Chapter 680: The game console goes on the market

On September 15th, in the midst of great anticipation, the preliminary auditions for GTV's 'Super Girl' will start on this day!

Early in the morning, Xia Yu set off from home in his car, passing just in time by a preliminary audition site in Kowloon.

The audition site was not located in the most bustling area, but next to a Wellcome supermarket, which was also considered to attract customer traffic for the sister company.

Not to mention, the long queues of contestants and their accompanying relatives would have to buy something from the supermarket when they got hungry or thirsty.

At the audition site, a huge promotional poster was posted on the wall, which could be seen clearly even by passers-by 100 metres away.

The long queues were almost always made up of beautiful young girls, which was definitely a sight to behold. They attracted a lot of onlookers, and many reporters kept taking photos and interviewing them.

Xia Yu, who had deliberately got out of the car to observe the situation, was very satisfied with the enthusiasm.

If there was this kind of enthusiasm in Southeast Asia, then the satellite signal receiver business would have no worries at all.

The car drove all the way to the Kowloon Kwun Tong Industrial Park, where Tiangong Electronics Co., Ltd. was located.

After Xia Yu got out of the car, he saw that Fok Kin Ning was already waiting at the entrance.

Without further ado, Xia Yu and Fok Kin Ning walked into the production area together.

The company initially designed the factory buildings to be two-storey high, so that they did not need to be built on very deep foundations. After a few months of around-the-clock construction, the first factory buildings were already in use.

Once inside, Xia Yu saw individual parts being transferred along the assembly line, then assembled by workers, and finally coming out as brand new arcade machines.

After the finished products come out, there will be special staff to debug them to ensure that they are qualified.

After walking with Fok Kin-ning for a while, Xia Yu asked him, 'What's the current order situation?'

Fok Kin-ning took out a booklet from his bag and handed it to Xia Yu, saying, 'Chairman, this is the order data. The main customer is currently Mr Xia Lei, who has ordered 300 machines at once, with a batch of each game. The total order amount is 3.2 million Hong Kong dollars.'

Xia Yu nodded slightly, opened the booklet and saw the specific data.

There were orders for the five arcade games 'Chinese Tetris', 'Super Mario', 'Donkey Kong', 'Pac-Man' and 'Battle City', with the most being 'Super Mario', which had been ordered directly for 100 units.

The prices of the five game arcades also differed.

Arcade machines like 'Chinese Checkers' and 'Battle City', which can be played for longer, are cheaper. The ex-factory price of one machine is 2,300 US dollars, or 106,000 Hong Kong dollars.

The most expensive arcade machine is the most fun one, 'Super Mario', which costs 2,500 US dollars ex-factory, or about 11,500 Hong Kong dollars.

Arcade machines like 'Donkey Kong' and 'Pac-Man' cost 2,400 US dollars ex-factory, or about 11,000 Hong Kong dollars.

The price range between 2,300 and 2,500 US dollars is not considered expensive.

The factory price of Space Invaders from Taito, Inc. was also 2,400 US dollars, the same as that of Donkey Kong and Pac-Man, and it was sold for more than a year without seeing a single penny drop in price.

Donkey Kong and Pac-Man are classic games from Nintendo and Namco in a previous life, and their quality is not inferior to that of Space Invaders.

What's more, Space Invaders has been on the market for more than a year, and many players have already grown tired of it and lost their sense of novelty. It is only because there is no comparable game on the market that it has been stealing the limelight.

I believe that when Donkey Kong and Pac-Man are launched, they will definitely be able to compete with Space Invaders for the market.

Faced with arcade games of the same price and comparable quality, I believe customers will know exactly which one to choose.

Of course, to find out exactly how, Xia Yu had to experience it for himself.

'Let's go over and try the machines!'

After Xia Yu finished speaking, he walked straight over to the debugging area, opened an arcade machine nearby, and found that it was the game Super Mario. He immediately took a game token from the box next to it and inserted it, and once the game started, he started playing.

'Popping!'

'Dong dong!'

The sound of the joystick and buttons kept ringing. Xia Yu controlled Mario to jump non-stop, eating coins and mushrooms one after the other.

Huo Jianqing watched quietly, while Li Qian watched Xia Yu play the game with interest.

'Oops, watch out... he's fallen into the ditch...'

Ten minutes later, amidst a cry of alarm from Li Qian, Xia Yu finally failed to avoid the fall. The red-suited plumber with blue trousers fell into the ditch, losing a life, and the game screen displayed 'Insert coins to continue'.

Xia Yu nodded with satisfaction, but instead of inserting more coins, he walked over to another machine and started playing 'Chinese Tetris'.

Li Qian had never played these arcade games before, so she didn't know what to expect, but Fok Kin-ning had, and he knew exactly how difficult Chinese Tetris was.

But when he saw the chairman playing for the first time, he was very skilled indeed, changing direction and position quickly, knocking overlapping blocks down one after the other, and after ten minutes he still hadn't cleared more than one level.

Filled with admiration, Fok Kin-ning thought to himself, the chairman really is the chairman!

