Everyone uses their own methods

Author: quiet thoughts

Everyone uses their own methods

Kyoto, Nintendo headquarters.

Hiroshi Yamauchi fiddled with the mobile phone in his hand, his expression showing no signs of fluctuation.

But Junpei Yokoi, who was sitting below him, had a serious face.

"Is this the latest widescreen portable game console launched by Shirakawa Electric that brings us trouble?"

Finally, after being silent for an unknown amount of time, Hiroshi Yamauchi raised his eyes and spoke slowly.

"Hai" Yokoi Junpei's originally broad cheeks now even look a lot thinner due to his tight complexion.

Shirakawa Electric's recently launched widescreen handheld console has caused more than just trouble for Nintendo.

It can be called a business crisis, which is why Hiroshi Yamauchi and Gunpei Yokoi are now getting together.

What they are holding now is Shirakawa Electric's widescreen handheld machine. First of all, the appearance alone is much larger than before.

The most obvious sign is that the original LCD screen has almost doubled in size.

In addition, when the handheld device is turned off, the colorful pattern still appears on the screen.

When he got this new product for the first time, Gunpei Yokoi was surprised.

Has Shirakawa Electric's technology advanced to this extent? You must know that there is no color LCD display on the market at the moment.

Surprised, Gunpei Yokoi took it over and examined it carefully, only to find that the colorful pattern was not what was displayed on the display screen.

Instead, a special film was pasted on the LCD screen. The well-informed Gunpei Yokoi immediately thought of a similar film on Atari's home computers.

This is a very simple technology, and even the cost is quite low, but the effect it presents cannot be underestimated.

For example, the handheld console in front of you comes with a game called "Prince of Tennis".

There are even green lawns as background patterns on both sides of the screen, and the block in the middle is exactly the same as in reality.

All of this is the visual effect provided by the colored film, and the display screen remains unchanged, it is still the original TN-LCD screen.

The response is slow, and the ball jumps out of place obviously, but the effect of combining the two immediately reaches a new level.

What a genius idea. Yokoi Junpei looked serious, but he couldn't help but secretly admire it.

This approach of using low costs to develop new ideas is in line with his own principle of "lateral thinking with withered technology".

Use the lowest possible cost to turn decay into magic.

Now this handheld console with an ordinary color film has brought big trouble to Nintendo.

Shirakawa Electric's new widescreen handheld console only comes with one game and costs 4,800 yen.

The screen is enlarged, the experience and fun are enhanced, and the price is actually cheaper than before.

In terms of game content, there is not much difference between them.

Sales of handheld consoles launched by Nintendo and Shirakawa Electric during the same period were about 30% lower than those of the latter.

As a long-established video game manufacturer, Nintendo has been completely at a disadvantage, which is why they should not be nervous.

"He is indeed a powerful enemy." Hiroshi Yamauchi put down the handheld device in his hand and let out a sigh.

Even he, who has always regarded game content as king, has to admit that some small hardware improvements can bring unexpected increases to the charm of the product.

"Yamauchi-san, how should we respond?" Yokoi Gunpei asked Yamauchi for instructions in a low voice.

Of course Nintendo needs to take action, otherwise the handheld console market will be swallowed up more and more by its rivals.

This is Nintendo's most profitable pillar industry at this time, and there is no room for any mistakes.

"We will follow up," Hiroshi Yamauchi gave the order without hesitation.

"But." Yokoi Gunpei also wanted to do this, but to be honest, he was a little afraid of Shirakawa Electric.

Why? The consequences of plagiarizing Shirakawa Electric seem to be short-lived.

Needless to say, the earliest Aihua was sued once by Shirakawa Electric Co., Ltd. It paid a large amount of compensation, but it is still a little helpless.

The subsequent Amap cross-key infringement case is even more vivid in my mind. It would be better for this company to simply use the surname Baichuan now.

Even because of this, the handheld console market, which was in chaos at the time, suddenly became quiet.

Even Nintendo, who is accustomed to being a gangster, is a little scared of the shadow of a famous tree.

And until now, the cross-key button is still the standard design of Shirakawa Electric.

There is a huge legal department behind it that even Hiroshi Yamauchi is not willing to mess with.

