game trailblazer

Chapter 301 Focusing on Future Technology

Ken Kutaragi has been having a lot of headaches recently, because the export of PS2 game consoles has encountered a lot of trouble. One of the obstacles is actually from the RB government. The reason is that the PS2 game consoles are suspected of being used in the military. PS2 game consoles are included in the conventional weapons-related multi-purpose products of foreign trade, and it is also stipulated that as long as they are exported to regions other than RB or brought out more than a certain amount (this amount is tentatively set at 50000 yen, which is less than two PS2 Price) PS2 game consoles must have the approval of the Minister of International Trade and Industry with his own signature.

The reason for getting into this trouble is because the graphics processor of the PS2 game machine is too powerful. According to the evaluation of a professional testing agency commissioned by the RB government, the graphics processing chip of the PS2 can process 300 million 3D vector graphics per second. The performance is enough to undertake the use as a small supercomputer or missile guidance.Therefore, according to the provisions of the RB Foreign Trade Law (Article 21 of guns and bombs, Article 130 of computer-related supplies), the PS2 game console itself is designated as a conventional weapon-related product.

Since the current price of PS2 is 39800 yen, according to the limit of 50000 yen, as long as you export or bring out more than 2 PS2 game consoles, you must have the signature permission of the Minister of International Trade and Industry, otherwise you will face imprisonment for less than 5 years and A fine of up to 200 million yen.But the Minister of International Trade and Industry is not the private property of Takeshi Kutaragi's family. It is impossible to sign it at any time if you want him to sign it, and sign every two units. If Sony Computer Entertainment exports 100 million units at a time, then the Minister of International Trade and Industry will also There's no need to do anything else, I'm afraid I'm too busy to sign for Sony's family, and even if the Minister of International Trade and Industry decides to sacrifice himself, Sony Computer Entertainment doesn't have so much time to wait for the signature.

Fortunately, after hard communication, Sony Computer Entertainment finally obtained an export license this fall, allowing them to export PS2 game consoles to countries other than Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea.But what I didn't expect was that the DVD playback function of the PS2 game console caused new troubles, and this time it was the film companies in Hollywood.

Several major Hollywood film companies, including Paramount, Universal, MGM, Disney, Time Warner, etc., sued Sony Computer Entertainment to the Los Angeles District Court, demanding that the sale of the PS2 game console be banned until it is corrected. The fuse of the game comes from the DVD playback function of the PS2 game console.

At present, the PS2 game consoles in circulation in the market are dedicated to the RB region. Its DVD playback function can only be used to watch DVDs in the 2nd region (RB) and the whole region. However, there are bugs in the first batch of PS2 game consoles on the market. After a few simple operations of pressing the handle, you can skip the detection of DVD region codes, watch DVDs in regions 2 to 1 and the whole region on the PS6 game console, and when the PS2 game console uses analog RGB output, you can transcribe the DVD to videotape.

These are things that Hollywood Studios cannot tolerate, that's why Sony Computer Entertainment is suing the court. Speaking of these problems with the PS2 game console, it's a bit like shooting yourself in the foot, because Sony itself is also in Hollywood. Owns a film company (Colombia).Columbia Pictures is also very annoyed now. After all, the release of DVDs is one of the important means for Hollywood to make money, but after all, they are all under the same group, and it is not easy to tear their face directly. In order to help Sony Computer Entertainment, they have to start from it Peacemaker, trying to ease relations between Sony Computer Entertainment and Hollywood.

At this time, Ken Kutaragi suddenly realized how wise it is to export PS2 game consoles to Europe and the United States in autumn. Otherwise, there is no buffer time to solve the problem of DVD playback. Now there are four or five months before autumn, enough for Sony computers. Entertainment has finished the batch of PS2s already on the market, and by the way will also deal with the PS2s that are going to be shipped to Europe and the United States.

After entering May, everything seemed to be proceeding according to Ken Kutaragi's plan.Located in Isahaya City, Nagasaki Prefecture, Fab800, a large-scale integrated circuit production plant with an investment of up to 1 billion yen, successfully started mass production, and the output of graphics processors has increased significantly. Due to the supply problem of graphics processors, it has been in short supply. The PS2 in the delivery state has removed another shackle, and can officially enter the stage of mass market. Even the production cost of PS2 has dropped slightly.

