Video Game Empire

Chapter 214: Entrepreneurship and Risk

"The output value of arcade machines has already exceeded 12 billion US dollars in three quarters? Can it reach 15 billion in the whole year?" Zheng Danrui asked in shock when he heard this number. 【For more wonderful novels, please visit】

Converting US$15 billion into Hong Kong dollars at the latest exchange rate is nearly 100 billion. Who would have thought that a humble game console could create such a huge industry!

"I may have made a slip of the tongue before!" Li Xuan didn't feel any nervousness, but his words were a little off, so he immediately corrected, "In the first three quarters of this year, the total output value of arcade machines in the U.S. market was $6.2 billion, and the global market was worth $6.2 billion. for $8.5 billion!

The 8 billion and 12 billion I said earlier were estimates for the full year. The last quarter is often the peak sales season. Because there are intensive holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years at the end of the year, the total output value of the industry in the United States and the world this year has exceeded 8 billion and 12 billion US dollars respectively, which is not a problem at all! "

"Oh!" Zheng Dan Rui Rui was a little disappointed, and he quickly asked again, "Dongfang Games is known as the new king of the arcade industry, how much market share can you take?"

The director behind the camera's face gradually became ugly, and he found that Zheng Danrui was a little off topic. None of these issues were listed in the program. He was afraid that Li Xuan would be unhappy, so he immediately reached out and gave Zheng Danrui a signal to tell him not to make his own decisions.

Li Xuan did not feel that it was inappropriate, and these data did not need to be kept secret. He said indifferently: "We are ashamed to be the king, but Dongfang Games has indeed grown into one of the most important arcade production companies in the world. In the first three quarters of this year, we sold more than 300,000 arcade machines, accounting for 15% of the global market share!”

There was a hint of arrogance in Li Xuan's plain tone. It only took less than two years for Oriental Games. It has been promoted to the world's second street machine manufacturer, second only to Sega in sales.

But Dongfang Games has gone from last year to the present. The total number of arcade games released is less than ten, and Sega has released dozens of arcade games this year alone. Sega's sales are built on the number of games. This will also greatly increase the cost of game development.

"That is to say, just relying on arcade machines, Dongfang Game Company has created an output value of 1.25 billion US dollars!" Zheng Danrui's voice trembled slightly.

"Hehe, your understanding is wrong! The output value of the industry is calculated based on the terminal sales price. For example, the terminal retail price of our latest arcade game "Kung Fu" in the United States is as high as 4,000 US dollars. But our ex-factory price is lower than this price. Much more, there needs to be enough profit margins for the distributors in the intermediate links!" Li Xuan shook his head and said.

"Even as a big player like Dongfang Game Company, the market share can only account for 15%. Does it mean that the competition in the arcade industry is very fierce?" Zheng Danrui continued to ask.

"Yes, there are more than 100 arcade companies in Japan alone. But they are the same as the arcade companies in Hong Kong. Most of them fail to produce good enough products. They keep going out of business. But the industry is rich. Profits, and a steady stream of attracting new companies to join!

In the United States, it takes one million US dollars to develop an arcade game. The cost in Hong Kong is slightly lower, but it also requires at least two or three million Hong Kong dollars! This means that after the Hong Kong company develops the game, it will have to sell at least a thousand units before it can make a return!

Other game companies in Hong Kong cannot have such a complete global sales system as Dongfang Game Company. The Hong Kong market is too small, and they can only survive by exploring the markets in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

However, the market profits in these places are far less lucrative than those in the European and American markets. If the game is not attractive enough, sales are often not enough to recoup development costs. This is also the reason why many arcade companies have been closing down recently! "Li Xuan said with a sigh.

In fact, there is another important reason that Li Xuan did not mention. Making arcade games requires a sufficient technical foundation. For example, game programmers must at least be proficient in assembly language. In the University of Hong Kong, CUHK and Polytechnic, the total number of computer graduates is less than 100 each year. Most of them are in the pockets of various companies under Dongfang Electronics, and it is difficult for other companies to recruit real talents.

"Starting a business is not an easy task. The risks involved are huge! As Li Sheng you just said, it is very important to find the right entry point, such as the successful Mingyao game company!" Zheng Danrui said in a timely manner.

"The game consoles have been on the market since last year to the present. The total sales volume has exceeded 30 million units, accounting for more than 80% of the entire handheld game console market. And most players who buy game consoles. It is impossible to play only one game. No matter how much Interesting game, if you play it every day, you will get bored very quickly!

Therefore, Dongfang Games will launch 3 to 5 new games every month for players to choose from. So it counts. The game handheld platform will launch at least 40 new games every year! In addition to our own research and development, we will also support third-party games to be sold on the game!

