Restart the Gaming Era

After ending the video call with Lin Xiaoguang, Zhong Ming first closed the design document of the new game, then took out the hand-painted board and drew the shape of the new handle.

The handle is no different from the handle?

Of course not, the difference is big!

Some basic layouts of the handlebars are really difficult to change. For example, other people ’s handlebars have two joysticks, two shoulder keys, and two trigger keys. You have to make three joysticks and one shoulder key. It's strange to die violently.

The basic layout of the handle is indeed the most suitable device developed by many hardware design experts in combination with ergonomics. It fully considers the comfort and convenience of the player to hold the handle. Changes in these places will only become "for "Innovation and innovation" are just jokes in the eyes of laymen.

And the functions on the handle, such as adding an electronic screen, adding a touchpad, adding speakers, adding new buttons, etc. These solutions have basically been tried by countless people, some of them have been left and some have been removed.

Those features that are left behind may indeed be indispensable or enhance the experience slightly, and those features that are removed may be cost-effective.

Making hardware is more awesome than making software, because there are too many aspects to consider when making hardware. You must consider the actual configuration and practicality, and also consider the shape and feel of the hardware. These are all The things that affect the whole body. Some manufacturers of hardware simply have some unique habit of appearance, which results in lower product yield and various quality problems.

It takes huge research and development costs to develop a handle that is ahead of the times, and new technologies for various applications in the handle also require huge research and development resources. It is obviously impossible for Zhong Ming to invest tens of millions to research new technologies to make handles. He is not so rich now. What Zhong Ming has to do is to optimize and improve the handles in combination with current technology.

...

Zhong Ming quickly drew a sketch of the new handle on the hand-painted board, and the functions and methods of each component are also noted next to each other.

This shape is Zhongming's previous XBOX elite handle. It is said that Microsoft spent more than $ 100 million to develop this handle. Zhong Ming can't spend so much money to die for technological breakthroughs, but many successful elements on the elite handle can be used for reference.

The first is the shape of the handle. The layouts of the handles of Switch, PS4, and XBOX are similar, but the specific shapes are different. According to feedback from previous players, the handle of XBOX should be the most favorite players. Of course, the handles of Sony and Nintendo are not bad, but there is still a gap between the handles of XBOX and XBOX.

In addition to the most basic handle configuration, this set of handles also comes with additional accessories: a set of heightened rocker caps, a set of mushroom head rocker caps, a left and right set of four paddles, and a classic The cross key button-because the default cross key button is changed to an eight-way cross key recessed in the middle suitable for hand-fighting fighting games.

And these accessories are all attracted by magnetic force, so the installation is very convenient.

The left and right joysticks of the handle, the position of the cross key, and the position where the **** is pressed on the back have corresponding slots. Put the corresponding keys or paddles up and down to achieve the adsorption effect, a real fool operation.

In addition to the replaceable rocker cap and cross key, the handle also supports changing the trigger key stroke and freely mapping new function keys to the paddles on the back.

This is also the smartest part of this handle. It does not force changes and optimizations. The optimizations it makes just touch the pain points of the players, and they are all really useful functions.

This point of the rocker cap, different players have different habits, some people like to use the traditional rocker cap, use your thumb to touch the recessed position on the top of the rocker cap, and some people like to push the rocker from the side, the usage is different , The height and shape of the rocker cap will naturally affect the feel.

Even a lot of players have slightly different ways to push the joystick because of the type of game they are playing, and this difference may not even be felt by themselves.

After changing a variety of joystick caps, players can change them at any time according to their habits.

The advantage of the long rocker cap is that when turning the same amplitude direction, the player's hand needs to draw a larger circle, so that it can be more accurate when moving or turning the viewing angle-especially when looking at the attack from a close range. For taller enemies.

The mushroom keycap allows players to rub their rocker caps frequently for a long time without rubbing their hands red because of friction, let alone fatigue or pain, which is a huge improvement for the gaming experience.

In terms of the cross key, the official cross key is a recessed eight-way arrow key. Its biggest function is to easily pull out the combo you want when playing a fighting game, and because the eight-way cross key The surface is very smooth, no matter how continuous rubbing, it will not hurt the hands.

In addition, there are some game items that are selected with the arrow keys. Originally, the four-way cross key was used to select the upper right item with two clicks, but now only one click is enough.

Although there are very few players playing fighting games in this world, there are still a group of people, and this design is not bad news for them.

There are two special keys on the back of the handle. After triggering, you can change the key travel of the two trigger keys-one is the more common deep key travel, and the other is the shallow key travel.

This design is also very practical. The deep key stroke is very suitable for racing games. It can simulate the feel of the throttle and brakes. Press the right trigger button slowly, and the car will slowly accelerate. Press it a little. With the left trigger button, the car will slow down slightly without stopping.

In shooting games, players can shorten the key stroke of the trigger key according to their preferences, so that you can trigger a shot with a single press, without having to press so hard.

In addition, there are paddles on the back of the handle. These paddles are also magnetically attracted. There are a total of four. Players can choose to use some of them according to their needs. When in use, the official driver allows players to map arbitrary function keys to these paddles, and these paddles can then assume new functions.

These paddles have two biggest functions. One is to add new keys to the player. Many players always feel that the keys are not enough when playing games with the handle, or some keys are not convenient to press. The paddles can solve this problem very well. The problem is that in some games, players need to press a certain key very frequently, such as the ordinary attack key in some RPG games. It is very easy to get tired by pressing the shoulder and trigger keys. As long as it is mapped on the paddle, You can easily press it all the time.

