Game Development Giant

But that's not what bothers Jester the most.

Because these things, whether it is game development or hardware development, are all traceable, and you can fight them in a targeted manner. These may seem powerful, but in fact, they are just that. As long as you can firmly grasp them, Capture the hearts of the players, and no matter what methods the opponent has, the best result is just to divide the world into two, and it will never become a unified country.

But being able to expand its market share as much as possible is something that must be done, but the biggest advantage that Sony has is exactly the biggest factor that prevents it from doing this, that is, they have money.

It seems tacky, but it's practical and simple. Sony has money, a lot of money, and they can do whatever they want.

For example, in the war with Sega and Nintendo during the PS1 era, they once used the method of buying hardware at a loss to grab market share. Although Sega has also used this method before, Sega can use games to gain market share. Platform rights;; .+. collection of fees to make up for losses on hardware.

In the early days of the PS1 era, Sony was doing this kind of thing entirely by losing money.

As for whether Sony lost money due to hardware sales in the ps1 era, there is no official official statement on this, but you can think of the losses suffered by Microsoft's game department in the first year when Microsoft entered the gaming industry. There was a very famous interview at that time.

It was Bill Gates who was interviewing. As we all know, Bill Gates has been a game fan since he was a child. Microsoft's official entry into the game industry also had many accidents. They did not have to think carefully before entering the game industry like Sony. When it comes to making decisions, in fact, for some things, chance really accounts for a large part of the reason.

This is because Microsoft personnel specially produced a hardware product to test one of their optimization software. In principle, it was only used for testing, but after Microsoft's high-level experiments, they couldn't help but have a whim. Can't we turn him into a real gaming machine?

Even the birth of the name Xbox is interesting, but this is another story.

In fact, at the time, it was officially launched on November 15, 2001, before the Christmas season of that year. At that time, no one thought they could succeed because Sony was too powerful at the time. ps2 has seized the entire market share at an almost incredible speed.

Even Sega had to announce its official launch to compete in the home console market.

In order to ensure its vitality, Nintendo even participated in the Tokyo Game Show that year for the first time. You know, this is a game show co-organized by Sony. Before this, Nintendo had not participated even once. The former leading home game company could only rely on promoting handheld consoles to ensure its market share and fan loyalty. . It was under this situation that no one was optimistic that Microsoft's Xbox officially entered the market.

The fight was brutal.

In the interview that Jester watched, the interviewer asked Bill Gates very technical questions. Full of traps and extremely sharp.

How do you feel about the market response to Xbox in the past year?

This is the first question.

Bill Gates did not doubt his presence and immediately replied: Satisfied.

At this time, the interviewer immediately activated the trap he had laid before. Because Microsoft previously announced the revenue of their gaming department for the last fiscal year. The numbers were staggering and terrible, not the profits. But the losses were terrible. In the last fiscal year, the entire Microsoft game department. A total loss of two billion US dollars was made.

So, you expected a loss of two billion US dollars?...

This question is very tricky and cunning, and very difficult to answer. Coupled with the digging of a previous question, it seems that Bill Gates is in a dilemma. He has no other choice but to answer a reporter who wants him to The answer to the answer.

That is to eat the word satisfaction from before.

But Bill Gates smiled easily and said something earth-shattering.

This sentence not only made people understand the power and arrogance of Microsoft at that time, but also made more people realize the cruelty of competition in the video game industry, which was simply unbearable.

Bill Gates responded: Yes, the loss of two billion US dollars was within our previous expectations.

As expected.

This was the sentence that shocked Jester the most when he was watching this interview. Unfortunately, it was very regrettable because this reporter had not interviewed Bill Gates more than ten years later. If he had When he interviewed Bill Gates more than ten years later, he didn't know that he would add this sentence after Bill Gates' expected answer.

So, in the more than ten years since the launch of Xbox, Microsoft's gaming division has never made a profit. Is this what you originally expected?

