Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 276: Six hundred million in three days!
"Yesterday, June 16th, Pacific Time, the first American Video Game National Competition, hosted by Destiny Game and organized by the National Football League, came to an end at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in California. The competition was officially held on March 1st of this year and successfully concluded after 108 days. It not only wrote the first record of the video game competition in history, but also created a new history, because this is the first competition in human history that is participated by the entire population of a single country."

"There are many sports and competitions in the world. For example, wrestling, which was born in 2100 BC, may be the earliest sports activity of mankind. Another example is football. The World Cup held every four years is the most watched sports event in the world. But none of these can compare to the American Video Game National Championship that ended yesterday."

"Because before the concept of the competition was proposed and before Ethan Jones announced the competition plan, there was no real sport in the world that could allow all citizens to participate."

"In all the sports we are familiar with, there are more or less some physical requirements, or the way of playing is relatively boring. But video games are different. This is a sport that can be played with hands, and it is full of fun!"

"As long as you want to play, you can play! As long as you want to participate, Ethan Jones will warmly welcome you! Because of this, this year's National Electronic Game Competition attracted nearly three million people to participate directly, and more than 100 million people followed this event! And the audience of yesterday's finals exceeded a terrifying 50 million! Although there is still a certain gap compared to the Super Bowl, this is already the second most watched event in our country! It far exceeds other sports such as baseball, basketball, and ice hockey. Even the annual Oscars ceremony has fewer viewers than it!"

"This is simply a miracle!"

"Especially since this is the first time that a national video game competition has been held!"

"According to Merrill Lynch, a Wall Street investment bank, video games have become the fastest growing industry in history. Its scale has exceeded 5 billion, and its potential value is definitely over 10 billion. The national competition dominated by the game of fate is also worth at least 1 billion! More importantly..."

"The money needed to make all this happen is only 30 million!"

"That's right!"

"According to estimates by Wall Street analysts, the total investment of Destiny Game in this tournament should be around 30 million. This number is already a huge amount in any tournament! But the returns of other tournaments are far less than that of the national tournament. A return of three to five times is already an excellent operation. But now, the influence of the electronic game national tournament has turned 30 million into 1 billion!"

"This terrifying amplification effect has amazed Wall Street professionals!"

"But everyone knows that this miracle cannot be imitated!"

"Because this miracle is nourished by Ethan Jones's personal charm!"

“Without Ethan Jones’s brilliant ideas and his excellent works, video games would never have developed to the state they are today!”

"In addition to these, there are other points worth noting in the event that ended yesterday—"

"First, the length of the game. The game started at 10 a.m. Western Time and ended at 11 p.m. The 13-hour battle created history."

"Second, yesterday there was a historical record of two players completing the game Ms. Pac-Man. The first player to complete the game was Sid Meier, an engineer at General Instrument, and the second was Will Wright, a student at Louisiana State University."

"Because of the order in which they appeared, and the original purpose of the competition was to find someone who could pass the level, so according to Ethan Jones' announcement, they shared the championship."

"Third, people have always been curious about how many levels Ethan Jones's game has. This is because anyone who has played his game will have an illusion that Ethan Jones's game is impossible to complete and can be played endlessly. This question was answered yesterday."

"Two hundred and fifty-six."

“This is the total number of levels.”

"After Sid Meier and Will Wright finished the game, Ms. Pac-Man started to garble and distort the screen because they had hit the limits of the eight-bit microprocessor."

"An eight-bit processor can only store 256 values, which is 2 to the eighth power. When all these values ​​are occupied, the game level will reach its upper limit."

“This number may not seem like much, but it is staggering when put into the context of the game.”

“What surprised us even more was that Ethan Jones’ game was filled with those values.”

"Not only that, the content of each level is different."

"From this point alone we can understand why he can succeed."

"Compared to his design, other games on the market are just garbage."

"In addition to the above three events, Ethan Jones also announced three things yesterday."

"The first thing is that Destiny Game has officially partnered with McDonald's and will launch their cooperation project in all McDonald's restaurants in North America on June 17th, which is today—"

“McDonald’s Happy Meal.”

"This meal is aimed at children. It contains one serving of children's food and comes with a random character toy from the Fate game, including Jack the Snake King, Silk the Snake Queen, Mr. Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and other characters that have appeared in Fate games before."

"The second thing is the release date of Alien, the release date of Johnson's home console and Starfield. They will meet the public together next Friday, which is June 22nd."

"By then, all commercial cinemas in the country will arrange to screen Alien, and on that day, Alien will be the only movie showing in the country, so there is no need to worry."

"If you want to see it, you can definitely see it."

"Secondly, Johnson home consoles are available in supermarkets in major cities. In order to better meet the needs of the public, Destiny Game has carefully calculated the number of applicants for the National Electronic Game Competition and prepared three million units in the first batch."

"So, there's no need to rush to grab them. Everyone has one."

