Santa Monica.
In the conference room of Daenerys Entertainment headquarters, after listening to EA management's report on the company's operations, everyone started the topic of today's meeting.
The secretary handed out a piece of information, and everyone in the conference room couldn't help but begin to recall all aspects of the information about the novel called "Dune" in the information.
"Dune" is not a novel, but the general name of a series of science fiction novels surrounding the planet "Dune".
After the famous North American science fiction writer Frank Herbert published his first "Dune" novel in 1965, he continued to perfect the "Dune Universe" until his death in 1986, and successively published the first editions of "Sons of Dune" and "The God Emperor of Dune". ", "Dune Saviors" and many other science fiction works surrounding the planet "Dune".
However, these novels basically revolve around a planet called Arrakis, which is full of sand dunes.
In the distant future, people discovered something called 'spice' on the planet Arrakis. Spices have many functions, such as extending human life and assisting in space jumps, and can help humans achieve space travel. Moreover, humans have only discovered that spices are produced on the planet Arrakis for many years, so there are too many stories happening around this planet full of sand dunes.
Because of the complete story background and grand narrative structure of the "Dune" series, this science fiction series has quickly become popular since its birth, and has been rated by some media as the space version of "The Lord of the Rings."
Again, like the Lord of the Rings series, there have been hopes for years to bring the story to the big screen.
In 1984, De Laurentiis Entertainment finally put this story on the big screen with David Lynch as the director and ultimately burned $40 million. It just didn't turn out that well. With an investment of US$40 million, the North American box office of the film after its release was only a little over US$30 million.
In the conference room at this time, Simon was also curious about how the boss of De Laurentiis Entertainment came up with the idea of letting David Lynch, an extremely literary director, shoot a commercial science fiction masterpiece, and how dare he Investment of US$40 million.
That was $40 million in 1984.
De Laurentiis Entertainment is now bankrupt, and Simon quickly retracted his thoughts, walked to the whiteboard in front of the conference room, picked up a pen and wrote a few words on the whiteboard: Real-Time Strategy Game.
Speaking of which, EA's current strength is sports games, and Simon has no idea of reversing this trend.
While maintaining EA's advantage in sports games, he plans to let EA focus on developing the most popular real-time strategy game in the 1990s. Because of the real-time strategy game model, this game type is also more suitable for the PC platform.
Although it plans to port a large number of EA's games to the TV game console platform, Simon will also let EA maintain its dominant position in the PC field.
For today's meeting, Simon has done a lot of homework in advance, and also personally compiled the information in everyone's hands based on the information in his memory.
Real-time strategy games had already sprouted in the early 1980s, and only reached their peak in the 1990s with the emergence of games such as "Warcraft" and "StarCraft". The concept of real-time strategy games was finally perfected in the 1990s. Nowadays, all types of real-time strategy games are actually just prototypes. They usually do not have the resource collection, troop production, and real-time battle elements that mature real-time strategy games should have.
On the other hand, Simon did not directly play the peak-level real-time strategy games such as "Warcraft" and "StarCraft". On the one hand, there were still some limitations in the hardware conditions at this time. On the other hand, it was also out of the question. Due to the need for EA to practice first and accumulate experience.
The real-time strategy game in the original space and time finally matured after more than ten years of continuous exploration and accumulation. EA still has no experience in this area. If you start it immediately, it will probably destroy several classics in Simon's memory.
Speaking of which, the real-time strategy games adapted from the "Dune" series are also quite successful in the original time and space. This is why Simon told Nancy to win the right to adapt the "Dune" series of games at a high price.
Daenerys Entertainment promised the rights holder of "Dune" a price similar to that of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", with a basic adaptation fee of US$500,000 and a 5% net profit share of all "Dune"-related video games. News of Nancy's contact with the copyright owner of "Dune" had already spread. During this period, many other competitors tried to make bids, but the copyright eventually fell into the hands of Daenerys Entertainment.
After all, the $500,000 adaptation fee is only minor. If "Dune" can achieve the success of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" game, just 5% of the net profit share will be a large amount of income.
The failure of David Lynch's "Dune" movie in 1984 made this series project that was originally coveted by many studios suddenly become an existence that no one cares about. The copyright owner of "Dune" has already failed in the film and television adaptation of this series. It's a big mistake, so naturally it won't make this kind of mistake in game adaptation.
Compared to the failure of the "Dune" movie, the video games based on "Dune" have been very successful.
"Warcraft" developed by the original Blizzard Studio in Time and Space is also recognized as a follow-up imitation of the 1992 real-time strategy game "Dune 2".
Simon told everyone in the conference room in detail about the development points of the resource collection system, real-time battle system and troop production system of real-time strategy games. He also briefly described the prospects of this type of game in online battles. Finally, Said: "That's about it. You still need to explore the detailed plan yourself. Personally, I am very optimistic about the development prospects of real-time strategy games. This game type can also maximize EA's advantages in the PC field, so I hope everyone Being able to treat this project very carefully.”
Tripp Hawkins, the current chairman and CEO of EA and the founder of the company, said after Simon finished his speech: "Simon, according to you, the development of this game is closely related to the "SimCity" we launched this summer. "There are many similar places."
Simon nodded and said: "I have also read the information about "Sim City" and tried it. The first generation of this game was not a success. I think it was mainly due to the limitations of the hardware platform. If it can be further improved into a 3D version, this This game will definitely be very popular. However, "SimCity" does not have a battle system, and it is two different concepts from the real-time strategy game I just mentioned."
Another EA executive said at this time: "So, Mr. Westeros, are you saying that the core of this game is combat?"
