"Chen Sheng, this is the number of orders that the United States is willing to buy Snake arcade machines in the past month, a total of 8,755 units." Early in the morning, as soon as Chen Zhiwen came to the office, An Qi followed in and said with a smile.

"8755 units? Not much, not even 10,000 units. Chen Zhiwen lay on the office chair leisurely, and said very calmly, with the knowledge of those common players who have only seen bricks in this era, the game of greedy snakes is obviously much more exciting.

The number of orders is less than 10,000 units, in fact, a big factor is that the price is too expensive, many bar owners do not dare to take this risk, and when they see other bars making a lot of money with this in the future, they will naturally rush in.

You know, in the original history, in 1979, Japan's Taito company's space invaders, sold 100,000 arcade machines in North America a year, although it is now four years earlier, but the U.S. economy has not changed much in recent years, and the market demand should be similar. There is still a lot of room for development in this market scale.

“.” Angel was silent for a while, but she knew that the price of this arcade machine, one was 3,500 US dollars, and the price of 8,700 units alone exceeded 30 million US dollars, that is, almost 150 million Hong Kong dollars.

"Another thing, the business department in the United States reported that many bars also want to buy our arcade machines, but the price is too expensive, and they dare not take risks, so some bars offer to place them in their bars first, and then slowly give us the cost of the arcade when they make money." Angel returned to her normal state of mind and continued.

"If you can't make money, you return it, right?" Chen Zhiwen smiled and said: "Don't worry about them, 8,000 arcade machines are enough for our factory to be busy for a while, during this time, the business team in the United States can still receive new orders, and then decide what to do." ”

The new product has just been launched, just like the smart phone has just been released, the production capacity is absolutely unable to keep up with the sales demand, in this case, the seller's market, naturally the seller has the final say, if the follow-up orders have been a lot, it must remain the same, if not, then it will naturally "benefit" consumers.

Whether it is the current arcade, or the future Apple mobile phone, or a certain tram, the price increase is because there are too many orders to exceed the production capacity, and the price reduction is because there are no orders, the capitalists have never had a conscience, only look at the market.

After all, it is not a commodity such as food, clothing, housing or medicine, and the price increase and price reduction only consider market factors, and it is also the freedom to buy and sell when it rises to a sky-high price.

Arcade machines are in short supply for just half a year on the market, and they will only be eliminated when new games appear or people get tired of playing.

"Okay, then I'll fax it to the U.S. later." Angel continued.

Chen Zhiwen continued: "In addition, I roughly calculated that the cost of an arcade airlift to the United States is about 200 US dollars, but the arcade can enter the United States a month earlier, according to our estimates, an arcade machine can make at least 20 US dollars a day, let the United States discuss with the bar, if the bar owner is willing to pay the air freight fee, we will air transport it to them, and this account will be calculated for the bar owner." ”

"Okay." Angel nodded a little stunned and said, but thought in her heart, "Is this okay?" ”

The bar pays for air freight, maybe there will be a handling fee in the middle, and the early delivery to the customer, can also make the Midea company's capital turnover faster, it sounds completely taking advantage of the bar, but careful calculation is really the truth, after all, the arcade machine can be profitable, as long as the money earned in a month is higher than the air freight, it is cost-effective.

Smart bar owners, they all know what to do, even if it seems to be cheated, but it does allow them to make more money, especially if there is an arcade machine earlier, you can attract more people earlier, the profit of the arcade itself is one thing, and those who come to play arcade machines can't just play arcades, they will always order something to eat and drink, right?

"Is there any news from Woz?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Not yet, I called him, he usually doesn't answer, so I can only wait for him to call back." Angel said helplessly, although her position is not very high, on behalf of the boss, everyone attaches great importance to her call, even if she doesn't receive it for some reason, she will come back immediately, but this Woz, because of the time difference, she often calls at night and no one answers, and she doesn't call back much.

"People who are engaged in technology are like this, they don't shave their beards when they are busy, and they can only cope with a few bites of rice, don't care." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

Previously, he asked Woz to develop "Magic Cube", which seemed simple, but after developing it, he found a problem, that is, how to control the difficulty?

At the beginning of the game, the difficulty must be low, and players must play smoothly for a while in order to gain favor, otherwise, at the end of half a minute, everyone will lose interest.

In the later stage, it is necessary to increase the difficulty, otherwise the player will play for too long, which will affect the profit of Midea's direct customers (bar owners).

That is, the arcade has two customers with different demands, one is the player, and the other is the god who pays.

Chen Zhiwen disagreed with increasing the difficulty by speeding up, which would be disgusting to players, and it would also be easy to induce players to give up and not want to play in the future, so Woz's team had to start putting a lot of effort into analyzing which of the 7 tiles should be placed in what situation.

Woz thought it was very simple at first, but when he really tested it, he found that the mess of data gave them a headache, but there was no way to complain, and the boss's request still had to be implemented.

In the original history, Tetris was only researched in 1984, and it took a few years to promote it after the research was developed, that is to say, when Tetris was really famous, around 1990, at that time, the arcade market had long since disappeared, and the carriers of Tetris were all handhelds, home game consoles or computers.

There is no limit to the time of profit, and Tetris under these carriers does not need to study this logic at all, which is why Chen Zhiwen launched the snake first, it is really "Tetris" that needs more energy and cost to ensure success.

In the arcade market, it is not that the game can be successful by having fun, the first factor of success is being able to make money for the owner who buys the arcade machine.

"Manager Shen often communicates with Wads in the United States, but he is human resources and doesn't understand technology, otherwise, we will send a technology to the United States? Maybe you can learn some skills from Woz? Angel suggested.

"It's okay, then let's find a few more, newcomers, go to the United States to learn some technology, and participate in the development process of the new game of the Woz team, we also need such a team here in Hong Kong in the future, and we can't count on Woz for everything." Chen Zhiwen thought about it and agreed.

Although he has the idea of many classic games in later generations, not every game can be copied directly, especially those complex games a few years later, even if he tells Wads the idea, Wolds may not be able to develop the same as he thinks.

In this case, it will take a lot of people to perfect the details of the game, not to mention the problem of high labor in the United States, if you all rely on the American team, it is too risky to put all your eggs in one basket.

Hong Kong here always to start cultivating relevant talents, if because of the lack of talent, from the next door Wanwan poaching people is also a good choice, from the 60s, the Wanwan government began to take the electronics industry as the main object of economic development, so many years, Wanwan and go to study abroad There are not a few, these people are also the foundation of the future electronics industry in Wanwan, TSMC in later generations, can succeed, this is the source.

Bringing Wanwan's electronic talents to Hong Kong is also very much in line with Midea's strategic security significance.

(End of chapter)