Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 27 Signing Contract (Seeking Follow-up Reading)

"Yeah! Cheers!"

Two hours later, cheerful voices rang out in Atari's office.

At this moment, the three people at the scene all had happy smiles on their faces.

Nolan Bushnell was very satisfied because when Milova just implemented an innovation ban on Atari, Atari found a new way to expand its business. It was like a village with green willows and flowers after a long journey.

“I wish the new game a big hit!”

Don Valentine was also very happy. As an investor in Atari, he had invested $600,000 in Atari. If Atari was strangled to death by Milova, his savings of $600,000 would be gone.

At this time, he was not yet the investment tycoon he would become in the future. The $600,000 was all earned through his hard work. No one would just throw away their hard work, so Atari had to find a way out.

Now, there is a way out.

"Happy cooperation!"

Ethan raised his glass and clinked it with Nolan Bushnell and the others.

When the crisp sound was heard, the orange-yellow liquid also swayed and jumped up.

After Ethan made his retreat, the cooperation between the two sides was discussed very quickly.

As for the content of the contract, Ethan was naturally satisfied.

The contract stipulated that Ethan Jones and Evelyn Johnson would license the game "Snake" to Atari for distribution for one year. For this, Atari needed to pay a licensing fee of US$6,000 and promised to manufacture at least one thousand "Snake" game consoles for sale in the next year.

If viewed from the perspective of future generations, this contract was simply a trivial agreement. Compared with electronic games that could easily sell millions of copies, the number of one thousand arcade game machines was really too small.

But this is 1975! This is not the era of mobile internet!
You know, a year after the nationally renowned "Pong" was released, only 1974 units were sold! In , when Atari was sued by MILO, the court verified and confirmed that the total shipment of "Pong" arcade machines was only units!

But even so, the price of one thousand dollars per unit still brought Atari an operating income of eight million dollars!

Therefore, in Ethan's opinion, stipulating in the contract that a minimum production of one thousand units is a very good start.

After all, it’s the first pot of gold…

If you can earn it, you win!
The most important thing is to make a name for yourself!
As for the profit sharing, it is also very simple, 15% of the selling price.

Although Ethan wanted even higher, if possible, he hoped to reach the same level as Apple in later generations, but the cost of arcade machines in this era was simply incomparable to that of the iPhone.

The cheapest notebook with a screen like a TV costs $75, and the material cost of the gaming motherboard is $150. Add to that the sub-board and miscellaneous spare parts, such as built-in speakers and custom joysticks, and the total cost of a whole machine will basically not be less than $600.

When the gross profit was only 40%, letting Ethan take 15% was already Atari's limit.

Because after deducting other expenses, Atari's founders and investors could only get about 7 or 8 percent.

Of course, the sales of arcade games are not actually the bulk of the revenue from video games in this era.

The real source of profit is actually the sales of gaming motherboards.

The game arcade motherboard replacement service provided by Atari is quoted at US$400 per order. After deducting the cost of materials, labor and transportation, the net profit of one order is actually as high as US$150.

Therefore, Ethan's asking price for this item was quite high. He initially wanted to take 30% of the selling price, which was $120, but Nolan Bushnell and Don Valentine refused to agree.

He said that the motherboard replacement service was actually an upgrade of Atari's already sold products, and it belonged to Atari's stock market. Ethan wanted to take 80% of the net profit? He might as well just sell them!

But negotiation means asking for a high price and then paying a low price.

After a period of tug-of-war, the number was cut to 18 percent.

In other words, for every Snake game motherboard Atari sold, Ethan would get $72.

It’s about half of the net profit.

Although this number may seem small,...

Other things in this era are not expensive!
Ethan drank the whiskey in the glass in one gulp. The spicy feeling was a little hard for him to accept.

His sad expression was seen by everyone.

"Hey, Ethan, you can't drink at all."

The contract had been signed, and the rivalry was over. Nolan Bushnell quipped, "When I was your age, I was killing it in the clubs!"

"Yeah! Ethan, you still need to practice your drinking capacity."

Don Valentine, founder of Sequoia Capital, also said with a smile: "If you wait until you become a millionaire to practice, it will be too late, because by then, many beautiful girls will pounce on you! They want to get you drunk! They want to spend a wonderful and enjoyable night with you!"

The two of them sang in unison, making the atmosphere hot.

Ethan waved his hand and said, "I can drink a lot, I just drink too fast."

"Hahaha~" the two laughed.

"real!"

"We understand! We understand! We all understand!"

The stubborn look made them laugh even more. After chatting, everyone did not forget the business. Nolan Bushnell took out a stack of checks from the drawer of his office and wanted to pay Ethan $6,000 in licensing fees, but when he was about to write, he stopped again.

"Ethan, do you want one check or two?"

Since the cooperation has been reached, Ethan will naturally not conceal the copyright issue and directly take out the document of Evelyn Johnson's full authorization. Otherwise, they will not be able to sign the contract.

