1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 52



Only Noblemtl

Episode 52 – Joint Marketing with Jewoo Electronics

The JAEWOO Group headquarters, JAEWOO Center Building, in front of Seoul Station. The ‘JAEWOO’ mark attached to the building is clear.

I went to meet Lim Hong-sik, head of marketing at Jewoo Electronics’ computer division, together with Mr. Oh Sang-hyeok.

“Oh my, hello. It’s nice to meet someone I’ve only heard of through rumors.”

“Nice to meet you, boss. My name is Seo Nam-joon, the CEO of Starbeat.”

“I’m happier. Thanks to , our Jamix has had a lot of fun these past few months. Hehehehe!”

The fate of a gaming console is ultimately determined by the games it plays.

The hit of even led to an increase in sales of Jamix.

Right now, our Saetbyeol store is selling quite a few Jemixes, and at Myeongseong Electronics, the second TV discount package is selling well.

It was all an effect created by .

“But I guess you’re a bit worried these days. Since Hyunmyeong Electronics is importing the Nintendo Famicom. I heard they’re advertising it a lot on TV.”

“Oh, you see. Even without that, there’s already a fuss up above asking for a countermeasure. Honestly, there’s not much we can do about this. Even if we were to advertise on TV, they obviously wouldn’t give us a budget.”

The smiling face of Vice President Lim of Jewoo Electronics quickly darkened.

“Is it too much to advertise on TV? I bet there were a lot of sales after the end of the year.”

“After all, this isn’t a new product. Advertising has to have something fresh for consumers, but if we just say, “Hyunmin is advertising it, so we’ll do the same,” we won’t be able to compete with Hyunmin, who is pouring out a lot to celebrate the launch.”

I nodded quietly. As expected, Jemix was quite nervous due to the appearance of Hyunmyeong Comboy.

“Actually, the higher-ups weren’t very interested in Jemix. But at the end of the year, they suddenly showed interest and Hyunmyeong took care of it. The old saying goes, “Even if it’s a luxury, it’s not wrong.” Even if it’s a tight budget, at least give them a little bit of a budget to do something. Honestly, their performance is better, and how can they endure two games and an electron gun as a launch event?”

“Are the sales of Jemix affected significantly?”

“It’s hard to say exactly how much it fell, but it did drop noticeably after Comboy sales started.”

The sales of the game centered around Seun did not change much even after Hyunmyeong began selling the Famicom (Comboy). In fact, after the exclusive sales method was abolished, the overall sales volume itself increased more than before.

However, it is inevitable that it will have an impact on the Jemix V, which competes directly with the Comboy.

The face of Director Lim of Jewoo Electronics also looked full of worry.

“I came to see you today to help you ease that worry.”

“My worries?”

“Yes, I have a marketing proposal to make.”

“Oh my, now I see the Savior has come. Now is not the time for us to be picky. Are you going to have a sale on ?”

“No. We have a new game coming out soon. It’s a baseball game.”

“Oh, really? Baseball?”

I took out the diskette containing .

“Would you like to take a look?”

“Is there any chance!”

As expected from the marketing team of Jewoo Electronics, which produces not only MSX computers but also Gemix, there was an MSX2 computer in the office.

I briefly explained the game concept while demonstrating the game.

“It’s about a virtual high school baseball team competing in a virtual baseball tournament called Golden Sun Flag at Dongdaemun Stadium. Practice games, league matches, and tournaments are all possible, and two-player mode is also possible. Development is not yet complete, but it’s almost 90% complete.”

“How did you know that I would die if I played baseball again and prepare for all the baseball games? Professional baseball is popular these days, but baseball was originally baseball! Sweat! Passion! Youth!”

Actually, I chose high school baseball because I thought it would be difficult to get a license to play professional baseball, but I nodded my head eagerly.

The manager of Jewoo Electronics stretched his neck forward as if he was about to enter the screen and swung the bat vigorously. After fouling out once and striking out twice, the manager finally managed to hit a single on the first pitch as the third batter.

“Wow, Golden Sun Flag! This game feels so real? From stealing to hit and run? You can even do tactics?”

“We tried to make it fun by putting in as much as possible what baseball can do.”

After finishing the five-inning practice game, Manager Lim nodded and said.

“Oh, that’s fun. I think this game would be perfect for a day without baseball, with a beer in hand.”

“So, I was thinking about trying to jointly market this with Jewoo Electronics.”

“For example, in what way···?”

“Isn’t Hyunmyeong Electronics selling Comboy with two games included?”