When faced with this question, how should Bill Gates answer?

Oh, Jester suddenly remembered at this time that after more than ten years, Bill Gates had already retired from Microsoft. Naturally, he could no longer be interviewed about internal matters within Microsoft.

This incident is an anecdote about Microsoft's Xbox, and it seems to have nothing to do with Sony. However, from Bill Gates's reply about losing two billion US dollars in the first year, we can see the tragedy of this industry. Sony originally From poverty to nothing, of course, this is just a metaphor. It is just used to describe that they have almost no accumulation in the game industry. It does not mean that they are really poverty-stricken.

You know, Microsoft was not a complete loser in the gaming industry at the time. They had a solid foundation in the PC gaming industry.

Then, in the ps1 era, the top three were tied, and in the ps2 era, all the others were at a loss, seeking defeat alone. What can be foreseen is how much price Sony paid in this.

After a market structure is formed, those who want to join this market and get a share of the pie will definitely need to spend money. The market can be expanded at the beginning, but after the predecessors have expanded all the markets that can be expanded, Latecomers can only spend money.

Sony has no shortage of money, technology, talent, and consumers in the same market as them. It is perfect, and it is not scary to rivals that are bound to win. So what kind of rivals are scary?

When Jester returned to the headquarters, he contacted the Japanese branch as soon as possible. The first question he asked was about Sony's game console. That is, have they reached a settlement with Nintendo regarding the game console? Should the two parties jointly use the console they jointly developed before as their own platform, and then independently conduct game development?

After that, Jester waited slowly, waiting for Japan's reply.

This kind of waiting is very boring, but it is also related to the release strategy of their new console drabx2. This is the most important thing for Mars Entertainment at present, and we have to be cautious. Therefore, Jester can only stay with him for a moment. Waiting for a reply.

It's not that there is nothing to do. There are too many problems with the setting of RTS games. After he has completed the big framework, the details have been completed by his subordinates. He does not need to worry about it for the time being. Other things such as Jace I started playing Sid Meier's Civilization on the computer.

The release date of Civilization has been officially determined. At the end of January, the official version has also been determined. The version that Jester played is the version that is ready to be officially launched.

It has to be said that since the first generation of Civilization, this has been a time-killing weapon. It seems that his bloodline is like this. When playing this game, Jester did not have the skills to play early because of the times. Gap, playing with relish.

It seemed that he couldn't feel the passage of time. When the phone he used to answer overseas calls rang, he glanced at the clock subconsciously. He had unknowingly played the game Civilization. The game lasts for over six hours.

When I picked up the phone, it turned out to be a call from Japan.

Through various inquiries, we got a confirmable news, that is, both Sony and Nintendo have reached an agreement not to argue over the ownership of new consoles. Although the specific information is not available yet, there is one thing that both parties are doing at the same time. It still expresses this information to a certain extent.

That is, both parties issued production line rectification instructions to their own production lines at almost the same time. The rectification instructions were similar. They were all rectification of the production lines to adapt to the mass production of next-generation consoles. The time requirements were very close. The rectification must be completed within half a month.

But looking at the previous speed, it is considered good to be able to complete it in one month.

And this can also lead to a conclusion. Before a new console is released, it will have to go through at least a month of inventory. If they can release it in early March, it is the best result.

Jester thought about his drabx2 again. Now this console has officially begun to survive. If possible, it can be released in early February. This is also the date previously agreed upon by Nintendo and Sony. Jester also made a special choice. Such a date to snipe.

But the situation he is facing now is that it is no longer possible for Sony and Nintendo to release the product in early February. Their best plans are in early March or even the end of March. Should he also delay the release date in order to snipe them? Woolen cloth?

Nintendo may not care about it, but Sony cannot care about it.

However, the sales momentum of Sega's MD console is now very strong. Every night is a new loss of market share for itself, let alone a month?

Will the release date be changed?

Jester hesitated a little.

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