But this time, Hiroshi Yamauchi waved his hand to reassure him, "Don't worry, Yokoi-san, this technology is not patented by Shirakawa Electric."

"Eh?" Yokoi Gunpei was a little surprised.

Has Shirakawa Electric changed its gender? If we don’t register such a patent as soon as possible, are we forgetting it?

As if he understood what he was thinking, Hiroshi Yamauchi explained, "Atari applied for a similar patent a few years ago, but Shirakawa Electric couldn't apply even if it wanted to."

It turns out that this is the case, Yokoi Junpei subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

"By the way, President, do we want it?"

Yokoi Gunpei's intention was very obvious, why don't you take advantage of Shirakawa Electric's failure to react?

Get the authorization from Atari first, and then ask Shirakawa Electric for infringement fees.

"Do you think that Shirakawa-san would leave such a big loophole?" Hiroshi Yamauchi would not underestimate Shirakawa Kaede.

"Uh," Gunpei Yokoi thought the same thing. We are all human beings and it is impossible to ignore this issue.

"But Yamauchi-san, if we do this, will it infringe Atari?"

If Nintendo follows directly, wouldn’t it also cause infringement?

"Don't worry. First of all, Atari can't find Neon. Also, even if the other party comes, we have plenty of solutions."

Hiroshi Yamauchi has already made some calculations in his mind. I may have to consider Shirakawa Electric, but as a foreign company, there are too many ways to deal with you.

"We will discuss the widescreen design directly with Sharp. I believe there will be no technical difficulty in this matter."

"Hai"

Nintendo's LCD screens have always been supplied by Sharp, and Gunpei Yokoi himself even worked at Sharp for a period of time before joining Nintendo.

The two companies have a long-standing cooperative relationship and get along quite harmoniously.

So when it comes to widescreen or color film issues, they have no trouble at all.

"By the way, which company supplies the display screens of Shirakawa Electric?" Suddenly Hiroshi Yamauchi thought of another question.

"It seems to be Suha Seiko." Yokoi Gunpei had known this information.

As a competitor, Shirakawa Electric's hardware has been studied thoroughly by him.

"It turns out to be Suha Seiko, this is Sharp's old friend." Hiroshi Yamauchi sighed inexplicably.

The world's first commercial LCD screen was Neon in 1973, and the manufacturer of this LCD screen was Suha Seiko.

Following closely behind, another manufacturer that produced LCD screens was Sharp. They were both pioneers in Neon's local LCD industry.

However, although neon was first commercialized by the manufacturer, LCD technology was invented by RCA (Radio Company) in the United States.

It announced the relevant invention in 1968, which can be said to have shocked the industry at the time.

Motorola, AT&T, and HP have all taken it upon themselves to invest heavily in the development of LCD displays.

However, they have all gone in the wrong direction, and LCD technology is not yet mature.

I was eager to rush all the way to the big screen, and finally invested huge sums of money but never got any return.

So a few years later, including RCA itself, they withdrew from continued research on LCD commercialization.

However, in 1972, Suha Seiko and Sharp Head Irons took a fancy to this technology, so they obtained authorizations from RCA and started their own research and development.

In just the second year, Suha Seiko successfully applied LCD screens to its watches.

Yes, Suha Seiko is a watch company. LCD has made no achievements in the commercial field of large screens, but it shines brightly in small screens.

In terms of their respective origins, Suha Seiko and Sharp are both competitors, but they also have some kind of incest.

But it’s not necessarily a competitor. After all, Sharp doesn’t make watches. The light behind Hiroshi Yamauchi’s brown glasses flickered.

"The performance of the improved handheld console is quite good, it seems that the same sentence is still true.

When the content is not much different, hardware becomes a key competitive condition."

Akihabara HAL Research Institute, Shirakawa Kaedamasa, Iwata Satoru, Akagi and others discussed the market performance of the new handheld console.

“Overall, it’s really good, but the cost has also increased a lot compared to before.”

Akagi is responsible for the hardware design of the handheld console and is fully aware of the cost of parts.

"Especially for LCD displays, as the size increases, the purchase price also rises sharply."
To be continued...