America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 344 Atari's Last Stand

California, EA. Hardware Division.

CEO Trip Hawkins' temples throbbed as he faced the machine, which looked exactly like the old Genesis.

He increasingly felt that he couldn't understand the current game market.

As a graduate of Harvard University with degrees in social sciences and computer science, and a former head of marketing and sales at Apple, Tripp believes he has a fairly clear understanding of the market.

Compared to the vast majority of the rabble, his strength is indeed outstanding.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to lead EA through a period of fierce competition and carve out a path to dominance.

Although Lin Lixin and his Gamenova did cause EA a lot of trouble.

But fundamentally, EA has not really reached the end of its rope.

After all, GAMENOVA only releases a few sports games a year, right?

If others don't make them, then the remaining group of eager players will still have to slink away and buy their slightly inferior alternatives.

While losing its monopoly status has indeed prevented EA from acting recklessly as expected, or even manipulating pricing, it has also prevented it from doing so.

However, they have managed to gain a foothold in the field, albeit barely.

Tripp understood that as long as he did things quietly and didn't make too much of a fuss and attract Lin Lixin's attention, theoretically he could still have a few good days.

only--

The more exceptionally talented a person is, the less likely they are to swallow this humiliation.

According to the original plan, EA should have started preparing for its IPO this year, or at least next year.

This should have been my chance to rise to the top.

However, due to Gamenova's interference, EA's valuation is now much lower than expected.

If I don't find a way to create a new turning point for EA, then I'm afraid I'll really be stuck living a miserable life for the rest of my days.

The engine is someone else's, the market is what they've already eaten up, and if this continues, even the platform will belong to them.

"This can't go on, it absolutely can't!"

Tripp's eyes immediately sharpened. "I see now. The current gaming industry is full of incompetent fools. With this bunch of worms, there's no way GAMENOVA can succeed."

The opponent of this regular army.

Every single one of them in the gaming industry is a handful.

Tripp had originally pinned his hopes on Nintendo, which had once been able to compete with Gamenova on equal footing.

EA even joined forces with Nintendo of America (NOA) for this purpose, and developed and published countless games for the NES.

Despite the fact that, in the end, their flagship title, "One-on-One," was utterly crushed by GAMENOVA's "Double Dribble."

But at least in terms of promoting the NES in North America, EA did put in a lot of effort.

However, before Nintendo could even face Gamenova head-on in the fourth generation, a random PC-E jumped out from the sidelines and nearly killed them.

If it weren't for the launch of SNES stabilizing the situation, Arakawa Minoru of NOA probably wouldn't be paying any attention to me right now.

"What a bunch of good-for-nothings!"

Tripp spat angrily.

Despite having such a large number of excellent game IPs and a powerful development team, they still managed to win the battle like this.

Obviously, this wasn't because Gamenova was very strong; it's probably just that Nintendo was too incompetent.

What kind of technical expertise can a manufacturer that started as a florist factory have?

In the past, it was alright to fight against opponents who were also self-taught and from humble backgrounds, but now that they are facing GAMENOVA, whose hardware is faster than its software, they are clearly starting to feel powerless.

This incident is definitely a valuable lesson to learn from.

If EA wants to find new partners, it absolutely cannot choose these guys in the gaming industry.

That's so unreliable!

"But if we don't go to them—who else can we go to?"

Tripp's gaze swept over the mainframes on the worktable.

It's not just the GAMENOVA and Nintendo models; the collection here covers all models from around the world.

Not only game consoles, but also PCs like the C64, which are positioned as dual-purpose machines, have been collected.

For Tripp, a game console was nothing more than a computer with a specialized system, with no fundamental difference.

"Mr. Hawkins, come here quickly!"

As Tripp was pondering this, his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by his deputy who rushed into the room.

"What's wrong?"

"It's Atari!"

Tripp frowned.

"Atari? Is it Atari games or the Atari company?"

"We have them all."

"?"

One, or rather two, news items added fuel to the fire of this lively President's Day, completely igniting the long-dormant gaming community.

Following the explosive news of "Sonic the Flash" and MJ's new album joining GAMENOVA, Atari, which had been silent for a long time, has also made a new move.

GAMENOVA announced the acquisition of all shares of Atari Games from Namco, completing its controlling stake.

Atari Games will be reorganized into "NovaArcade," specializing in arcade games.

GAMENOVA's arcade IPs and production lines will be simultaneously transferred to NovaArcade.

With capital now fully integrated into the gaming market, it's commonplace for big fish to eat small fish.

However, this transaction was larger than expected, and the parties involved were all big names in the gaming industry.

Gamenova, needless to say, is the undisputed king of North America.

This Atari game was an independent company that Warner Bros. spun off from the original Atari company.

This incident reveals several clear signals for increasing positions.

The most obvious point is that GAMENOVA will increase its investment in the arcade market in the future, and this is an intention that is no longer being kept secret.

