Rebirth of America, this is my time

As usual, the purpose of Minoru Arakawa's visit this time was to present Nintendo's agency financial reports for the past six months to Ethan. Since the two projects "Snake" and "Pac-Man" have been settled, Nintendo does not represent the games "Snake: Two-Player Edition" and "Windfall", so the two parties can settle the settlement this time. There is only one project called "Star Wars".

Although under Ethan's pressure, Nintendo signed a high-volume guaranteed sales contract, the contract did not stipulate how many installments the guarantee of hundreds of thousands of units would be settled in. The two parties only reached a written agreement. When the agency contract is executed, At this point of two years, regardless of whether Nintendo has completed the guaranteed sales, they have to pay out the money as agreed in the contract. Under this circumstance, even Ethan himself does not know how much money "Star Wars" made in the book in the second half of last year.

And after he saw the report...

The sales of 130,000 units made him smile.

He didn't smile.

real!

"Mr. Jones, as you can see, "Star Wars" has caused a huge sensation in our country. The film directed by Lucas and your video game have successfully landed on the front pages of major media in our country as soon as they were released. Headlines, almost everyone was attracted by the performance of the movie, and everyone was shocked by your concept. Our Nintendo sales calls were blown up almost overnight, and until now, we receive many of them every day The added order, in the words of our president..."

"It's nothing short of a miracle."

"Because even before, when we, Nintendo, monopolized the entire country's Hanafuda market, monopolized the entire country's playing card sales, and monopolized the entire country's production and manufacturing of playing cards, the number of merchants who came to place orders and the number of customers who came to buy goods were not as high as now. , the sudden surge in the flow of people, and the still rising crowds are a prosperous scene that our president has never seen before."

"And all this..."

"You brought it all."

Arakawa Minoru saw Ethan's joy.

The compliment in those words also made Ethan smile and no longer hide his happiness.

no way!

When the "Star Wars" arcade machine sells for $2,000 and Destiny Game's rake is 25%, the sales of 130,000 units means that Ethan can take away 65 million!

Although compared with "Ms. Pac-Man", which sold 100,000 units in North America, and the profit can exceed 100 million, the profit ratio of "Star Wars" is somewhat lower, but in Destiny Games, there is no need to bear various costs such as production and sales. At that time, this profit rate was actually extremely high!

"Oh Mr. Arakawa, your president is too polite." Ethan closed the report with a smile.

"No, we are just telling the truth." Arakawa Minoru looked sincere.

As for what he was thinking?

That has nothing to do with Ethan!

Ethan doesn't want to know what Nintendo really thinks of him now. After all, everyone is already an enemy. The so-called cooperation is just about each getting what he needs. Nintendo is unwilling to give up its huge vested interests, and Ethan wants to expand without the time. to capture oil in this submarket.

The so-called greeting with a smile?

It's just that both parties feel that the current moment is not suitable for breaking up.

Because of this, when Ethan read the report -

Leaning on the sofa, he looked at Minoru Arakawa with a smile and said, "Mr. Arakawa, do you have anything else to do? If not, then I will go to other work."

"Although you live in Vancouver, you should be able to see and hear news about America at the first time. Therefore, you should understand that I have been very busy recently."

Ethan's words were not polite, and he almost didn't say farewell written on his face.

But Minoru Arakawa didn't care.

"Oh, Mr. Jones, I understand."

The young man nodded slightly and said with a smile: "Since the end of last year, your company has been creating miracles, with the release of home consoles, the debut of the "Starry Sky" game, and the sales of "Ms. Pac-Man"... Destiny games have been refreshing. A new record in the video game industry.”

"These facts make us at Nintendo very shocked, and also very envious and emotional."

"When we discovered that Mr. Jones, your games have always been the industry leader, and your creativity is more like a lighthouse in the sea, guiding us forward in the dark night, our president said that we must make it more interesting and richer. Creativity is the beacon of mankind and the best games are brought to Asia."

"So, Mr. Jones, I want to apologize to you here, because I still want to take up a little of your time. Please take a look at the new cooperation project that our president asked me to bring."

With that said, Minoru Arakawa handed a document to Ethan.

And this situation...

In fact, it was within Ethan’s expectation.

When "Ms. Pac-Man" was selling like hotcakes in America, and "Starry Sky" set off a tsunami of public opinion, if Nintendo didn't want to be an agent, there was only one possibility -

The brain is sick.

This is not because Ethan looks down on Hiroshi Yamauchi, nor is it because Ethan thinks that the four kings of Nintendo, Gunpei Yokoi, Masayuki Uemura, Genhiro Takeda, and Shigeru Miyamoto, are easy to bully, but that he would rather bear the high cost and play cassette games. When "Contra" has to be released without making money, it is absolutely impossible for Nintendo to be the first to make a more awesome game than "Star Sky".

