After leaving the hotel and returning to the car, Chen Zhiwen asked Ron in the driver's seat: "You heard something just now, what do you think?"
"Henry Morgan may be a real friend, but the fundamental purpose is that he also wants to control the European market." Ron said: "This kind of people will never be satisfied with profits, no matter how big they get, The benefits will make you want more.”
Chen Zhiwen nodded and said: "I think so too, but thinking about it the other way around, it's also because arcades are so popular in the United States, but because the market is limited, that's why he wanted to enter the European market. But from my perspective , this is a good thing, because there must be many people from the outside world who can discover this matter. Businessmen from Europe, Japan and other countries will definitely come to us. In addition, the subsequent negotiations will take a while, and it is estimated that they can Catching up with the turning point in the U.S. market, Hong Kong's production capacity has increased."
Regarding the greed of capitalists, Chen Zhiwen naturally knew a long time ago that if he had not been unable to build channels in the United States at the beginning and had no resources, he would not have given him all the channels in the United States. The only purpose was to quickly open the market. This allows Midea to quickly obtain a large amount of funds and enter the next step of development.
But now that the market has been opened, with the halo effect of the American market, businessmen in other developed regions will always be discovered. At that time, it will be up to them to decide. And just as Chen Zhiwen expected, Henry Morgan also wanted to pursue Europe, but Chen Zhiwen directly rejected it. As for his friend, it was impossible for him to have a market on a small island. For markets in other countries, he would definitely find his own channel dealers. .
As for the U.S. market, although now I have to rely on Henry Morgan's channels, Henry Morgan in turn also needs to rely on him to supply goods. The two sides have fallen into a balance. Everyone is trying to make money, and there will be no problems in the short term. As for the long term, it will indeed be a bit troublesome, but the arcade market will be replaced by home game consoles in a few years. Even if arcades do not disappear, the total value will be significantly reduced, and Chen Zhiwen obviously values home game consoles more. This is A market that can reach tens of millions of sales, even if the profit of a single machine is worse than that of an arcade machine, the overall scale is much greater.
"Congratulations to Eric, this game will definitely make you one of the top Chinese rich people in the world." Ron said with a smile. Only when his employer is rich can he get higher benefits. .
"This is just the beginning." Chen Zhiwen said lightly.
The next morning, Chen Zhiwen came to Costco's headquarters again, but with him were Woz and a few others.
"Hi, boss." Woz said carelessly. Even though he was rich now, his clothes were just a little more high-end, and the casual personality and IT atmosphere still came to his face.
"You came quite early." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
"I heard that a supermarket data analysis library was going to be built here, and I immediately became interested. During this period, I was bored to death." Woz said.
"Okay, that's just the thing to do." Chen Zhiwen said.
Normal workers would never dare to say that they are boring in front of their boss. However, Woz was different. Even if he said he picked up girls in the office every day, he would have no problem with it as long as the law didn't object to him.
I am not busy during this period. It is indeed because Chen Zhiwen, a future nerd, only asked his team to design three simple games. The others were mainly to help Midea's air-conditioning and motor teams analyze various software problems. Although they also I can help, but after all, it's not my direct research direction, so I can't help much.
In terms of games, we have only developed Snake, Magic Cube, and Space Invaders. These three games are bound to be hit games. According to Chen Zhiwen’s estimation, it will take two years for the market to digest them. But now there is no need to create new ones. Game, one is that complex games cannot be played, and the current chip computing power is not enough. The other is that the price of chips and conventional chips in two years' time may be different from now. Now that the research has been done, it will only be significantly changed in the future. Completely No need.
As for complex home game consoles, Chen Zhiwen would like them to study them, but this thing involves the development of a compatible game system engine, which is very labor-intensive and resource-intensive. In history, Atari, in order to study its own ALTARI2600, After spending nearly 50 million US dollars, I bankrupted myself, and later I had to sell myself to Warner. Then the product became a big hit, and Warner could only take advantage of it.
Nowadays, Midea does not have so much money to invest in game engines, so it can only wait. This is why Chen Zhiwen is eager to make arcade profits quickly. Home game consoles will be the best-selling products in the next ten or even twenty years. The product was the best game choice for many families before computers were widely popularized, and its importance far exceeded that of arcade machines.
In this field, Atari is actually not a competitor. There are still many entrepreneurs who can see the future. When arcades become popular, outstanding entrepreneurs will think about what would happen if this thing was placed at home? From a time point of view, the research and development of home game consoles is still very urgent, but fortunately, I have mastered the current very high-quality games. Even if I develop the game engine later, I should be able to achieve the lead with various classic and popular games. , at least it can gain a large market.
"I'm not very familiar with data processing software, so I can only give it a try," Woz said.
"It doesn't matter, just give me some professional advice, but there is one more thing I want to entrust you with." Chen Zhiwen paused and said, "I want you to design two different sets of greedy snakes and magic cubes. Our current cubes are not white. ?, now I want to change it to a different color."
"Different colors? Technically not a problem, just why?" Woz asked curiously.
"I plan to supply the European and Japanese markets for differentiation purposes." Chen Zhiwen said.
"Oh, okay, I'll change this. A few days will be enough. I'll do some tests later and it'll be fine." Woz agreed.
"Okay." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. In fact, a long time ago, when arcade machines were first delivered to the United States, Chen Zhiwen was worried about one issue, that is, would anyone resell them?
If the customers of a bar have been playing for half a year and everyone is tired of playing, will they be sold to another bar that has never bought an arcade machine?
This kind of behavior is stealing Midea's potential customers, but Chen Zhiwen doesn't care about this. Once the arcade machine is sold, it belongs to others, and others have the right to buy and sell it, just like used cars. But what he can't accept is that there are people who participate on a large scale and deliberately make big mistakes. Large-scale acquisitions and then sales seriously infringe on Midea's interests.
However, in the same market, although there is a possibility of this happening, the probability is definitely not high, because everyone needs it when they need it, and no one needs it when they don’t need it. But it is difficult to say in two different markets. For example, if an arcade game was launched in the United States half a year ago, when it was first launched in Europe, there were already many second-hand arcade machines for sale in the United States.
It is difficult to do this kind of business cross-border and requires certain resources, especially the copyright of the game is in the hands of the United States. Even if someone illegally resells it, the amount will not be very large, but it is different for dealers. They can In the case of legal sales, second-hand reselling is carried out on a large scale.
Although the current situation does not even have a trend, Chen Zhiwen must be on guard. Capitalists will not be conscientious. As long as there is room for profit, he knows that Henry Morgan or any other dealer will have this idea. Who will have trouble with money? ?
This does not even have anything to do with whether Henry Morgan monopolized the channels between the United States and Europe. Even if it was given to others, this possibility was still possible.
"Ron, please communicate with Midea's legal team in Hong Kong and focus on how to avoid the reselling of second-hand arcade machines between the United States and Europe, and limit the possibility of this happening in the future." Technical restrictions are required, as are contracts. limit.
As long as these are perfected, even if it cannot stop a small amount of sneaky behavior, as long as it does not reach a large scale, it will not have much impact on itself. As for Henry Morgan, the main thing is to tie him up with high interests. In the future His new game is uninterrupted, so he won't be careful.
Even if it needs to be resold in the future, Midea needs to be responsible.
"No problem." Ron agreed readily.
(End of chapter)