This event directly boosted the confidence of people who had previously had concerns about the arcade market.

Market shrinkage? Downward trend?

I doubt it. If that were the case, why would Game Nova choose this time to enter the market?

This is clearly a way to make a lot of money!

The claims of a downward trend and market contraction are all false!

It's all due to capital deliberately shorting and accumulating shares; some experts are trying to buy at low prices and profit from the losses!

Don't be afraid, stick with GAMENOVA and get on board!

Within a single day, real estate dealers across the country were inundated with phone calls.

My buddy's thinking of opening a small arcade to test the waters, any advice?

Of course, apart from this group of people, industry insiders have a completely different focus on this matter.

Atari games, it doesn't really matter.

Even if Gamenova were to acquire Sega's arcade division, it would be the same.

The real focus of this matter is on the side behind Atari games.

Namco!

The deal went so smoothly that it was completely unlike Masaya Nakamura's usual personality.

It's worth noting that Masaya Nakamura, in order to protect his Atari brand, was willing to break ties with Nintendo and confront them in court.

Now it's just gone like that?

This matter is clearly not that simple.

Rather than selling to recoup losses, this is more like a pledge of allegiance.

At this critical juncture when the console market is becoming increasingly competitive, Nintendo's sibling company has suddenly turned against them?

Before long, a so-called "well-informed person" came forward to explain.

They even described it in great detail, claiming they could obtain copies of the original documents, implying they had connections everywhere.

[Anonymous person from Muranishi (voice has been altered below)]

Ah—I know about that; a friend of a friend works at Namco.

He mentioned this to me just a few days ago.

Seeing Namco's recent strong revenue, Nintendo became envious and revised Namco's royalty terms, intending to monopolize the market.

I heard that President Nakamura argued strongly about this matter and had it mediated multiple times at the Kyoto District Court.

However, you probably already know the outcome, Mr. Reporter.

Well, anyway, I think Nintendo deserves it. Namco works so hard, and this is how they treat them.

【Huh? You're asking where this document came from? My friend's friend got it, so I don't know.】

Namco's decision to abandon the project at the crucial moment of a major battle was clearly not a good thing for Nintendo.

Especially the president, Hiroshi Yamauchi.

Reportedly, a reporter captured a moment when he was enraged.

Revising the regulations for you was a warning, why are you still not satisfied? You even dare to turn against us?

No one expected that Atari, which had long faded from the players' sight, would quietly make such a big splash.

What surprised everyone even more was that, following the big news made by Atari Games, Atari itself was not to be outdone and stepped forward to take the lead.

Of course, they obviously didn't come here to join GAMENOVA.

On the contrary, they seem to intend to dig up the roots of GAMENOVA.

Atari Lyn officially released!

[The world's first 8-bit handheld console with a color LCD screen]

[The world's first 8-bit handheld console with a 3.5-inch LCD screen]

[Equipped with the Suzy 16-bit coprocessor, the most powerful 8-bit machine on earth!]

Supports 4096 colors, with a maximum resolution of 160102 pixels.

[Built-in four-channel audio system]

Supports multi-player co-op, allowing up to 8 players to connect online!

The moment GG was released, there was an uproar.

Just when Gamenova was enjoying great success, Atari made a comeback with their new console.

This veteran gamer, who has been active in the gaming industry since the 70s and is the only dominant force in the second generation, has finally ended its years-long hiatus.

Those in the industry know that after Atari's downfall, it was sold by Warner Bros. to Commodus, which was focused on entering the gaming industry.

Atari, this old comrade-in-arms who was active in the same era as Conmaida, is the perfect body that the Tramir family is looking for.

The injection of substantial funds, the addition of a large engineering team from Conmao, and investment from its former employer, Warner.

Ultimately, this resurrected individual was cultivated, determined to regain his former glory.

GAMENOVA, third floor, hardware department.

Lin Lixin, Gerald, and Vivian gathered in front of the television, having just finished watching this GG.

Lin Lixin clicked his tongue.

"Those Warner Bros. bastards—are they betting on both sides?"

AtariLyn, who had been keeping a close eye on Nintendo's moves, almost forgot about this thing.

This near-16-bit machine, built with a 16-bit coprocessor, poses little threat to NovaSwift and its dominant trilogy.

But this thing—is clearly not aimed at the Nintendo Switch.

From the very beginning of its development, this thing was probably going to face their foundational device, the NovaPocket.

From this perspective, the machine's specifications are indeed quite competitive.

Aside from its large size and heavy weight, this thing is a complete replacement for NP.

Don't underestimate the NP just because it's an outdated 8-bit machine. For GAMENOVA, it was more important than all of GAMENOVA's current consoles.

Because its holdings are the highest among all machines currently.

As of last Christmas, NovaPocket's global sales reached 1.03 million units!

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