Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 193 Oh! I'm going to kick your ass really hard with my boot!
Warner Communications Chairman Steve Ross's doubts actually have theoretical basis.

Last year, when the "Star Wars" arcade machines were launched, their instant sales did exceed 20,000 units. After deducting the bulk purchases from North American theaters, Destiny Game still sold 10,000 arcade machines in a short period of time, but that process lasted a full month.

There are production capacity issues, but more of them are transportation issues. When arcade buyers are spread all over the United States, how can we quickly distribute goods in the United States in the era when air transportation business has not been born? That is an impossible thing to happen.

If Destiny Game received an order for 20,000 video arcade machines in ten days, Steve Ross would believe it, but if he wanted to ship out 20,000 video arcade machines with special codes in ten days? Even if he was beaten to death, he would not believe it.

The reason why Michael Blanco Manufacturing is so busy is actually...

Ah--

The Destiny Game is really a hit!

Before the new product launch, Ethan was full of anxiety. He didn't know how the sales of the games he launched this time would be, because three of the four games had nothing to do with his memories of his previous life. After the buff of "borrowing from the popular games" no longer existed, the uncertainty of the future made him a little nervous. But at the launch conference, when buyers placed orders frantically and the marketing department's phone was bombarded with calls after the news was broadcast, Ethan suddenly woke up. In his previous life, there was a word that was widely circulated in the business field, that is, word-of-mouth effect.

The word-of-mouth effect has actually existed for many years, or it can be said that it is originally a concept in marketing, which refers to consumers' evaluation of a product or service through oral or written communication, thereby influencing the purchasing behavior of other consumers.

To put it simply, this effect is actually a manifestation of "gold will always shine."

But it is difficult to do all this.

Only when the product quality itself is excellent will users help promote it like tap water.

In fact, this effect has never been reflected in Ethan, because from the beginning, he has taken the path of becoming famous as early as possible. When "Snake" swept America in just two months, when "Pac-Man" sold out as soon as it was first released, and when "Star Wars" took advantage of the trend of the times...

What is the word-of-mouth effect?
He doesn't know at all!
Because he reached the peak when he debuted!
Then he kept breaking his own records!
It was because Ethan had achieved success time and time again that he directly entered the second stage of word-of-mouth effect. When everyone on the market knew that Destiny Game would only launch high-quality games, they believed it with their eyes closed. That was what countless people would do.

Unless the game of Destiny encounters a well-known Waterloo, buyers will definitely buy up all of its machines mindlessly because of the players' popularity and trust.

As expected, at the order meeting after the press conference, the 150 participating merchants directly gave him sales orders for more than 8,000 electronic arcade machines!
This number may seem a little small, but it is actually a lot.

Because no matter how much those bosses believe in the product of Destiny Game, the number of venues under their names that can accommodate arcade machines will not suddenly increase as the game makes money.

The average number of more than 50 machines per person has actually proved the strength of these bosses. They have at least four or five entertainment clubs in their own territories.

Not to mention his net worth of tens of millions, he still has a few million.

After they digested the bulk of the money, the rest was actually the same as before, that is, telephone sales and purchase calls. Since the former governor used public broadcasting to show his face in front of gamers all over the country, most people knew that the new game of Destiny had been released, so those small bosses who did not get an invitation but did not want to fall behind in making money called to place orders.

In this process, these small bosses also showed their "smart" side.

After the call was connected, they did not ask about the specific content of the new game, but only asked the sales specialist of Destiny Game whether there were any big bosses in their area who attended the new product launch conference. If there were, they would start to ask those bosses what orders they had placed, and then follow suit to buy; if not, they would ask the sales staff what games were selling well, and then try it out with their eyes closed.

Under normal circumstances, all merchants would brag about their products and trick the boss into placing an order.

But after tasting the benefits of word-of-mouth effect, Ethan banned sales from doing so.

Buyers want to know which games are selling well, so tell them.

When he has the future in his mind...

The sustainable fishing-out behavior that caused the Atari crash would no longer be necessary.

Perhaps because they really informed customers of the real-time ranking of various games at the signing meeting, the bosses who called to place orders were very happy to buy. Even when the salesperson reminded them that some of the products they ordered might not meet their desired market expectations, some people would still say they would give it a try.

In their words, that is -

"If no one buys your lowest-selling game, then I will definitely make money if I buy it! Because players will be curious to know what the fourth game is that other merchants are unwilling to order. Even if the performance of this game is average, it doesn't matter. When players are mentally prepared, they will definitely not feel that their 25 cents are wasted."

With the mindless belief in following the trend and the desire for novelty, the booming scene of Michael Blanco Productions was presented to the Hollywood giants.

"Boss, we have already calculated the sales data for last month."

"We have also achieved the final expectations you want."

When Ethan was standing by the office window with his hands behind his back, overlooking the beautiful scenery of Stanford Research Park, Ballmer, the big bald man, walked in with a stack of reports.

His words also made Ethan turn around quickly and asked expectantly: "How much?"

"The total sales of the four games exceeded 5 units. As of May 31, their total shipments were 24 units, bringing our company $780 million in revenue."

