Chatty Hollywood

Speaking of Electronic Arts (EA), some people may not be familiar with it.

But speaking of Blizzard, or Activision Blizzard, this game company is very famous.

——After all, the cheating Alsace influenced a generation.

As a company that can compete 50-50 with Activision Blizzard in the gaming industry, EA should not be underestimated.

Among other things, the famous Estood Studio, which created the "Red Alert" series, was eventually disbanded after being acquired by EA.

In this regard, EA actually has a very bad record——

This company always likes to acquire some well-known game studios, and then disband them soon after for various reasons.

Although the reasons used are generally high-sounding, no one would know if they didn't plan to take the opportunity to eliminate the opponent and completely annex them.

However, for Charlotte, these are actually not problems.

After all, as the seller of copyright, he can sit firmly on the Diaoyutai when facing game companies.

All he needs to care about is EA's development capabilities and how much money it is willing to pay.

——Fortunately, as a well-known old game company, EA is relatively reliable in terms of development capabilities.

As for money——

“EA’s bid for the copyright is not too low, but the one-time buyout of US$3.5 million——”

"A little less!"

Charlotte said bluntly,

"Even if it is limited to one game work, the price is not very high. Besides, what they want is the right to develop and use the entire copyright in games within a few years, right?"

"Yes."

Alexis nodded,

"EA actually wanted to bypass us and reach an agreement directly with Rowling. However, because we had already reached an agreement with Rowling before, Rowling did not agree and told me directly."

Long before preparing for "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," Charlotte signed a supplementary agreement with J.K. Rowling. Unlike the copyright of the original work, the peripheral copyrights derived from the adapted film no longer belong to Rowling. Lin.

Although she was able to obtain a share of the profits from the licensing of these copyrights, the management of this part of the copyrights has been taken over by Spectre Studio.

——Rowling will agree to this agreement, partly because this is the current practice. On the other hand, it is also because her current financial strength is not enough to hire professionals to help manage copyrights.

In this case, leaving it to Spectre Studio might be a solution.

——At least it can reduce a lot of problems.

Take this incident with EA as an example——

EA's move this time is actually suspected of trying to gain popularity.

Indeed, unlike movies and TV animations, the copyright of the "Harry Potter" series belongs entirely to Rowling.

It's not impossible if Rowling licenses the game in the name of.

But if EA comes to you at this time, how could it be just for pure copyright authorization? ?

They obviously want to ride on the popularity of the "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" movie!

If the release of the game can be synchronized with the release of the movie, it will save a lot of publicity costs and maximize profits.

——The common video game linkage model in later generations is like this!

Charlotte can imagine that once Rowling agrees to authorize the authorization, EA will definitely "borrow" a lot of characters and scene designs from the TV animation of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" and future movies...

And once Spectre Studio initiates a copyright lawsuit, the other party will most likely fight on the grounds that it has obtained authorization from the original author...

You should know that copyright lawsuits have always been a difficult problem for the judiciary. As long as both parties insist on their own opinions and have excuses, they will often be protracted.

Therefore, more than 80% of copyright lawsuits end in out-of-court settlement.

This is not about distinguishing right from wrong, but simply that both parties have been dragged too much and have to reach a compromise.

Fortunately, because an agreement was reached with the original author Luo Linda in advance, EA's small move did not work this time.

However, Charlotte still felt that the other party's offer of US$3.5 million lacked sincerity.

You know, in the 21st century, royalties worth tens of millions of dollars are not so rare.

Although it is still only 1998 and the US dollar has not depreciated that much, the authorization of US$3.5 million is still too small.

In particular, looking at EA's intentions, what they want is full copyright in the game field...

“Full copyright is impossible!”

When discussing this issue with Rowling, Charlotte made this point very clear,

"Joanna, since you are going to write "Harry Potter" into a long series, unless it is a sky-high copyright fee of hundreds of millions of dollars, it is best not to grant the full copyright. That will cause a lot of trouble."

"I understand this."

Rowling nodded.

After "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" became popular, Rowling also learned a lot about copyright.

——After all, the most important income for literary and artistic creators, besides royalties, is copyright fees.

Even if Rowling is a "magical mother", we have to pay attention to it.

——What’s more, it only took more than a year for her to escape from poverty and become rich...

In short, Rowling still attaches great importance to EA's plan to adapt "Harry Potter" into a game.

Although EA's quotation does not seem to be very sincere, business needs to be negotiated!

"I hope to get a royalties of US$5 million, with a certain profit sharing ratio attached."

Charlotte saw what Rowling meant, and he directly told her plan, which surprised the magic mother.

"The lion really has its mouth wide open!"

Although she felt that $3.5 million was insufficient sincerity, Charlotte's conditions were a bit excessive in Rowling's opinion——

Even if it’s just 5 million US dollars, it’s not a small amount, but it’s not an exaggeration either.

But the profit sharing ratio is really not acceptable to ordinary companies.

——After all, at this time, the second volume of the "Harry Potter" series, "Chamber of Secrets," had not yet been officially published, and it was far from reaching its peak moment.

To put it simply, the magic mother at this time is just a country bumpkin who has never seen big money.

In contrast, Charlotte, as a well-known director, behaved calmly——

First of all, he knows that the copyright of the "Harry Potter" series, or this IP, is becoming more and more valuable.

As long as he doesn't collapse, this trend will not change. Even if EA doesn’t buy it this time, there will be many people willing to pay more money in the future;

Therefore, he is confident;

Secondly, he has future memories and knows that although EA often has small calculations, it is indeed willing to invest money in IP.

Not to mention anything else, the overall development cost of "Star Wars: The Old Republic" they will produce after obtaining the authorization from Lucas Studio will be more than 100 million US dollars.

——Of course, the royalties contributed to the Sith Lord George Lucas are indispensable.

Because Charlotte is not very worried about EA being scared away by her asking price.

Finally, Charlotte has a trump card in her hands——

When we previously produced the TV animated version of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," we produced the 3D Hogwarts scene and the 3D modeling of many characters in the story. If they were made available to EA, it would definitely save them a lot of development time. cost.

——With this in hand, Charlotte will not worry about EA not taking the bait.

"The 1998 Oscars will be held in a few days. I am planning to return to the United States. Then I will go directly to EA's Los Angeles headquarters to talk!"

After talking to Rowling for a while, Charlotte finally came to this conclusion.

Rowling didn't object. She wanted to wish Charlotte the Oscar, but to her surprise, Charlotte waved her hand as if she could read minds.

"There's no need to mention the Oscar. I guess I'm just going through the motions this time, so I won't get the award!"

"This Oscar is destined to belong to "Titanic"!"