Chapter 664 568 What? ! Sony Was Actually Overtaken by Paradox? !

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In this timeline, this is actually not the first time that Square has sold off its equity.

I have sold some bits and pieces before, not necessarily to giants, but selling some of them to raise money is actually a normal business behavior.

In 1997, Square's equity was still quite intact.

Now only about 80% is left.

So after some discussions, Miyamoto Masashi and Wada Yoichi decided to take out 50% based on business and future interests, and first transfer 20% in accordance with the requirements of pokeni and Sony.

Afterwards, President Miyamoto went to Hiroshi Yamauchi with a shy face, hoping to gain his understanding and reshape the relationship with Rentendo.

Hiroshi Yamauchi's temper is actually much better now. The situation is stronger than others, especially when seeing Sony and Pokeni continue to encroach on the entire game market. If he does not make changes, he will inevitably lose.

So Yamauchi Hiroshi also gave Square a step forward through Miyamoto Shigeru. Although Yamauchi did not receive Miyamoto Masashi, but handed it over to Miyamoto Shigeru to handle it. In fact, it is equivalent to showing that Square has already had a solution to his previous betrayal. understanding.

After that, the cooperative relationship should be strengthened.

…

After selling all its shares, Square has become very delicate now.

It seems to have become a collective holding industry of large companies.

The main majority is still controlled by Square, with Sony as the second shareholder, Pokeni as the third shareholder, and Rentian as the fourth shareholder.

At any other time, if Square sold so many shares in one go, it would basically be considered as the president running away.

And from an accounting point of view, if the company's interests are not maximized, it will be a loss no matter how you look at it.

But it also depends on the situation. In this case, as Qing Zhiyuan said, it is equivalent to exchanging equity for the future and buying enough time.

No one is to blame.

What's more, although Square has failed miserably in movies, at least it is still top in the game industry. Even now, it still has its own value. The game itself is their bargaining chip.

Even Lu Bu is a hero as long as he doesn't die.

…

After Qing Zhiyuan learned the final news, he burst into laughter and cried.

Miyamoto Masashi is considered to be a good dancer. He can bet on three companies at the same time, so he is not losing money inside and outside, right?

Although I felt a little uncomfortable when I heard the news for the first time, Qing Zhiyuan also sympathized with Miyamoto Masashi. Square is not a small company anymore. It is really an accident to get to this point.

Calculated from a book perspective, buying 20% ​​of Square's shares for US$145 million is actually quite cost-effective. It would also be good for him to resell it in the future and reap the price difference.

In fact, situations like Square's are not uncommon in history.

For example, Meituan has received shares from Alibaba and Penguin, and Xiaopozhan is almost the same, with shareholders including Penguin, Alibaba, Sony, etc...

These major Internet companies seem to be competing with each other, but they are also united to some extent in terms of investment. Everyone wants a piece of the cake mainly for high-quality assets.

If Square insists on saying this in this situation, it is actually just a big piece of meat that he actively fed to a few ferocious beasts.

The two biggest ones are pokeni and Sony.

…

After two years of competition, Sony not only failed to hold on to its fortress, but was forcibly dug out by pokeni.

The number of registered users of Dandelion Game Platform now exceeds 270 million worldwide, and the number of active users has exceeded 10 million.

This data is actually quite exaggerated. Sony just released the PS2 in the second half of last year.

However, sales performance has actually been greatly affected, and is far less impressive than in the previous life.

As of now, the total number of PS1 and PS2 game consoles on the market is only 165 million.

This means that pokeni has actually overtaken itself in terms of market size.

The ace card of PS2 failed to produce results, and the digitalization and online download functions have not been perfected. The so-called slow step, slow step, is probably this situation.

Although Kutaragi Ken jumped in anger.

But there was nothing we could do.

…

Time entered in May 2002, after Sony's financial report was released, the entire gaming circle, and even the entire electronic entertainment industry, which has spread to the Internet, could not help but gasp.

As a listed company, Sony must disclose relevant data on time.

Even if pokeni is not transparent, a comparison can reveal that the gap in the game market is actually huge.

Before anyone could react, it seemed that Sony was still ahead at the end of last year.

Why has it been overtaken in just a few months?

And the difference is not even a little bit.

"Let me go, is this too exaggerated? In my impression, it seems that Sony has always been the dominant player in the world's games, although pokeni's game sales are quite amazing.

But the sales of game consoles are simply not as good as PS. "

"It used to be like this, but now we can't look at it according to traditional game share. Because P Club can download games through the Internet, you can't help but calculate this part of the game revenue, right?

Even if a third party puts its game on the Dandelion Game Platform, it can still get money.

And I can make more money than on PS. "

This part is mainly about cost control.

After digitization, the number of games downloaded through the Internet does not include the so-called costs of disc production, packaging, transportation, labor, etc. Therefore, although from the account sharing agreement, the royalty collected by P is 15%, which is different from Sony's It's the same.

But actually from the company level, the part that cooperates with P Company makes more profits.

