Rebirth of America, this is my time

"Yesterday, June 16th, Western Time, America's first video game national competition, hosted by Destiny Games and hosted by the National Football League, came to an end at the Los Angeles Memorial Stadium in California. The event was held in March this year It was officially held on one day and ended successfully after 108 days. It not only set a record for the first time in the history of video games, but also shaped a new history, because this was the first time since human beings began to record. An event that everyone in a single country can participate in.”

"There are many sports activities and competitions in the world, such as wrestling. This sport was born in 2100 BC and may be the earliest sports activity of mankind. Another example is football, which is held every four years in the World Cup. It is the most watched sporting event in the world, but none of these can compare with the America Video Game National Competition that ended yesterday."

"Because before the concept of the competition was proposed, and before Ethan Jones announced the competition plan, there was no sport in the world that could truly involve all people."

"In all the sports we are familiar with, there are more or less physical requirements, or the methods of playing are relatively boring. But video games are different. This is a sport that only requires hands, and it And it’s a lot of fun!”

"As long as you want to play, you can play! As long as you want to participate, Ethan Jones will warmly welcome you! Because of this, this year's national video game competition attracted a total of nearly three million people Directly participating, more than 100 million people paid attention to this event! And the number of viewers of yesterday’s final exceeded the terrifying 50 million! Although there is still a certain gap compared with the Super Bowl, this is already the highest number of viewers in our country. There are more than two events! It far exceeds other sports such as baseball, basketball, ice hockey, etc., and even the annual Oscar Awards does not have as many viewers!"

"This is simply a miracle!"

“Especially this is the first time an event like the National Video Game Competition is being held!”

"According to Wall Street investment bank Merrill Lynch, video games have become the fastest-growing industry in history. Its scale has exceeded five billion, and its potential value is definitely more than ten billion. The national competition dominated by Destiny Games has at least One billion worth! More importantly..."

"The money to leverage all this is only 30 million!"

"That's right!"

"According to Wall Street analysts' estimates, Destiny Games' total investment in this competition should be around 30 million. This number is already a huge amount in any event! But the returns from other events are far less than that of the national competition. High, three to five times is already an excellent operation, but now, the influence of the national video game competition has turned thirty million into one billion!"

“This terrifying amplification effect amazes Wall Street professionals!”

"But everyone knows that this kind of miracle cannot be imitated!"

"Because this miracle is nourished by the personal charm of Ethan Jones!"

"Without Ethan Jones's wonderful ideas and excellent works, video games would never be what they are today!"

"Besides these, there are several other points worthy of attention in the event that ended yesterday -"

"First, that's the length of the game. It started at 10 a.m. Western time and didn't officially end until 11 p.m. The thirteen-hour protracted battle created history."

"Second, the game "Ms. Pac-Man" had a history of clearing records yesterday, and there were two of them. The first player to clear the game was named Sid Meier, an engineer at General Instruments. , and second place was Will Wright, a student from Louisiana State University."

"Because of the order of appearance, and the original purpose of the competition was to find people who could pass the level, so under the announcement of Ethan Jones, they shared the championship."

"Third, people have always been curious about how many levels there are in Ethan Jones's games, because anyone who has played his games will have the illusion that there is no way to pass the levels in Ethan Jones's games. You can play indefinitely, and the answer to this question was yesterday.”

"Two hundred and fifty-six."

"That's the total level."

"After Sid Meier and Will Wright beat the game, Ms. Pac-Man was garbled and garbled because they pushed the limits of the eight-bit microprocessor."

"An eight-bit processor can only store 256 values, which is two to the eighth power. When all these values ​​are occupied, the game level will reach the upper limit."

“That number doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you put it into the context of the game it’s staggering.”

"What surprised us even more was that Ethan Jones' game used all of those values."

"Not only that, the content of each level is different."

"From this alone we can understand why he was successful."

"Compared with his design, other games on the market are simply garbage."

"In addition to the above three points of the event, yesterday, Ethan Jones also announced three things."

"The first thing is that Destiny Games has officially cooperated with McDonald's. They will launch their cooperation project with all McDonald's restaurants in North America on June 17, which is today -"

“McDonald’s Happy Meal.”

"This meal is aimed at children, and it contains children's food for one person. It also comes with a random character toy from the Destiny game, which includes Jack the Snake King, Shredded Snake Queen, Mr. Pac-Man, and Ms. Pac-Man. Waiting for some figures that have appeared in the works of Destiny Games."

"The second thing is the release date of "Alien", the launch time of Johnson's home console and "Starry Sky". They will meet the public together next Friday, June 22nd."

"At that time, all commercial theaters across the country will arrange the screening of "Alien", and on that day, the only movie showing in the country will be "Alien," so there is no need to worry."

"If you want to see it, you can definitely see it."

"Secondly, Johnson's home consoles are sold in super stores in major cities. In order to better meet the needs of the public, Destiny Games carefully calculated the number of applicants for the national video game competition. The first batch of stocks has three Millions of units.”

