Chapter 166

Time flies, and it is September in a blink of an eye.

Liu Zhicheng came to RB Tokyo since the release of the home game console and Super Mario at the end of 78.

The craze continued to ferment in the global market, and it began to flourish and swept the world. The popularity of the RB market attracted Liu Zhicheng's high attention.

The previous few times that Orange launched new products, except for the claw machines, the sales of both the Walkman and the arcade machines were always mediocre and have been lukewarm for several years.

But this time it was different. Its performance in the RB market was exceptionally outstanding and had to attract Liu Zhicheng's attention.

Now Orange Technology is cooperating with Yamaha in RB's home game console products.

In addition, Orange Technology has also established a branch in RB to facilitate all-round cooperation with them.

With the joint promotion of Orange Technology and Yamaha, "Super Mario" has become the undisputed ace game in the RB game market and has brought it huge profits.

Therefore, Yamaha President Kawakami Keita (son of Kawakami Genichi) attached great importance to Liu Zhicheng, who was invited to visit RB again to discuss matters related to expanding RB's cooperative business.

Therefore, Liu Zhicheng had to put aside his affairs in Hong Kong temporarily and rushed to RB in September to meet and talk with Kawakami Keita.

On September 9, Liu Zhicheng arrived in RB Tokyo. As soon as he arrived at the airport, he was warmly welcomed by representatives of Orange Technology and Yamaha.

On the same day, Liu Zhicheng attended the welcome banquet hosted by the RB branch of Orange Technology. The next day, he went straight to attend the reception banquet hosted by Yamaha.

Yamaha President Kawakami Keida hosted a banquet for Liu Zhicheng to celebrate the brilliant achievements of the game console and "Super Mario" in RB.

What was unexpected was that a heavyweight in the gaming industry, Namco's president, Matsushita Manganese, appeared at the banquet.

Nangong Dream is a well-known game company in RB and one of the pillar companies of RB's game industry.

In its previous life, since its establishment in 1955, it has published very popular electronic games in arcades, FC, etc.

Pac-Man, Taiko no Tatsujin, Tekken, Ace Combat, Xenosaga, etc. are Namco's signature games.

The appearance of the Nangong Meng Panasonic manhole cover here today must be related to the game console. But it did not affect Liu Zhicheng's mood.

With the introduction of Kawakami Keita, the two sides formally got to know each other and began to drink and chat happily.

At the same time, they revealed an inside information to Liu Zhicheng, which might affect the increasingly popular sales of Orange game consoles in the global market.

"Nintendo released their first home console last year, which sold mediocrely. This year they are making a comeback, and the second console is about to be released next month."

This is the information about Panasonic's competitors that he found out.

Liu Zhicheng asked: "Can Nintendo's second-generation new machine threaten the sales of Orange Game Consoles?"

Liu Zhicheng's good mood was somewhat dampened by the news brought by the Panasonic manhole cover.

In the field of home game consoles, no company's products can compete with Orange Technology.

The game "Super Mario" is a super plug-in for the Orange game console. It can be said that it can sweep the entire home game market and form a certain degree of monopoly.

In its past life, Nintendo used the Famicom and Super Mario to perfectly illustrate this point. Countless game manufacturers around the world who followed suit all ended up in failure without exception.

Therefore, Juzi Technology is not afraid of any competitor. But Liu Zhicheng must also take it seriously because Nintendo's reputation in the past was too great.

Kawakami Keida is not as optimistic as Liu Zhicheng, he said: "In terms of console quality, Nintendo's game consoles are much worse than Orange Games.

But in order to compete with the Orange console, Nintendo is going to start with the price. According to the information I received, their retail price may be only $85. "

In this way, the shortcomings of the Orange game console are revealed. The price of the Orange game console is too high and many players cannot afford it.

Liu Zhicheng felt that Nintendo was courageous and had made it clear that it was going to engage in a price war. At $85 per game console, it was less than half the price of the Orange game console.

Liu Zhicheng looked at Kawakami Keita and the Panasonic manhole cover and asked, "The retail price of oranges is $85, while Nintendo's retail price is $. Is Nintendo planning to sell at a low price?"

Panasonic Manhole Cover also looked at Liu Zhicheng, spread his hands and said: "They are trying to seize the market by dumping at low prices. It is obvious that this is their plan."

Liu Zhicheng thought for a moment and said, "Mr. Kawakami, what do you think will be the effect of Nintendo doing this?"

