Rebirth of Hong Kong 1981

   Chapter 819 Atari Countdown Begins

   With the conclusion of the meeting, Hang Seng Bank also released the news of the establishment of the Yang family consortium. As one of its own, Asia Satellite TV can be said to be close to the water.

Once the    exclusive news was reported, the whole Xiangjiang burst into flames, no less than a typhoon of magnitude 18.

   Before, everyone's impression of Yang Chen was limited to being talented and wealthy. As for the strength of Yang Chen, everyone was not very clear.

Of course, since Yang Chen's game company was listed in the United States, with the market value of Orange Technology now exceeding 30 billion US dollars, according to Yang Chen's 70% stake in Orange Technology, his worth has doubled to 100 billion. .

   Calculated in terms of 100 billion worth, Yang Chen has successfully surpassed the former richest man in the Chinese charter boat king, and his worth is several times that of the other party.

   Therefore, many media will put the title of Asia's richest man on Yang Chen's head.

   In just over two years, he has created such a large family business, which has to be amazed by Xiangjiang.

   However, having said that, although Yang Chen's game company has a high market value, the game game has little influence on ordinary people in this era.

  Everyone will leave the game, and there will be no shortage.

   Therefore, although Yang Chen's game company is very popular, the people at the bottom of Xiangjiang did not put him in the same position as the older generation of tycoons.

   Big guy's first impression of Yang Chen is that he is a genius who can make money.

   With the change of ownership of Landmark, Zheng Haiquan and others successively seized Hong Kong Electric Lighting and Hong Kong Telephone, plus Carrefour supermarkets and convenience stores, Kowloon buses, ATV TV stations that can be seen everywhere on the street...

   The big guy suddenly realized that the genius in everyone's mind has now grown into a super crocodile, whose every move can directly affect their daily life.

The establishment of    Yang's Holding Group shocked not only the people at the bottom of Heungkong, but also a group of British and Chinese bosses in Heungkong. Compared with ordinary people, the feelings of these people are more intuitive.

  Because they see and think more than ordinary people.

The rise of    Yang's consortium has made everyone feel a huge pressure, especially the Chinese capital.

  As the issue of Xiangjiang's return has entered the final stage, the British-funded consortium has begun to accelerate its withdrawal, and in the process, the cake left by the British-funded has also entered the final distribution stage.

  Yang Chen established Yang's Holding Group at this time, and it sent a signal that everyone was uncertain.

But everyone knows one thing, that is, with the establishment of Yang's holding group, Yang Chen's last shortcoming has completely disappeared. Once the other party joins the ranks of the cakes, then with the financial resources they show, I am afraid that the realm of Xiangjiang will be No one can compete with it.

   Under various concerns, many Chinese bigwigs began to act.

  It was different from the fierce reaction outside. After Yang Chen finished the meeting, he went home calmly. Next, he was going to fly to the United States immediately. With the arrival of Christmas, the countdown to the collapse of Atari in the United States has entered.

In June, ET, the most popular movie in the United States in 1982, was released. The movie achieved unprecedented success. Under this trend of aliens, the American movie giant Warner, which is the parent company of Atari, Spent a huge sum of money to buy the game copyright of ET Alien.

   After that, Warner took just six weeks to produce the game version of ET Alien. The previous life was unanimously rated as the most famous IP bad work in history by American gamers, and it was already on sale at Christmas.

   As for why Atari waited until Christmas to sell ET alien games, in addition to the need to reserve game cartridges, the most important thing is that Christmas is a festival for Western young people and children.

  The most important holiday of the year for foreigners is Christmas. On this day, any request made by children will be satisfied by parents in Europe and America as long as it is reasonable.

  Due to the popularity of ET aliens, American gamers have high expectations for them, and there is no trial of games in this era.

Before    and many later games are released, some players will be selected to experience the gameplay in advance.

   First, for better improvement, make the play more perfect.

  Second, in case the game is not recognized by the players, the loss can be stopped in time.

   As the saying goes, the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.

As a game hardware manufacturer, Atari recommends a bunch of junk games to players for temporary interests. If there is no ET alien event, if Atari does not choose to list the ET alien game on Christmas day, Perhaps with the popularity of the US game market, anything can be supported for two more years.

