Game Development Giant

"However, I didn't expect that Mr. Minoru Arakawa would sell off all the hard work of Mr. Yamauchi for more than ten years as soon as he took over Nintendo... Although I disagree with Mr. Minoru Arakawa's choice, I can understand it. After all, after the choice, The development path is the freedom of every enterprise..."

"However, what puzzles me the most is that the price for the Nintendo game rights sold by Mr. Minoru Arakawa is too low."

Finally, after talking a lot of nonsense, Richard Garrett finally talked about the key point of this matter, which is the matter of Minoru Arakawa selling the game copyright at a low price. In this matter, Minoru Arakawa did not mention Mars at all. The three entertainment companies concealed their intentions. After all, the price offered by the other party also made him very aggrieved.

Therefore, the three Mars Entertainment companies jointly banned other manufacturers from quoting, and then purchased them at low prices, which caused an uproar in the industry. This kind of overbearing method is impossible not to make people disgusted, but because these three companies are also Founder of the World Electronics Association.

Therefore, the most other people can do is complain and express their dissatisfaction.

The reporter who interviewed Richard Garrett was obviously very smart. After he finished what Richard Garrett said, he quickly added: "It is said that it is because of Nintendo. I was treated unfairly, so..."

Although Richard Garrett took the initiative to bring up this topic, he obviously wanted to avoid some too sensitive topics.

"For this point, I can only say that the current industry is too chaotic. Some smaller game companies don't even have the right to speak of their own and have directly become vassals of those giants. But there is no way around it. , after all, capital is inherently evil. It drinks blood and eats flesh."

"You mean, Mars Entertainment is such an evil, capital that drinks blood and eats flesh?"

The reporter who was interviewing asked questions immediately after Richard Garrett finished speaking.

"hehe."

Naturally, it was impossible for Richard Garrett to admit it on his own initiative. If he admitted it, he would be easily found to be defamatory and would be sued for legal action. Therefore, he just laughed softly and then said meaningfully. Said: "I didn't specify, but I admit that the current industry environment is very unhealthy."

soon. Richard Garrett's report appeared in major publications, not just gaming newspapers.

At that time, Jester was not ready to promote "Planetary Requiem" on a large scale. It was about half a month ago. At that time, Jester was giving lectures to students in the game design major that had just started at the University of Southern California. It's his second class this semester.

In fact, his entire study period was only five lessons.

At that time, when a student was asking questions about the other student, he took the initiative to take out a copy of the latest newspaper, which contained this interview with Richard Garrett.

Throughout the interview. They were all full of dissatisfaction with Jester Lee himself and Mars Entertainment, and even bluntly clamored for the existence of Mars Entertainment and the giant World Electronic Games Association. This is the biggest cancer that affects the development of games, because this association nominally strives for the interests of all game manufacturers, but in fact, it has become the three giants of home console platforms. A monopoly used to control the entire gaming industry.

It's a naked trust.

Jester took the student's newspaper and read it carefully. After reading it. I frowned and thought carefully for another five or six minutes.

The students present also looked at Jester expectantly.

I hope he can give everyone an answer to this question.

"Some people say we have a monopoly." Jester did not decline. He just smiled and began his answer, "I don't know why we are called this. In fact, the reason why the World Electronic Games Association was originally established was The reason is just to not continue the malicious competition.”

"Those who are doing this may not be very clear about the situation at that time."

Jester didn't have the slightest stage fright. A question that was originally very unfavorable to him seemed to have turned into a huge deception and slander in his mouth.

"The situation at that time was that major manufacturers were using means such as price reductions to compete maliciously for market share. For example, the price of Sega's 16-bit game console in North America at that time was even higher than what they produced. The cost of sales is even lower. In this case, if we want to compete with them, in addition to developing better games than them, we must also lower our selling price to match theirs. Just as low as possible."

"In other words, we also have to sell hardware at a loss."

Jester talked in a lively and eloquent manner. The students present were all game lovers. After Jester said this, he really remembered that when the 16-bit machines were just released, this phenomenon did happen. Sega's 16-bit console was even cheaper than Mars Entertainment's 8-bit console, so they still remember it.

Now they know that the reason behind it is Sega's bloodletting tactics for market share.

"Then, when there was no other way, I contacted Mr. Hayao Nakayama and Mr. Ken Kutaragi to discuss with them how to prevent malicious competition from happening. I will not go into details about the whole process. During the discussion, I It also pointed out the many malicious competition phenomena that already exist in the industry.”

"For example, some of the rules that Nintendo first started restricting third-party manufacturers."

"These rules are like this. If a third-party developer develops a game on Nintendo's home console, then the game is prohibited from being sold on other home console platforms. Of course, this is an unspoken rule. You can Choose not to comply, but the price of not complying is that all your subsequent games will not be sold on FC."

"This rule is unfair, but there is no way that third-party manufacturers can only do this in order to survive, and the same is true for my Mars Entertainment. In this case, I must also be like Nintendo, so Limit third-party vendors.”

"Same goes for Sega."

"So, during my meeting with Mr. Nakayama Hayao and Mr. Kutaragi Ken, I put forward an idea. Can we set up such an organization? All game development companies can participate. All participating game development companies, Everyone can choose which platforms to develop games on, and as a provider of console platforms, we cannot stop their choices."

"Mr. Hayao Nakayama and Mr. Ken Kutaragi were very interested in my proposal, so our discussion process went very smoothly, and the World Electronic Games Association was formed. The essence of this association is to protect all games. It was created for the benefit of developers then, now and in the future.”

"One thing that can be proved is that with the establishment of the World Electronic Games Association, almost all game companies participating in the association have seen their profits increase. After all, their games can be sold on all platforms. The number of potential consumers we face has at least doubled.”

"Also, we say we have a monopoly. I would like to ask, how do we have a monopoly?"

"If anyone still has questions, feel free to ask. For me, I know everything I know." Jester finished his answer with a smile.

The students present were also very enthusiastic in asking questions.

The moment Jester finished speaking, more than a dozen hands were raised immediately, and Jester casually clicked on one.

A young boy with blond hair stood up and asked his question.

"Mr. Li, I heard that although the World Electronic Games Association, as you said, participating member companies can develop games on the hardware platforms of all association members, but not all games developed by members are It seems that your Mars Entertainment, as well as Sega and Sony, still have the right to veto what games can be released if they are qualified to be released. For game development companies that are disobedient, you will unite with the two other companies to fight against their The game is blocked..."

Jester waited quietly for the other party to finish asking this very complicated question, and then he continued to answer with a smile on his face and the same calm tone as before.

"Do you think this is the World Electronics Association's monopoly?"

Without answering directly, Jester first asked a question like this. After seeing the blond boy who asked the question nodded hesitantly, Jester laughed: "Please forgive me, your question is a bit ridiculous. The so-called review of games, which can only be released after passing the review and notification, is not the right of the World Electronics Association. This power belongs to the manufacturers themselves. Do the manufacturers themselves have no right to stipulate what can be run on their own products? Is it done?"

After hearing Jester's answer, the boy who asked the question was a little stunned, but Jester just smiled and continued.

"The World Electronic Games Association is just a mutually beneficial and win-win organization. It has no special rights. For example, the power to restrict game distribution that you mentioned before belongs to the platform owning company, and the platform owning company naturally We must ensure the reputation of our own platform, so of course we will not allow some unqualified games to be released on our own platform. I think this is a very understandable thing. Why are they still slandered as world electronics? What about monopoly within the industry by associations?" (To be continued...)