On March 13, 2000, the NASDAQ index, which represents the vane of American high-tech enterprises, reached a historical peak of 5058.36 points, and the total market value of NASDAQ listed companies exceeded 6.7 trillion US dollars.

On March 14, before the NASDAQ opened, many people who bought the latest issue of the Wall Street Journal saw an intriguing story from it, "Who's Their Next Target?" , an article that contradicts the crazy rise of online high-tech stocks.

“…… On November 10 last year, Cisco surpassed Intel, the most prestigious company in the PC industry, with a market value of $278.3 billion, a year that Cisco has just entered its 15th year, and Intel has spent 31 years doing so. Some commentators believe that this is a watershed moment, indicating that a major change has taken place in Silicon Valley and the entire world's information industry, because the information industry has entered the Internet era from the PC era, and Cisco is at the heart of this transformation.

Soon after, Cisco's market capitalization once again surpassed that of the established company General Electric, which seemed to confirm the critics' conjectures once again. However, during this period, Mr. Zhang Lexing, the major shareholder of VisualSystem Group, led his team to reduce his holdings of shares, especially the stocks of Internet high-tech companies such as Yahoo, Amazon, and eToy, and even Cisco.

According to the latest information bulletin, Mr. Zhang's direct or indirect holdings of Cisco shares are only 5.01%, a reduction of nearly 20% compared with the 25% personal shareholding at the peak. According to the survey, a large part of them have been selling since the second half of last year, which means that Mr. Zhang has not fully enjoyed the benefits of Cisco's stock price rise. According to yesterday's latest closing price, the value of the 25% Cisco stock held by Mr. Zhang is equivalent to about 138.7 billion US dollars, and the loss caused by the early reduction is believed to be about 300~40 billion US dollars.

However, despite this, after this round of large-scale reductions, we estimate that Mr. Zhang and his team should have no less than $150 billion in cash, and maybe even close to $200 billion. At a time when others are entering the stock market because they are optimistic about online high-tech stocks, Mr. Zhang is reducing his holdings on a large scale, does this mean that he and his team are not optimistic about the future development of high-end online technology stocks? We also tried to confirm this with Mr. Zhang, but we did not get his affirmation, but judging from his actions, we believe that he should have some concerns about this.

$200 billion, which is a very large amount of money, even enough to buy many traditional enterprises of considerable size, such as Coca-Cola. Judging from the past performance of Mr. Zhang and his team, it is certainly impossible for him to let go of the accumulation of so much cash in his hands, so where will his goal be next? Which industry will you invest your money in? Is it to continue to tap those potential small and medium-sized enterprises? Or will it acquire a competitor?

Mr. Zhang's spokesman did not directly answer our question, but he mentioned Sony Computer Entertainment and the PS2 game console that was launched during last Christmas, which reminds us of Mr. Zhang's investment in the DreamBox128 game console, maybe he hoarded a lot of cash for the PS2 game console?

……”

This article from the "Wall Street Journal" did not attract too much attention except for some well-intentioned people, because at this time, the most media reported the crazy rise of the successful IPO of Internet high-tech stocks and some myths of the founder of Docom Company getting rich overnight, and many people's eyes were fixed on the stocks that rose sharply on the NASDAQ, but they did not notice at all, or they did not want to notice the crisis hidden under the prosperity. Many people understand that the stock market is risky, and they all know that the stock market will not go up forever, but they are holding on to the luck mentality, thinking that the rising range is not over, and they will definitely not become the last one to beat the drum and pass the flowers, but the world is often so wonderful.

A few days later, following the announcement of a rate hike on February 2, the Fed announced another rate hike, the second rate hike this year and the sixth since last summer. After the news came out, the Nasdaq index, which had just climbed to 5162.38 points, fell in response, and then a large number of selling orders poured out, completely crushing the Nasdaq, and the entire disk was almost red, and the index began to embark on a long downward path.

However, perhaps because there is still hope, the fall of the Nasdaq index is not too fierce, on average it only falls by nearly 100 points a day, but it slowly accumulates and becomes considerable, and after a week, the Nasdaq index has fallen by more than 400 points. However, many people do not see this as the bursting of the dot-com bubble, and even many stock market commentators attribute this phenomenon to a natural correction, believing that the Nasdaq will soon end its brief decline and return to an upward channel. Unfortunately, some things do not change because of the will of some people, since the beginning of the decline, the Nasdaq index is like standing on a staircase full of butter, except for the occasional small rally of about half a day, it has basically been falling and falling without the slightest sign of stopping.

