America: My Time

Chapter 20 The Game World (Part 1)

Chapter Twenty: The Game World (Part One)

John finally breathed a sigh of relief. If his parents truly refused to believe him, it would create considerable resistance to his plans, and he would need their help in many things. This also reflects the difference between Eastern and Western perspectives; John still hadn't fully adapted to his current environment.

“Father, I have one more small request. I hope the funds given by the family can be kept secret. If the gold futures plan succeeds, I want to use these funds to establish an offshore fund to acquire a Swiss bank and keep the funds hidden. This requires advance preparation and I need your help. After all, I don’t have the time or energy to choose such a bank. I need the power to keep things hidden!”

“UBS, great. As long as your gold futures plan succeeds, none of this will be a problem. I'll take care of all the preliminary preparations!” Smith readily agreed to John's request. This request made Smith even more committed to John's gold futures plan!

This is strategic planning, a pre-emptive move, hiding a portion of funds in secret as capital for a future comeback, and also concealing one's true strength. Every ancient family possesses such funds. For John, at only eighteen, to have such ideas and such vision is enough to prove his formidable abilities and demonstrate his awareness of potential crises, knowing to store up strength for unforeseen circumstances—a capability not everyone possesses!
John was indeed making plans for the future. Hiding assets was not the main purpose; the more important thing was the future layout of the bank. If he wanted to form a consortium, the most crucial element was the bank!

Long-term goals have been set, but short-term goals are also essential. In particular, banks are needed in the United States as well. If you want to gain profits in the financial market, you can't avoid banks. Otherwise, your funds will be completely exposed to those with ulterior motives, making you an easy target.

The power of American financial groups is immense, a force John cannot contend with, at least not now. Of course, he doesn't intend to threaten the fundamental interests of these groups on American soil at this stage, and even if he were to target banks, the timing wouldn't be right! Therefore, his short-term targets are limited to smaller banks.

As his business expanded rapidly, John realized he had expanded too much, and any unforeseen events could potentially impact his gold futures trading at crucial moments. Of all the companies he was most worried about, the gaming company was the one that needed the most attention; game consoles were a major issue that needed to be addressed quickly!

Secondly, there are the record companies and film studios. In these two months, Madonna and Whitney Houston must complete the recording of their singles and make release arrangements. Everything must be done before the game is released. The filming of Flash Dance is also very important and needs to be overseen by someone. I need to keep track of the progress.

John finally breathed a sigh of relief after all the patents for the game consoles were registered and it was confirmed that nothing was missing. Patents couldn't have any errors, or his losses would be huge! Under constant urging, the development of several games, including Contra, Dragon Quest, Street Fighter, Battle City, and Tetris, was also nearing completion. A company called Game World, just like the software companies before it, quietly appeared in Silicon Valley!

Although it was just an old-fashioned building, and the company didn't have many people, and its appearance didn't even cause a ripple, its appearance halted the development of neon game consoles, locked down the other party's research on game patents, and gave the game world a huge advantage in this game competition!
The gaming industry is perceived as highly closed off by most outsiders. Gameworld is a small company that doesn't even have its own production facilities, so it naturally goes unnoticed!
Atari currently dominates the gaming market, while Japanese games haven't yet reached the top and are still learning from the Americans. Atari is being led by a group of laymen who are completely oblivious to the emergence of the gaming world; they're frantically focused on making money from the market. It's precisely their ignorance and foolishness that gave Japanese game companies the opportunity to lose their market share and allow Japanese games to become the sole dominant force.

When the game world was completed, all the home appliance companies in Japan received an invitation. Looking at the invitation, the Japanese were a bit bewildered. When did America get a game company? They only knew Atari, and their own companies manufactured home appliances, having nothing to do with game consoles. How did they get this invitation? It was quite inexplicable! Although they didn't know the reason, the Japanese at this time were very meticulous in their work. Even if their companies had little to do with the game industry, the other party must have a purpose in sending an invitation. Some companies decided to send someone to investigate; perhaps just a visit would lead to a real opportunity for cooperation.

With a rigorous approach, several companies quickly took action and began to understand the background of the game world. When they learned that the owner of the game world was the same person who had previously dominated the Japanese comic book market, they decided to accept the invitation!
Of course, not all Japanese companies cared. Game World extended invitations to all ten major Japanese home appliance brands, but only Panasonic, Sony, and Hitachi accepted. The other seven ignored the invitations, perhaps their arrogance making them forget what the market is, looking down on Game World as a small, unknown company, and disdaining to cooperate with it.

The invitations extended to gaming companies don't just go to Japanese electronics manufacturers; they've also reached out to a host of cinema chains, retail giants, and electronics companies in Japan. This time, the gaming world is bringing all three of its major consoles—arcade, home, and handheld—and each additional company adds to the team's strength and increases their chances of success!
John had his own reasons for inviting the theater chains. Knowing he was likely to face pressure from Warner Bros., he needed to prepare in advance. This was an opportunity to build relationships with the theater chains, one he couldn't afford to miss. Most importantly, theater chains were perfect for selling arcade machines. If arcade machines from the entire North American theater chain were installed, the sheer number would be enormous, generating incredible profits!

Although the theater chains were unclear about the game's layout, they understood why a game company would send them an invitation—nobody would turn down money! While they weren't sure about the game's quality, that didn't deter them from coming. They understood the logic that there might be a chance to make money if they came, and nothing if they didn't. Although not their own bosses were present, some senior executives were among those attending.

Not everyone was optimistic about John's gaming world. Those who had been proven wrong by John before jumped back in, arguing that the gaming world was a waste of everyone's time. An eighteen-year-old not only had his own publishing company, record label, film studio, and software company, but was also venturing into games. Diversification wasn't inherently bad, but for an eighteen-year-old, it seemed absurd. Who knew what Japanese comics were like? And now he was getting into game consoles! Thus, a deluge of malice descended, as people tried to regain face by attacking the gaming world.

These people in North America may not know what Phoenix Comics is like, but the Japanese do. Others may look down on the gaming world and speak ill of it, but the executives of Panasonic, Sony, and Hitachi in North America will not do that! Of course, they didn't remind them; instead, they watched coldly as these people made a fool of themselves.

The behavior of these people made them truly agree with John's words: "hoping for the death of their companions." They didn't even understand the most basic situation before rashly jumping out to cause trouble. What else could this be but hoping for the death of their companions?
As for industry giant Atari, they simply chose to ignore it. Atari believed these people, thinking a company founded by a child was insignificant. Even their parent company, Warner, disregarded the existence of Game World; after only a few months, they didn't believe Game World could create a better game console than Atari.

John paid no heed to these petty attacks, nor did he need to; the game world remained completely unresponsive. Don't let their current antics fool you; once everything is settled, they'll learn their lesson. He wasn't able to wipe them out completely before, but this time he believed he could take them all in one fell swoop!

Instead of wasting time fighting with these ignorant and foolish people, I should focus on running my own company. I should use that time to copy more hit songs and novels to make more money. Fighting with these people will get me nowhere. I'm not a child anymore; I won't waste my time and energy on petty squabbles.

John also couldn't trust Japanese home appliance companies. OEM manufacturing had its risks. These companies had good research and development capabilities, and over time they would be able to bypass the patents of the gaming world and develop new game consoles on their own, breaking free from the control of the gaming world. This required strict contracts to restrain them.

(End of this chapter)