"Sheng Chen, this is the number of orders for Snake arcade machines in the United States calculated in the last month. A total of 8,755 units." In the morning, as soon as Chen Zhiwen came to the office, An Qi followed closely and said with a smile. .
"8,755 units? Not that much, not even 10,000 units." Chen Zhiwen lay leisurely on the office chair and said calmly. Based on the experience of common players in this era who have only seen Arkanoid, Snake This kind of game is obviously much more exciting.
The order quantity is less than 10,000 units. In fact, a big factor is that the price is too expensive. Many bar owners dare not take this risk. When they see other bars making a lot of money from this in the future, they will naturally rush in. .
You know, in the original history, in 1979, Japan's Taito Company's Space Invaders sold 100,000 arcade machines in North America in one year. Although it is four years earlier now, the U.S. economy has not changed in the past few years. Not big, the market demand should be about the same. There is still a lot of room for development in this market size.
"." An Qi was silent for a while, but she knew the price of this arcade machine. One unit costs 3,500 US dollars, but the price of 8,700 units exceeds 30 million US dollars, which is almost 150 million Hong Kong dollars. Such a large amount of money is not available in Hong Kong. You can become a wealthy family, but your boss doesn't seem to care and thinks it's too little.
"One more thing, the business department in the United States has reported that many bars also want to buy our arcade machines, but the price is too expensive and they dare not take the risk, so some bars have offered to place them in their bars first and wait until they make money. Then slowly pay us for the arcade machine." An Qi returned to her normal state of mind and continued.
"If you can't make money, just return it, right?" Chen Zhiwen smiled and said, "Don't worry about them. 8,000 arcade machines are enough to keep our factory busy for a while. During this period, the American business team can still receive new products." For orders, we’ll decide what to do next depending on the situation.”
When a new product has just been launched, just like the smartphone was just released, the production capacity can never keep up with the sales demand. In this case, it is a seller's market, and naturally the seller has the final say. If there are always a lot of follow-up orders, it will definitely remain the same. If it doesn't work, it will naturally "leave profits" to consumers.
Whether it is the current arcade machine, the future Apple mobile phone, or a certain tram, the price increases because there are too many orders and exceeds production capacity, and the price decreases because there are no orders. Capitalists have never had a conscience and only look at the market.
After all, it is not commodities such as food, clothing, housing, transportation or medicines. Price increases and decreases only need to take into account market factors. Even if prices rise to sky-high prices, there is freedom of buying and selling.
Arcade machines have been in short supply for just six months after their launch. They will only be eliminated when new games appear or people get tired of playing. By then, Midea will naturally give up profits appropriately or bear risks together.
"Okay, I'll fax it to the United States later." An Qi continued.
Chen Zhiwen continued: "In addition, I roughly calculated that the cost of air transporting an arcade machine to the United States is about 200 US dollars, but it can allow the arcade machine to enter the United States a month earlier. According to our estimates, an arcade machine can make at least 200 yuan a day." U.S. dollars, let the U.S. side discuss with the bar. If the bar owner is willing to pay for the air freight, we will air freight it to them. The account must be settled with the bar owner."
"Okay." An Qi nodded in a daze, but thought in her heart: "Is this okay?"
The bar pays for the air freight, and may be charged a handling fee in the process. Handing it over to the customer earlier can also make Midea's capital turnover faster. It sounds like it is completely taking advantage of the bar, but after careful calculation, this is true. , after all, arcades can be profitable. As long as the money earned in a month is higher than the air freight, it is a good deal.
Smart bar owners know what to do, even if it looks like they are being cheated, it can indeed make them more money. Especially if they have arcade machines earlier, they can attract more people earlier. The profit of the arcade itself is It's the same thing, but people who come to play arcade games can't just play arcade games. They always have something to eat and drink, right?
"Is there any news from Woz?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"Not yet. When I call him, he usually doesn't answer. I can only wait for him to call back." An Qi said helplessly. Although her position is not very high, she represents the boss, and everyone on her phone is very familiar with it. Even if she didn't receive the call for some reason, she would get back right away. But for this Woz, because of the time difference, no one would often answer her calls at night, and she didn't often answer her calls.
"Technical people are like this. When they are busy, they don't shave their beards, and they can only eat a few mouthfuls. Don't worry about it." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
Previously, he asked Woz to develop "Magic Cube". This game seemed simple, but after it was developed, he discovered a problem, that is, how to control the difficulty?
In the early stages of the game, the difficulty must be low. Players must play smoothly for a while to gain a favorable impression. Otherwise, after half a minute, everyone will lose interest.
In the later stages, the difficulty needs to be increased, otherwise players will play for too long, which will affect the profits of Midea's direct customers (bar owners).
In other words, arcade machines have two customers with different demands, one is the player, and the other is God who pays.
Chen Zhiwen disagreed with increasing the difficulty by speeding up the speed. This would disgust players and easily induce players to give up, causing them to not want to play in the future. Therefore, Woz's team had to start investing a lot of energy in analyzing under what circumstances 7 should be released. Which kind of medium block.
Woz thought it was very simple at first, but when they actually tested it, they discovered that the data was messed up, which gave them a headache. But there was nothing they could do if they complained. The boss's requirements still had to be implemented.
In the original history, Tetris was only developed in 1984, and it took several years to promote it. In other words, Tetris really became famous around 1990. At that time, the arcade market had already has disappeared, and the carriers of Tetris are also handheld consoles, home game consoles or computers.
There is no profit time limit, and Tetris under these carriers does not need to study this logic at all. This is why Chen Zhiwen launched Snake first. In fact, "Tetris" requires more energy and cost to ensure success.
In the arcade market, success does not necessarily depend on the game being fun. The first factor in success is being able to make money for the owner who buys the arcade machine.
"Manager Shen often communicates with Woz in the United States, but he is a human resource and does not understand technology. How about we send a technology to the United States? Maybe we can also learn some technology from Woz?" An Qi suggested road.
"Okay, then let's find a few more, whether it's newbies, or go to the United States to learn some skills, and participate in the new game development process of the Woz team. In the future, we will also need such a team here in Hong Kong. In general You can't count on Woz for everything." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and agreed.
Although he has ideas for many classic games of later generations, not every game can be copied directly, especially those complex games a few years later. Even if he tells Woz his idea, Woz may not be able to develop what he wants. Same.
In this case, a large number of people are needed to improve the details of the game. Let’s not talk about the high labor cost in the United States. If we rely entirely on the American team, putting all our eggs in one basket will be too risky.
Hong Kong always needs to start cultivating relevant talents. If there is not enough talent, poaching people from the neighboring Bay Area is also a good choice. Since the 1960s, the Bay Area government has begun to regard the electronics industry as the main support object for economic development. Over the years, There are many top students in Wanwan and those who go to study abroad. These people are also the foundation of Wanwan's future electronics industry. This is the source of the success of future generations of TSMC.
Bringing Wanwan's electronic talents to Hong Kong is also in line with Midea's strategic security significance.
(End of chapter)