Because Nintendo, like other companies, all projects are oriented towards making money, but in the process of making games, they put gameplay in a very high position.

Only Ethan, who can see the future, knows how big the video game market is!

At his own expense, he can defeat all competitors!

When his enemies discovered that even if they wanted to learn from the gameplay of Destiny Game, they could not afford the high cost of dissemination, they could only stare at the taillights of Destiny Game and resent them for the rest of their lives!

Because they can’t even copy it!

Therefore, Nintendo, which cannot escape the logic circle, must want to obtain an agent. When Ethan opened the cooperation document brought by Minoru Arakawa, the terms inside...

That's really sincere.

Last summer, after the two parties settled the "Pac-Man" project, Ethan asked Minoru Arakawa if he wanted to continue to represent games such as "Snake 2" and "Windfall". At that time, Minoru Arakawa said tactfully He refused, saying that he could not make the decision, but would report it to his father-in-law after he returned home.

Then, there was no further conclusion to this matter.

But this is normal, right?

Because those games did not cause a sensation in North America, even MGM's games were more popular than them. If Nintendo doesn't introduce it, that's a qualified businessman's behavior.

But now, in order to get the agency for "Ms. Pac-Man", "Starry Sky" and Johnson's home console, Hiroshi Yamauchi decisively slapped himself in the face and wanted to reach a long-term agency cooperation with Destiny Games.

They hope to obtain the licensing rights for all Destiny Games products in the next five years.

For this, they are willing to pay an agency fee of 20 million a year, totaling 100 million.

This fee has nothing to do with product dividends. It is purely a payment to obtain agent qualifications. Since their cooperation involves projects that have not yet been released, they will pay attention to Destiny Game when future products cannot meet sales expectations. The products were classified into electronic arcade machines, home consoles and game cartridges, and then each made a minimum guarantee commitment.

In the electronic arcade project, the guarantee made by Nintendo is a stepped guarantee.

The basic guarantee is 10,000 units. If the sales volume of Destiny game products in North America exceeds 5,000 units, then Nintendo will increase the project's guarantee in Japan to 20,000 units. If the game sells 10,000 units in North America, then Nintendo will Nintendo will claim 50,000 units.

And the dividend ratio is still 25.

The meaning of this promise is simple. In the future, no matter what kind of electronic arcade Destiny Games releases, Nintendo will pay at least US$5 million in licensing fees for it.

If it is a sensational project such as "Snake", "Pac-Man" and "Star Wars", then Nintendo will definitely make a lot of money, but if it is a project like "Taken" and "Need for Speed" that have encountered difficulties in the North American market Even if a cold game cannot be sold in Japan, Nintendo still has to pay Ethan a licensing fee of 10,000 units based on the selling price of 2,000 units.

In the home console project, Nintendo’s minimum guarantee is one million units across the board.

There is no way, who made the game "Starry Sky" visible to the naked eye?

However, since Nintendo has not yet negotiated the notebook price of this home console with Ethan, and they have not seen the product details, they do not know how much the notebook production cost of this product is, so Hiroshi Yamauchi cannot give Ethan a price for the time being. An agency offer they can accept.

As for the last game cartridge, Nintendo’s minimum guarantee is 50,000 copies of each game.

Like home consoles, without knowing the selling price and production cost, all Yamauchi Hiroshi can promise is a half share of the profit. This profit is not net profit in the conventional sense, but the selling price minus the production cost. The rough calculation does not include any marketing expenses, discount expenses, transportation expenses on sales, nor does it include financial expenses incurred due to loan production.

The root cause of the false accounting situation with negative profits was solved.

To be honest, if there were no conflicts between the two parties before, then Ethan would definitely accept this contract, because these terms are really tempting, but when Nintendo can backstab Philips and create a copycat version of Milova Odyssey, it attempts to occupy its own country. In his living room, Ethan also authorized him to sell the home console?

Isn’t this a brain disease?

Ethan believes that the first thing Nintendo did after receiving the authorization was definitely not to think about a marketing plan, but to let Gunpei Yokoi and Masayuki Uemura study the machine!

so……

"Mr. Arakawa, your president's plan is very good, but I can't accept it all."

Ethan handed back the cooperation plan.

"Then which agreement are you dissatisfied with?" Arakawa asked.

"Then it depends on whether you are sincere."

Ethan did not answer and said: "If you, Nintendo, are sincere, and if Mr. Yamauchi wants to get an agent from the bottom of his heart, then you will definitely come back with a contract that satisfies me."

Ethan smiled at Minoru Arakawa.

