Silicon Valley

Nintendo has always dominated the console market, with an arrogant attitude and too high royalties, which has always made many third-party game companies dissatisfied.

And Atari's royalties are much lower than Nintendo's, which will undoubtedly make many game companies excited.

This time, the attitude changes of the four major third-party game makers, Konami, Nangong Meng, Square, and Glorious, directly affected other game companies. For a time, more game companies found Atari and sought cooperation!

Nintendo suddenly felt a sense of betrayal!

At this time, Sony also jumped out and announced the launch of the PlayStation game console in June 1994! Sony originally planned to launch it in December next year, but the plan couldn't keep up with the changes. Atari is coming strong, and if they don't act, I'm afraid the market will be divided up!

Sony is confident to challenge Nintendo, because Sony's game console PlayStation is much stronger than Nintendo's SFC, and the games developed on PlayStation will be more beautiful and better than SFC!

However, the Atari Jaguar suddenly turned out. This game console is more powerful than Sony's PlayStation. If it takes over the market, how can Sony play?

No way, Sony can only rush to launch the PlayStation game console.

The addition of Sony has made the situation more chaotic. Sony is also a big company with strong strength, and it has also acquired a lot of game companies. Nintendo can't help but feel the enemy! In Japan, Sega and Sony will challenge it; in the United States, Atari will catch up with it!

The Nintendo isn't a fuel-efficient lamp either, though. Historically, many large companies have challenged it, but in the end? All fail!

Nintendo is still strong. They held a press conference. At the press conference, its diplomat declared in a very arrogant tone that Nintendo would also develop a 64-bit home game console N64. If a third-party game company defected to other game console platforms now, Then if you want to join the N64 platform, it will not be easy, hehe, you can decide for yourself...

Threat, this is simply the threat of Chi Guoguo!

However, Nintendo’s move did frighten a lot of third-party game companies.

The Atari Jaguar game console is a bull, but Nintendo is even more bullish. It has dominated the home console market for a long time and is invincible. Perhaps the SFC game console can not match the Jaguar, but the N64 may not be able to match it. What if I stand on the wrong team?

For a time, the game company was very tangled!

Despite this, there are still more than 100 third-party game companies signed by Atari! And they will port the game to the Jaguar platform within the next month!

...

...

December 25, Christmas, is the most important holiday in Europe and the United States, and it is also the craziest day for shopping.

At this moment, more than 20 meters long queues have been lined up outside the Firefly Game Houses all over the world, which has become a beautiful landscape.

In addition, many reporters interviewed people in line by the roadside.

ABC TV also broadcast the grand occasion of the Firefly Game House.

"Christmas is coming, what is the best gift for children? Ten years ago, we would definitely say that it was an Atari game console!" the host said, "What about now? Next, please watch abc TV on Live broadcasts from all over the world!"

"Oh, what did we all see? There are 20 to 30 meters long queues outside Firefly Playhouses all over the world. What are they going to buy? Yes, maybe you all guessed it! That's Atari Game console!!!"

"The Atari Jaguar game console is officially released today, and countless game lovers can't wait to buy it! The Atari Jaguar game console is the most advanced 64-bit game console with Internet access, but the price is only as long as $199. Oh my god, I can't believe it's so cheap! But it's so cheap!"

"According to the information we got on ABC, the Atari Jaguars cost $250 to manufacture alone, which means that Atari loses $51 for every game console it sells. If it sells 100 million units, It will lose $5.1 billion!!! Oh, God, $5.1 billion, it's an astronomical figure!" The host said with great excitement.

The audience in front of the TV is moved, isn't it a profit to buy an Atari Jaguar? !

The supporter went on to say: "The seven first exclusive games of the Atari Jaguar game console are all classic and fun, and there is also Pikachu "Pokemon"! It turns out that many pet images in the world-famous Atari electronic pet are It's from "Pokemon", but "Pokemon" is a hundred times more fun than an electronic pet! Wow, as a fan of Atari electronic pets, I can't help but want to play "Pokemon" now. !"

The popularity of the Firefly Playhouse is surprising, and at this moment, too many people want to know the sales of the Atari Jaguar!

At 12 o'clock in the evening, Atari announced: "On Christmas Day, Atari Jaguars sold 12.5 million units!"

As soon as this data came out, everyone was stunned!

Millions of units, they can still imagine, but tens of millions of units, they can't even think about it!

That night, countless people lost sleep.

In the early morning of the next day, newspapers and television media carried out reports.

"Horrible sales - 12.5 million units!!!"

"The return of the king, showing domineering!"