Still in May, Ken Kutaragi heard another piece of good news. Due to the good performance of the PS game console in the past year and the strong profitability of Sony Computer Entertainment, he was appointed as the chairman of Sony Corporation on Sony's interim board of directors. Director and will formally take office at the regular general meeting to be held at the end of next month.This means that the status of the game business in Sony has risen significantly, and it also means that Ken Kutaragi has since entered the decision-making circle of Sony headquarters.

But before Ken Kutaragi was happy, several bad news came one after another.First came the news of DreamBox2, the competitor of PS128. It is said that because the global sales exceeded 4000 million units, Oriental Industrial Group launched a new model of DreamBox128 and lowered the price. The price in North America and Europe was lowered to $329. The price in the RB region was lowered to 32600 yen, and taking advantage of the launch of "Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty", 10000 sets of Metal Gear limited edition consoles were also launched.Affected by this, Nintendo's N64 also lowered the price to 99 dollars and 25 cents, hoping to continue to maintain its position in North America.

Sony Computer Entertainment can also play limited-edition consoles, so there is nothing to worry about, but price cuts and the like are annoying. The batch volume of PS2 has just come up, and there is no room for price reduction at all, but if you follow DreamBox128 now, then Sony Computer Entertainment will have to pay $2 or about 20 yen for every PS2000 game console sold, which is a small amount. It doesn't matter much at the time, but if tens of millions of units are sold a year, then the direct loss will be no less than 2 million US dollars.If this is the case, Ken Kutaragi's position as a director of Sony will come to an end, and maybe even Sony Computer Entertainment will face abolishment.But if the price of PS2 doesn't drop, then he can only watch the sales of DreamBox128 skyrocket.

"Surrender or not?" Kutaragi Ken looked at the information in front of him, feeling extremely entangled in his heart.After thinking about it for a long time, he still couldn't make up his mind, so he had to arrange for the price of PS game console to be reduced to $99, hoping to have a certain impact on DreamBox128.

However, before the news of the price cut of the PS game console was announced, there was another piece of news from the United States that made Ken Kutaragi very depressed. Bleem officially announced the PS emulator "Bleem! forDreamcast" running on the Dreamcast host. It has become the third next-generation game console in the world that is compatible with PS games.

According to the spokesperson of Bleem, the biggest feature of the Dreamcast version of "Bleem!" is that the picture is beautiful, and it is even better than the actual PS to run the same game, because the picture resolution of the Dreamcast console is higher than that of the PS game console.This point is true, Ken Kutaragi has arranged for his engineers to do the test, although not every game is like this, but many PS games supported by the Dreamcast version of "Bleem!" have been enhanced to a certain extent , like that damn DreamBox128.

This made Ken Kutaragi very annoyed that his own PS-compatible technology has become a commodity. Any company dares to openly fight against Sony, but Bleem is an American company. Even if he wants to do something, he can't do it.Last year, I wanted to solve it through legal means, but it was in vain. I didn't expect that Bleem would dare to develop a PS emulator for the Dreamcast console in addition to playing emulators on the computer.

I used to think that Bleem was just a small flea, but I didn't expect that they would cause such a big trouble now. Looking at the analysis report in front of him, Kutaragi Ken's face became serious: "It seems that this Bleem company should not be underestimated. We have to figure out a way to deal with them.”

……

While Ken Kutaragi was still struggling with whether to lower the price and Bleem, Zhang Lexing was happily discussing with his subordinates a small company he planned to acquire.

"Have you heard of DigiScents?" Zhang Lexing asked enthusiastically.

"DigiScents? Digital smell?" Zhang Wenshan, general manager of Orient International Investment Bank, was a little puzzled. Although he said "Digi (digital)", the gap between the smell and the group's business is too great.

"That's right, it's the smell of numbers, please read this information first." Zhang Lexing sent a piece of information about DigiScents through the mail system.

