Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 232 Use every possible means!

After announcing the theme of the meeting, Steve Ross, chairman of Warner Communications, stood up and dragged a whiteboard that had been prepared long ago from one side of the conference room to the center.

He picked up the oil pen and started writing. There was a squeaking sound, and black words suddenly appeared.

Ethan Jones' name is hung at the top of the whiteboard, and below, from left to right, are Destiny Games, Destiny Pictures, Michael Blanco Manufacturing, Jones and Johnson Agricultural Production, Apple Computer, Nintendo Kyoto Chip Manufacturing, Western Design, and Microsoft.

Further down, on the third level of the pyramid, Steve Ross drew countless lines:

Below the Destiny game is the Johnson home console and the Starfield video game;
Below Destiny Pictures is the Alien movie;
Below the Michael Blanco Manufacturing Company is the main production site for video arcade and home consoles;

Below Jones and Johnson Agricultural Production are more than 10,000 acres of California farmland;

Below Apple Computer Inc. are APPLE 2 and Disk II;

Below Nintendo's Kyoto chip company is the MOS 6502 notebook production line;

Below Western Design Company is the patent for variations of MOS 6502;

Below Microsoft is the unknown.

When the huge business landscape appeared, the five people staring at the whiteboard all frowned involuntarily. Although the five of them had confronted Ethan Jones head-on, it was only friction in a single field, not a comprehensive confrontation, so they always thought that Ethan Jones was a genius and had good luck. As for the rest? What else could he have?
But now——

Steve Ross's announcement made them a little unbelievable!
Because now Ethan Jones is not just working in the video game industry!
In addition to video games, he has also dabbled in the personal computer industry, semiconductor industry, traditional manufacturing industry, and agriculture in the primary industry...

This is really scary!

What they can't understand the most is Microsoft, which is at the end of the industry.

This word seems artificial?

It seems like a combination of MicroComputer and Software?
Several people present did not understand.

Ron Miller, the actual controller of Disney, even asked: "What is Microsoft?"

This question caused several other people to nod slightly, and Warner boss Steve Ross's answer was even simpler. He created a fourth layer for the pyramid, and those who could appear on this layer were all powerful people who had connections with Ethan Jones.

For example, Evelyn Johnson, Fred Terman, Arnold Spielberg, and Ralph Baer were hung at the bottom of the game of fate by Steve Ross.

This means that the relationship between the four people supports the operation of the entire company.

For example, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Lawrence Rockefeller appeared at the bottom of Apple Computer.

This means that their presence makes Apple a better company.

In this way, at the bottom of Microsoft appear Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Lawrence Rockefeller. Further down, there are William Gates, chairman of the Washington State Bar Association, and Mary Gates, a descendant of the former president of the National Bank, who further clearly interpret the background of this company.

When Ron Miller saw the series of titles, he immediately showed a constipated look on his face. At this moment, he no longer wanted to know what Microsoft was! Because it was not a thing at all, it was a collection of countless powers!
“Okay, I’m done, do you have any questions?”

Steve Ross asked with a smile as he put the cap on his pen.

Everyone present shook their heads.

"So... let's get started?" Steve Ross turned his head. "Since I'm the speaker, shall I talk about my ideas first?"

"Hmm~" The five people present leaned back in their seats almost instinctively. They had no objection.

Or in other words, the reason they gathered together was simply because they had been badly beaten by Ethan Jones in a one-on-one confrontation. When the method of committing suicide after being shot eight times was no longer available, they could only huddle together for warmth and try to use a compound attack to bring Ethan Jones down from the altar.

In this case, whoever takes the lead must take the lead.

Steve Ross also understood all of this, so he pointed to the whiteboard and said, "The overlapping businesses between Warner Communications and Ethan Jones are in the fields of video games and film entertainment."

"Although we acquired Atari, the pioneer in the video game industry, to be honest, Atari does not have much advantage in video games, so we don't have a good way to use video games to fight head-on. However..."

Steve Ross drew a circle on Starfield and Alien and drew an equal sign in the blank space between them. "We really can't compete with Destiny using conventional means, but now that they want to do a linkage between video games and film entertainment, don't blame us for suppressing them."

