Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 302 Another Wave
"If you have anything to say, tell me now!"

After letting the screaming Ballmer into the house, Ethan naturally leaned back in the boss chair.

As he waved his hand, the bald man who received the order also reported decisively.

As time quietly enters February, the laziness brought by the holidays has disappeared. When companies are busy for this year's performance, the desire for money and cooperation related to success have turned into documents and drilled into the fax of the game of destiny.

The first company to send a letter of inquiry was McDonald's.

Last year, their cooperation with the Destiny game brought them great benefits. The launch of Happy Meals brought them a large number of customers. Compared with the historical average after the launch, the number of visitors to McDonald's restaurants in North America increased by at least 3% after the launch of the meal.

As a national fast food brand in America, a 1% increase in traffic can bring them huge economic benefits, and now, a cooperative project has brought them 3%?

This exaggerated effect is even more outrageous than running advertisements for a whole year!
Especially when they found that with the end of the event, the traffic of restaurants in various places showed a significant decline. Even if they reached a cooperation with Paramount and moved "Star Trek" toys into the restaurant, they could not curb the downward trend. They realized that people cannot be compared.

Although everyone understands that no one in this world can stimulate the market continuously, because the wealth in people's pockets is limited, when people's spending exceeds a threshold, even if their country encourages advance consumption, it is impossible to boost people's future income.

But, all capitalists are greedy.

Even though they know that they cannot take all of the people's wealth for themselves, they still want the people to spend more money in their own businesses and want to seize the people's consumption in other industries.

When this fact came out, it was clear that the popular IPs in North America would not be able to help McDonald's realize its dream, so McDonald's once again found Destiny Game and wanted to reach a new cooperation.

"What McDonald's is asking for this time is not King Snake Jack, Queen Snake Shredded Pork, or Mr. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, but The Empire Strikes Back, which we are currently producing."

Ballmer waved his hands and said, "McDonald's wants the name Star Wars to appear in its restaurants. They want Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader to come to McDonald's together."

"Oh——" Ethan understood.

He put his feet up on the desk and asked lazily, "Has McDonald talked to Lucas?"

"We talked about it."

"What's George's reaction?"

"George said that if McDonald's only wanted the movie image license, they could negotiate directly, but if they wanted the game-like image of the movie character, McDonald's needed to talk to us."

Ballmer said: "George's intention is also very clear. If McDonald's can cooperate with "Star Wars" for publicity, then he sincerely hopes that we can reach a cooperation with McDonald's."

In the new agreement reached between Destiny and Lucasfilm, Ethan has the right to use all images related to the "Star Wars" game, whether it is T-shirts or toys, as long as he gives Lucas a profit.

Since Lucas had already given up the initiative in the negotiations, if McDonald's wanted to stack up the BUFF, it had to get Ethan's consent, so... they came.

This fact made Ethan nod slightly.

After thinking for a moment, he said, "I agree to this cooperation in principle, but the specific details need to be dealt with specifically. Steve, you are both a member of my Destiny Game and the chairman of Destiny Pictures, so this matter will be discussed by you. If you have any questions, you can discuss them directly with George. Anyway, he is now the co-president of Destiny Pictures, so it should be convenient for you to communicate."

"Yes." Ballmer said with a smile, "Then I will make another appointment with McDonald's later?"

"Yeah." Ethan waved his finger, signaling the bald guy to handle it himself.

The second company to send a letter of inquiry was the National Football League.

After the great success of the first National Electronic Game Competition, they made a lot of money from it and were looking forward to the second Destiny Game Competition.

But they waited and waited, but there was no news about the second competition.

So, they took the initiative to ask whether there were any new competition plans for the Destiny Game.

Ballmer couldn't answer this question, so he pushed the matter to Ethan. After learning about the Football League's desire, Ethan leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

"These capitalists are really greedy."

"Before, once the league entered the offseason, they could only hold their noses and rest."

“Couldn’t get more out of it.”

"But now, when they find out that they can make money by hosting our games even when the league enters the offseason, they want to keep the business."

"This is really..."

"Ah!"

Ethan chuckled and showed his emotion.

After thinking it over, he said, "Hosting a competition can indeed arouse people's enthusiasm for electronic games and enhance people's love for the brand, but it is meaningless to hold it every year. So let's make a rule that it will be held every two years, and the second competition will be held next year."

"And the game of competition..."