“That’s right. How cowardly. Mario alone is strong, but you’re giving him duck hunting with an electronic gun.”

“Then we can do the same. If you buy the Jemix V, we will sell a special limited package that includes and .”

“It’s a special limited package?”

“Yes, it’s a great opportunity to buy the best popular game and developer Starbeat’s new game at a low price along with the Gemix V. If you buy a game console, you have to buy the game anyway. So, from the consumer’s perspective, it’s much more profitable to buy a discount package that includes the two best games.”

“Hmm, it certainly seems like the kids are going to flip out.”

“If Jewoo Electronics prepares more than 30,000 special packages, we will also provide the game with special conditions.”

“How much if it’s a surprise? Can you do it for half price?”

“If you purchase a package of both games in excess of 30,000 units, you can get it at half price.”

“Really? How much is ?”

“We plan to set the regular price at 15,000 won.”

“Then, since is 10,000 won, if two people buy 30,000 at half price, that’s 375 million won?”

The current game supply price to Jewoo Electronics dealers was around 65% of the regular price. The proposal was to significantly lower the supply price as a limited-time plan.

“Please set the price of the special package appropriately at Jewoo Electronics. Not too high. The current regular price of Jemix V is 89,000 won, so I think it would be good to set the price of the special package at around 100,000 won.”

And here’s a little bit of seasoning.

“This limited edition package emphasizes the fact that the game console and the game are made in Korea. Comboy’s strength is that we have the best game console in the world. We are marketing it by emphasizing the pride of a domestic game console made only with Korean technology.”

“Well, both Jamix and Starbeat are completely Korean.”

“Isn’t the campaign to favor domestic products still working? The afterglow of the 1988 Olympics still lingering. If we advertise by emphasizing Korean pride, we can compete with Nintendo.”

“hmm···.”

The manager looked troubled. It was tempting, but it would be burdensome to spend more than 300 million won on one room.

Considering the size of Jewoo Electronics, 300 million won may not seem like a big deal, but splitting it up into departments and spending hundreds of millions at once for the marketing of just one Jemix was a concern for practitioners who had difficulty securing a budget for even TV commercials.

“Sir, if the cost of purchasing the game is a burden, we can reduce it to 20,000. However, the supply price will also increase. We will adjust it to 60%.”

“Then it’s 300 million for 20,000. It was 375 million for 30,000 just now. Isn’t it less than 55%?”

“ is a completely new game, so that’s difficult. To be honest, it’s more profitable for us to just sell the game. Did you see how we sold ? Do you think we couldn’t sell 30,000 units? However, since Hyunmyeong has come up with something big, we’re proposing it to Jewoo Electronics as a form of cooperation.”

“hmm···.”

The purchase price of the game is money that can be recovered by selling it anyway. If they weren’t going to do it, then it wouldn’t be an issue, but from the perspective of a large company, they wouldn’t want to reduce the quantity just to save a little money.

It’s not like we’re dumping an unpopular game into the mix. It’s a package product that includes the still popular and our new game that gamers are waiting for.

Anyone looking to buy a new Gemix V will be purchasing a special package.

Although we are giving a lot of discounts, if it goes through, we can sell 60,000 copies of both games at once, 30,000 copies each, so it is a huge profit.

Instead of going through complicated distribution channels such as wholesale and retail, and waiting for months to collect the sales proceeds, we can make hundreds of millions in one fell swoop by supplying to large companies at once and receiving payment at once.

You can think of the discount as an express fee.

Moreover, if you create a package, Jewoo Electronics will take care of advertising it for you, so it’s like killing two birds with one stone.

“Okay, we’ll look into it and get back to you.”

Compared to me, who can decide everything, my opponent is a manager at a large company.

If we want to sell a collaboration package with you, we need to persuade the executives to give us permission. If the other party’s executives were in the meeting today, we could proceed with the discussion more quickly.

They probably don’t know that boosted the sales of Jemix V. It seems like they still have no idea how to respond to game software.

If there had been just one executive who was a little more knowledgeable about gaming, Jewoo Electronics could have left a much bigger mark on Korean gaming history. Even though there are limitations to the MSX platform.

While waiting for Jewoo Electronics to contact me, I started the final work of revising the last details of .

As with , we put a lot of effort into the game’s intro. The intro video is an important introduction that determines the first impression of the game.

Since I couldn’t ask my second son, who was now a senior in high school, to do the music, I went ahead and introduced him to a composer through Myeongseong Planning. My second son, who was already a bit sensitive, was even more nervous as he was preparing for the college entrance exam.

