Super Tycoon

When Zhang Yang focused on domestic policies and the investment layout of Zhiduoxing Group was also rapidly expanding, Sega Bandai fell into a predicament.

This dilemma is brought about by changes in the network environment.

The Internet has begun to enter the broadband era, and countries have begun to promote broadband, especially in developed countries.

And the markets with the best sales of game consoles happen to be developed countries. Only people in developed countries have so much spare money to pursue spiritual satisfaction.

At the beginning, Sega Bandai designed a modem embedded in Uranus, which was called a genius design by many people, but now it seems that it has become a joke, which seriously hinders the upgrade of Uranus's network speed.

At this time, Zhiduoxing G2 has added several advertisements again. The content of the advertisements is that many players are playing against each other through the Internet. The game screen does not have any lag, just like playing on a game console.

And Zhiduxing Group directly named Sega Bandai: "Is Uranus' online game so smooth?"

After these advertisements came out, the sales of Uranus dropped severely again, and now the weekly sales have fallen below 100,000 units, but they have been sold in more than 70 countries around the world.

The weekly sales of Zhiduoxing G2 rose from 300,000 units to 500,000 units, comparing the damage.

The fourth quarter of 1999 has already arrived, and half of the fourth quarter has passed. The global sales volume of Zhiduoxing G2 is rushing to 30 million units. Two million units, the gap is getting bigger and bigger.

If you still can't think of a solution, then wait until next year when the PS2 is launched, and the sales of Uranus will plunge again. At that time, this game console will definitely fall into a loss again.

In desperation, Okawa held a meeting of senior management to discuss solutions. Fortunately, this time Bill Gates also came to participate.

"Everyone, our Uranus has been magnified due to design flaws, which has led to constant criticism of our Internet access function. How to solve it, please come up with a charter."

"President, our Internet access function is not so flawed, right? I know that broadband standards have been proposed, and countries are also laying broadband networks, but how long will it take, at least one or two years before the promotion is completed?"

"The players who actually use the Internet to play games are in the minority after all, because the price charged by the Internet is very high. Many people say that when they play games online, they will find out when the bill appears at the end of the month that the bill is almost enough to buy a game console."

"I think our core problem is the lack of games, especially the lack of series of games that players want to buy and play as soon as they hear the name. So we need to add a fee to buy games from other game companies, Or talk to them about the authorization share."

When Izumi Shoichiro said these words, he got the approval of several high-ranking officials, and Bill Gates also nodded.

Ueno Kazunori also said: "I agree with Nieko Shoichiro's point of view. We should increase the cost of game development. Bandai still has many animation copyrights worth developing. We have also gone through market research."

The two subsidiaries of Bandai and Sega operate independently, and the development of Bandai's animation copyright will be more cost-effective for the Bandai subsidiary, and it will also promote their animation and toy peripheral industries.

With money, it is natural to buy more animation copyrights. During this period of time, many companies have also produced good animations, which are very popular. This is not acceptable. Bandai must be the largest, and there must be an absolute gap with other companies.

Isao Okawa ignored Ueno Kazunori’s words, you knew to develop Bandai’s animation copyright, but I told you several times to make a big adaptation, why didn’t you agree?

The plots of many anime are somewhat similar. They are all routines such as heroes fighting monsters, and even some characters are similar. Can you make players remember it?

Take a look at Nintendo and Zhiduoxing. Their game characters are very distinctive, not only in different clothing, but also in hairstyles and face shapes.

Even some clear ones, the five senses can tell the difference.

"Bill, what do you think?" Okawa asked.

"Now players are only complaining about two points. The first is that our Internet access function is lagging behind and the Internet speed is slow. Then launch a peripheral device to change the Internet access method, or simply remove the modem from the game console."

"Second, we have a small number of masterpieces, so we should buy more games and develop more games. Even if we are losing money now, after the launch of our next-generation game consoles, the sequels of these games will have a certain player base , we can make money."

Hearing Bill 61 Gates' words, Isao Okawa felt a little bit in his heart. This is to make Uranus fall into a loss.

For Microsoft, the Uranus loss is nothing at all. A company with a market value of only more than three billion US dollars has lost all of it. It is not a problem for Microsoft. It is just a loss of face.

Microsoft has invested a lot in the past few years, and not every investment has made money, and many investments have been in vain. Microsoft has learned from some failures and made some of their products more successful, which is not a loss overall.

Microsoft is not afraid, it can wait for the next generation to earn back, but Sega Bandai can't, if it continues to lose money, the company's capital chain may be broken, and at that time it will either accept capital injection, continue to issue additional shares, or it can only be acquired.

These three situations happen to be what Microsoft wants to see, because Microsoft has long expressed the idea of ​​controlling Sega Bandai, and has never concealed it.

"Bill, a peripheral device that can assist the Internet must pass through our original port. The cost must not be low, and the R\u0026D cost will not be low. The company's funds will be a little tight."

"The development of the game will also seriously take up funds. The company really has no ability to carry out two things at the same time. I suggest that the company give up the peripherals that assist the Internet, which will increase the cost of game development."

"When the network speed really develops, we can also start the development of a new generation of game consoles. The golden sales period of a game console is only two to three years. Now we have sold it for almost two years, and when it is three years , we started the research and development of new game consoles, once again ahead of other game console manufacturers.”

"At that time, the network broadband should be stable, and the performance of our new game console will once again amaze the world. At the same time, we can also be backward compatible to make up for the shortcomings of Uranus."

The lack of backward compatibility alone has caused Uranus to be criticized by players a lot. Some old games still have many loyal players.

If it can be backward compatible, some of their old games can also be sold out, and it will be easier to develop a series of games.

Bill 61 Gates looked at Isao Okawa. He understood what the other party meant, and he just wanted to develop conservatively. No problem, let's do it this way, after Sunny PS2 goes public, Isao Okawa will beg him to increase his shareholding!