“Relying on the price war competition that has occurred in the market in the past is the only way to quickly expand market share in the short term, and the effects are very obvious.

However, this kind of game console price war has never happened before, so I dare not make any arbitrary judgment on what will happen then."

Liu Zhicheng felt that Kawakami Keita was obviously too conservative and lacked the confidence to defeat all opponents.

"I think game consoles are a relatively special emerging industry. They not only rely on hardware to attract customers, but software games are the core factors that attract game players. Price wars can only attract players in the short term, but will eventually be abandoned by players!"

Liu Zhicheng's meaning is very straightforward. If it is just a price war for the host, it will not have any effect.

Unless Nintendo develops classic games like "Super Mario" to attract players, it will be possible to successfully seize market share.

Liu Zhicheng thought for a while, and asked, "Since Mr. Kawakami invited Mr. Matsushita to the banquet, you should have a way to deal with it, right?"

Kawakami Keita glanced at Liu Zhicheng. They had indeed discussed ways to deal with their competitors.

The R&D costs of a host computer are huge, with hundreds of millions of dollars invested each year. Small businesses generally cannot afford it.

But the investment in game software is very small, and most companies can make it, or even individuals can develop it.

“In the RB game market, there are hundreds of companies developing game software, and what game software needs is creativity.

At present, in order to obtain classic games, Nintendo has opened its console system to software manufacturers all over RB and invited these manufacturers to develop games for their console systems.

Moreover, Nintendo will also reward outstanding game developers. We can also do the same, so that we can cut off Nintendo's retreat.
It won’t be long before they are eliminated by the market, which is the main reason why I invited Mr. Matsushita to attend the banquet today.”

Forming an alliance of small software manufacturers was the key to Nintendo's success in the past. It authorized RB's game software manufacturers to develop games for host systems and sell them jointly.

Nintendo is responsible for the development and production of game consoles, and software manufacturers are responsible for the development of game cartridges. Just like the profit-sharing system for movie theaters, if the film fails at the box office, the theater chain does not suffer any loss.

If the film is a hit at the box office, the theater chain will share the profits according to the agreement. This is a strategic cooperation of sharing weal and woe, and there is no reason to oppose such a policy in order to stifle console competitors.

Liu Zhicheng nodded and said to Kawakami Jingtian: "In principle, I agree with your suggestion to open up the console system so that the ecosystem of game consoles can be enriched.

However, a 'royalty system' must be established for the game console software ecosystem. A company can only release 5 games on our game console platform each year..."

The royalty system, though harsh, ensured that the games were rough and messy, limiting each game software company to only release five game software on the Famicom platform each year. This meant that they would take out the five best games to be released on the Famicom.

In this way, only high-quality game software can be jointly sold with Orange game consoles, and not all junk software can cooperate.

Liu Zhicheng would never allow shoddy games to be put on the Orange game console system, as this would tarnish the Orange brand.

But he will not reject any alliance request from any game manufacturer because this is a strategy to hit Nintendo.

Seeing Liu Zhicheng's reluctance, Panasonic said, "Nangong Meng can be responsible for establishing the alliance channel for software manufacturers.
But if Nintendo does this, it will definitely complain to the authorities. In order to prevent official intervention, the product needs to be able to earn foreign exchange. The more foreign exchange it earns, the less excuse the authorities will have to put pressure on it.

Therefore, we can have a broader cooperation. We suggest that we jointly establish a production base in RB to produce game consoles, sell them to the blank market of Orange Technology, and sell game cartridges to the world. "

Panasonic has spoken so much eloquently, but in fact he just wants to share more of the profits of Orange game consoles.

When Liu Zhicheng made the decision to develop the Orange game console, he was considering establishing an alliance of interests with RB Electronics manufacturers.

Therefore, Liu Zhicheng did not object to Panasonic's request for manhole covers, but he just said that it could not affect the layout of Orange Technology.

From the very beginning, Liu Zhicheng planned to give away most of the profits from the Orange game consoles, and then make money from console licensing and software games.

After all, all game manufacturers cooperate with Juzi Technology, and Juzi Technology still firmly controls the majority of the profits from Juzi game consoles.

In the future, we will gradually distribute profits to our partners, allowing them to fight for Orange Technology around the world.

Liu Zhicheng is by no means afraid of his competitors, but is paving the way for the future.

