As the most high-profile rising star in Hollywood, Daenerys Entertainment’s attempt to enter the field of video games has become the focus of many media attention from the beginning. Forbes magazine’s September 400 list of America’s richest people noted Simon’s personal assets. Blizzard Studios was also specifically listed.
Blizzard Studio's trial project "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" has quickly become popular since its birth in 1984. After the game project was announced in February this year, it was rated as one of the most anticipated video games this year by some magazines.
However, it took Blizzard Studio a full eight months to develop the ARPG (action role-playing) version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, far exceeding the average video game development cycle of this era of three to five months.
When the outside world had almost forgotten about this incident, Nancy finally officially launched the promotion of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" video game in October.
Because so many miracles have been created in recent years, projects produced by Daenerys Entertainment almost naturally have a halo attribute that can attract the attention of the media and the public. This has created a great deal for the promotion of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" game. convenient.
With a large number of spontaneous follow-up reports from the media, the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" game only relied on a comprehensive publicity budget of US$1 million to create effects that other game companies may not achieve even with US$5 million.
As of November 3, when it was officially released, the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" game is already well-known among players in the two major video game markets of Japan and the United States.
The New York Times commented before the game was released that "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was like "Atari's "ET"" to Blizzard Studios.
The poor quality of "ET" triggered the famous "Atari Collapse", but it still sold a best-selling 1.5 million boxes that year. This was due to the global sales of the "ET" movie. Strong popularity.
As for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", the "New York Times" concluded that this game relies on the attention brought by Daenerys Entertainment's own reputation and has almost no possibility of commercial failure. The result is just a matter of making more money or less. However, if "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" cannot be recognized by players, or even encounters negative reviews like "ET", the halo of this game will fade, and Daenerys Entertainment will be very difficult to gain a foothold in the field of video games. difficulty.
Simon and Nancy actually understand the truth of "The New York Times", otherwise, Blizzard Studio's first game would not be so refined that it took eight months to polish it.
Amid the attention of all parties, the ARPG version of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" game was put on sale in the United States and Japan at the same time on November 3.
The first batch of 100,000 cassette cassettes was distributed, priced at US$60 in the United States and 7,000 yen in Japan.
In order to achieve the greatest publicity effect, after Simon contacted in a roundabout way through his connections in Australia, the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" game was also featured on the cover of Nintendo's official game magazine "Nintendo Power" in November.
In the next few days, as the media discussed Simon Westeros's personal Boeing 767 car, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" game reviews were also released.
"Nintendo Dynamics" gave "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" a good score of 8 points on a 10-point scale. This is of course due to the public relations effect of Daenerys Entertainment, but there is no doubt that Nintendo's official attitude towards this game is .
The ratings given by other professional game magazines are basically excellent.
Of course, criticism is inevitable.
The Japanese game magazine "Famitsu" accused "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" of imitating Nintendo's "Zeldar Legend 2" and Konami's "Tsekikaze Demon" in many details.
"Legend of Zelda 2" and "Tsekifumaden" are both side-scrolling ARPG games produced in the past few years, and the first "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is also a side-scrolling ARPG.
After writing a rough game plan based on the Konami version in his memory, Simon did let the game design team try out several famous side-scrolling ARPG games such as "Legend of Zedar 2" and "Tsekikaze Demon", but it was basically The above is for reference only.
Even if the Blizzard Studio team wanted to directly plagiarize, Nancy, who has been keeping a close eye on the project, would not allow it. In addition, side-scrolling games have become rampant in recent years. Phenomenal games such as "Contra" and "Super Mario" are also side-scrolling, so the accusations of "Famitsu" are irrelevant.
The statistics of game sales data are not as timely as those of movie box office, especially when the game is released in the United States and Japan at the same time.
However, in the week from November 3 to November 9, the original first batch of 100,000 boxes of game cartridges was quickly sold out, and Daenerys Entertainment urgently placed an additional order of 200,000 cartridges with Nintendo.
