Video Game Empire

Li Xuan just flew around the earth on this business trip. When he returned to Hong Kong, it was already the end of September. It took Dongfang Game Company a year and a half to finally complete the finalized second-generation handheld a-2, which will be launched globally in early October.

This is the most important thing for Dongfang Group in the near future. Although there are special people responsible for specific matters, it still involves a lot of Li Xuan's attention. There are three well-known laws in the industry of later generations, namely Moore's Law, Andy Beer's Law, and Norwich's Law.

Among them, Moore's Law is the most widely known. Gordon Moore, one of the founders of Intel Corporation, made a prediction in 1975. When the price remains the same, the number of components that can be accommodated on an integrated circuit doubles every 18 months.

In other words, the computer performance that every dollar can buy doubles every eighteen months. For the next 30 to 40 years, the speed of computer hardware performance upgrading has been developing according to Moore's prediction.

Andy's Bill's Law says that whatever Andy gives will be taken by Bill. Andy here refers to Intel's Andy Grove, and Bill is Microsoft's boss Bill Gates.

Andy Beer's Law is more commonly explained, that is, the increase in computer hardware performance will be swallowed up by the increase in software performance in the same period. Even if computers are a hundred times faster than they are today in a few decades, running software will still feel the same as before.

The first Moore's Law was actually bankrupt when r-1 came out because of Li Xuan. The 80286 processor developed in accordance with Moore's Law cannot match the performance of the r-1, which was released earlier than him, which directly led to the death of the 86 series.

Under the action of Li Xuan's golden finger. The speed of r-1 and r-2 performance improvement of the Oriental Research Institute has both broken Moore's Law. So that it directly overturned the original pattern of the entire computer industry. However, with less and less goods in Li Xuan's stomach, the next research and development speed of the Oriental Research Institute will gradually return to normal. It is impossible to be as defiant as in the past few years.

As for the second law, Bill Gates' Microsoft has not grown up in this lifetime. Intel's dominance in the processor field has also been replaced by the Oriental Research Institute, so it is natural that there will be no more in the future, the name of Andy Beer's Law.

However, the content of this law has actually been unswervingly implemented by the Eastern Group. The hardware performance of icon's ab-5 computer is several times higher than the previous generation ab-3. But since Eastern System Software has introduced a new generation of as-os systems, especially when the new operating system is in graphics operation mode. Even though the standard memory of ab-5 has been increased to 1, it still feels powerless.

Only by keeping consumers' desire for higher performance all the time, will they keep changing configurations, thus turning computers from durable goods to fast-moving consumer goods. In another time and space, Microsoft had a period of time when the new operating system sa was difficult to produce, resulting in the sluggish performance of the entire computer industry.

Because users use the ;p system, the requirements for computer performance are lower, and there is no need to spend money to replace a better configuration. Later, Microsoft simply stopped supporting and updating p, and the real purpose was to force consumers who are still using old computers. Had to get a new computer.

It's just that in this life, Dongfang System Software Company replaced Microsoft's position and began to continuously encourage hardware manufacturers to upgrade their technology!

As for the third Norvig's law, it was made by the dean of Google Research. Proposed by Dr. Peter Norwich. He said that when a company's market share exceeds 50%, it should not be expected to double its market share.

At first glance, this sentence seems very simple. But after careful consideration, it contains a deep business philosophy. A company's product market share can reach 50%. It means that this company is already a well-deserved overlord in the industry.

But there is a saying called prosperity and decline, when a company's market share in the original field exceeds 50%. It means that its performance growth rate has reached a brilliant peak, and then it has to face the situation of increasingly weak growth. If a new challenger emerges, there may even be a dilemma of backward market share.

At this time, if the company wants to continue its original glory, it must open up new profit growth. Is this the case with those century-old shops. For example, B first produced electric mechanical tabulating machines, but after World War II, it decided to turn its development heavily to the emerging electronics industry, so it became a giant in the computer industry. In the mid-to-late 1990s, the computer business on which company B depended began to fall into a downturn, so it resolutely chose to transform and turned into a software giant.

Norvig's law reveals a fate, when a company's business develops, it must develop new and larger markets, otherwise it can only wait for stagnation or even decline.

The reason why Li Xuan vigorously advocates the Internet industry is actually to plan ahead. The latest data shows that Aikang's share in the global microcomputer market has risen to 40%. Although this figure is close to 50%, there seems to be a lot of room for growth. However, because the standards of the personal computer industry are unified and open, the competition in this emerging industry has actually been fierce.

Taking the US market as an example, the market share of the first company, icon, has a market share of 35%, and the second and third companies, b and Texas Instruments, have a combined market share of about 30%. The rest include companies such as Apple, Kemodo, and Tangdi, as well as dozens of other computer brands in the United States and abroad, sharing the remaining 35% of the market.

And because all computer manufacturers use r-architecture processors and as-os series operating systems, both hardware and software are highly homogenous to each other. The current computer market is expanding at a high speed, and the new demand can laugh at everyone's capacity growth, so the competition with each other is not very cruel.

Once the growth rate of the PC market. It can't keep up with the speed of the production capacity expansion of various manufacturers, this kind of homogeneous competition. In the end, it will inevitably evolve into a **** price fight. In fact, in the low-end ab-1 and ab-2 compatible market, this situation has already begun.

Icon's personal computer business. Always on the high end. As sales of the ab-5 computer continue to rise, icon has begun to gradually reduce the capacity of the ab-3, whose profit margins continue to decline. However, two new shareholders, B and Deyi, were successively introduced in Dongfang System Software Co., Ltd., and the cooperation between Dongfang Research Institute and other computer manufacturers was also deepened. Aikang had the advantage of being able to launch the latest products first with the help of the internal cooperation of the group. keep losing.

