game trailblazer

Chapter 29 Reception

With food in hand, don't panic.Hiroshi Yamauchi felt a lot better after getting the solution to the FC game console failure. Of course, to really solve the problem, he must first unify his thinking internally, and the Nintendo FC game console emergency countermeasure meeting was held accordingly.According to Hiroshi Yamauchi's idea, first unify everyone's ideas, and then announce the good news that the solution has been proposed at the meeting. I believe that in this way, the employees will continue to unite closely around him.Unexpectedly, at the beginning of the meeting, before Hiroshi Yamauchi had time to express his views, most of the high-level executives expressed their opinions one after another, thinking that the commercial war at the end of the year is approaching, and if the game consoles that have been released are fully recalled, it will directly affect future sales. The peak season will cause incalculable financial losses.This is completely contrary to Hiroshi Yamauchi's opinion. In his opinion, nothing is more important than the company's reputation. Before the cause of the failure was not clear, delaying tactics could be considered, but now that the failure has been resolved, in order to restore the company's reputation Reputation, all previously shipped game consoles must be taken back.

At the meeting, Hiroshi Yamauchi slapped the table and said excitedly: "We must get back all the FC game consoles that have been on the market immediately, the sooner the better, otherwise we will lose the trust of users!"

At the insistence of Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo began to implement a firm recycling policy.Once again, long queues lined up at the door of the once lively retail store. It was just a few months ago that the line was for snap-ups, but this time it was for returns.In order to complete the recycling as soon as possible, Nintendo didn't even care about Christmas, and completely abandoned the peak sales season at the end of the year, which caused a direct loss of more than 15 billion yen.However, Nintendo’s action of reckless loss has brought a good reputation. Many consumers would rather hold the money for purchase than choose game consoles from other manufacturers on the market.This round of action by Nintendo has laid a solid foundation for its future dominance, but it has also made other companies that produce game consoles grit their teeth with hatred.When the repackaged FC game console was launched in January 1984, there was another frenzy of panic buying. Users who had been waiting for a long time rushed into the specialty store and bought every FC game console that could be seen. In just two weeks, Nintendo's first batch of 1 million FC game consoles have been sold out.And some users who are slow to grab the game console can only buy one or two game cards to comfort their empty hearts.

As Nintendo slowly began to achieve its own success, another industry leader across the ocean was in trouble. The "Peanut" PCjr, which IBM had high hopes for, also went on the market in early 1984, but the keyboard material of this machine had inherent deficiencies and an extremely bad feel, which directly made users less interested in it.What's more troublesome is that all the interfaces between PCjr and external communication are redesigned, and they are not compatible with popular PCs at all. As a result, users either choose from a limited number of PCjr special accessories, or they can only give up the idea of ​​expansion. PCjr was originally positioned as a civilian-level home PC for low-end users, but the bureaucrats who set the price didn't think about the acceptance of low-end users at all, and directly set a super price that most users could not accept.Under the influence of three unfavorable factors, this work that IBM tried to seize the low-end computer market finally failed shamefully, and it did not take long to completely withdraw from the computer market.

The fire at the city gate affected the fish in the pond, and the failure of PCjr directly poured cold water on the ambitious Lüberta development team.The game was produced according to plan, but the originally envisioned platform has shrunk. Just looking at the PCjr sales of just over 2000 units, Lüberta can figure out with his toes that his game is definitely going to hit the street.Fortunately, the savior came on the scene. Tandy Company launched a computer, Tandy-1000, whose specifications were basically the same as those of PCjr. Unlike PCjr, Tandy-1000 was compatible with PCs.After getting two Tandy-1000s to study, Lüberta soon came up with a modified version of "The King's Secret Envoy", which ran decently on the new computer platform.With the help of Tandy-1000's hot sales, "The King's Secret Envoy" has also achieved good results. At least the Lubeta development team did not let Zhang Lexing, an investor, lose money.

