Chapter 165: Handheld Game Console
Looking at the extremely surprised looks of Tanimura and Iwata, Shirakawa Kaede almost smiled crookedly.
"Let's get acquainted again." Shirakawa Feng took out his business card from his pocket and handed it to the two of them with both hands. "My name is Shirakawa Feng, the president of Shirakawa Electric Co., Ltd. Nice to meet you."
Tsk, I haven’t used this process for a long time, and the techniques are a bit rusty.
"Shirakawa Electric?!" Iwata and his friends were stunned.
When the other people in the room heard Baichuan Feng say the name Baichuan Electric, they were all shocked.
At this time, Shirakawa Electric is no longer an unknown small company, especially since it has been frequently featured in newspapers recently.
Anyone who pays a little attention to current affairs has heard of the name of Shirakawa Electric.
But they didn't know that the president of Shirakawa Electric was so young and was standing in front of them.
After all, the news footage of Baichuan Feng appearing on TV was only a dozen seconds long.
Besides, not everyone likes to watch the news, especially young people.
So everyone was stunned to find out that the young student who had been chatting with them for a while was actually the president of Shirakawa Electric.
Just going out for a stroll, you can meet the legendary president?
The good friend I met while playing games turned out to be a capital tycoon?
A billionaire personally treated me to ice cream?
The expressions of everyone in the room changed from surprise to joy.
Especially Iwata Satoshi and Tanimura Masahito, their feelings were the most complicated.
"Shirakawa-kun?" For a moment Iwata Satoshi didn't know how to address this good friend whom he had already regarded as a close friend.
"Iwata-kun," Shirakawa Kaede said, hugging his shoulders and patting him, just like before. "Hey, don't make that expression. We agreed to play games together in the future."
"Huh!" Iwata smiled happily. He felt that Shirakawa still loved computers as much as before.
Sure enough, Baichuan Feng's next words made him more certain of his guess.
"Iwata-kun, remember what I said before? You should develop your own games in the future and share this fun with more people."
"Of course," Iwata answered without thinking, "Shirakawa-kun, do you want to join us?" He invited Shirakawa again, just like he did before.
"For such an interesting thing, you must take me with you." Baichuan Feng had an expression of 'of course' on his face.
How could they refuse such a thing? Shirakawa Electric's next product might be based on this.
Iwata nodded with satisfaction. It turned out that Shirakawa-san understood me.
As for the 'President-san' who just scared me, he just had another identity.
As a student, Iwata Satoshi is still unable to understand the difference between the two.
"Baichuan...jun, what you just said..." At this time, Tanimura, who had just come back to his senses, was looking at Baichuan Feng with shining eyes.
Others may not know what Shirakawa Electric means, but doesn’t he know it?
As someone who has worked at Seibu Department Store for nearly two years, he deals with Shirakawa Electric products almost every day.
Diagonally opposite the computer sales area he is in charge of, there are counters selling various audio playback devices.
The best-selling product of the year was undoubtedly the Walkman player.
If we ignore Aiwa, the only products left for Walkman players are those from Sony and Shirakawa Electric.
The two companies have almost divided up the entire Walkman market. If you think about how popular this machine is now, you can probably understand what Shirakawa Electric represents.
Not to mention their headphones, which are now almost the darling of the market.
There is a rumor that the next generation of Shirakawa Electric's products, whether it is a walkman or headphones, will have a significant improvement in audio technology.
Those electronic music lovers would go to the counter every now and then to inquire about the latest information about new products.
So it’s different from other people who think of Shirakawa Electric as a slightly famous company that was featured in the newspaper.
Masahito Tanimura has a deeper understanding than everyone else about what it represents.
Hearing Tanimura's question, Shirakawa Kaede also restrained his expression and answered seriously.
"If nothing unexpected happens, HAL's investor may change. Of course, all this requires Tanimura's approval."
After all, he is the one who actually does the work at HAL, and Shirakawa Kaede himself is a layman in software.
If Tanimura disagrees, even if HAL is purchased, it will only be an empty shell company, and the investment will be meaningless.
"Yes, yes..." As soon as Baichuan Feng finished speaking, Tanimura agreed hurriedly.
"Ding-ling-ling..."
At this moment, the phone on the desk rang, interrupting what Tanimura was saying.
He nodded apologetically to Baichuan Feng, then walked over and answered the phone.
"Moshimoshi... Iwasaki-san?... Hello... Please don't worry about me..."
While Tanimura was on the phone, Shirakawa Kaede turned around and looked at Kobayashi Asuka.
The latter winked at him playfully, with an expression that said 'I'm really awesome, right?'
Baichuan Feng gave her an affirmative look in return, good, capable.
In just two minutes, Tanimura hung up the phone and turned around with an excited look on his face.
"Mr. Shirakawa, please take care of me in the future." He bowed to Shirakawa Feng politely.
Baichuan Feng was a little amused, "Tanimura-kun, there's no need to do this. Just continue to call me 'Baichuan-kun'."
This Tanimura is also a wonderful person. He was so happy about the change of boss and did not feel nervous at all about changing employers.