"Of course, yesterday's finalists have already received the latest batch of consoles. I believe there will be news of game clearance soon. They are all lucky and enviable."

"The third thing is a declaration of initiative."

"With the rapid development of electronic games, there will be more and more electronic games on the market, but not every game is suitable for everyone. For example, the previous shooting games have caused dissatisfaction among some people. Therefore, Destiny Game advocates the establishment of a standardized rating system to ensure that people of all ages can play games suitable for them."

"Not only that, Destiny also set an example by inviting the former governor of California, the director of the US Legal Services Corporation, the president of the Washington State Bar Association, and the inventor of the home video game console to participate in the formulation of Destiny's internal rating system and provide external supervision."

"So, starting from June 22, all products produced by Destiny Game will be marked with the advocacy ratings created by everyone. For example, for the movie "Alien", Destiny Game gave it a rating suitable for people over 17 years old because it is a horror movie. Another example is "Starry Sky", Destiny Game gave it a rating suitable for people over 13 years old because it contains some violent elements."

"We admit that this decision by Destiny Games is beyond our understanding, because since the birth of business, all businesses have been thinking about making money, and no one is willing to put shackles on themselves, but Destiny Games is different. They are actively labeling their products as dangerous."

"We don't know how much this action will cost them, but we know that Ethan Jones has been fulfilling his promise with his actions, which is to bring happiness to more people!"

"At the same time, we also hope that other game companies can learn from Destiny Game and actively join the rating alliance, because only in this way can our children have a better future!"

On the morning of June 17, reports about the first National Electronic Game Competition flooded the North American public. Almost all U.S. media reported on this event, because the last national carnival was a thing of the past.

Uh, okay.

The reason why the media are scrambling to report on this is that electronic games are very popular. Before any violent incidents occur in this industry and before parents and experts boycott them, these games, which have multiple attributes such as health, happiness and fun, are the objects of public liking.

Since there is no risk in reporting this kind of news and it can also generate huge amounts of traffic, the media, which are clear-headed and never have a problem with money, actively embraced it.

They start with the title and figure out the hot spots.

They start from the content and study the ideas.

Compared with traditional media, major broadcasting companies are much more comfortable because television broadcasting does not have the paper restrictions of traditional media and can say a lot without any hesitation.

For example, the American Broadcasting Corporation approached the topic from the perspective of setting a record, and then reported all the situations related to the competition in a grand manner.

For example, CBS, although they started with content based on games and then delved into the value of the industry, in the end they dropped all content related to the competition.

And NBC is no exception.

According to common sense, this kind of message bombardment would make ordinary people in North America extremely annoyed, because repeatedly receiving the same message consumes not only people's energy, but also their patience.

But this time...

Even though the reports from various media outlets are similar, people still watch them with great interest. This is not only because the news in this era is far less explosive than the Internet in the future, but also because all media outlets will emphasize the fact that Game of Destiny is far ahead when reporting on the event.

Yes.

When Ethan Jones took the initiative to report his company's overseas sales, all media knew how to report it. They would report how much each product of Destiny Game sold for, how much money was earned from exports, and how much social responsibility Destiny Game assumed after the money returned to North America.

When this cycle of "making money to satisfy one's own desires" appears, a feeling called pride will arise spontaneously. This feeling will make people feel spiritually comfortable, so even if they watch more, they will feel that they have not seen enough.

And for Ethan, this behavior...

That’s certainly a good thing!
Unfortunately, he didn't have the energy to pay attention to these things. With the end of the game, countless tasks came to him.

The first thing he needs to deal with is the distribution of rewards after the game.

He didn't need to worry about the physical and monetary rewards, as the financial guru Alan Massey could help him with everything. As for the rewards he had promised before, for helping the players realize their wishes...

Special code!
He only hated himself for not saying enough!

Previously, he said that he could help the top three in the national competition realize their wishes, but when he found that there were many familiar faces in the final list, he adjusted the rules.

He asked Steve Ballmer, the man with the broken throat, to find a place in Los Angeles that could hold a banquet for a hundred people and invite all the contestants in the national finals and their friends to attend the post-game party.

At the party, he first met the wishes of the top three, for example, Sid Meier and others wanted to join the game of fate, so he agreed with a wave of his hand. Then, holding a glass of wine, he took some time to have an intimate chat with some of the contestants who looked pretty good.

When Gabe Newell, who got 11th place, and Xiao Huang, who got 23rd place, said that they wanted to learn programming and make games, Ethan was secretly happy but said apologetically that they could go to school first. If they were not satisfied with school life and did not like those formulaic courses, they could come to Destiny Game at any time. He would give them some recommendations based on their strengths.

After Michael Dell, who was ranked 57th, said that he was actually most interested in Apple computers and came to the competition just to meet Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Ethan reached out and grabbed the two guys who were eating and asked them to get along well.

That’s right! Since the big guy in cub form has appeared, Ethan will never let him go!
He did not consider whether these people could still achieve their original success after his intervention. He only knew that even those who succeeded by riding the tide of the times must have their own real abilities.

