Reborn Capital Madman

For Sega, this price war is a bit like a turn-based game. After its opponents have completed their moves, Sega will react and assume a perfect posture of being forced to fight in order to protect the interests of the home video game console market.

The outside world is convinced of this, because after Sega's public relations handling, the situation is clearly there.

Among the four main players in the price war, Commodity and Texas Instruments have invaded the home video game console market with low-end and cheap personal computers. It is obvious that they do not care about the life and death of the home video game console market; Atari is an electronics company.

Games and personal computers work both ways. Only Sega focuses on video games. It is not an exaggeration to describe the current situation as a matter of life and death.

Under such circumstances, while Wall Street predicted that Sega's profits would fall sharply, other video game manufacturers complained that the industry leader was overpowering others, but they really couldn't point out anything wrong with Sega's decision-making.

I am also forced. If the market is ruined, I will never take the blame!

In fact, the situation has developed so far that video game manufacturers such as Atari and Mattel have also reached their own market research conclusions, that is, the personal computer products of Commodity and Texas Instruments have seriously impacted their home video game consoles.

sales volume.

So, when Sega announced that the price of its eight-bit home video game console, the sg-3000 series, would be further reduced to $98, everything seemed so natural and reasonable.

Moreover, Sega has made a decision that is quite "pleasant" to the consumer market, that is, to fulfill its previous promise, the difference between the previous round of price reductions and the current round of price reductions will be returned to users in the form of coupons, which they can use to spend.

Use it to deduct the cost of purchasing new game consoles, official peripherals including controllers, and game cartridges.

Of course, there are still some restrictions on this consumer coupon, including that it can only be used once before September 30 this year, and can only be used to purchase games produced by Sega and those third parties that have been officially licensed by Sega.

Producing games, etc. Anyway, I know how to buy better than sell.

It can be said that Sega followed the trend of the price war and further lowered product prices, which was not unexpected by the outside world, but it was quite shocking to cleanly fulfill its promise to return the price difference, and it created a last-ditch pressure that could be clearly felt by its opponents.

.

Before Sega took these countermeasures, Gao Xian pretended to contact Warner CEO Steve Ross to inform Sega of its decision. The reason was very simple. After all, Sega and Atari were both electronics companies.

As brothers in the same trench, the game naturally needs to communicate as much as possible to deal with foreign enemies together.

"Sega has great courage, and Atari is ashamed of itself. We can only hope that the upcoming "et Aliens" video game can turn the tables." If you listen carefully to Steve Ross's tone, you will find that

There is an indescribable sense of schadenfreude and complacency. Sir Gao has always been shrewd in business. Did he foresee Sega's "difficulty" today?

"Is the production of the "ET" video game so fast?" Sir Gao, who seemed unaware, asked in surprise: "How many copies does Atari plan to produce?"

"Should be at least two million copies." Steve Ross answered happily.

"Atari is quite conservative. As far as I know, the total sales of Atari 2600 must be far more than two million units." Gao Xian thought: "In this way, it is estimated to be enough to withstand the sales of Commodity and Texas Instruments.

It's on the offensive, but Sega is a bit alone due to the predictable price war losses in the home video game console segment. It really needs to find a way to make up for it, and it may have to make a fuss about new product releases."

Steve Ross, who was secretly amused that Sir Gao had to find a partner to share the losses, was really intrigued. "Is there any unexpected new heavyweight product from Sega that will be launched?"

"Indeed, there is, but it is not a home video game console platform, but an arcade machine platform." Sir Gao showed the frankness of his comrades, "In fact, at this stage, arcade machines are in bars, restaurants, shops and other places, and even special game halls.

, is also very popular, and there is no invasion from foreign enemies like Commodity and Texas Instruments."

…

In this kind of exchange of information, Steve Ross was not without gains. After discussing with Sir Gao, he immediately called Atari CEO Ray Casa and asked about "ET Alien"

Regarding the more detailed situation of the video game, "Didn't you report that the "ET" video game is about to be launched, so which platforms does it match?"

Ray Casa did not expect Steve Ross, who had always delegated power, to pay attention to such a specific issue, but he could only answer truthfully: "Because time is too tight, the current development has only completed the Atari 2600 platform.

, As for the Atari 5200, arcade machines, and personal computer platforms Atari 400, Atari 800, etc., they are only in the plan for the time being."

Steve Ross is definitely not satisfied with this answer. In order to obtain the exclusive rights to adapt the video game of the movie "ET", he paid a huge price. How could he not make full use of such a good resource?

