Reborn Tokyo Golden Age

Since the launch of the FES blue and white game machine in 1983, Shirakawa Electric has also carried out a series of upgrades to this 8-bit machine and the development of peripheral products in recent years.

The supporting hardware such as handles, keyboards, and light guns are already very complete, and some auxiliary software support has not been left behind.

But to say that the biggest generation of real upgrades is the 16-bit blue and white machine SES launched last year.

Compared with the 8-bit machine of the previous generation, both the processor and the memory of the 16-bit machine have been greatly improved.

Now that the performance has improved, game development will naturally have to keep up.

The "Legend of Zelda" series of games that HAL had developed for two years also began to land on the 16-bit machine SES.

This brand new Japanese-style RPG game has a huge story background, the characters have growth potential, and it supports game progress to be saved when the power is off.

So once it was launched, it quickly became popular in the neon game industry.

Even the super high game price of 9580 yen can't stop people's enthusiasm.

It's the bubble era, who cares about pocket money of less than 10,000 yen.

The game is rich in content and excellent in quality. So millions of copies were easily sold, and the game publisher HAL made a lot of money.

Of course, because it supports power-off save, the game cartridge comes with a button battery.

Its main function is to supply power to the storage circuit on the cartridge, and the cost of the game cartridge will be a little higher.

However, the price of 9,580 yen is still drizzle compared to the cost of about 1,000 yen.

Stimulated by the tens of billions of yen earned by HAL, Square has been cooperating with Shirakawa Electric and has also launched the "Final Fantasy" series of games.

In addition, Horii Yuji, who has established his own studio, also developed the first game of "Dragon Quest" at the same time.

Without exception, they all land on the 8-bit machine FES or the 16-bit machine SES. With the support of these three RPG games, Shirakawa Electric's game consoles dominate.

As the other two giants in the field of game consoles, Nintendo barely maintained a market with less than four floors. As for Sega, it almost disappeared in Neon.

On the contrary, in Beimi, Sega, relying on its rich arcade IP, is inseparable from Nintendo in the market.

The joint efforts of the two have also eaten up almost half of the market, which can be regarded as the east is not bright and the west is bright.

However, whether it is in Neon's domestic market or in overseas markets, Shirakawa Electric is a well-deserved giant.

Even in the field of handhelds, this advantage has continued to be extended.

Relying on the excellent performance in the field of game console hardware and software, the profit of the game console division of Shirakawa Electric and the audio-visual division have gradually narrowed the gap.

As for HAL, with its own game development and distribution of games for other manufacturers.

In last year's financial report, it alone contributed nearly $1.2 billion in profits to Shirakawa Holdings.

Of course, due to the continuous depreciation of the US dollar, the gold content of this figure may not be as high as before, but it is not easy.

According to this trend, HAL may not be able to compete with Shirakawa Electric in terms of future profitability.

It is precisely because of seeing this that Bai Chuanfeng has the idea of ​​slowly transforming.

However, the transformation does not mean giving up the previous business, but the follow-up investment in research and development may focus more on the other party.

Technologies such as walkmans and CD players have reached a bottleneck for the time being, and there will be no major changes in a short time.

Therefore, in order not to waste manpower, the focus of research and development can be leaned on entertainment games and communication technology.

At least in the foreseeable future of Bai Chuanfeng, both of them are promising, and the technology is also in the blowout stage of rapid progress.

Also in terms of export, both Laomi and other Western countries seem to be indifferent to products such as game consoles.

Regardless of whether it is Shirakawa Electric or Nintendo, the export share of the game console business in overseas markets has not decreased too much.

First, it may be related to their lack of competitors in Beimi, and secondly, it may be related to the attitude of the Beimi government.

The U.S. Department of Commerce pays close attention to imported goods such as automobiles, home appliances, and semiconductors. As for entertainment electronic products, game consoles, it does not pay much attention.

This may be related to the fact that the game console is only for spiritual enjoyment, but it will not bring impact to the local industry.

That's just right, Shirakawa Electric can work more on game consoles in the future.

"Atari is no longer a concern in the home console market. Two and a half of the three competing game console manufacturers are from Neon."

Here at HAL, Bai Chuanfeng and the others are sitting together, analyzing the global game console market.

"The shock caused by the Atari shock is greater than expected. Now consumers there would rather trust our Neon company than Atari."

Mentioning this, Iwata Satoru couldn't help laughing. As for Yamashita Daiji and Akagi, they simply bared their big white teeth in glee.

"The great good deeds that Atari did a few years ago have benefited us a lot~"

"Haha, please do this kind of good thing a few more times."

Several people were laughing and joking, and the office was filled with a happy atmosphere for a while.

"Okay, let's get down to business." Bai Chuanfeng waved his hand to stop their plan to go wrong.

"Although the local game console vendors in Beimi are vulnerable, Neon's opponents should not be underestimated.

Especially Sega, its performance in Beimi is better than that of Neon. "

Sega SG-1000 was released on the same day as Shirakawa Electric's FES and Nintendo's FC, but Sega performed the worst of the three.

