The Industrial Giant Reborn

"These things will be discussed in detail when there is feedback from the United States." Chen Zhiwen added: ""Space Invaders" is about to be released, and Henry Morgan will bring our finished samples to the United States for testing in the next few days. There will be no problem, according to the previous sales cycle, after half a year, a game will enter the recession period, so we have to consider making the next game.”

"Our team has produced several games over the past year, but the results were poor after being sent to the United States for testing." Lei Shengli said with some embarrassment.

Although Midea currently has a lot of business, everyone knows that the most important thing is arcade games, and even all other businesses rely on the huge profits of arcade games to develop. Otherwise, there is not enough funds. Investment and technological achievements are also impossible. Therefore, Midea has naturally set up a professional game development team internally. Many Chinese engineers have been recruited from Wanwan and even the United States, and two or three games have been made, but the results are not so good, and it can even be said that Nobody cares.

"You don't need it. I have already written the content outline for this game this time, and you can develop it according to this." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

When his subordinates try to make games, he naturally knows that failure is normal, and success is accidental, or even impossible. The history of arcade machines is very short, and there are only a few games that can be suitable for arcade machines. After the popularization of home game consoles, classic The number of games has increased, but most of them are not suitable for arcades. These two business logics are different. One is to play games for a short period of time, and then spend money to play games. The other is to consume users’ time and increase fun. It is completely opposite. direction.

The difficulty of the former is naturally much higher than that of the latter. Home game consoles only need to be fun, while arcade machines require users to have fun in a very short period of time, and then want to spend money to play another game, but want to do this The difficulty is very high, and if the user plays for too long, the direct customers headed by the bar owner will not make money.

The success of Midea has actually attracted the attention of many international electronic giants, and some of them want to get a piece of the pie, but the few games they launched have no market at all, and even these companies don’t understand the market at all. Occasionally one or two games are fun, but they consume too much time for users.

As for his own company, he does not expect to be able to develop new games suitable for arcades now. He needs to study technology, creativity, and market demand carefully, and then when the era of home consoles and computer games comes, he can make his own blood.

Now, let's rely on the prophet's golden finger to cheat. After all, people in this era are novices in video games, and they are willing to spend money for games. Only by earning enough funds can the development of their company be better.

After finishing speaking, Chen Zhiwen took out a document from the drawer beside him, handed it to Lei Shengli, and said, "This game is called Pac-Man, you should take a look first."

"Okay." Lei Shengli took the document, and then read it carefully. After about 15 minutes, he closed the document.

"How is it?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"It doesn't seem as exciting as "Space Invaders." Lei Shengli said hesitantly.

"That's right, this game itself is not stimulating, but relaxing." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said: "The few games we launched before all put a lot of pressure on players, and this one This "Pac-Man" is actually for relaxation, so that everyone can play the game easily."

"Chen Sheng, you mean, it serves as a foil for our previous games? When everyone is tired from playing, you can play this to relax?" Lei Shengli asked.

"Can you understand it like this? But it's okay to play alone, mainly because our previous games, or other games on the market, overdraw the players' energy in this way, and the players' psychological estimates have reached their limit, so we will take the opposite route once. Try it." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

In the original history, there was only one "Space Invaders", which became popular in the United States for nearly a year, and for such a long time, there were basically no other types of games, all of which were similar plagiarized versions. No matter how fun the game, no matter how delicious the food, no matter how beautiful the girl is, after a long time, you will always get tired of it.

After a long period of time, players who often play have also become repelled. This is why Chen Zhiwen arranges to replace his game in about 6-9 months, in order to keep the interest of these major customers in the game, and at the same time provide a Get the best profit.

And a year later, the appearance of "Pac-Man" once again completely dominated the entire market, just because it was easy, and even better, because of its existence, many people would occasionally relish "Space Invasion" "Games" similar to "The Bartender" allow bar owners to make more money.

