Update IV: The First Drought
January- April 1987
Game Releases and Ratings
Fighter Stance- Overall Inc.- 8.5
Sales:
Console Sales To Date
1.)The Box 915,000 Units
2.)HiGrax 835,000 Units
Game Sales:
Astronimas 285,000 Copies (Included with HiGrax)
Cross Country Cruisin’ 105,000 Copies
Crystal Chronicles 60,000 Copies
Fighter Stance 85,000 Copies
Formula Racing 45,000 Copies (+1 Income)
From Up to Down 45,000 Copies
News For Each Region
North America
In North America, sales of games and consoles died down a bit from the frenzy of holiday shopping, but both the Box and HiGrax continued to sell well. After seeing the success of the bundles from the holidays, stores received additional stocks of The Box bundles, and these flew off the store shelves. Shipments of HiGraxes to North America also increased, but by the end of April, both consoles had a little unsold stock on store shelves. Game sales were also down, mostly because of the fact that only one new game was released. (+1 Income to TIRC.)
The big news of the quarter ended up being an information leak from the president of TIRC itself. An insider got his hands on the following message and then leaked it to the press. The message read:
From: President Kai-win Lee
To: Head of Research and Development Stanley Nguyen
Subject: Project *****
The Project is approved. We will approve ** ******* for now and see where that takes us. Keep it a secret until we can be sure of everything.
Many people are wondering what this project could be. Some think it might be the first game from the studio while others think that TIRC may have already begun work on their next console.
After good sales from their game on the Box, Nexus Systems decided to port Cross Country Cruisin’ to HiGrax. They also invested into producing enough copies of Cross Country Cruisin’ to make sure that the game didn't sell well because of a lack of supply. Indeed, the game continued to sell well.
Zabriskie Entertainment started development of City Simulation 2, and they predict that they may be able to have the game out by the end of summer. Many fans can't wait till then.
Mann Entertainment already began to advertise Silent Service 2, and many people have taken notice. Hype is very high for the game, and at the least, the game will probably be a system seller.
Europe
Both the HiGrax and the Box sold about the same amount of consoles in Europe, but neither console was in great supply. The consoles that were there though sold out pretty fast. As with North America, game sales were down though. There were a few exceptions, most notably being that Formula Racing continued to sell. It ended up selling enough to moderately raise Illusion Development's profits. (+1 Income to Illusion Development)
TeaTime Inc. has continued to work on their console, and they have begun development on the actual hardware that the Camelot will hold.
Spire Entertainment invested some money into hiring some more skilled developers, and so far it appears they succeeded.
Japan
Sales of the Box picked up a little in Japan, but not by much. On the other hand, sales of the HiGrax continued to be very high. Kingdom Inc had invested into producing more consoles, and this showed. Lots of HiGraxes were being shipped to stores, but the consoles still managed to almost be sold out. (+1 Income to Kingdom Inc.)
Kingdom Inc. also invested into increasing the skill of the their employees. (+1 Employee skill for Kingdom Inc.)
GawShang also invested into producing more of their game From Up to Down, so the game continued to sell, but many copies were still left unsold in stores.