Steve Ross cast his eyes on Kirk Kerkorian, the owner of MGM, and Ron Miller, the actual controller of Walt Disney, and said with a smile: "And this requires the cooperation of the two of you."

"I need you two to exercise your authority."

The words without a preface left Cornelis van der Krucht, CEO of Philips North America, Jack Tramiel, owner of Commodore, and Willard Rockwell Jr., chairman of Rockwell, bewildered, but for Kirk Kerkorian and Ron Miller…

This is simply explicit.

"MPAA?" Kirk Kerkorian's eyes lit up.

"You want to prevent Alien from being released on a large scale?" Ron Miller was a little surprised.

Steve Ross kept nodding and said, "Yeah!——"

"It's the American Film Institute!"

He looked at the crowd with a smile and said, "Even if Ethan Jones's movies are well-made! Even if Ethan Jones's movies are known to everyone! But what can it do?"

"He's just a newcomer in the entertainment industry!"

"He can't decide whether his movie can be released on a large scale!"

"And we—"

"Yes!"

When Steve Ross found out that the movie he invested over 50 million dollars in was buried alive by Ethan Jones, he had only one thought in his mind -

That is to strangle Ethan Jones!
And when he was unable to take advantage of the tide of the times like Ethan Jones and smash the enemy into pieces, the sniping plan he thought of was to cash in on power!

In the wild days when Hollywood was just born, there was no such thing as a rating for movies. Major studios could invest in any movie they wanted. Similarly, film producers and directors could add their favorite elements to the movie without worrying about whether these elements could be shown to the public.

In that era, racial issues, alcohol or drug use, violence, blood... those could all be filmed directly and watched by people of all ages. However, with the continuous development of the entire industry, various inappropriate elements were indeed not suitable for public disclosure. Therefore, pre-release censorship appeared.

The most famous of these is the Hays Code, which is a series of censorship regulations formulated by Will Hays, chairman of the Motion Picture Association, for major film production companies.

For example, nude scenes must be prohibited in all movies, ridicule of religion and religious figures must be prohibited in all movies, language that may be considered offensive by the audience must be prohibited in all movies, interracial marriage must be prohibited in all movies, and so on.

Because the terms were too strict, Hollywood creators felt that they were dancing in shackles. Non-American films were not subject to such strict censorship. At the same time, the rise of television caused the film industry to fall into the pain of recession. Therefore, under the clamor of Hollywood giants, the Hays Code was finally abandoned in the late 1960s.

What succeeded him was the film rating system.

And this...

"The grading system is something that we directly control."

Steve Ross smiled and explained to the people from Philips, Komodor and Rockwell -

"The film rating system is managed by the Motion Picture Association, whose members are all from Hollywood. Current members include Paramount, Fox, MGM, Universal, Disney, Warner Bros. and a medium-sized production company, Embassy Pictures."

"In our daily film review, we operate in a tacit understanding. The ratings of each film are within the range that the public can watch. Unless it is a very obvious and uncomfortable picture, we will raise the rating. Of course, before determining the rating, we still focus on communication.”

"But now——"

"Since Ethan Jones made a horror movie, shouldn't it have the highest rating? I personally think that X-rating suits his status, so..."

"What do you think?"

Steve Ross raised his eyebrows and looked at everyone.

Following his explanation, all five people present smiled knowingly.

Currently, there are four levels of movie ratings: G, which is open to all ages; PG, which is recommended to be watched under the guidance of parents; R, which requires people under the age of seventeen to be accompanied by parents or adult guardians; and X, which is prohibited for screening to people under the age of seventeen.

In general, the R rating is already the biggest restriction.

And now, the X-rating proposed by Steve Ross...that would explicitly ban the movie "Alien" from entering North American theaters!
Because in some states, such as Tennessee, there are clear regulations on the public screening of movies. Movie theaters can publicly screen X-rated movies, but if someone finds that a child under the age of seventeen has watched the movie, the person will be directly sentenced to twelve months in prison if caught.

Under this high pressure, theaters will simply refuse to show X-rated movies.

"If Alien is rated X, it will be a huge blow to Ethan Jones." Rockwell's chairman, Willard Rockwell Jr., was very satisfied with the plan, but at the same time, he also wanted to know: "How confident are you?"

