Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 659 The Revival of the Video Game Gold Rush

As far as development is concerned, sales alone are enough to explain everything-in the last fiscal year, PeopleSoft's operating income reached 50 billion US dollars.

What is the concept of this data?

In the past 1985, the old computer overlord - IBM's operating income exceeded 400 billion US dollars; Silicon Valley's big brother - Hewlett-Packard, operating income was about 60 billion US dollars; Motorola's income level was roughly in this range.

Compared with more comparable startups in the industry at the same time, PeopleSoft's sales are several times that of Apple and more than 30 times that of Microsoft, and can be ranked within the top 500 of the Fortune 150.

It is not surprising that PeopleSoft, which was founded the latest, has achieved such amazing results. This is determined by the characteristics of its products.

As early as the end of the 1970s, enterprise application software with simple functions such as financial management and inventory management that appeared on the personal computer platform could sell for more than 2000 US dollars, far from spreadsheet software, word processing software, and BASIC compiler. Class products can be compared.

Gein, such a cost is already very close to the people. Mainframe and minicomputer systems are so expensive that only large enterprises and institutions can afford them, while small and medium-sized enterprises that also have needs can only sigh.

What's more, PeopleSoft is backed by advanced and mature computer hardware platforms, database platforms, application development platforms, network architectures, and more importantly, brand-new solution concepts created by Tang Huan. , The very mature mainframe and minicomputer systems are poor.

Just in the first quarter of this year, PeopleSoft launched the latest version of its flagship product—EnterpriseOne 3.6, announcing that the C/S—client/server architecture it adopted has been fully mature, fully supporting LAN and dial-up connections on the Internet. electronic data interchange.

PeopleSoft's products have a significant feature, that is, after several years of development, it has formed its own development system - PeopleTools, which has complete and friendly graphical user interface interface components on the front end, and reliable and powerful back-end business components, and even has its own scripting language - PeopleCode.

This scripting language is based on ZeroneTurboPascal, one of Zheru's development software. It retains the original beautiful grammatical structure of the Pascal programming language, and is 86% compatible with ZeroneSQL, the localized structured query language of Zheru database EBase, and the American National Standards Institute - the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Officially released SQL[-] standard.

This means that PeopleSoft's products have considerable independence, and it is entirely possible to support databases other than Zheru EBase at some point, such as IBM's DB2, Oracle's ORACLE, etc.; even through PeopleCode The unique scripting language compiler allows the application software produced by the development platform PeopleTools to run on computer hardware platforms other than Fangyuan computer standards.

It is worth mentioning that PeopleTools has a gimmick, which is the Rapid Application Development - Rapid Application Development or RAD concept mentioned by Tang Huan in a paper discussing the software development process. Although the actual utility is not yet clear, It can indeed respond faster and operate more flexibly than similar products in support aspects such as secondary development.

In addition, as a newcomer, in order to catch up with the old pioneers in the industry, PeopleSoft not only continuously strengthens its own team of industry experts, but also seeks cooperation with professional accounting firms to perfectly integrate IT technology and industry needs. One of the eight major accounting firms Arthur Young Accounting Firm, which was once established, was developed into an external strategic partner, which greatly challenged the cooperative business between IBM and Andersen.

After going through an IPO and becoming a listed public company, PeopleSoft's business can more easily penetrate into special target groups such as governments and institutions.

All of these all show the excellence of PeopleSoft stock, and Goldman Sachs dare not play tricks on the issuance link.Not to mention that Tang Huan has long been an old fritter, and the cooperative relationship between them for many years, PeopleSoft alone can definitely be regarded as an "expert" who does not rub sand in his eyes.

……

On July 7, after watching the World Cup in Mexico, Tang Huan, with all the gloom in his heart cleared, came to New York and summoned Louis Gerstner, David Duffield, Ken Morris and others to hear the latest status of the IPO.

Unlike being the largest shareholder in Zheru, Fangyuan, and EA, Tang Huan's personal shareholding ratio in PeopleSoft is not high, and his shares have been dispersed to various institutions, which can be regarded as a kind of hiding his wealth.

Correspondingly, Tang Huan is only a member of PeopleSoft's board of directors. The chairman is Louis Gerstner, the chief executive is David Duffield, and the president is Ken Morris.

"After the successful listing, PeopleSoft will become our third largest company after Fangyuan and Zheru in one fell swoop." Louis Gerstner, who has always shown himself as a cold-faced Hades, said excitedly.

"It seems that you haven't paid much attention to EA recently." Tang Huan smiled and didn't say anything more.

……

On Thursday, July 1986, 7, PeopleSoft's stock was listed on Nasdaq, with an issue price of $3 per share, a maximum of $24, and finally closed at $46.8.

Such a lively scene also reflects how good the current economic situation in the United States is.

In another day, July 7th, the National Day of the United States, followed by the weekend, this buffer period is enough to ensure that market-making companies and investors can further digest the value of PeopleSoft.

However, Louis Gerstner's judgment that PeopleSoft has completely surpassed EA has encountered some resistance, because the haze of the Great Depression of the U.S. game industry in 1983 has completely dissipated, the entire market has been reactivated, and practitioners have become active.EA, which has finally made it through, will certainly not miss this resurgent video game gold rush.

The second-generation Xiaobawang game console no longer needs to carefully test the reaction of the market as before, and led many games with great fanfare, and came back from the Japanese market in a mighty way.

For this "return to hometown", EA has made careful preparations in both hardware and software.

In terms of hardware, the second-generation Xiaobawang game console has been optimized, and a new 1986 version of the second-generation Xiaobawang game console has been launched.