"Let's announce it this Christmas."

"If our sales of Starfield can exceed 15 million this year, then the game for next year's competition will be Starfield. If Starfield does not exceed 15 million, then the game for next year's competition will be chosen from the two arcade machines of The Empire Strikes Back."

"We'll prepare two sets of wording for the announcement. If we choose Starfield, we'll say thank you for the fans' support. Fifteen million sales represent fifteen million players, and we're flattered by this huge level of participation. If we choose The Empire Strikes Back, we'll say arcade games have a wider audience, and the purpose of our Destiny game is to create happiness with our heart..."

Ballmer pursed his lips when he heard Zhang Koujiulai's wavering stance.

The adaptive rhetoric made him want to laugh.

But he knew that he couldn't laugh at this moment.

Because if he laughed, the boss would definitely throw him out.

The third company to send a letter of inquiry was the Disney Group.

That's right, the Disney Group, not Roy Disney.

Since last year's event, Ethan licensed some of the characters of the Destiny game to Disney and asked them to produce peripheral products. After tasting the sweetness of hot sales, they wanted to keep this part of the profits.

But unfortunately, when Ethan signed the licensing contract with them last year, he only agreed on a one-year sales period. When this summer comes, Disney will lose the sales rights.

This is unacceptable to them.

Therefore, before the contract was about to expire, they took the initiative to send a letter to inquire about the renewal of the authorization.

"Is this what Roy Disney meant or what the Disney Corporation meant?"

After listening to Ballmer's description, Ethan asked the key question.

"Roy Disney wants us to take back the authorization," Ballmer answered simply.

Simple words say it all.

"Then take it back."

Compared with the control over Disney, Ethan doesn't even care about these small amounts of money.

At the same time, this incident also let him know that Roy Disney...

"This guy really has limited abilities!"

"Half a year has passed, and I still can't deal with the shareholders of the Disney Group."

Ethan shook his head in disappointment and said, "I now understand why he, as the only legitimate member of the Disney family, doesn't get the support of the Disney elders."

"This guy has nothing but ambition."

Perhaps because the topic was somewhat sensitive, Ballmer didn't know how to respond, but it may also be because he understood the seriousness of the matter, so Ballmer simply chose to remain silent.

But no matter what his attitude was, Ethan didn't care.

As for the toys... "Talk to George and ask him how their Star Wars toys are selling."

"If Lucasfilm has a solid toy sales channel, then we will try to borrow it, whether it is cooperating with Toys R Us or Hasbro, I have no problem with it."

"As long as our toys can be successfully distributed throughout North America, it will be considered a success."

"Oh, by the way, for the sake of clarity, let's set up a subsidiary to handle the toy business."

"Just call it Destiny Toy, and you'll be in charge."

"You should be okay, right?"

Ethan gave Ballmer a questioning look.

"Of course!"

Ballmer smiled and said, "I feel very energetic!"

"Yeah." Ethan waved his hand, revealing the truth.

After discussing external matters such as McDonald's, the NFL and Disney, Ballmer's next report was all about the company's internal operations.

For example, the equity incentive plan for Michael Blanco Manufacturing Company has been completed, and the plan has been unanimously approved by the senior management of the manufacturing company. Now it is time for Ethan to review it.

For another example, the two games of The Empire Strikes Back that Ethan reviewed before have entered the testing phase and are expected to go into production next month if there are no problems;
For example, Steven Spielberg decided to make "Indiana Jones" into a scrolling shooter game. Although he was a die-hard fan of video games, the newly formed Amblin needed money.

When dreams and reality collide...

Steven Spielberg made the most commercial decision.

"Okay, I respect his choice."

"Tell him to send a copy of the script after it's finalized."

"I will let the production team in the company make games based on the plot content."

When the decisions came out of Ethan's mouth, the guys who had cooperated for many years and had a tacit understanding began to work in an orderly manner. At this moment, the game of fate was like a powerful engine, which continued to roar with the cooperation of various departments.

And Ethan...

All he could do was watch quietly from the sidelines.

no way.

When a company grows to a certain size, the leaders at the top of the pyramid are no longer the promoters of daily operations, but the helmsmen who control the direction. They can influence the direction of the company, but how to reach the destination everyone expects? That depends only on everyone working hard.

In this situation, Ethan is both relaxed and anxious.

It's easy because he doesn't have to do the work himself.