However, Tanimura no longer called him "Shirakawa-kun" as he did just now, and his attitude instantly became respectful.
Baichuan Feng tried to persuade him several times, but seeing that it was of no use, he just let him go.
"Mr. Shirakawa, in which direction do you think HAL should develop in the future?"
Tanimura, who was very perceptive, quickly adapted to his changed identity and began to ask Shirakawa Kaede for instructions on the company's future development direction.
"Tanimura-kun, just continue to execute the plan that HAL had previously made."
At present, Shirakawa Kaede has no intention of directly intervening in HAL. The company has just been established, so he will give it some training first.
Moreover, HAL is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shirakawa Electric, according to the news just released by Asuka Kobayashi.
Iwasaki Giken invested 1.2 million yen to help Tanimura establish HAL. As for Tanimura himself, he was so poor that he had to work part-time, let alone invest.
However, considering the company's special nature and high reliance on technology, Tanimura also received about 13% of the shares by investing in the founder's technology.
After all, as the actual operator and manager of the company, it is only natural for him to have shares.
Especially for a company with a high degree of professionalism, it is hard to say whether it can run smoothly without a team leader with strong technical capabilities.
The 1.2 million yen start-up capital, two computers, an apartment, and other miscellaneous office supplies were almost all gone.
It’s not that Tanimura didn’t think about convincing Iwasaki Giken to make further investments.
However, Mr. Iwasaki only thought of investing on a whim, and he really had no interest in continuing to invest money.
So Asuka Kobayashi just made a phone call and directly offered 3 million yen to buy the HAL shares held by Iwasaki Giken.
Mr. Iwasaki agreed without hesitation. The company had just been established for less than two months and the return rate was 2.5 times.
What reason was there to refuse? Besides, he was annoyed by Mr. Tanimura who always asked him for money.
He regarded HAL as a burden and couldn't wait to hand it over to Shirakawa Electric.
This is also the reason why Tanimura received a call just as the matter was finalized.
In terms of efficiency, everyone is pretty good.
At this moment, Tanimura was relieved to hear that Shirakawa Kaede did not intend to directly interfere in the management of HAL.
After all, as a president, who would want to have a boss who gives orders without authorization?
"Mr. Shirakawa, HAL currently plans to make computer peripherals first, or take on some software work.
For example, peripheral devices that can improve the image display and sound capabilities of microcomputers, or porting TV games to microcomputers for further development and sales. "
Tanimura’s ideas are still very clear, and he can try both the software and hardware aspects.
Do whatever makes money, as long as the company survives first.
Moreover, the part-time college students in the house are all good at these fields. If they tinker with them, they might be able to come up with something.
Shirakawa Kaede has no opinion on HAL's current development plan, but he also has some ideas of his own when it comes to games.
"Tanimura-kun, have you heard of handheld game consoles?"
"Handheld game console?" Tanimura was stunned for a moment and then reacted, "Shirakawa-san, you mean a portable game console, right?"
"That's right," Shirakawa Feng nodded. There are already handheld game consoles in this era.
But it’s not Nintendo, but Mattel, a game console manufacturer from the United States.
In 1976, Mattel released the world's first handheld game console, a very simple football-themed game console.
There are very few buttons and the screen is very small, but it is still very popular.
The concept of handheld game consoles has since officially entered the public eye, and has even spread to Japan in the past two years.
Although it has not become popular yet, it does not pose a problem for the knowledgeable Tanimura.
After all, he works in a department store and has seen all kinds of strange products.
"So what Shirakawa-san means is...?" Tanimura had a rough guess in his mind.
“Since HAL will also take on the gaming business, why not give it a try?
As for the hardware, let's leave it to Shirakawa Electric. Of course, the same goes for the microcomputer peripherals that Tanimura-kun just mentioned."
With Shirakawa Electric's production capacity, these things are not a problem.
After all, it does not involve any difficult production techniques and does not require any special raw materials, so it should not be difficult to make.
Shirakawa Kaede's meaning was very clear, HAL was only responsible for design and content development.
As for the actual carrier, it is undertaken by Shirakawa Electric, providing direct one-stop service.
This is the only way to maximize profits, and they are all our own industries.
Whether it is resource coordination or communication, it will be much more convenient.
Upon hearing Shirakawa Kaede's exact plan, Tanimura's eyes lit up.
This seems to be a feasible approach, as it saves a lot of connection links and allows HAL to focus more on content.
"Okay, HAL will focus on the software and take on some similar businesses in the early stages to familiarize itself with the production process."
Since he thought it was feasible, Tanimura did not hesitate and immediately decided to test the waters with it.
With HAL's current capabilities, it can't handle anything that's too complex, but simpler game content is perfectly suitable.
Handheld games perfectly meet this requirement. Programming is very simple, but the game requires a high level of fun.
After all, the reason why mini-games are attractive is that they are interesting.
As for the fun, Shirakawa Kaede turned around and looked at Iwata Satoshi, whose eyes were shining.
"Iwata-kun, have you decided what kind of game you want to make? Can you share it with us?"
"Huh?"