This inquiry also made Commodore's boss Jack Tramiel nod his head, "As far as I know, the current president of the Motion Picture Association, Jack Valenti, is from Universal?"

"Yes." Steve Ross did not deny this. "We know he is from Universal, but we also know that he is very dissatisfied with Universal's interference in his work. So we are confident that we can win him over. After all, Alien is also a Universal movie."

"Okay." Commodore's boss, Jack Tramiel, knocked on the table.

Indicates that he no longer has any problems.

When Steve Ross, chairman of Warner Communications, showed his sincerity, the atmosphere in the conference hall suddenly became much more harmonious, and as he spoke, everyone gradually understood his ideas.

His means of revenge is very clear, that is, to do whatever it takes within a limited scope.

Since the marketing focus of Destiny game next year has already been revealed, which is home consoles and movies, they will join forces with MGM and Disney to prevent the release of "Alien" by raising the rating of the movie. At the same time, they also want to join forces with Philips to defeat the home console of Destiny game.

"Before coming here, I have discussed with Steve, and we have found a clear countermeasure in the field of video games." As Steve Ross left, Cornelis van der Krucht, CEO of Philips North America, also took over the other party's oil pen and stood in front of the whiteboard to talk about it. "We really can't compete with him head-on in the field of video games. We really can't make interesting games that surpass Ethan Jones' inspiration, but we can start with his console and attack Ethan Jones by hurting users..."

Cornelis van der Krucht, CEO of Philips North America, wrote the name of the MINI Apollo on the whiteboard and pointed to the product. He said, "I think everyone here should be aware of our previous plan at Philips. We understand that people will only buy our products if the games on the home consoles are fun enough. So when we reached a cooperation with Paramount, MGM and Disney, we agreed in the contract that if the three of them want to sell console games, they can only log in to our home consoles."

"This can actually prove one thing to everyone: home consoles are capable of replacing games, and the same is true for Warner's Atari New Generation."

"When both of our products have this long-term use property, we believe that Ethan Jones, who started developing the console after we launched it, would not miss copying this."

"Because this capability is a good thing for businesses. When home consoles become popular, businesses can earn high profits by selling games. It is also a good thing for players. The fact that one machine can play multiple games can reduce their gaming expenses a lot. But at the same time, this is also a good thing for us at Philips and Warner..."

"Because it allows us to make tons of crap games!"

"In his name!"

At this point, Cornelis van der Krucht, CEO of Philips North America, knocked hard on the whiteboard. The clanging sounds made several people on the scene understand instantly!

Since the outside world has reached a consensus that Ethan's products must be high-quality, then smearing his public image and destroying his livelihood is the best way to make him fall quickly!
And the method is very simple!
Just spread a bunch of junk games on the market in the name of destiny games!

When players go to the game of Destiny with great expectations and pay their money to support it, once they get home they find that the game they bought is a pile of shit...

The feeling of disappointment will make them very sad!
The angry flames will burn Ethan to death!

Although this approach is somewhat self-defeating, as it not only damages Ethan Jones' personal image, but also causes serious damage to market confidence, but...

Even if the environment in the future gets worse, how bad can it be?

When every company keeps losing money as soon as they start making games, the biggest hope for these little guys is to destroy the entire market and start over again!

If I had to describe it, what Philips and Warner want is actually a whale falling! Everything comes to life!

As long as they can kill Ethan Jones, they can all start over again!

However, no matter how powerful this approach is, it still has many problems.

"First of all, I want to know how you can develop games based on Johnson's home console?"

Jack Tramiel, the boss of Komodor, crossed his arms, frowned and asked, "If I'm not mistaken, your Mirova Apollo and Atari's new generation can't be developed at will, right?"

"You must have a self-protection mechanism."

"It could be an encrypted code? Or it could be a hardware setting?"

"Because if you can develop it at will, then your products will be regarded as having no business secrets in the eyes of the enemy. I don't know if you can accept this, but we at Komodor cannot accept this. All our personal computers have protection mechanisms..."

These words made Steve Ross, who was sitting in the main seat, laugh.

Ben turned his head and stared at what Cornelis van der Krucht, CEO of Philips North America, was telling him. He said, "Of course we know all this, but we have a solution."