Hua Ziqing opened the email and took a look, and there was a paragraph in it that said "Digiscents' iSmell technology gives the game a taste": "... the future games in everyone's imagination are to fully simulate the real world, but now the visual, The game technology in terms of touch and hearing has begun to enter the track of rapid development, only the sense of smell and taste have not yet broken through, or have not yet entered the stage of mature application... On the morning of March 2000, 3, the San Jose Exhibition Center in California, USA, Game Development On the fourth day of the conference, DigiScents showed the world's first iSmell technology-based odor generator engineering prototype in a closed demonstration. This kind of PC peripheral that can be directly used only through USB and serial ports in the future The retail price is set at less than 11 US dollars, which is at the same level as many force feedback devices, and should be acceptable to the market. And its uniqueness in technology lies in the use of a color matching system similar to that of inkjet printers. The method is just a little more on this basis, providing 200 kinds of basic smells, and the result is just a little more than the thousands of colors of inkjet printers, and there are only '3 to the 128th power' kind of smells. , but in such a combination, if we want to find a smell that we can't smell, the possibility is almost zero..."

After closing the email, Hua Ziqing felt that she should understand, so she asked, "Boss, do you mean that you want to apply digital scent technology to game development?"

"That's right!" Zhang Lexing nodded and said, "If the digital scent technology can be used in games, then the future game world will definitely become more real. For example, when you come to the picturesque wilderness in the game, now At most, it is a visual experience, but if there is a digital smell, then when the characters in the game stand on the field, they can smell the faint scent of grass in the air, or the smell of soil. Suppose you are playing For games such as "Delta Special Forces", with the digital smell, you can feel the smell of the battlefield mixed with multiple flavors such as wilderness weeds, gunpowder smoke and blood. If you are playing "Sims", then when neighbors come to visit When you were there, you might be able to smell the perfume on her body..."

"However, is the price of a smell generator around $200 too expensive? I'm afraid not too many players will accept it." Zhang Wenshan shook his head. He was not very optimistic about this so-called digital scent technology. He seems to be afraid that there are more gimmicks than practical effects. Even if there is a real product, there are only a few people who can afford it.

"I am optimistic about digital scent technology because I am optimistic about its future. In fact, I have never thought about using it for game development. After all, $200 is still too expensive, and players have too little equipment, so the increased cost for scent in the game It’s a bit uneconomical, not to mention a waste of money, and more importantly, no one appreciates the background smell that has been painstakingly created.” Zhang Lexing waved his hand and explained: “Even if it is not used in game development for the time being, the digital scent technology It also has great application prospects. For example, it can be used in our Universal Studios to add more experience to the 3D theaters that receive audiences. When food appears on the screen, the audience can smell the fragrance of food. When they come to the beach, the audience can smell the faint fishy smell in the sea breeze, I believe it will bring the audience a more immersive feeling."

"As for the application in the game, it can be promoted after the cost of the odor generator is reduced." Zhang Lexing continued excitedly: "It can be imitated by the operation method of an inkjet printer, as long as the basic odor is developed into a standard, and then like a production spray As long as the cost can be controlled properly and reach a certain level of popularity, I believe that the smell generator will definitely bring great changes to the game. Our DreamBox128 game console or its new generation of consoles are also You can consider making the smell generator an accessory, as long as there is a suitable game and the price is reasonable, I believe it will attract the attention of players, and it will definitely become the first choice of players.”

When it comes to digital scents, Zhang Lexing can’t help but think a lot. The real virtual world is not just appreciated through the screen. For a complete world, players should be able to experience it through multiple channels, such as the usual visual, auditory, As well as the unrealized sense of smell and touch, if players in a virtual world can not only see with their eyes, hear with their ears, but also feel through physical contact, and taste the breath of the world through their noses, then It will bring players a very real game experience, a full range of game feeling.This is especially true for otaku, realistic visual effects, gentle and sweet voice, real touch from fingertips, refreshing breath from the nose, all these will bring them a more difficult to extricate themselves from the virtual and real life experience.

What Zhang Lexing wants is to develop this kind of all-round virtual world in the near future, but there are still many things to prepare for this step, such as 3D display, stronger three-dimensional effect, and more realistic sound effects , digital force feedback suit and so on.And now the digital smell technology he is looking at is also one of them. Although it may not be perfect now, and there may still be defects of one kind or another, it is the only way to a perfect virtual world after all, and it cannot be easily bypassed. of.

(End of this chapter)