Rebirth of America, this is my time

In fact, before coming to Exidi, Ethan was mentally prepared for failure.

Because in the past two months, he has witnessed with his own eyes what kind of life the game developers of this era live in Mi Luohua.

Ethan works as a marketing specialist with a weekly salary of 80. Similar jobs currently on the market basically pay this same salary.

And what about the engineers who make video games?

As Pete Kaufman said, they were paid two hundred dollars a week.

On the surface, the status of engineers is much better than that of marketers, and their salary is 2.5 times theirs.

But the problem is, there is a commission on sales.

Engineers all earn dead wages.

Yes! No matter how good the game is! None of these guys get a penny!

And this was almost impossible to happen in Ethan's previous life!

You know, in the future, a popular game will allow countless people to achieve financial freedom!

The programmer of "Honor of Kings" has an annual salary of one million, and Xu Zhuce, who originally worked on "Fantasy Westward Journey" for Ding Sanshi and later left the pig farm to start his own company, can even raise a football team!

But in this era, no one cares about this group of people.

Almost all practitioners believe that the reason why people like video games is because the game itself has extraordinary charm, and it is also a manifestation of the general public's curiosity about new things.

Under this concept, bosses who are eager to make money will naturally not pay developers too much salary. But when someone comes to the door with their own ideas?

Buy it out at a fixed price, that is kindness in their eyes!

There is no way, capitalists are all the same.

Therefore, even if Exidi refused to share the cooperation, Ethan Jones was not discouraged.

Heading south, walking along Route 5 for six hours, we finally arrived in Los Angeles at four o'clock in the afternoon.

With no intention of visiting the Hollywood Walk of Fame or overlooking Beverly Hills, after arriving in the most prosperous city in California, Ethan drove his car directly into the gate of Sega.

In later generations, the Liben Sega known to the world was actually a well-known American company in this era.

It was officially established in 1940. At the beginning, their business was not so serious. They manufactured slot machines and then sold them to the military base in Honolulu for gambling by the soldiers stationed there.

Later, due to the advent of the Gambling Equipment Transportation Act, slot machines were not allowed in America, so Sega expanded its business to Liben and sold slot machines to military bases there. After the business was saturated, it even went to Southeast Asia. By extension, the service targets are still American soldiers in military bases.

It was not until the 1960s that the US Air Force, which was so annoyed by them, finally became angry and launched a powerful crackdown on this kind of gambling business that entered the army. Only then did Sega reluctantly (unwillingly) (He)'s career change, in order to evade responsibility, the founder sold Sega to a company owned by Liben. It was only then that the nature of the company changed.

Of course, this is just a ploy, and the vast majority of the shares are still owned by Americans.

Therefore, when Ethan came to visit with the snake, he was greeted by a white man.

After seeing the effect of the Snake game, the white man in a suit showed greed in his eyes.

"Mr. Jones, do you want to sell it for $20,000?"

"This is impossible." Ethan Jones shook his head and refused, saying, "I didn't even accept Exidi's offer of fifty thousand."

"Oh! This is such a shame!"

The white manager smiled and said: "Mr. Jones, I admit that "Snake Game" is a good game, but at the same time, I also want to tell you frankly that I don't think any company on the market will accept your share proposal. If you If you really want to get into the video game industry, I suggest you make your own machine and sell it yourself, and never show this machine to other companies, because that will easily lead to the tragedy of "Pong"."

Although the Sega manager's words were very cautious and his tone was very sincere, Ethan Jones knew that this guy was just a smiling tiger who wanted to find out about the registration status of the game copyright from his own mouth.

If he acted very nervous, then Ethan believed that after sending him away, Sega would definitely rush out a imitation draft within a day and go to the Copyright Office to register the copyright.

Ethan Jones has a simple answer to this common mall ploy.

"Sir, thank you very much for your reminder, and thank you very much for your kindness, but I don't think anyone in California would be crazy enough to plagiarize my work. Before coming here, Barbara from Stanford Law School Professor La Babcock has already evaluated the rights of this product, and she said that we can successfully protect our rights 100% when faced with plagiarism."

‘? ’

Ethan's answer made the Sega manager look surprised.

"Mr. Jones, are you from Stanford?"

"No, I'm not from Stanford, but this piece is."

Ethan smiled slightly and said, "Because the inventor is very busy, he asked me to help sell it."

"..."

The white supervisor was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "It seems that I am worrying too much."

"Good luck."

"Thanks."

Since Sega was unwilling to cooperate, Ethan left directly.

Continue south to Santiago and negotiate with Gremlin here.

As a game company that was established at about the same time as Exidi and has taken over all arcade manufacturing in the San Diego area, like Exidi and Sega, it is also full of interest in Snake, but the conditions offered are actually just like that. .

It is impossible to divide it into shares, only to buy it out.

This fact also made Ethan Jones smile and shake his head in rejection.

