Reborn America, this is my time

Chapter 284 I see the future!

When Ethan discovered that Casio's expansion rate was not in line with the objective laws of market development, he focused his attention on the rebellious Nintendo.

In his view, only if Hiroshi Yamauchi voluntarily gave up the order could Casio engulf Neon's central microprocessor market overnight with overwhelming force.

And if you want Hiroshi Yamauchi to voluntarily give up this business, there must be greater interests.

If outside collaboration doesn't make Nintendo profitable.

Then it must be their internal research and development that has produced a shocking product.

From an ordinary person's perspective, this may be an impossible thing to happen, but for Ethan Jones, who has memories of his past life, Nintendo's innovation is definitely world-class, because Hiroshi Yamauchi has gathered My own Four Heavenly Kings, Gunpei Yokoi, Masayuki Uemura, Genhiro Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto.

As the field of home consoles has been preemptively occupied by their Destiny game, only the handheld product will make Hiroshi Yamauchi take risks and take a gamble.

Ethan admitted that he could not recall the year in which Nintendo released the handheld console, but Julis Noble's previous report made him guess that the genius Gunpei Yokoi might be tinkering with the handheld console. .Because Julis Noble has already discovered that the reason why the imitations of Mirova Odyssey are selling like hotcakes in Neon is because the Neon people are too tired to live, so how can they bring more to the Neon people? happiness, that must be the direction of engineers’ research and development.

and so--

Even if Ethan only has the memory of Game Boy in his mind, he will still believe that the ultimate move that Hiroshi Yamauchi secretly secretly secreted must be a handheld game console!

And since Nintendo is doing this stuff, then...

Why don't they do it?

Since we want to hold back our ultimate move, let’s gather energy together!

When the time comes, grab your handheld device!I take my "Destiny Cube" handheld console!
Since you want to fight, let's meet head-on!
Take a look and see who is better!

He can't believe it!
Is there any other game in this world that can beat "Destiny Cube" on a handheld console?
"You want me to develop this?"

Although Ethan made some choices when speaking, Evelin still understood what he meant.

"This project shouldn't be difficult, right?"

Ethan nodded and said: "If I remember correctly, you told me before that the reason why MOS 6502 cannot carry "Destiny Cube" is because their computing power is slightly insufficient."

"At that time, I asked you if the problem could be solved by customizing the chip, and you said yes. It's just that Chuck Paddo Chip Company is not in our hands, so the cost may be a bit high."

"Not worth it."

“But now, Western Design is in our hands.”

"Bill Mensch, who Chuck Perdor calls the best chip architect in the world, is working on the central microprocessor for us, and we also have Fate."

"so……"

"is it hard?"

When Ethan, like a hard-working worker ant, removed all obstacles on the queen's journey, the girl laughed out loud at her nagging words.

"Okay, okay, okay..."

Evelin shook her head and said: "It's not difficult, not difficult at all."

"If we were still based on MOS 6502, we would have to customize the chip first and then make the game. But now, Fate 0801 is enough to support the development of "Fate Cube"."

"But while solving the chip problem, we faced a new problem."

"That is, handheld consoles require very powerful integration technology."

"I have never studied this aspect, so..."

"If I were to develop it alone, it would probably take me a lot of time."

"For example, I need to study how the handheld device produces images."

"What's the best use for its surface screen?"

"Secondly, how big can this game be, and how much will it cost in terms of storage?"

“Finally, what do we do with the existing projects we have?”

"Isn't the game "Super Pac-Man" going to be developed?"

The questions raised by Evelin are very realistic.When she was the only truly reliable R&D person in the Destiny game, the increase in secret projects meant that they had to make some choices.

Ethan has actually considered these issues.

"Let's suspend development of the game "Super Pac-Man" for now."

“Our company now has four projects, namely console ports of Pac-Man and Star Wars, and two arcade versions of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.”

"The two arcade games of "The Empire Strikes Back" will be launched next summer, and those two porting projects are the selling points of next year's console. Although in comparison, our game lineup for next year's console is a bit shabby, but the arcade project team has completed the work Later, I will also let them develop some console games, so there will definitely be no problem in releasing the games next year."

"Not to mention, I have no intention of releasing Super Pac-Man next year."

"As for the handheld technical issues you mentioned..."

"I don't think this is a problem."

"Because we have an advantage."

"Remember Steve Wozniak? He had developed a singing calculator at HP. What if we used the same idea of ​​making calculators to develop a handheld console?"

"This integrated technology should be enough, right?"

"Let Steve Wozniak do the technical support. It's really not possible to ask HP to get their scientific calculator design drawings and patents. With the principal here, the machine should be produced very quickly."

