"The King of Fighters?" When Lei Shengli heard the name, he asked, "Is it about martial arts?" ”

Since Li Xiaolong detonated martial arts movies in the 70s, the entire Chinese world has been addicted to this atmosphere, although Lei Shengli does not involve entertainment, but as an ordinary person, he naturally knows that many people like the plot of martial arts action, even him. After Li Xiaolong's death, many film companies wanted to imitate it, but basically it didn't succeed, but other styles of martial arts stars appeared.

If a game is set in martial arts, it is very attractive, even in Europe and the United States, most men like to watch or play this kind of plot, even if they don't like Li Xiaolong very much, but they should not refuse the wonderful fight plot.

"Yes." Chen Zhiwen changed the topic again and asked: "How are the arcades in the European and American markets now?" ”

"Arcade? At present, it is not very good, but in Japan, there is a kind of arcade game hall, which is full of different game arcade machines, for students or people who do not have game consoles at home to play for a while, and the business is not bad, but the scale is not large, compared to the previous sale to almost every bar in the United States, far worse. Lei Shengli replied.

Arcade machine, once the main product of Midea, but also relying on arcade machine, Midea has become one of the most well-known electronics companies in the world, and also made Midea the most dazzling new star under Chen Zhiwen, Midea's home appliance business in the early days, and even the early development of many other companies within the group, also rely on the profits of the arcade, if there is no profit transfer of the arcade, then these businesses will be much worse now.

But with Moore's law in the chip industry, almost 18 months, the performance of the chip can be doubled, and in a few years, the chip can get a qualitative leap, which has derived the home game machine, and Atari in the United States is one step earlier to launch the 2600 model, the earliest to occupy the market.

In this case, Midea must also enter this field, and it is also using the profits of arcades to develop its own red and white machines, but it can occupy the market and become the king level and defeat Atari by relying on a few of its own explosive software that began in the arcade era.

And since it's the same software, you can play at home countless times by spending a few hundred dollars at a time to buy a beautiful game console, and then buy a game card for dozens of dollars, which is much more cost-effective than playing at a bar for 25-50 cents. Although there are still some people who don't buy game consoles at home, they can also go to a friend's house to play, and even if they will go to a bar, the number of times will be very small, even if the price of the arcade itself has dropped a lot over time, but for the bar owner, it is no longer cost-effective, even if it does not lose money, it will not make much money.

As a result, an arcade industry that relies on bars as the main market has basically declined in Europe and the United States, and it is not completely dead, but the sales are much worse than before, and in the United States, the home game consoles and handheld consoles are selling well, and arcades have become a small business. This was a long time ago, and Midea also had a prediction internally, the arcade machine has two groups of customers, one is a bar owner and the other is a bar customer, and when both of them are down, it's no wonder if they are wasted.

Only in Japan, there is no bar culture, and the population density is very high, derived a new business model, that is, a store, buy a large number of different arcade machines, and then attract people to come in to play, compared to the American bar model, there are many types of games, strong selection, and high playability, which is very attractive to some young people and students, but after all, the Japanese market is much smaller, and it is still impossible to pull the arcade back to its former high position.

"The decline of arcades is essentially due to the replacement of home game consoles, which is inevitable." Chen Zhiwen took a sip of coffee and said: "But have you ever thought about a question, it's all drinking, Yankees can drink at home, they can watch various sports meetings or sports competitions at home, but why do they still go to bars?" The bar still costs money, more expensive than the alcohol at home? ”

"Maybe it's because you want to meet the opposite sex?" Lei Shengli said.

"That's one aspect, but not everyone goes to the bar for this purpose, many couples, or boyfriends and girlfriends go together, it can't be the same purpose, right?" Chen Zhiwen said with a light smile.

"That's probably a culture, we don't understand, but Americans may tend to like being in bars when they interact and make friends." Lei Shengli said.

"Yes, so, if our arcade machine wants to enter the bar again, then it is possible to save a little bit in this direction." Chen Zhiwen said with a light smile.

"So this King of Fighters game is a game that people can interact with?" Lei Shengli asked.

"Yes, this game is not a breakthrough, or a boss, but also a fight against each other, different characters, different skills, such a game will definitely make many male customers like it." Chen Zhiwen smiled, then gestured, and an assistant handed Lei Shengli a folder.