On November 13, the sales volume of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" in the first week of its release was officially released. The total sales volume in the two major markets of North America and Japan was 263,000 boxes, with sales reaching US$15.7 million.
Compared with movie box office, the sales curve of electronic games is more like that of music records, with strong vitality.
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" sold 263,000 boxes in the first week. Although it failed to break the sales record of 500,000 boxes in the first four days of many games in the industry, it still shocked a large number of people. Because the games with the highest sales records in the past were basically second- and third-generation sequels, but "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is the first-generation work.
There were 263,000 boxes in the first week. Considering the excellent quality and reputation of this game, there is no problem in the overall sales reaching four to five million in the next year. It is estimated that the total sales of 5 million boxes of the game will not reach the tens of millions level of the "Super Mario" series, but it is definitely among the ranks of phenomenal electronic games.
Game sales actually mean market recognition. Daenerys Entertainment immediately invested in a second wave of large-scale publicity, which further increased attention and inevitably drove the sales of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" game again.
Best-selling phenomenon video games usually have long lifespans.
Therefore, the success of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" alone will keep Blizzard Studio busy for at least five years through the development of subsequent sequels. This undoubtedly means that Daenerys Entertainment has become a major player in the field of video games. Stand firm.
Daenerys Entertainment Headquarters.
The time is Wednesday, November 15th.
In the conference room.
After the success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, Nancy began to plan the next expansion plan for Blizzard Studio.
"For a game cartridge that sells for US$60, compared to the 50% gross profit of several Capcom manufacturers that can produce their own cartridges and have royalty discounts, our studio's gross profit margin is only about 30%. However, this is just the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" game, with sales of 263,000 boxes in the first week, we have recovered all Blizzard Studio's investment in the past six months and achieved a net profit of US$2 million. In the next year, the expected net profit of this game The profit scale will reach 100 million US dollars. My next plan is to expand into the field of PC games. Starting from scratch is too slow. Now that I have an understanding of the game industry, I hope to expand directly through acquisitions."
Before Simon could speak, Amy, who had done a lot of work recently, asked: "Nintendo is very exclusive. Nancy, how do you solve this problem?"
Nintendo can almost be said to have unified the console game market now. The NES and Famicom account for more than 90% of the two major markets in Japan and the United States. This company is therefore at its strongest stage, even for those who have the closest relationship with it. The six major manufacturers also banned it if they said it would be banned, let alone second- and third-tier game production companies.
Nancy has obviously considered this issue, saying: "We can keep the PC game department operating independently and not have any intersection with Blizzard Studio. Moreover, we will not cooperate with Nintendo competitors such as Sega and Atari to acquire PC game manufacturers can also choose to transplant some excellent PC games to the Nintendo console platform, which can eliminate Nintendo's hostility to the greatest extent."
Amy obviously didn't think so and turned to look at Simon.
Sales of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were so good that she didn't feel the need to expand into PC games.
The scale of the PC game market in this era is far from being comparable to that of console games. If Nintendo is offended by expanding into the PC field and Blizzard Studios is targeted, it will be more of a loss than a gain.
Simon also doesn't think the overbearing Nintendo will allow Daenerys to entertain 'half-heartedly'. However, he also did not intend to tie Blizzard Studio to Nintendo, a ship that has turned from prosperity to decline, so he asked: "Have you found a suitable target?"
Nancy nodded, handed the two documents to Simon and Amy respectively, and said: "Electronic Arts is a video game manufacturer headquartered in San Francisco. It was established in 1982 and originally developed games for Atari consoles. .After the decline of Atari, EA began to focus on PC game development, and over the years it has accumulated a number of very best-selling sports game brands."
Simon looked through the information in his hand and had to admire the vision of his small female executive again.
EA.
Although it has a reputation as a 'studio killer', EA is undoubtedly one of the largest game production and publishers in Simon's memory, with a market value of nearly $50 billion at its peak.
