I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 473 - 163: Specialization in Skills, Riding the East Wind! Shock the players with a small performance boost!_1

Chapter 473: Chapter 163: Specialization in Skills, Riding the East Wind! Shock the players with a small performance boost!_1

"Our minimum quote is 2800. Mr. Ke, please consider it first. If you’re interested in cooperating, we can discuss the details further,"

"Okay, thanks, Manager Kong."

After exchanging pleasantries, Ke Jin promptly hung up the phone.

He propped his chin with his hand and thought for a moment.

After several days of contact and negotiations with the person in charge of OEM production at Hua Wei,

their lowest quote was 2800 per unit,

which included the entire cost for the complete machine.

As a domestically produced Hua Zi product,

the chip’s technical support could bypass NVIDIA and use its own improved Kirin 9000E chip,

which outperformed the market’s mainstream Snapdragon 865 chip from a few years earlier.

Moreover, if it were specifically designed for gaming consoles, the improved Kirin 9000E could forego many features intended for phones and devote all its processing power to game computations.

This price was somewhat reasonable after all, given that his company was a seriously small player in Hua Wei’s eyes. When dealing with a small company with an uncertain future, immediate profits were definitely most important.

In terms of the design inspiration from the Switch, Ke Jin chose to hold back for now, vaguely mentioning only a rough idea—a charging base plus an external Bluetooth controller, roughly what size and scale.

It’s wise to be cautious; if the negotiations fell through, the Switch’s proud design concept could end up being sold to others, which would be a direct "game over."

"But I still feel this price point... is somewhat high," Ke Jin frowned in contemplation.

bucks for a bare gaming console whose performance didn’t even match current mainstream 3K-priced phones.

According to Ke Jin’s understanding, due to fierce competition among major brands, the price war for phones in the 3K+ range on Blue Star had reached Snapdragon 8 Gen1~Dimensity 9200 levels.

The price and performance of his product left something to be desired.

In his previous life, Nintendo dared to use a Tegra X1, equivalent to the Snapdragon 652, as the core chip for the Switch mainly because, at the time, this configuration hadn’t yet been phased out.

Secondly, years of consolidating major IPs had garnered a large fanbase, and launching flagship titles like "Breath of the Wild" solidified its foundation.

Additionally, the Switch’s design was almost revolutionary at the time.

The combination of the three factors resulted in a device that was called electronic junk every year on Earth, but upon closer inspection, appeared to be unbeatable in terms of value for money within the handheld gaming market.

Even Sony’s PS Vita, which boasted performance on par with the PS4, was definitively outclassed by the Switch, leading Sony to abandon the handheld gaming track and focus solely on consoles.

But in this life, the script might be the same, but the times had changed.

Ke Jin couldn’t produce "Breath of the Wild" just yet. If he were to make a Switch with a processor equivalent to the previous Tegra X1, with a 720P+30fps configuration, it would probably become a laughingstock among gamers worldwide.

By now, Ke Jin had come to a profound realization.

Sometimes, even with the same script, the events that transpire can differ with the times.

"Mr. Ke, you have a call." Just as Ke Jin was contemplating whether to accept the collaboration offer from Hua Zi,

Qiao Yuan entered, knocking on the door and handing the company phone to Ke Jin.

After a brief exchange with the person on the other end, Ke Jin was taken aback.

The caller claimed to be Zhou Weiyi, General Manager of the chip technology department at East Intelligence Technology, who had heard that the top player was planning to make a handheld console and therefore extended an olive branch to inquire about a potential partnership.

This question left Ke Jin quite bewildered.

As Blue Star’s leading AI tech company, East Intelligence was renowned worldwide.

Their reach extended across a broad spectrum of fields.

AI space exploration, AI military applications, AI healthcare, and even communication infrastructure, cloud networking, smart home appliances, and other major sectors all bore their mark.

When a company achieves such breadth, it’s no longer merely a national enterprise, but a global one.

They conducted business around the world.

Such an impressive multinational conglomerate asking if he wanted to cooperate?

Wasn’t that... a bit unrealistic?

To Ke Jin, it felt like Russia offering an invitation during its heyday to far-off Zimbabwe in Africa, inviting them to grow stronger together and reach the heights of the "Big Five."

It wasn’t just far-fetched; it was as if Mario had used a laxative on Cool Tyrant—It made no sense!

"Mr. Ke, you haven’t found a suitable OEM factory yet, have you?"

"Oh no no no... Oh yes, yes, that’s right, we haven’t finalized anything." Still somewhat confused, Ke Jin quickly responded, "But isn’t East Intelligence specialized in AI? They can make chips, too? Let it be clear, Top Player doesn’t go public, and we don’t support taking in investments."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Weiyi on the other end couldn’t help but let out a wry laugh.

"Please rest assured, Mr. Ke. We’re only interested in a collaborative relationship and won’t ask you to sell shares,"

Zhou thought to himself, This young man is quite interesting.

East Intelligence has collaborated with no less than thousands, if not tens of thousands of enterprises, including both large and small firms.

Yet, being the first to react to a partnership with ’I won’t sell shares’ was definitely a first for Top Player...

Truth be told, given East Intelligence’s size, a small company with the chance to work with them would be thrilled to sell all its shares to East Intelligence, happy just to get by with employee stock options. Even if they were willing to sell out completely, East Intelligence might not be interested in buying them out.