Game Development Giant

After the concert, Adam Edgar saw that Jester was going to walk around with Claudia. He had no intention of being a lightbulb between the two, so he took the initiative to go back early. In fact, Jester didn't mind. , he had no other interest in Claudia, it was just because he had not finished talking about the Nintendo royalties before, and Claudia was very interested in it, so he took the initiative to find a place to have a drink. ,By the way. Claudia also excitedly offered to take him to see a traditional British pub.

Bar culture is one of the representative cultures of the UK. It can even be said that it is an absolutely indispensable part of the UK. In his last life, Jester had a friend from the UK who was a Manchester United fan like Jester, so The two chatted happily, and he told Jester that if you haven't been to a bar in the UK, it means you haven't been to the UK.

This shows the status of bars in the minds of British people.

There are a total of 61,000 pubs in the whole of Britain, which is equivalent to a continental province. In fact, the word "pub" comes from the name of the Victorian period. At that time, the pub was called "pblic-house", as the name suggests. , this is a public place for people to gather and interact, and later gradually evolved into the term pub. Jester has never been to a traditional British pub, or even been exposed to it, so on the way there, Claudia carefully explained to him many of the unwritten rules in British pubs.

For example, there is no need to queue in front of the bar, just find a place to sit down. The bartender will naturally know that you need service. Don't shout loudly, don't tap coins on the bar counter, don't snap your fingers, and don't act like a quick bartender. A drowned man waves his arms like a drowned man, without grimacing, sighing, or rolling his eyes. Never ring the bell hanging behind the bar when you're bored, it's used by the bar owner to signal closing time. The key is that you want the bartender to see you. You can hold up an empty glass or money, but don't shake it. Your face can show an expression of waiting, expectation, and even a hint of anxiety. If you look too content, the bartender will think they've already served you.

The most important thing is not to tip the bartender. This may not be accurate. To be precise, don’t negotiate money with the bartender. If you think the bartender’s service is good and you want to tip him, then the most correct way for you is to invite him. He drinks a drink. Whether he drinks it or not is his business, but you have to pay for the drink. Although it is the same as tipping, the bartender will feel completely different. To be honest, Jester didn't quite believe his eyes when he followed Claudia to the famous bar she mentioned.

Because this bar is so inconspicuous, even though it is located in the prime Wembley neighborhood.

Outside on the street, Jester couldn't see the bar's sign saying 'bar' or 'cafe' or any other qualitative name. It seemed that the bar operators didn't want strangers to know about it from the outside. His place was a bar. What Jester saw outside was a very quaint sign. It had a few strange words written on it on the horizontal eyebrow of the outer wall. Of course, it also had a very British name, Crown and Anchor.

Just as Jester was marveling at the name, which seemed like the name of a tavern in a novel, Claudia led him in.

Jester, who had just walked into the bar, was still a little surprised. It was different from the bars he had been to that played loud music. There was no music playing inside, and there were only a few people gathering together while drinking. While chatting, the only thing that made Jester a little dissatisfied was that the bar was filled with smoke, and the drinkers inside seemed to be not only drunkards but also smokers.

Almost everyone he saw was holding a huge oak wine glass in one hand, filled with beer that was constantly overflowing with white foam, and a lit cigarette in the other hand.

But what surprised Jace was that Claudia, who had always shown herself to be elegant, seemed to be very familiar with this place.

"Hi! Claudia!"

As soon as Claudia entered the bar, a middle-aged man with a beard greeted her with a smile and raised the wine glass in his hand to her. Some drinks were shaken out, and a A strong man of more than thirty years with a sea anchor printed on his bare arm also smiled and extended his palm to greet Claudia.

Judging from where he was before, Jester knew he was probably the bartender at this bar.

"Pa!" Claudia also smiled and stretched out her white palm to give the bartender a generous slap. At the same time, she said, "Long time no see, Willy."

But the bartender named Willy just curled his lips and said with some dissatisfaction: "It's you I haven't seen for a long time, Claudia. I'm here every day." Then Willy's eyes moved to Jess Special, he grinned, showing his white teeth, and at the same time, he stretched out a hand, "Hello, Claudia's friends are all my Willy's friends."

"Thank you." Jester also reached out and shook hands with the bartender.

When Jester and Claudia found a place to sit down, Claudia smiled and looked at Jester, who had a puzzled look on his face. She smoothed her hair, loosened her ponytail, and spoke. Said: "It's weird?"

Jester nodded.

"Actually, if you stay in the UK for a long time, you will know that bars are very important in British culture, and can even be said to be the most important social place... Look where I went, just saying something useless, I am Said, after I was kicked out by my father, I often came here. I grew up in the West End of London. This is where many people here know me. Don’t look at me like that. I’m not here to drink away my sorrows, and pubs in the UK are not just places for drinking.”

Seeing Jester's surprised look after hearing what she said, Claudia knew that the man next to her might have thought of somewhere else, so she couldn't help but roll her eyes and explain.

