"Hey! Did you hear that? Yuki Chiba's voice came out of the microphone.

Lin Yan, who was thinking, replied, "I heard it." No, it stands to reason that there will be a crash, not after Christmas......"

"Why after Christmas?" Yuki Chiba asked.

Little did she know, of course, that nearly one-third of all shopping demand in the United States was on Christmas Eve. Video game cartridges, on the other hand, are generally used as Christmas gifts, and this is the peak season for its sales. Often the month before Christmas can sell several times the remaining months.

"What's the name of the game?" Lin Yan asked.

"E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial." Chiba Yuki replied, she continued, "Isn't this Spielberg's popular movie some time ago, Atari spent 40 million dollars to buy the rights to adapt the video game, and made 5 million game cartridges in one go, but only sold the first wave, more than 1 million copies, and died violently. ”

Making five million game cartridges at once sounds a bit appalling, and it's even more excessive than Lin Yan's one million chips. You know, not every home console sold, there will be a corresponding game sold. If that's really the case, the sales of tens of millions and millions of games in this world will not be so small.

Since Atari dares to make five million cassettes of "ET the Extra-Terrestrial" at a time, it means that the Atari 2600 machine has at least tens of millions of units in the United States.

You may wonder why you don't burn some cassettes at a time and continue to produce them when they sell well, why you have to finish them all at once.

Speaking of this problem, it has to do with the production mechanism of the game cartridge itself and the characteristics of the video game market. When a video game is released and accounts for 90% of the total sales volume, it takes less than two weeks to complete, and then people's enthusiasm for the game begins to wane.

And the games that need to be burned are lined up, and it's impossible for you to say that you're out of sales, so you cut the queue and come first. This is the way to make money. It is equivalent to killing the whole family.

So, if you don't burn the required amount at once, and wait until you line up to produce it, your game will be obsolete.

Plus anyone can develop games for Atari 2600. There are even those that sell blank cartridges with game stickers. The video game market in the United States as a whole is impetuous.

Fifty dollars on Mondays, and on weekends, five dollars a dozen promotions are also a common occurrence.

In such a situation where there is no regulation, and there is no need for quality. In an environment where you can sell as much as you make. Almost no one is self-disciplined and wants to make a good game.

In Lin Yan's memory, although the "ET Alien", which caused the great recession of the American video game market, cost $40 million to buy the copyright, the development cycle of the game was only more than 20 days and less than a month, and the developer was only one person.

That's right, just one person.

Atari at this stage. Although it is the largest video game manufacturer in the United States, it has less than 300 employees, and there are only about 20 people in charge of developing games and hardware.

Each of these twenty or so people has a task that is so heavy that it is almost impossible to complete. So much so that "ET", as a video game masterpiece with an investment of more than 40 million US dollars, can only allow one person to rush to work in more than 20 days.

Of the more than $40 million invested, in addition to the $40 million spent on buying copyrights, the rest of the expenditure was spent on production and publicity. As for development - just show people.

There are many more game developers in the United States than in Japan. There is no guilt in making a bad game. Scum, bad work, and plagiarism are prevalent, which is not a problem in their opinion, and it is good to make money. Players play all kinds of games anyway. What do you do when you play games with your heart? It's not that it's a delay in making money.

Therefore, "E.T. Alien" is just a fuse that ignited the collapse of the American game industry, and its own quality may still be in the middle and upper middle of American video games in this era.

At the end of the day, it's the maker. In the capital market, players and consumers who think they are stupid don't have the slightest confidence in video games. They don't have to play video games, skateboarding, basketball, bicycles, self-driving picnics, whatever. To put it bluntly, video games are just a cheap form of entertainment with a glamorous appearance and a novelty to watch.

No matter how real a video game is, can it still be real in the real world?

"Hey! You are talking, you say what to do. Do you still have a million home consoles in production? The video game market in North America is like that......," Chiba said, concerned. If not, it's over now.

Japan has never tolerated losers. If a person fails to start a business and returns to the company he worked for, his status in the company is likely to be much lower than before he went out to start a business. As for the accumulation of experience of failure and making persistent efforts, in the Japanese world, it is almost equivalent to a dream.

A few days ago, Lin Yan saw such a message in the business newspaper ordered by his father. said that there was an entrepreneur who was already very successful, and when she said that she wanted to start a business, whether it was a family member or a neighbor, she said so.

"Airy was quite clever when he was a child, what kind of blow did he suffer, his brain was broken, and he actually wanted to start a business?"

To be honest, Lin Yan is almost equal to an entrepreneur. The reason why he didn't receive a reprimand was largely because his father was very out of tune. Otherwise, according to the mainstream social trend in Japan, it is very incomprehensible to do this.

Of course, such an environment that is very challenging for entrepreneurs is not only harmful, but also beneficial. At the very least, it shields entrepreneurs who are not even sure what they want to do.

A few decades later, in Japan's neighboring countries, there was such a group of people. They are young, maybe just out of school, and they want to be entrepreneurs.

However, they have no social experience and none of the products they want to make. Their only weapon is to open their mouths and look around for investors. said how much potential he has, how Ma Yun. Sometimes when it comes to emotion, even tears fall. They use their feelings as weapons and want to take something out of this world. But is it really that easy?

"Continue production, it's okay, you can rest assured, the American video game has collapsed, and it will not have much impact on Japan. With only a million units, Japan is bigger than the UK. There are so many people, it's impossible not to sell it. You can rest assured. Lin Yan comforted.

