……

When Tang Huan finished dealing with this group of reporters who seemed to have been beaten with chicken blood, he muttered in his heart while walking into the banquet hall, "It seems that the most troublesome part of the aftermath of the three generations of Fangyuan personal computer quality door is public relations." ”

"Don, you deliberately stayed in London to entertain us, and you won't delay rushing back to the United States to put out the fire, right?" Charles asked with concern.

"There's no need for that. As a listed company, Fangyuan Computer Company's management is very formal, and it has its own work process for such problems. ”

Tang Huan waved his hand disappreciatively, took a glass of beer from the waiter, drank it up heroically, and then said with a smile: "I said so much to the reporter just now, I'm really a little thirsty." ”

After the applause, Chelsea Viscount Charles Cadogan told an anecdote: "Recently, the major cities in the beverage industry were interested in buying Guinness, but they were unexpectedly disrupted by a group of Harvard Business School students." As if in return, Guinness sold its Guinness Top-tier Limited to the other party's holding company, causing many people to laugh at Guinness's strength. As a result, Guinness very seriously defended that Guinness World Records would not change its name and could be operated more professionally, and the two sides were purely strategic cooperation. It's surprising to talk about strategic cooperation with a bunch of kids!"

Tang Huan smiled playfully, but he was a little speechless in his heart. Zhuang Menghua, this girl is really a newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers, in fact, her original intention is to obtain the operating authorization in Asia, she really swallowed the other party with a big mouth, and it can only be said that the capital market full of junk bonds is a little crazy, and the concept of leveraged buyouts and other small and broad can be cleverly used to fake the tiger.

"Tang, I hope that Fangyuan personal computer can solve the current quality problem as soon as possible, after all, your product is in the education and commercial fields of the United Kingdom. occupies a large share. Finally, Charles made a serious suggestion.

"Your Highness is assured that this problem only exists in the latest generation of Fangyuan personal computer products, and the impact on existing users in the UK is minimal. Tang Huan nodded in agreement.

……

After socializing here in the UK, Tang Huan specially went to Milan, Italy to visit the female ship king.

Christina, who had been looking forward to having a daughter, finally got her wish and was happy again, and the much-awaited plan to create a man blossomed again.

Tang Huan said worriedly: "After AC Milan returns to the first division. It's more energy-intensive, and you need to find a ruthless character to be the club's general manager, dealing with the complex local situation in Italy to share the pressure of work. ”

"AC Milan isn't worth much anyway, whatever. Christina, whose attention had clearly shifted to her stomach, replied lazily.

"What's called it, it's not worth much!" Tang Huan was speechless for a moment, and said in his heart that it was better not to pass on the problem of yours as a loser to the next generation.

At this time, the problem of the three generations of Fangyuan personal computers has been determined. Quality defects occur in two places - the circuit board components of the display and graphics card are somehow substandard.

It can be said that the technical aftermath is much easier than imagined, but Tang Huan frowned, Gaine's upcoming second-generation Xiaobawang game console, its video module also uses components from the same source.

Seeing this scene, Tang Huan couldn't help but be a little annoyed, sat on Silicon Valley No. 1, and went straight to Baodao Xingshi to ask for the guilt.

……

Kyoto, Japan. At Nintendo's headquarters, President Hiroshi Yamauchi is holding an emergency meeting.

His son-in-law. Minoru Arakawa, the head of Nintendo America, has just reported that Nintendo's cooperation negotiations with Atari on the agency of the North American market have finally come to an end.

The other party has completely lost confidence in the North American home video game console market, giving up the introduction of Nintendo's latest home TV game console FamilyComputer, and even plans to follow the example of EA and Mattel and officially sell their own Atari 2600 to Japan.

For this result. Hiroshi Yamauchi was disappointed, but not too much of a surprise, after all, the depression in the North American home video game console market is obvious to all.

"I didn't expect the industry's confidence to collapse to such an extent. Hiroshi Yamauchi shook his head disappreciatively.

In recent months, EA CEO Tripp Hawkins has traveled frequently between the U.S. and Japan, showcasing the latest second-generation Bully console to consumers and game developers. This is also illustrated in disguise. EA is likely to have lost confidence in the North American home video game console market as well, which is why it has shifted its focus to Japan. Yokoi Junhei reminded.

