"Photoshop? Modify photos?" After hearing this, Lei Shengli guessed the general meaning from the literal meaning.
"Photo editing is also one of the functions. Although the resolution of digital cameras is very poor, in theory it can definitely replace film. This is also a big market, but my other purpose is to facilitate many people who specialize in painting. People come to make drawings conveniently. This market is not as good as Word or Excel, but it is still in high demand in many majors, such as the painting and advertising industries." Chen Zhiwen said.
Digital cameras were invented by Kodak in the mid-1970s, but they were laboratory products with extremely poor resolution. However, from the perspective of technological updates and iterations, digital cameras have a promising future. Therefore, many Japanese electronics companies They all began to study this direction. Kodak was also very smart and knew the future of this thing. However, it was limited by the huge profits of its own film and the entire industry chain, so it decided to hide it. Instead, Chen Zhiwen poached the entire team to Midea a few years ago. In a research laboratory in the United States.
In the 1980s, several Japanese companies and Midea also launched their own digital cameras. However, they were still new, more expensive, and not as sharp as film, but they were much better than a few years ago, and they are still in the process of being developed. During the iterative stage, Chen Zhiwen still provided a large amount of financial support to ensure that it could maintain a certain degree of first-mover status in this market.
But this market will not take off until the 1990s, so there is no need to pay too much attention.
However, another function of photoshop is that it can be used to design pictures, advertising graphics, etc. Although the market volume is not as large as that of Word and the like, it can increase profits at a high price. As long as it ensures that the customers who use this software are better than using people. Just make it more cost-effective to paint.
Originally, he had never thought about grabbing Adobe's business, and the same would apply to direct investment in the future. But now that Disney will produce a large number of animated movies or TV series a few years earlier than in the past, it is worthwhile for Midea to invest manpower and material resources in Photoshop.
"There are indeed some simple painting software on the market, but they cannot meet the requirements of advertising design or comic painting. If we design this software, the first thing we need to know is what the needs of these people are." Lei Shengli said , technical problems can always be solved, but if you don’t know the requirements, you can only be blind.
"That's no problem. I will ask Disney to send some painters over. Midea's technical staff will communicate with them and let them put forward their needs from a professional perspective. Then the technical staff will design according to the needs." Chen Zhiwen nodded.
For this kind of professional technical software, he can't do anything at all. The only thing he can do is to guide the direction and provide funds. As Midea has reached its current scale, it does not require much direct participation from him.
The future benefits of Photoshop may not be as good as the three-piece set of Word, but if done well, the profit of several hundred million or more a year can be regarded as a small cash cow.
"That's okay. I'm going to set up a special project team right away to plan and do this." Lei Shengli agreed.
"Well, we at Midea really need to develop into other fields during this period. We can't just rely on games. The biggest advantage of software is that after it is developed, as long as it is easy to use, we can quickly occupy the market, and then rely on patents To protect and cultivate user habits, other companies will not have a chance no matter how good their subsequent products are." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
Human habits are hard to change. Once you are used to using something, it is difficult to change without huge benefits. Whether it is Photoshop or Word three-piece suite, etc., it is the same. Once you occupy the market, as long as you don't seek death, or there are no new reforms in the market, or new players launch similar software that is free or at an unusually low price, it will basically be stable as a mountain.
This is different from changing games. Popular games are very profitable, but they are basically eliminated in a few years. Of course, even Word needs to be constantly updated according to user needs, that is, to collect customers. complaints, optimize the cost of using the software, and make continuous improvements to satisfy customers.
"Then this is indeed a good product. Fortunately, you have acquired Disney, so we can cooperate and develop it together." Lei Shengli said with a smile.
"Then let's make arrangements first, and then show me some results later," Chen Zhiwen said.
The time required to develop this kind of professional software with complex functions is far longer than that of games or Word. The time is definitely measured in years, and the cost of long-term research is also very high. However, this is also necessary for development. A large electronics company A company cannot rely solely on creativity. If a large number of technologies are developed over a long period of time, there will always be higher returns.
"Okay." Lei Shengli nodded and said, "Chen Sheng, the Mario game project, the project department has developed the first version. Do you want to take a look?"