"I'm thinking about my future development plans here... You know, it's a tradition in the UK to think about things in a pub. For example, the rules of table tennis were completed in a small bar in Hambredton. "The Rights of Man" was written by Thomas Paine in a London bar. Whether it was Chaucer, Shakespeare or Dickens, they all had the habit of writing in bars..."

Although Claudia's explanation became more and more confusing, Jester still understood what she meant, so he nodded.

And Claudia also found that the more she spoke, the more she deviated from the subject. However, she really didn’t want Jester to think that she was a girl who often went to bars. According to her understanding, Americans, especially Chinese Americans, did not think that What kind of good girl is a girl who often goes out to bars?

Therefore, she simply stopped explaining and thought about changing the topic. Anyway, this visit to the bar was also Jester's impromptu initiative. He promised to explain Nintendo's royalty system to herself in detail.

This is all what was said before.

"Okay." Jester nodded. Just as he was about to start explaining, the bartender walked over with a tray filled with two large glasses of beer. Jester could smell the strong aroma of wheat. , placed the two glasses of beer in front of the two of them, and then a warm smile appeared on his face again: "To celebrate the return of our princess Claudia to our crown and anchor, so these two I’ll buy you a cup.”…

"Thank you." Jester nodded quickly. He had heard Claudia say before that you cannot refuse a bartender's offer of a drink. This is their friendly act. If you refuse, you are refusing. Their friendliness.

Claudia smiled and put the glass under her nose and smelled it, then said in a very positive tone: "Irish stout."

Willy snapped his fingers and gave her a thumbs up.

"Try it. Willie is Irish. This pub has been there since the Victorian era. He passed it down from his great-grandfather. The dark beer brewed here is very famous in the West End of London." Crowe Dia said to Jester with a smile. At the same time, she also picked up the wine glass and took a sip.

After hearing this, Jester also picked up the wine glass and took a sip. It was indeed very good and had a very unique taste.

"Then let's talk about Nintendo's royalties?" Claudia asked expectantly.

"Yes." Jester agreed, thought for a while, organized his words, and then said, "Actually, it is not complicated to say that royalties are complicated, and it is not simple to say that they are simple. Generally speaking, you can think of it like this It is a four-part distribution clause, targeting game makers who publish games on Nintendo’s FC game console.”

Claudia held her chin and listened quietly.

"First of all, you have to know that Nintendo's FC game console is different from Atari. FC is a closed game platform. It only allows development companies authorized by Nintendo to release games that can run on it. As for how it works? What about getting authorization from Nintendo? It's very simple. Just make the game first and send it to Nintendo for review. Only after it has been reviewed by Nintendo will you be allowed to burn FC cassettes. This guarantees it to the greatest extent. It affects the quality of games released on FC." Jester said simply, but this first point made Claudia confused.

"So all the risks are transferred to the game development company. When they start making a game, they don't even know whether the game can be released? Will any game development company agree to such harsh conditions? ?" So, Claudia immediately expressed her doubts.

Jester nodded, and he took another sip of the Irish dark beer. He found that this beer was really delicious. After swallowing a sip of wine and spitting out, he continued: "You're right. , but don’t forget, I told you before that Nintendo is taking advantage of their FC’s crushing sales advantage over other game consoles. I have a copy of the sales volume of Japanese home game consoles after the FC was released. According to the trend report, the combined number of other brands of home game consoles cannot keep up with the fraction of Nintendo FC. At the end of last year, the sales volume of Nintendo FC before the quality crisis was less than 500,000 units, but recently, their sales have reached one 1.6 million units.”

At this time, Claudia suddenly realized something. She immediately understood that this was Nintendo using its power to suppress others.

However, although the benefits of doing so are obvious, the disadvantages are also obvious. Nintendo can do this now when there are no other competitors, and it is not afraid of betrayal by the game software developers who have joined it, but what about when there are other competitors? What about when gaming platforms are no longer dominated by Nintendo? After all, if the video game industry can really recover, then it is impossible for other capitals to fail to see the huge profits.

She felt that Nintendo was playing with fire.

Thinking about this, Claudia took another serious look at Jester. For example, isn't the Mars Entertainment of the man next to her planning to release its own console at the end of the year?

Obviously, Jester also saw Claudia's doubts from her expression, and Jester didn't hesitate and explained to her directly: "So, there is the second part of the royalty system. Each game developer can only produce three games for FC every year, and every game released on FC cannot be released on other game platforms within three years. Also, although Nintendo did not say this clearly, But there is still an unspoken rule. As long as a royalty participant has released a game on other game platforms, it cannot continue to publish it on FC."

Hearing Jester's explanation, Claudia couldn't help but click her tongue and lamented how cruel Nintendo was, which almost blocked all other game developers' escape routes, leaving them with nothing but peace of mind. to make games for Nintendo FC, but then again, since FC is the platform with the highest market share, wouldn’t it be good for those game developers to concentrate on making games on FC?

"It's not that simple." Hearing Claudia's somewhat naive idea, Jester shook his head, and then said with a sneer, "How can a shrewd man like Mr. Yamauchi be so easy to talk to? The third part of the royalty is about You may not believe the sharing terms of FC games. For all games released on FC, after deducting distribution costs, 60% of the net profit belongs to Nintendo."

