Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 222 Mr. Ross, do you have any comments?

Ethan had met Roy Disney in late August, and it was now early September.

More than ten days may not be enough time for people to solve the problem of the century, but conspiracy to rebel should be something that people can agree on immediately. Roy Disney thought about it for so long and did not reply. This can only prove two things: either he was scared, or he wanted to take advantage of the situation and turn the tables.

If it was the former, Ethan would just ignore him and tell him to get lost.

If it's the latter...

Ah--

I, Ethan Jones, am a Paramount-certified troll!
If you, Roy Disney, think I'm easy to control, then we'll see!

Do you think I will let everyone know about the intrigues within your Disney family?
When Ethan's straightforward words reached Roy Disney's ears, the old man, who was still thinking that the time was almost up and Ethan should be a little anxious, suddenly frowned.

‘What? ’

He looked at the think tank beside him with surprise.

'Has he reached an agreement with Paramount?'

He blinked, somewhat incredulously.

Stanley Gold, who was eavesdropping on the side, had some doubts, but he still put his hands down to signal his friend to calm down, then opened his mouth slightly and made a "cooperation" shape to Roy Disney.

"Oh Ethan—I was just about to call you—"

Roy Disney's expression changed decisively and he spoke with a smile.

The next second, he saw his personal lawyer gesturing "increase the stakes".

This idea prompted Roy Disney to continue, "To be honest, I wanted to cooperate with you after hearing your plan that day. But because you were so sincere, I also wanted to show you my determination. So, after returning to Los Angeles, I began to collect all the information related to electronic games within Disney, and now, I have obtained the circuit board of the new game."

"I was just about to contact you to give it to you, but I didn't expect you to call me at that moment."

“This is such a coincidence!”

"Oh really?" Ethan didn't believe this explanation.

But he did want to see what games Disney had made. "If that's the case, then I'm really touched. I'm very interested in what you have in your hands, so--"

"I'll send it to you tomorrow morning." Roy Disney said quickly.

"Okay, see you tomorrow." Ethan smiled and hung up the phone.

As the beep sounded, Roy Disney looked up decisively, but before he could speak, his personal lawyer Stanley Gold had already left the office.

About half an hour later, the Jew finally got back in.

"From what I've learned, there must be something wrong with Paramount itself."

Stanley Gold shared the information he had just obtained.

"They think the game Jack the Ripper has great potential and could make them close to $20 million in net profit, so they don't want to take any risks."

"Didn't the New York Times this morning publish a critique of the game by the New York Police Association? They also called for a boycott of the game and demanded a federal ban on its sale."

"If that were all, Michael Eisner could handle it with his eyes closed, but they were afraid that Ethan would see the opportunity and attack them..."

“…” This explanation made Roy Disney frown.

"How will Ethan do it?"

"Blaming Jack the Ripper?"

"But this behavior is useless. They are opponents."

Roy Disney suddenly felt that Paramount's behavior was a bit stupid. When Destiny Game and they were competitors, wasn't the criticism from the competitor the best advertisement for their own products?

Stanley Gold, however, shook his head.

"Roy, you're taking things too simply."

"If it was just a simple criticism of the game, Paramount would certainly not be afraid, but what if Ethan changed his mindset? For example, he could express regret for the inaction of police associations in other states, or he could strongly support the New York Police Association, saying that they fought bravely to protect their own interests."

"What will the police in America think when he reveals that Paramount used Jack the Ripper to shit on the heads of all police officers in America?"

“They will be furious!”

“They will definitely protest!”

“They might even organize a strike!”

"Then……"

“Paramount is out of luck.”

This unique idea made Roy Disney stunned for a moment, "Isn't this idea too bold?"

But the next second, he closed his mouth.

A normal person probably wouldn't do such a stupid thing, and probably wouldn't actively stir up social conflicts, but Ethan Jones is definitely not a normal person!

He is a madman!
A madman who dares to overturn the table and stop playing at any time and any place!

"Okay, so we wasted two weeks?"

This strange turn of events left Roy Disney in a state of confusion.

But he didn't care about these things. "Forget it, since Paramount has been settled by him, let's start the official cooperation. Anyway, we have already got the game."

Since he was determined to cooperate, Roy Disney made all the preparations in advance. When he handed Ethan the two games that Disney was about to release the next morning, Ethan, who was already familiar with the assembly process, immediately connected the game to the TV.

After a flash, the Disney logo appeared on the screen.

Since Don Tatum had said before that Disney would launch three video games by the end of this year, Roy Disney brought three circuit boards, and the first game Ethan opened... was related to Donald Duck.

This is a light gun shooting game. After entering the game, Donald Duck will tell you that his uncle McDuck's farm has been invaded by wild boars, and hopes that you can help him drive away the wild boars.