Chen Zhiwen said: "This is some of the general settings I wrote, very simple, only a few pages, the biggest difficulty in this is to design different characters, different tricks, which requires the planning of your game department to solve this problem." ”

Chen Zhiwen remembers many games, but he only knows a rough idea, such as the most popular "Super Mario" before, he knows the general appearance of the characters, knows the settings of different bricks, and knows the setting of the sewer, but he doesn't know what it looks like, how to control the difficulty, etc., he can only put forward his own ideas, and then the rest are all supplemented by Midea's internal engineers according to this framework.

The King of Fighters is the same, he knows that the two sides choose different characters for the fight, but he doesn't remember any of the characters and tricks, he forgets them all, and now he can only frame his own requirements, and then let his subordinates design, as for what the design looks like, it depends on the ability of his subordinates.

There are not many descriptions of the "King of Fighters" game, Lei Shengli took a few minutes to read it, and then said: "Chen Sheng, the meaning of this game, I understand, if the various fights are really designed to be exciting, it will definitely be very attractive, and the arcade market may really be reactivated." ”

The main customers of the arcade are men themselves, and men, basically like to fight, but modern laws will not agree, and at the same time, they are prone to injury, so there are very few opportunities to get their hands on it, but if there is a game that allows both parties to vent their emotions to the fullest, it must have a very great attraction to young men.

"Yes, the attraction is definitely there, but that raises another problem." Chen Zhiwen said: "We can make such a game, but after we make it, other people can too, as long as it is different from our character design or special skill design, and our patents can only cover some practical things, not this type of game, so in terms of quality, we must do a good job, and try to design a lot of characters and backgrounds to attract all kinds of players in the shortest possible time, otherwise it is still possible to be caught up by others later." ”

Midea's previous games, such as Snake, Magic Cube, Mario, Pac-Man, etc., after these are designed by themselves, others can't imitate them, because the relevant patents lock up others, even if they barely bypass the patents, the things made are very average, and they can't rub the popularity of the original game.

But fighting games are different, this thing is a game category, you design it like this, others design it like that, it's completely irrelevant, and latecomers can also make very wonderful content, which can be seen in later generations, I don't know how many different types of two-player fighting games there are, and it is estimated that practitioners are countless.

Of course, no matter how you prepare, in the long run, it is impossible not to let others enter the market, but as long as you are fully prepared and the quality is good, you will have the opportunity to make a name for yourself first, and then continue to update and optimize in the future, you can also eat a large part of this market, which is enough.

"Okay, I understand, prepare enough character maps to be released, with the current strength of the United States, in fact, there is no big problem, other game companies are far inferior to us in terms of number of people and games." Lei Shengli said with a smile.

Although there are many companies in the electronics industry that are larger than the United States, but the main business of the people is not games, just a little involved, the investment in this market is far less than the United States, not to mention that the arcade market has declined, it is estimated that no one would think that the United States would kill again.

"Well, the whole R&D process also needs to be kept secret, patent registration needs to be diligent, and now many international companies are staring at us, and the development of new games is better not to be discovered in advance." Chen Zhiwen also said that the game market is too rich, even more profitable than the core industry of some chip companies, that is, IBM may be red-eyed, most electronics companies have entered the game market in the past few years, but they are not doing well, but they have not given up, these companies are staring at the United States.

"Okay, now Hong Kong also has a certain amount of research and development capabilities and experience, I will arrange closed research and development in Hong Kong for this game, even if there are technical problems, directly take it out separately and let the United States do it, they will not know what it is." Lei Shengli nodded and said.

Over the years, several of Midea's main games and related hardware have indeed been done by the United States, but in these processes, they have arranged for many Hong Kong people to learn and participate every time, and over the past few years, they have also cultivated thousands of technical talents for Hong Kong.

"Well, okay, you can discuss this matter internally, and then tell me the whole plan." Chen Zhiwen said: "In addition, the game of The King of Fighters is indeed suitable for arcade machines, but it does not mean that it is not suitable for family game consoles, in this regard, you must also prepare in advance, these two markets will not give up, and because of the social attributes, the conflict between the two markets may not be very large." ”

If you have a Mario game console at home, and then spend money to play in a bar, you are an idiot, but the King of Fighters is different, there are so many people in the bar, there is still a very atmosphere, this is just like the popularization of home computers in later generations, the Internet café industry has shrunk on a large scale, but there are still a lot of persistence, the most fundamental reason for this is that a group of people play games in the bar, very feeling, and it can even be said that once a computer online game is popular, it can bring a very hot business to Internet cafes across the country.

Of course, no matter what you say, it will still be far worse than before, and the decline of arcade machines is inevitable, just like home game consoles will be after the new century, just take every opportunity seriously.

"Okay, family game cards, I will also arrange people to develop them at the same time." Lei Shengli said. (End of chapter)