I'm sorry to keep you waiting.

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April passed in a blink of an eye, and all aspects of work were being carried out in an orderly manner, but the tentative name of the super network platform "Steam" was beaten back by Yang Xinxin, in her opinion, "Steam" and the VisualSystem Group and the future game business were too out of tune, and the two had no direct connection at all, and her subordinates had to reconsider the name of the platform. After a few back and forth, the name "GameLiveNetwork" was finally approved, but the domain name that was originally reserved was not used now, but fortunately, the group has a lot of domain names, so that there will not be a situation of buying domain names from others. As for a series of domain names, including Steam, it was not wasted, and it was transferred to Valve Company, a subsidiary of Le Xueshan, in Yang Xinxin's view, "valve" is quite suitable for "steam".

"GameLiveNetwork" is a future-oriented platform that will include game publishing, online battles, player interaction, Game content organization and update and online game operation as a whole, in Zhang Lexing's vision, when the network environment is suitable, will also launch an online store including games, just like Apple's future AppStore, so that the Internet becomes a major channel for game distribution, but it is not yet time, he can only discuss the idea in a small area.

"In the current network environment, it takes a little longer to download a game directly, but if you change it to music, maybe the situation is better, we can design a portable music player, using the MP3 format that is now popular, using a microhard disk or flash memory to store music files, and then design a special music synchronization software, just like the PalmIII synchronization software we use, but only for music files. Not only can you sync music files stored on your computer to a portable music player, but you can also listen to the latest music from our online music store, and you can also download the full version of the music ...... by paying," Zhang Lexing said to Yang Xinxin, Ballmer and others in the video, sitting in his office.

Yang Xinxin frowned and asked, "Your idea is still very creative, but will anyone be willing to spend money to download music?

Ballmer and the others also seemed to have questions about this, and they all nodded in their respective video windows, and then waited for Zhang Lexing's answer with expectant eyes.

"Actually, I'm not worried at all that no one wants to spend money to download music, because lazy people will always exist, so we just need to do two things without worrying, one is the number of music, we must have enough massive music, and we must constantly have new music launched, so that we can keep our music online store very attractive to users, and the other is the download fee, I plan to use a lower fee to open up this market, for example, North America can be set to 99 cents to download a song, and we only need to earn 1 cent of it。 As for the source of music, we can find a way to convince companies such as Sony, Warner, EMI and BMG Records, together with Universal Music Group, which is owned by Universal Entertainment Group, to solve the long-term supply problem of music......," Zhang explained.

"Mr. Zhang, but this doesn't seem to be of much interest to us, is it necessary for us to do this?" Ballmer asked puzzled.

"It's a long-term thing, and it doesn't necessarily mean that you will see any results in the short term. In my vision, there are two profit channels, one is the portable music player, we want to make it the most fashionable symbol on the planet through the best industrial design and publicity campaign, so that when people think of music players, our music players will first appear in their minds, plus the convenient operation of online music stores and synchronization software, to make money through the sale of music players, and the other online music store, if it can be successful, our portable music players will occupy a large market share in the world, then there will be many people who are willing to try to download music through the online music store, as long as they are willing to tryThe convenience and affordable price of online downloads will definitely attract many users, including some users who don't buy music CDs, and even some users who don't buy music CDs may start their experiments...... Zhang Lexing further explained.

"Sounds really good!" Yang Xinxin nodded, looking very satisfied.

Zhang Lexing decided to add to the fire, and continued: "Once the online music store has a firm foothold, it will mean a steady stream of long-term benefits in the future, although we may only earn 1 cent per song, but if we have tens of millions of users, then as long as each person pays to download ten songs per month, it will be tens of millions of dollars in revenue in a year, if the number of users is more, and the frequency of users buying music is higher, the income will only be more considerable." What's more, in the future, we can also expand the online store to apps, games, and other things, such as our ongoing home console project, we can open its private network, provide paid download games, and even the operating system in the future can follow a similar path. We provide a lightweight basic system, more functions from the application software store, users can choose free or paid software according to their own needs, as for the software or games in the application software store, we only need to provide a small number of official software, the rest is left to the global developers to complete, we only need to pay a proper commission from the download fee of those paid software......"