"The release of the second-generation Xiaobawang game console is imminent, and our FC will not be ready for release until the end of June at the earliest. It's really getting more and more troublesome, and I can't imagine that Japan has suddenly become the forefront of market competition. Hiroshi Yamauchi frowned and pondered what to do.

You know, in his plan, he has no intention of directly confronting EA, the world's largest video game manufacturer.

Yamauchi had his own way of doing business, and by observing the success of the Atari 2600 and the Atari console in the market, he decided to develop a new home video game console - with a better hardware platform than the Atari console, a lower price than the Atari 2600, and the profit came from the game software running on this new platform.

It can be said that Hiroshi Yamauchi's routine encapsulates almost the entire essence of home video game console operations.

Originally, in time and space, in order to promote its XBox, Microsoft did not hesitate to spend billions of dollars in the early stage, and when it was a big success, the capital market, which only judged heroes by success or failure, had long forgotten this black history.

To this end, Hiroshi Yamauchi's instruction to the head of the R&D team, Masakata Uemura, was: "Develop a pure home game console that no other manufacturer can imitate for at least a year!"

This "imitation" has two meanings: one is technology, and the other is price.

There is no doubt that the development of a better game console platform than the Xiaobawang game console is not at all technically difficult for the Japanese who are the best at summarizing and copycating.

With the strong support of Mitsubishi, Masayuki Uemura's team completed this research and development task very smoothly.

Although the CPU used by FC is based on the MOS6502 Ricoh 2A03 microprocessor, it is an eight-bit video game console with the Atari 2600 and Xiaobawang game consoles. However, the main memory and display memory have reached 8 KB and 4 KB respectively, plus targeted optimization in various aspects. FC is arguably the best design implementation of any eight-bit video game console available.

However, technology is not an absolute factor in preventing "imitation", and perhaps EA, which has a deep background, can come up with a better similar product in an instant.

Hiroshi Yamauchi focused on the factor of cost to prevent "imitation" by his peers, and his ideas bordered on madness. The FC was sold for 10,000 yen, but it soon became impossible during the development stage.

The unit price of a PPU that assists with graphics processing used by the FC alone is 2,800 yen.

The ambitious Yamauchi had to run around non-stop and personally negotiate with Ricoh, the manufacturer of PPU, and was fooled on the spot, promising that 3 million game consoles would be sold within two years, which brought down the unit price of PPU to less than 2,000 yen.

After this effort. Yamauchi thought that he had relaxed the expected price floor of 15,000 yen, which should be realized, but the assessment results given by his subordinates slapped him hard. If it is really sold at this price, it is estimated that in a year, Nintendo will close its doors.

Yamauchi, who was helpless, had to take back what he said again, and after repeated research, the FC was priced at $19,800.

Although compared to the original idea of 10,000 yen. This result almost doubled, but what made Yamauchi a little comforted. It's still nearly a third cheaper than the Xiaobawang console sold in Japan.

Obviously, FC has achieved a complete victory over the Xiaobawang game console in terms of performance and price, and as for other similar products, it is even more vulnerable.

But when Nintendo was working the product launch, EA CEO Tripp Hawkins. personally took the second-generation Xiaobawang game console to Japan to build momentum everywhere, which surprised Hiroshi Yamauchi.

The CPU of the second-generation Xiaobawang game console uses a customized 16-bit version of the MC68000, which runs at a speed of 6MHz. With such a strong power, it can perfectly emulate and be compatible with a generation of Xiaobawang game consoles.

That's just because of the backwards and backwards. It shows how strong EA's technical strength is, and other manufacturers, including Atari, can hardly do this kind of smooth product transition.

The other hardware indicators of the second-generation Xiaobawang game console are equally powerful, with 16KB of main memory, 32KB of video memory, support for 64 colors, 32KB of audio memory, and support for stereo sound.

EA Japan and Taito organized intensive meet-and-greets for hardcore gamers and developers to learn first-hand about the new features of the second-generation Xiaobawang console.

The "rich second generation" is already scary enough, but you still work so hard, how can you let others mix.

Hiroshi Yamauchi was so shocked that he was almost looking up to the sky and screaming, wanting to cry without tears.

