The Industrial Giant Reborn

On May 1, 1975, An Qi and Lei Shengli came to Chen Zhiwen's separate meeting room with the sorted data.

This is a data on the flow of people stored in dozens of bars in the United States, compared with the data on the mainstream arcade machines currently on the market in the same environment.

"7.3 times, this number is really scary." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile after reading the conclusion.

"This number can only be used as a reference. Ours is a new game. Compared with Arkanoid, which has been on the market for more than half a year, it is naturally more attractive." Lei Shengli said, at the same time, it is an arcade machine, greedy snake The number of coins earned was 7.3 times that of Arkanoid. He was shocked when he got this number. Even if it is a new game, it is very attractive to have this kind of attraction.

"We must also consider the serious shortage of our arcade machines, which will also increase the proportion of data, but we must also consider the problem of the upper limit of the number of players on one machine. There may be more people who want to play, but seeing people Give up if there are too many." An Qi also continued.

"Then we can only wait until the batches are launched to see the situation. The production capacity must also be rapidly improved. In addition, let the American team collect quality problems, and report any abnormality, and then send engineers to analyze the cause." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

This kind of classic game, he naturally knows that it will be popular. In this era, there are too few entertainment items, only movies, TV dramas and large-scale sports games, but these are not things you can experience anytime you want, and these entertainment products are also available. It's all one-time. If it's interesting the first time you watch it, your interest will drop sharply the second time. Even most people won't watch it a second time.

But the game is special. People can control the game characters. Different people will have different results in different times. This brings great variables to the entertainment. Every time it is different, this is the greatest fun and attraction. , The previous ping-pong was successful because even if it is the same person, the process and result will be different every time they play, and it is controlled by the player himself.

The same is true for Arkanoid, but the settings of these two games determine that they will not change much in different games, while Snake is much better, a map, which will be under the control of software, Rewards will appear in different positions, and each reward will affect the player's operation, which creates countless possibilities.

Of course, the same problem will also exist. If you play more times, you will find it boring, but as long as there are more variables, players will be able to persist for a longer time. For bar owners, more people will play repeatedly. , the income is naturally higher.

As the income of bar owners is higher, the demand for arcade machines is naturally higher, and Midea is naturally more profitable.

"The factory will be able to ship 500 arcade machines next week. Our pricing in the United States has not yet been determined. According to the latest data from the sales department in the United States, many bars now want to introduce them, and the demand is huge. We You can order one for 3,500 US dollars, with a loan cooperation with Citigroup. If the market is still in short supply, you need to increase the price from the terminal. If the demand drops in the future, you can discount the price.” Lei Shengli said with a smile.

Since entering the company, Midea has been unable to make a profit. Although the fans and radios are selling very well, they are completely out of volume. These two big heads have suffered losses due to the decline in market share in the Middle East, especially the research and development of various new technologies, which have been burning money.

Although there are enough reasons, it is still too dazzling to compare the businesses of Red Bull and Galaxy. Now we finally have a profitable product.

"Okay, then 3,500 US dollars, how much is our cost now?" Chen Zhiwen continued to ask, the sales logic similar to cars can be imitated in many products. If it sells well, the terminal will increase the price, and if it sells poorly, there will be a discount.

Moreover, this is a commercial product, not civilian use, and Chen Zhiwen doesn't care about reputation. On the contrary, if he has a car brand, he might not use this trick.

"Mr. Woz added a few more chips and electronic components in order to optimize the game interface. At present, due to the small output, the cost is estimated to be around 1,500 US dollars. In the future, the production will be reduced, and the procurement cost will be reduced a lot. It is estimated that it will be reduced to 1,300 US dollars. Left and right, this does not include the terminal sales cost in the United States, which is currently in charge of the Red Bull team, but if the scale is large, we still have to do it ourselves, or find a dealer in the United States.” Lei Shengli has already done it. After making relevant preparations, he spoke the answer fluently.

"For dealers, we still need to find them. Even if we have the contact information of many bars in the United States, it is impossible to contact them one by one, but this can also be a reason to lower prices for dealers." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile .

Even if the telecommunications and mobile phone technologies of the later generations are developed to the extreme, it is impossible for a company to directly contact all terminal channels, which will exhaust itself. Furthermore, no matter how large a company is, it is impossible to know all the regional conditions, only the local Professionals know best that sharing a little interest can ensure the maximization of their own sales and solve some minor problems at the same time, which is the most suitable business cooperation model.

"Arcade is a new industry, there is no ready-made stable supplier, who should we turn to?" Lei Shengli said with a frown.

"Don't worry, our production capacity will not increase that fast. In the early stage, we can use Red Bull's channels and the relationship with these bars to cope with it for a period of time. We can choose suitable channels during this period." Chen Zhiwen said calmly.

The issue of distributors has actually been considered before, but it is not suitable to settle down if the product has not been released or has not been verified by the market, because the contract signed in the early stage must have a large profit for the channel side, which is the inevitable law of new products. Channel is king is an almost eternal truth, unless it is the initial stage of the development of the whole society, when all kinds of materials are in short supply, the producer can have the final say, such as the mainland ten years later.

Now, once the arcade machine proves to be popular, the right to speak will go to the production side, and the channel side asks for the goods, so the price cannot be determined here.

Lei Shengli nodded and said: "That's right. At present, the market size of arcade machines is not small. The number of all bars in the United States is estimated to be no less than 50,000. In addition, some other places can also put arcade machines. The overall benefit It’s still very big, we need to find a few partners with connections and resources in the United States.”

"Of course, the stronger the network, the better. As long as my arcade machines can be sold well in the United States, there is no problem with sharing some profits." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

The current arcade market is small, and Atari's annual turnover is only tens of millions of dollars. In the eyes of big American capital, this amount of money is not small, but it is not too much, but the arcade market is most lacking. It is an explosive game. Once this game appears, the market will explode immediately.

In the previous life, Space Invaders of Japan’s Taito Corporation was the first game to detonate this market. However, the sales volume in the US market exceeded 100,000 units a year, and the net profit exceeded 100 million US dollars, which completely detonated the industry.

In Chen Zhiwen's opinion, the Snake game is much better than the boring game of flying planes. At least Snake has become a representative game on feature phones in later generations. It is not attractive, and neither are Nokia and Motorola. I will choose it, but now it is 4 years behind the Space Invaders in 1979. There may be a little difference, but there should be no big problem in the general direction.

Greedy Snake should also be able to detonate this market, and if it succeeds, it will naturally need to find some capable partners. Chen Zhiwen actually hopes that people with this vision will come to him. Instead, we hope for a long-term cooperation with someone with the same vision and resources.