In order to break the curse of Norvig's law and become a century-old store, Aikang must achieve walking on multiple legs. So aside from the PC business. Aikang Group is also vigorously developing, enterprise-class workstation computers and LAN servers. After the global Internet industry has just emerged, it quickly entered the field of networking equipment and launched a large number of new products such as network cards (network adapters), modems, and routers.

If the global Internet industry can develop in accordance with the pace set by the Oriental Group, then the strategic transformation of Aikang from a computer manufacturer to a supplier of networking equipment can become easier.

In addition to Aikang, other subsidiaries of the Oriental Group are also facing the torture of Norvig's Law. Such as Oriental Games Company. Its most important source of profit, the arcade industry, has reached its glory days and is beginning to show signs of a cliff-like collapse.

With the change of the retail model in the United States, large supermarket chains represented by Wal-Mart and Target. It is rapidly replacing grocery and convenience stores in American neighborhoods, cutting the arcade end market in North America in half.

Oriental game companies must find new profits to replace the main position of the arcade business. And after years of continuous development. Home game consoles and handheld consoles are undoubtedly two perfect replacements.

And in a few years. When the computer game industry develops and matures, it can become a new growth for Dongfang Game Company. The future is longer. After even the computer client game gradually weakens, the mobile game can take over again.

For other companies, strategic transformation is actually a life-and-death gamble. Once successful, it can rejuvenate, but if it fails, it is likely to fall to the bottom. But for Dongfang Group, Li Xuan has already planned a perfect development route.

But as the saying goes, people make things happen, and God makes things happen. It is still unknown whether the company's company can move forward according to Li Xuan's hope. The listing of a-2 is like a big test for Dongfang Game Company.

The finalized production a-2 handheld has a customized 6502 processor, memory, and a 2.45-inch four-gray-scale reflective LCD screen. Of course, the a-2 also has many external devices, such as headphones or small speakers that can be connected.

Because the LCD screen of the a-2 has no luminous function, if players want to use it at night, they need to install additional auxiliary lights. In order to prolong the use time of the game console, players can also configure a dedicated external AC power supply for the a-2.

Another feature of a-2 is online battles. According to Li Xuan's original plan, wireless networking is used. However, the a-2 hardware development team finally decided to use wired networking for the sake of networking stability and reducing manufacturing costs. There is an online jack on the left side of the handheld. After equipped with a dedicated data cable and a bridge, up to four hosts can be played online at the same time.

The a-2 retails for $59 in the US bare-bones, or $109 with all accessories. On the bare metal of a-2, a three-in-one game card loaded with three games, "Hong Kong Cube", "Snake" and "Pac-Man", was presented.

The "Pokémon" game card, which was launched at the same time as the a-2, is priced at $29.9. In addition, there are many classic games from Oriental game companies such as "Mario Brothers", "Tank Wars", "1942", "Kung Fu", as well as all the games released on a-1 for players to choose.

Compared with the previous a-1, the stand-alone profit of the new handheld has increased significantly. The factory gross profit of each A-2 is around $15. And even more lucrative than gaming consoles are gaming cards. The a-2 truly achieves the separation of the machine and the card, and each game is integrated into a memory card the size of a finger.

Take the card for storing the Pokémon game as an example. The production cost of this 112-capacity memory card is less than $1, and the production cost of other 28- and 56-capacity game cards will be even lower. But among these game cards, even the cheapest games cost $9.90, and the huge profits can be imagined.

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"Yudanzi, you've already played two classes, aren't your eyes tired? Can you lend me a play!" A boy in the penultimate row of the classroom quietly poked his tablemate's waist and whispered. pleaded.

"If you want to play, buy one yourself!" The boy who played the game said without looking up.

"Hmph, cheapskate, isn't it just a rotten brother, be careful to be hacked to death on the street tomorrow!" The boy who spoke first gave his tablemate a stern look. Of course, he only dared to scold these words quietly in his heart. If he was heard by the same table and then relayed to his brother, he might be the first to be hacked to death tomorrow.

At this time, the get out of class bell rang, and the teacher on the podium was not ready to drag the class for a moment, and simply put away the lecture notes and announced the get out of class. Their school is a reputable lousy middle school. More than half of the students enrolled are problem students who were dismissed by other schools~www.readwn.com~ So the teachers also have to live by it, except for their own teaching. When the task is completed, even if they see the students making trouble or deserting, most of them pretend not to see it and don't want to pay attention.

This is the last class in the afternoon. Before the teacher walks out of the door, the classroom has already exploded. Most of the people started to pack their bags and prepare to leave the school. But there were also a group of classmates who joined in the fun, but quickly gathered around the seat of the student named Yudanzai.

"Open-Zhuang, pay one for one, ten yuan seal dǐng, hurry up if you want to bet, buy-make sure to leave!" A foreign class student with a match in his mouth swaggered in from outside the classroom .

Behind him were two younger brothers, one of whom was holding an A-2 handheld that was exactly the same as Yudanzai's. I saw the elder brother walking in front took out a pack of cigarettes, and then took down the matchstick in his mouth. The other younger brother behind him immediately handed over a matchbox very attentively, and then the elder brother dashed the cigarette with the match.

The most popular movie in Hong Kong this year is the just-painted "The True Color of Heroes". In the movie, Xiao Ma, starring Zhou Runfa, has a classic action, that is, holding a matchstick in the corner of his mouth. So countless people don't need lighters for cigarettes, they put a box of matches in their pockets, and from time to time they learn how to hold a match in the corner of the mouth, pretending to be sassy. (To be continued..)