The cooperation is progressing very smoothly.
Tramiel will purchase a significant number of memory chips in batches.
Of course, there are also custom processors and graphics chips.
If Commodore wants to maintain its low-price strategy, the only partner Tramiel can choose is truly Gamenova.
Faced with such a window of opportunity as the "next generation," he could not possibly give up so easily.
Even if this failure means facing utter destruction.
" Commodore International..."
After the other party left, Lin Lixin quietly pondered the current situation.
Jack Tramiel's relationship with Commodore is now quite ambiguous.
In fact, many years ago, he had already left Commodore and bought the then-collapsed Atari company.
It was after that that the excellent PC, Atalist, was born.
As for Commodore, it also encountered its own new opportunity, namely Amiga computers.
The best mid-range camera just happened to be competing head-to-head with the fledgling Atari.
Strictly speaking, the two sides are mortal enemies.
But this was really just two terrible players playing chess.
It looked like a big show, but in reality, very few people cared about the situation on both sides.
Commodore also went bankrupt in 1994 due to the completion of its monopoly in the PC market.
Atari will also be absorbed and acquired around 1996.
Looking back at history, these two giants, who once stirred up the consumer electronics industry, were brought to their end in just a few years by the pressure from the Wintel Alliance and Apple.
The PC market has grown faster than many people imagined.
Wintel's competitive strength also exceeded the expectations of these established PC manufacturers.
This was a war destined to fail.
"Mr. Tramiel is probably doomed this time..." Lin Lixin shook his head helplessly.
Atarijaguar, a product Atari Americas Leopard to fail from the very beginning.
After two generations of fierce competition, the gaming market today is no longer what Atari once knew.
Gamenova, Sega, Nintendo, each with their own mature IP ecosystems and hardware and software ecosystems, have essentially devoured the entire market.
Atari is not like Sony is gearing up for its entry into the market.
Their research and development capabilities are extremely poor.
Strictly speaking, Atari once boasted the most extravagant lineup of engineers in the world.
Among the earliest semiconductor engineers to leave Fairchild Semiconductor were outstanding talents, as well as experts from National Semiconductor of the United States.
The gathering of experts from all walks of life created the glorious early Atari era.
But all this glory Atari Shock.
Many engineers lost their jobs, some changed jobs, and others packed their bags and fled overnight.
Not to mention the large number of ambitious engineers and developers like Gerald Lawson who ventured into the game market. The huge costs brought by tons of unsold cartridges did not bring down the once-powerful Atari.
However, the collapse of player confidence and the departure of the development team truly undermined Atari's foundation.
Atari as it is now, after its restructuring and split.
Rather than a gaming giant in its heyday, it was more like a diversified manufacturing entity whose main business was PCs.
"This could be an opportunity."
With this in mind, Lin Lixin had an idea.
While Atari's game lineup may be unreliable, its accumulated expertise in hardware technology is still commendable.
In a few years, Atari will merge with JTS due to poor management.
"Jts..."
JTS, or JT-Storage, is, as the name suggests, a company whose main business is storage.
Its only product line is disk drives and hard disk storage technology.
The merger between Atari and a company with a relatively low net worth is more like a desperate attempt to weather the storm, or even a way of reaping what's lost.
But for Lin Lixin, this matter offers considerable room for maneuver.
"If JTS and Atari team up... it seems... there might actually be some potential?"
If they can seize this opportunity to gain control of both companies, Gamenova will be able to fill a crucial gap in its hardware offerings.
PC production and R&D across the entire supply chain.
And hard drive technology.
Although in this day and age, floppy disks and optical discs are the absolute mainstream.
But as a time traveler, Lin Lixin was very clear about the true direction of the future.
Of course, optical discs need to be made, but flash memory chips and RAM chips are also essential, and mechanical hard drives are a must.
storage!
It will always be a mainstay in consumer electronics.
The real silicon-based gold. To this day, Micro-Nova Semiconductor's most profitable project is still SDRAM-based memory modules.
Instead of those much-vaunted processors and graphics chips.
Although major manufacturers can purchase graphics chips in bulk at once, there will always be demand and a market for memory.
And it can never be filled.
Once it's produced, there's no worry about selling it.
No wonder Samsung became a strategic partner of the fire department.
A little hype can cause prices to skyrocket.
Even printing money couldn't achieve this speed.
After seeing the guests off, Lin Lixin returned to the development department.
The impact of " Mirror's Edge " is far greater than imagined.
