I have to say that Schulhoff's efficiency is very high, because the things he brought not only include detailed gun version of the spy information, but also some materials and accessories used in the mass production of the SG-1000 game console.

Obviously, these things were made in advance by stuffing benefits to some people in Sega America.

It is impossible to get the whole machine, and the other party is very strict.

However, the management of "over-consumption of waste materials" is a loophole for any electronics company, which is almost an open industry secret. Peers will find a way to replace scrap parts from another company's production defective products to spy on the other party's technology research and development progress.

Strictly speaking, this is, of course, commercial espionage, but everybody does it.

Gu Biao also knew that Tiankun's foundry would also be spied on, so he could only take care of Han Ting's strengthening management of waste materials, but he didn't dare to say that he could eliminate 100%.

Who made the market react too quickly in this industry, bringing together the most vicious people of our time?

Industry insiders rarely mention, and talk about Gu Biao's reverse analysis.

He looked at the video of the finished product, then picked up a few parts and looked at them, and immediately realized the biggest problem with the Sega competition.

"Well, it's a gamepad, it's not an improvement over the Atari 2600, and it's even closer to a traditional arcade machine. ”

Gu Biao picked up a plastic piece with a gray shell and a black short stick on it, and shook it.

Schulhoff nodded in confirmation: "Yes, this is Sega's console controller, with only one main confirmation/fire button, plus this joystick." ”

Gu Biao sneered contemptuously: "The design is too rough, I know why Sega developed it so quickly - they directly copied and used a lot of technology accumulation when making arcade machines, so it can be said that they just made the arcade as small as possible."

However, do you think this kind of joystick is comfortable to use? It is not as heavy and stable as an arcade machine, and it cannot be shaken on a table, and if it is placed on a table, it will tip over if you rub it a little harder.

It's not small enough to hold it in one hand and shake it gently with just one thumb. You'll need two hands, holding the one-pound controller in your right hand and your right thumb controlling the shooting buttons. Rub the stick with your left hand – and the harder you rub with your left hand, the more pressure is transmitted to your right hand.

What kind of sick tendon did Sega make such a catastrophic anti-human design? Don't they have ergonomics in their heads? How long can you play with a pound handle with one hand and the other hand pressing against it?"

Schulhoff did not despise this design as much as Gu Biao, and after listening to the boss's complaints, he thought about it and explained while demonstrating:

"Maybe, if I'm a consumer, I can play like this? Put this controller on the table, and just hold it with your right hand to prevent your left hand from sliding when you push too hard, so it's like rubbing the stick in an arcade machine. ”

Gu Biao looked at the other party's posture, how to look at it and feel awkward.

"Are you cool playing games like this?" he asked.

Schulhoff said pertinently: "It's not too comfortable, it's going to be irritating for half an hour at most, and this position has to make sure that the table top for the console is just the right height, about five inches lower than the desk, to be barely comfortable."

If the table is too low or too high, sooner or later you will develop frozen shoulder or a herniated shoulder disc in the cervical/lumbar spine. According to our American habits, if you put the game console on the TV cabinet in the living room, or on the low coffee table in front of the sofa, then you can't sit on the sofa to play, you must sit on the ground. Or, as you just demonstrated, put up with the weight and hold the controller in your hand before you can sit on the couch and play. ”

Gu Biao was very satisfied with this analysis,

It seems that before Schulhoff came, he also did his own homework and analyzed the pros and cons of competing products in advance.

Sega's Japanese and American corporate structure model has indeed won them the fastest response speed to enter the U.S. home console market after the end of Atari, surpassing any of its peers.

However, the advantages of business models and corporate structures can only accelerate business responses, but cannot accelerate the accumulation of R&D.

As a company that only had experience in arcade research and development and had no ideological preparation and technical reserves to enter the home machine, Sega had to come up with this blunt work of "rough and shrinking arcade" from the project in February and shipping in June.

It's no wonder that in history, FC was launched three or four months earlier than Nintendo's FC, but in the end, it was beaten all over the ground by FC and became a failure.

However, failure is failure, Gu Biao believes that before the emergence of FC in history, Sega's SG-1000 is estimated to have sold some - after all, Sega is just too disgusting in ergonomic design, but the performance indicators of CPU and machine memory are really upgraded by an era compared to the Atari 2600 6 years ago.

It is not difficult to understand that in later generations, those who know a little bit about the consumption characteristics of the electronics industry are not difficult to understand: compared with Yankong Straight Female Cancer, which only looks at the appearance of buying things, there is another kind of extreme straight male cancer on the opposite side, which is "buying things only by looking at performance parameters and running scores".

