"The new game is already here. Henry, I asked you to come here this time just to experience it first." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, "This way, please."
"Okay, I'm very much looking forward to it." Henry Morgan suddenly became energetic. Although he was forced by Chen Zhiwen to give up part of the profits for the second arcade game Magic Cube, the overall profit was still huge. Now he is naturally looking forward to it. Next new game.
The two came to the corner of the office. Nowadays, the Galaxy Building can provide Chen Zhiwen, the boss, with a larger office, and Henry Morgan will no longer be able to see it in advance.
The arcade machine located here had already been opened and was obviously ready. Chen Zhiwen stood in front of the arcade machine and said, "This new game is called Space Invaders."
"Space Invaders? Are you trying to capitalize on the fame of Star Wars?" Henry Morgan asked.
"Can I say this is a coincidence?" Chen Zhiwen shook his head and smiled.
"Star Wars" is a science fiction movie produced by 20th Century Fox last year, which invested almost all the resources of the entire company. It can be said that if this movie fails, then the entire Fox can declare bankruptcy.
"Star Wars" will be released in May a few years ago, which is still about a month away. As a Hollywood giant, it will naturally promote a lot in advance, including promotional scenes in various places, partial plot broadcasts on TV channels, and personal promotions by Hollywood movie stars. Wait, judging from the current social feedback results, the public is still looking forward to this movie, and its reputation is naturally growing. Space war and science fiction have become mainstream leisure topics in American society.
Did you take the opportunity to hitch a ride? Of course Chen Zhiwen didn't, but the original release of "Space Invaders" in history will be next year, that is, after "Star Wars" has been released and when the reputation is at its highest, Japan's Taito Company may indeed have this idea.
"There is no problem with coincidence. This is indeed an opportunity for us. The customers of this kind of science fiction movie also overlap with the customers of our game arcade." Henry Morgan naturally did not believe that this was a coincidence, but there was no need to dwell on this topic. He could really continue The fame of the movie is also a good thing.
"I have already set it up. Do you want to try it after playing for a while?" Chen Zhiwen walked aside to give up his position and said, "You can think of it as a spaceship. They will descend step by step just like the setting of the magic cube. The speed is It is also adjustable. The difference is that these spaceships will come down together. The fighter-like thing below is controlled by the player. The fighter can fire bullets, and the bullets destroy the spaceship. It can move left and right. If the spaceship reaches the bottom, Then the game is lost.”
The game is naturally very simple. In its original history, this game was called Little Bee in Japan. When it arrived in the United States, it became Space Invaders. I can only say that the people in charge of marketing are pretty good.
"Understood." Henry Morgan nodded, then stood in front of the game console and started playing.
He lost the first game quickly, but he got a little familiar with it. He held on for a while in the second game and lost again. By the third game, he seemed to have got the hang of it. Then, the "spaceship" that fell from above jumped over Coming faster and faster, Henry Morgan's operations began to be a little hurried, and after a while, he lost again.
"How do you feel?" Chen Zhiwen leaned against the wall next to him and asked with a smile.
"It's very good. It feels very good. It's completely different from the previous Magic Cube." Henry Morgan thought for a while and said: "There don't seem to be as many gameplays as Magic Cube, and it doesn't require much thinking, but it's very exciting to play, especially at the end. When the speed gets faster, I feel full of adrenaline.”
"Henry, you will soon become an expert in video games." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
The magic cube mainly tests the brain. When a cube comes down, the player needs to consider where to place it to ensure the greatest subsequent benefits (scores). Even the greedy snake has a similar nature, and the control in each direction affects Depends on the fate behind.
But "Space Invaders" is a completely different gameplay. It doesn't require any brains, just do it directly.
"Of course, this is my career." Henry Morgan said with a chuckle. If he came to Hong Kong two years ago and planned to be a dealer of Snake arcade machines to make a fortune, now he is ready to make it. A business, after all, Midea's arcade has shown a trend of long-term development. A long-term stable product, its distribution channel is naturally a stable business.
"Okay, let's discuss the follow-up plan." Chen Zhiwen nodded, and then motioned to take Henry Morgan back to the rest area.
"The distribution channel is basically very mature. We can still follow the previous method, first ship a few hundred units to some bars in the United States to test the water, and then based on the feedback, I will place an order here and you will produce it. How about ?Eric," said Henry Morgan.