"Wow - cool!" Ethan clapped his hands vigorously.

Although this result is not as good as "Star Wars", or in other words, the current sales of these four games have not even reached half of the total sales of "Star Wars".

But living off old achievements and talking about innovation are two different concepts!
The former is just lying on the laurels and waiting to die!

The latter is self-innovation for development!

Even if this innovation may not break the previous record, how can the scenery of the tide of the times be so easy to touch? If you can touch it once, it is a big profit, and the rest of the days will still have to return to normal.

"What about the data of each game?" Ethan asked with a smile.

Ballmer looked at the report and said, "Boss, the best-selling game among the four is Snake 2. In the past ten days, we have sold a total of units. Whether it is the boss who attended the new product launch conference or the merchants who called to place orders, they all bought it... and according to the market department's calculations, the expected sales of this game should be able to exceed units."

"This result is in line with our previous expectations." Ethan nodded.

To be honest, Ethan still doesn't know the true sales of the game "Snake" because Nolan Bushnell and Don Valentine concealed their income when they cooperated with Atari.

If there had been no lawsuit against Milova, he would definitely have gone to court with Atari, but after Nolan Bushnell and Don Valentine took on the patent infringement issues of Snake in video games, the sales of Snake became a mystery forever.

However, Ethan had calculated it himself, and he felt that with the influence of Snake in North America, at least 2 arcade machines would be needed to support it, and now the sales of Snake have confirmed this. If those merchants didn't make a lot of money from the green snake...

Then how could they possibly trust the green snake to come again?
"Oh Jack, you are so awesome."

Ethan came to the west wall of the office, where there was a wall of honor he had made himself.

The first one is the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. There is a string of numbers written behind the hand-painted spaceship: '53', which is its current total sales volume.

After a year of long-term operation, with small places also following suit and buying in, and large places needing to repair and replace them, 50,000 electronic arcade machines of the "Star Wars" game have been sold.

This number actually fits its identity, right?

After all, this is Star Wars, not Space Invaders.

Similarly, this number also made Ethan feel a little regretful. If he remembered correctly, in his previous life, the game "Donkey Kong" sold nearly 100,000 units in North America.

As it stands, there's no hope that Star Wars will ever surpass it.

This isn’t to say that Star Wars doesn’t have potential, but that Destiny games are just too prolific.

As their Destiny game continues to launch new games, products that can be sold for a long time will naturally be affected in terms of sales, and this is something that cannot be avoided.

The second place is the yellow whirlwind man from Pac-Man, with the number '48' written behind it. It is also the first Destiny game to have sales of over 933.

Like Star Wars, its sales have been affected.

Ranked third is "Snake", with the words "10,000+" written behind the green snake.

As the first game Ethan made, and also the first pot of gold that made him financially free, Ethan affectionately named it Jack. After the two-player version was released, he set the second snake in the game to be a female. The portrait on the machine was pink, and her name...

"Rou Si~ You're great too~" Ethan smiled and glued the pink snake and the green snake together, then wrote '12' behind them.

Ballmer noticed this behavior. After Ethan finished, he said, "The second best-selling game is "Falling Money". They sold a total of 8,000 units."

"According to the market department's estimates, this game also has the potential to break 20,000."

The sales of "Money Drops" were also within Ethan's expectations.

At the press conference, many bosses liked it.

When customers think it's great, it will be successful.

So, Ethan hung a yellow nugget in fourth place.

Then write '8'.

"The third place is Taken, which sold 3,500 units."

"The potential of this game should not be great. If it can break 10,000, it will be a success."

"The fourth place is Need for Speed, which sold 1,280 units."

"Uh... five thousand, maybe this number is the best fate for it."

The two people at the bottom are really in great trouble.

The former "Taken" can be said to have lost to its own people. If it weren't for the sudden rise of "Fat Man", the first "Taken" might have sold more. And "Need for Speed" simply lost to its competitors. When there are similar games on the market, the lack of highlights is their biggest mediocrity.

"Okay, once the funds are recovered, we will prepare to distribute the bonuses."

Ethan pasted a hand-painted scope and a hand-painted car one after another, then clapped his hands and said, "Let's set the date in July, just in time for the end of the first half of the year."

"I have already set the bonus distribution standards for the R&D department. The marketing and finance departments have also been very busy recently and everyone has worked hard, so they will all get a share."

"Go and communicate with Alan Massey and ask him to come up with a standard for distribution for me."

"Oh yeah, yours has to be a little more special."

"The chairman said that you hosted the press conference very well, so she will give you a bonus of 50,000 yuan. This money will not be counted into the bonus paid out uniformly, so keep it in mind!"

"I won't make up for the leak!"

"Okay, boss." Ethan's words made Ballmer very happy.

"Thank you, boss." He bowed and turned to leave.

To be honest, Ethan actually knew that he was a bit too generous. Giving out bonuses just because the company makes money?

But he doesn't care about these things.

Firstly, he himself used to be an employee, and he knew better than anyone that salaries above the industry average and excellent employee benefits were the best way to win people's hearts.

All the propaganda of corporate values ​​is not as good as giving money for a good job.