"Has it been developed? Of course I want to take a look. Let's go." Chen Zhiwen stood up directly.
Mario can be said to be a turning point in the history of human video games. Since then, the complexity of various types of games has been far greater than before. The emergence of horizontal axis games has given designers from other companies greater development space, and Mario In itself, it will also be a super best-selling game.
I even wanted to use Disney's team to build a small theme park, so I could introduce Mario, because when Mario became popular, its fame may be second only to century-old brands like Mickey Mouse, plus Disney The cartoon characters and some other Midea games that will be launched in the future will have no problem becoming the flagship brand of the theme park.
Of course, although they are both their own companies, they still need to be separated financially. If Disney wants to use Mario or other game characters, it also needs to pay licensing fees. This can be considered to maximize the benefits of Midea's various game characters. After all, , if someone else comes to buy the licensing fee, you won’t make much money, but the theme park belongs to you, so it all goes into your own wallet.
Midea's R&D department is in Yuen Long, and Chen Zhiwen and Lei Shengli can only go there by car. There is no way around it. Even if Midea's building is built in the future, it can only house the headquarters, and various R&D and production can only be placed there. In Yuen Long, but today is a special situation. I can definitely send things over in advance in the future, but it will be a bit inconvenient to say the least.
Of course, there is another possibility, that is, as Hong Kong's economy shifts from reality to demand, Midea's departments will either move overseas or go to the mainland. This may be even more inconvenient, but no one can reverse the market trend!
More than half an hour later, Chen Zhiwen and others arrived at Midea's R&D laboratory. Several Mario arcade machines were ready, and several employees were already playing games.
When Chen Zhiwen came here, he didn't ask any questions, but kept looking at the screens where he was playing games.
In previous meetings, Chen Zhiwen also repeatedly described the game framework, function settings, background maps, etc. in his mind, and the current game is similar to what he requires.
The beginning is the blue sky interface. There are some wall tiles above the sky, and there are some benefits. You can get the benefits by jumping up and above your head. Either the person becomes bigger and has one more life, or he can become bullet-proof. It is convenient to destroy the enemies in front.
As the characters move forward, they will also encounter some pipelines. These pipelines either contain monsters with scissor hands, or are passages to other background worlds.
After entering the new world, there is naturally an underground interface. Although the background is different, the gameplay is the same as before, but there are not as many wall tiles above. In addition to the most basic welfare tiles, there are also some welfare hidden in countless bricks. Yes, this requires players to search slowly, especially in some settings. If this hidden brick is not found, then there may be no way to win the level when encountering bosses and the like.
Finding these types of bricks is also a major joy in Mario games, which is not found in other games.
There are also some backgrounds in the water, and the gameplay is similar, but the background settings are different.
Focused background mode adds a lot of fun to the game because of the infinite possibilities of horizontal axis games.
Although it seems a little different from the previous life in Chen Zhiwen's memory, the gameplay settings are the same. No one can make the same thing.
"How many levels have we developed so far?" Chen Zhiwen asked after looking at it for a while.
"There are almost 360 kinds in total, but not all of them are placed in arcades. As you know, because of the characteristics of arcades, we need to find a balance so that players can find a balance between fun and cost, so the game settings on arcades are still A lot of testing needs to continue, but if it is placed on the Famicom, it will not be needed," Lei Shengli said.
"That's right. If we want to capture the profits from the arcade machines first, we can only abide by the market rules of the arcade machines." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
Arcade machines have a large space and may have lower chip requirements than Famicom machines, but they have high requirements for gameplay, which requires a lot of testing.
Although the market for Famicom is much larger than that for arcade machines, there is no need to give up the arcade market in vain. After all, after the arcade games are over, the popularity is also established. When the Famicom is launched, sales may be better.
This may also be the glory of arcade machines in the last few years. When most people have home game consoles in their homes, the number of arcade machine customers will drop off a cliff. However, due to the decline in chip costs, the cost of arcade machines will also decrease. So specialized arcade machines will Game arcades can appear, which is another business model with great potential.
"Actually, many of the people we poached from Atari played a very important role in the development of Mario." Lei Shengli added.
(End of chapter)