Liu Zhicheng believes that within a few years, Orange Games will monopolize the global market faster than Nintendo did in its previous life, and by then, governments everywhere will intervene and launch monopoly investigations.

Liu Zhicheng made arrangements in advance and completed the profit distribution in advance. Only when the interests are deeply tied together will the partners of Orange Technology devote all their efforts to public relations.

Liu Zhicheng said: "There is no problem in establishing a joint venture factory to sell to the blank market of Orange Technology around the world, but the sales of cassettes in the original market must be represented by Orange Technology.

Even Orange Technology will give up some Asian markets (except mainland China and Hong Kong) and focus on operating in Europe and the United States. In the future, the joint venture products will be sold outside the areas exclusively operated by Orange Technology."

In fact, the share given up by Orange Technology is not that high. The current sales areas in Asia are only Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Asia, and sales in other regions were not high.

But Liu Zhicheng's giving up part of the sales in Asia can only be regarded as an attitude. In this way, Panasonic Manhole Cover and Kawakami Keita will spare no effort to attack their competitors in order to return the profits given by Liu Zhicheng.

Liu Zhicheng continued, "In fact, Nintendo is also a good game software developer in RB. I suggest that the joint venture company acquire them when the time is right, and poach their backbones even if they are not good enough."

"Acquisition?" Kawakami Keita and Matsushita were stunned.

Liu Zhicheng nodded and said, "That is, if they are willing to be acquired, we can not only strengthen our strength, but also lose a competitor."

Liu Zhicheng doesn't have much time to focus on attacking his competitors as he still has many products to develop.

For example, handheld game consoles, CD game consoles, and even more game software need to be developed to allow Orange Technology to dominate this field.

Matsushita Manhole Cover replied: "Then we'll give it a try then."

Liu Zhicheng said with satisfaction: "If Nintendo is unwilling to be acquired, then it is our enemy, and I hope that the enemy will be dealt the most brutal blow."

Liu Zhicheng's words all reveal a kind of domineering attitude: Those who follow me will prosper, and those who oppose me will perish.

This is how you treat your competitors, without any mercy, just like how you treat the Kadoorie family in Hong Kong.

At Panasonic Manhole Cover and Kawakami Jingtian, they admired Liu Zhicheng very much, as if everything was under his control.

Both parties were very happy and reached a pleasant consensus on cooperation. The remaining negotiations were left to the teams of both parties.

Panasonic Manhole Cover and Kawakami Keita seemed to have been prepared and arranged activities for Liu Zhicheng in the evening.

…………

On the other hand, Nintendo was also holding a meeting.

Because Orange Technology's home game console is priced at only US$199, and the console is one generation ahead of other game manufacturers.

This immediately dealt a brutal blow to all game manufacturers in RB, and Nintendo was no exception.

Ever since Orange Technology took the lead in releasing its home game console, Nintendo has embarked on the "copycat" path and also launched similar products.

However, due to the loss of initiative and the lack of sufficient excellent games to support it, Nintendo made very little profit and could hardly support the expensive research and development costs.

This is what is called losing the initiative at every step.

An excellent product requires huge R&D funds, not specific talents.

In the past, Nintendo's success was due to its money-making tool, the Famicom. Of course, they could have launched the same Famicom, but patents leave no room for maneuver.

“To develop a product as good as the ‘Family’ would take nearly two years and a huge amount of research and development funding.

Most of the components of Orange Technology's Famicom are also produced in RB. With our R&D capabilities, we can definitely develop the hardware.

But the main reason why the Famicom is so popular is because of the game "Super Mario" that it runs on. If we want to develop a similar product, it will also require a lot of funds and risks. "

President Hiroshi Yamauchi looked unhappy. Both hardware and software development require huge amounts of research funds.

"I will take care of the R&D funding issue. We must increase our R&D efforts and strive to become the spokesperson for the RB game industry. Orange Technology is not a RB company, and we cannot allow them to dominate the RB game industry.

Therefore, this is about the self-esteem of our great RB Empire, please redouble your efforts. "

Hiroshi Yamauchi showed his national integrity to cheer everyone up and inspire their self-confidence.

RB people are generally more tenacious and are famous for this quality.

They have gone through many ups and downs in the long course of history, but have always maintained their dignity and pride.

Their courage and determination became a symbol for the entire nation.

It is this kind of national integrity that Hiroshi Yamauchi hopes to inspire researchers to accelerate the development of game consoles and game software.

(End of this chapter)