Half an hour later.
Emma reluctantly let go of the controller only after Hunter's strong condemnation.
Oh no, why am I getting a little tipsy?
"Auntie, please stop playing, I need to go home soon..."
Hunter was on the verge of tears. He had originally thought that the aunt was pitiful to be watching her all day, so he figured it wouldn't hurt to let her play with him for a bit.
Unexpectedly, she played with it for half an hour, refusing to let go no matter how much they tried to take it from her.
I've never seen such a despicable adult!
"No, are you sure this is a game on NovaBox? You're not lying to me, are you?"
"Mommy... Mommy, what are you doing?"
Just as everyone was speechless, Vincent's voice drifted over from afar.
He ran over excitedly, holding cartridges of Super Mario. and Battle City.
When he saw his mother confronting a group of children about his age, his heart skipped a beat.
Oh no, is my mom going to meddle and annoy me again, like before?
"Mom, I've chosen!" He rushed forward, pulling his mother aside, his voice trembling with excitement. "You're right, Mom. The NES is so much fun! I shouldn't have given my opinion before even playing it."
He played Super Mario and Battle City for almost half an hour in the demo area, and it was incredibly fun.
If he had known the NES was so much fun, he wouldn't have bothered with the NovaBox.
It seems my mom was right; those people must never have played the NES before to be so certain.
"Huh? Uh... Vincent, this... you don't want NovaBox anymore?"
Vincent stood there dumbfounded, wondering what his mother was up to this time.
"Yeah, I just played it. The NES is really fun! We can go home and play Battle City or Super Mario.!"
"Hmm..." Emma nodded, then pondered for a moment, "How about this, since you've been really good lately, I'll make an exception and allow you to buy a NovaBox!"
"But there's a condition: you can't buy Wolfenstein 3D, and you can't buy a light gun. Let's go pay, and you can put these two cartridges back right now."
Emma pulled Vincent along, and they went to find a clerk to get a NovaBox.
After thinking for a moment, she suddenly stopped and turned to Hunter and his group, saying:
"By the way, kids, does NovaBox have a the Legend of Zelda -themed console? In this direction? Oh, okay, thank you."
Amidst the stunned gazes of Hunter and his group, Emma dragged Vincent towards the NovaBox shelf and, without hesitation, picked up a Zelda limited edition.
"Having a mom who loves playing video games... that's great..."
Hunter murmured.
This is obviously something he wants to do himself!
Vincent's eyes were practically drooling as he stared at the Super Mario cartridge!
It must be said that the first step of Lin Lixin's trilogy of youth stories was a great success.
Even more successful than imagined.
With its groundbreaking gameplay and staggering scale, the Legend of Zelda quickly became the hottest game of the season.
Its popularity has even surpassed that of Street Fighter and Super Mario.
"Console sales have seen a significant increase this quarter, with the Legend of Zelda- themed consoles selling out in many areas."
Sam hung up the phone with Meyer and shouted excitedly.
Who would have thought that selling games could boost game console sales?
In the past, such as during the Atari 2600 era, sales were not conducted in this way at all.
The upper limit of a game's market size is entirely determined by the console's sales volume.
The Atari 2600 sold 30 million units, while a hit game would probably only sell a few million copies.
However, this rule doesn't seem to apply to the Legend of Zelda.
An extremely strange situation has occurred in the past two days.
Zelda cartridge sales have surpassed NovaBox's total shipments to date.
What's going on here??
Let alone the deluxe version with printed maps and other merchandise, even the bare cards are in high demand and short supply.
In less than a month, sales have already exceeded one million units.
The Zelda game alone has already recouped the losses from the console sales.
That's right, NovaBox is sold at a loss.
It's fair to say that the more consoles they sell, the more they lose.
A device with a multi-chip, multi-processor architecture and a complete floppy disk drive cannot possibly be priced below $250, even at cost.
If it weren't for the sales champions Wolfenstein 3D and Tetris, NovaBox would almost have become Gamenova's biggest loss-making venture in history.
But now everything is different.
As the scale of the game continued to expand, the revenue from game cartridges had already offset the losses of the console, and even began to continuously inject a surge of cash flow into GAMENOVA.
"It's not just because it's fun enough, Sam. The Legend of Zelda has a feature that the other games don't have."
"What?"
"Slow!"
Sam was taken aback, but immediately understood what Lin Lixin meant.
That's really true.
Looking at GAMENOVA's works to date, none of them have ever had such a slow-paced gameplay.
This is understandable, as unlike previous titles, the Legend of Zelda was never intended to be released on arcade platforms from the very beginning.
It's not a game that requires players to rapidly upgrade their characters to achieve a higher coin-operated success rate.
Explore freely and at your own pace in this open world.
It achieves true archiving through floppy disk writing, allowing you to play it anytime, anywhere.
The game is no longer a one-time speedrun experience, but an "other world" that can last for weeks or even months.
This grand gaming experience is unprecedented.
Sacrificing profits from the arcade market in exchange for a wider world.
"It seems you've really decided to shift your focus entirely to home consoles?"
Sam was surprised by Lin Lixin's new strategy. The console exclusives of Wolfenstein 3D and the Legend of Zelda transformed the NovaBox into an incredibly competitive "high-end machine."
Not entirely.
Lin Lixin smiled. "Besides this small computer plugged into a TV, there's another form of home computer."
However, that will have to wait until Zilog has finalized their custom-designed new chip.
Before that, it's time to execute the second part of the whitewashing plan.
A masterpiece that has been unanimously rated as suitable for all ages by multiple rating agencies such as ESRB and CERO.
His gaze was fixed on the draft.
The "Boy's Adventure " section has been circled, indicating that it is complete.
Next: A cozy pastoral scene.
This naturally refers to Stardew Valley, the great predecessor of farming simulation games and the eternal teacher of all games.
Story of Seasons
This simulation game, published by Marvelous Inc., brings idyllic rural life to the world of video games.
Besides its quiet and peaceful gaming atmosphere, its excellent compatibility with handheld consoles was also an important reason why Lin Lixin chose it.