Central: Prince Building.

Since taking over Hongkong Land at the beginning of the year, Xu Zhi has found that many of Hongkong Land's properties are located in prime locations, but they have not been able to withstand the Great Recession of the entire market, and one of the major clients of Prince Tower has relocated the entire company to Australia, leaving behind six floors of office buildings, all with well-equipped office facilities.

In a short period of time, it was difficult to rent out this high-quality office building in the current economic environment, and considering that Midea's corporate headquarters in Hung Hom would not be completed so quickly, Midea's senior management moved all over and made the best use of resources.

The disadvantage of the headquarters of several major companies not being together is that Xu Zhi often needs to run on both sides, and this problem can only be solved after the completion of the headquarters complex in Hung Hom.

"It's a nice environment here. Xu Zhi walked to the new headquarters of Midea Company, and the entire Victoria Harbour came into view, and the surrounding buildings were a symbol of modernity, and the pedestrians downstairs hurried by, showing the prosperity of the entire city.

"Of course, the location of Central is very good, but the following reaction is that it is too crowded, and the parking problem is more troublesome. He Guoyuan said helplessly.

Xu Zhidao: "After all, this is Central, how can everyone be able to park, and when our headquarters in Hung Hom is completed, these will no longer be a problem." ”

Most of the buildings in Central were built in the 60s, some even earlier, when the price of goods was the same as in the mainland in the 80s and 90s, the house was not worth a few dollars, but the car was very expensive, such as a Santana in the late 80s could be exchanged for 5 houses in Puxi, and in the 60s in Xiangjiang, the proportion may not be so large, but the situation is similar.

The design of the office building at that time, although it also took into account the parking problem, but also referred to the number of cars at that time, the design of the underground parking lot has not met the requirements now, although the Hong Kong government and major property companies have tried to expand the number of parking spaces, but still can not meet the requirements.

The headquarters in Hung Hom was designed with parking in mind from the very beginning, with 3-4 floors of parking under each building to ensure that the staff above can easily park.

In addition, Hutchison Group's Whampoa Plaza project has also taken this issue into account, not only building a three-storey parking lot under its own square, but also reserving a piece of land behind the square, if there are not enough parking spaces in the future, a parking building will be built here for parking, which can easily accommodate thousands of parking spaces.

Although parking spaces can be charged, but in fact, the rate of return may not be as good as the general office building, but the convenience of parking can stimulate the surrounding business, the future competition in the commercial area, whether the convenient parking is a very important factor, as long as the parking is convenient, even if Hung Hom can not fight Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, but it can also become a new commercial center, and eventually the whole group will get a higher return.

After returning to the office from the window, Xu Zhi sat down on the sofa and asked, "How is the company's game business lately?"

He Guoyuan cut the tea, handed it to Xu Zhi, and sat down, and replied: "Chairman, your prediction is completely correct, now the sales of arcade machines in the entire market have begun to shrink, even if it is a classic game, it is difficult to attract obsessed players." ”

Xu Zhi nodded and said: "Normal, now is the era of the big explosion of electronic technology, in the past, arcade machines were popular because of the limitations of semiconductor technology, but in recent years, the development of semiconductors has developed at a rapid pace with Moore's Law, which doubled in 18 months, and the running speed of home game consoles, handheld game consoles and personal computers is much stronger."

In the future, the focus of Midea's games is still home games and computer games, and arcade machines should be studied in a different direction, and some games that cannot be played on computers and home game consoles should be specially developed. ”

In the past, Midea's game department, every time a game was developed, it started with the arcade, and in about half a year, after making enough profits in the arcade market, it opened up a certain reputation at the same time, and then according to the actual situation, the game's cassette and computer game software were released.

However, in the last year or two, the arcade market has been far less profitable than in previous years, and the competition is fierce, so Midea's game department began to change its strategy, and some games directly distribute cartridges, intending to make all the profits in the shortest possible time.

"What do you mean by a fighting game like The King of Fighters?" asked Wang Liming.

