"President Morita, although your company is not interested in the game console business, you should have at least heard that Nintendo entered the U.S. market for the first time in the second half of this year, and has achieved certain shipment results.

And their product is a gaming electronic watch, GAME-ATCH. There are currently two game styles, I don't know if you've played them. ”

Gu Biao threw out the first bait he had persuaded Akio Morita to join.

Although, it sounds very "generous".

Domestic officials, even if it is "Ren Dolphin", most of them don't know much about GAME-atch, mainly because this thing is too old, and it is also a portable game console, and the influence of later generations is of course far less than that of the later GAME-BOY handheld.

In a word, it is an electronic watch game console (that is, the kind of screen used for calculators and ordinary electronic watches) displayed on an LCD LCD screen, which was developed by Nintendo in April 1980 and sold well. Because of the butterfly effect, the entire game console industry lagged behind a little, but now that Nintendo has made efforts, catching up is not a problem, and finally got the GAME-ATCH at the end of the third quarter.

This is not that Gu Biao has the ability to cut off his beard, and he doesn't want to cut it off. FIRSTLY, GU BIAO DID NOT KNOW ABOUT GAME-ATCH IN HIS PREVIOUS LIFE, AND SECONDLY, AS MENTIONED ABOVE, GU BIAO'S CURRENT TECHNICAL ACCUMULATION AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT ARE ONLY WORTHY OF DOING "ARCADE" BUSINESS FOR "OPERATORS" (GAME HALL OWNERS), AND CANNOT RASHLY DO BUSINESS DIRECTLY FOR END CONSUMERS.

Because operators and consumers have completely different tolerances for quality accidents, rashly contacting direct consumers before the maturity of Zhilian's control can only end up smashing their own quality reputation and signboards.

Just like the historical Huawei, if it wasn't for the network equipment first, and then the mobile phone, then maybe Huawei would have died in the first place.

And the advantage of Nintendo's GAME-ATCH using LCD LCD screen is that the technology of this thing is very mature, and the screen is not self-luminous, so it saves power-

After all, there was that kind of hand-pressed calculator in the 60s, and anyone who has used a calculator knows that a calculator can last a long time on a battery, the reason is that the screen does not need to emit light, and only needs to "turn black" when it is displayed. At the same time, as long as the lights are turned off in the room, the calculator is invisible, just like the Kindle readers of Amazon in later generations.

However, after the use of this early type of non-luminous LCD, a major drawback is that the display content of the screen is fixed. For example, as we all know, the screen of the calculator is actually only a seven-segment tube in the shape of an "8", and it is impossible for you to display other patterns.

The design of GAME-ATCH is also destined to only pre-install one game before leaving the factory, and then the display of all game content is only achieved by the "whether it is black" in certain sections of the screen.

THIS LATER GAMEBOY AND OTHER PIXEL SCREENS,IT'S A VERY BIG DISADVANTAGE,DOOMED TO THE EMERGENCE OF PORTABLE PIXEL SCREENS,ELECTRONIC WATCH GAMEATCH WAS IMMEDIATELY ELIMINATED。

HISTORICALLY, NINTENDO HAS HELD THE GAMEATCH SERIES UNTIL THE END OF THE 80S, BUT IN FACT, THE MAINSTREAM GAMEATCH HAS BEEN PHASED OUT AFTER THE EMERGENCE OF TETRIS IN 1984.

The life of the second half of the journey is completely supported by the "electronic pet" variant of the gameplay, because players who have electronic pets will not find the content of the single screen display boring, but will have a sense of substitution for the "pet". If the image of a pet displayed on an electronic watch can be flickering cats and dogs, maybe the player's emotional belonging will be destroyed - this is another example of using emotions to counter technology and temporarily delay the wheel of history, which is not within the scope of Gu Biao's discussion today.

In a word, in January 1981, Nintendo's GAME-ATCH had been selling well in the market for four or five months, and had entered the U.S. market for two months, and had invested heavily in developing dozens of dealers and distributors who were willing to help Nintendo sell goods.

This channel resource, although far inferior to what Sony has been selling ALKMAN in the United States for 3 years, has also made Akio Morita a little coveted. If the two sides can strategically alliance and coordinate channels (especially under the leadership of Sony), Akio Morita will definitely be very happy.

……

"But, Gu Sang, what leverage do you have to convince President Yamauchi to join, or join a channel strategic alliance led by Sony?"

Gu Biao said so many beautiful words that were generous to others before, and finally it came down to the issue of chips.

In this regard, Gu Biao threw out a killer idea.

He had a lawyer's letter and an indictment.

"I don't know, is it because we Tiankun Entertainment was too low-key before, only making money, and never defending rights, so President Yamauchi is a little inflated.

In October, our company's "Earth Defender" and "MapleIsland", two epoch-making side-scrolling shooter/action game arcades, were sold well in the market, and have sold more than 10,000 units so far.

And Nintendo actually chose a quick close copycat, many of the design details in it have infringed on my company's patents, and I currently have judicial resources to blackmail the other party. ”

The new game ideas developed by Gu Biao before, such as "Tank Battle", to "Bomberman" and "Pac-Man", Nintendo and other companies did not choose to directly close the copycat, but analyzed Gu Biao's design concept, gameplay selling points, and algorithm ideas and started anew.