Therefore, more and more game manufacturers are more willing to put their games on the Dandelion game platform.

This becomes a positive cycle. The more games that are launched on Dandelion, the more users will be attracted. The more users, the more third parties and even independent individual studios will be attracted to join. .

"However, even leaving aside the Dandelion game platform, Sega DC's game console sales seem to have exceeded 100 million copies now."

"Well... Indeed, I can only say that pokeni's play style is really clever. It completely bypasses the Maginot Line of defense set up by Sony and directly attacks the key points.

"An online platform that provides downloads not only solves the problem of market size, but also promotes the sales of Sega DC game consoles."

After all, network platforms also rely on the physical layer, which is supported by physical hardware. The biggest advantage pokeni takes is relying on the billions of computers around the world.

The popularity of PC has instead become a tool used by pokeni to promote the gaming platform.

After the development of the platform, it fed back the Sega DC game console. "

"Qing Zhiyuan played too much. I feel like I will never be able to think of this kind of play in my life."

In short, there are divergent opinions on the Internet, and people in the industry lament it, expressing dismay at pokeni's endless variety of tricks.

For an opponent like Qing Zhiyuan, it felt like no one else could win.

So envy is envy, but everyone can only follow P Club to drink soup.

When you know that your opponent is already too far ahead of you and will never be able to catch up in this life, you will feel less pressure and will not feel desperate.

The most desperate thing is that you are always half a step behind your competitors. There seems to be a glimmer of hope, but every time you are caught up, you are thrown away by the opponent.

Rentian was like this when it was lagging behind in the past, and Sony never thought that it would become like this one day.

Kutaragi Ken said that he had seen a ghost.

"If we fail to defend, we will have to attack later. But..."

Do we really have the ability to attack?

Although Kutaragi Ken was also very reluctant, he had to have a doubt at the first moment.

After all, Qing Zhiyuan's step-by-step growth and P Club's continuous growth were all seen by Ken Kutaragi, and some of them actually participated.

Think back to how terrible this partner was.

There is actually a misunderstanding here that people today fail to understand. As a derivative of the Internet industry, the Dandelion Game Platform has relatively low entry barriers.

Then a problem that arises is——

Although it seems that the platform has a large user base, its spending power and willingness to spend are not necessarily as high as those of game console users.

In addition, pokeni actually has many free games to play.

Naturally, the proportion of paying users will also be reduced.

So although the user scale and market of 270 million seem quite impressive, the actual number of paying users may be similar to Sony.

But Qing Zhiyuan didn’t explain it either. He waited for people to slowly understand it, and he could use this data to create a big trend!

…

At the same time, Studio Ghibli’s “Spirited Away” has also begun to land in major theaters.

Chihiro, a squeamish and willful 10-year-old girl, moved to a new home with her parents. On the way, she accidentally entered a temple and came to another world: a bustling bathing street dedicated to providing services to gods.

The parents were turned into pigs because they ate the delicacies prepared for the gods.

Qianxun escaped in a hurry. At this time, a boy named Bailong appeared and rescued her. With Bailong's help, Qianxun was able to settle down.

In order to wait for the opportunity to rescue her parents and return to her own world, she first had to work for the witch Yubaba who was in charge of the town's large bathhouse, and secondly she had to take away her name from her, so Chihiro changed her name to "Qian".

Here are Xiaoling who guides her work, the boiler grandfather who is responsible for boiling bath water, the coal shit ghost, and the faceless man who invades the bathhouse and causes trouble.

Encouraged by everyone, Qianxun repeatedly saved dangers with her innocent heart and made many new friends.

In the end, Chihiro saves Shiro and discovers his true identity.

With Bai's help, Qianxun successfully rescued her parents and returned to the real world.

The movie is still a very classic Hayao Miyazaki style, rich in imagination, and a fairy tale for everyone to see. It is still a story about an innocent little girl with strength and extraordinary courage as the heroine, completing redemption and being redeemed.

The scene design in the movie is full of strong Japanese traditional cultural elements, such as ancient temples, bustling streets and mysterious bathhouses. The use of colors is also very clever, creating a dreamy atmosphere through the contrast between bright and dark.

In addition, the soundtrack of the movie is also very good. The music composed by Joe Hisaishi for the film is beautiful and moving, which complements the pictures and plot of the film.

While having a strong sense of freshness and fun, it also contains profound meanings.

For example, desire, self, environmental protection and other deep connotations have been integrated into such a seemingly childish and beautiful animated film by Mr. Hayao Miyazaki.

Some people even commented that this is probably the most successful and culmination of Hayao Miyazaki's work in so many years!

It completely attracted the attention of the world.

At the end of the movie, an easter egg was also attached:

A bathhouse loomed in the ethereal fantasy, as if everything had returned to the original starting point.

But this huge castle-like building gave people a strange feeling. It was not until I looked at it a few more times that I realized that it had a strong 3D perspective.

[The game of the same name "Spirited Away" produced by Pokeni will be released soon, so stay tuned. ]

This time, the whole world was blown up.

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… (End of this chapter)