After one month of release, the sales of "Dragon Quest III" reached 700,000 copies, making it the fastest-selling ga to date.
Additionally, the sales of "Dragon Quest I" also surpassed one million copies.
This marked the first ga on the Famicom to break the one million mark in sales, prompting internal celebrations at Gastar Entertainnt.
In terms of conversion rates, "Dragon Quest III" was performing exceptionally well.
Besides video ga sales, "Dragon Quest" also generated significant revenue from various other avenues.
rchandise related to "Dragon Quest" had started to beco 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 beco 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 rchandise.
Next, there were the ga strategy guides for "Dragon Quest."
This was primarily handled by Shunkasya.
Due to the extensive content of "Dragon Quest III," Shunkasya, after discussions with Gastar, decided to publish separate combined volus for the first and third parts of the ga. 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 ga didn't hesitate to buy them.
On one hand, the guides helped them progress through the ga, and on the other hand, they served as collectible morabilia, being the world's first standalone ga 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 so 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 ga's release, leaving none unsold.
This excited Shunkasya as never before; they had never experienced such a rush even with the sales of so of their most popular manga.
So, they imdiately 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 gas 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 gars. Anyone with such a book could beco the object of many people's admiration.
Even after the internet beca prevalent, strategy guides remained potentially lucrative collectibles. Devoted gars of certain gas 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 gars; otherwise, the sales would have been even higher.
Of course, the "Dragon Quest" craze wasn't over yet.
Clever businessn started contacting Gastar Entertainnt, willing to spend money to purchase partial licensing rights for "Dragon Quest" artwork to create various collaborative peripheral products.
The company's copyright operation departnt, just established, was now specifically responsible for any derivative products related to "Dragon Quest," such as authorization for collaboration.
Shortly after, Gastar Entertainnt 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 Entertainnt looked on with envy.
They suddenly realized that electronic gas weren't just about playing gas.
Once a ga product beca famous or even popular, the revenue generated from its derivatives would be astonishing.
Electronic gas were beginning to form a mature industry chain, no longer limited to making money solely from the gas themselves.
Kinpira Entertainnt, having cleared its inventory of CD-ROM modified ga consoles, now focused solely on producing ga software.
They seed to understand that not everyone had the qualifications to make ga consoles.
Following soone else's lead in making gas could also bring in substantial profits.
As for Kinpira Entertainnt, a company with many IPs in ani, movies, novels, etc., its top executives imdiately thought of creating gas 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 gas seriously remained to be seen.
Vides also began to operate its arcade gas seriously, intending to try out so IP series.
Suiryu Electronics, on the other hand, was even more straightforward, announcing that its best-selling ga, "Sun Knight 2," was in developnt. They would also release a limited edition console bundle, learning so of the sales tactics from Gastar Entertainnt.
Suiryu Electronics could be considered a good student; they would imdiately follow whatever successful tactic Gastar Entertainnt employed. Following closely behind Gastar Entertainnt 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 Gastar Entertainnt yet, they had gradually gained so market share and were now starting to develop towards profitability themselves.
Apart from these developnts, their overseas business was also underway. Promotional activities overseas had already begun, with favorable feedback reported, especially from people in Europe and Arica who were very interested in this erging form of entertainnt.
After the release of "Dragon Quest III," the first ga developnt team once again entered the developnt process for the next installnt.
This ti, Takayuki set a new goal for them: to learn new technologies because the next generation of gas would undoubtedly be on the Super Famicom, or SNES.
This console, with its better performance, would inevitably lead to larger ga scales and better graphics.
If they couldn't fully understand the capabilities of the console, Takayukiwouldn't allow them to release the ga.
At the sa ti, Takayuki ford a new first-party ga developnt team, nad the Fifth Ga Developnt Team.
This team would be responsible for an exclusive series of gas.
This ga series was also Takayuki's favorite.
That series was "Final Fantasy."
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