Rebirth 86: I use games to kick open the door to the world

I don’t know why, but for a moment, Kenji Ozawa felt that games were more attractive than girls.

And this is the latest game.

Judging from Zuo Zhen’s tone, this game hasn’t even been released yet.

Doesn't that mean he was the first to play the game?

Thinking about it makes me very excited, far more exciting than going out with a girl.

You can date girls anytime, and it’s not often you can experience games that haven’t been released yet.

He is a game review editor, and his eyes will light up when he hears such a good thing.

"Can I play now? Right here, Fujii-san, lend me your computer!"

Are you so direct?

However, this can be considered a sweet-tempered person, and it is actually easy to communicate with him.

He first took out Squirrel War and put it into the computer. After debugging it, he got out of the way.

"This is my second game, it's called Squirrel Wars."

"Hmm, a new side-scrolling game? Or a two-player game?"

Two squirrels, in the background of a giant monster, defeat the enemy by constantly throwing boxes or apples.

This gameplay was more cartoony, and Kenji Ozawa immediately realized the value of this game.

This is for children, and the cartoon style can capture their hearts instantly.

In fact, this is indeed the case. In China, Squirrel War is not as popular among adults today. They prefer Contra.

But it is very popular among Ma Baocai and his children. Children play squirrel wars in various weird ways every day, and the style of the game has become distorted.

They themselves can also play Squirrel War as a battle game similar to Street Fighter, and whoever gets knocked unconscious first wins.

"This game has great potential... no, it should be said that it is more likely to be a hit."

Kenji Ozawa thought of Super Mario.

The game has now sold over a million copies and continues to rise.

During the same period, some games that were more violent or had more adult graphics were not able to sell well, even if the quality of such games was better.

Obviously, children are still the main players in video games nowadays.

In terms of gameplay, Squirrel War is obviously better than Contra.

Contra simply keeps defeating enemies.

But Squirrel War has more diverse ways to play.

Selectable level directions, as well as two characters that can frame each other, add to the fun.

"Really? You think so too? How many sales do you expect this game to have?"

Kenji Ozawa thought for a moment and then replied: "I estimate that it will start with one million."

Ozawa Kenji's words aroused the surprise of his colleagues: "Is it so exaggerated? Isn't it?"

"This is just my estimate, and I can't say, because I feel that this game is comparable to Super Mario. Super Mario can sell millions of copies, but doesn't Squirrel Wars have one?"

These guys thought about Super Mario for a moment.

How does Super Mario, released last year, compare with this Squirrel Battle?

The advantage of Squirrel War is that it has two-player games, has more exquisite-looking graphics, and is also innovative in terms of jumping gameplay.

So when you think about it, it doesn't seem so surprising that Super Mario has sold a million copies, and Squirrel Wars has also sold a million copies.

Zuo Zhen really looked at Kenji Ozawa with some special eyes.

He does have a good eye.

This is indeed a work that has sold over a million copies.

However, in terms of popularity, it is still a little worse than Super Mario, and people are willing to invest more in publicity costs for their first-party games.

Ozawa Kenji continued: "Actually, I think Contra is not bad. I estimate that it will definitely sell 500,000 copies."

When Zuo Zhen heard this, his expression became a little restrained: "Well, it may not be possible. It is estimated that it will only cost 300,000 yuan."

"Huh? Why?" Ozawa Kenji was puzzled.

Zuo Zhen hesitated and said, "It's not convenient to say this. Anyway, 300,000 yuan should be the final sales volume of this game."

The more Zuo Zhen didn't say anything like this, the more he thought about this Contra matter.

It shouldn’t be. Generally speaking, the error in your estimate will not be too large.

He has always been confident in his analysis of the game industry.

He felt that if Contra could sell half a million units, it wouldn't be much different.

But the producer in front of me vowed that it could only be 300,000 yuan.

Is there any reason for this...

The more he thought about it, the more he cared about it, and for a while he forgot about the squirrel war.

"Okay, you guys should have finished playing Squirrel War. Are you interested in watching another game?"

"Oh, Zuo Zhen-san, you still have a game, take it out and show it to us."

Before Ozawa Kenji said anything, others were already impatient.

Squirrel War is very interesting, and they have already begun to think about how to praise this game next.

Of course, since this game has not yet been released, they still have to be conservative and not say too much about the game content to leave some freshness for players.

It just so happens that no popular games have been released in the past month or two, and they are still worried about how to write some interesting game reviews.

Look, isn’t this coming?

Moreover, the trial was given priority, and the producer came in person, so it would be outrageous not to give a column interview.

But Kenji Ozawa is still obsessed with why Contra didn't sell half a million copies.

Zuo Zhen had already produced his second game at this time.

"Locke...man? What a strange name. Is he a man with power?"

"Yes, that's what it means literally. The background of the game is about the dispute between intelligent robots and ordinary humans."

"This story is very novel."

Ozawa Kenji's ears moved.

Why can’t Contra’s sales of 300,000 units reach the sales volume of 500,000 robots?

Oh no, where did the robot come from?

At this time, a computer nearby had started running Mega Man and entered the main interface.

"Huh? Isn't this a two-player game this time?"

"Yes, this time I want to mainly try a single-player high-difficulty game, which is much more difficult than Contra and Squirrel War."

"High difficulty? Then I'm more interested. I like playing high difficulty games the most."

An editor is eager to try, ready to hit the ground running.

There may be some secrets in these half a million robot sales that you can dig deeper into. You can investigate it yourself... Bastard, where did the robot come from...

Ozawa Kenji was completely disturbed and gave up thinking about the sales of Contra, and finally looked at the computer screen showing the Mega Man screen.

Oh, another cartoon-style game, a child-like robot with a cannon barrel in its hand? This design is a bit interesting...