Fortunately, his right-hand man Hiroshi Imanishi was very caring, and hurriedly reminded him privately: "It is said that the price of the second-generation Xiaobawang game console in the United States may be as high as 349 US dollars, so although its price in Japan has not been disclosed, it will never be lower than the current generation of Xiaobawang game consoles." So, our FC still has an absolute advantage, at least in terms of selling price. You don't always think that consumers don't demand the most powerful consoles in terms of hardware, but the most fun in terms of gaming. FC has condensed the hard work of so many people, so good, and when facing the second-generation Xiaobawang game console, it is not without the power of a battle. ”

Hiroshi Yamauchi, who calmed down, pondered carefully, and it was indeed so. And Nintendo has invested so many resources in FC that it can be said that it has almost been forced to a dead end, and it can only continue to rush forward without hesitation.

The atmosphere in the conference room was dull, and the secretary with a happy face hurriedly delivered a newspaper, "President, the latest news from Tokyo, EA CEO Tripp Hawkins has just stated that because the components of the second-generation Xiaobawang game console video module may come from the same supplier as the third-generation Fangyuan personal computer with quality problems, the official release time of the product will be postponed to July." ”

Hiroshi Yamauchi hurriedly took the newspaper, read it carefully, and finally had a smile on his face, "I didn't expect EA to be dragged back when he was about to kick the door, it's like God help me!"

"We could release the product as early as June 24th. Hiroshi Imainishi, who was also in high spirits, reported.

"Then we have to release our FC on this day. Hiroshi Yamauchi immediately made a decision and instructed Hiroshi Imanishi, "You will be in charge of the promotion of FC full-time." ”

Hiroshi Yamauchi gave an order, and Nintendo, which was full of expectations for the new FC product, immediately started, and almost all of the 800 employees devoted themselves to intense preparations before the release.

Finally on June 24th, Nintendo preempted EA and Taidong by releasing the long-planned new generation of home video game console FC, along with three games - "Popeye", "Five Eye Chess", "Sparrow", and the other six games will be completed within the year.

Nintendo, which has a history of nearly 100 years, really has a deep heritage, and the first 100,000 units of FC were quickly sold out, and the Japanese stock market fully affirmed Nintendo's achievements and reacted very enthusiastically, pushing its stock price to an all-time high of 6,300 yen per share.

……

Tokyo, Taito and EA Japan headquarters, Tripp Hawkins finished reading the report in his hand, and then looked at the FC that was dismantled by the engineer, and couldn't help but burst into foul language, "This is simply a super enhanced version of the Xiaobawang game console made everywhere." ”

Shigeru Miyamoto scratched his head, "But it's still far inferior to the second-generation Xiaobawang game console." ”

"Nintendo has already taken the lead, and FC is very popular in the market, so we can only launch the second generation of the Xiaobawang console as soon as possible. Akio Nakanishi said tentatively: "Maybe we should set a more aggressive price for the second-generation Xiaobawang console, as long as we defeat FC, we have no opponents worth caring about." ”

Tripp Hawkins did not express his position immediately, he understood that Akio Nakanishi meant nothing more than hurting people with his roots, just like the current Japan-US semiconductor war.

However, Tripp Hawkins does not have the power to lose money and make money, and this matter requires the nod of the big boss Tang Huan.

In fact, Tripp Hawkins has been visiting Japan frequently recently, just to implement EA's latest royalty system and to attract the support of the widest range of game developers for the second-generation Xiaobawang console.

Through the successes and failures of the first generation of Xiaobawang game consoles, Tang Huan and Tripp Hawkins, as well as other EA executives, have reached a consensus that game console developers will monopolize game software development alone as before, which is not conducive to the expansion of the platform.

Since third-party game developers will have to be introduced sooner or later, it is better to decisively cooperate with the release of the second-generation Xiaobawang game console and organize and manage them in the form of a royalty system.

At present, Activision in the United States, Namco, Hudson, Capcom, Konami and other powerful companies in Japan have joined this camp.

It's just that because of the impact of the third-generation Fangyuan personal computer quality gate, the release progress of the second-generation Xiaobawang game console was unexpected, and it was exploited by Nintendo.

Listening to Akio Nakanishi quote about how commonplace and feasible it is to fight a price war here in Japan, Tripp Hawkins, who was angry in his heart, finally moved and decided to ask Tang Huan for instructions on this matter. (To be continued.) )