"Almost, some atmospheric games can still be played in the arcade. Xu Zhi nodded and said, "The King of Fighters" is a fighting game released by Midea last year, which is very popular in the market, and the results on the cassette can be ranked in the top five within the company, but the arcade machine is even more popular, many people even if they have the cartridge of the King of Fighters at home, they still ask friends to go to the arcade hall, because at home, there is no such exciting feeling at all.

He Guoyuan nodded and said, "I will notify the game design department to develop hot-blooded games to meet the arcade market." ”

"If you want to make quick money, you can expand on the basis of The King of Fighters, make a King of Fighters 2, reset the abilities of all characters, and then you can also make 3, 4, 5 and the like. Xu Zhi smiled and said,At present, the turn of the game industry has been very clear,Video games and computer games began to rise,Arcade market began to decline,Until more than ten years later,CPU running speed has reached a certain level,Some arcade games with strong special effects will be re-active,But compared to the scale of computer and TV games at the same time,Not at the same level at all。

Of course, the arcade market will not disappear, such as students who don't have game consoles at home, and ordinary people who occasionally come to play games, but in general, the focus of Midea's game department will shift to computers and TVs.

After taking a sip of tea, Xu Zhi continued: "You should know about the "Pokémon" of Changxing Comics, right?"

"I've heard of it? It seems to be very famous in Japan. "After all, He Guoyuan is not young, so it is naturally impossible to be interested in this kind of children's comics, but he has heard of it.

Xu Zhi continued: ""Pokémon" is the name of Xiangjiang, in Japan, the name of this comic is "Pokemon", because the sales in Japan are very good, Changxing branch in Japan has begun to produce the first cartoon of this comic, but whether it is the cartoon or the comic itself, it is not enough to develop this idea to the extreme, so I need to develop a game of this type at the same time." ”

"The game of Pokémon. He Guoyuan couldn't answer because he hadn't read the comic.

Xu Zhi smiled: "This matter is not in a hurry, you and your team will study the entire comic first, and then discuss how to design this game in a month, and I will ask Changxing to send a full set of comic materials." ”

"Okay, no problem. He Guoyuan agreed.

"It's not urgent, but it's important, so I need the most capable game designers in the entire Midea company to get involved. Xu Zhi said quite seriously.

Before online games, there were a lot of popular single-player games, and if you look at game sales, Mario is definitely the leader, with countless different versions on various platforms, with a total sales of more than 250 million copies.

But if you look at the total revenue created by the brand, Pokemon (Pokémon) is the most valuable brand in the history of game entrepreneurship, from comics to cartoons to games, the three have joined forces to maximize the value of hundreds of different IP characters, and at its peak, a Pikachu could earn $1 billion a year from toys and image licensing.

Not to mention that in later generations, the cartoons of "Pokemon" have been continuously filmed since the 90s, and they are different every year, becoming one of the longest-lived cartoons in the world, and they will make movies every few years, reaping a wave of box office, with huge fame, as long as they are not too poorly filmed, the box office income is very considerable.

Seeing that Xu Zhi was so cautious, He Guoyuan also paid attention to it and assured: "Chairman rest assured, I will immediately organize a new team to be responsible for this matter." ”

"Okay, you do it, I don't worry. Xu Zhi smiled: "There is one more thing you have to track, in my plan, the game Pokemon requires a very high definition screen, so the TN-LCD currently used on the Gameboy does not meet the requirements at all, you need to pay attention to the LCD research and development of Zhang Zhongmou." ”

"Chairman, are you talking about STN-LCD technology?" asked He Guoyuan.

Xu Zhi nodded and said: "Yes, I know that there are several companies in Japan that are working on this technology like us, this technology is a revolutionary change for handheld game consoles, we can't lag behind in this area, I know that Zhang Zhongmou's laboratory has made samples, but I need them to solve the problem of mass production as soon as possible." ”

The LCD project is one of the most important research projects of Midea, with huge profits in games, desperately throwing money at the LCD department, hiring experts in this area around the world with high salaries, and even Japanese counterparts have been poached by many people.