Secondly, when external enemies are eyeing them, improving the treatment of their own employees is the most effective way to break down the enemy's inner defenses. When Destiny Game allows game producers to directly take a commission from the projects they are responsible for, producers from other companies who cannot get a commission will definitely leave.

In his previous life, he had encountered such real cases, such as Hootsuite and Naifei, which used this method to recruit people. Of course, such high welfare will also breed a lot of idle people, such as the Bluebird that changed its name to X. After Musk came in and laid off employees, many bosses found that their companies did not need so many people at all, and then began to copy homework. However, this problem usually occurs after the number of employees in the company reaches a certain scale, so Ethan can now give bonuses with confidence.

Looking at the results on the honor list, Ethan clenched his fists happily and waved them vigorously in the air twice. Then he went to his desk and opened a notebook.

There are two numbers recorded on it. According to the area code, the first number is located in Los Angeles and the second number is located in New York.

After staring at the number for a few seconds, Ethan picked up the phone and dialed the first one.

After a few beeps, an old voice came into his ears.

"Hello? I'm Steve Ross. Who are you?"

Such words made Ethan purse his lips to hold back his smile, and then he said: "I am Ethan Jones."

"??? How do you have my office's private line number?" The person on the other end was surprised.

"Don't worry about this. I called you today just to tell you a piece of news. We sold 25,000 arcade machines of Destiny Game in ten days." Ethan said seriously.

As soon as these words were spoken, the other side fell into silence.

About five or six seconds later, a bang was heard, followed by a busy tone.

Such a performance made Ethan laugh so hard that he couldn't stop. After pressing the receiver, he dialed the second number. After about ten seconds, the call was connected.

"Hello, this is Philips North America."

"I'm Cornelis van der Krucht, who are you?"

Ethan asked Roy Disney for these two numbers, and when he gave them to him, Roy Disney said that Cornelis van der Krucht was a Dutchman who joined Philips in 1950 and is currently the CEO of Philips North America.

And he...

He took office last year.

He came to North America from the Netherlands because his predecessor was forced to retire due to company performance problems and serious strategic planning errors in the video game industry.

Therefore, after taking office, he made drastic adjustments to the strategic planning of Philips North America.

Including but not limited to the alliances played in Hollywood.

Of course, none of the above has anything to do with Ethan. After hearing the other party's question, Ethan, who was leaning on the boss chair, immediately smiled and said, "I am Ethan Jones."

"..."

Like Warner Communications Chairman Steve Ross, Eason's self-introduction silenced Philips CEO Cornelis van der Krucht.

After a long while, he asked, "Mr. Jones, are you here to surrender?"

"?" This rhetorical question made Ethan feel that something was wrong with him.

But Ethan didn't care and said with a smile: "No, I'm here to announce the good news."

"We sold 25,000 arcade machines of Destiny in the past ten days."

As the words fell, Ethan heard a sharp intake of breath from the other end of the phone.

The next second, a loud bang rang out beside his ears and exploded instantly!

The sudden voice made Ethan frown instinctively.

But after he took the microphone away, he leaned back in his seat and started laughing again.

"cut--"

"Is this all your self-restraint?"

"I called you on purpose and you couldn't help it?"

"Real food!"

That's right!

Ethan called them on purpose to disgust them!

When these guys wanted to kill him in business, Ethan would not be a good guy, nor would he emphasize that harmony brings wealth.

Before, when Steve Ross wanted to ban him, he responded directly.

And now...

Aren't you going to compete with me?

Aren’t you guys studying me every day?

Then after my new game becomes a hit, it would only make sense for me to stick the sales numbers in your faces, right?

hum~
After putting the receiver away, Ethan suddenly felt relaxed and his thoughts became clear.

Just as he was thinking about whether he should eat more at noon, Steve Ballmer, the big bald man, came back and said, "Boss, I have something to report to you."

"Go ahead." Ethan, in a good mood, waved his hand.

"Uh, the marketing department just received a new order."

"New order? Then just transfer it to Michael. Why are you telling me?"

"Because this order puts them in a difficult position."

"What do you mean?" Ethan didn't understand.

Steve Ballmer explained: "The order is very large. They need 1,000 arcade machines, all of which are "Falling Money"."

"What?" This order made Ethan frown.

"One thousand copies of 'Fat Man'?" He suspected that he had heard it wrongly.

"No, the person who placed the order is crazy, right? Which store needs so many copies of 'Windfall'?"

Ballmer looked at the record in his hand and said, "The delivery address is New Jersey."

“Atlantic City.”

Note: ① Although the aviation industry in the United States is very developed, their air transport business did not officially develop until after 1978. Before that, it was all land transport, either rail transport or land transport. What changed this situation was the promulgation of the "U.S. Civil Aviation Deregulation Act" in October 1978. It was not until then that FedEx began to develop air transport on a large scale. ② The game "Falling Fortune" is actually a snowball catching game made by those people at Activision. The gameplay is the same as described in the article, but I turned the snowball into gold. It sold very well in North America, making Atari earn a lot of money, and also made those people at Activision want to get a share, but Warner disagreed, so they left. Then after founding Activision, they also copied this game, and it still sold very well.

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(End of this chapter)