As a former subordinate of Hayakawa Uehito, Aiden readily agreed to help expand the overseas business of the PN game console.
Whether they can actually achieve good sales overseas is another question altogether.
In addition to Suire Electronics making moves in this regard, the other two companies looking to capitalize on the gaming craze have also officially released their own game consoles.
First is Vides, who have placed their arcade machines in various entertainment venues, targeting players who haven't bought game consoles yet.
Their games are mostly platformer games with increased difficulty.
Platformer games originally had relatively low production difficulty, and changing skins could easily make them seem like new games to players.
However, among them, there's one that catches the eye—a racing game developed from a first-person perspective, with noticeably better graphics and quite appealing.
From this game, it's evident that they are putting some effort into game development, and player feedback is quite positive. These arcade-style racing games are very popular in the streets and alleys. It is said that the senior management at Vides is very pleased and has begun to prepare to increase investment in racing arcade games.
Then, there's Jinping Entertainment, which has released its exclusive CD game console.
The console comes with three electronic games, all tied to their in-house copyrighted animation IPs.
Being able to experience games featuring one's favorite anime characters does indeed have some appeal. Coupled with strong promotion by idols, the game console sold over forty thousand units in the first week, nearly twice the first-week sales of Suire Electronics' PN game console.
Takayuki also specifically had someone buy the Future Star game console.
As for that Aries arcade machine, there's no need to worry about it because it's obvious what it is. Only this CD game console caught Takayuki's attention.
Because he knows that the best physical game carrier in the future is indeed the CD.
The inherent cheapness of CDs can greatly reduce the cost of game consoles, and CDs themselves have very high capacity.
In this era, a blank CD with a cost of only ten yen can already hold 400-500MB.
CDs can truly be considered the future of electronic games.
From this perspective, Takayuki obviously values the Future Star game console launched by Jinping Entertainment more.
It's possible that this could develop into the future Sony.
However, when he actually got the game console, he realized that he had been expecting too much.
This thing... is basically just a CD player. Talk about gaming performance—it's just an accessory.
Upon disassembly by the engineering development department, it was discovered that the electronic game motherboard module inside was added later. It does indeed provide 16-bit gaming console performance, but it's more of a crippled version, slightly stronger than 8-bit but still limited.
Later, someone from the engineering development department told Takayuki that this was probably Jinping Entertainment trying to clear out unsold CD players by rebranding them as game consoles.
This left Takayuki speechless for a while.
This Future Star is really just trying to ride the trend, completely underestimating the intelligence of players.
No, that's not it either. Jinping Entertainment is not targeting electronic game players but rather a group of idol fans.
Takayuki suddenly felt a bit sorry. These people spend money on idol worship, yet they end up buying such rip-off products.
As for the games inside the Future Star, there's a hint of ambition, as if they were truly developed by people who wanted to make games. But there are serious traces of rushed work, and the games are rough, a far cry from when the PN game console was first released.
Faced with such competitors, Takayuki directly chose to pass, realizing he had been overthinking things.
The real competitors should be Suire Electronics; the others aren't even worth considering.
Vides plans to specialize in the arcade field, which doesn't conflict with Takayuki's plans and actually complements them somewhat. He rather welcomes such companies as they can effectively expand the gamer community with cheaper methods.
His Dragon Quest III is estimated to be something they've never seen before, showing them the true terror of the series' game sales.
And the time quickly arrived for the release of Dragon Quest III.
Now, all major stores have put up large Dragon Quest posters at their entrances.
Outside their doors, tents have been set up.
And just the tents alone stretch for tens of meters, quite a sight to behold.
This is actually quite good news material, but several TV stations dared not interview.
Only Tokyo TV casually interviewed those setting up tents on the roadside, and they managed to capture all the hype.
At the same time, a forum on the internet also became the focus of attention.
A website dedicated to electronic game reviews actually got hold of Dragon Quest III early.
This had never happened before, and for a moment, the forum was overwhelmed. The real-time daily traffic, which used to be around a thousand, surged to over seven thousand, causing the forum to crash. Eventually, the forum's founder, Kazuo Murakami, had to ask his father for help to resolve the issue.
He's still a child and has many shortcomings.
However, this did bring him a lot of traffic, and his fame on the internet began to grow.
Especially his article on the early review of Dragon Quest III, which was quickly reposted.
In it, he praised Dragon Quest III countless times, almost saying: this game is a masterpiece of the world, if you don't play it, you'll regret it for life.
However, he cleverly didn't reveal any plot details, only marveling at the charm of the story itself.
Even just experiencing the story, this game is completely worth the ticket price.
With this review as a foundation, some players became even more eager.
Even players who had never played Dragon Quest began to consider giving it a try.
This once again slightly increased the sales of the first Dragon Quest, reaching seven hundred thousand copies.
At this moment, there's only one day left until the official release.
On this last day, the queues outside several authorized stores have all exceeded two hundred people.
Having over two hundred people queuing past midnight is simply unimaginable.
Especially at the earliest authorized store, the former Ota Amusement Hall, where the queue stretches beyond five hundred.
Even though it's early spring and the weather is still somewhat chilly, it couldn't dampen the enthusiasm of the players.
Suire Electronics once again realized the popularity of electronic games.
Hayakawa Uehito is even more eager to get the PN game console overseas, make a quick buck, and then, like Gamestar Entertainment, polish up a few truly high-quality games.