Kutaragi Ken has had a headache recently, because the export of PS2 game consoles has encountered a lot of trouble, one of the obstacles actually comes from the Japanese government, the reason is that PS2 game consoles are suspected of being used in the military, for which the Japanese government also solemnly listed PS2 game consoles in foreign trade as conventional weapons-related multi-purpose products, and also stipulates that as long as the export or bring out more than a certain amount of PS2 game consoles outside Japan (this amount is tentatively set at 50,000 yen, that is, the price of less than two PS2), the PS2 game console must be signed and approved by the Minister of International Trade and Industry。

The reason for this trouble is that the graphics processor of the PS2 game console is too powerful, according to the evaluation of a professional testing agency commissioned by the Japanese government, the PS2's graphics processing chip can process 3 million 3D vector graphics per second, and its performance is enough to bear the use of small supercomputers or missile navigation. For this reason, in accordance with the provisions of Japan's foreign trade law (Article 21 of the Firearms and Bombs, Article 130 of the Computer Related Articles), the PS2 game console itself is designated as a conventional weapon-related product.

Since the PS2 is currently priced at 39,800 yen, according to the 50,000 yen limit, if you export or bring out more than two PS2 game consoles, you must have the signature of the Minister of International Trade and Industry to get permission, otherwise you will face imprisonment for up to 5 years and a fine of up to 2 million yen. However, this kind of thing of the Minister of International Trade and Industry is not the private property of the Kutaragi Ken family, and it is impossible to sign it at any time if he wants him to sign, and he will sign it every two units, and if Sony Computer Entertainment exports 1 million units at a time, then the Minister of International Trade and Industry will not have to do anything else, and he may not be able to do anything else to sign for Sony's family, and even if the Minister of International Trade and Industry decides to give up his life, Sony Computer Entertainment will not have so much effort to wait for the signature.

Thankfully, after a lot of hard work, Sony Computer Entertainment was able to get an export license this fall, allowing them to export PS2 consoles to countries other than Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea. But what I didn't expect was that the DVD playback function of the PS2 game console caused new trouble, this time it was those Hollywood studios in the United States.

Several major Hollywood studios, including Paramount, Universal, MGM, Disney, Time Warner, etc., sued Sony Computer Entertainment in Los Angeles District Court, demanding that the PS2 console be banned from sale before it is corrected, and the fuse of this matter came from the DVD playback function of the PS2 console.

At present, the PS2 game consoles circulating on the market are dedicated to Japan, and their DVD playback function can only be used to watch DVD discs in Zone 2 (Japan) and the whole region, but the first PS2 game consoles on the market have bugs, and after a few simple operations on the handle, you can skip the detection of the DVD region code, and watch DVDs in the 1~6 regions and the whole area on PS2 game consoles, plus when PS2 game consoles use analog RGB output, DVD can be transcribed to videotape.

These are things that Hollywood Studios can't tolerate, which is why Sony Computer Entertainment is taking Sony Computer Entertainment to court, and the PS2 console is a bit of a shot in the foot, because Sony itself owns a studio in Hollywood (Columbia). Columbia Pictures is also annoyed now, after all, the distribution of DVDs is one of Hollywood's important means of making money, but after all, they are all under a group, and it is not good to tear their faces directly, in order to help Sony Computer Entertainment, they also have to make peace from it, trying to ease the relationship between Sony Computer Entertainment and Hollywood.

At this time, Kutaragi Ken found out that he only thought about how wise it was to export PS2 game consoles to Europe and the United States in the autumn, otherwise there would be no buffer time to solve the problem of DVD playback, and now there are still four or five months before the autumn, which is enough for Sony Computer Entertainment to solve the batch of PS2 that has been listed, and by the way, it will also be ready to send to Europe and the United States PS2 to deal with it.

As we entered May, everything seemed to be going according to Ken Kuta's plan. The successful start of mass production of Fab1, a large-scale integrated circuit production plant with an investment of up to 80 billion yen in Isahaya City, Nagasaki Prefecture, has greatly increased the production of graphics processors, and the PS2, which has been out of stock due to the supply of graphics processors, has been removed from the shackles and can officially enter the stage of mass release, and even the production cost of PS2 has been reduced slightly.