He was anxious because he was responsible for the food supply for nearly 10,000 people under him.

While Ethan was controlling the overall situation of the company and thinking about the unresolved chip problem, at the end of February 1980, a figure that he had almost forgotten appeared in front of him.

"Boss, I'm back."

The dusty Julis Noble looked at Ethan with a smile.

"Wow! Julis! What's wrong with you? Why do you look so tired?"

Ethan was a little surprised.

Get up quickly.

While inviting Julis to sit down, he personally poured a glass of water for the girl.

When Julis traveled across the ocean to settle down in Neon for the development of the company, she was actually the person who made the greatest sacrifice in the entire company. When dealing with others, Ethan might be fair and impartial, but when facing Julis?
He will show his greatest kindness to the other party...

Taking the water cup handed over by Ethan and taking two gulps, Julis said, "Boss, I rushed here from Neon overnight, and I was sorting out information during the flight, so..."

“It’s normal to be hard up, isn’t it?”

After a brief explanation, Julis shifted the topic to the specific issue, "Boss, I came back suddenly because something unexpected happened in Neon."

"I can't control or judge these things, so I can't report to you over the phone. I can only fly back to communicate with you face to face..."

As she spoke, Julis handed a slightly curled document to Ethan.

Although not bound, neatly arranged documents are the best storage option in an emergency.

And when Ethan opened it and took a look...

The clear and logical description made him frown.

Because what Julis reported was not about Nintendo's unusual movements.

It wasn't the Sony that Ethan had asked him to keep an eye on.

It's Sega.

Although Sega is a long-established American arcade machine manufacturer, its presence in the arcade industry has been very weak in the past few years when video games have been developing rapidly.

Since 1975, Ethan had only come into contact with them twice. The first time was in 1975, when Ethan was looking for cooperation with "Snake". He found Sega and hoped that the other party could help with the distribution, but Sega refused; the second time was two years later, when "Pac-Man" sold well, Sega, which wanted to obtain overseas agency rights, and Nintendo, which wanted to obtain Japanese agency, came to him at the same time.

then……

Ethan chose Nintendo.

Since rejecting Sega that time, Ethan has never met them again. In the early stages of the development of the Destiny game, Ethan had wondered whether Sega, who mastered lightning in his previous life, would jump out and snipe him, but as the number of enemies around him increased, he gradually forgot about this matter.

And now, Julis's report is very interesting.

Last February, Sega officially announced that they had reached an agreement with a Japanese company called Esco Trading and officially acquired them. After the transaction was completed, Sega said that this transaction would bring them more overseas revenue. They decided to open a large number of arcade entertainment centers in Sapporo, Japan under the name of Esco Trading, providing an offline place for players who like electronic games to play.

At the same time, after acquiring Esco Trading, they can also cooperate with Toho in the name of Neon Company to jointly develop a monster game related to "Godzilla".

Since Julis was focusing on Sony at the time and had no time to take care of other things, she left this matter behind. Of course, she didn't report it later because she felt that Sega could not make a splash in Japan. When their Destiny game was able to beat everything and Japanese companies were looking up to it, Sega was buying land to build arcades? Wanting to create something original? Isn't this just a way to get killed!

Just as Julis was wondering how many months Sega could sustain its originality...

At the end of last year, Sega launched their self-developed game, "Godzilla", to the market.

Since the game was not released with much fanfare, Sega did not sell its own arcade machines on a large scale, but only placed "Godzilla" in the arcades it controlled. Therefore, when the product was first launched, it did not attract much attention from the public. However, after one month of operation...

This game has a charm of its own.

In just thirty days, they set Sapporo on fire.

Although Julis didn't know how much money the game made, she knew it must be extremely profitable because shortly after the game was released, Sega promoted the product's creator, Japanese man Hayao Nakayama, to the position of Sega's global executive vice president.

Not only that, while gaining a new identity, Nakayama Hayao also stated that their self-developed "Godzilla" has received a lot of attention and will be launched in other arcades in the first half of this year.

When this fact emerges...

Julis realized that she might have been careless and did not dodge.

Notes: ① In reality, Sega acquired Esco Trading in February 1979. ② The founder of Esco Trading was Nakayama Hayao, who acquired Sega in 2. ③ In reality, Sega did invest in many arcades in Japan, which brought them great benefits. After all, the income from real estate speculation is stable, and all businesses can be converted into real estate speculation.

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(End of this chapter)