Nancy noticed a flash of weirdness in Simon's expression, but just continued: "EA just had its IPO a month ago, and then suffered a stock market crash on October 13. The company's current market value is only 170 million. US dollars, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13 times. If we send out a good-faith acquisition invitation and get a response, we should be able to win US$300 million. EA's performance in recent years has been very good, and acquisitions at a price-to-earnings ratio of less than 25 times are acceptable. "
Simon asked: “What if there is no response to the goodwill invitation, or if other competitors suddenly appear?”
Nancy said: "In this case, our chips can be increased by another 50 million US dollars."
"Then let's give you a budget of 350 million US dollars to win this company." Simon did not hesitate, looked at Amy again, and said: "You can discuss this matter among yourselves, and you can also ask Jim to cooperate. Jenny and I will spend the weekend When I go to Europe, I will try to let go of the company’s affairs as much as possible for a long time to come, don’t let me down.”
Both Amy and Nancy already knew about Simon's plan, and they almost unanimously believed that their boss would not be able to ignore the company's affairs for a long time.
It’s hard to change your nature.
You, a control freak, say you no longer plan to control the company.
Who believes it!
Therefore, there was no objection to Simon's plan to take a long vacation.
After the meeting, Amy and Nancy went about their business, and Simon also rushed to audition for the male lead in "Dangerous Days".
The original male and female protagonists of "Dangerous" were James Caan and Kathy Bates respectively. Kathy Bates also won the Oscar for Best Actress for this role.
However, Simon does not intend to use the original team this time.
Simon has watched the original film, and Kathy Bates' performance is indeed pretty good, but Simon believes that the reason why she was able to win the Best Actress award was mostly because of her role and public relations.
The Oscars are known to favor mental illness of all kinds.
Because so many 'patients' with mental illnesses, murderers, mania, etc. have received statuettes, the Oscars were once ridiculed as a mental hospital.
At the same time, Kathy Bates is an artist under CAA. If it were not for Simon's appearance, CAA would definitely be the most powerful talent agency in Hollywood in recent years. This has been the case since the beginning of this year, when Daenerys Entertainment attacked CAA. This can be seen from the fact that Dinh Hoffman won the second statuette.
However, compared to the original Anne Wilkes played by Kathy Bates, who only made the audience feel nervous and morbid and manic, Simon also hopes that the new version of the heroine can bring some strong dangers to the audience to take on the role of an abused writer. feel.
I thought I had an affair, but ended up going to hell.
If you want to achieve this result, you definitely need to consider appearance.
Based on appearance, acting skills and some inevitable human considerations, Simon finally chose Susan Sarandon.
Susan Sarandon is 43 years old, which is about the same age as Kathy Bates, and also fits the general setting of the heroine in Stephen King's original work.
Moreover, Susan Sarandon already received her first Oscar nomination for Best Actress in 1981, and her acting skills are beyond doubt.
Although she is over forty, Susan Sarandon is well-maintained. In the "Witches of Easttown" two years ago, the actress's style was not inferior to Michelle Pfeiffer and Cher. .
Susan Sarandon also co-starred with Kevin Costner in a sports-themed romance film "Millions of Dollars" that was very successful at the box office last year. In the film, Sarandon is ten years older than Costner, but the two seem to be a perfect match, with no sense of age difference at all.
Speaking of which, Simon was deeply impressed by Susan Sarandon's starring role in "The Legend of the Baby."
Most people would only think that Brooke Shields is the core of "Beauty", but Simon has no feeling at all about Brooke Shields' flat figure in the film. Instead, Sue, who plays Brooke Shields' mother, The scene when Shan Sarandon was lying on the sofa naked and taking pictures was like a beautiful classical oil painting, which is endlessly memorable.
After receiving Simon's invitation, Susan Sarandon was a little hesitant about playing a manic and perverted extreme book lover, but she quickly agreed to play the role after considering it.
The actress clearly saw the potential breakthrough this role would bring her.
As for the male protagonist, Simon's requirements for this role are not very high, so it is inevitable that he will receive a lot of favors.