Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 19 Three Rejections
In fact, before coming to Exidi, Ethan had already prepared himself mentally for failure.

Because in the past two months, he has witnessed in Milova what kind of life the game developers of this era are living.

Ethan's job is a marketing specialist, with a weekly salary of 80. Similar jobs on the market currently also have a similar salary.

And what about the engineers who make video games?
As Pete Kaufman said, they were paid two hundred dollars a week.

On the surface, engineers' status is much better than that of marketers, and their salary is 2.5 times theirs.

But the problem is, there is commission for sales.

Engineers all have fixed salaries.

Yes! No matter how good the game is, these guys won't get a penny!

In Ethan's previous life, this was almost impossible!
You know, in the future, a popular game will enable countless people to achieve financial freedom!
The programmer of “Honor of Kings” has boasted about his annual salary of one million, and Xu Zhuce, who worked on “Fantasy Westward Journey” for Ding Sanshi and later left the pig farm to start his own company, can even support a football team!

But in this era, no one cares about these people.

Almost all practitioners believe that the reason why people like video games is because this thing itself has extraordinary charm, and it is also a reflection of the general public's curiosity about new things.

Under this concept, bosses who are eager to make money will naturally not pay developers too much salary, but what if someone comes to them with their own ideas?

Buying it out at a fixed price is what they consider kindness!
There’s nothing you can do about it, capitalists are all the same.

So, even though Exidi refused to share the profits, Ethan Jones was not discouraged.

We headed south along Highway 5, stopping and starting for six hours, and finally arrived in Los Angeles at four in the afternoon.

With no intention of visiting the Hollywood Walk of Fame or gazing at Beverly Hills, after arriving in the most prosperous city in California, Ethan drove his car directly into the gate of Sega.

In later generations, the SEGA known to the world was actually a well-known American company in this era.

It was officially established in 1940. At the beginning, their business was not so serious. They manufactured slot machines and then sold them to the military base in Honolulu for the soldiers stationed there to gamble.

Later, due to the emergence of the Gambling Device Transportation Act, slot machines were not allowed in the American mainland, so Sega expanded its business to Liben and sold slot machines to the military bases there. After the business was saturated, it extended to Southeast Asia, and the target of service was still the American soldiers in the military bases.

It was not until the 1960s that the U.S. Air Force, which was annoyed by them, finally got angry and launched a strong crackdown on this gambling business that entered the military. Sega then changed its business reluctantly. In order to escape responsibility, the founder sold Sega to a company of Liben. It was not until then that the nature of the company changed.

Of course, this is just a cover, and the vast majority of the shares still belong to Americans.

So when Ethan brought the snake to visit, he was received by a white man.

After seeing the game effects of Snake, greed appeared in the eyes of the white man in a suit.

"Mr. Jones, $20,000 for it?"

"That's impossible." Ethan Jones shook his head and refused, saying, "I didn't even accept Exidi's offer of 50,000."

"Oh! That's such a pity!"

The white manager smiled and said, "Mr. Jones, I admit that Snake Game is a good game, but at the same time, I want to tell you frankly that I don't think any company on the market will accept your profit-sharing proposal. If you really want to enter the electronic game industry, I suggest you make the machine yourself and sell it yourself. Don't show this machine to other companies, because it will easily lead to the tragedy of Pong."

Although the Sega manager's wording was very cautious and his tone was very sincere, Ethan Jones knew that this guy was just a smiling tiger who wanted to find out the registration status of the game copyright from him.

If he acted very nervous, Ethan believed that after sending him away, Sega would definitely rush out a copycat draft within a day and register the copyright with the Copyright Bureau.

Ethan Jones's answer to this common business tactic is simple.

"Sir, thank you very much for your reminder. I appreciate your kindness, but I don't think anyone in California would be crazy enough to plagiarize my work. Before I came here, Professor Barbara Babcock of Stanford Law School had already evaluated the rights of this product. She said that we can successfully defend our rights 100% when faced with plagiarism."

'? '

Ethan's answer surprised the Sega manager.

"Mr. Jones, are you from Stanford?"

“No, I’m not from Stanford, but this piece is.”

Ethan smiled and said, "Because the inventor is very busy, he asked me to help sell it."

"..."

The white supervisor was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "It seems that I was worrying too much."

"Good luck."

"Thank you."

Since Sega was unwilling to cooperate, Ethan left directly.

Continue south to San Diego and negotiate with the Gremlin there.

As a game company that was founded at about the same time as Exsidy and had already monopolized the manufacturing of all arcade machines in the San Diego area, it was also very interested in Snake, just like Exsidy and Sega, but the conditions it offered were actually just that.

It is impossible to share the profits, only to buy it out.

This fact also made Ethan Jones smile and shake his head to express his refusal.