"So, you don't need to rush to grab it, everyone has it."

"Of course, yesterday's finalists have already received the latest batch of consoles. I believe there will be news about clearing the game soon. They are all lucky and enviable."

"The third thing is a declaration of initiative."

"With the rapid development of electronic games, there will only be more and more electronic games on the market, but not every game is suitable for everyone. For example, previous shooting games have caused dissatisfaction among some people. Therefore, The Destiny Game Initiative establishes a standardized grading system to ensure that people of every age group can play games that suit them."

“Not only that, Destiny Games also leads by example, inviting the former governor of California, the director of the American Legal Services Company, the president of the Washington State Bar Association, and the inventor of the home video game console to participate in the formulation of the internal rating system of Destiny Games and provide external supervision. "

"So, starting from June 22nd, all products produced by Destiny Games will be marked with an advocacy rating created by everyone. For example, for the movie "Alien", Destiny Games gave it a rating of suitable for those aged seventeen and above. The rating of the crowd, because it is a horror film, and for example, "Starry Sky", Destiny Games gave it a rating suitable for people aged 13 and above, because it contains some violent elements."

“We admit that this decision of Destiny Game is beyond our knowledge, because since the birth of business, all businesses have been thinking about making money, and no one is willing to shackle themselves or wear shackles, but Destiny Game is different. They are actively labeling their products as dangerous."

"We don't know how much this behavior will cost them, but we know that Ethan Jones has been fulfilling his promise with actions, which is to bring happiness to more people!"

"At the same time, we also hope that other game companies can learn from Destiny Games and actively join the graded alliance, because only in this way can our children have a better future!"

In the early morning of June 17, reports related to the first national video game competition appeared overwhelmingly in front of the North American people. Almost all American media reported on this event, because the last all-American carnival had already That happened last time.

Uh, okay.

The reason why the media rushes to report is that video games are very popular. Before there are any violent incidents in this industry and there is no boycott from parents and experts, they have multiple attributes such as health, happiness and fun. It is the object of public affection.

Since there is no risk in reporting this kind of news, and it can also get huge traffic, the media, who are aware of the world and have never struggled with money, actively embraced all this.

They started with the title and figured out the hot spots.

They start from the content and research ideas.

Compared with traditional media, major broadcasting companies are much more comfortable, because TV broadcasts do not have the paper restrictions of traditional media and can talk a lot.

For example, the American Broadcasting Corporation approached the topic from the perspective of setting records, and then reported all the situations related to the competition in a eloquent manner.

Another example is CBS. Although they started with content based on games and then delved into the value of the industry, in the end they dropped all content related to competitions.

And NBC, they're not immune.

According to common sense, this kind of message bombardment will annoy ordinary people in North America, because repeatedly receiving the same message consumes not only people's energy, but also their patience.

But this time...

Even though each report is similar, people still watch it with gusto. This is not only because the news in this era is far less explosive than the Internet in the future, but also because all media will emphasize the far lead of Destiny Game when reporting on the event.

Yes.

When Ethan Jones took the initiative to report his company's overseas sales, all the media knew how to report it. They would report how much each product of Destiny Games sold and how much money they earned from exporting. After the money returned to North America, how much social responsibility did Destiny Games bear?

When this cycle of "making the world's money to satisfy one's desires" appears, a feeling called pride will arise. This feeling will give people a kind of spiritual comfort, so no matter how much they watch, people will feel that they have not seen enough.

And for Ethan, this kind of behavior...

That’s of course a good thing!

It's a pity that now he has no intention to pay attention to this at all.

As the game ended, countless tasks came to him.

The first thing that needs to be handled by him is the distribution of rewards after the game.

He doesn't have to worry about physical rewards and monetary rewards. Aaron Massey, the financial guru, can help him get everything done, and the rewards he promised before are to help the players realize their wishes...

Special code!

He only hated himself for saying too little!

Before, he said that he could help the top three in the national competition realize their wishes, but when he discovered that there were many familiar faces in the final list, he adapted the rules.

He asked Steve Ballmer, who had a broken throat, to find a place in Los Angeles that could host a banquet for 100 people, and invite all the finalists of the national competition and their friends to attend the post-game party.

At the party, he first fulfilled the wishes of the top three people. For example, Sid Meier and others wanted to join the Destiny Game, so he agreed with a wave of his hand. Then, holding a glass of wine, he took some time to chat intimately with some players who looked pretty good.

When Gabe Newell, who came in 11th place, and Master Huang, who came in 23rd place, said that they wanted to learn programming and make games, Ethan was secretly happy in his heart and said apologetically that they could first Go to school. If they are dissatisfied with school life and don't like those formulaic courses, they can come to Destiny Game at any time and he will give them some recommendations based on their strengths.

Michael Dell, who was waiting for the 57th place, said that he was most interested in Apple computers and came to the competition just to meet Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Ethan stretched out his hand and grabbed the two guys who were eating at the table, so that they could get along well.

That's right! Now that the boss in cub state has appeared, there is no way Ethan will let him go!