"so……"

Having said that, Ethan stopped.

Evelin, who was standing next to the whiteboard, smiled and said: "So my main task now is to develop games, right? Or maybe... this is my doctoral thesis?"

"Yeah~" Ethan smiled and clapped his hands, "Is it okay now?"

"Oh..." Evelin picked up the oil-based pen and put a tick on the second question on the whiteboard, which was the union of Casio and Komodo, and asked: "Can we get over it now?"

"Of course." Ethan smiled and gave a thumbs up.

Evelin immediately picked up the pen and wrote about the third accident they encountered last month.

That is, Ron Miller invited Jack Warner's son-in-law to help him fight for power.

Although the white knight's tactics made Ethan feel disgusted, he had to admit that this was the best self-rescue method Ron Miller could use at the moment.

Not only that, their choice of white knight was also very clever, because Bill Orr is a notorious capitalist in Hollywood, and it is impossible for him to successfully acquire Walt Disney.

In this case, Ron Miller invited Bill Orr to be his white knight. In fact, he just wanted to increase the share price of the Walt Disney Group and make it more difficult to buy Destiny Games. At the same time, this This approach also allows them to retain as much control as possible over the company.

This is a classic business example of killing two birds with one stone.

Ethan thought Ron Miller's operation was very beautiful, but Evelin felt that Ron Miller might have fallen out with Steve Ross and the others.The reason is also very simple, because the guy who completely kicked Bill Orr and his father-in-law Jack Warner out of Hollywood was Steve Ross.

The new idea proposed by Evelin made Ethan's eyes light up and felt it made sense.

But soon, he threw this idea into the trash.

"Even if Steve Ross and Ron Miller fell out, we wouldn't be allies."

"Since there is no possibility for us to cooperate, what does it have to do with us whether they collapse or not?"

"Okay, you have the final say." Evelin did not dwell on this issue.

I just put a √ on the third accident.

The fourth surprise was that Goldman Sachs proactively released the news that Columbia Pictures had been sold.

And this news...

"Do you think Goldman Sachs is working with Steve Ross?" Evelyn asked.

"I don't know." Ethan shook his head, "But I think it is unlikely that they will cooperate."

“Then why did Goldman Sachs suddenly attack us?”

"I think this may not be an attack, but manipulation." Ethan took out the information collected by Steve Ballmer in the past few days and handed it to his sister.

With a simple scan, Evelin discovered that after Bill Orr announced that he wanted to acquire Walt Disney, the stock prices of several major Hollywood studios had increased to varying degrees.

Because they basically have everything Walt Disney has, and they also have something that Walt Disney doesn’t have, with only slight differences in the park projects.

In this case, if Walt Disney can be favored by a rich man, then the value of other companies of the same type cannot be low. Therefore, when Roy Disney criticized Bill Orr and wanted to destroy Walt Disney When it comes to stock prices, there are actually peers who are also being beaten.

If it is a simple stock speculation, then this is an opportunity for investors to change hands, but if some investment institutions do too much in advance, then Roy Disney's behavior will be a nightmare for them.

Therefore, it is inevitable to apply the brakes forcefully.

"You're saying that Goldman Sachs probably bought a lot of stock in Hollywood giants?"

Evelin frowned.

It's not that she doesn't believe Ethan, but that Ethan's judgment is somewhat beyond her knowledge.

"Although the influence of Hollywood giants is great, the entire Hollywood market is only a few billion."

"A lot of energy is spent on this..."

"Isn't it a bit of a waste?"

Evelin had already said it very implicitly.

Ethan smiled, wagged his finger, and said, "The size of the company does not mean the amount of profit."

"On the surface, Hollywood companies are not worthy of Wall Street's attention, but their low market value allows Wall Street people to leverage unlimited profits with the least amount of chips."

"I'll give an example."

"If Goldman Sachs had started operating from the beginning of the year, that is, they had already entered the market after we lowered the stock prices of Hollywood companies, then in just three months, their investment in Hollywood would have tripled. This is incredible. In the hands of any investor, that’s a big win.”

"If they choose to cash out at this time, the income they earn is fixed, but if they continue to hold on, like they did with Columbia Pictures, and find new buyers for some other companies, then the deal Yields will rise again."

"Because in addition to the benefits of cashing out, they can also receive transaction commissions from the buyer and seller. If the buyer is an excellent company, they can also take this opportunity to obtain the other party's stocks."

"Judging from the current situation, Goldman Sachs should be doing this kind of business."

"Although things sound outrageous, this is finance. The pursuit of ultimate profits is what capitalists like to do most. There is no advance cutting in this industry. All the caution that the public can see is just a cash-out horn performed by capitalists. That’s all.”