"What!" This time, Claudia finally screamed. She really couldn't believe that a game development company worked so hard to produce a game, and then only got the profit from the game. 40%, and Nintendo doesn’t need to do anything. It just provides a game platform, but it has to share 60% of the profits. In her eyes, Nintendo’s behavior is simply knocking the bones out, and those games How could a producer agree to such an unfair agreement?

If it were her, she would never agree to it no matter what.

After Jester heard Claudia's exclamation, he just smiled disdainfully and replied in a very calm tone: "Because those game manufacturers have no other way. If they want to make games, they must join Nintendo." royalties, otherwise, they wouldn’t even be able to get the 40% profit.”

Hearing what Jester said, Claudia was so shocked that she was speechless. Nintendo's royalty plan simply made her feel chills all over.

This plan is too harsh and overbearing. Nowadays, Nintendo is overwhelming others. Other manufacturers who are interested in making games can hardly refuse Nintendo's plan, because if they don't participate in the royalty plan, they will lose their position on FC. If you have the right to make games but not the right to publish them on FC, then you basically lose the possibility of engaging in game development.

If you participate, you will lose the excess profits in the game industry and can only earn some hard-earned money. This also makes those game developers lose the opportunity for rapid development.

This is almost a plan to pull out all the stops.

"This isn't over yet."

Jester continued talking. He first drank half of the Irish stout he had drunk, and then he said in an admiring tone, "This is not the greediest part of the royalty plan. The royalty plan The core is its fourth part. Even if it is selected to publish the game for FC, then all the cartridges of their game must be produced by Nintendo. This requires the game developer to get money. Of course, there will always be Privileges exist, and six developers who have developed games for FC last year have this privilege. They have the right to make their own cartridges, but they also need to pay royalties."

"For example, Namco and Hudson, the strongest among these six companies, need to pay Nintendo 100 yen for every fc cartridge they produce, while the other four companies - Konami, Taito, Capcom and Jericho need to pay 700 yen, while other manufacturers do not have the right to produce their own cassettes. Their cassettes must be produced by Nintendo, and each cassette costs 2,000 yen. Premium."…

"This is the origin of the name of the royalty plan. As the name suggests, the so-called royalty means that game developers need to spend a large sum of money to purchase the rights to publish games on FC."

Jester's tone was very calm, and he even had a hint of appreciation for the royalty plan. He looked at Claudia who was lost in thought after listening to his words, and continued to add: "And the game developers are producing game cartridges. In the past, you needed to predict in advance how many copies your game could sell. If a developer predicted that a game would sell 200,000 copies, then it would need to pay a royalty of 200,000 copies before it could produce it. But if 200,000 copies are not sold, the royalties will not be refunded.”

"In other words, Nintendo will not take even the slightest risk during the entire process."

Claudia listened, and after more than ten minutes of silence, she gritted her teeth and said the first sentence she heard from Jester about the Nintendo royalty plan.

"It's just cannibalism."

After hearing this, Jester just smiled and said nothing. To be honest, if he were in Mr. Yamauchi's position, then he would not hesitate to use the royalty plan, but now, it is impossible for him to do so. Now Nintendo's strict and overbearing royalties can help them maximize profits without taking any risks, and can also control those game developers. It is simply killing three birds with one stone, but the problem is, as Crowe said in advance In that case, not all game developers were willing to swallow the royalty plan, so he had the idea of ​​​​taking advantage of the opportunity to recruit those game companies that were temporarily unwilling to give in.

Of course, his home console has not yet been officially released, so it is impossible to fight against Nintendo's royalty plan head-on. Therefore, if he wants to recruit game companies to resist Nintendo's royalty plan, he will have to spend a huge price. , if Nintendo threatens it, he will induce it to benefit.

The price may be high, but in Jester's view, it is worth it, because he cannot fight against Nintendo alone and with so many software vendors surrounding Nintendo. After all, it is difficult to defeat four hands with two fists.

A game platform without a third party is destined to have no future. Sega is a living example.

Just when Jester and Claudia were drinking and chatting in the bar after the concert, people from the Japanese branch of Mars Entertainment were not idle. Even the head of the Japanese branch, Tamahide Yoshiro, personally came to the rescue. , for no other reason than that he received an order from his boss to personally persuade the two companies to give up joining Nintendo's royalty plan.

Of these two companies, one is slightly famous for having just released the PC version of Nobunaga's Ambition last year, a company called Anei Co., Ltd. located in Kanagawa Prefecture, and the other is not famous at all, called Denyusha. of small companies.

The first Anei Co., Ltd. was just a game company after all. And this small company called Denyusha, Tamahide Yoshiro had asked someone before, was just a small electrical appliance company, and his boss The company he was asked to persuade this time not to join Nintendo's royalty plan was just a game development department that had just been established by this small electrical appliance company.

The most ridiculous thing is that the person in charge of this game development department is actually a part-time student named Hironobu Sakaguchi who is currently studying in college.

Before setting off, Tamahide Yoshiro thought Jester's second mission was extremely funny.

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