The "ergonomic design disaster" is difficult to quantify and describe, and it must accumulate a certain number of fools, and the social reputation will be rotten, and it will fail completely.

If Sega only relies on performance parameters to lure these electronic enthusiast consumers who "think they know how to do it and can find cost-effective goods", then these people will definitely not buy Tiankun's home machine again for a year or two, even if they feel that Sega's SG-1000 is really uncomfortable to play, and they don't want to admit that they are a fat sheep. What's more, it is more likely that their budget has been emptied by Sega, and they have no money to buy Tiankun's game consoles.

After all, admitting that you were deceived is very frustrating for a person's IQ, and only a person with great wisdom can throw away his burden and admit his mistakes.

"We can't let Sega fend for itself, we must take the initiative to publicize the performance disadvantages and design disasters of the SG-1000 as soon as possible. Gu Biao immediately ordered.

"What are you going to do? Wait for the official launch date, buy some professional review e-magazines, and then publish third-party consumer experience reviews?" Schulhoff offers an idea.

Gu Biao nodded: "Well, at the right time, you are right, it was arranged on the first day of sale." Be sure to pretend to be a 'hardcore enthusiast among normal consumers', inadvertently evaluate for the first time, and then 'naturally turn black', and never show the slightest clue that we are hacking each other. The media budget is not important, just spend it. ”

Schulhoff smiled understandingly: "Understood, I know how to do it." ”

Gu Biao: "Also, we must suppress dealers and agents at all levels." I know that many dealers and agents are not exclusive, and we and Sony do not have the strength to sign so many exclusive exclusive distributors.

Therefore, in the initial distribution stage, there will definitely be many electronic stores that are both sellers for us and Sega at the same time. Therefore, as you said before, the advertisements in various electronic stores must be in place, and the implementation of exclusive advertising contracts must be strictly checked.

I want to see that in at least the first month of Sega's listing, the Sega brand will not appear on the exterior walls and light box advertisements of major electronic stores in the United States, and it must be monopolized by our Tiankun family. A month later, the major dealers naturally have a scale in their hearts, and they know who is the most promising, and then they will decisively give up the idea of stepping on two boats and offending us.

Because, no matter how much we hype Sega's poor design, potential consumers will not see it immediately. The blocking of the first batch of potential consumers, especially at the time when 'all consumers don't know the reputation of all brands', the attitude of dealers around the world and the purchase decisions of consumers are very crucial. ”

Dealers want to pit consumers, and this kind of thing is getting more and more difficult with the advancement of time.

Because the consumer's information channels are placed there, the longer the product is on the market, the more knowledgeable the consumer is, and the dealer will not be able to deceive it, at most it can only deceive Xiaobai.

But when the two products were just launched, consumers' eyes were blackened, and the guidance of dealers was crucial at this time.

Schulhoff promptly increased the budget for public relations and promotion, and strictly carried out Gu Biao's instructions.

……

A week later.

Sega's SG-1000 game console was officially launched in a hurry.

The CPU and other book indicators of this game console are not much worse than the home machines of Tiankun Entertainment, and the price is slightly lower than that of Tiankun's machines. When it first went public, the pricing was stuck below the $120 line.

In contrast, Nintendo's upcoming FC seems to be known for its "cheap and low-spec". When it first came on sale, it was less than $100.

In terms of screen display quality, Sega's SG-1000 is also on par with the Tiankun's home machine.

It can be said that in the arcade era, Sega's backwardness was mainly reflected in the lack of explosive game software, not in the hardware that did not do well. After entering the era of home consoles, everyone can change the cartridge and allow third-party games to join, so the gap and role of game software have narrowed.

As long as you play your hardware hand well enough, give confidence to the software vendors, and encourage the software vendors to develop games in the SG-1000 format, there is still a lot to be done.

In terms of software, Sega did not develop any exclusive games for the release of the SG-1000, but instead ported all the games that had been sold on arcades in the previous two years and moved them to home consoles.

This does, although it does seem to be insincere, but it is also a helpless move caused by a rush of time - Sega only has four or five months from project approval to shipment, and it is not easy to produce game consoles.

In a word, this is a war between a "comprehensive experience machine" and a "cost-effective running extension". Although Gu Biao doesn't want to hack Xiaomi, he also has to admit that today's Sega, by analogy, is taking the cost-effective route of Xiaomi in later generations.

The price is slightly lower than that of Tiankun, the paper performance indicators that do not lose, and all the disadvantages are difficult to summarize intuitively, and it is easy to find after being calculated.