Game Development Giant

It’s not that Mark Ceny has never been exposed to similar game methods, although not many. \\Ding\\Dian\\Novel\\

For example, "God Is Crazy" was previously released before Christmas. This is the work of a small studio just acquired by the European branch of Mars Entertainment. Its name is Bullfrog, and its producer is Pete Molyneux, who is 30 years old. Or so, in the industry where young people are now the main force, this age can only be regarded as the prime of life in other industries, but here it can be regarded as an old man.

However, this game, which is said to be made by an "old man", shows an indescribable imagination and creativity. Mark Saini has played many games before, and there are countless classic games. Even he As a designer who has produced countless games, he clearly knows what advantages an excellent game should have.

But this game really gave Mark Saney an unprecedented feeling, very similar to the feeling he had when he first played "Pirates".

And this time, the gameplay in "Civilization" once again gave Mark Saini this feeling, but because of this, he was able to make an analogy by referring to the sales of "God Is Crazy", "God Is Crazy" Not good enough? No, both "game" and "player" gave extremely high scores. Even "player", which has a high-handed and cold style and competes with "game" in a differentiated manner, even rated this game as the best of the year. Well, of course, if "Pokemon" hadn't come out of nowhere.

The reputation is so successful, but what about the sales?

It can only be said to be unsatisfactory - it has been on sale for nearly a month, and the total sales volume is only 100,000 copies. Yes, this is a very good result for PC games, you know, like Snow Mountain. PC game companies such as EA only sell about 200,000 copies of their best-selling series. As a new game, it is really amazing to achieve such results.

But you must know that although this game is said to be a new game, the promotion it received is completely at the level of "Quake". To be honest, it is not for many people. Such an excellent game, despite such strong promotion efforts, still failed to achieve a sales volume that satisfied them.

After reading Mark Saini's report, Jester was a little speechless. He had thought of the things mentioned in this report before, so it didn't surprise him. He had also talked to Sid before. Meier has said that the game's sales may not be satisfactory. But Sid Meier was quite optimistic, and what he said made Jester feel a little ashamed.

"I just want to make the game I want to make."

This is a very simple yet very heavy statement. Sid Meier is a true game designer. Not that I am, now I am more like a businessman, who inspired countless employees before and still inspires countless employees now. The motto of making the best games, which will still inspire countless employees in the future, seems to be getting farther and farther away from itself.

And this is something that cannot be avoided. As your business grows bigger and bigger, you must continue to lean towards business. Is there any contradiction between more and more commercialization and the best games?

This is hard to say. Good games can also sell great sales, but a game that is subject to many restrictions at the beginning of design will inevitably fall into limitations in design. Designers need to consider overcoming More and more players are thinking about it, instead of considering what this game should be like, what players like is not the best.

Jester agrees with this sentence, but of course, some people don’t understand it.

Therefore, Jester still came up with Blizzard at this time. This is actually a very worthy case for reference. There is no doubt that this is a very great game company. It started with only three people and designed crude arcade games. The studio, no matter how small, has gradually become a giant and benchmark in the industry.

There is a saying once that Blizzard is not a high-ranking company in the industry, but there are still countless people who want to join them.

In fact, at the beginning, Blizzard only wanted to make the best games. Later, as their business grew bigger and bigger, they had more and more things to worry about, and the limitations when designing games also increased. As it gets bigger and bigger, the games are naturally no longer as stunning as they once were to players, but it is undeniable that their games are still meticulously crafted and full of beauty in detail.

Therefore, Jester wants to do what he can, that is, impress players with details.

Many years later, this behavior was called craftsmanship by many people.

While Jester was thinking about how to arrange publicity for the upcoming release of "Civilization", the phone on his desk rang. This phone was specially designed to answer cross-border long distance calls. He was wondering who would call him at this time. Phone, is this Claudia? It should be, after all, I haven't talked to her on the phone for several days. I said before that I would take time to go to Europe to spend the weekend with her. However, because there are too many things going on during this period, coupled with the split of the Sony-Nintendo alliance, Didn't even care.

"Boss, I am Tamahideyoshiro."