After all, I still respect intellectual property rights and do things at a glance. Knowing that the other party has patents and software copyrights, he is definitely unwilling to directly step on the pit and grant others a handle.

At the same time, the legal protection of software and electronics is limited to the fact that you cannot directly copy each other's code or circuit boards. As for you to use other structures and code to achieve similar functions, it doesn't matter. Countries around the world will not protect "algorithmic ideas".

However, starting from Gu Biao's "Adventure Island", because it is the first horizontal version of customs clearance, the entire map scroll scanning algorithm and picture refresh mechanism are all a low-level reconstruction, and even the CPU has been replaced with the 68000 of the Motorola series.

Therefore, Nintendo found itself developing from scratch, and it may take half a year to catch up. In order to speed up the progress and seize the market, in the past year, Tiankun Entertainment has behaved harmlessly to humans and animals, and is unlikely to use legal weapons to protect itself. Nintendo has crossed the line a little.

However, this is not a big deal, if Gu Biao really sues, the big deal is that the lawsuit drags on, and the sales will be stopped there, or a limited license fee will be given, and the settlement will be stried.

For large companies, it is normal for IP disputes to be litigated for several years. Even if a small company takes charge, if it can't afford the cost of litigation, it can't afford it.

Of course, Akio Morita also understood this truth, so he shook his head: "Gu Sang, you are still too young, you have overestimated the bargaining power of an intellectual property lawsuit, not to mention the doubtful sidekick." ”

Of course, it's not just this, it's just an introduction to force Yamauchi to sit down and talk about an out-of-court settlement. Gu Biao immediately Zhizhu added in his grip,

"My real bargaining chip is that I am willing to give up the 'operator channel' between my own self-built and arcade hall owners, and hand over several of my company's currently popular arcade machines to Nintendo, so as to further strengthen Nintendo's combat effectiveness in the face of 'operator customers'.

In exchange, Nintendo should let go of the development of end-consumer channel providers, and all of them will be led by your Sony company, and Sony will guarantee that the terminal consumer electronics products of Sony, Nintendo, and Tiankun Entertainment will all adopt the most preferential channel treatment of the first party. In other words, when selling Tiankun and Nintendo's goods, the promotion and exposure resources and channel shares you get are as preferential as Sony's own goods. ”

These words were very creative, and veterans like Akio Morita were stunned for a while before they understood.

After all, when everyone talked about business before, they all divided the distribution rights from the category of the product, and few people divided the distribution rights from the "customer type".

He humbly confirmed, "What do you mean...... Arcade hall owners, as well as other 'entertainment venue operators', are 'operating customers', while dealers who sell electronic products to ordinary consumers are 'channel customers'?

And what you are pursuing is to integrate the current customer resources of our three companies, and in the future, all 'operator customers' will be dominated by Nintendo, and all 'channel customers' will be dominated by Sony?

In this way, you don't want much, just act as a broker, promote a strategic alliance, and then make a little money at both ends. What you paid is a few popular authorizations to help the two of us attract some streams...... But aren't you afraid of being controlled in the future?"

Gu Biao smiled harmlessly: "I don't have the ability to build my own marketing network now, of course I have to hug the big tree." However, I wasn't completely unprepared to do this – I had a side requirement that the party that owns the 'channel customer' distribution network, i.e. your company, should not develop its own console business.

If one day, Sony starts to develop and prepare a first-party game console brand, or introduces other cooperative home/personal game console brands, we have the right to terminate the cooperation between Tiankun Entertainment and Nintendo, and the two companies will jointly sue Sony for breach of contract. ”

Gu Biao knew that as long as Akio Morita was willing to exchange channels and strategic alliances. After he pulled this ally, coupled with the pressure of settling the lawsuit with Nintendo, it was very certain to force Yamauchi to accept it.

Because historically, until the mid-to-late 80s, after Nintendo's FC game console became popular, Sony and Nintendo almost spontaneously formed this strategic alliance. At that time, Nintendo didn't see the trickery in the contract at first, if it hadn't been for the fact that Sony might have set up its own PS1 game console after hitchhiking, maybe the pattern of Ren Suo's family would have really formed.

It's just that in the end, Sony wants to support his son PS, and the protracted bloody war has continued.

However, in 1981, Gu Biao believed that Sony did not dare to move this idea, and even Nintendo did not dare to move.

They're going to see this market as a chicken rib.

"What is Gu Biao's idea? He worked so hard in exchange for Yamauchi's promise not to build my own personal game console sales channels, and I want me to promise not to build my own personal game console research and development'?

No matter how you look at it, he is betting on the technology and channels of the home game machine market, which are more valuable than the arcade machine and the walkman market, so I only hope that his own family has the most comprehensive interests among the three of us.

However, the home machine market is a pool of stagnant water, and the Atari family accounts for more than 80 percent of the market of all mankind, so what's the use of him blocking the two of us? Isn't this a sacrifice of the basics?"

Akio Morita had bad water in his head, but he still couldn't see what conspiracy Gu Wei had.

In his mind, Atari was like a Maradona who had shaken off the goalkeeper and faced an empty goal.

And Gu Biao actually ignored Maradona's shooting threat, and was still obsessed with staring at Maradona's rookie teammates and preventing Maradona's pass.

It's ridiculous!

Unfortunately, who in the world could have seen that this time, Maradona would miss an empty goal.