"That's it for today. See you next time."

The decisive figure leaving made Arakawa Minoru stand up quickly, wanting to continue saying something.

Unfortunately, even if his hand was stretched out, it could only stay in mid-air, his Adam's apple was throbbing, and he couldn't make any sound.

Although no one stopped him, he could only watch Ethan leave.

Because as early as two years ago, he had already seen Ethan's violent temper. The unreasonableness of not taking evidence, not listening to reasons, and only relying on subjective consciousness to conclude that Nintendo had betrayed him was still fresh in his memory.

From that day on, Minoru Arakawa understood that it was useless to reason with people like Ethan.

You don't need to test his bottom line, because what he wants is your limit.

"well--"

Arakawa sighed helplessly, packed up his things and left the Destiny Game.

And when he was driving back to the hotel, the huge Excel advertisement hanging on the tall building in the city made him tighten his grip on the steering wheel again. When Ethan Jones has achieved success in other fields, and countless cash flows into his pocket like water, how long can Nintendo remain silent?

he does not know.

But what he knew was that time was running out for Nintendo.

"Father-in-law..." Minoru Arakawa took a deep breath and murmured: "We can't lose..."

It is unknown what Minoru Arakawa was afraid of Ethan, because after sending him away, Ethan welcomed the former director of his company, Julis Noble, who is now the director of Nintendo Kyoto Chip Company.

"Oh Julis, long time no see." Unlike the indifference towards Minoru Arakawa, after seeing Julis, Ethan opened his arms enthusiastically and hugged her, "How have you been in the past year?"

Last year, Julis did not return to China and only reported to Ethan on the phone about her situation in the book. The reason is also very simple, that is, the family is pressing for marriage.

"Of course."

After sitting down, Julis smiled and said: "After I didn't go home for a whole year, my family didn't dare to urge me to get married because they were afraid that I wouldn't even go home for Christmas."

"So, when I showed up in front of them on Christmas Eve carrying gifts, it was a great surprise to my family, and I also had a happy Christmas."

"As for life in Benzi? It's not bad."

"Although I don't like the food in this book, they have many restaurants there, and you can choose by yourself. If you can't find what you like, just call Nintendo. Oh, by the way, there is a place in their country called Shiga Prefecture, which belongs to In Osaka, there is a kind of beef. The meat is very delicate and the texture is very beautiful, like marble blocks, and it is very fragrant when grilled."

"Boss, if you have time, you can go there and try it."

"Because as far as I know, their kind of cattle are not currently exported."

Ethan has always paid little attention to the personal lives of his employees.

As long as there is no violation of laws or disciplines, no matter what the employees do, it has nothing to do with him.

But Julis was different. This girl was sent to the book by him after all. When an employee lives alone in a foreign country due to work, wouldn't it be so inhumane if the boss didn't understand and care about him?

After chatting for a while, Julis clapped her hands and suddenly realized: "Oh boss~ Look, I have forgotten why I came today."

"This is a summary of my work over the past year. It can be considered a report. Do you want to take a look?"

Julis took out a stack of thumb-thick documents from her briefcase and handed them over.

The heavy feeling surprised Ethan, "So many?"

"Of course." Julis smiled and said: "A document represents one thing. The beginning is a description of the main content. If you are not interested, you can just discard it, but if you are interested, you can read it later, because I The information related to the incident is attached."

"Oh——" This arrangement made Ethan very satisfied.

Without saying anything, I started reading.

The file that Julis put first was related to Nintendo, and there were two pieces of information recorded on it.

The first is the influence of "Star Wars" on the book and the arcade sales statistics from major media. The sales statistics given by "Asahi Shimbun", "Nihon Keizai Shimbun" and "Yomiuri Shimbun" range from 110,000 to 150,000 units. There is a slight gap between the 130,000 units reported by Nintendo.

But this is normal. After all, they are media estimates and not accurate data.

As for whether Nintendo may have falsified data and suppressed some sales data?

This is indeed possible, but unlikely.

When Ethan forced them to sign a sales guarantee of hundreds of thousands of units, even if they falsified the data, they would still have to pay in the end. It didn't make any sense, and if they were found out, they would have to make immediate settlement according to the contract. The penalty clause pays Ethan money.

So, why do they want to raise the cost when there is a guarantee agreement?

Isn't this a disease?

The second piece of information is about the sales of Nintendo home consoles.

COLOR TV GAME 6 and COLOR TV GAME 15 have sold a million units, bringing Nintendo at least $100 million in revenue.

This news made Ethan a little confused, "Why are these two machines selling so well?"

"It shouldn't be!"

Ethan expressed doubts about the sales of the COLOR TV GAME series.