After expressing such dissatisfaction, Steve Ross asked about the production plan of the "ET" video game, "Have the Atari 2600 only sold two million units in these years? Do you understand?

How popular is the movie "ET"? How many people are looking forward to its video game adaptation?"

Ray Casa was trained to the point of sweating on his forehead. He suddenly felt that what the big boss said was actually quite reasonable. In recent years, no matter how bad a video game is, consumers have bought it and sold it out; "etwai"

Although the production time of the "ET" video game was severely compressed, it is completely foreseeable that some aspects are not satisfactory, but one handsome man covers all the ugly, and the "ET" movie has many fans!

"The boss is right, then the production plan will be increased to four million copies, and we will always keep an eye on the market to make adjustments as soon as possible." Ray Casa immediately corrected his "mistake" on the spot.

Steve Ross was then satisfied and waved his hand: "Okay, hurry up and implement it."

…

On Gao Xian's side, he could certainly sense that Steve Ross relied on Atari's business in both video games and personal computers, and in this price war, he was confident that he could handle it with ease, so much so that Atari

Dali and Sega's stance on the price war is not entirely consistent.

But what does it matter? Sir Gao has no real hope that Atari can help turn the tide. Just acting on stage is enough.

However, when Gao Xian and Steve Ross exchanged information, although they sometimes had reservations, they did not lie when they said it. For example, Sega will launch a new arcade machine and its accompanying video games.

The home video game console market in North America is definitely going to be ruined, but the arcade market is still healthy, and the current market is booming and very popular among players.

This phenomenon is not difficult to understand. In terms of performance alone, arcade machines are much better than home video game consoles, and the gaming experience has been greatly improved.

At this stage, the product models of Sega's home video game consoles and arcade machines are coded using the letters "sg" plus four Arabic numerals.

Among them, home video game consoles use codes starting with an odd number. The eight-digit home video game console with the largest sales has evolved into the sg-3000 series. Moreover, due to the completeness of product technology, it is far from being able to only call up to 128 bytes of random dynamic memory.

Yada

The profit is comparable to 2600, so there should be no major structural changes, and the product models basically stop at this range; the sg-5000 series, which sells far less than the eight-bit home TV game consoles, is also slightly more expensive.

Six-bit home video game console products.

Sega's arcade machines have evolved to the sg-6000 series and are now preparing to release the sg-8000 series. Its CPU uses the z80 32-bit upgraded version z8000 of Zilog Company, which Gao Xian has been silently supporting, with callable resources including memory space.

, far from those who still use z

80, the mos6502 eight-bit CPU is comparable to home TV game consoles, and is a unique chip specifically responsible for processing video and audio. Its performance has been greatly improved compared to the sg-6000 series, which is very important in the video games "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

There are incomparable proofs of performance.

David Rosen, chairman of Sega's board of directors, personally attended the launch of the sg-8000 series and answered questions from the media.

This includes, for example, Sega, which has no new home video game consoles but is making big moves in arcades. Is it because it is unable to cope with the ongoing price war and is looking for a way out through arcades?

David Rosen, as always, expressed his sorrow for this price war, reiterated that Sega was the biggest victim, but emphasized that Sega was operating in good condition and had no problem with the price war. Finally, he desperately tried to attract the reporter's attention.

force, and return to the excellent performance of the sg-8000 series.

The media still have professional ethics. While concluding that Sega lacks confidence in the price war, they did not forget to praise the sg-8000 series that will succeed the sg-6000 series and become the most powerful arcade machine currently.

After appreciating David Rosen's "performance" of bitterness and hatred, Gao Xian was secretly amused and at the same time very satisfied with the results. You all thought that Sega was about to be unable to withstand it, and they just needed to work harder.

It would be great if we could take over Sega’s position!

In Gao Xian's view, the new products released by the electronic game industry at this time are all life-threatening talismans! Unsatisfactory products will make the chaos of bad money driving out good money even worse; the brilliance of the product will set off the current market situation.

Sick.

When Gao Xian personally dealt with issues such as Sega's financial solution for price difference coupons, etc., in order to reflect the losses as much as possible in the third quarter when everyone was unlucky, the price war started again. Kang Maoda, the main attacker, modore 64 price, from

USD 400 reduced to USD 200.

Now, not to mention Sega hinting that it can't stand it anymore, even Texas Instruments, Commodity's direct low-end and cheap personal computer competitor, doesn't dare to hide it anymore. It's starting to let people know and get vaccinated. Well, there will be a possibility in the third quarter.

It was the largest loss in the company’s history…