Wait until retirement for freedom

When Takayuki announced the price of the new handheld console, Takayuki suddenly remembered a very famous scene from his past life.

A scene that could be considered one of the most unforgettable in gaming history.

In the original world, at that time, Sega and Atari still had some market share, while Nintendo dominated the entire market.

Then Sony released its first home console product, and at the press conference, the host only said one number. 

1.

This represented the price of the new gaming console.

In the original world, the general price of a gaming console had already risen to over three hundred dollars at that time, and most people had actually accepted that price.

But suddenly, Sony entered the market and dropped the price to 299 dollars.

Nintendo was okay because they had a stellar lineup of games.

But Sony's move directly killed Sega and Atari, which still had some market share at the time, and they thereby lost the chance to turn things around.

This is the price war, it's just that brutal.

With memories from his past life, Takayuki wanted to recreate that classic scene at that moment.

The total cost of his handheld console was eventually controlled to around 170 dollars.

But he directly announced a price of 149 dollars.

This meant losing twenty-one dollars for each unit sold.

If one hundred million units were sold, wouldn't that be a loss of twenty-one billion dollars?

Of course, it's not that simple.

Selling one hundred million units would probably take three to five years.

And processor performance in this world also followed Moore's Law, which means that processor performance doubles every eighteen months while the price remains the same.

And his handheld console was designed to maintain the same performance for over five years.

Under the premise of unchanged performance, the cost of the console would decrease each year according to the scale of production and the reduction in chip costs.

Selling one unit this year might result in a loss of 21 dollars, but by next year, it might only be a loss of less than ten dollars, and in the third year, it might even turn a profit.

In his past life, Xiaomi in China followed this path. Of course, they liked to play tricks, using hunger marketing in the early stages to minimize losses and continuously attract attention. Then, after two or three months or even half a year, when costs had come down, they would make a profit by selling in large quantities.

Of course, all of this was inconsequential. Electronic games were the most profitable.

If sold properly, the losses of the year could be fully recovered through electronic games alone.

In this way, winning the market, winning reputation, and winning profits, both players and himself would be happy, a win-win situation.

So Takayuki was very confident in announcing the price of 149 dollars.

And there was also the revival of an old trick, a very famous scene, isn't that cool?

And the feedback from the players was also quite real.

They screamed on the spot.

This contrasted sharply with the lukewarm response from the neighboring Surui Electronics just now.

As for the game release?

Forget about the game release, players wanted to watch the trailers I had prepared for them, I didn't even need to appear myself.

And now Takayuki could confidently say that even without releasing trailers, players would still decisively buy certain series of games without hesitation.

Takayuki stepped backstage, and the staff backstage were also stunned.

This was the fastest presentation they had ever seen.

Just one set of numbers and it was over.

Not to mention the staff, even the audience and reporters hadn't had time to warm their seats yet.

What about the duration of the rest of the presentation?

Of course, there wasn't much to do. There were plenty of demo machines in the venue, you could go and play with them, there was no need for me to blabber on.

Originally, I had prepared for The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario, but now most players had already sensed that there would be a new Super Mario game, so there wasn't much need to promote it further.

But The Legend of Zelda, that could be promoted properly later.

The players were very satisfied, extremely satisfied, satisfied to the extreme.

The new handheld console from Surui Electronics next door looked great, but it was priced at 249.

The new handheld console from Gamestar Electronic Entertainment had a larger screen, slightly inferior graphics, but it was only 149.

In fact, it was very difficult for ordinary people to see the subtle differences in graphics.

Unless two consoles were placed together and the same game was played simultaneously, it would be possible to see these differences.

And, a larger screen was justice.

The new handheld console from Gamestar Electronic Entertainment had a screen that was a full 1.2 inches larger.

To give an inappropriate analogy, it was like cup sizes, those who understood would understand.

Three minutes had passed since Takayuki left the stage, and the players at the presentation were still excitedly shouting, which was enough to prove the impact that this price had on them.

And the format of this presentation was also very dramatic.

It was simply the best press release ever.

All the reporters even forgot to pick up their cameras to record videos and take pictures, and then it was over.

Many reporters were dumbfounded on the spot, and then hurriedly asked their colleagues for a few photos and videos they had taken.

If not, they would be willing to pay a high price for them.

Then the smart reporters started editing their articles on their phones.

Ten minutes later, the dramatic presentation from Gamestar Electronic Entertainment was already being published online.

Three numbers made the players go crazy, and they were shouting loudly, "Take my money, I want to buy a console now!"

What kind of reaction was this?

What kind of terrifying effect was this?

No one dared to think that a presentation could be conducted like this.

No, maybe someone had thought about it, but no one dared to take such a risk.

Because other companies needed to be accountable to their shareholders, to their stockholders, and they had to make sure that their shareholders were satisfied as well.

But Takayuki didn't need to be accountable to anyone. If he wanted, he could shut down the company happily, and no one could do anything about it.

Many CEOs who saw this scene turned red with envy.

They weren't jealous of Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's huge response from three numbers.

They were jealous of Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's freedom.

To be honest, many CEOs gradually became slightly more advanced employees as their companies grew.

In this process, they kept financing, kept giving up rights in exchange for a larger market.

At the same time, they gradually lost their freedom. They couldn't control their own company as freely as they did when they founded it.

And seeing Takayuki acting so freely and confidently, this carefree attitude was what they envied the most.

Back then, we also had this confidence.

But now we have more responsibilities on our shoulders, and they can't do such things anymore.

I really wish I could do the same thing again.

Even if it means resigning... well, let's forget about that, making money is more important. Freedom and all that can wait, it's not too late to be free after retirement.