  Unfortunately, Atari gave everyone expectations, but the final result was a big disappointment.

   The old saying is good, but one thing can't be repeated again and again.

From 1981 to 1982, in less than two years, the US game market burst into nearly 10,000 games, and a large number of homogenized junk games have already made American players feel bad about Atari, which monopolized the home console terminal market. Confidence hit a tipping point.

   As early as two days ago, Yang Chen had received news from the United States that Atari sold nearly 2 million copies of ET alien game cassettes at once on Christmas Day.

This sales volume can be said to be quite impressive, the game has just been launched, and with 30 to 40 million households in the United States, at least one-third of them have Atari home computer computing, the initial sales of ET alien game cartridges can be used Hot to describe it is not an exaggeration.

  The home console is different from the handheld game console. It cannot be played anytime and anywhere like the handheld game console. As long as there is a battery, it can be played. Due to the limitation of activities, the home console market is destined to be unable to compare with the handheld game console.

  Although the price of home game consoles is more expensive than that of handheld game consoles, the loyalty of home console players is relatively high.

   Due to the hardware limitations of handheld game consoles, the game content is relatively simple, and the simpler the game, the higher its playability.

   is like Tetris, a few simple squares, pieced together, it has been popular from the 1980s to the 21st century, everyone is still playing, and no matter how you play it, you will never get tired of playing.

  In this way, tell me, who should sell the subsequent game cartridges to? There is no way to sell them. This is why Yang Chen must enter the home and arcade market.

  The sales of handheld consoles are mainly driven by the improvement of game console hardware. In this era, the network is underdeveloped. If the hardware of game consoles cannot be improved, and richer game content cannot be presented, players will not buy it.

  Especially adults, these people play games, they just want to have fun, and have nothing to do with leisure and entertainment. Since playing with cubes is not boring, why try other simple and boring games.

  The arcade and console games are richer, and the stickiness of players is relatively high. Once a new game appears, players will actively try it.

  The limitations of handheld game consoles must be compensated for from home consoles and arcades. Only in this way can the high market value of game companies be maintained.

   "Aqiong, someone will call you later. You pushed me and said that I'm going abroad soon, and I don't have time for now. I'll talk about it when I come back from abroad."

   On the way back, Yang Chen made four or five phone calls, all of whom wanted to invite him to the reception.

  What purpose these people have, Yang Chen is very clear in his heart, he just wants to understand his next plan from his mouth.

   For those who have already made up their minds and are ready to come to the bottom of the game, Yang Chen will naturally not reveal his bottom line early.

  Because of the identity of some people, it is not easy for him to refuse in person, so he can only delay for a while. It just so happens that he is really planning to go to the United States this time, so he has nothing to worry about.

   "By the way, Yufei, how many sets of Super Mario Bros. cassettes have you produced?"

   Xue Yufei responded while packing her clothes, "According to your request, a total of 30 million copies have been prepared."

   "What about Contra?"

   "Contra has prepared 10 million copies, and Xiangjiang Cube and Tank Battle have prepared 20 million and 10 million copies respectively."

"It should be almost enough." Yang Chen nodded after listening, and then opened his mouth to remind: "The development of subsequent games will be stepped up. Although we can't follow Atari's blind pursuit of quantity for home consoles, if there are too few games, then it will be fine. no."

  Xue Yufei: "Don't worry, I will tell them."

  Although in Xue Yufei's opinion, Yang Chen made another big gamble this time, but with the success of the previous GB handheld game console, she could only choose to trust her man.

   After all, the game company is now Yang Chen's largest cash cow, and she doesn't need to remind her of its importance, Yang Chen knows it better than anyone else.

   "By the way, Ah Chen, I heard news that Nintendo's Donkey Kong JR is also going to be launched in the United States soon."

  Yang Chen said with a nonchalant smile: "It's fine, now our main rival is Atari. If Nintendo's Donkey Kong can achieve good sales again, it will also be good for me."

   This time his killer is Super Mario Bros. This game is the most popular of many Nintendo games in the previous life.

   For copying Nintendo's games, Yang Chen has no pressure in his heart. You must know that Master Shigeru Miyamoto, but now he has not even touched the clues of Super Mario Bros.