"Yes, but we have to renegotiate the price." Chen Zhiwen said calmly. Arcade machines are not cars. They are actually faced by bar owners, shopping malls or a few commercial places. After two years of development by Henry Morgan, they have basically stabilized. There may be new customers occasionally, but the scale is not large. It may be too large. In this case, the importance of distribution has actually been greatly reduced.
"Then how much does this arcade machine cost?" Henry Morgan asked with some distress. Although he has already established a channel, the product is still Midea and he has absolute control. Even if this channel is gone, with the current reputation of Midea arcade in this small area, he can easily build another one because there are many bars. The owner will take the initiative to contact Midea, but he cannot forcefully separate customers and suppliers. Every arcade machine has contact information.
Even if you have a contract in hand, there is a time limit on the contract, and it will be gone when it expires. Besides, the liquidated damages in the contract are not very large, and Midea can fully afford it.
He also knew that the reason why Chen Zhiwen did not breach the contract was because in many other aspects, he could give the other party a certain amount of help, or would be helpful in the future, but this was not enough for Midea to share a large amount of profits with him. The days when he could earn four to five hundred US dollars from arcade machines have long passed. On the Magic Cube arcade machine, he can only earn more than two to three hundred US dollars, but even so, he can earn tens of millions of US dollars in total. .
"The price is still the same as before, US$3,500 per unit. On the terminal side, when the initial demand is tight, we will increase the price and wait until Hong Kong's production capacity can supply it and then restore it when the demand decreases, or give an appropriate discount. But the price I give you, Maybe we need to increase it a little bit," Chen Zhiwen said with a chuckle.
"How much?" Henry Morgan asked with a frown.
"It's 2,800 US dollars." Chen Zhiwen said: "The price of the increase is still 73% for us, 70% for me and 30% for you."
"Eric, there is no problem with the 73% share of the increased price, but the price difference is only 700 US dollars. I also need to include transportation costs, profits distributed to dealers, and 3% tariff. I'm afraid this is not enough?" Henry Morgan said with a frown. .
The share of the previous price increase was also 73, which is not a big problem. Midea is very strong in this area, and this area is not a big one. With the current production capacity in Hong Kong, it can keep up in one or two months. After supply exceeds demand, Naturally, it is impossible to increase the price.
But the distribution spread has been falling, which makes him feel very uncomfortable. Snake is 1,000 US dollars, Magic Cube is 850 US dollars, and now it has dropped to 700 US dollars.
"Henry, your dealer team can be said to be the most relaxed dealer team in the world, right?" Chen Zhiwen said lightly.
"This" Henry Morgan was a little speechless, and Chen Zhiwen was right. Except for looking for potential customers in the first year, their team just made money from there because there were only so many customers and the products were popular. There are also very few new customers, and most of them come to us on their own initiative.
"If you are too relaxed, you won't make much money." Chen Zhiwen continued: "Although I'm lowering the price, you can do the same, right?"
"Yes." Henry Morgan nodded. The entire dealer team was indeed too relaxed. In theory, he could indeed lower the price. When the Magic Cube was reduced in price before, he actually lowered it a little, but not a lot. This Once, Chen Zhiwen pressed him too hard, so he had to press him even harder.
As for rejecting Chen Zhiwen, I really don't have the confidence. The agreement signed by both parties was negotiable. If I have strong channels in the opposite direction, I will definitely lower the price even more forcefully.
But how can we achieve strong channels? They can't do it by relying on them. As long as there are many companies' games in the market, and they are all very popular, when all the bars are selected, then they, the channel dealers, have a lot of say. But now, it is purely a dream, the market None of the previous ones could beat it. Even Atari, the founder of arcade machines, was crushed by Snake and Magic Cube and released several games, but it didn't even hit the mark.
However, Henry Morgan still likes the current situation. Midea's arcades have no rivals, and they can easily make money. Even if it is a little less, it is much better than under multi-party competition. After all, they cannot monopolize the sales channels of all game companies.
Of course, there is another possibility, that is, Henry Morgan has great power in the United States and can control the game console market and prevent disobedient brands from entering. But this is just a dream. Even if the Morgan family uses a lot of resources, they may be able to achieve this, but for what? Just for a game distribution market? With this ability, there are so many ways to make money, so why bother with it.
