Hong Kong Island, Prince's Tower:

The sales of the new game Tank Battle and Pac-Man in the UK have also increased dramatically, and Bao Fuda and others have also made a lot of profits from it, and in return, Hongkong Land leased the 19th to 25th floors of the Prince Tower to Midea Electronics Company and Changxing Culture Company at a preferential price.

The day after returning from Huofu, Midea Electronics Company held a summary meeting.

Games have a lifespan, even if they are classic, classic games just say that people will play occasionally after a long time, but when it comes to fascination, it is no longer possible.

This is especially true for arcades, which cost a sum of money every time they play, and every time a coin is thrown, it will slowly pull players back to reality, not to mention that the arcade itself also has certain market restrictions, and when there is no shortage of such arcades in various game halls, the market will naturally shrink sharply.

The orders of Xiangjiang Cube and Snake have only been 2-3% of the peak last year, and there is a downward trend.

Xu Zhi looked at the report in his hand and said, "It's been red for more than a year, and the lifespan is almost the same!"

Xiangjiang Cube and Snake have been sold for more than a year, and the company is conservatively estimated to bring more than $50 million in profits, and the current orders in the US market are basically disappearing.

But the responsibility of the arcade is over, and the Gameboy is down again, with the Xiangjiang Cube, and the Snake handheld is extremely popular as soon as it is listed. The handheld computer takes the route of small profits and quick turnover, and the net profit of a Gameboy is almost a dollar, but it is better than a large amount, and there are millions of dollars of net profit every month.

The remaining two arcade games, Tank Wars and Pac-Man, also began to slowly decline after a sales boom around Christmas last year, and according to the company's internal estimates, orders for these two games will also fall to the bottom by the end of this year.

The development of new games is already imperative!

Xu Zhi asked, "How happened to Mario and Contra?"

He Guoyuan said: "We have set up two branches in Silicon Valley and Japan, hired some professional software technical personnel, the algorithm of the reel is almost complete, and the program of the two games has been completed, and it will be able to enter the internal testing state immediately." ”

"Good. Xu Zhi smiled happily.

Nintendo's most talented Yokoi Junhei has been poached by his own high salary, and at the same time, in 78-79, the arcade of the United States company played Nintendo's arcade machine again, and now he is ready to copy the most classic game of later generations: Super Mario!

In later generations, Mario was a super popular character at the pinnacle of the gaming industry, with dozens of games playing the leading role, and the cumulative total sales of games exceeded 310 million copies, and by 2015, a total of $33 billion in commercial profits for Nintendo!

If there are no accidents, Nintendo should have no chance to rise in this life, and there is one less strong competitor, which is very good news for Midea.

Another game, Contra, was a product of the American company Kole, and in the mid-to-late 80s, its popularity was as famous as Mario, and even in the mainland, it was even more well-known.

The special thing about these two games is that they are both side-scrolling games, compared to the previous tank battles, Pac-Man, etc., which were active on the same map, Contra and Mario are with the movement of the characters, and the whole map slowly unfolds, like a rolled up map, this design leads to a great increase in the playability of the game, but for development, the difficulty is also greatly increased.

As early as the beginning of the year, the company set up branches in Silicon Valley and Japan at the same time, constantly poaching people from Nintendo and Atari, and also absorbing many top graduates from famous universities for fresh blood training.

With the cooperation of many talents from the United States and Japan, various technical problems of the scrolling game have been overcome one by one, and finally the two games are about to take shape.

Xu Zhi asked again: "Then when will the sample be released?"

He Guoyuan said: "The game programming has been successful, but the content in it still needs to be filled, and how to arrange the technical department of each level will have to study for a period of time, and it is estimated that it will not be available until June." ”

Mario and Contra's game framework comes out, it doesn't mean that it will be successful soon, the logic control of the game, the difficulty control needs to be determined after many research and development, in order to study the psychology of players, Midea Company hired two psychology professors from Harvard University in the United States to study this topic part-time.

The two professors led their free students, constantly playing various games, summarizing their own or others' thoughts, and finally spent a lot of dollars, but also got a lot of rewards, and made a lot of progress in terms of game difficulty, time, and music.

For example, the skill of difficulty arrangement, if it is too difficult at the beginning, it is easy for the player to lose interest, only the beginning is simple and interesting, so that the player is addicted to the game, and then the subsequent levels slowly set traps and enemies, and when a difficulty is over, the player must be relaxed for a while, and the game must enter a relaxed state.

If you encounter a character who dies, it is also important where to resurrect, and if the resurrection reaches the starting point, the player's first ten minutes or more of the game will be nullified, which will definitely annoy the player.

In fact, Xu Zhi also knows these things, after all, he has played a lot before, but how to control these rhythms and how much time each period is, it has to be confirmed by professionals.

Xu Zhi nodded and said, "Okay, when the program is confirmed, the motherboard will be produced in our own factory." ”

The production line imported from the United States has arrived in Xiangjiang and has been installed, and after several test productions, the factory in Xiangjiang has begun to work on Pac-Man and Gameboy motherboards, but the production capacity is still insufficient, and because of management and technical reasons, the cost is even higher than that of imported motherboards.

However, Xu Zhi is already very satisfied with such results, with his own motherboard factory, the development of new games is relatively simple, and the factory can also train technical personnel, for the future larger-scale factories to do a good job of technical reserves, as for the current high cost, that is also a normal phenomenon, and when the employees are familiar with it, the technology is in place, and the cost will naturally decrease.

After the meeting, Xu Zhi talked with He Guoyuan alone for a while, and after the game came out, Xu Zhi's main mind might shift to another thing, but no matter what, Midea's company is the cash cow for all development, and he has to pay attention to it.

Since the beginning of the company's wolf culture, although the technicians have been complaining about the hardships, the previous comfortable life has been completely lost, and they will live under the tense pressure of unemployment at any time every year in the future, but their arms can't twist their thighs, and everything must be in the interests of the company first, that is, profits.

The entire game development department of Midea has also undergone a lot of changes, with new talents being recruited, and some employees leaving or even being abandoned by the company, which is the basic principle that the company does not raise waste.

In the development department, some capable employees will be specially arranged by the company to maintain or develop the game proposed by Xu Zhi, this department has no game share, but there is no pressure to win, and the bonus after the success of the game is very considerable.

The rest of the people are organized into 10 teams, each team is responsible for developing their own games, and after the successful development is reviewed by the company, they will also enter Midea's arcade sales channel, and the whole team will also share the profit share.

At present, there have been 3 teams that have successfully developed their own games, Xu Zhi has also played it once, and the playability is not very high, but compared to the messy games on the market in this era, it should be okay.

After Xu Zhi's consent, three games quickly entered the market, one of which was the "Road Killer" game, which sold more than 700 units in a month.

According to Midea's internal regulations, the share of a game arcade is 10 US dollars, and the development team of this game received a share of 35,000 Hong Kong dollars in the first month, with an average of 7,000 Hong Kong dollars per person, this huge bonus shocked everyone in the company, this is not just a month's income, nor a bonus, but a long-term return, as long as the game can be sold, then you can get a financial return, although the life of the arcade machine is limited, many may only be a few months.

However, there will be more resources within the company for teams that have already had successful development experience, and more resources will indicate more possible new games, so the whole game development department will become more enthusiastic!

Xu Zhi is also very satisfied with this change, even though he has infinite golden fingers, but a company must learn to make its own blood, so that it can become more successful in the future!