   Since it is something that has not yet been born, why should he be under pressure, not to mention that the other party is an islander.

  Since Nintendo launched the arcade game Donkey Kong in the United States in 1981 and achieved unexpected success, in order to enter the North American game market, Nintendo has stepped up the development of Donkey Kong sequel Donkey Kong JR.

  Donkey Kong JR is also an arcade version, and the console version of Super Mario Bros will not officially debut until 1985.

  Since Nintendo's Super Mario Bros doesn't even have a shadow, he has no reason to put good resources away and waste them in vain.

   And the reason why Yang Chen dared to take advantage of the fact that Atari was about to collapse this time, his main confidence also came from Super Mario Bros.

   In the previous life, Nintendo launched Super Mario Bros., the first truly super-sized game in the history of the game, which sold an astronomical number of nearly 40 million copies in the console market.

   You must know that Super Mario Bros. mainly promotes the home console market. Based on the number of the first edition Super Mario Bros. cassettes sold by Nintendo, the consoles also sold tens of millions of copies.

In the previous life, Nintendo launched Super Mario Bros. at a time when the U.S. game market was experiencing unprecedented catastrophe. The collapse of Atari made countless American experts who consider themselves professional to assert that the U.S. console game market would not recover within 20 years. .

   But this crisis has only been in the doldrums for two years. After Nintendo launched Super Mario Bros. in 1985, the North American game market recovered again.

   Today, the North American game market is in the midst of a frenzy and a recession. It can be seen from the ET Alien launched by Atari that has been snapped up by a large number of gamers. It can be seen that American gamers are still very enthusiastic about the game at this time.

  Atari collapsed, and the biggest impact was not the game companies under Yang Chen, but the American game companies that made a lot of junk games.

   And once Atari falls, it will be a good thing for Yang Chen. The only opponent has fallen, and there are no obstacles. Yang Chen's entry into the US home phone market is a matter of course.

   "By the way, Yu Fei, you remember to remind the game development department to let them develop the sequel to Super Mario Bros. as soon as possible."

   "Don't wait any longer?" Xue Yufei frowned.

The production of   Super Mario Bros. is different from the previous research and development of Xiangjiang Cube, Snake, etc. The production cost is higher than the latter.

   Although she believed in Yang Chen's judgment, she was still somewhat conservative before the results came out.

   Of course, there is another reason, that is, Yang Chen edited too many sequels to Super Mario.

   Seeing Xue Yufei frowning, Yang Chen smiled bitterly and compromised: "Then just wait, but you let Xiao Wu and the others make my edited sequel as perfect as possible, and the details must be clearly grasped."

   The good times of Yang Chen's generation were incomprehensible to Xue Yufei's generation.

   Don't look at the inland government banning games at that time, but as the saying goes, there are policies above and countermeasures below.

   For all kinds of popular games in the island country, Yang Chen and his generation have experienced all kinds of copycat piracy.

   The sequel to Super Mario Bros. Although he has not played all of them and remembered them all, he still remembers the approximate levels.

   Then later generations of online games became popular all over the world, and designing game levels was not a problem for Yang Chen's generation at all. Even if the detailed plot could not be written, it was still alright to make an outline.

  With the outline, a group of professional people will help him fill in the gaps. Even if there is a way out for the two Super Mario Bros. sequels before and after, it will not cause much impact.

   In the game of Super Mario in the previous life, Nintendo sold hundreds of millions of copies with a number of follow-up works, not including those uncountable copycats.

   It can be seen how attractive the game Super Mario Bros is, and what a huge market for home consoles.

   As long as he can enter the US home console market in one fell swoop this time, he will also work hard in the arcade market. By then, Orange Technology will span the three major game console markets, and there will be no problem with doubling the market value.

   At that time, he can arbitrage and leave.

  The game console market, after all, has its limits. When the computer gradually matures and online games appear, the entire game market will face a major reshuffle again.

   Instead of foolishly guarding the game console and being scolded by countless parents, it would be better to invest money in the Internet market earlier. Thinking of the future prospects of the Internet market, Yang Chen couldn't help laughing evilly.

  ——

   (end of this chapter)