In this life, before "Space Invaders", there were Magic Cube and Snake. Although these two games are different from "Space Invaders", they are not so exciting, but they also consume brain cells. According to common sense, etc. After more than half a year, "Space Invaders" appeared in all bars, and some people would not want to play this game after they got tired of playing it.

At this time, the appearance of "Pac-Man" is the best time.

"Okay, I understand, then I will immediately arrange our team to develop this game." Lei Shengli said.

"This is the first time our Hong Kong team has developed this type of game, and the development of "Pac-Man" is more difficult than the previous games, and Woz is not around, are you sure?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

Many things in history are not accidental. For example, the appearance of various games basically follows a basic law, that is, the development difficulty and requirements for hardware chips of the games that appear later are higher than those of the previous games.

Ping-pong, Brick Breaker, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Tank Wars, Mario, King of Fighters, etc. are the rules. With the improvement of chip capabilities, complex games will be developed. Only a few games do not follow this rule. , such as Tetris, these are accidental inventions.

Although "Pac-Man" is a light-hearted game, its page background, game running speed, and algorithm requirements are much stronger than "Space Invaders".

"I don't dare to say how sure I am, I will only know after I try it." Lei Shengli looked at the hand-painted picture on the document in his hand, and knew that this task was not easy. Although the Hong Kong team had developed several games before, none of them It is super simple and similar to Arkanoid, which is far from the requirements of "Pac-Man".

"Okay, let's try it. If you are really not sure, I will ask Woz to come over and help." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said: "You also know that Woz is currently working on the development of new computers at Apple, and I don't think he has much time. .”

Since Apple launched its second-generation personal computer at the Los Angeles Electronics Fair last year, it has become famous in the United States. After that, the entire company is no longer a garage company, but under the management of the relevant management team, it began to develop formally. He became Apple's chief technical officer, and after discussing with Chen Zhiwen, he suspended his job in Midea.

For Chen Zhiwen, Woz's value in Apple is obviously greater. As long as Apple goes public as it did in history, or earlier, he can get hundreds of millions of dollars in shares. Rapid development, several iterative upgrades, the function has been greatly improved, although for arcades, it is not too much performance, but it is not as good as in previous years, because the number of chips cannot be controlled and the cost cannot be reduced.

If there are still problems that cannot be solved by yourself, at worst, you can just find Woz. As Woz’s boss who has been the most generous and “good” to him, and is also one of Apple’s largest shareholders, this point is still shameless. questionable.

"I think we should be fine with the design of the software. For the hardware, we may need some help from colleagues in the United States." Lei Shengli said.

"Cooperation is good." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, although Midea is a Hong Kong company, it does not expect the core technology to be mastered by Hong Kong. It is impossible for the entire talent pool in Hong Kong to meet this requirement. Nokia, the country behind it is only a country with a small population, and Nokia has a large number of research and development bases, and it is still released globally.

Naturally, Midea will be the same in the future. In Hong Kong, it is enough to have a little bit.

"By the way, what happened to the cooperation business we were discussing with Toyota before?" Chen Zhiwen suddenly asked again.

Lei Shengli said: "Toyota did not agree to let us be their supplier of refrigeration compressors, and only considered handing over the business of moving motors and seat fans on the seats to us."

"Is the relationship not in place?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Not counting, we have already met a deputy director of Toyota's purchasing department through an intermediary, and he also wants to pull us into the supply chain of the refrigeration assembly department, but the three Japanese companies that supply Toyota also have They have a deep relationship, and they are trying their best to prevent us from entering the arena." Lei Shengli said.

"The cake inside is too big. It's really not easy for us to go in and separate the cakes." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

In the past two years, Chen Zhiwen, as the boss, has been mainly responsible for major matters such as the acquisition of Hutchison, the merger of Whampoa, the settlement of Hutchison’s debt problems, the layout of the real estate market, the construction of Midea’s industrial park, and the focus on overseas arcade game markets. The business has already achieved self-development, and there is no need for Chen Zhiwen to intervene too much. It only needs to report the results regularly.