Yang Xinxin, Ballmer and others couldn't help but light up when they listened to it, and a new development path flashed in front of them, especially the part about the development of the operating system, which was simply tailored for the lightweight operating system under development (intended for mobile devices such as handheld computers), and the idea of the application software store was the finishing touch, positioning the VisualSystem Group from an aggressive overlord to an alliance leader that gathers talents from all over the world.

"However, the first thing we need to do now is to design the first portable music player, the capacity and cost of flash memory are not suitable for the time being, maybe we can give priority to microhard drives, but the research work in both aspects can be carried out simultaneously, and at the same time, we can find companies with relevant patents around the world, and if necessary, we can accelerate the research progress through other means such as acquisitions...... I've already written the relevant information in the email, so you can take a closer look at it later. Zhang Lexing said as he attached the materials he had prepared in advance to the back of the email, then filled in the email addresses of the participants, and sent a copy to each of them.

After completing the video connection with Yang Xinxin and others "Discussion on the Future Development of the Enterprise", Zhang Lexing glanced at the schedule on his PalmIII, and then it was the time of the video conference with Xu Yeming and other people in charge of the DreamBox128 host project, and there were still more than ten minutes before the agreed time, and he just got up to move the activity. Just as Zhang Le walked to the window and enjoyed the street view outside, several key meetings were being held in Japan, far away from him.

Kamitoba-hodate-cho, Minami-ku, Kyoto, Japan, meeting room at Nintendo headquarters......

Yamauchi looked at Genhiro Takeda, the head of the Comprehensive Development Headquarters who was sitting at the bottom of the building, and asked with a serious face, "Takeda-kun, how is the dolphin project going?"

Genhiro Takeda's General Development Division was originally Nintendo's Development Department 3, mainly responsible for the design of new hardware, and was originally known as Nintendo's "hardware trio" with Yokoi Junhei and Uemura Masayuki, and occasionally developed one or two less well-known games, which were largely unknown before the SFC (Super Nintendo) era, but were deeply trusted by Yamauchi. From the beginning of the research and development of the N64 game console,The department led by Genyo Takeda officially came to the stage,Although the market performance of the N64 game console is not too good,But it did not affect Yamauchi's attention to the comprehensive development headquarters at all,This time in order to regain the status of the boss of the game industry,The "Dolphin Project" was launched in order to regain the status of the boss of the game industry, and naturally fell into the hands of Genyo Takeda.

"President, we have been in contact with Panasonic at the beginning of last year, learned some experience from its 3DO-M2, and obtained the license of the DVD patent, and completed the prototype design of the first version at the end of last year. However, in March, Sony's PS2 and Aonotori Co., Ltd.'s DreamBox128 were announced successively, and compared to the performance parameters they announced, our Dolphin prototype specifications were a bit behind, so we started redesigning according to your instructions, president. You asked for 'performance completely surpassing PS2 and DreamBox 128 while keeping manufacturing costs as low as possible', and we assessed that it was achievable, but many parts needed to be replaced and tuned, and the launch of the Dolphin console needed to be delayed...... After being contacted by Arakawa's director, an agreement has been reached with IBM that our Dolphin host will use their 'Gekko' PowerPC chip, which is expected to surpass the strongest DreamBox 128...... The graphics processing system was developed by ArtX...... The storage media is DVD-ROM, and the corresponding media and drivers are developed and supplied by Panasonic............" Takeda replied with an expressionless face, he has always been a person who has always been unsmiling, and Yamauchi has long been accustomed to this.

"So, when will the Dolphin host meet the conditions for listing?" asked Yamauchi.

Takeda thought about it for a moment and replied, "According to our estimates, it should be possible around September next year." ”

"President, do you need to adjust the production plan and gradually switch the production line of the N64 game console to the Dolphin console?" asked Mitsuhiko Hosokawa, who is in charge of production management.