"Of course not. If it's just a battle, it becomes another game concept. I think the key point of the development of this game is the cooperation of the real-time battle system, resource collection system and troop production system. During the development process, I hope you will It’s best to spend a few months in the early stage to perfect the settings of this game, and don’t be impatient. Because this is your first try, and accumulating experience is the most important thing.”
The topic unfolded, and others in the conference room began to ask various questions.
It was not until noon that the meeting finally ended.
Simon had to rush to the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel to attend the signing luncheon hosted by Qintex Group. As soon as he left the conference room, Nancy chased him out and whispered to Simon: "I have no relationship with the development team of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" After negotiating the next salary package, about half of them will resign and plan to set up their own studio.”
Blizzard Studio's first game has achieved phenomenal success, and the development team has naturally grown.
Game development in this era does not require the coordination and cooperation of a team of hundreds of people many years later, and it can even be completed by one or two people. Because of the expected huge profits of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", the development team has also made demands for salary increases. Nancy has been dealing with this matter recently.
In the end, it still failed.
However, Simon didn't pay too much attention.
These developers probably only saw that one "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" game brought hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to Daenerys Entertainment, but they did not see Daenerys Entertainment's series of unremitting investments in the game release process.
After leaving Blizzard Studio and without the financial and channel support of Daenerys Entertainment, these people wishfully thought that they could replicate the miracle of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" by mastering some key points of game development. This kind of thinking can only Call it naive.
Moreover, with the advent of the 32-bit console era and the further development of the PC platform, the era in which one or two people can develop a game will also end.
In the 1990s, the development of video games was destined to develop into a multi-person teamwork. Teams of dozens or hundreds of people worked together to develop a game, and the risks involved were simply not something that just a few people could bear. Even if these people find other financial backers to support them, the possibility of replicating the phenomenal success of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is very slim.
After all, although "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" does not reach the heights of "Super Mario", it is still a phenomenal game enough to sell millions of cartridges.
Simon was able to judge the success of this game based on his prophetic advantage, and invested a lot of manpower and material resources in it. Even if those people have mastered some game development know-how, they can only try their luck on various games.
Luck is obviously the most unreliable thing.
"If you leave, just leave. There is never a shortage of technical talents in this industry."
Simon said, noticing that there was not much worry on Nancy's face. His female executive obviously also understood that Daenerys Entertainment has many more advantages than a simple game development team, including a batch of technologies. The departure of personnel will only affect the development progress of the sequel to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". Daenerys Entertainment cannot grant the studio equity demanded by these people just because of the success of a game.
After hearing what Simon said, Nancy said: "I will conduct a new round of recruitment as soon as possible. If necessary, I can also second some technical personnel from EA."
"Actually, I've been thinking about the game studio recently..." Simon just started, and the two of them had already arrived downstairs. He simply said: "Why don't you go to the banquet with me in Beverly Hills, by the way? Talk on the way?"
Nancy didn't think much, she simply nodded and followed Simon into his luxury car.
As the car drove out of the parking lot of Daenerys Entertainment Headquarters, Simon continued: "I think it is difficult for a game studio to maintain a long and vigorous vitality. A game studio can develop one or two successful games during its life cycle. Video games are already very rare. Therefore, Daenerys Entertainment can adopt a development model similar to that of movie projects in this regard. Form a team and invest in a project. After the project ends, if there is a need to develop a sequel, the team will continue to maintain it. . If not, just disband the development team."
In fact, what Simon was thinking about at this point was the memory of how good game studios usually decline quickly after being acquired.
However, this has not happened yet, and EA is still far away from the title of 'Studio Terminator'.
Originally, as a bystander, Simon couldn't stand EA's behavior of "crushing" studios one after another. Now, standing in the position of a boss, Simon's thinking mode has inevitably changed.
In my memory, the reason why the studios that were acquired by large game developers declined may be due to the constraints of the parent company. However, another possibility is that the game team gradually lost its creativity. Game companies need to make a profit. Just because a studio has developed a phenomenal game, they cannot continue to support this studio to develop the works of their imagination regardless of cost and without asking for return.
Moreover, to be honest, the acquisition of these studios by game companies is probably just the copyright of the successful games in the hands of these studios.
In this case, it is better to imitate the film production model and invest in some game projects with good ideas from scratch, so that the cost will be greatly reduced.
For example, acquiring Blizzard Studios, which owns the copyrights of popular games such as "Warcraft" and "StarCraft", may require billions of dollars, but if it only invests in the development of game projects such as "Warcraft" and "StarCraft", perhaps It only takes a few million dollars, and there will definitely be a large number of failed works, but as long as one or two phenomenal works emerge out of ten projects, it is a success.
After all, video games usually have a long life cycle. If a game is successful, it can often produce many sequels.
Nancy listened to Simon's thoughts and agreed: "You can really try it. In addition, in order to promote the enthusiasm of the development team, we can also promise them a profit share. This can also appropriately reduce costs in the early development."
Considering the forward returns, most people are often willing to accept lower upfront salaries.
It may not be obvious from the current video game development. In the future, when dozens or hundreds of people develop a game, labor cost will become the most important factor affecting a project budget.
"You take the time to think about this matter carefully and come up with a plan," Simon said, then smiled: "Also, speaking of salary, do you want a salary increase?"
Nancy glanced sideways at Simon: "Are you going to give me a raise?"
"It depends on the situation. If you threaten me to quit immediately if I don't get a raise, I will definitely give you a raise."
"Then I'll end up in Rem's situation."
"It's very possible that I'm actually a very generous person, but I'm not used to others actively asking for things from me."
"This is a very unreasonable way of thinking."
"I'm so busy, I don't have time to reason with you."
“…”