Video Game Empire

A signing ceremony is being held at the headquarters of the A Cinema Company in Leawood, Kansas, in the central United States. The personal investment fund under Li Xuan's name, the Fund, will make strategic investment in the second largest theater chain company in the United States, with a stake of 30%.

The 1980s was definitely a lost decade for the American film industry. After the splendid "Star Wars" trilogy ended, the annual box office champion in North America, from the previous $500 million to $800 million, plunged to $300 million to $500 million. Small-budget action films and art films have become popular, but the global influence of American films has dropped to a new low.

Of course, the reasons for Hollywood's slump are complex. The popularity of VCRs and cable TV, for example, has made moviegoers more willing to stay at home and enjoy movies, which has taken a serious hit at the box office.

Another example is that traditional prop technology has developed to the extreme and cannot continue to bring more intense sensory stimulation to the audience. Over time, the audience will naturally experience aesthetic fatigue. In fact, the American film industry had to wait until the bloodthirsty Tyrannosaurus rex from "Jurassic Park" was released before it resumed its popularity around the world.

However, the fund has always been more optimistic about the future prospects of the American entertainment industry. Taking advantage of the low ebb of the American film industry, it is a good opportunity to hunt for dips ≈↑dǐng≈↑ǎn≈↑小≈↑ said, .2※3.⊙o . For example, in recent years, the domestic box office in the United States has been shrinking year after year, which has put many American theater companies in trouble.

The a theater chain invested by the fund is not only one of the largest theater chains in the United States, but also the most innovative theater chain company in the United States. As early as 1963, the a theater chain first introduced the concept of "multiple theaters", which completely overturned the single theater model of American movie theaters.

But American theater companies. In order to improve the space utilization rate as much as possible, most of the multiplex theaters now. The interior layout is very narrow and dim, and the viewing experience for moviegoers is not good. This is also the last few years. An important reason for the rapid loss of audiences from the big screen to the small screen.

And with the financial support of the a theater line this time, it will once again subvert the American theater culture. It plans to build 5 multi-functional super cinemas with 15 screens in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other metropolises.

These super-theaters will feature gym-style seating so that the view of the audience in the back is not blocked at all by those in the front. At the same time, the screening room will be equipped with the best sound equipment, so that everyone can enjoy the high-level sensory experience that cannot be presented in front of the TV at home, so as to attract movie fans back to the cinema.

Of course, in addition to accepting capital injection from the fund, Cinema A has also reached a package of cooperation agreements with the Oriental Group. For example, the a cinema chain will strongly support the Asian film industry's film landing in the US market. Another example is the arcade of the Oriental Game Company. Will appear in the ticket halls of all a cinema lines. Strive to make the coin-operated income of arcade games an important part of the non-movie ticket income of the cinema.

In fact, the first batch of arcade machines produced by Dongfang Game Company gained popularity through cinemas in Hong Kong in one fell swoop. Teenagers often occupy the largest proportion of movie audiences, which is completely consistent with the target consumer group of the game industry. These audiences usually have a long waiting time between buying tickets and entering the theater to watch the movie. And these boring pieces of time are actually an excellent time to attract everyone to play arcades.

Arcade machines have lost an important living space in the U.S. market as large shopping malls begin to rapidly replace neighborhood grocery stores in the United States. from last year. The trend of the American arcade market falling into shrinkage has become more and more obvious. Although with the development of new and more convenient game methods such as handheld game consoles, home game consoles, and computer games, the gradual decline of arcades has been irreversible.

But under the existing technical conditions, whether it is a handheld, a home computer, or a computer game. In terms of game picture quality and playability, it has not completely surpassed the arcade. That is to say, although the arcade is a little tired, it is actually far from being retired from the stage of history.

Of course, this premise is to give the arcade a stage to continue to show its charm. If arcade machines simply disappear from the lives of game fans because of the shift in American shopping patterns. So no matter how wonderful its game is, it is destined to end in an instant death.

Movie theaters are the most frequented place for American teens. In fact, Dongfang Game Company began to notice this position as early as a few years ago. But its progress over the years has not been very smooth, and the most important reason for this is that most of the theaters in the United States are relatively compact. In addition to the window selling popcorn and drinks, the ticket hall simply can't squeeze enough space for arcade machines.