Over the past few years, Nihong has sold more than 300,000 units, and it has been dumped by Shirakawa Electric and Nintendo.

However, it unexpectedly sold more than 2 million units in the Beimi market, which may have something to do with the huge user base of Sega's arcade machines in Beimi.

With this part of users, Sega is now making efforts on game consoles, preparing to launch the fourth-generation home game console MD this year.

Like Baichuan Electric's SES, it is a 16-bit machine, and even the chip uses the 80281 of SIC.

That's right, Sega MD purchased SIC's 16-bit chip as the core processor of the game console.

The reason is still because it is cheap. Similar chips from Motorola and Intel cost at least 21,000 yen each.

This cost is too high, and the price of game consoles in the current era generally does not exceed 20,000 yen.

A chip costs more than 20,000 yuan, and the price of the whole machine will be even more exaggerated.

Although it is a fourth-generation game console, it is normal to increase the price a little bit, but it is a bit too exaggerated to double it.

So in order to find a suitable and low-cost 16-bit chip, Sega CEO Hayao Nakayama visited Shirakawa Kaede directly.

Hayao Nakayama has only one purpose, and that is whether the 80281 of SIC can be reduced to less than 5,000 yen.

Facing Zhongshan Hayao's dragon-slaying knife, Bai Chuanfeng had only one condition.

That is, as long as the number of chips purchased by Sega is higher than 300,000, SIC will agree to such a price.

In the end, Hayao Nakayama gritted his teeth and directly placed an order for 300,000 pieces to SIC, and Shirakawa Feng did not break his promise, and SIC finally supplied Sega at a price of 4,980 yen per piece.

In this way, Sega's fourth-generation game consoles and Shirakawa Electric's fourth-generation game consoles both use a 16-bit SIC80281 chip.

Sega purchases SIC chips because they are cheap, and this chip has been proven by the SES platform, which can be said to be a great success.

In addition, the hardware of the game console is only a supporting role, and the factor that really affects the sales of the game console is the game itself.

Therefore, Sega finally chose SIC's chip.

The main reason why Bai Chuanfeng agreed to supply to competitors was to help SIC expand the market as much as possible.

The more platforms are used, the broader the potential market prospect of SIC in the future.

After all, the past two years have been difficult for SIC, and more customers are urgently needed.

Besides, HAL also has confidence in its own game console, and its internal consistency will not be easily surpassed by Sega MD.

Now Shirakawa Electric is the first to release its own 16-bit machine on the market, and Sega MD is about to be born.

Although there is no news from Nintendo yet, Bai Chuanfeng does not believe that it will remain indifferent.

In addition, according to the information that Bai Chuanfeng has learned, NEC, Casio, and even Bandai are all preparing to enter the game console market.

There is a high probability that a game console war in the future will be unavoidable.

It can be said that the game console market has begun to slowly involve.

However, at this time, Bai Chuanfeng set his sights on the fifth-generation game console, that is, the 3D game generation console.

"Although our 16-bit game console has been a great success, it does not mean that we will dominate the market in the future like we do today.

NEC, Bandai, SNK, and even our old friend Namco wanted a piece of the action.

It is foreseeable that the game console market will become more and more lively in the next few years. "

When Bai Chuanfeng said this, everyone's expressions became a little serious.

They have heard about this, who made HAL and Shirakawa Electric make too much money in the game console business in the past few years.

They all make electronic products, so it's normal for everyone to be jealous.

"So in order to maintain a leading position in the game console market, we must always be ahead, so that we don't have to worry about being surpassed by others.

The next fifth-generation game console is the key to our breakthrough, and the fifth-generation game console is internally code-named Game Station.

This time our game console no longer uses cassettes, but instead uses CD-ROM discs. "

"Do you use a CD?" Iwata asked thoughtfully.

"That's right." Bai Chuanfeng nodded affirmatively, "It's time for the players to see what a real game is!"

"Eh?" Everyone was surprised by Bai Chuanfeng's bold words.

"The 700MB space of a CD-ROM is definitely not comparable to the content of hundreds of KB or tens of MB on a cassette.

So we have to give full play to this advantage. The 3D images that only existed in the concept stage before can now be taken out. "

Bai Chuanfeng's words made everyone's blood boil instantly, 3D graphics, the current players haven't really seen what a 3D game looks like, right?

"HAL will set up a special 3D computing group here, and SIC will also develop corresponding graphics chips.

Goal, launch our 5th generation consoles before 91! "

"Hay!"

After several years of development, CD-ROM is now a very mature technology.

At this time, if you don't apply your housekeeping skills to the game console, it will be a waste of your talent.

Shirakawa Electric is quietly making plans for the future industrial layout, and other physical manufacturing companies here in Neon are also using their own means to survive the crisis of another skyrocketing yen.

Taking a loan from the bank for emergency relief is just the lowest level of practice.

Xiaotian, who had a big brain hole, tried every means to reduce production costs, and summarized three tactics for this.