For example, Midea’s home appliance business, in addition to maintaining a good cooperative relationship with Costco and Wal-Mart, relevant professional managers are also trying their best to expand other customer markets, such as Celtic, the largest supermarket in the United States, and several large supermarkets in Europe, etc. At the same time, we are also looking for suitable distributors in Southeast Asia, Europe and America, and try our best to develop new customers.

Midea's home appliances are in a very interesting intermediate state. In terms of technology, they are not as good as the well-known European, American and Japanese brands, but the cost is much lower. Compared with many real miscellaneous brands, the technology is much stronger. This is due to the large amount of funds. Research and development, acquisition of patents, cost reduction and experience accumulation after mass production.

With this advantage, the sales volume brought by the development business of Midea's home appliance business team even surpassed that of Costco and Wal-Mart. The goal that has been pursued.

In the auto parts business, Midea’s major Japanese car companies are also very willing to spend money because of sufficient funds. The company’s team is also constantly developing new business for Toyota.

Midea has been making its own motors since 1973, starting with fan motors. Because it has been investing in research and development, or purchasing overseas technology and production lines, its shipments have surpassed Johnson Electric, a local brand in Hong Kong, and become the largest motor company in Hong Kong. , civilian industries are involved, and have been exported in large quantities. Of course, it is not considered a high-end brand.

After gaining a certain reputation, and the previous radio supply business also had no problems under strong quality control, Midea naturally wanted to pursue more businesses, and motors were a key point. At the same time, Bize, who came from Germany to open a branch Er Refrigeration Company also started to manufacture condensing compressors in Hong Kong.

However, it is clear that Toyota's supply chain does not welcome outsiders. The small motors and fans on the seats may not be important, but the air conditioning part is different, and the value is much higher.

"Yes, the deputy chief Inoue we know also means the same thing. He also said that if we can supply motors stably for a long time without any problems, then he will try to let us enter the supply chain of air conditioners after two years. " Lei Shengli said.

"Well, let's do a good job with the motor and seat fan first." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.

In two years, electronic products may have been updated, but in the automotive field, it is very short. Many parts companies have developed for many years before they can grow bigger. For Midea, which is not in Japan, do It is no longer easy to get to this point. The biggest reason may be that the "investment" in people is in place.

"In fact, there is another problem. Toyota is willing to outsource some low-tech parts, which require more labor and are easy to transport. Those with high technology content are more willing to stay in the local area. It will be very troublesome to solve the problem." Lei Shengli continued.

"The auto industry is indeed pursuing localization. This is also our disadvantage, which cannot be changed for the time being." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said, it is impossible to build a factory in Japan now, right? If it is built, Toyota won't lose money if it doesn't give orders.

Besides, the most fundamental reason for starting the auto parts industry by myself is to be able to participate in the future when the mainland starts to modernize car manufacturing.

It is difficult for China to intervene in the automobile industry, but the parts industry has much less restrictions. In the 1980s and 1990s, even the public with a good relationship with China was willing to invest in China, but they were not willing to invest huge sums of money. Carry out localization, because many parts of Volkswagen are not produced by itself, and it is difficult to persuade so many suppliers to invest in China.

Volkswagen could also choose to find local suppliers, but at the domestic industrial level at that time, it was difficult to meet the requirements of Volkswagen. This may have its own opportunity, which is a golden opportunity for the development of the automobile industry.

Of course, the best situation is to have your own car company, so that it will be much easier to bring in the industrial chain yourself, and you can also take the opportunity to develop a complete industrial chain in China, but this requires a huge amount of funds.

As long as the investment harvest in 1979 is in place, he can get the auto industry he wants.

At present, Midea in Hong Kong only needs to develop according to the normal pace, especially the multiple contacts, communications, and audits with Toyota, and many engineers in Midea’s auto business have learned about Toyota’s management methods, quality requirements, etc. .

This can not only be used for the management of Midea's civilian products, but also be of great help to the layout of its own automobile industry in the future.

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