He didn't talk nonsense, the collapse of the video game industry in the United States really didn't have much impact on Japan. Because. The Japanese market is a very closed market. The Atari 2600, which is hot in the United States, is just a plaything for a few people in Japan. Not many people, poisoned by the inferior games of the United States, have lost faith in the whole video game.

Opposite. The vast majority of Japanese games, placed in the United States, can be called step-by-step masterpieces. Although, plagiarism and imitation are inevitable. However, the quality is much, much better.

Although this has something to do with Lin Yan's good start, fundamentally, it is the Japanese people's dedication and persistence in one thing. It is said that they have a spirit called "creation". They will do their best to polish something to the most perfect state.

Probably not everyone. We all have this understanding. However, their actions are carried out according to this pattern. It's amazing, isn't it. This is the gene of a country, although it cannot be seen or touched, but it is silently functioning.

Chiba Yuki tilted her head on the other end of the phone, she was thinking about whether what Lin Yan said was reliable. It is true that there doesn't seem to be any popular video game in Japan. It was made by the Americans.

If, according to the faction, in Japan, the Japanese game. Occupy the entire market. In the U.S. market, Japanese games have also overwhelmed many local U.S. games, entrenched in the U.S. video game market.

Whether it's "Space Invaders", "Pac-Man", or "Donkey Kong". The popularity that I possess in the United States. No local game can surpass it.

"Well, that's it, don't worry, everything is under my control, don't panic." Lin Yan said.

"Okay...... "A moment ago, Chiba Yuki, who was still puffed up by the old man angrily, as if he was a small balloon, has quieted down at this moment. She felt very relieved, and she always had an inexplicable sense of security for Lin Yan.

Obviously, that guy is lazy and doesn't have a good family background. However, it feels very comfortable. As for poor Chubby Dun, in her opinion, he was like a clingy dog. She herself is like a master, and Xiao Chubby Dun does a lot of things as if she is pleasing her as a master, and she has no sense of security.

Lin Yan put down the phone, and the expression on his face was far less relaxed than the tone he had just said. He frowned, a little worried, the world video games are developing faster, and he doesn't know how much faster than he remembers. Whether it's time, or whatever, there's a big deviation.

"ET the Extra-Terrestrial" was obviously only released in 1982, and now it is only 1980, why was it released.

Alas...... Tired......

Lin Yan really felt a little tired, if nothing remained the same, he could complete the fixed actions at a fixed time step by step like playing a game. You can comfortably wait for the victory to blossom.

But ah...... This world is obviously full of malice towards Lin Yan, and doesn't want him to live an easy life, so it has caused him so much trouble.

At this moment, Lin Yan also knows that even if he is cooperating with Chiba Games now, it looks very good. However, he also knows that all this is like a sandcastle on the beach, in fact, it can easily collapse.

He is the only one in his company, and wherever he carries a bag full of company documents, the company goes. But can it be like this forever?

Many, many companies fail, not because their products are not good, but because their systems are not good. Perhaps, when it was still a small company, even if there were no rules and regulations, it was operating in a restricted manner, and it was doing well.

However, as soon as it grows in size, all sorts of problems arise. Even if the market is good, it is not impossible for it to collapse from the inside.

Although Lin Yan understands so many truths, he really feels that he is not suitable for managing a company, and he feels that he is more suitable to be a technician. Managing the company, formulating systems, maintaining and running, this kind of thing, it is better to let others do it.

That's right!

Why don't I hire people to do it!

Lin Yan patted his head and realized that professional things should be done by professional people, this is what Lin Yan has known for a long time. Since you don't know business management, it's good to find a professional. Isn't that what a professional manager is?

I'm looking for a professional manager.

As soon as Lin Yan's brain was hot, he took his own requirements and found an intermediary service company. Entrust them to help find a reliable professional manager.

Of course, reliability is equivalent to expensive, and the intermediary fee required by the intermediary is also very touching. However, Lin Yan didn't care very much.

Although, his current money is all pressed on the chip. However, it is not difficult for him to make money. Not to mention hundreds of thousands per minute, there are still hundreds of thousands a day.

The sales channel of Chiba Games is very strong, and every time one is sold, there is such an income on the machine on which he makes games, and he is making money while lying down.

The uncle of the intermediary agency is also a little unsure whether Lin Yan is reliable or not. However, when Lin Yan took out enough money, he didn't doubt it.

Perhaps, it is the son-in-law of which family, who is fooling around. The middle-aged uncle looked at Lin Yan.

After this long period of time, Lin Yan has been nurtured by Chiba Youxi's side, and he already has a temperament similar to her. It doesn't matter if it's extravagant or squeamish. Anyway, it's just a good high-end.

This change is subtle and very slow, maybe the people around Lin Yan, who are with him every day, can't feel it, but strangers can feel it clearly.

It's like a child who has been living with his parents, and even if it takes him a few years to grow from one meter to one meter nine, his parents will not be surprised. Because, it's a smooth process, and there's nothing left except for the occasional sigh that time flies so fast.

And when this little child is seen again by a person who has only seen him when he was a child, he will suddenly feel that the change is really great.

It's a question of continuity and discreteness, and it should be said that way. The development of video games has also basically evolved from discrete to continuous.

In the game watch, every operation of the player can only make the character move in a fixed position one by one. And Super Mario is very smooth. It doesn't feel too much pause, and it can be better brought into the game without requiring so much brain supplement.

Everything is changing. Whether it gets better or worse is not something that people can control. (To be continued.) )