After one month of release, the sales of "Dragon Quest III" reached 700,000 copies, making it the fastest-selling game to date.
Additionally, the sales of "Dragon Quest I" also surpassed one million copies.
This marked the first game on the Famicom to break the one million mark in sales, prompting internal celebrations at Gamestar Entertainment.
In terms of conversion rates, "Dragon Quest III" was performing exceptionally well.
Besides video game sales, "Dragon Quest" also generated significant revenue from various other avenues.
Merchandise related to "Dragon Quest" had started to become increasingly popular.
Toys like the Hero's Sword, Hero's Armor, and Loto's Shield were among the best-selling products currently available.
While these items weren't ubiquitous yet, the image of "Dragon Quest" had already become synonymous with childhood superheroes in the minds of children.
Now, children's preferences were not only limited to superhero dolls but also included "Dragon Quest" related products.
The production team behind the superhero TV show "Aozora" was feeling frustrated.
These darn kids were so disloyal; they used to love "Aozora," but now, with "Dragon Quest" becoming popular, they've swiftly switched allegiances, making it harder for them to sell merchandise.
Next, there were the game strategy guides for "Dragon Quest."
This was primarily handled by Shunkasya.
Due to the extensive content of "Dragon Quest III," Shunkasya, after discussions with Gamestar, decided to publish separate combined volumes for the first and third parts of the game. These A4-sized books were beautifully printed with over 300 pages of color illustrations.
Priced at 5,000 yen, they weren't cheap, but true fans of the game didn't hesitate to buy them.
On one hand, the guides helped them progress through the game, and on the other hand, they served as collectible memorabilia, being the world's first standalone game strategy guides.
To promote the collectible value, Shunkasya even introduced a book numbering system.
With an initial print run of 100,000 copies, each book had a unique number, and some lucky buyers might even receive a signed copy from the creators, akin to a lottery.
Shunkasya's marketing tactics in this regard were indeed savvy, relieving Takayuki from any worries in this area.
The initial 100,000 copies of the strategy guides sold out within the first week of the game's release, leaving none unsold.
This excited Shunkasya as never before; they had never experienced such a rush even with the sales of some of their most popular manga.
So, they immediately contacted the factories to print an additional 200,000 copies.
Surprisingly, even these extra copies were nearly sold out within a month.
Just from selling books, Shunkasya made a significant amount of money. As the main person responsible for promoting video games within the magazine company, Daigo Ikeda was now glowing with success and rapidly rising in the ranks of the magazine company.
But the one making the most profit was still Takayuki; they simply provided the idea and effortlessly collected various profits from book sales.
Just from selling one book, Takayuki could earn tens of millions of yen.
Takayuki had expected this.
In an era where the internet wasn't yet widespread, strategy guides were considered holy grails by gamers. Anyone with such a book could become the object of many people's admiration.
Even after the internet became prevalent, strategy guides remained potentially lucrative collectibles. Devoted gamers of certain games wouldn't hesitate to buy them.
In the previous world, "Final Fantasy VII" alone sold several million copies of its strategy guide. The only drawback for "Dragon Quest" was the relatively small number of gamers; otherwise, the sales would have been even higher.
Of course, the "Dragon Quest" craze wasn't over yet.
Clever businessmen started contacting Gamestar Entertainment, willing to spend money to purchase partial licensing rights for "Dragon Quest" artwork to create various collaborative peripheral products.
The company's copyright operation department, just established, was now specifically responsible for any derivative products related to "Dragon Quest," such as authorization for collaboration.
Shortly after, Gamestar Entertainment announced plans to produce an animated series based on "Dragon Quest."
The animation would start with the story of "Dragon Quest I," further increasing the value of this intellectual property.
Companies like Suiryu Electronics, Vides, and Kinpira Entertainment looked on with envy.
They suddenly realized that electronic games weren't just about playing games.
Once a game product became famous or even popular, the revenue generated from its derivatives would be astonishing.
Electronic games were beginning to form a mature industry chain, no longer limited to making money solely from the games themselves.
Kinpira Entertainment, having cleared its inventory of CD-ROM modified game consoles, now focused solely on producing game software.
They seemed to understand that not everyone had the qualifications to make game consoles.
Following someone else's lead in making games could also bring in substantial profits.
As for Kinpira Entertainment, a company with many IPs in anime, movies, novels, etc., its top executives immediately thought of creating games based on these IPs. These derivatives could also bring in additional revenue, squeezing out as much potential as possible from their IPs.
Whether they would really make games seriously remained to be seen.
Vides also began to operate its arcade games seriously, intending to try out some IP series.
Suiryu Electronics, on the other hand, was even more straightforward, announcing that its best-selling game, "Sun Knight 2," was in development. They would also release a limited edition console bundle, learning some of the sales tactics from Gamestar Entertainment.
Suiryu Electronics could be considered a good student; they would immediately follow whatever successful tactic Gamestar Entertainment employed. Following closely behind Gamestar Entertainment was like crossing the river by feeling the stones, always ready to surpass them.
Moreover, even though they might not be able to compete with Gamestar Entertainment yet, they had gradually gained some market share and were now starting to develop towards profitability themselves.
Apart from these developments, their overseas business was also underway. Promotional activities overseas had already begun, with favorable feedback reported, especially from people in Europe and America who were very interested in this emerging form of entertainment.
After the release of "Dragon Quest III," the first game development team once again entered the development process for the next installment.
This time, Takayuki set a new goal for them: to learn new technologies because the next generation of games would undoubtedly be on the Super Famicom, or SNES.
This console, with its better performance, would inevitably lead to larger game scales and better graphics.
If they couldn't fully understand the capabilities of the console, Takayukiwouldn't allow them to release the game.
At the same time, Takayuki formed a new first-party game development team, named the Fifth Game Development Team.
This team would be responsible for an exclusive series of games.
This game series was also Takayuki's favorite.
That series was "Final Fantasy."