Don't let the fact that this machine is made by Gamenova fool you; its quality is guaranteed to be good.
But that doesn't mean it's guaranteed to never lose money.
A careful calculation will easily lead to the conclusion.
Even for a 24-hour arcade, it would take a very long time to recoup the costs.
In the ideal scenario, after deducting the necessary maintenance, electricity, and labor costs of the arcade machine, and only calculating its gross profit, we can determine its gross profit.
Based on the ideal model of 5 minutes per game and a full house all day, the maximum daily earnings would be around $250.
Although for an arcade machine, breaking even in two months is not unacceptable.
However, this would place an extremely high risk on the business.
Clearly, the Gamenova team is well aware of this issue.
The signature pieces that only large arcades could afford clearly didn't meet Gamenova's needs.
Therefore, following the release of the price information, a new procurement plan was also unveiled. [If a revenue-sharing plan is adopted, only 50% of the price needs to be paid, but a 40% cut will be made from the coin-operated portion.]
In addition, this new plan also comes with a truly powerful weapon.
Electronic counter.
Lin Lixin began preparing for this project long before the " Michael Jack Moonwalk" project ended.
early morning.
Meyer, the current sales manager of the arcade department, drove over to visit.
He was there, of course, specifically for the pricing plan of this arcade game.
"It's truly a beautiful masterpiece."
Meyer swallowed hard, circled the cockpit several times, and stroked the arcade machine, which was a work of art, with a blank expression.
To be honest, this was truly the first time he had ever seen the actual machine.
The moment he saw it, all his worries about the price vanished.
"Ten thousand dollars... that's really not expensive." Meyer withdrew his hand and continued,
"However, we still need to find a way to get the store managers in different regions to accept this price."
Given the current situation, not only store managers, but even the distributors responsible for supplying goods are hesitant about it.
What I fear most is that a film will be critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful.
The guy spent a fortune acquiring a batch of goods, but only a few local businesses were willing to buy them, and each only bought one unit. That was quite a mess.
It's now obvious to anyone with eyes that this is a masterpiece of technical skill.
It's simply a way for Gamenova to demonstrate its current technological capabilities... a kind of public announcement.
Its true commercial value is currently impossible to assess.
"That's why I made this thing."
Lin Lixin reached out and tapped the coin-operated machine with his knuckles.
"Is this the 'electronic lead-sealed' coin-operated machine you mentioned? What is it used for?"
"Oh, if you're talking about usefulness, it's really just so-so, not much different from the old-fashioned ones." Lin Lixin took out his key from his pocket and turned the switch to open the maintenance window.
"The biggest difference is that it's safer and more convenient."
The security level goes without saying; like lead seals, it's used to prevent others from tampering with it.
As for convenience...
"To adjust the coin count and price, you can simply make changes through the debugging interface."
As he spoke, Lin Lixin demonstrated it to him.
With a simple adjustment, the original price of [25 cents per time] became [1 dollar per time].
They can even change it however they want, [$5 per time] or [$10 per time] is no problem.
All he did was modify the parameters in the pre-prepared debugging interface.
"Instead of disassembling and reassembling the coin-operated machine and then modifying the game itself, this time we packaged it into a single module."
In fact, pricing has never been Gamenova's responsibility.
How to install coin-operated machines is up to each store manager. For example, Gamenova's own arcade in its birthplace still retains the default pricing from when it first opened.
What Lin Lixin did this time was not to take back the pricing power, but to make it easier to change the pricing.
"Well, that's all for now. There's no need to prepare anything else."
He casually locked the maintenance window again.
"Players will tell them whether they want to buy it or not."
Lin Lixin was completely unconcerned about this.
Gamenova has fought battles with a low start before.
It must be said that although the revenue-sharing system is somewhat unprofitable in the long run, it has indeed made many previously hesitant store managers make up their minds.
The first batch of over a thousand arcade machines unexpectedly sold out during the pre-sale stage.
This includes dozens of orders from Hollywood and General Dynamics.
On May 29th, at a Hollywood film studio, Wolfgang successfully secured one single-seat and one double-seat model, paying double the price.
Just those two arcade machines cost him nearly $100,000, including shipping and installation costs.
However, Wolfgang didn't seem to care much about this.
The reason is simple: a mere $100,000 wouldn't even make a ripple in Hollywood.
Even though he bought the equipment out of his own pocket, he didn't feel too bad about the expense.
He was, after all, one of West Germany's most successful and well-known directors.
His professional career over the years has given him enough capital to live a carefree life in his later years.
More than money, what Wolfgang truly sought was spiritual fulfillment.
And that's exactly what Gamenova excels at.
"Oh My God..."
Wolfgang finally saw its true form after everything was fully assembled and the workers left with a huge pile of cardboard boxes.