Also in May, Ken Kutaragi heard the good news that he was appointed to Sony's interim board of directors at Sony's interim board of directors due to the good performance of the PlayStation consoles over the past year and the strong profitability of Sony Computer Entertainment, and will officially take office at the regular general meeting of shareholders to be held at the end of next month. This means that the status of the game business in Sony has risen significantly, and it also means that Ken Kutaragi has since stepped into the decision-making circle of Sony's headquarters.

But before Ken Taraki could be happy, several bad news came one after another. The first thing that came was the news that PS2's competitor DreamBox128, it is said that because the global sales exceeded 40 million units, Oriental Industrial Group launched a new model of DreamBox128, and lowered the price, the price in North America and Europe was reduced to 329 US dollars, and the price in Japan was reduced to 32600 yen, and taking advantage of the launch of "Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Freedom", it also launched a limited edition console of 10,000 sets of Metal Gear Solid. As a result, Nintendo's N64 also lowered its price to $99.25 cents in hopes of maintaining its position in North America.

Limited edition consoles or something, Sony Computer Entertainment will also play, but there's nothing to worry about, but it's annoying to reduce the price or something. The batch of PS2 has just come up, and it is not completely out of room for price reduction, but if you follow the DreamBox128 now, then for every PS2 game console sold, Sony Computer Entertainment will have to lose 20 US dollars or about 2000 yen, which is not much when the volume is small, but if tens of millions of units are sold a year, then the direct loss will not be less than 200 million US dollars. If this is the case, Ken Kutaragi, the director of Sony, will be over, and maybe even Sony Computer Entertainment will face layoffs. But if the price of PS2 does not drop, then he can only watch the sales of DreamBox128 turn red.

"To descend or not to descend?" Kutaragi Ken looked at the information in front of him, and his heart was extremely entangled. After thinking about it for a long time, he couldn't make up his mind, so he had to arrange for the price of the PS console to be reduced to $99 first, hoping to have a certain impact on the DreamBox128.

However, the news of the price reduction of PS game consoles has not yet had time to be announced, and another news from the United States has made Kutaragi Ken depressed, Bleem officially announced the PS emulator "Bleem!forDreamcast" running on the Dreamcast console, and the Dreamcast console has also become the world's third next-generation game console that can be compatible with PS games.

According to a spokesperson for Bleem, the biggest feature of the Dreamcast version of "Bleem!" is that it has beautiful graphics, and it is even better than running the same game in the actual PS, because the graphics resolution of the Dreamcast console is higher than that of the PS console. That's true, Ken Kutaragi has already had his engineers do the testing, and while not every game is like that, there are a lot of graphics enhancements in the PlayStation games supported by the Dreamcast version of "Bleem!", just like the damn DreamBox 128.

This annoyed Ken Kutaragi, his own PS compatibility technology has become a big deal, and a casual company dares to openly confront Sony, but Bleem is an American company, and even if he wants to do something, he can't do it. Last year, I wanted to solve it through legal means, but in the end, it was also unsuccessful, and I didn't expect that Bleem would dare to develop a PS emulator for the Dreamcast console in addition to playing emulators on computers.

I used to think that Bleem was just a small flea, but I didn't expect that now they would make such a big trouble, looking at the analysis report in front of him, Kutaragi Ken's face became serious: "It seems that this Bleem company cannot be underestimated, we have to find a way to solve them." ”

……

While Kutaragi Ken was still struggling with whether to reduce the price and Bleem, Zhang Lexing was very happily discussing with his subordinates a small company he planned to acquire.

"Have you heard of DigiScents?" asked Zhang Lexing with great interest.

Zhang Wenshan, general manager of Orient International Investment Bank, was a little puzzled, although he said "Digi", but the gap between the smell and the group's business is too big.

"That's right, it's the smell of numbers, you take a look at this information first. Zhang Lexing used the mail system to send a document about DigiScents.