Then, a yellow wheat field will appear on the TV screen, and wild boars will continue to emerge from the wheat field. All the player needs to do is raise the light gun and shoot the wild boars.

The entire game lasts sixty seconds, during which players can score as many points as possible. When the time is up, the game will end and players will need to insert coins again to continue playing.

To be honest, when Ethan saw this way of playing, countless question marks immediately popped up on his forehead. If the original selling point of "Snake" was making money quickly, then now the selling point of the game "Save McDuck" is making money quickly, because this kind of timed game is no different from cheating!

The gameplay that ends at a certain point directly blocks the players' room for advancement!

The situation where one round lasts sixty seconds is even more shady than black market trading!

But Ethan changed his mind and became happy again.

Are competitors actively pulling their weight?

Isn’t this a good thing!

I gave you three years to develop, but you can't produce anything decent?
Then you deserve to be eliminated!
But before he could enjoy himself for a while, the information given by Roy Disney made him depressed again.

"As far as I know, this game will not be sold to the public and will only be placed in Disneyland."

"Twenty-five cents a minute isn't a lot of money in Disneyland."

"Moreover, Ron Miller and his team have also thought of a promotion method. As long as the players can get 200 points through shooting within one minute, they will receive a small gift."

"It could be a badge of our Disney cartoon character, or it could be a pencil or eraser."

"In short, it's all stuff that costs less than five cents and sells for more than fifty cents."

“That way, players who participate in the game will feel like they’ve earned something.”

Such news made Ethan feel uncomfortable.

The price of sixty seconds and twenty-five cents might seem a bit expensive outside, but in Disneyland it is extremely cheap. After all, what is not expensive there?

In this case, what kind of activities does Ron Miller want to carry out to meet standards and show courtesy?

Isn’t this just picking up money for free?

"Have they calculated how much revenue this business can bring to the group?" Ethan asked.

Roy had also inquired about this matter. "There are two theme parks. Each park has a special shooting area with 200 to 300 arcade machines. Basically, it can make 20 to 30 million a year."

"A machine makes an average of a hundred dollars a day?"

“Anyway, I think this number is very reasonable.”

'……' Ethan's breath was choked.

The total cost of 600 arcade machines is only 600,000!
Without taking into account the cost of damage and repairs, can we generate 20 to 30 million yuan in revenue a year?
Damn, this is even more cruel than robbery!

Ethan was envious.

At the same time, he also said: "If that's the case, I might not be able to snipe them."

"I know, but that's not important, is it?" Roy Disney said with a smile, "Their other two games still need to be sold to the public, as long as they sell well."

Roy Disney said it easily, but Ethan felt the pressure.

However, when he opened the Mickey-related game called "Mickey Grows Up", he felt relieved by the childish gameplay that was suitable for Disney's audience.

The gameplay of this game is similar to "Snake". At the beginning of the game, the field on the TV screen is empty, with only a Mickey Mouse head the size of a fingernail in the center.

All players have to do is control Mickey to swim around and touch various objects on the map.

When you touch apples, bananas and pears, Mickey's head will grow bigger.

Not only that, comments like "You are awesome" will also be heard from the speakers.

Touching bones, rocks and leaves will cause Mickey's head to shrink a bit.

At the same time, the sound system would also let out a wail of "Ah - I ate the wrong thing -".

The entire game is timed to ninety seconds. If the player eats twenty items within ninety seconds, they will receive a victory salute. However, if the player does not reach the corresponding score within the specified time, the "Ahem" sound of Game Over will be heard.

Although the game is well made, Ethan feels that it should be used for preschool children to learn about fruits. It has some playfulness, but it has a stronger didactic tone.

If the first two games were not enough to show Ethan the design level of Disney's game production team, then the third one really opened his eyes.

The third game is called "McDuck's Journey to the Vault". This game also has a plot that tells the story of McDuck being the richest duck in the world, with a net worth that exceeds the total wealth created by all humans. Perhaps because he is so rich, he wants to play a game with people.

McDuck invites humans to visit his vault. As long as people can take the treasure from it without being discovered by the guards, they will receive a huge reward.

At the beginning of the game, a maze similar to "Pac-Man" will appear on the screen. The character played by the player will appear in the lower left corner of the maze, and the guards of the vault will appear in various places on the screen. What the player needs to do is to avoid McDuck's guards and come to the center of the map. After taking the treasure hidden inside, go to the exit in the upper right corner of the map to pass the level.

Once the player is discovered by the guards, they will chase him relentlessly. At the same time, the AI ​​judgment is very similar to the ghost in Pac-Man. As long as the player escapes the opponent's pursuit range, the guards will return to the original position and stop chasing. Perhaps because this design greatly reduces the difficulty of the game, Disney designers also added a time limit to the game.

There is one picture every two minutes. Those who fail to complete the level by the end of the timer will fail.

