause they couldn't refuse.
But since "Dragon Quest" wasn't selling well, they thought they might as well lower the price and sell it, for example, just sell it at the cost price of ¥2,500.
This wouldn't incur much loss either.
However, the contract also specified a clear requirement for the selling price of each game.
Promotions could be carried out to some extent, but it couldn't be lower than ten percent off the retail price.
Just ten percent off wouldn't attract people who didn't like it at all.
And so, the inventory piled up to what it was now.
If there was another option, this store manager would definitely not want this despised "Dragon Quest."
"Put it at the back of the warehouse; I don't want to see this thing."
"But boss, this game is actually quite fun. I bought a box myself and haven't slept for two days and two nights, but I just don't understand why there are so few people actually buying it."
The employee had a look of enlightenment mixed with confusion on his face.
Luckily, he was young and energetic. To be able to get up and go to work after two days and two nights was quite something. If he were a bit older, his body would have collapsed long ago.
But really, "Dragon Quest" was really fun!
"What's the use of you finding it fun? You can't buy several boxes of games." The store manager said unkindly.
Ding-ling.
At this moment, the door of the store was opened.
"Hello, welcome." The employee hurriedly walked out of the warehouse upon hearing the doorbell.
"Hello, do you have 'Dragon Quest' here?"