……

Adobe, which had been silent for more than a year, also began to shine in the first half of 84. The printing control language Postscript researched by Warlock began to attract the attention of many companies in Silicon Valley.The first one to call to ask for cooperation was DEC (a well-known minicomputer company). Vice President Gordon hoped that Adobe could cooperate with DEC to promote the Postscript language on DEC's laser printers.Soon, Apple's Jobs also called. He came to find a good application for Apple's new product Macintosh (Macintosh) computer this year. The Macintosh computer officially launched on January 1 has only two application software developed by Apple itself. Although the 24 processor is claimed to be faster than the PC, and the 68000KB random memory is claimed to be larger than the PC, users buy computers for It is for use, not for comparison, and soon the thin application makes users give up this beautiful computer.In order to turn the Macintosh computer into a turnaround, Jobs decided to use Adobe's technology to produce laser printers, and then drive the printer through the Macintosh computer, hoping to impress with the printing-like output effect of Postscript technology. Users, by the way, drive the sales of Macintosh computers.In order to get Adobe's support, Jobs even offered $128 million to buy 500% of Adobe's shares in exchange for Warlock's support for him. The cooperation between Adobe and Apple was successful, but Jobs’ idea of ​​buying equity did not come true. Not only Warlock was unwilling to this point, but Zhang Lexing was even more unwilling. Jobs had to settle for the next best option and spent $20 million to purchase the Postscript patent license.However, the news that Jobs tried to buy equity made Adobe more famous, and because of this, Red River Fund had its first successful investment case and began to attract the attention of some people.

One day in May, Zhang Lexing was looking at the company's operating reports in the office as usual, when an invitation letter for a reception was delivered to his desk.Zhang Lexing usually discusses the operating system with Joey, or watches the excitement in his own game development studio, and occasionally cares about the company's operating conditions. When resting, he either stays at home or goes shopping with Yang Xinxin in shopping malls or supermarkets , there are rarely too many social activities, and this is the first time Zhang Lexing has received such an invitation.Unsure whether to go or not, Zhang Lexing decided to consult with someone.

"What do you think this reception is for?" Zhang Lexing put the invitation letter on Yang Xinxin's desk, and threw himself onto the sofa.

"This reception was organized by a venture capitalist." Yang Xinxin also took out an invitation letter from the drawer, and said with a smile, "I also received one."

"Didn't it mean the venture capitalist's reception? How did you get invited?" Zhang Lexing couldn't help but picked up the two invitation letters and compared them. Could this be the legendary "collision letter".

"It's true that the reception was organized by venture capitalists, but the participants also included people in the electronics industry. I attended on behalf of VisualSystem, and I can be regarded as a person in this circle, and I didn't make a lot of investment. What?" Yang Xinxin said angrily.

"Hehe..." Zhang Lexing laughed a few times, with embarrassment on his face.

"This is a buffet reception, it won't be as cramped as a formal banquet. There's no harm in going there. You don't usually have too many social activities. This time, you can broaden your horizons and maybe meet a few experts and scholars. "Yang Xinxin restored the smile on his face.

"Well, it sounds good. Let's go together then." Zhang Lexing had a smile on his face, but the liquid hanging from the corner of his mouth made people doubt his real motive.

A week later, the day of the reception arrived, and Zhang Lexing was shamelessly driven by Yang Xinxin to the mansion where the reception was held.As an adult man, Zhang Lexing should have driven here by himself, but for some reason, as soon as he got into the cab and picked up the steering wheel, Zhang Lexing couldn't keep calm as usual. As a result of the confusion, Zhang Lexing had to give up his plan to drive by himself, and even went to work with Yang Xinxin's car.It's a pity that there are no games like "GT Racing" and "Need for Speed", otherwise Zhang Lexing could still enjoy his addiction on the computer.

Yang Xinxin's driving skills are good and she is familiar with the roads, so she quickly drove into the mansion where the reception was held.There were a lot of people present at the reception. Zhang Lexing looked familiar to many of them, but unfortunately, many of them could not be named. Fortunately, Yang Xinxin is very good at socializing. This embarrassing scene has to face the past.Turning around, I didn't see any familiar people. Zhang Lexing started to attack the desserts on the table with the red wine in his hand. Yang Xinxin followed with the wine glass, and occasionally picked up one or two desserts to taste, but her Attention is more on the surrounding guests.After staying for a while, Yang Xinxin seemed to see an acquaintance, explained to Zhang Lexing, and walked away with a glass of wine.Zhang Lexing was even more bored by himself, so he simply dragged a chair over and sat down, concentrating on enjoying the delicious snacks at the table.While eating happily, a middle-aged man with a beard walked straight to Zhang Le.

"Could it be that I met an acquaintance?" Zhang Lexing murmured in his heart.

(End of this chapter)