Even these worldly-wise guys couldn't resist throwing a small celebration party. Of course, Papa John's's took care of all the food, which could be considered a kind of franchise.
Ignoring the commotion, Lin Lixin went to the table and casually pulled up the report sent from Nova Arcade.
Although Mirror's Edge mobilized a large number of people, it was still nominally an arcade game, and its final ownership naturally fell into the hands of Nova Arcade.
"That's already over 100,000 units? WTF?"
Even Lin Lixin was somewhat stunned when he saw the time markers marked above.
This is an arcade game, damn it!
It's not a console game.
A store might only have a few of these.
However, this thing easily drained the entire production capacity of the contract manufacturer.
For an arcade machine, this sales volume is absolutely terrifying.
This means that in any arcade in the world, there is a very high probability that you will encounter at least one Mirror's Edge arcade machine.
Unlike the highly immersive cockpit of Ace Combat, it is very restrained in terms of motion control, with only a few micro-movements and fans.
In terms of cost control, the area advantage brought by the new process also quickly amortized the cost in a short period of time.
Compared to other mainstream arcade games, it's a bit more expensive, but surprisingly not by much.
" Sam, let Suzuki know and see if they can come up with a few variations of different specifications."
"You mean the base model and the deluxe version? Mr. Suzuki had this idea before, I'll leave him a message now."
Sam nodded quickly, took out the phone, and dialed.
This business model is very common for an arcade machine.
Reduce the monitor size by a few sizes, remove the motion sensor platform, eliminate the fan system and unnecessary lighting effects, and replace the top-of-the-line server rack with a cheaper plywood one...
This is a job that tests one's knife skills.
However, if handled properly, they can quickly create many different price-priced versions of Mirror's Edge.
Selling complete systems might negatively impact some profits.
But nowadays, arcade machines have electronic seals. Many stores choose to sign revenue-sharing agreements with Gamenova in order to offer discounts, paying Gamenova a percentage of their coin-operated revenue.
In exchange, they can obtain a large number of arcade machines at extremely low prices, or even for free.
For novice store owners who don't yet have a lot of savings, this new business model is perfect for them to quickly start a new store.
Especially now that Gamenova offers official "Internet Cafe Configuration Packages," you can directly hire Umbrella Corporation to handle the setup and decoration.
Alternatively, you can contact Nexus directly for installation.
Theoretically speaking...
As long as there is sufficient cash flow, any store manager can find Gamenova to provide a complete one-stop service and directly transform the newly acquired land into the best arcade in town.
This is the significance of ecology.
As the Gamenova ecosystem becomes more and more complete, the arcade project alone is enough for them to make a lot of money.
" Mortal Kombat's sales are better than expected."
Looking at the data from the other machines behind him, Lin Lixin nodded in satisfaction.
Today, the arcade division, inherited from Atari Games, is no longer a money-loser. Instead, Nova Arcade has become one of the most profitable game-related businesses under Gamenova.
"Let me see... um?"
Lin Lixin's gaze swept across the documents.
Suddenly, it stopped at a slightly unfamiliar name.
Rampart
" Sam, what is this thing? I don't remember ever making one."
"Um?"
Having just finished giving instructions, Sam leaned closer to look at the screen after hearing Lin Lixin's words.
"'Rampart'... Ah, I remember now, it was one of Atari's abandoned projects. After the acquisition and investment, the development department completed it."
"Published by Activision?"
"Yes, the quality is acceptable. Don't worry, Activision is very shrewd; they wouldn't make such a mistake."
Sam seemed to know what Lin Lixin was worried about and offered an explanation. In fact, the project was already close to completion at that point.
However, while Namco was under Namco's control, Namco always Atari for its own projects.
These games rarely get a chance to appear in public.
After the finished product was completed, Activision's review team tested it and determined that it had certain commercial value, so it passed the distribution approval.
These kinds of small projects are far too many for a company the size of Gamenova.
Especially on NP handheld consoles, new games are released every now and then.
Most of the time, Activision is responsible for handling this.
Otherwise, it would definitely be a huge mess for Lin Lixin.
"Judging from sales and player feedback... it seems pretty good? Is there any actual gameplay footage of this? I'd like to see it."
"Of course we have them. It shouldn't be hard to find them in stock; our warehouse here probably has some."
As Sam spoke, he ran into the storage room and rummaged through it.
Before long, he pulled out a generic circuit board that wasn't particularly sophisticated. "I remember the development team said they were inspired by Command & Conquer: Dawn of the Kyber Crystal. Let me see... ok, this will do."