Because pigs can take advantage of the trend and achieve success.

Similarly, the pigs will be smashed to pieces when the wind blows away.

Luck can bring you supreme wealth.

But your knowledge and ability are the basis for preserving wealth!
This is also why Ethan doesn't like Gates but still works with him.

If Gates really has no ability, then his parents would only do one thing, which is to stop him from starting a business.

After acting as a kind-hearted grandfather in front of those young bosses, Ethan Jones anxiously threw himself into other work.

For example, reconciling accounts with each company and settling the actual expenses of the competition.

After some calculation, they lost nearly nine million, and a large part of it was the expenses for disaster relief and match point transfer after the Three Mile Island accident.

However, although they lost a lot, Ethan didn't care, because all the major sponsors had already asked them whether they would hold the second National Electronic Game Competition. If they did, they could pay them now. The most active ones were the National Football League and the American Broadcasting Corporation. The former had already found the possibility of selling tickets, and the latter was excited by the 50 million viewership of the finals.

Since the first session was quite successful, Ethan did have the idea of ​​continuing to hold it, but this was not something that could be decided now, because whether or not to hold the session depended on the sales of Johnson's home console.

If Johnson's home console sells well, he will announce the news of holding another event at the end of the year, and the competition game will be "Starfield", which will stimulate another wave of console sales.

And if Johnson's home console doesn't sell well...

Then we have to think of another way.

The second job is to communicate with North American theaters to ensure that "Alien" can get a good screening schedule.

Although the Hollywood giants have been beaten so hard by him that they were too lazy to release any competing films on the day when "Alien" was released, this does not mean that there will be no more films released at the same time.

In order to ensure the box office success of "Alien", Ethan will definitely not miss any of the screenings during prime time.

The third job is to have someone keep a close eye on the factory to ensure the continued production of home consoles and game cartridges.

The fourth task is to mobilize all the staff of the marketing department to contact all the major stores again to ensure that the shelves previously communicated can be obtained and the local publicity can keep up. They must guard the warehouse and never let the local merchants sneak out. If such a situation is found, it must be reported immediately...

To be honest, it's really difficult to run a business.

Especially those companies related to manufacturing.

Many times, it is not enough to just have enough manpower, because once a mistake occurs in any link, the one who pays the bill will definitely not be the employee responsible for that link, but only the boss of the company.

Therefore, even though everything had been arranged before, Ethan still had to review all the links according to the process and avoid some low-level mistakes that could be found as much as possible.

While Ethan was busy, good news came from McDonald's.

In just three days after the Happy Meal was launched, 2.6 million copies had been sold in North America.

At first glance, this number seems very small, as the daily sales volume is only about 860,000 copies, which is a huge gap compared to the billion-dollar event brand touted by the media.

but--

The sales volume of 2.6 million corresponds to the number of 8,000 restaurants!

Currently, McDonald's has only more than 8,000 restaurants in North America!
Two million sales means each restaurant can serve over a hundred Happy Meals every day!

This sales volume has exceeded the basic line of daily operations of a restaurant!
Because restaurants and shops are different, the food sold in the former needs to be prepared, while the products sold in the latter are sold directly. In this case, 2.6 million in three days is a huge success!
This will make the meat patty chef vomit!

The appearance of this number also made Ethan feel relieved.

After all, no matter how strong the public opinion is, nothing is more gratifying than an increase in sales.

After McDonald's Happy Meal acted as a pioneer and set an excellent example for Ethan, with the arrival of June 22, the market also gave the most loyal feedback.

On the day that "Alien" was released, they earned $3.07 million at the box office with an average ticket price of $1.25 per ticket, and the number of moviegoers on that day reached 2.456 million!
The average number of people received by each cinema is more than four hundred!

The next day, Saturday, the numbers skyrocketed, with the single-day box office exceeding 3.7 million.

The cumulative number of moviegoers reached 5.416 million.

The three-day weekend box office was basically the same as Saturday, at 3.82 million.

The total number of moviegoers in Mexico exceeded 8,472,000.

In the first three days of the weekend, the box office exceeded 10 million!
The number of 10.59 million made "Alien" a success!
Or rather——

According to the current trend, it will be too easy for "Alien" to break the 100 million mark!

But unfortunately, no matter how impressive the performance of "Alien" is, no one is paying attention to it at the moment.

Because, in just three days, all the goods that Ethan had prepared for half a year were sold out!

All channels are urging him to replenish stock!

"Are you sure? We sold three million units in three days?"

Ethan looked at Ballmer with joy.

Ballmer, who had lost his voice on the day of the game and had not yet recovered, nodded and said in a drake voice, "I'm sure, boss."

“We sold three million units in three days.”

"Operating income: 599,970,000."

"If we count the Alien collaboration."

"We made 600 million in three days."

Note: ① The number of viewers for the 79 Super Bowl was 7474 million.

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(End of this chapter)