"Or, Henry, you can cut off some of the second-level dealers. For this simple business model, one-level dealers are enough." Chen Zhiwen continued. When looking for customers in the early days, it did require a lot of manpower and material resources, but now? , there is no need, but Chen Zhiwen is too lazy to do this kind of thing. When he tightens prices, Henry Morgan will naturally take action, just like the mainland's automobile industry in later generations.
Even Europe, Japan or other countries and regions need to suppress dealers' profits. Now that Midea is strong and monopolizes the arcade market, it naturally needs to suppress these dealers.
That's how business is. If Midea's arcade machines don't sell well, this group of people will take a bite out of it.
"I need to think about it." Henry Morgan shook his head helplessly, but he was not worried. Obviously this was not a psychological burden.
"The Hong Kong factory has produced 1,000 Space Invaders. You can arrange to send them to the United States for testing." Chen Zhiwen said.
"Okay, I will arrange for an American Airlines cargo plane to come to Hong Kong to pick up the goods." Henry Morgan nodded and said. This was already a normal process and he was familiar with it.
"Okay, the factory here in Hong Kong has moved to a new location. If you are interested, you can go and have a look." Chen Zhiwen said again.
"I'll arrange for my men to go there. I don't know anything about technology or production." Henry Morgan shook his head and said.
"It's up to you." Chen Zhiwen paused and said, "Henry, I have something to entrust you with."
"What's the matter? Just say it?" Henry Morgan said cheerfully. Although the price was lowered, he could also beat others, and comprehensive calculations would not result in too much loss. Now Midea's products are strong and monopolize the entire market. As a distributor, It is normal for businesses to be underpriced, and this is the case in any industry.
And if you want to maintain a stable relationship, or don't lower the price so harshly next time, you have to show your own value. This value cannot be reflected in arcade machines that are not worried about selling at all, and can only be reflected in other areas.
"I hope to introduce a most advanced wafer production line from the United States for chip production." Chen Zhiwen said.
"The most advanced?" Henry Morgan frowned and said, "Eric, are you planning to produce arcade chips yourself in Hong Kong? Isn't the risk too great?"
"Of course not. My home appliance industry is developing quite well in the US market. As far as I know, many Japanese home appliance giants are preparing to use integrated circuit technology in home appliances. I also need to develop in this direction, so I am preparing Build a wafer fab in Hong Kong and produce it yourself first," said Chen Zhiwen.
The chips of the arcade machines are all made by Intel's most advanced process. Chen Zhiwen would not dare to replace this chip casually. Now when arcade machines are so popular on the market, even the cost of the chips is far behind. Arcade profit.
But household appliances, especially refrigerators and air conditioners, involve temperature control. In the past, these household appliances were controlled by various relays. Everyone is the same and there is no problem. However, recently, several major Japanese appliance giants have begun to prepare to try Integrated circuits, although the design cost of integrated circuits is high, once they are produced on a large scale, the cost will plummet, and the weight of home appliances can also be reduced, killing two birds with one stone.
In Midea's laboratory, the inverter air conditioner that has been investing in research and development actually uses integrated circuits. Samples have been made, but there are still some problems.
Other home appliances produced in the American industrial park still use traditional control methods. In the past, these products could be exported to the United States. In addition to Chen Zhiwen's terminal layout, the most important thing is that the labor cost is much lower than that of Japanese home appliances. Once Japanese home appliances are equipped with integrated circuits, Then Midea's advantage is gone.
Reducing costs is the lifeline of all companies, even cars. Fortunately, the Japanese home appliance giant has just started. It is estimated that it will have to wait until the early 1980s to launch the market.
"Home appliance industry? This kind of chip does not require the highest process production line, right?" Henry Morgan asked.
"It's not necessary, but the chip industry is upgrading too fast. According to Moore's Law, it basically doubles in one and a half years. If I buy the latest production line now, it will probably fall behind when it is put into production. If I buy the old one again, then It’s too far behind.” Chen Zhiwen replied.
"Hong Kong is now a British colony. In theory, there is no problem in purchasing the most advanced production lines such as wafers, but you also know that the reality will definitely be different. So, let me ask some friends to see the recent policies. Henry Morgan said after thinking for a while.
"Okay, thank you very much." Chen Zhiwen said.
(End of chapter)