Even if some theaters can squeeze out a space to place arcade machines, the crowds attracted by arcade machines can easily make the originally narrow sales area even more crowded! Therefore, most theater line managers do not welcome Dongyou Company's arcade machines into their own movie theaters.

The launch of a large multiplex theater by Cinema Line A happened to give Dongyou the opportunity to let its games enter American cinemas. Each super cinema built by a cinema line this time will have a dedicated game area.

In addition to promoting the sales of arcade machines in the United States, these game zones are more important to give Dongyou an excellent publicity platform.

If the super-theater plan of the a theater line is successful, then it is bound to completely reshape the American theater industry like the multiplex reform in the 1960s. On the other hand, Dongfang Game Company can quickly cover every new reformed movie theater in the Dongfang Game Zone by virtue of its successful cooperation experience with a.

If Dongfang Game Company can open up a game area in each cinema, then its new games can be directly and effectively displayed in front of teenagers in the United States through this platform. You must know that the number of people watching movies in the United States is as high as 1 billion throughout the year, which is more efficient and targeted than advertising through newspapers, TV and other media!

Just when the headquarters of Cinema A was opening champagne to celebrate the strategic cooperation with the Fund, Wang Shi had just walked into a cinema in Fotan, Shatin. Li Xuan's reborn butterfly, the biggest change to Hong Kong, is the Fotan Industrial Zone in Hong Kong.

Early in 1981. When Dongfang Electronics Co. first settled in the Fotan Industrial Zone, there were many industrial buildings here. They are also textile factories, garment factories, toy factories, and watch factories. However, at that time, the trend of Hong Kong's light industry moving north had begun to emerge, and these industrial buildings in the Fotan Industrial Zone. The vacancy rate reached a small peak in late 1982.

However, after the establishment of the Oriental Incubation Park in the Tanhuo Industrial Zone, in just four or five years, it has transformed from the original industrial zone that was gradually declining into the hottest entrepreneurial hotspot in Hong Kong.

Even the Hong Kong government just announced in February this year that the Tanhuo Industrial Zone would be renamed the Tanhuo Venture Park. As more and more new companies are incubated in the Tanhuo Pioneer Park, the business here is also rapidly prosperous.

When Wang Shi walked in the Tanhuo Pioneer Park, he could feel a completely different atmosphere from the downtown areas of Central and Kowloon. In the streets of Central surrounded by high-rise buildings, you feel a kind of busyness that comes and goes. But in the charcoal fire. Wang Shi seems to be able to feel the same passion as the deep-sea special zone on the other side of the Jiehe River.

Wang Shi's first stop at Charcoal Fire was naturally the famous Cafe Street, where he had a taste of the enthusiasm of Hong Kong entrepreneurs. After tasting a cup of coffee priced at 20 Hong Kong dollars and listening to the rhetoric of several dreamers, he casually walked into a cinema on the corner of the street.

Hong Kong's movie viewing group is similar to that of the United States, and young people also account for the largest proportion of all age groups. Charcoal Pioneer Park is one of the most gathering places for young people in Hong Kong, so Jiahe Cinemas was the first to open a cinema with 5 screens here last year!

Because today is the weekend. Therefore, in the ticket hall of the cinema, there are not many audiences who come to buy tickets to watch the movie! Wang Shi glanced around, and the first thing that caught his eye was the promotional posters of the various films that were being shown.

For example, Asian Films will launch the urban romantic light comedy "Chasing Girls" every summer. This is already the 5th film in the series. Although the box office of this series of movies rarely squeezed into the top ten of the local box office list.

But it has developed a good reputation among teenage audiences, and the series has never been a big investment. Instead, it is the interesting plot that the screenwriters have scratched their heads to conceive to win. Even many Hong Kong boys will learn all kinds of romantic methods to pick up girls from the movie "Chasing Girls"!

When Wang Shi walked into the cinema. A film screening just ended. Therefore, a large number of audience members came out of the movie theater after watching the movie. It's summer vacation now. Many of the people who came to the movies were students who were on vacation.

Several boys who watched the movie together did not leave the cinema in a hurry, but walked to the corner of the ticket hall with a smile. Wang Shi's gaze followed the direction of their footsteps, and soon found a row of about a dozen arcade machines standing beside the wall.

