Super Tycoon

When Zhang Yang was studying how the company went public, his peers did not slack off and worked hard to develop. Nintendo has already planned to officially launch 64DD, and seeing the promotion of Battle.net and Sega Bandai's online battles, it has also begun to build its own network platform.

In fact, at this time Nintendo has discovered that their 64DD has become tasteless. But Nintendo has made a promise to consumers, if it is not released this year, players will be very disappointed.

A company's reputation is very important, and Nintendo has worked hard to build their brand, and this cannot be shaken. So even though they knew that 64DD was no longer suitable for distribution, they still planned to push it to the market.

On the one hand, fulfill the promise, on the other hand, you can also explore their network platform to prepare for the future.

The sales of N64 continued to decline during this period. In the island country, it was overwhelmed by Sega Bandai's Uranus. In overseas markets, it was jointly suppressed by Zhiduoxing and Suni.

Originally, Nintendo thought that this game console might be able to sell about 50 million units, but now it seems that 30 million is a big mark.

In terms of peripheral capabilities, they are not as good as Zhiduoxing, in terms of the number of games, they are not as good as Suni, and in terms of advanced performance, they are not as good as Sega Bandai, making Nintendo's products seem to have no features.

Fortunately, they have some best-selling game masterpieces. Super Mario 64 has sold millions of sets, and it has already paid back, and the sales volume is still increasing, and it is hoped that it will exceed 10 million sets.

The Legend of Zedar: Ocarina of Time is currently selling very hot, driving the sales growth of the console. But other than that, there's nothing particularly hot about it.

Of course, there are still many games to make money.

But relying on games to prolong the life of the host, it is impossible to make more money. In particular, Sega Bandai has launched a 128-bit host, and Zhiduoxing and Sunny are also developing it. Even Zhiduoxing said it will be launched this year, and Suni also said it will be launched next year. They must also be updated.

Otherwise, it will be like FC was suppressed by 16-bit machines produced by Sega and NEC. When you launched, many players had already bought other people's products. Would they buy another game console?

Therefore, the release and sales cycle of this 64DD must not be long, and it must not affect the sales of the next-generation machine. This point must also be explained to the players.

To put it bluntly, this 64DD is destined to lose money, but Nintendo can only hold its nose and admit it.

So Yamauchi discussed with the company's executives, and decided to launch the 64DD to the market in March, but only in the island market, and it is not sold in other regions.

The loss in one market is enough, and Nintendo can't bear the loss in more markets. The estimated loss is about 100 to 200 million US dollars.

In order to make up for the loss, Nintendo decided to increase the retail price of this product, that is to say, this product is only sold to high-end players who are not bad at money.

Ordinary players, forget it.

The 64DD is on the market, and the retail price is set at 30,000 yen. Calculated according to the exchange rate at this time, it was more than two hundred dollars. And Nintendo's N64, the price at this time is only 19,800 yen.

The price of a peripheral is 1.5 times the price of the host, which has never been done before. Sega has launched some peripherals, and the price is relatively high, but it is not as high as this ratio.

At this time, Sega Bandai's Uranus, currently the only 128-bit host, has a strong performance, and its retail price is only 29,800 yen. A peripheral that is more expensive than the best game consoles on the market, and it would be hell if it could be sold.

When this product was launched, there were some media reports, but the splash was not big. After Zhang Yang knew the news, he called Sun Tengfei over.

"Tengfei, Nintendo's 64DD is on sale, what do you think?"

Sun Tengfei still remembers saying that this is destined to be a hit product, but he was criticized by the president at that time. He also studied the characteristics of this product carefully, and roughly guessed Nintendo's thinking.

"President, this product will definitely lead to a decline in Nintendo's profits. First of all, in terms of price, it is not easy for people to accept. Perhaps Nintendo also understands, but they have to launch it in order to promise, otherwise it will affect the company's reputation."

"But the product can't be sold, and the research and development costs are not low. In addition, they launch network services, so the later maintenance costs will definitely be higher."

"We have studied it and know that the future network is the development trend of the game industry, just like 3D at this time. But on Nintendo's network platform, only the games on FC can be downloaded."

What kind of game is it on FC? It's just an 8-bit game. Now, on Zhiduoxing Z3 and Nintendo's GBC, all 16-bit games are running, and 8-bit games are far behind.

In some economically underdeveloped areas, the game industry is not well developed, and there are still some markets for 8-bit games. For example, in Huaxia, there are still more people playing games on learning machines than in arcade halls and Zhiduoxing G.

"And the long-term release of this product is also a very heavy burden for Nintendo, and it also affects the sales of their next-generation game consoles. After analysis, we believe that this is just an over-the-top product, and the sales period may only be a year or a half. "

"However, this product may make more people interested in making their own games, and they will become Nintendo employees or third-party game manufacturers. At the same time, Nintendo can also explore online game models for the development of their next-generation game consoles." Gain experience."

"However, we don't think this will have any impact on Zhiduoxing G2. We can also connect to the Internet, and we have experience in building a network platform for Battle.net. We are better at this aspect."

Zhang Yang was very satisfied with Sun Tengfei's answer, and finally he no longer despised his opponent. How can Nintendo's ability be underestimated that Nintendo has been able to develop to this day and was once the industry leader?

There is another piece of news that didn't cause much trouble, that is, Shinji Matsushima was held accountable after he resigned from Nintendo, and it is said that he sold his Nintendo stocks and went to the United States.

Zhang Yang doesn't know much about the specific situation, but it seems that Yamauchi Fu is currently selecting an heir, and directly excluded his son-in-law.

In the previous life, Nintendo hired someone from the non-Yamauchi family to take the helm of Nintendo, and the development was indeed good. Ten years later, Nintendo suppressed Sunny again in terms of profits, and it was still strong in the handheld market.

But in this life, it is not certain whether Nintendo can turn around. And this time it is no longer Sonny who is suppressing Nintendo, but their Zhiduoxing. Not only the home machine market, but also the handheld market.

"Leave 64DD to Satoshi Matsutajiri to pay attention to. Your focus is to pay attention to Sega Bandai and Sunny. Especially Sega Bandai, this is our main competitor this year!"