In fact, this move is also a challenge to competitors.

A generation of Xiaobawang game consoles can be said to have tapped the potential of 8-bit home video game consoles to the extreme. Anyone who squeezes in will end up eating dirt behind EA's ass. The Nintendo FC game console was born at an untimely time and is in a miserable situation. , is a bloody vivid example.

Therefore, the game console companies that survived the previous Great Depression of the game industry turned their product development direction to 16-bit home TV game consoles. Although the second-generation Xiaobawang game consoles have already taken the lead in this field, there is still room for big enough.

Coupled with EA's repeated trials, the recovery trend of the North American market has become more and more obvious. Those who have seen all this in their eyes may miss the opportunity and fail to grab the slot. They are even more enthusiastic about product development whip.

The fastest is NEC. After the PC-9800 series was eliminated by Fangyuan PC in the field of personal computers, it has not given up on video game consoles. listed.

I have to say that this name more or less reflects NEC's deep resentment that it was beaten by Fangyuan PC in the personal computer market and had no power to fight back.

Sega also revealed its own 16-bit home video game console development plan - MegaDrive, but it will not be released until the first half of next year.

As for Nintendo, it is a bit mysterious, but judging from its actions of selling iron and raising funds, it must not be idle.

In this situation where the rain is about to come and the wind is full, EA launched the 1986 version of the second-generation Xiaobawang game console, which can disrupt the rhythm of competitors' layout.

In terms of software, in addition to carefully introducing the masterpieces of video games that the US market has missed in the past few years, EA also grandly launched two new masterpieces of the sports game category-"NBALive1986" and "FIFA1986".

Just from the names, you can guess that these two new games are officially authorized by NBA and FIFA. Otherwise, even if EA is a big brother in the video game industry, it will inevitably get into trouble.

This is indeed the case, and because sports games are a relatively new type and have their particularities, EA even set up a subsidiary company for this purpose-EASPORTS to be responsible for specialized operations.

EA launched the Major League Rugby series and the Major League Baseball series earlier, especially the latter, which has achieved great success in Japan, where baseball is very popular.

On this basis, all aspects of the development of the "NBA Live" project are progressing very smoothly, and its game background is also placed in the playoffs. After all, the current mainstream game storage media is a cassette, and the size of the content has certain restrictions. .

It is conceivable that although the current NBA powerhouses such as the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics cannot really be challenged, the Golden State Warriors, which has steadily entered the playoffs, has been favored unknowingly, including Players including Michael Jordan, in addition to participating in real-life marketing, also have certain "unique skills" in the game.And then talked about by the players.

In comparison, the launch process of "FIFA" is a bit tortuous.

Because the popularity of football in the United States is much lower than that of basketball, the real market target of "FIFA" is outside the United States, and then divided into versions corresponding to Serie A, English League One, La Liga, as well as the European Championship, World Cup, etc., and even corresponding to Negotiations over the license have been going on for a long time.

At the same time, "FIFA" has early competitors, such as "MatchDay" in the UK-"Match Day".

Although the running hardware platform is slightly different, this game, which won the British Golden Handle Award as soon as it emerged, is a true peer-to-peer relationship with "FIFA".

EA CEO Trip Hawkins once planned to take advantage of the upsurge of the World Cup in Mexico to launch "FIFA1986" to seize the market in one fell swoop and repel competitors, but the R&D team of EASPORTS suddenly discovered a serious AI problem and insisted on delaying the game. Posted later.

Trip Hawkins was very annoyed by his subordinates' skipping tickets, but Tang Huan appreciated this performance of excellence, so he said with relief: "The business opportunities of the World Cup can't catch up, so let's wait for the Christmas business opportunities at the end of the year, and such as Diego Maradona and other spokespersons can play a greater role in publicity and promotion at that time."

It can be said that "FIFA1986" in EA's homecoming action is a bit of a sham. The game CG has been released, which can be described as exciting, but it only accepts reservations within the scope of EA player clubs.

Generally speaking, although there are still many home video game console manufacturers that have survived the Great Depression of the American game industry and are gearing up to do a big job on the 16-bit console platform, the pattern is quite different from the original time and space. Just the model of "selling hardware at a loss and bringing profitable software" can eliminate a lot of ambitious people at once; and then we have to face the stumbling block of 2D acceleration technology.

In short, the revival of this wave of video game gold rush is gratifying, but the entry threshold has been greatly increased. It is almost impossible for food companies to dare to fly in to grab food like before.

In the competition at this stage, game consoles are only one aspect. The real success depends on whether there are "Tetris", "Pac-Man", "Mario", "Monopoly", "Three Kingdoms", etc. like EA. And other iconic signs to attract people, as well as a wider range of ecological circles.

For example, Tang Huan's Hollywood has gotten closer and closer to EA. The most recent example is the movie "Top Gun" - "Top Gun", which was released on May 5. It was a huge hit at the North American box office and crossed 16 million on a rampage. The U.S. dollar mark means that the video game of the same name does not require much publicity. It was a huge success once launched, with sales easily exceeding 1 million copies. And based on various data collection and evaluations, it is not a problem for this year's market to reach 100 million copies.

The hot sale of the video game "Top Gun" undoubtedly gave EA a good start in counterattacking the North American market.In Redwood City, Silicon Valley, where EA headquarters and EA Park are located, the flow of people coming and going has increased significantly, and there are many young entrants who are full of vigor and dreams.

Now that the North American market has been resurrected, how can EA be willing to let PeopleSoft's younger brother ride on his neck as soon as he lifts his leg - no matter how high-end your enterprise applications are!
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(End of this chapter)