"Because our country has laws that stipulate that when a company and another company have a litigation dispute, both the plaintiff and the defendant have the right to submit a statement to the Patent Rights Center, indicating that the patent of the other party's product may be related to the litigation. In this way, we can obtain the relevant patent."

"Ethan Jones should be very clear about this matter, because when he was sued by Mirowa for infringement, he had already obtained the application documents for the video game patent in this way."

"So, as long as he registers a patent for his machine, we can get the details of his machine. With those things, are we still worried about not being able to make games?"

"Ok?"

Steve Ross winked at Commodore owner Jack Tramiel.

The confident question made everyone present smile.

That's right! Power is always mutual!

When Ethan Jones saw the patent content of Milova Odyssey through litigation in 1975, now Warner and Philips can also see his patent!

Under normal circumstances, this sighting would be harmless, and only a fool would do something so obviously infringing. But now, when Warner and Philips are determined to kill Ethan Jones...

This kind of sight is very important!
Because I can know how your machine was invented!
This even saves the time for reverse cracking!
"You guys still have a lawsuit with Ethan Jones?"

Rockwell's chairman, Willard Rockwell Jr., was somewhat surprised.

This question made Steve Ross and Cornelis van der Krucht, CEO of Philips North America, smile cruelly, "Yes..."

"The defamation lawsuit we filed against him has not yet been accepted by the Bay Area courts~"

"Oh——" Everyone at the scene recalled it instantly.

That was Warner's first encounter with Ethan Jones.

At that time, they released the Atari Next Generation and the MILO Apollo, and thought they had already won the game. They wanted to step on Ethan Jones to get to the top, but they didn't expect...

They were stripped to their underwear by Ethan Jones.

"Okay, there's a second question."

Rockwell's chairman, Willard Rockwell Jr., held up two fingers and said, "Even if you can crack their home consoles, you can't just release junk games to the outside world."

"Because once Ethan Jones catches you impersonating someone else and sabotaging the market, he will definitely turn the table over. By then...can you bear his wrath?"

Willard Rockwell Jr.'s words were subtle, but everyone present understood them.

When Rockwell and Commodore simply used business means to rob Ethan Jones, Ethan Jones dared to swing a dinner plate at their faces. Then when Philips and Warner wanted to cut off Ethan Jones' roots... they believed that Ethan Jones would definitely pull out a gun and shoot them.

As the cruel truth emerged, MGM boss Kirk Kerkorian, Walt Disney president Ron Miller, and Commodore boss Jack Tramiel all turned their attention to Steve Ross, the convener of the meeting.

And when he felt everyone's doubts and confusion, Steve Ross's mouth corners slightly curled up.

There was a gleam of teasing smile in his pupils.

“We certainly understand that,” he said. “So we’re not going to do it ourselves.”

"?" These words caused everyone present to frown.

When they looked puzzled, Cornelis van der Krucht, CEO of Philips North America, tapped the whiteboard, motioning everyone to look over, and then wrote a word -

Japan.

Note: ① The rating system of Lao Mi actually has no meaning, it is all self-governing. The giants think that my movie is PG, so the Film Association must give it a PG. The most exaggerated case is related to Spielberg. His films "Indiana Jones" and "Gremlins" are full of blood and violence. According to the rules, it is impossible to define them as PG, but he refused to modify them, so the association had to pass them. This tolerance caused dissatisfaction among other directors. In order to solve this problem, Spielberg suggested that the association introduce PG-13. Then, at the urging of his "father" Sidney Sheinberg, the entire association changed the rating rules for Spielberg alone. ② I have written about obtaining a copy of the patent through litigation before. The case written in the article actually has a prototype in reality, and the victim is Nintendo. After the Atari crash, Atari was split into two, and the company that operated games was renamed Tengen. In order to bypass Nintendo and release games on the Famicom (avoiding licensing fees and Yamauchi's review), they obtained copies of all Nintendo's patents registered in North America in the way I wrote in the article (they didn't even sue Nintendo at the time, but just got the patents on the grounds of suspected legal risks). Then, pirated games for the Famicom and cracking methods for the Famicom appeared in the world. Again, the US Patent Office is a big fool. Of course, Tengen lost in the end, and they lost a lot of money. However, they came back to life in the s and were re-incorporated into Time Warner Interactive.

PS, I’ve written it down.

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(End of this chapter)