Ever since the release of the first promotional video, Ace Combat has been a recurring nightmare in his mind. His longing for the Air Combat disaster theme made him eager to see the real thing.
Although he had never seen anyone truly innovate in the shoot 'em up genre, his assistant's fervent adoration and yearning for Gamenova piqued his interest.
This anticipation has grown stronger with the release of more and more information and as the release date draws ever closer.
When the dream finally became reality, Wolfgang realized that his imagination had been too conservative.
It's practically like taking the cockpit of an F-16 and turning it into an arcade machine!
The seat was not upright, but tilted back at a 30-degree angle.
Traditional fighter jet seats, while also tilted, have never had such a large tilt angle; usually, it's only a dozen degrees at most.
A large screen is mounted on the front, slightly raised by the arcade cabinet itself, so that it is positioned directly in front of the reclining player to ensure a clear view.
Wolfgang tried to sit down.
The seats are made of high-quality materials, making them very comfortable to sit on while also ensuring they are fluffy and breathable.
Even if you don't play anything, just lying here is already a pleasure.
The 30-degree recline of the seat made him feel like he was in a recliner. "Wow, it would be so wonderful to have one of these at home."
The seats have a seatbelt system, but it's not the full-coverage five-point seatbelt found on actual fighter jets.
Because it uses Lockheed's own technology, this arcade machine naturally also features motion-sensing technology with hydraulic levers.
However, for safety reasons, the intensity is not too high, not much different from " Rock N' Roll Racing ".
Just in case, Wolfgang fastened his seatbelt.
His assistant ran around helping him set up the power supply and everything else before the game finally appeared on the screen.
A powerful rock background music started playing.
In a vast expanse of white, the camera suddenly bursts through the clouds and appears above the sky.
The entire shot is subtly divided into two parts.
The lower half shows clouds drifting to one side, looking almost like a real photograph, full of detail.
Above them stretched an endless expanse of Celeste sky.
The game title suddenly appears in the center: [Ace Combat ]
There are four options to choose from in the game.
Aside from the single-player mode at the top and the bottom option which need no further explanation, the remaining two options are quite intriguing.
One of them is the [Two-Player Battle Mode], which is currently blacked out and unusable.
According to the instruction manual, to play two-player mode, you need to connect the two machines together with a cable.
The other option is [two-player co-op mode].
This option is also unavailable. According to the instructions, to play the two-player co-op mode, you must use the two-seater F-14 arcade version.
"Mr. Petersen, it says the F-14 version allows you to experience the complete Top Gun cooperative Air Combat storyline, letting us use our own strength to reverse the tragedy of our teammates' deaths in the story."
As he spoke, he would occasionally glance out of the corner of his eye at the two-seat F-14 that was not yet powered on, which was placed to the side.
The meaning is quite obvious.
Bro, I want to play too!
But Wolfgang acted as if he didn't hear, or perhaps he pretended not to understand even if he did. After all, such a top-tier game naturally deserves a single-player run to enjoy first.
"Choose the difficulty level? Let me think... Normal, please."
The game offers multiple difficulty options, with the highest level marked with several exclamation marks as a warning.
It's practically tempting everyone to choose.
However, Wolfgang had little flying experience and it was indeed his first time playing, so he naturally started with the standard difficulty.
"Sizzle..."
The static from the communication system came through the speakers.
Then, a live-action opening animation started playing on the screen.
Dressed in a commander's uniform, Michael Jack sat in the command room, rapidly issuing combat orders into his earpiece.
This scene had already appeared in the previous PV.
While Wolfgang was surprised by Gamenova's big spending, it wasn't entirely unexpected.
This isn't the first time Gamenova has used live-action cutscenes; they experimented with this technique to enhance immersion back in the Command & Conquer era. However, these are merely off-the-ground methods; the true quality will depend on how well they perform in actual gameplay.
The plot is not complicated; the entire event takes place in a fictional region.
The protagonist plays an ace pilot in a flight squadron who is ordered to go to the area to eliminate enemy forces.
"Let's jump straight to the first level..."
Wolfgang tried to follow the instructions and press the confirmation button on the coolie hat.
The next moment, he was completely stunned.
The anticipated scene of a plane-based aerial shooting did not appear.
Or perhaps the game hadn't even started yet, but what he saw left him completely dumbfounded.
This appears to be a hangar, displaying various types of fighter jets.
From the F-4 on the far left to the F-16 on the far right, everything is displayed here.
The visuals are completely 3D...
Although the lighting effects are almost nonexistent, resulting in a slightly plastic-like texture and a strong cartoonish feel, they are undoubtedly 3D and have complete models.
There's even a five-dimensional chart in the lower right corner specifically designed to represent the performance of the current model.