Wang Shi couldn't help walking forward with great interest. Before he could approach the group of students who were playing games, he had already heard the familiar sound of video games in his ears. This cut off the background music, Wang Shi should have listened to it many times in Hong Kong in the past few days, and he can guess that it is the game sound of "The King of Fighters 2" by conditioned reflex.

This time Wang Shi came to Hong Kong, in fact, to comprehensively inspect Hong Kong's video games, especially the arcade game industry. Because since the last time he inadvertently communicated with the boss of Dongfang Group, the famous "God of Fortune Li" in Hong Kong, Dongfang Game Company did not come to ask for guilt because of Hyundai Instrument Company's import of pirated arcade game motherboards, but sent them a message. A letter of invitation to cooperate.

Dongyou Company hopes that Hyundai Instrument Company can become their exclusive arcade dealer in China. In order to squeeze pirated game consoles out of the domestic market, Dongyou will provide Hyundai Instruments with the latest and most popular arcade games.

But when Wang Zhen got this opportunity, he was not overjoyed, but decided to come to Hong Kong in advance to inspect the arcade industry here, so as to make himself more confident about whether to accept the olive branch offered by Dongyou Company.

During the two days he came to Hong Kong, he spent most of his time wandering around arcade halls all over Hong Kong, apart from attending the share reform seminar held by Asia Securities. Compared with those arcade halls that Wang Shi had been to in China before, the business environment of Hong Kong's arcade halls is obviously much more standardized.

According to Wang Shi, most of the arcade halls in the Deep Sea Special Zone are very small in scale. Many bosses even only need to rent half of the facade and set up a dozen game consoles to open the door. Most of these game halls are full of clouds and mists, and they are often mixed places where random people gather.

The environment of Hong Kong video game halls is obviously much better. At the entrance of each game hall, Wang Shi can find the business contract posted in the most conspicuous position. There are a series of regulations such as prohibiting smoking and prohibiting minors under the age of 18 from entering the game hall during school hours.

Wang Shi learned from the waiters of several game halls that in fact three or four years ago, the environment of Hong Kong game halls was also very bad. And because many students skipped school because of their addiction to video games, the arcade was once a street rat that was severely criticized by parents and teachers in Hong Kong.

Later, Dongfang Game Company took the initiative to promote all game hall owners in Hong Kong to get together and set up an industry association to formulate standardized industry management guidelines. Any game hall that is unwilling to join the association will be directly blacklisted by Dongyou Company, prohibiting anyone from selling their own arcade products to it.

The Hong Kong government has also begun to issue a series of regulations for electronic business halls. For example, the police found during the inspection that there were minors staying in any game arcade during school hours. Then the game hall will not only be fined 100,000 Hong Kong dollars, but will also be suspended for one month.

You must know that every police station in Hong Kong will arrange for police officers to patrol the sub-districts at every time. Entertainment venues such as game halls are naturally more important to patrol. And once caught by the police, the loss of the game hall owner will be very heavy.

Under the double pressure of the Hong Kong government and the Oriental Group~www.readwn.com~ Hong Kong's video game arcade industry quickly reversed the bad atmosphere and began to operate in a regular and law-abiding manner! Therefore, what Wang Real sees now is actually the situation that has been shuffled.

At present, the number of arcade machines in each game hall in Hong Kong is generally more than 100, and there are more than 20 types of games! Those arcade halls with insufficient capital or poor management have been ruthlessly eliminated in the fierce market competition.

Of course, Wang Shi came to Tanhuo Pioneer Park today, not to drink coffee at Pioneer Coffee Street, nor to watch a movie, but to watch the Hong Kong Arcade Club League, which is hosted by the Hong Kong Arcade Game Hall Association!

The venue of this league is located in an industrial building in Tanhuo Pioneer Park. When Wang Shi arrived here, because there was still more than an hour before the start of the game, he deliberately walked around. By the time he returned to the venue for the Arcade Club League, the game was about to start.

Wang Shi glanced at the auditorium. There were about three or four hundred spectators who came to support the scene. The atmosphere was very lively! Wang Shi found a vacant seat in the corner of the back row and sat down. Not long after he was seated, there were a few more students next to him, who happened to be the ones he met in the cinema just now! (To be continued.)