But if you pass the level, you can continue playing.

Not only that, as the level progresses, some interesting props will appear on the map:

For example, after eating the round pill, the guards on the map will get a blinding debuff, so they can't see even if the player shows off in front of them;
For example, if you take the triangular pill, you will gain super speed and be able to run away in a flash.
For example, after eating the cube pill, the player will immediately enter the vault.

After experiencing these contents, Ethan sincerely felt that no matter what era it is, human wisdom should not be underestimated. Although the game "McDuck's Journey to the Vault" plagiarized the gameplay of "Pac-Man", they did add a lot of novel and rich designs.

If you compare Ms. Pac-Man to McDuck's Vault, Ethan doesn't even see much difference, while at the same time, the Disney brand is able to crush Pac-Man. To put it bluntly, if Destiny only released Ms. Pac-Man in December, they would probably have capsized.

But unfortunately...

'You can't achieve overtaking by simply borrowing from others!'

'When I release version T0, you guys won't be able to beat me at this level!'

Once Ethan had played all of Disney's games, he felt relieved.

Under the siege of its peers, "Ms. Pac-Man" may not be able to attract the attention of all the people like "Pac-Man" and "Star Wars" before, but "Alien Contra" can.

When public opinion is focused on Contra, the sudden increase in traffic will make him rich. At that time, what about McDuck's Journey to the Vault? What about the hypothetical Superman? Let him play in the mud!

"That's it?"

"Then we win."

Ethan put down the joystick and said with a smile.

His words also made Roy Disney, who was standing by, smile.

"Okay, Ethan, I feel relieved with your words."

Roy Disney rubbed his hands and said, "Then I will help you make an appointment with the owner of the North American theater chain. This may take more than a week, so please be patient."

"No problem." Ethan nodded with a smile.

He can afford to wait.

With the departure of Roy Disney, the world returned to peace. Ethan, who had been busy for a long time, finally returned to the state of having nothing to do at work and playing after get off work.

Perhaps it was because he didn't want to do anything after he collapsed, so he resumed his good habit of going home for dinner every night. Aunt Linda, who liked to cook for herself, was still so good, and after eating, he lay on the roof. It was really wonderful to see the endless starry sky everywhere.

During these leisurely days, Ethan also turned into a badger in the melon field.

Tasted the melons in the field.

On September 18, the American Attorney General officially announced an antitrust investigation into MGM's acquisition of Columbia Pictures, requiring the management of both parties to fly to Washington to present the specific details of the acquisition to the Clayton Antitrust Investigation Committee of the Department of Justice.

Although the content of the inquiry was not made public, Ethan heard that the management of MGM was annoyed by the people from the Department of Justice. When the management of MGM said that their acquisition of Columbia would not affect the pattern of Hollywood because they had already sold most of the industries related to film production, the people from the Department of Justice immediately asked, "Since you have gradually withdrawn from the film production industry and switched to the hotel business, why did you acquire Columbia Pictures?"

According to Barbara, MGM's management was completely stunned when they heard this question!

Their purpose in acquiring Columbia is to return to Hollywood!

Now people from the Ministry of Justice asked him why he wanted to acquire it?

How do you want him to respond?
Later, when MGM and Columbia Pictures both said that their merger would not affect the entire industry, the people from the Ministry of Justice asked again, "Just because you say there is no impact doesn't mean there is really no impact, right? How about you call Fox, Paramount, Disney, Warner and Universal over and let us listen to their opinions?"

"If they have no objection, then we should discuss it?"

MGM didn't say a word and said that they needed to go back and prepare the materials and talk about it next time.

When Ethan heard this, he almost laughed out loud!

Although he had not witnessed it himself, he could imagine the reactions of MGM and Columbia executives when they heard the idiotic questions during questioning.

That's definitely a WTF look!

There's no way. Who made him watch the video of Zhang Nan going to Capitol Hill to be questioned?
The purpose of messing with people's mentality is purely to disgust them.

If MGM's melon is still very sweet, then another thing is regrettable.

On September 727, a Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing collided with a private jet over San Diego, California, killing all people on board both planes.

Not only that, after the wreckage of the plane fell, innocent people on the ground were also affected. Seven ordinary people were directly killed, including two children.

In addition, houses in downtown San Diego were severely damaged, with 22 homes destroyed and nine people injured.

When this accident occurred, news related to it was immediately spread all over the media.

Some media said that this was a tragedy caused by the private plane not following the instructions of air traffic control, because the private plane was flying below 3,500 feet, but the plane in the accident secretly raised it to above 3,700 feet;

Some media also said that this was a mistake made by the air traffic control center. Before the disaster, the conflict alarm system of the air traffic control center had been flashing, but because the system often made mistakes, the air traffic control center ignored it.