Hua Ziqing opened the email and took a look, and there was a text that read, "Digiscents' iSmell technology gives games a taste": "...... In everyone's imagination, the future game is a comprehensive simulation of the real world, and now in terms of vision, touch, and hearing, game technology has begun to enter the track of rapid development, only the sense of smell and taste has not yet broken through, or has not yet entered the stage of mature application...... On the morning of March 11, 2000, at the San Jose Convention Center in California, USA, on the fourth day of the Game Developers Conference, DigiScents demonstrated the world's first engineering prototype of odor generation peripherals based on iSmell technology in a private demonstration. The retail price of this kind of PC peripheral, which can be used directly through USB and serial ports, is set at less than $200 in the future, which is at the same level as the price of many force feedback devices, which should be acceptable to the market. And its technical uniqueness is that it uses a similar method to the inkjet printer 3 primary color blending, but on this basis, it provides 128 kinds of base flavors, and the result is only a little more than the thousands of colors of inkjet printers, only 10 to the 128th power' smell, but in such a combination, if we want to find a smell that we can't smell, the possibility is not much different from zero......

Turning off the email, Hua Ziqing felt that she should understand, so she asked, "Boss, do you mean that you want to use digital scent technology in game development?"

"That's right!" Zhang Lexing nodded and said, "If digital scent technology can be used in games, then the game world will definitely become more realistic in the future." For example, when you go to a picturesque field in the game, the most you can feel is now visual, but if there is a digital smell, then when the character in the game stands on the field, you can smell the faint scent of grass in the air, or the smell of earth. If you're playing a game like Delta Forces, you can feel the smell of the battlefield mixed with the weeds of the wilderness, gunpowder smoke and gore. If you're playing The Sims, you might be able to smell her perfume when a neighbor comes to visit you......"

"However, about $200 for an odor generator, the price is not too expensive, I'm afraid there won't be too many players who can accept it. Zhang Wenshan shook his head, he is not too optimistic about this so-called digital scent technology, in his opinion, I am afraid that there are more gimmicks than practical results, even if there is really a product out, there are only a few people who can afford it.

"I'm optimistic about the future of digital scent technology, in fact, I didn't think about using it for game development right away, after all, $200 is still too expensive, and players have too little equipment, so the cost of adding to the smell in the game is a bit uneconomical, not to mention the waste of money, and more importantly, the background smell that is painstakingly made is not appreciated. Zhang Lexing waved his hand and explained: "And even if it is not used in game development for the time being, digital scent technology also has great application prospects, such as being used in our Universal Studios to add more experience to the 3D theater that receives audiences, when food appears on the screen, the audience can smell the aroma of food, and when they come to the beach, the audience can smell the faint fishy smell in the sea breeze, which I believe will bring a more immersive feeling to the audience." ”

"As for the application in the game, it can be promoted after the cost of the odor generator is reduced. Zhang Lexing excitedly continued: "You can imitate the operation of inkjet printers, as long as the basic odor is developed into a standard, and then the basic odor supplement box is produced like the production of inkjet printer cartridges, as long as the cost can be properly controlled and reach a certain degree of popularity, I believe that the odor generator will inevitably bring great changes to the game." Our DreamBox128 game console or its new generation console can also consider making the scent generator as an accessory, as long as there is a suitable game with a reasonable price, I believe it will attract the attention of players, and will definitely become the first choice of players. ”

When it comes to digital smell, Zhang Lexing can't help but think a lot, the real virtual world is not just appreciated through the screen, for a complete world, players should be able to feel it through a variety of channels, such as very conventional visual, Hearing, as well as the sense of smell and touch that have not yet been realized, if a virtual world player can not only see through the eyes, but also listen through the ears, but also feel through physical contact, and can taste the breath of the world through the nose, it will bring players a very real game experience, an all-round game feeling. This is especially true for otaku, where realistic visuals, gentle and sweet voices, the real touch of the fingertips, and the refreshing smell of the nose will bring them a more inextricable virtual and real life experience.

What Zhang Lexing wants is to develop this all-round virtual world in the near future, but there are still many things to prepare for this step, such as 3D display, stronger three-dimensional and more realistic sound effects, digital force feedback suits, and so on. And now he is looking at digital scent technology is also one of them, although it may not be perfect now, there may still be one or another flaw, but after all, this is the only way to move towards the perfect virtual world, and it is impossible to easily bypass.

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