As soon as he answered the phone and heard a slightly hoarse voice coming from the other end of the phone, Jester knew that his guess was wrong. However, it was night in Japan now. Why did Tamahide Yoshiro call him at this time? thing?

Without Jester asking, the voice of the president of the Mars Entertainment Japan branch on the other end of the phone sounded like a barrage of firecrackers.

"I just received the news that later today, Kutaragi Ken had contact with people from Namco at an izakaya. It is not known what the two parties talked about. I just know that they agreed to meet again in Namco tomorrow. We will meet at Yumeng Palace’s headquarters, and the two parties who will meet, Sony’s side will be Ken Kutaragi and Namco’s side will be Nakamura Masaya.”

"Masaya Nakamura?"

Jester chewed on this name. This name is a well-known name in the Japanese game industry. He was once the founder of Namco, the largest and most successful game company in Japan, and the idol of countless Japanese game practitioners. It can be said that it is an era. pride, and for such a person to meet the vice president of the newly established Sony Computer Entertainment in person, the relationship is intriguing.

"Have they given up on the PC-E that they cooperated with Nippon Electric?" Jester asked with some uncertainty.

In the history he remembered, the cooperation between Namco and Nippon Electric broke up around this time. The reason was not surprising. There was no hope in terms of sales, and it was also the time when they planned to return to the Nintendo camp. , all the privileges were revoked by Nintendo. At that time, Nakamura Masaya was furious, but Yamauchi Hiroshi said unceremoniously that if you don't meet Nintendo's rules, then you must set your own rules.

You know, Nakamura Masaya was no ordinary person at that time.

As the founder of the earliest game company in Japan, he has served as the president of the Japan Electronic Game Industry Association, the Japan Entertainment Machinery Manufacturers Association, the Multimedia Promotion Association, and the Multimedia Content Foundation since 1981. The chairman of the Development Association, the chairman of the New Visual Industry Center Promotion Association for Digital Content, and other positions, but with such an identity, was humiliated by Hiroshi Yamauchi with such contemptuous words. The shame and anger are indescribable.

This laid the foundation for their subsequent rebellion.

But this time, even if Masaya Nakamura doesn't want to tangle with Nippon Electric on PC-E, there is no need to bow to Nintendo again. Now Nintendo can't protect itself, so how can it threaten them.

Jester also wanted to win over Namco before, but this was part of the plan, and unexpectedly Kutaragi Ken took the lead.

And Namco is exactly what Jester said, a backbone-level game development company that can support a platform. The fact that PC-E failed to succeed is not because of Namco's lack of efforts, but because of this game. The game was released at the wrong time. Just when the 16-bit war was about to begin, a semi-16-bit machine was released. Jester didn’t know what the designers of Nippon Electric were thinking and why they would do this. Fatal error.

"I don't know if I have given up. There is no specific news, but in my opinion, He Kuan is the old fox Nakamura Masaya. He must have left a way out for himself, and Sony is indeed a very suitable choice. , isn’t it?” Tamahide Yoshiro was talking about his analysis on the other side of the phone.

Jester couldn't think of a reason, so he could only say: "Then continue to pay attention to the relationship between Sony and Namco and see what they want to do."

As he spoke, Jester also laughed inexplicably, and he continued: "Actually, there is no need for us to be so nervous. Judging from the current situation, we are in an absolute leading position in every aspect. As long as we If we don’t make mistakes, we will still be in the leading position. Our new console will be on sale in less than a month, and the distribution work will begin in a few days. You must first free up enough warehouses, and when it is released, Ensure logistics, otherwise, problems may arise.”

"I understand." Tamahide Yoshiro on the other end of the phone also nodded in agreement.

After hanging up the phone, Jester was not as shocked as he said just now, because in history, the first third-party game manufacturer to join the Sony camp was Namco, and it was Namco. Gong's "Ridge Racer" at that time gave PS, which had just been released and was still extremely weak, a shot in the arm.

Moreover, the PS host has unswervingly determined the 3D strategy, and it has a deep relationship with Namco. (To be continued...)