Heading into April, even Cisco, the leading role model for cyber tech stocks, was not immune and joined the decline, starting from a peak of $79 per share. As for those Internet IPO companies that have never known what profits have been made since the establishment of the company, they have fallen even more than half at this time, and the worst ones have even fallen by more than half. At the beginning of March, many people were still fiercely discussing which Internet company would become the next Cisco, and many people were still complacent about the tens of millions or even billions of dollars that became overnight, and now they have died down, and the Internet bubble seems to be really bursting.

The volatility in the U.S. stock market across the ocean has spread around the world, but it has not had much impact on the gaming strategies of Nintendo, Sega and Sony, who are still moving forward at their own pace, step by step, trying to seize key positions.

One day in April, Seattle's famous Port Bell Convention Center was being held at a developer conference hosted by Nintendo North America......

The host of the venue gently knocked on the microphone, and the voice in the venue gradually became quieter, he looked at the audience with a smile, and said: "I'm glad that everyone can come today, let's invite today's host to appear!" ”

Saying that, the host also made a "please" gesture to the side, and the audience burst into warm applause, and a man with an oriental face walked onto the stage under the illumination of the lights and came to the speaker's seat. Many people in the audience couldn't help but be stunned, because the person who came was not the familiar Arakawa Minoru, of course, it didn't mean that everyone didn't know the person who came, Miyamoto Shigeru's name can be said to be known to everyone in the game circle, but usually Nintendo North America has any activities that are either Howard Lincoln or Arakawa Minoru, and now Howard Lincoln has left, so it stands to reason that today's developer meeting should be Arakawa Minoru, after all, he is the current president (president) of Nintendo North America, And in the eyes of many people, it is logical for him to take over Yamauchi's class in the future. But today, Shigeru Miyamoto, who flew all the way from Kyoto, Japan, some people with a lively mind couldn't help but guess, but this shows that Minoru Arakawa's position is not so stable.

Shigeru Miyamoto doesn't have so many ideas in his heart, and today he came here as the president of Yamauchi Pu personally ordered, and he naturally has the best to do with an important mission, and he also knows that the current Nintendo has come to the brink of danger, even more dangerous than the time when the PS game console was released.

Turning out the information brought in the briefcase, Shigeru Miyamoto cleared his throat and said with a smile: "Hello everyone, I am Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo, entrusted by President Yamauchi, to announce to you some news that everyone is very concerned about today. The first is the case with the next-generation portable handheld GameBoyAdvance......"

As Shigeru Miyamoto narrated, the developer representatives in the audience gradually gained some understanding of the legendary GameBoyAdvance. GameBoyAdvance is indeed as revealed by an insider last year,The main processor is a RISC-type ARM7 processor,In order to maintain compatibility with GameBoy,GameBoyAdvance will also include an 8-bit CISC processor。 The GameBoyAdvance's screen uses a reflective TFT LCD screen, which measures about 2.9 inches, has a resolution of 240×160, and supports a maximum number of colors of 32768. Using a dedicated cartridge as the game storage medium, it supports up to 256Mbit, and can be used for about 5 hours with two No. 3 AA batteries installed.

Compared to the previous GameBoy and GameBoyColor, the performance of the GameBoyAdvance has increased dramatically, and it has surpassed the portable handheld launched by some competitors. In order to give developers an intuitive impression, Shigeru Miyamoto showed some development footage of GameBoyAdvance games, among which the graphics of "Super Mario A" and "Mario Kart A" attracted a lot of attention. Many people have begun to calculate in their hearts,Judging from the performance of GameBoyAdvance,There are no competitors at present,The results of the release should be good,In that case, this will be a new gold mine no less than GameBoy,After all, the game development cost of portable handheld is usually much less than that of home game consoles,The profit margin is relatively large,Thinking of this, everyone has a lot of expectations for the future of GameBoyAdvance。

Shigeru Miyamoto looked at the expectant expressions of everyone in the audience with satisfaction, holding a GameBoyAdvance model, and continued the previous topic: "...... The portable handheld GameBoyAdvance and Nintendo's future main home console 'Dolphin' allow online interaction, taking the more popular 'Pokemon' of GameBoyColor as an example, after players have played on the 'Dolphin' console, they can also transfer the Pokemon they are cultivating to the GameBoyAdvance, and then they can train and exercise the Pokemon anytime and anywhere, and even exchange it with others, and finally they can be re-transmitted' Dolphin's host, and you can also design a Pokemon that can only be obtained through this exchange. This means that if you want to get the most out of the game, you have to have both the Dolphin console and the GameBoyAdvance......"