If you can develop a good game, it only needs to attract 10% of players who own game consoles to buy, and the sales of new game cards can reach 3 million copies! Mingyao Games has only developed two new games. The company that originally invested 300,000 to start up is now valued at 15 million! "

Li Xuan's words are very provocative, and it seems that success is within easy reach. In fact, the reality is far from easy. Dongfang Game Company has very strict regulations on the standards for launching new games on the game and the two game platforms.

The game quality rating must reach 3 stars or more, and this rating standard is determined by Dongfang Game Company, and third-party manufacturers can only choose to obey. In order to ensure the quality of new games on the platform, Dongfang Game Company will refuse to list games with ratings below 3 stars. Once the game fails to meet the three standards, all the energy invested by the third-party company in the early stage becomes useless.

Dongfang Games has signed third-party game development agreements with dozens of game companies. But there are not many new games that have actually reached 3 stars or more. Of the several third-party developers in Hong Kong, only Ming Yao Games' two new games received 3 and 3.5 stars, respectively.

In fact, Mingyao has also developed 2 other games before, but only 2.5 stars and 2 stars respectively. If the quality of the new games developed this time has not improved by leaps and bounds, and all of them have reached the standard for sale on the shelves, but if they still fail like the previous one, the only thing waiting for the two founders can be bankruptcy and closing.

After all, with the initial 300,000 start-up capital, it is a miracle that Mingyao Games can last a year. Huo Yaoliang and Tan Jiaming are still students themselves, and the family will pay living expenses every month, so there is no pressure to survive. In order to save money, the two have never received a penny in the company's salary. Other employees of the company are also classmates who they have drawn from the school to be part-time technicians. The wages are calculated by the hour, and the cost is very economical.

But even so, the funds of 300,000 yuan have been completely exhausted in one year. Fortunately, they successfully achieved self-redemption before the death line and developed two qualified game games. This makes them now newspaper startup heroes, earning a lot of real money quickly just by waiting for the game to hit the market.

Naturally, Li Xuan would not speak about these behind-the-scenes risks on live TV. He needs to use Mingyao Games, a new entrepreneurial role model that the newspapers are hyping, to attract more people to join the ranks of third-party game development.

Thus, a steady stream of good games are delivered to game handhelds and game consoles. Only by continuously releasing a large number of high-quality games can we continue to maintain a strong sales life of a game console.

"Xu Sheng, it is said that the enterprises in the incubation park have received meticulous help. Not only do you provide very perfect logistical services, but you also provide entrepreneurial guidance from time to time! So how does the incubator make money?" Zheng Danrui glanced at the outline, according to the Taiwanese Xu Yuan asked.

"Hehe, the various services we provide to the companies in the incubation park are as low as possible to reduce everyone's cost of starting a business. But as the saying goes, the world is full of benefits, and the world is full of benefits! We do not Not a charity, but a profit-seeking business!

The early-stage companies that join the incubator do not accept our high-quality and cheap services for free, they need to pay an additional share of equity! In fact, like those venture capitalists, we all rely on our vision to make money! There is no threshold for the incubator to accept enterprises into the park. Only the projects that we believe have certain development prospects will the incubator be willing to absorb it!

For example, the aforementioned Mingyao Game Company was valued at HK$15 million before accepting venture capital funding. Among them, Oriental Incubation Park holds 20% of the shares. This part of the shares is now worth 3 million Hong Kong dollars, and there is still room for further appreciation in the future! "Xu Yu'an explained with a smile.

Afterwards, Li Xuan talked about the first time he went to Japan to negotiate with Epson~www.wuxiaspot.com~ and asked them to agree to OEM the arcade version. It was the first time he went to the United States to participate in the electronics exhibition and competed with the American arcade agents. These are entrepreneurial stories that no one knows about.

The next day, the episode aired on ATV. "God of Fortune Li" was on TV for the first time, telling the story of his own business. This gimmick made the ratings of this episode of "Three Walks of Qiang Qiang" soared by two times, setting a new rating record since the program was launched.

This episode also further heated up the topic of entrepreneurship. Stop being a wage earner and make a lot of money by being your own boss, which is a new idea for many people who are unwilling to be ordinary. The VC industry boom that Li Xuan has just spawned just happened to provide strong financial support for these bursts of entrepreneurial enthusiasm.

The office of Oriental Venture Capital in Central welcomes dozens of activists with entrepreneurial dreams every day. And some other newly established venture capital companies have gradually appeared near the Oriental Venture Company, so that after many years, the surrounding area has become the most famous gathering place for venture capital companies in Asia. (To be continued..)

ps: There are a lot of things going on in the company today. The second chapter is being written. If it can’t be finished before twelve o’clock, it will be posted tomorrow morning.

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