Chapter 1095: First battlefield

If the previous discussion about Nintendo’s FC game console succeeded in arousing Morita’s interest in the video game industry, then Tan Zhenhua’s last words were completely moved.
There is no doubt that if the story and characters in a video game are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, then once it is adapted into a movie, it already has a broad base audience group, and the number of audience groups is huge for investment but ultimately The result is completely unpredictable for the film industry, is crucial.
So far, Akio Morita can only say a little about the video game industry, but through the negotiations during this period, he has asked himself to have a deep understanding of the film industry. This industry is really not that fun.
Take the Colombian film company that is currently negotiating, one of the oldest film companies in the United States founded in 1919. During its long business process, its control has changed hands several times. If this happens, it is inseparable from many movies that cost a lot of money but have a dismal box office.
For example, recently, since Coca-Cola bought Columbia Pictures in 1982, despite the high investment of successful works such as "Baby" and "Ghostbusters", it has also produced a lot of money-losing goods. So that even the large shareholders of the global sugar water boss, who has always been profitable, can't bear the ups and downs of the film industry, and then they have the idea of ​​listing Columbia Pictures for sale - and on the company's balance sheet , It clearly records its operating status as a debt of 1.4 billion US dollars!
However, for Sony, which is now rich and powerful, the $1.4 billion debt is nothing at all. In Morita Akio's view, this is an excellent opportunity for the Japanese to enter the cultural field of the United States, and it is completely worth the price.
Now, he realized from Tan Zhenhua's statement that the video game industry is also a very important cultural carrier, and what it affects is the group of young people with the most plastic ideology!
The innate interaction between video games and the film industry has also made Morita Akio, who has a keen business vision, realized that investing in the video game industry is definitely promising. He even thinks of a series of derivative industries such as animation and peripherals that are gradually prospering in the country... …Eric is right, this is a gold mine, this is not just a gold mine!
"Eric, let's talk about the specific plan." For a while, Akio Morita felt that he couldn't wait to get up.
"My team has studied the main popular electronic game console products on the market, from FC to SEGAMark3. To be honest, according to their evaluation, the performance of these machines is really bad. Most of them have adopted Motorola at low prices. The dumped 6500 series CPU has a bandwidth of 8 bits at most 16 bits, a main frequency of only a few MHZ, a KB level of memory, and a graphics system that does not exceed 64 bits of color at the most, and even less than half of them can be displayed on the screen at the same time. The picture effects of these machines can only be described as terrible. Some machines are even monophonic. I am afraid that their only advantage is that they are cheap."
"But cheap is also a powerful weapon for them to achieve huge sales." Akio Morita couldn't help but interject.
"Humanity's pursuit of pleasure and sensory stimulation is endless," Tan Zhenhua laughed: "If we can launch a price within the range of most middle class, but the picture quality and sound effects are far beyond the current household A lot of people will pay for console-level products."
"Is this PlayStation?" Akio Morita picked up half of the information he saw and asked.
"Yes, it is this PlayStation." Tan Zhenhua replied: "This is a product that is completely based on our existing technology and is combined and applied. It uses MIPSR1000CPU as the computing core and provides 32-bit data processing capabilities. The main frequency is 33MHZ and can provide 30MIPS. Computing speed, the standard 2MB memory supports expansion to 8MB at the same time. Equipped with the latest SGI graphics processor, it can support the standard VGA resolution of up to 640X480 and the ability to display 16bit and 65535 colors at the same time. Because the CPU is fast enough, The memory is also large enough. We can even allocate part of the computing power and memory to process the sound sampling rate of not less than 16bit. Using your Sony’s good CD-ROM as the game software carrier, the sufficient storage capacity of up to 650MB can fully satisfy the development The need for a high-quality large-scale game."
After a pause, he said: "In this way, compared with the existing home electronic game console products, from the picture quality, sound effects to content, this PlayStation can kill them in seconds."
Akio Morita silently walked through the effects of these core configurations in his heart, and compared the current video game consoles made with 16-bit or even 8-bit CPUs as the core. He has to admit that if the machine Tan Zhenhua said can really If it appears in the market, the impact on all players is undoubtedly huge.
But there is a problem. The information in the hand clearly states that Nintendo’s hot-selling red and white machine is only sold at $100 in the market, and the price of the competing Sega Mark3 is almost the same. According to Tan Zhenhua just now For the configuration mentioned, how much does a PlayStation cost? He remembers very clearly that the Toshiba "T1000" laptop with similar configuration costs as much as US$4,980. Compared with that, it only lacks a hard disk and an LCD display, but it also has an extra optical drive!
Price is one of the most important factors affecting sales and profits.
It should be that he saw his concern, Tan Zhenhua smiled: "Mr. President, I think US$299 is a good price. This price is within the range that most middle classes in the U.S. or Japanese countries can bear, but because Compared with Nintendo and Sega, although our price is three times that, the feeling we provide is not at the same level. I believe people who have played this PlayStation will definitely throw FC-like machines into the trash. "
"US$299?!" Akio Morita couldn't help but whispered: "How is it possible? Eric, how can this price be achieved?"
"It's very simple. I can sell MIPSR1000CPU to Sony at a unit price of 20 dollars, and sell SGI graphics processors at the same price. As far as I know, Toshiba is fully capable of making 1MB of memory for 15 dollars. In this way, I estimate that the hardware cost of the entire PlayStation will not exceed US$120. If necessary, I can also ask the "iDoor" company to develop a streamlined operating system specifically for the PlayStation. Sony only needs to pay a price to the "iDoor" company for this. A small one-time fee is enough-with this support, Mr. President, do you think the retail price of $299 can't be achieved?"
"Eric, if all of what you said can be achieved, of course it is possible, but why are you doing this?"
"Because I want to fight a war, and the home video game console is the first battlefield I chose."