As for writing the checks, Ethan certainly wanted to write two. After all, he had agreed with Evelyn at the beginning that the income from Snake would always be split in half. However, he had an idea about the amount.

"One for three thousand, one for two thousand, and then give me one thousand in cash."

"I think this should be okay?"

This proposal made Nolan Bushnell very strange, but he still met Ethan's request.

He wrote two checks to Ethan and then pulled a neat stack of twenty-dollar bills from the office safe.

He counted out half of it and handed it to Ethan, asking him to count it.

After confirming that everything was correct, Ethan smiled and said, "Then, I'll just wait for the game to be released?"

"Well, in at least fifteen days and at most a month, we will have the first batch of machines ready."

Nolan Bushnell thought for a moment and said, "When the time comes, we will invite our previous partners to come to the company to experience the machine. If you are interested, you can come and have a look. We will call you in advance."

"Okay, see you later."

"Goodbye."

When everything was done, Ethan stood up and said goodbye. When he left, Steve Jobs, who was waiting for the results outside, took the initiative to see him off.

Ethan did not refuse the courtesy of the future Boss Qiao.

After leaving the factory gate, Ethan waved to Old Joe who was seeing him off, and motioned him to walk with him for a while. After the Atari factory completely disappeared, he handed the fifty twenty-dollar bills he had just asked for to the other party.

"This is..." Steve Jobs was confused.

"Your reward." Ethan Jones said with a smile, "If it weren't for you, I might not be able to reach such a smooth cooperation with Atari. This is what you deserve. Take it."

"But...this is too much."

Steve Jobs was a little hesitant, but at the same time, he didn't refuse.

"Oh! Brother! The information you provided me is worth more than a thousand dollars!"

Ethan Jones raised his voice and stuffed the money directly into his hand.

"Besides, you don't get this money for nothing! Nolan just told me that after the Snake Game machine is completed, he will invite partners to come and test it. I am very interested in this, so remember to call me when you come to my house."

"Also, since this is our first cooperation, I don't know how good Atari's salespeople are at speaking, but I think your sales skills should be excellent, so I'll have to trouble you to help me when the time comes."

After Ethan said this, Steve Jobs was not polite anymore.

His eyes flickered, he glanced at the dollar in his hand, and smiled, "Okay, I'll take it then."

"That's right, brother!" Ethan raised his eyebrows and patted his shoulder.

Jobs put the money in his pocket and said, "Isn't this the reason you asked me to come here?"

"of course."

“…” Ethan’s answer made Jobs stunned for a moment, then he smiled and said, “Then I’ll leave?”

"Uh-huh~" Ethan waved his hand, signaling him to get out.

This performance made Jobs turn around and leave.

However, after a while, he came back trotting.

This situation made Ethan very strange.

But when Jobs told him, panting, that Nolan Bushnell had asked him to go to the trade fair today and assigned him a bounty of five hundred dollars to get a partner...Ethan laughed at the figure who waved and left again.

If before this, he still felt that the appearance of Steve Jobs was a little unreal, then now, he was sure that the man in front of him was the real Steve Jobs.

Because in his memory, Steve Jobs was very short of money at that time.

One person was so short of money that he embezzled all the winnings from Breakout.

Ethan admitted that he just wanted to get in touch with Steve Jobs. He just wanted Steve Jobs' body... Ugh! He wanted Apple's body! That's why he paid Steve Jobs a thousand dollars.

And now...

“Is this guy quite honest?”

Looking at the apple jumping and walking on the road, Ethan smiled.

Note: ① The reward for Jobs to steal "Breakout" was this: Nolan asked Jobs to make the game "Breakout" and promised to reward Jobs $100 for every transistor he used less, because at that time, the most expensive cost of the game motherboard was the transistor, and the fewer transistors used, the lower the cost of the game motherboard. Then Jobs gave this thing to Wozniak, and that great god only used 44 electronic components to make the game motherboard, so Nolan gave Jobs a bonus of 5,000 US dollars and 900 US dollars for making the game. However, Jobs only gave Wozniak 450 dollars and put the remaining 5,000 into his own pocket. Decades later, Wozniak said in an interview that he didn't care about the 5,000 dollars at all. He just felt that Jobs had cheated him and he was very sad, but at the same time he also said that he could understand Jobs's approach, because Jobs was very poor at that time, and his adoptive parents spent almost all their savings to support him to go to college. And there is another thing. The "Breakout" made by Wozniak is not the "Breakout" released by Atari later, because all the engineers at Atari did not understand how Wozniak made the game with 44 transistors. Even if they were given a circuit board, they could not imitate it. So, Nolan's money was actually wasted. ② Regarding the price of "Pong", I calculated it myself. Baidu said it was 100 US dollars per unit, and Nolan himself said that the screen cost 75 and the motherboard was close to 200. There is no match at all.



(End of this chapter)