He does not consider whether these people can still achieve their original success with his intervention. He only knows that even those who succeed by riding the wave of the times must have their own true abilities.

Because pigs can stand on the edge and succeed.

Similarly, pigs will also fall to pieces due to the departure of the wind outlet.

Luck can bring you great wealth.

But your knowledge and ability are the foundation for keeping wealth!

This is why Ethan doesn't like Gates but still cooperates with him.

If Gates is really incapable, then his parents will only do one thing and that is to tell him not to start a business.

After acting as a kind-hearted grandfather in front of the cub bosses, Ethan Jones hurriedly threw himself into other work.

For example, reconcile accounts with each company to calculate the true expenses of this competition.

After adding up, they lost almost 9 million, and a large part of this was the expenditure on disaster relief and match point transfer after the Three Mile Island accident.

However, although he lost a lot, Ethan didn't care, because major sponsors were already asking whether they would hold the second video game national competition. If held, they could make money now. Among them, the most active ones are the National Football League and the American Broadcasting Corporation. The former has found the possibility of selling tickets, while the latter is excited by the 50 million finals ratings.

Since the results of the first one were pretty good, Ethan did have the idea of ​​continuing to hold it again, but this kind of thing cannot be decided now, because whether it will be held or not depends on the sales of Johnson's home console.

If Johnson's home console sells well, he will announce another one at the end of the year, and the competition game will be "Starry Sky" to stimulate another wave of console sales.

And if Johnson's home console fails to sell...

Then you have to think of another way.

The second task is to communicate with North American theaters to ensure that "Alien" can get a good film schedule.

Although the Hollywood giants have been so beaten by him that they didn't even bother to launch another movie to compete on the day "Alien" was released, this does not mean that there will be no more movies in the same period.

In order to ensure the box office of "Alien", Ethan will definitely not miss any of the prime time movies.

The third job is to keep an eye on the factory to ensure the continued production of home consoles and game cartridges.

The fourth task is to mobilize all employees in the marketing department to once again connect with major stores to ensure that the shelves previously communicated can be obtained and local publicity can keep up. And guard the warehouse tightly, and must not let local merchants sneak away. Once you find this situation, report it immediately...

To be honest, running a business is really hard.

Especially companies related to manufacturing.

In many cases, it is not enough to have enough manpower, because once there is an error in any link, the person who pays the bill will definitely not be the employee responsible for that link, but only the boss of the company.

Therefore, even though everything had been arranged before, Ethan still had to go through all the links according to the process and avoid as many low-level mistakes as possible.

While Ethan was busy, good news also came from McDonald's.

In just three days since the launch of Happy Meal, 2.6 million units have been sold in North America.

At first glance, this number seems very small, because the sales volume in one day is only about 860,000 copies. Compared with the billion-dollar event brand boasted by the media, there is a very big gap.

but--

The sales volume of 2.6 million copies corresponds to the number of 8,000 restaurants!

Currently, McDonald's only has more than 8,000 restaurants in North America!

Sales volume of 2.6 million means each restaurant can serve more than 100 Happy Meals every day!

This sales volume has exceeded the basic line of daily operations of a restaurant!

Because restaurants and shops are different, the food sold in the former needs to be made, while the products sold in the latter are sold directly. In this case, two million six hundred thousand in three days is a huge success!

This can make the meat pie chef vomit!

The appearance of this number also made Ethan relieved.

After all, the public opinion is huge, which is not as gratifying as the increase in sales.

After McDonald's Happy Meal served as a pioneer and gave Ethan an excellent example, with the arrival of June 22, the market also gave the most loyal feedback.

On the day "Alien" was released, they grossed $3.07 million at the box office at an average price of $1.25 a ticket, and the number of moviegoers that day reached 2.456 million!

The average number of guests per theater exceeds four hundred!

The next Saturday, the numbers skyrocketed, with the nationwide box office exceeding 3.7 million in a single day.

The cumulative number of moviegoers reached 5.416 million.

The three-day weekend box office was basically the same as Saturday, at 3.82 million.

The cumulative number of moviegoers nationwide exceeded 8.472 million.

During the first three days of the weekend, the box office exceeded 10 million!

The number of 10.59 million allowed "Alien" to pass successfully!

Or rather——

According to the current trend, it is not easy for "Alien" to exceed 100 million!

But unfortunately, no matter how impressive the results of "Alien" are, no one is paying attention at the moment.

Because, in just three days, the special-sized products that Ethan had been preparing for half a year were sold out!

All channels are urging him to restock!

"Are you sure? We sold three million units in three days?"

Ethan looked at Ballmer with joy.

Ballmer, who had already made his voice hoarse on the day of the game and has still not recovered, nodded and said in a drake-like voice: "I'm sure, boss."

"We sold three million units in three days."

"Operating revenue is 599.97 million."

"If you count the cross-over "Alien"."

"We made 600 million in three days."

Note: ①The number of viewers of the 1979 Super Bowl was 74.74 million.