After hitting a wall three times in a row, Ethan Jones had actually visited all the game dealers in Southern California. If he wanted to continue, he had to head north. Before that, he drove a thousand miles back and forth and went back home first.

His tired appearance won the concern of his family, and after listening to his story, Thomas immediately put down his knife and fork. "Oh Ethan, I don't understand, does the arcade business have to cooperate with other companies?"

"I mean, can't we do this ourselves?"

“Evelyn may not have the time, but it should be okay to hire a few apprentices to assemble it, right?”

"If it's a matter of money, I can invest 100,000 in you."

"You know, We are a family."

Evelyn thought her father's suggestion was a good one.

At the same time, she leaned her elbows on the table and said, "How about I submit another startup application to the school? If I start a company under my name, Stanford can provide a startup space for free. This is not a hassle. It is very common for students in our School of Engineering to start their own businesses. The teachers in the school can sign directly, and the school can also sponsor 5,000 US dollars."

"Oh, Thomas, Evelyn, thank you."

Ethan, who was sitting at the dining table, clasped his hands together and thanked with a smile, "But... no need..."

"As for the reason, I told you before. If it was two years ago, when there were not so many video arcades on the market, Thomas, if you said you would give me $100,000, I would definitely ask you for $200,000. If you said you would give me $200,000, I would definitely ask you for $400,000, because more money means we can seize the initiative."

"But now, it is impossible to occupy the market on a large scale with money. Thomas, the arcade machines that merchants in entertainment venues buy for more than a thousand dollars are like the shipping trucks in our orchard. You spend five thousand dollars to buy a shipping truck, and then only use it for three to five years, and then others ask you to replace the entire set. Are you willing?"

"uh-huh?"

Ethan snorted.

Thomas shook his head decisively at the question that was related to his own interests. "I'll break the salesman's neck!"

“Although I can afford it, that’s not how money is spent!”

"Yeah~" Ethan nodded with a smile, "So, it's not about money now."

“It’s a question of market acceptance.”

"I think you should be clear about this, Thomas."

"Uh-huh." Thomas nodded.

"So what are you going to do now?" Although Ethan is not making any money now, and even has trouble making money, Thomas likes Ethan's current situation very much. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"To be honest, I like you right now."

“I feel much more energetic than before when I was at work.”

"Thank you." Ethan thanked him with a smile, and said, "Thomas, if you really want to help me, then lend me the Ford for a few more days. There is another company in Sacramento. I will go see if they can cooperate."

Just as Ethan was trying to recall what the company in Sacramento was called, the phone suddenly rang.

Thomas stood up to answer the phone, said a few words and then shouted to Ethan: "Ethan, it's for you."

"Looking for me?" Ethan was very surprised.

Because he clearly remembered that he did not leave his number to Sega and Gremlin.

"Could it be that Exidi changed his mind?" Ethan Jones muttered to himself.

But when he answered the phone, a voice came from the other end that he didn't want to hear at all.

"Ethan Jones? I'm Frank! Frank from San Francisco! Do you remember me?"

"Oh, of course I do, Mr. Furber."

Frank's voice made Ethan unhappy.

Because he remembered the threat he faced that day.

That's really bad!

Ethan said unhappily, “What do you want to talk to me about?”

"Hi! Bro! I don't like the nickname you gave me!"

The head of the San Francisco Electronic Supply Company on the other end of the phone screamed in surprise, and then said: "But since you are about to apologize to me, I forgive you first!"

"..."

Ethan Jones was completely confused by the inexplicable words.

"I don't understand what you mean. Brother, if you don't have anything to say, I'm going to hang up."

"No! No! No!"

Ethan Jones's threat caused screams. The guy on the other end of the phone raised his voice, "Don't hang up! Otherwise you will regret it! Miluohua boy, if I remember correctly, your company should not have received an invitation to the video game exhibition to be held in San Francisco? And I! The great Frank! I have an invitation letter in my hand!"

"Brother, I misunderstood you last time! So I decided to use this invitation letter to apologize to you! What do you think, do you accept it?"

Note: ① Special note: the best situation for game developers in that era was to get a weekly salary of $200, that is, their annual salary was at most $1979, and there was no profit sharing. This was said by David Crane, the founder of Activision. They were the first to independently develop games in the global game circle and then negotiate profit sharing with publishers. At that time, it was 1971. ② Gremlin: Gremlin was born in 1976. The most famous game is "Blockade" in 1976. It was one of the two most popular games in the United States in 1982. No one may know this name, but its evolved version is called "Snake". "Blockade" at that time was a two-player battle version. Two people controlled the snake to crawl on the screen. Whoever hit the wall or the other first would die. There was no concept of eating. Later, the company was acquired by Sega in .

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(End of this chapter)