He had played many times and could only last five minutes before the game ended, but the chairman Xia Yu had lasted so long on his first try.

Seeing that Li Qian was engrossed in the game, Xia Yu's mouth curled up slightly, and he shifted his buttocks to the side, saying to Li Qian, 'Qianqian, come sit up here and play!'

'Yes, yes!'

Li Qian cheered, she had been watching for so long and had longed to try it.

Once she was sitting on the stool, Xia Yu immediately grabbed her hand and placed it on the joystick and the red button, then let go.

It looked easy but was difficult to do, and Li Qian was a little flustered. The situation that had been going well suddenly turned into a mess, and the height immediately exceeded half of the way.

Under these circumstances, Li Qian was even more nervous. She rocked the joystick back and forth, her little face full of nervousness.

Li Qian's concentration on playing the game was very cute, and Xia Yu couldn't help but smile knowingly.

Ten seconds later, amidst Li Qian's wailing, the graphic reached the top and the game ended.

'How could this be, I died so quickly!'

Xia Yu laughed heartily, 'Qianqian, you were just playing for the first time, do you want to play again?'

'Well, I don't believe it, heh heh!'

Li Qian's little face was flushed, and she immediately nodded her little head and said.

Xia Yu laughed, and once again slipped a game token into the machine. The game started again, and Li Qian played seriously once more.

After about two minutes, the game ended again!

'Oops, I'm so angry, I died again!'

Li Qian muttered, her little face full of depression.

Seeing that Li Qian had finished in just over a minute, Huo Jianning let out a sigh of relief. This is normal operation!

If everyone was as good as the chairman Xia Yu, playing with one life for tens of minutes, then what would the arcade owners make?

The Tiangong Electronics Huaxia Sifang arcade game would definitely be full of returned games.

'Xi Xi, do you want to try another game?'

Xia Yu asked gently.

Li Xi's eyes sparkled as she looked at the Super Mario arcade game that Xia Yu had just played, and cheerfully said, 'I want to play this one.'

'No problem!'

He started up a machine and Li Qian played again with relish.

While Li Qian was engrossed in the game, Xia Yu said to Huo Jianning, 'Jianning, the difficulty levels of these two games are not bad at the moment, but when delivering the games to customers, you must teach them how to adjust the difficulty levels. If players become familiar with the games over time, it will affect the revenue of the game centre. Increasing the difficulty levels is the only way forward.'

Huo Jianning nodded, 'Yes, Chairman! I will make sure that the staff are taught how to do this!'

'The product has already been manufactured. What marketing approach are you going to use?'

Xia Yu asked.

'Chairman, the company has already made a plan, focusing on two aspects. The first is to set up a number of machines in the downtown area, so that members of the public can play them for free for a few days. If anyone sees a business opportunity, they will place an order.'

'The second aspect is to sell to the original arcade owners. Each type of machine will be provided with one unit, and they will be allowed to operate it for free for three days. After seeing the results, they will decide whether to place an order.'

Fok Kin-ning replied immediately.

Xia Yu nodded slightly: 'This is a normal routine, not bad!'

'There are very few game arcades in Hong Kong, so your first marketing method is more suitable for Hong Kong, and the island market is suitable for simultaneous implementation.'

'You can promote it to your sister companies. You can place some for customers to relax in front of supermarkets and cinemas. You can also set up a large game arcade in a separate store in Harbour City. Go to them and say what I said!'

Zhou Cheng, Jiang Zhiqiang, Liu Shihao and the others were not stupid and should be able to understand Xia Yu's intentions.

Using game consoles to attract people's traffic is definitely a very good way.

Especially opening a large game hall inside the Harbour City shopping mall is definitely profitable and can also attract customers for the mall.

In large shopping malls like those of the later era, game areas like 'Star Legend' are almost essential. The rate at which they make money is simply too fast, and they are definitely machines that burn players' money.

After playing for a long time, players will definitely be more likely to eat, drink milk tea, shop, etc. in the mall, which can drive the overall revenue of the mall.

Fok Kin-ning understood immediately. His expression brightened, and he immediately nodded and promised, 'Okay!'

'By the way, Chairman, the US Electronics Technology Expo is in half a month, and I want to take these five arcade games to the expo. We've already got a spot!'

Xia Yu's eyes brightened slightly. The US Electronics Technology Expo has a lot of influence. Taitung's Space Invaders became an instant hit there, instantly opening up the American market.

The path taken by Space Invaders is also suitable for Sega and Tiangong Electronics Co. I'm sure that when these five arcade machines are unveiled, they will definitely become the most popular at the expo and cause a huge sensation.

Xia Yu readily agreed: 'Go ahead, this is a very good platform, and you will definitely be able to land big orders!'

'In order to cope with the surge in orders, I suggest that you increase production capacity. If there is really no time, then you should devote all your efforts to producing motherboards, and at that time, you can sell the motherboards directly, and pass some of the profits on to the assembly.'

Having received the chairman's affirmation, Fok Kin-ning's confidence has increased: 'Okay!'