Since the background is high school baseball, I asked them to create exciting music reminiscent of baseball cheering songs. It would be nice if they could realistically express the sound of drums. But that’s too much.

Another thing that is disappointing about the sound is the voice.

It would be great if we could add audio to the crowd’s cheers and referee decisions, but that’s currently only possible on arcade systems.

Although I couldn’t borrow the second one’s strength, the youngest one came to our company to play and created a few animation movements.

“Oppa, since you started your own company, you’ve been coming home late every day. You’re always doing fun things by yourself. It’s really bad.”

“Oh, Jihye. Sorry. That’s why I brought you to the company.”

The lively youngest, Jihye, was always going around among people, interfering with them and asking them what they were doing.

“Well, I think this one needs some more polishing.”

“Who are you?”

“She’s my youngest sister. And she was an animator for . So strictly speaking, you could say she’s your senior at the company.”

“Ahem! Ahem!”

All the programmers laughed heartily as Jihye pretended to brush her long beard and coughed.

“Senior, then what should I fix here?”

“mouse!”

When Jonghak, an intern who was making a sliding animation, played a prank on Jihye, Jihye also got pranked and modified the animation.

And the youngest’s senses were still fresh.

“Wow, it’s really gotten softer than before?”

“I’m not joking when I say senior. He’s even listed in the credits for . He didn’t just help me with one or two moves. If it weren’t for Jihye, it would have taken at least two more weeks to develop .”

When I praised her, Jihye crossed her arms and looked arrogant. The youngest seemed to be in the best mood.

“I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll give you a special treat. So, you should invite me to work often.”

“Okay, I got it. Go home first. I’ll finish up what I was doing and then I’ll go.”

“Don’t be too late. Mom is worried about you these days. She says you’re getting sick.”

“Okay, I’ll do it while taking care of my health too.”

“And your office cap is cool. It feels completely different from Dad’s company. Dad’s company is a bit… gloomy. But I’ll keep this a secret from Dad. Okay?”

“Okay, I won’t say anything. Go inside.”

Jihye waved as she got into the car and drove off. Jihye waved until I was out of sight from inside the car.

Who would think that kid is in his third year of middle school? He’s past puberty, but it’s amazing to see him still hanging out with me like this.

Maybe the second one went through puberty too early, and the youngest one went through puberty too late. And I can only guess that one of the reasons was probably because of Seo Nam-joon who never came out of his room.

When the youngest, Jihye, goes to high school, she will become like the second oldest and gradually become distant from me. Before that, even if I am busy with work, I should make time to spend time with my family, even if it is just a little.

Mr. Choi has once again created a wonderful package and magazine ad. The case shows the back of a batter swinging a bat, the crowd in the outfield stands, and a glimpse of the scoreboard.

“It doesn’t really look like this, but I drew the outfield stands and scoreboard a little closer than they actually are, and pulled them in so they look more front-on. It makes it feel more real.”

“Yes, I like it. It’s like watching a scene from a youth baseball manga.”

“And if you open the case here.”

“Oh, there’s a pitcher in the ROM pack. A batter in the case. A pitcher when you open it. It seems like the story continues. Isn’t that cool?”

“A good picture always tells a story. I wanted to draw a complete set, including the game case and the ROM pack when opened.”

“Good. The green rompack reminds me of baseball field grass, it’s perfect.”

As all processes were being completed, the final thing that was of concern was the balance of attack and defense between the eight teams.

Seoul, Incheon, Suwon, Daejeon, Gwangju, Gangneung, Daegu, Busan.

We gave each virtual team selected from eight cities their own characteristics and continued to run simulations to ensure that neither team was too strong or too weak.

Ha Ji-seok, who used his math talent to implement the movement and trajectory of a baseball, was ultimately disappointed that he could not include wind resistance.

“The wind can make a home run a foul, a foul can make a home run, and a simple fly can make an error.”

“Yeah, I’d like to add that if I could, but it would slow down the game. You can’t lose the fun of the game by calculating resistance. We’re making a game, not a baseball simulation.”

I consoled Haji Seok, who was feeling sorry, and focused on the fun of the game as I polished up the game.

And just as we were approaching the final QA stage, we received a call from Jewoo Electronics.

“Let’s do it together! 30,000 copies of plus 30,000 copies of ! A total of 60,000 copies! Let’s protect Korea’s homes from Nintendo together! We’ve also created a newspaper ad copy that’s a total hit!”

“What have you decided?”

“’Come on, Japan! We will protect Korean games!’ How about that? Hehehehe!”

No, not so blatantly.

Well, I think aggro will be properly attracted anyway.