If it was Morgan Stanley who made the move this time, Ethan would definitely think that the other party had joined forces with Steve Ross, because they had previously led the acquisitions of Commodore and Rockwell.

But when the guy who took action was Goldman Sachs, the judgment of putting profit first became the mainstream.

No way, who makes Goldman Sachs like to do this kind of thing?
Compared with Morgan Stanley's ruthlessness, they prefer to stab people secretly.

When Ethan made the judgment that Goldman Sachs was sick but not a big threat, the fourth problem was solved, and the fifth problem was that Taitung and Namco successively launched imitation products...

Ethan can't solve it, and this kind of thing can't be solved either.

Again, when the gameplay of the game cannot be patented, learning from it becomes inevitable.

Not to mention, he was the first to learn from it.

Therefore, what an excellent game company operates is never the game itself, but the character images that can be protected by copyright. They are the greatest wealth of a game company.

Ethan has not done this before, but now...

With the launch of McDonald's Happy Meal, the trial sales of various doll costumes in Los Angeles, and the combination of movies and games, the skyrocketing sales are enough to prove that they have taken a breakthrough first step.

The next step is to continue to work on cartoon animation, cartoon TV series, comics, etc., to create their own stories for these characters, so that these IPs can gain more value.

And these things cannot be learned from.

Because all successful IPs actually develop based on the tide of the times.

Without the blessing of historical factors, how can they move the world?

After going through the five questions one by one, the goals of each company were clear to Ethan. When there was a solution for the disc problem, Nintendo's reliance could be directly penetrated. For the stock price problem, Roy... When Disney is in charge and Li Gui can never become Li Kui, what still needs Ethan to struggle with is actually Komodo's plan on the computer.

But the problem is...

The idea of ​​a cheap computer is really difficult to crack!

From ancient times to the present, no businessman likes price wars. Firstly, this approach will affect the company's profits and increase the company's financial pressure. Secondly, this approach will affect the company's reputation.

When a company makes a fortune by talking about cost-effectiveness, and after they gain a large market share and want to hit the high end, they will find that their customers will vote with their feet.

As long as a company that became famous through price wars dares to raise the price of its products, the original loyal fans will definitely choose new, cheaper products in the market.

Because branding has never been achieved through price wars.

It is built with real technology.

In this case, Ethan could actually predict Komodor's fate.

They will definitely pay the price for the cost-effective ideas they are studying.

But even if Komodo will eventually be ruthlessly swept into the dust of history by a broom, this does not mean that Ethan can ignore the coming impact. When Apple already occupies a huge market share in the computer market, he is It is impossible to accept a slight decline in market share.Of course, Ethan also believed that the two Steves and Lawrence Rockefeller in New York would not accept it either.

As a result, resistance has become inevitable, and in business, there is only one way to combat cost-effectiveness, and that is to offer products that are far ahead!

As long as the people in the market know that price/performance is of no use to them, and only by choosing technological iterations can they achieve maximum productivity improvements, then the price war plan will go bankrupt!
But in this era, increasing the hardware configuration of computers has no meaning for ordinary people. When spreadsheets were not popular, people did not need very good computers.

To put it simply, it is actually Andy Beer’s theorem.

In the IT industry, improvements in hardware performance require rapid digestion by software.

Only in this way will people continue to replace products.

And want to use software to improve hardware performance?
this……

Kind of hard.

And just when Ethan was thinking about what other good software he could copy, a rapid ringtone suddenly rang in the study that was still quiet.Since Evelin was close, she reached out to take it. After answering twice, she said to Ethan: "Steve Ballmer is looking for you."

"what's up?"

"He said that Steve Jobs is in the company and would like to see you if there is something urgent."

"Huh?" The sudden search made Ethan a little confused.

But before he stood up and asked for the phone, Evelin said again: "Oh, Steve Ballmer said again that Steve Jobs is urging you to come over now because he said he saw God."

“And this time, God isn’t wearing your clothes!”

"WTF?" Ethan frowned at the incomprehensible words.

He didn't know what was happening to classmate Xiao Qiao.

I took the phone and listened carefully. Then, a loud shout came from the other end of the phone——

"Tell Ethan! Even if the Yellowstone volcano erupts today! He will come here today!"

"We're going to Xerox's research center together!"

"They just showed us a technology!"

"Under their operation, the computer seems to be alive!"

"MFxxk! I'm not lying!"

"Yes! Stephen feels the same way! He can even swear by the name his mother gave him!"

When the name Xerox entered Ethan's ears, his whole body was like a lightning strike!

Because he knew what Steve Jobs saw.

That's the future of operating systems -

GUI!

(End of this chapter)