Yamauchi hesitated, he just looked at the internal financial report a few days ago, due to the success of "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time", the sales of N64 game consoles have re-entered the upward period, which is especially obvious in Japan, and even completely suppressed the new DreamCast console launched by Sega. During this time, as long as the Nintendo logo is affixed to the N64 game, there are almost no less than 500,000 copies sold, but if a new console is launched as soon as possible, then this prosperous scene may soon disappear, and according to the finance minister's estimate, the launch of a new console needs to occupy a lot of money, just the initial estimate will need hundreds of billions of yen, and every new console sold has to pay a small royalty to Panasonic, which is especially unpleasant to Yamauchi, who is used to receiving other people's royalties.

During this time, Yamauchi Pu has been hesitating, whether to promote the listing of the Dolphin host as soon as possible, "Maybe N64 can last a few more years, and then the Dolphin host can be a little stronger, just like SFC to MD back then......" Looking at the information in his hand, Yamauchi Pu couldn't help but think optimistically. On the one hand, it is real money that can be seen, and on the other hand, it is unpredictable risks, and the balance in Yamauchi's heart is slowly tilting towards the N64 game console in front of him, as for the dolphin console, let's take it slowly, anyway, there is no hurry now.

"In that case, then I'll leave the matter to Takeda-kun in the future, and I'll give you plenty of time to slowly perfect the dolphin host. After speaking, Yamauchi Pu turned to Hosokawa Mitsuhiko on the other side and ordered: "Hosokawa-kun, we can't relax the production of N64 game consoles at the moment, and I believe you have seen the current market reaction, so it's not time to adjust for the time being." ”

"Yes, President!" After receiving the clear instructions, Genhiro Takeda and Mitsuhiko Hosokawa nodded their heads and respectfully agreed.

At the same time, Tokyo, Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment Office Building......

Sitting in his president's office, Ken Kutaragi listened to Akihiro Aoyama report on the results of the "Dig the Foot of the Wall": "...... President, it's a pity that although there is a certain gain, the other party's actions are not slow, and the attitude of those game developers in this case is also very ambiguous, especially the powerful big game developers. We've signed exclusive game development agreements with more than 50 small and medium-sized game developers during this time, but the big game developers have always been flickering, and none of them are willing to develop exclusive games for us except Namco......"

After speaking, Aoyama Akihiro's face was full of shame. Kutaragi Ken waved his hand generously and said, "Aoyama-kun, I know you have worked hard, but it doesn't matter, this problem will be solved soon." ”

"Really, President, that's great!" Akihiro Aoyama said happily, "Well, I don't know what kind of solution is so good." ”

Kutaragi Ken lowered his voice and said a few words to Aoyama Akihiro, he immediately showed a surprised expression, and said in surprise: "Oh my God, they actually succeeded!"

"Aoyama-kun, this matter is very important, you must not leak it out!" Kutaragi Ken made a silent gesture and commanded.

"Yes, President. Akihiro Aoyama stood up and nodded, respectfully agreeing.

Soon after, Sega was housed in its corporate headquarters building, also in Tokyo......

President Shoichiro Iriko was sitting in his office, looking at the E3 exhibition plan reported by his subordinates: "...... The main points are mainly in two aspects, one is to highlight the performance of the DreamCast console, focusing on the comparison with the PS console and the Pentium II266, and the other is to attract North American consumers through game aces, such as "NBA2000" and "NFL2000" in the development of Sonic and Sega Sports In addition, we will organize third-party game developers to join the DreamCast console platform as much as possible, which is currently underway, and has already identified games such as "Dolphin Adventure" and "Soul Power", as well as well-known game development companies such as Midway, Acclaim, Namco, Accolade, etc......"

Looking at the detailed preparation plan, especially considering the mistakes made when the SS game console landed in North America, and the corresponding countermeasures, Shoichiro Iriko nodded with satisfaction, and signed his name on it.

The time is getting closer and closer to May 13th......

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