Chapter 609: World Game Industry Landscape

Due to the time difference, it was only 7:20 am when the plane arrived in Xiangjiang. When Xia Yu came out of the aisle, he suddenly saw He Chaoying, who was looking forward to him, at the front of a row of cars. Seeing Xia Yu come out, He Chaoying completely abandoned her girlish reserve and cheerfully ran towards Xia Yu.

Li Qian subconsciously took what Xia Yu was holding and gave Xia Yu a questioning smile. Xia Yu walked quickly towards He Chaoying, embraced her as she rushed over, and spun in place, her pink skirt fluttering in the air.

'Chaoying, why are you here? It's only a little after 7:00, what time did you get up?'

He Chaoying's face was full of joy, and she looked at Xia Yu with love, saying sweetly, 'I knew you were coming back today, so I couldn't sleep last night. I missed you so much.'

After she finished speaking, her red lips lightly touched his, and her joy was evident.

'I missed you too,'

Xia Yu said, tightly hugging her, his heart touched by the girl's heartfelt love.

After a brief moment of affection, He Chaoying's mood calmed down, and she looked around with a worried expression.

When she saw Li Qian standing nearby, smiling at her, He Chaoying blushed and struggled to get off Xia Yu. She whispered, 'Sister.'

Li Qian smiled and nodded, then took a small gift box from her bag and presented it to He Chaoying. She whispered, 'Sister, this is a gift I brought back from London for you. I hope you like it.'

'Thank you, sister...'

Seeing the two women's close relationship, Xia Yu smiled.

Looking around, he saw that his subordinates were all looking away, but many people who had just arrived from the airport were looking at him, and some even recognised him.

XIA Yu realised that it wasn't a good idea to stay there, so he said to LI Qian and HE Chaoying, 'Qianqian, Chaoying, there are too many people here, let's go home first.'

'Mm-hm!'

'Whatever you say!'

Then Xia Yu said to Liu Yao and the others, 'You should go home too. You haven't been home for most of the year, so go home and spend some time with your families. We'll have a meeting at the office in three days.'

'The car is here, let them take you to the door.'

'Thank you, boss!'

Liu Yao and the others were overjoyed and thanked him in unison.

Afterwards, everyone got into the car and split up at the intersection into two groups. Xia Yu took Li Qian and He Chaoqiong back to the villa that belonged to him and his woman.

It was only in the afternoon that Xia Yu returned home to reunite with his family.

The following day, work officially began, dealing with the matters that had accumulated during his absence from Hong Kong for several months.

Although the Chairman's Office, headed by Fok Kin-ning, was handling matters in collaboration, Fok Kin-ning contacted him via international long-distance call to ensure the normal operation of the many companies under his banner.

However, some work was indeed difficult to explain clearly over the phone and was difficult to handle, so it had to be piled up until now.

After an hour of paperwork, Xia Yu stretched and told Li Qian to ask Fok Kin Ning to come over and bring the research on the video game industry with him.

'Chairman, this is the research I've gathered on the video game industry!'

As soon as Fok Kin Ning came in, he handed Xia Yu a thick stack of documents and waited quietly.

Seeing the thick stack, Xia Yu was very satisfied. Just looking at the appearance, he knew that Fok Kin Ning had done a very solid job.

Realising that it would take at least a few hours, Xia Yu told Fok to get back to work while he went through the documents.

He sipped his tea and looked through the information, and the time passed quickly.

Finally, after reading the last page, Xia Yu rubbed his aching eyes and had a detailed picture of the global video game industry market in his mind.

At that time, the world video game industry had three types of games: computer games, console games and arcade games.

The first type of computer game, as the name suggests, is a game played on a computer. Yes, in 1979, there were already computer games.

The key point is that although computers in the world are computers, they are actually mostly game consoles, sold like televisions. Although they have some computer functions, the most important purpose for customers to buy them is to play the simple games on them.

Xia Yu remembers that it was not until 1981 that IBM launched the world's first personal computer in the true sense of the word.

Therefore, computers before this time could not be widely popularised and had significant limitations.

Due to factors such as the price of computers and their limited functions, the market for computer games at this time was relatively small, and the gaming giants generally gave up on it, leaving it to the small game companies that specialised in developing computer games.

The second type of console game, also known as a home console game or TV game, had a much larger market. Just think of the extremely large number of televisions in the world, and you can see its huge market.

This market is also the most competitive market, and the most famous in it is the American Atari company, the world gaming industry hegemon, which in 1977 alone invested more than 100 million US dollars in the research of a game console – the Atari 2600.

In addition to Atari, there are also some companies on the second front, such as Sega, Nintendo, Namco, etc.

Competition in the third category of arcade games is also fierce, but now Taito is leading the way, dominating all arcade game companies around the world.

Taito was established in 1950 as an import and export company by a Ukrainian Jew named Michael Kogan. Taito means 'Far Eastern Jewish Company,' and its main business was surprisingly selling vodka imported from the Soviet Union in island countries.

Under unexpected circumstances, Taito entered the video game market.

Just last year, Taito developed the arcade game Space Invaders, which became an instant hit. In just one year, more than 150,000 units were sold in the US market alone, and with sales in Europe and the islands, the total exceeded 200,000 units, with total sales exceeding 500 million US dollars and a net profit of over 100 million US dollars.

This year, Space Invaders is still going strong, generating a steady stream of wealth for Taito.

In the arcade market, the company below Taito is Sega.

Xia Yu had the impression that Sega, one of the four giants of the console game industry, was a company from the island country. It was only after reading the information that he realised that this was not the case at this time.

At this time, Sega was still an American company.

Sega was founded by David Rosen, an American soldier who retreated to the island country from the 38th parallel. At first, relying on his connections in the army, he sold entertainment equipment such as slot machines and pinball machines to the army to entertain the soldiers in the US military bases.

Later, David Rosen felt that being a middleman was not profitable enough, so he developed a hit pinball machine called 'Periscope' on his own. It sold well on the island and was even exported to the United States. Then, he registered Sega of America in the United States and took control of Sega of the island.

Then in 1966, David Rosen sold American Sega to American Overseas and Western Industries, which was in the business of 'entertainment and mass media'.

With the help of the energy of this overseas and western industrial company, Sega's sales channels in the United States were well established.

Unfortunately, after Taito's 'Space Invaders' came out, Island Sega was in a difficult situation. At this time, the business was not doing well, and American Overseas and Western Industries showed signs of wanting to get rid of it.

In addition to Taito and Sega, another company with a name in the arcade market was Namco. This company, which only entered the video game industry in 1974, developed several arcade games that sold well before the appearance of Space Invaders. However, it is now also operating slightly worse and is stepping up its research and development of new games in the hope of breaking the dominance of Space Invaders.

As for Sony, the future overlord of the gaming industry, it had not yet entered the video game industry at this time.

According to the survey report, it was already possible to see that the world video game industry was divided into three levels at this time.

The first level was the two giants, Taito in the arcade game market and Atari in the console game market.

The second level was Sega, Nintendo and Namco.

The third level was other video game companies.