In the middle of this year, the STN-LCD liquid crystal display has made a major breakthrough and has been successfully built in the laboratory, but there is still a certain distance from industrial mass production, and several key problems need to be solved.

Zhang Zhongmou has been building a new LCD factory in Tin Shui Wai, and his original words are that he would rather wait for the factory to wait for the research and development results than wait for the results to be rebuilt again. He Guoyuan said.

"That's good. Xu Zhi also agrees with this approach, LCD factories and chip factories are high-tech industries, not just build a workshop to open, the internal needs of extremely complex environmental treatment and air particle filtration, the factory is built first, although the money is spent early, but it can be produced one step earlier.

He Guoyuan then asked: "Chairman, this "Pokemon" is going to be put on the Gameboy?"

Xu Zhi nodded and said, "Yes, my initial idea was like this, but if our game team can develop a classic TV version or a PC version of the game, it will naturally be better!"

"But if you put it on Gameboy, isn't it just a stand-alone game?" asked He Guoyuan, who asked with some puzzlement, the game market changes every year, but one thing remains the same, that is, player interaction has become an important issue that must be considered by any new game.

Such as the most traditional tank battles, Mario, Contra, etc., although they can be played alone, but players are more likely to use the two-player mode, and the more people, the more fun, which is extremely important in the market of home consoles.

The characteristics of the handheld game console Gameboy determine that it can only play some single-player games, and the Gameboy has sold well over the years, but there are no classic games.

"Pokemon is indeed a Gameboy, but this game is by no means a single-player game. Xu Zhidao: "If you can use a short-range wireless signal propagation technology, when two Gameboys are within a few meters, you can link the two game consoles through a switch, what do you think of this idea?"

He Guoyuan said: "The chairman is talking about infrared communication technology?"

"There are also a lot of inconveniences in infrared communication, and if you want to use it, your team had better think of a solution, or you can try to develop new short-range wireless propagation technology. Xu Zhi paused and said.

Infrared communication technology, as the name suggests, is the use of infrared to transmit data, since its invention in 1974, because it does not need to use physical connection, easy to use and low cost, it is widely used in small mobile devices to exchange data and control electrical equipment, such as air conditioners, TV remote controls.

However, due to the direct radiation characteristics of infrared, when using the equipment, it is necessary to align the transmitter and receiver of the two, and if there are too many obstacles, it will also affect the transmission of information.

Therefore, it will be very troublesome to use infrared ray technology on the Gameboy, the user experience is extremely poor, and the most classic Bluetooth technology in later generations really meets the requirements.

"New communication technology!" He Guoyuan frowned and said, "Our company is not involved in this business at present. ”

"If you don't involve it now, you just need to involve it in the future. Xu Zhi turned around and took out a big brother from his briefcase and said: "In the future, electronic technology is the world of this thing, and it is still necessary to control a certain degree of communication patents." ”

"Mobile phone?" He Guoyuan nodded and said, "Chairman, are we going to prepare to enter the field of mobile phones?"

"Yes, no matter how much money a "Pokemon" makes, it is just that it can make money, and if you want Midea to become the world's top company, you can't get on the table by relying on games, so you can say that the profits of personal computers and home appliances may not be as good as games, but the influence is much stronger. Xu Zhi said with a smile: "The current market for communication tools is very small, and the big brother has three or four thousand dollars for this kind of product in Europe and the United States, which is difficult to popularize, and equipment such as signal towers can only cover large cities, but its prospects, most companies are very optimistic." ”

"According to Moore's Law, CPUs double every 18 months, and the price of electronic products is getting lower and lower, as long as it reaches a threshold, it is only a matter of time before mobile phones can be common in Europe, America and even Asian countries, and this market is indeed very promising. He Guoyuan said: "However, in the area of communication technology, many European and American companies have been developed for decades, and there are already a large number of patent barriers, not to mention that we want to catch up with them, that is, we want to enter the industry for research, and the authorization of some basic patents must also be approved by them." ”

"Don't worry, I have a secret weapon!" Xu Zhi laughed.