noveltune Chapter 138: A Work of Neon Special Attack
Chapter 138: A Work of Neon Special Attack
Chapter 138: A Work of Neon Special Attack
"Mr. Lin, I'm worried it will affect our sales in the Japanese market."
Xiao Zhi's concerns are not unfounded.
Japan has always had a relatively ambiguous attitude towards GAMENOVA.
If their games weren't so incredibly high quality, they would have had absolutely no chance of beating Nintendo.
More importantly, it remains to be seen whether businesses in the Japanese market will unite against GAMENOVA, a true outsider.
Only among those in the same profession is there naked hatred.
Buying one more NovaBo means buying one less MasterSystem and one less Famicom.
No one wants a dangerous new adversary to suddenly appear in an already stable environment, and will try to nip it in the bud.
Ash has already sensed some signs.
Recently, both Roppongi and NovaComic's Japanese offices seem to be squeezed by invisible forces.
The reduction in business resources had reached a point where he could clearly perceive it.
The most significant issue is that the production of an animation based on the Pokémon IP, which Lin Lixin had previously mentioned, is difficult to advance.
Both Shueisha and other companies have taken a negative attitude towards this matter.
"Mr. Lin, our recent 'Double Dribbling' magazine is not selling very well in Japan."
Although the results were acceptable, they were indeed far behind the sales of baseball games on the FC.
"Hmm—that is indeed a problem."
Lin Lixin murmured.
Players' tastes in the North American market differ significantly from those in the East Asian market.
Not all works can sell well at both ends.
Games like Fire Emblem and The Legend of Zelda are clearly more suited to the Asian market environment.
"There's not enough time—"
Lin Lixin pondered that if he wanted to develop a large-scale work specifically for Japan, he wouldn't have the time to spare.
Although they have several RPG partners, they are all typical Western CRPGs, which are completely different from JRPGs.
The success of Dragon Quest stems from its rules, which were derived from D&D but completely simplified, and its easy-to-learn gameplay combined with the artistic contributions of master artist Akira Toriyama.
"The huge success of 'DQ' was inevitable. Now, with Nintendo's proactive promotion, its success will only come sooner and faster than before."
"Um?"
Lin Lixin suddenly had a thought.
Even if he could produce another top-tier JRPG, he wouldn't be able to suppress Dragon Quest's sales; at best, he could only share some of the market with it.
However—they don't seem to need to get hung up on RPGs.
All you need is a game that the mainstream Japanese gaming community is generally willing to accept.
It's worth noting that even the original Dragon Quest, such an amazing game, only sold a little over 150 million copies, probably not even cracking the top 50.
This is also a typical game like SimCity, which is critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful.
It's definitely not comparable to the tens of millions of sets sold by Super Mario.
"I understand, I just had a great idea!"
"A new work?!"
Xiao Zhi was startled, then overjoyed.
"That's right, I've come up with a theme that's perfect for Japan."
"What?"
"Railways—and Japanese folklore."
"Huh?" Satoshi Tajiri was taken aback. Although these two elements were indeed characteristic of Japan, they were really unrelated.
Lin Lixin recalled that work, which could be described as a special attack on Japanese gamers, and slowly said, "I call it: Momotaro Dentetsu."
"??"
Speaking of Momotaro Dentetsu, players outside of Japan may not have a deep impression of it.
However, the successor born from the second-generation Taotie rules has quite a background.
A Taiwanese company called Daewoo Information released a game called "Monopoly" in late 89, based on Taoyuan Iron and "Monopoly".
This thing is awesome.
At least in Lin Lixin's memory, Monopoly 4 is definitely a classic game that has been played by one generation of players and even several generations of players.
"In short—it's similar to Monopoly, right?"
After listening to Lin Lixin's rough description, Tajiri Satoshi understood a little.
"I guess so, but some improvements have been made specifically for the medium of video games. By the way, could you help me gather some information?"
"What information?"
"Japan's railway network map."
Lin Lixin and Sam sat facing each other at the table, looking at the Monopoly board game.
Monopoly is indeed a simple and straightforward game.
Sam counted the tokens in his hand and decisively chose to buy a plot of land.
For Sam, Monopoly is nothing new.
The Parker Brothers company had already released this board game back in the 30s.
Today, Monopoly is a well-known and best-selling board game in the North American market.
However, before this, there were only a few attempts to port it to the DOS platform, and the results were not ideal.
Looking at the Parker Brothers logo on the packaging box, Lin Lixin actually recalled some memories of the company.
NERF, the famous toy gun brand under Hasbro, was founded by the Parker brothers.
Hasbro Interactive Games, which was founded around 95, is Hasbro's own video game company. It was formed by the Parker Brothers and several other businesses that Hasbro acquired.
Lin Lixin originally planned to directly find Monopoly's copyright holder to acquire the trademark rights, but the matter turned out to be unexpectedly tricky.
Lin Lixin naturally wouldn't let "Momotaro Dentetsu" be released only in Japan.
In North America, one naturally needs to adapt to the local cultural environment and change the subject matter.
So he naturally thought of this classic board game.
Without the name Monopoly, they are inherently at a disadvantage in terms of public profile.
This is also why Lin Lixin has been so persistent in seizing the right to define the definition.
Just like Fire Emblem.
Although K0EI's Zhanqi was released much earlier than theirs, it failed to gain recognition, which gave Lin Lixin an opportunity.
When players mention strategy games, they naturally think of Fire Emblem, a masterpiece from Gamenova.
This is an advantage that will benefit future generations.
If they can't solve this problem, even if the American version of Monopoly sells very well, it will still be a waste of resources for Hasbro.
"We need a new name that's catchy enough—"
The word "monopoly" originally meant "monopoly," and it was actually coined by designer Lizie to satirize capitalism.
However, the Monopoly game ultimately adopted monopoly as the core rule of its gameplay and also monopolized the copyright of this type of gameplay.
This is already a dark comedy in itself.
Lin Lixin's mind flashed through various translations of the names of the richest men.
"Monopoly, Monopoly, Real Estate Tycoon — Tycoon?"
His eyes lit up; he had found a perfect alternative.
"Let's call it 'Tycoon'!"
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