Because the actual demonstration effects of those machines are not as good as those of the previous Atari New Generation and Milohua Apollo. When he can beat Warner and Philips with "Pac-Man", "Star Wars" and "Starry Sky", they can't sell them. When using home consoles, people in this book are crazy about buying products similar to Milova Odyssey?

This makes no sense!

It would be understandable if Japanese people have not received the baptism of excellent games, so they would be fascinated by those ball games, but when Nintendo introduced his Ethan Jones game to the laptop market two years ago , people in this book are still buying mini-game collections?

What's going on?

Ethan raised his head in confusion.

Julis shrugged and said, "I was surprised by this at first, but when I heard the term karoshi, I understood why Japanese people bought COLOR TV GAME."

"Boss, I don't know how much you know about Benzi, but one thing you should know is that since 1968, Benzi has surpassed West Germany and become the world's second largest economy."

"But behind the rapid development is the almost life-threatening working conditions of everyone at Benzi."

"According to statistics from Kyodo News, the average annual working time of our people is 500 hours more than that of West Germans. Although they received corresponding rewards in the end, with the support of overtime wages, everyone's income has skyrocketed, but At the same time, high-intensity work also leaves them with no time for recreation.”

“According to my interviews, I found that many book people still like to play “Snake” because a short and quick pastime meets their needs, and COLOR TV GAME has a similar effect. More importantly, this product takes video games from the streets. While moving to people’s homes.”

“When people don’t want to move around after get off work and just want to lie down at home, but they need comfort because they are mentally empty and can’t sleep, COLOR TV GAME is their first choice.”

"So, one million may be just the beginning, and according to my estimation, it will be higher in the future."

"unless--"

"We sold the host made by the chairman."

"Oh——" Ethan understood.

He was familiar with the karoshi mentioned by Julis.

In other words, no one in the world understands death from overwork better than him.

In the future, the social environment of Japan will also allow Nintendo's switch to crush Sony's PS and Microsoft's XBox in Japan. This is not because of how good the switch is, but because it meets the needs of this person.

"Is it because of the times?"

"Okay." Ethan nodded slightly, keeping this in mind.

Pick up the second file. The records in this one are related to Sony.

Previously, Ethan had told Julis to pay more attention to Sony, because when Destiny Games spends money on optical storage projects, Sony may become their potential enemy.

With Julis's attention, Sony's situation also appeared in front of Ethan.

As of the end of 1978, Sony's main business income was all related to semiconductors. Radio, once a pillar industry, has now been relegated to the second tier, and Trinitron TV dominates the revenue. The world's largest TV brand provides Sony with nearly 40% of the group's revenue.

At the same time, their magnetic recording equipment is also selling very well, occupying a huge share in North America and Europe. Even the former king HP was defeated by them and was unable to fight back.

But the above are not the focus of Ethan's attention, because he does not make radios, televisions, or recorders. What really made him frown was the product released by Sony last year——

TCM-100.

Just looking at this code name, Ethan had no idea who he was.

But the picture attached by Julis made his heart skip a beat.

It was a palm-sized plastic box. There was a hollow transparent plastic piece on the front with symmetrical black vortexes inside. There was a push button right above the plastic box, and there was a strip on the side that could be hung on the wrist. nylon thread...

When this photo appeared, Ethan quickly flipped through the information.

After searching for a while, he saw information related to it.

[Sony released a small mono tape recorder code-named TCM-100 last year, named PRESSMAN because it is compact, lightweight and easy to carry. Since this product is an experimental product, Akio Morita announced that only 500,000 units will be produced for public testing. 】

The fact that it was still being tested made Ethan relieved.

But the next second he raised his head again, pointed at the picture in the file and said, "Can you get it?"

"Uh - it should be okay." Julis replied after glancing at the content.

"Get it when you get back, and give it to me when you get it, okay?" Ethan opened his eyes wide.

"Okay."

Julis didn't understand why her boss suddenly became so eager, but she nodded anyway.

Following her response, Ethan also breathed a sigh of relief.

Julis may not understand why he is excited, but for fans who can recharge their faith and buy the shutters of the Sony Building, the pictures and introduction of TCM-100 are no different from what is stated!

because--

That PRESSMAN, with only 500,000 units produced, looks similar to the Walkman!

Note: ① In reality, "Space Invaders" sold 100,000 units in the book the year it was launched. This is mentioned in the first chapter of this article. The 130,000 units in the article is not an exaggeration. ②The term karoshi comes from a book written in the 1970s, and it is not a BUG. ③Sony was the world's largest TV manufacturer until 2006. People who have heard of Trinitron should know that this product is super popular and one of the most legendary products of the 20th century. Even IBM uses Trinitron when selecting monitors.