"Nintendo is already crying in the toilet!"

Yes, all of Nintendo's employees have felt the enemy, and their faces have lost the pride of the past.

The face of Nintendo President Yamauchi is even more gloomy and terrifying.

Now, the top executives of the entire company are gathered together to discuss the countermeasures.

"It is imperative that we develop the N64 game console quickly, otherwise, the home console market will be taken away by Atari sooner or later!"

"3D gaming is a trend, so 64-bit Atari Jaguars have a big competitive advantage right now!"

"I think the price of SFC game consoles has to continue to drop. Only in this way can we stop the Atari Jaguars before the N64 is developed!"

"Yes, even if SFC loses money, Atari can't make it bigger!"

Yamauchi remained silent, and after listening to what they said, he said: "Just do as you said! First, recruit more technical talents to speed up the development of N64; second, SFC game consoles have cut prices again. , a heavy block on the Atari Jaguars!"

"President, how much did the SFC drop?"

"SFC drops another $49!" Yamauchi said decisively, "We will sell one for $100!!!"

When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but take a breath. In this way, Nintendo was also selling the machine at a loss!

After the meeting, Nintendo's executives immediately announced that the price of the SFC game console was reduced by $49, and the global unified retail price was only $100!

As soon as the news spread, many Nintendo game fans couldn't help but be ecstatic and rushed into the store to buy SFC. For a time, the sales of SFC increased greatly!

The Atari Jaguar, meanwhile, was hit hard, with sales falling. Even so, the sales of the Atari Jaguars are still impressive!

After Christmas, the daily sales of Atari Jaguars remained between 300,000 and 500,000 units!

Although Atari Jaguars lost money, they made a lot of money back through gaming.

Each game is priced the same, $25 a disc. Christmas promotions, give away a game, but, you think, which player buys a game console to play only one game, at least three or four games to play.

For game consoles with sales of tens of millions, more than 40 million copies of game discs can be sold, which can not only make up for the lost money of the machine, but also make a lot of money. A game console can usually be used for three or four years. In such a long time, players should buy 10 or 20 game discs!

And Atari only needs to build the game console platform, and then sit and collect money. Moreover, with the reduction of production costs, in the end, even selling the machine can make money.

At this time, Nintendo released rumors to develop a 64-bit game console N64, which made Henry suddenly think that the N64 handle is the most important input device in the history of games. It has 3 epoch-making designs: analog joystick, trigger button, Vibration pack!

Thinking of this, Henry immediately called Atari CEO Rich Howard over.

"Ricky Howard, what do you think of the Jaguar's handle?"

"Okay!" Rich Howard replied.

Henry shook his head and said, "No, this kind of handle is too traditional to reflect the advantages of 3D games!"

Henry thought about the design of the N64 handle carefully, and then said: "I think you can add an analog joystick to the handle. This analog joystick is different from the general joystick handle, but uses pressure-sensing technology, according to the player. Push the force of the joystick, and the speed of the characters in the game will change accordingly. When controlling 3D games, the operability of this pressure-sensitive analog joystick will be extremely smooth. I think this design can reflect the The advantage of our Atari Jaguar 3D game!"

Rich Howard's eyes lit up when he heard this.

However, before he could speak, Henry continued: "In addition, we can also add a vibration pack function to the handle. For example, when a gun is fired, the handle will vibrate. Will it make the user experience better?"

"Yes!" Rich Howard nodded. "The analog joystick and the vibration pack are very creative designs and will definitely be loved by countless players!"

Henry smiled and said, "If you want to develop a shock pack, I know that there is a company that has this technology!"

Nintendo's N64 uses the electromagnetic coupling technology of Japan's ALPS Alps Electric Company, but Henry wants to choose another company.

Henry said to Rich Howard: "There is a haptic technology innovation company Immersion in the United States, and I will take a stake in the company immediately, and then let it help us design the vibration package!"

Immersion may not be heard by many people, but the company is very good.

In 2002, the American company Immersion sued Sony and Microsoft for vibration design infringement, claiming huge sums of money. Microsoft lost $20 million, and at the last thought, simply invested in Immersion. And Sony faced off in court for years, and was finally slaughtered for nearly $100 million! Atari does not want to be slaughtered in the future, and it is necessary to take a stake in Immersion.

Not only that, Immersion, as a haptic technology innovation company, has certain technical advantages in touch. If they cooperate with the LCD display department of Williams Electronics to develop touch screen and multi-touch technology, it must be able to speed up the research and development speed. .

In this way, can the real era of intelligence come sooner?

(To be continued ~^~.)