Of course, this paddle may not be suitable for some players, because the position of the paddle in the **** of the player, if some people are used to holding the handle as soon as they are nervous, they may accidentally touch it. There is always a familiar process when changing from two-finger operation to three-finger operation when playing mobile games.

Anyway, the designer has to provide these solutions so that players can choose freely.

In addition to this, an important design is the circular touchpad in the center above the handle and the high-precision gyroscope built into the handle.

The position of this circular trackpad is similar to that of the PS4's rectangular trackpad, and its shape is similar to that of the steam controller's trackpad, which are slightly concave in the center of the circle. The most important function of this trackpad is to allow players to perform some operations like mouse in the game.

For example, in operating simulation games, players often need to select a certain area on the map to build a building, or build a road, etc. This operation is difficult to complete with the original joystick. The best operation method is to use Keyboard and mouse.

But with this circular touchpad, it ’s easy to say. Players only need to use their thumbs to gently drag on it, and they can use the left-hand cross key to complete some specific operations, such as placing the building in a very precise place. .

The circular touchpad is much more sensitive than the joystick, and is similar to the touchpad of many laptops. Players can quickly adapt to it with a little familiarity. This also allows this controller to perfectly support many simulation games.

In addition, there will be a high-precision gyroscope in the handle. This gyroscope is mainly used to improve the shooting accuracy in FPS games.

In FPS games, players can control the direction with the right joystick. If fine adjustment is still needed at this time, and the player does not want to use the right joystick or touchpad, they can directly tilt the handle to aim-just like the previous players of Zhong Ming Do the same in The Legend of Zelda.

This is a huge gospel for many players who like to play FPS games on the console. Of course, Weiguang Studios suggested that if you want to play FPS games, it is best to buy a full set of GS1 simulators to get the most perfect shooting experience.

In addition, due to the large number of metal products used in the handle, the weight of the entire handle will be significantly higher than other handles, making players feel more weight in their hands, so that the feel of the entire handle will also improve.

...

Soon, Zhong Ming finally finished the design of the handle and sent it directly to Lin Xiaoguang.

Lin Xiaoguang's first reaction after reading it was: "So complicated?"

Obviously, Zhong Ming wrote a bunch of things that completely exceeded his expectations. Before that, Lin Xiaoguang didn't understand why Zhong Ming had to give him three months to make this handle. Now I understand that it really takes three months!

This handle is different from any handle on the market. This is the touchpad and gyroscope. Lin Xiaoguang can accept the material alone, not to mention there are some special designs inside, such as the ability to adjust two The key stroke of the trigger key, these have to change the internal structure.

"Mr. Zhong, does this have to be so complicated? The player experience has really improved a lot, but the price of this pair of controllers should also be very expensive, most likely ... it will cost about 1,000 yuan Now, this price has no competitive advantage in the market. "

Lin Xiaoguang does not think that these innovations are good. Of course, innovation is good. Any improvement to the player's feel is definitely valuable. But the key is that the improvement of the handle necessarily means the increase of the price. Once the price goes up, the target player group naturally narrows.

Zhong Ming replied: "It doesn't matter, we bundle the controller and the GS1X mainframe for sale. Anyway, rich people will buy it, and it will not be a problem if you have a few hundred dollars."

"How expensive is Shente for a few hundred yuan?" Lin Xiaoguang asked. "So, what about GS1S?"

"GS1S can be equipped with one of the most common handles. It can be used. GS1S is mainly a cheap line, while GS1X is a high-end line. In addition, the handle is also sold separately. How much is the cost? Let ’s talk about it. It's not impossible. "

Lin Xiaoguang did not answer for a while, but was calculating the prices of the two hosts quickly.

The current two mainframe devices, GS1S and GS1X, have very different pre-order prices due to the differences in configuration. The former is 2499 and the latter is 4199.

In this, Lin Xiaoguang reserved the price of the handle and reserved 200 yuan.

In other words, for a machine without a handle, the GS1S should sell for 2299 and the GS1X for 3999.

But how can the host without a handle? It must be brought.

Now Zhong Ming is going to bundle this elite controller with the GS1X for sale, then the price of the GS1X will soar to 4999 (if the new controller is priced at around 1,000), this price is slightly awkward.

Even if the profit is reduced by 4999, it will be reduced to 4899 at most. For players, this price is not particularly sensitive and meaningless. If it can be compressed from 3100 to 2999, it will feel more intuitive to the player, but for GS1X, it is obviously impossible to push the number of thousands down.

In other words, the final pricing will most likely look like this:

GS1S host (with ordinary handle): 2499

GS1X version host (with elite handle): 4999

GS1 version of the elite handle: 999

At present, the price of the mainframe on the market is basically 2500 ~ 3000 ~ www.readwn.com ~ the most expensive is around 4500. In other words, the lowest version of the GS1 host is not competitive with the cheapest host currently on the market, and the higher version of the GS1 host is more expensive than the most expensive host on the market.

Of course, considering the price of the elite controller, the price of the GS1X should be 4000, which is 500 yuan cheaper than the most expensive console on the market, but ... Will players consider this price so wisely?

Players are likely to "disturb" directly when they see the number "4999".

As for the handle, it is even more expensive. At present, the most expensive handle on the market is basically around 500 yuan. This elite handle is crazy stockpiling, which has doubled the price directly.

According to the general idea, when hardware vendors enter a new field, they generally first establish a foothold at a low price, and then slowly explore the price to enter the high-end field steadily. This was what the GS1 simulator did before, but looking at the current situation of the host and the handle, it seems like it is going to be in one step directly?

The X version is twice as expensive as the S version. Will anyone really buy it?

Lin Xiaoguang was also very disturbed.