Shigeru Miyamoto's crossover immediately caught everyone's attention, and if this strategy was successful, the game could be launched on both the Dolphin console and the GameBoyAdvance, and players would have to buy it, or they would not be able to exchange game data with their friends, or they might even be isolated, and more importantly, they would not be able to fully experience the full fun of the game. It is conceivable that there will definitely be many players who will become "Dolphin" consoles and GameBoyAdvance because of this gimmick, so that the popularity of "Dolphin" consoles and GameBoyAdvance should be relatively high, after all, there are no considerable competitors on the market for the time being, although Sony Computer Entertainment has made a PocketStation's so-called memory card and handheld, but the 32×32 dot matrix LCD screen that chases the Tetris machine, And the 32-bit RISC processor, which is almost a mentally retarded choice, is not even as attractive as the GameBoy, and I believe that as soon as the GameBoyAdvance comes out, the PocketStation will immediately turn to dust.

Looking at the "GameBoyAdvance" in the hands of Shigeru Miyamoto on stage, many people are already thinking about what games are suitable for development on GameBoyAdvance, or how to make full use of the linkage between the "Dolphin" console and GameBoyAdvance to fool players. Many people almost laughed out loud when they thought of the smugness, and the "GameBoyAdvance" in Miyamoto's hand was almost a pile of yellow-orange-orange gold in their eyes now......

Sega is still making its last efforts, although they are very unfavorable, and they will pop up with the American Rambus company, claiming that the processor "SH-4" produced by Hitachi in Japan infringes the copyright of its own products, and then it will sue Hitachi and Hitachi Semiconductors in court, and by the way, they will also bring Sega and Sega North America, and ask Hitachi to immediately stop producing the "SH" family series products. If the lawsuit fails, it would be almost devastating for Sega, as it would mean that the Dreamcast consoles with "SH-4" processors would have to be replaced with new processors in order to remain on the market, which would be an impossible task.

Fortunately, as long as they are willing to pay for it in these years, there will never be a shortage of lawyers in the United States to fight lawsuits, and what they are best at is dragging, anyway, if the lawsuit is not concluded in a day, the Dreamcast console can continue to be sold, plus there is Hitachi to mediate, it will not have any substantial impact on Sega for a while. At present, the most important thing for Sega is the North American and European markets, and the Japanese region has been completely tragic under the attack of DreamBox128 and PS2, which is already the last two places they can work hard now, especially in North America, which is the most important thing, for which Sega has spared no expense to sacrifice the last killer feature - free game consoles, in order to seize the last opportunity to seize the North American market.

"Game consoles are free! You only pay $21.95 a month for the Internet, and you can get a free Dreamcast host and a dedicated keyboard ......", Sega North America has been advertising their free Dreamcast host all over the time, trying to lure more people into the arms of the Dreamcast host. Not to mention, their strategy is really attractive, anyway, for people who like to surf the Internet, the cost of the Internet is definitely not saved, and now you can get a Dreamcast host for free, which means that you don't need a computer at home and only need a TV to surf the Internet. The said Dreamcast console is certainly not as easy to use as a computer, but it is relatively convenient to use, and more importantly, you can also play games by the way, and you can also play online games.

For those who have already purchased a Dreamcast console in advance, Sega has also given a preferential policy, as long as they are willing to accept the $21.95 monthly network fee and choose SegaNet's newly established SegaNet as their ISP, they will immediately receive a check for $200 and a dedicated power supply as compensation. To add to the appeal, Sega North America has also released a list of up to 70 games, all of which are expected to be released this year and will be available for online play.

Affected by this, the sales of Dreamcast consoles in North America have finally risen, although they have not reached the results of their first landing in the North American market, although there is still a big gap with competitors, but at least there has been a good development, at least Shoichiro Iritodo thinks so.

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