After hitting the wall three times in a row, Ethan Jones has actually finished visiting the game dealers in Southern California. If he wants to continue, he can only go all the way north. Before that, he drove a thousand miles back and forth first. A trip home.

His tired appearance attracted the concern of his family, and after listening to his story, Thomas immediately put down his knife and fork.

"Oh Ethan, actually I don't understand, does an arcade business have to cooperate with other companies?"

"I mean, can't we do it ourselves?"

“Evelin may not have time, but it should be no problem to hire a few apprentices to assemble it, right?”

"If it's because of money, I can invest 100,000 for you."

"You know, We are a family."

Evelin thought her father’s proposal was a good one.

At the same time, with her elbows on the table, she also said: "How about I submit another entrepreneurship application to the school? If I start a company in my name, Stanford can provide a startup space for free. This matter is not troublesome, our School of Engineering It is very common for students to start their own businesses. Teachers in the school can sign directly and the school can sponsor US$5,000."

"Oh Thomas, Evelyn, thank you."

Ethan, who was at the dinner table, clasped his hands together and thanked with a smile, "But... no need..."

"As for the reason, I told you before. If it was two years ago, when there were not so many electronic arcade machines on the market, Thomas, if you said you would give me one hundred thousand, I would definitely ask you for two hundred thousand. If you said Give me 200,000, and I will definitely ask you for 400,000, because more money means we can seize the opportunity."

"But now, it is impossible to use money to occupy the market on a large scale. Thomas, the electronic arcade machines purchased by those entertainment venues for more than a thousand dollars each are just like the shipments in our orchards. It’s the same as a car. You bought a shipping truck for five thousand dollars, and then only used it for three to five years, and someone else asked you to completely replace it. Would you be willing to do so?”

"uh-huh?"

Ethan snorted lightly.

The question related to vital interests made Thomas shake his head decisively, "I will wring the salesman's neck!"

“Although I can afford it, that’s not how the money is spent!”

"Yeah~" Ethan smiled and nodded, "So, it's not about money now."

“It’s a question of market acceptance.”

"I think you should know this, Thomas."

"Hmm." Thomas nodded.

"Then what are you going to do now?" Although Ethan is not making money now, and even encounters trouble on the way to making money, Thomas likes Ethan's current state very much, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"To be honest, I really like the way you are now."

"I feel much more energetic than when I was at work before."

"Thank you." Ethan smiled and thanked him, and said at the same time: "Thomas, if you really want to help me, then lend me the Ford to drive for a few more days. There are companies over there in Saramento. I'll go see them. Do you want to cooperate or not?”

And just when Ethan was recalling the name of the company in Saramento, the phone suddenly rang.

Thomas stood up to answer the phone, said a few words, and then shouted to Ethan: "Ethan, this is for you."

"Looking for me?" Ethan was very surprised.

Because he clearly remembered that he did not leave his number for Sega and Gremlin.

"Did Exidi change his mind?" Ethan Jones muttered to himself.

And when he answered the phone, there was a voice on the other end of the phone that he didn't want to hear at all.

"Ethan Jones? I'm Frank! Frank from San Francisco! Do you remember me?"

"Oh, of course, Mr. Ferber."

Frank's voice made Ethan unhappy.

Because he thought again of the threats he encountered that day.

That's too bad!

Ethan said angrily: "Do you have a problem with me?"

"Hi! Bro! I don't like the nickname you gave me!"

The person in charge of the San Francisco Electronics Supply Company on the other end of the phone screamed strangely, and then said: "But since you are about to apologize to me, I will forgive you first!"

"..."

The incomprehensible words made Ethan Jones' head full of black lines.

"I don't understand what you mean. Brother, if you are not serious, I will hang up the phone."

"No! No! No!"

Ethan Jones's threat elicited screams, and the guy on the other end of the phone raised his voice, "Don't hang up! Otherwise you will regret it! Milohua boy, if I remember correctly, your company should You didn’t receive an invitation to the upcoming video game show in San Francisco, did you? And I! Great Frank! I have an invitation in hand!”

"Brother, I misunderstood you last time! So I decided to use this invitation letter to apologize to you! What do you think, do you accept it?"

Note: ① To be specific, the best situation for game developers in that era was to earn a weekly salary of US$200. In other words, their salary was only US$10,000 a year at most, and there was no share of any profit other than that. This is what Activision founder David Crane said personally. They were the first people in the global gaming circle to develop games independently and then negotiate a share with publishers. At that time, it was 1979. ②Gremlin: Gremlin was born in 1971. The most famous game is "Blockade" in 1976. It was one of the two most popular games in America in 1976. No one may know this name, but its evolved version is called " Snake". Back then, "Blockade" was a two-player version. Two people controlled a snake to crawl on the screen. Whoever hit the wall first or the other party would die. There was no concept of eating. Later, the company was acquired by Sega in 1982.