Some even said that this was a murder because the Pacific Southwest Airlines pilots had already seen the private plane before the accident, but because they were on a mission and had already received a resettlement fee to kill some people on the plane, they took this opportunity to cause a mid-air collision. In other words, if there was no private plane, the Boeing would also have suffered an air crash today.

Ethan didn't want to listen to the groundless speculation from the media. In San Diego, he said that this was the worst air crash in California history and also the worst air crash in the United States. He hoped to obtain federal aid to rebuild the destroyed North Park community and Edward Street in San Diego. Then he asked Steve Ballmer to publish a letter of support in the Los Angeles Times on behalf of the company. At the same time, he donated $200,000 in aid to the temporary aid agency established in San Diego in the name of the company's chairman.

Although they had done this kind of thing many times before, Evelyn felt different this time. When the scorching fireball fell from the sky, helplessness and fear arose spontaneously.

"You said those people were in pain when they died?"

Evelyn shifted her gaze away from the TV and looked at Ethan.

"I don't think there are any people in heaven, but the people below..."

"I do not know either."

Ethan shrugged.

Perhaps it was because the case was too serious, or perhaps it was because the plane collision in the sky was too outrageous. Ethan could clearly feel that the world around him was gloomy.

After all, America is a country with an extremely developed aviation industry. When a plane collision occurs, no one knows whether the same thing will happen to them in the next second.

However, this tragedy did not affect Ethan for too long. Just two days later, Roy Disney brought the owners of North American theaters to Palo Alto. They wanted to see the new product of the Destiny game.

When Ethan showed them the finished Ms. Pac-Man, the new level design, more novel gameplay, and extremely exciting content made them, who had never seen McDuck's Journey to the Vault, determined to buy it.

The bosses made a simple calculation and said that they could buy 15,000 units. At the same time, they would follow the previous cooperation model and launch all these arcade machines to the market the day after the new product launch conference of Destiny Game. As for the market protection time they were looking for this time...

For one week.

That is to say, if Ethan held a new product launch conference on December 1, 1978, then major theaters would take out arcade machines to make money on the 2nd, and no other business on the market would be allowed to own "Ms. Pac-Man" before midnight on December 9th.

Ethan naturally had no problem with this request, and when he took out the contract and wanted to sign it with everyone, the bosses said that this matter would have to wait and they needed to make a few phone calls.

Ethan understood that these people wanted to contact the Hollywood film giants. They were afraid that such purchases would cut off their own financial resources. Ethan, who was well prepared, readily agreed.

Under his gaze, those bosses were very considerate and first called Fox and Universal. After getting a positive response, they contacted Paramount, MGM and Columbia. Then they found that the guys who had previously besieged Ethan had all loosened up.

This situation surprised the cinema owner.

But they were smart and didn't think too much about it. They just nodded towards Roy Disney, and when they saw his happy smile, they took it as Disney's agreement.

So, these people wanted to conquer Warner with a surprise.

Then...

After he had spoken just two sentences, a roar came from the receiver.

Even though Ethan was far away, he could still hear the heart-wrenching roar—

“What the fuck???”

"You guys are going to purchase arcade machines for the game of Destiny???"

“Who allowed you to do this!!!”

The sudden roar made the theater owners turn their heads instinctively.

They wanted to avoid the sound attack from the receiver.

This scene made Ethan walk forward and extend his left hand.

The theater owner, who wanted to be liberated, quickly handed over the microphone.

After the guy on the other end of the phone finished yelling, Ethan raised the receiver and said, "Hello~"

This greeting made Steve Ross, who was in the office of the chairman of Warner Communications, stand up instantly.

"Who?" he asked subconsciously.

But the next second, he said, "Ethan Jones!"

“Hahahaha——” Ethan laughed after his identity was revealed.

"Long time no see, Steve Ross." He greeted the other party.

Before anyone could reply, Ethan continued, "Now I am determined to help Roy Disney, so I choose to release the game in December and fight with Ron Miller and his team."

"And this time, I want to sell the game to North American theaters."

"I think you're okay with that, right? Hmm?"

The slightly light inquiry made Steve Ross frown suddenly!
He tilted his head to glance at the calendar on the table, and the circle on December made his eyes widen!
"Ethan Jones!"

The deep voice proves it all!
And Ethan also raised the corners of his mouth happily, "Mr. Ross, do you have any comments?"

"If you have, please hold it in~"

"Click!" Ethan hung up the phone as soon as he finished speaking.

The next second he kindly spread his hands towards the North American cinema owner next to him.

"Our Mr. Ross has no objection."

"MFxxk!!!!"

At the same time, Steve Ross heard the busy tone and directly threw away the phone in front of him!
"Ethan Jones——"

"I***!!!!!"

Lean forward and swing your arms!
"Wow!"

Snow-white files are flying everywhere!

(End of this chapter)