Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 385 Warner Wants to Take advantage of Tang Huan's Loophole

In the upsurge of adapting video games from Hollywood blockbusters, EA took the lead, getting "007" from the affiliated company Lianmei, and the old toy manufacturer Parker Brothers got "Star Wars". Another video game giant Atari, naturally Not to be outdone, I got "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

It has to be said that compared with EA and United Artists, Atari and Warner still have a lot of gaps in resource integration.

But that belongs to the category of advanced management. Anyway, the current market is very good, as long as the game can be made, it will not worry about sales. Atari has made a lot of money from the game "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

But Steve Ross, the president of Warner, who looked at the report, didn't smile. Some of the actions of Gein Atari CEO Recasa made him feel uncomfortable.

The game "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was produced by Atari in two versions. The version supporting the Atari 2600 platform was published by itself, and the version supporting the Xiaobawang game console platform was entrusted to a subsidiary to distribute it. As a result, the version of the Xiaobawang game console platform earned more than the version of the Atari 2600 platform.

After all, Atari is different from those third-party game developers. It has its own game hardware platform, the Atari 2600. However, Recasa is such a deviant brainstormer, and the effect is excellent. Unable to speak.

Re Casa, a senior wage earner, can of course hold the idea of ​​"as long as he makes money", but as the boss, Steve Ross has other ideas. Now Tang Huan treats him with a different heart.

Especially recently, the founder team of Orion Production Company has returned to the embrace of United Artists, and the latter is even stronger, competing with Warner for the copyright of several of its new favorite films.

Originally, Orion Production Company was just a bit talented in film production. Since the distribution process was at its discretion, Warner really took advantage of it. This is also in line with Hollywood's practice of big fish eating small fish in capital operations.

But I didn't expect that Orion Production Company would change its business so quickly, and would defect to Warner's old enemy. This made me, a former collaborator, very embarrassed.

Originally, Steve Ross planned to hold a sneering attitude and stand on the sidelines, but for the copyright of those movies, United Artists dragged Warner to court, which really made him intolerable.

In Steve Rose's view, Tang Huan was clearly demonstrating to himself.He couldn't remember exactly when he had formed a relationship with this young rich man.

But this is no longer worth delving into. The reality is that the two sides are getting more and more at odds with each other.

Recasa, who was sitting across from him and reporting on his work, was also complacent about his success in the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" video game project, but Steve Rose looked at the number representing sales on the report, feeling very uncomfortable .

"Don't you think that Atari's secret development of games for EA's Xiaobawang game console platform is an act of supporting the enemy?" Steve Ross asked lightly.

"Of course we can't think so. This kind of thinking completely ignores the current market structure." Recasa shrugged disapprovingly. I can't see this phenomenon of eating alone, so it ended up in the same fate as the Atari 2600. The original private hardware platform has become a public platform, and anyone can make money in this environment. In fact, EA It is equivalent to being cut every day, but it has no effective way to deal with it."

Hearing these words, Steve Ross did not feel comfortable, but asked, "According to you, EA is also developing games for the Atari 2600 platform?"

"This..." Recasa showed an embarrassing look on his face, "It seems not. The direction of EA's expansion of the game platform is the personal computer."

"Then why did we choose the opponent's platform? Isn't it a long time since Atari launched its own personal computer?" Steve Rose's tone began to reveal a hint of dissatisfaction.

Facing the accusation, Recasa was full of slander. A big boss like you who only wants to sit in a luxurious office in New York and give orders, how can you know the turmoil in Silicon Valley.

Although Recasa felt that Warner's executives in New York in the east were remotely directing Atari in Silicon Valley in the west, it was getting more and more cheating, but he was powerless to fight and could only explain it with condescension.

"The share of the Atari 400/800 series of personal computers in the personal computer market is far from comparable to the share of the Atari 2600 in the home video game console market. And the pattern of this market is now also clear. Tang Huan’s Fangyuan Computer is at the top of the list, IBM’s IBM-PC is in the second place, and the next camp is Apple, Commodore, etc. EA actually has a natural advantage in developing game platforms in this field.”

Steve Ross heard impatiently, waved his hand and asked, "Don't always tell me how other people are, I want to know what you plan to do in terms of market share."

"The new video game console platform Atari 5200 will be launched to the market soon, and it will be the successor of the Atari 2600." Recasa, who lacked confidence, glanced at the boss and continued: "In addition, We are talking about a cooperation, Japan’s Nintendo has newly developed a video game console, and they want to find an agency partner in the US market, I think the prospect is good.”

Steve Ross is a tycoon who has been in the mall for decades, his eyes are like torches, he immediately grasped the abnormality of the subordinate in front of him, and then frowned and looked at him, "Why do you bring the Japanese in, what I want is belonging to Our own video game console, don’t you think the Atari 2600’s profit margin advantage is not worth inheriting?”

Recasa was oppressed by Steve Rose's aggressive aura, so that his forehead was sweating, but he didn't dare to say clearly that he wanted to represent Nintendo's game console because he was not very sure about the prospect of the Atari 5200, so he planned to find a spare tire.

Just like the gap between Warner’s top executives and Atari, within Atari, there has always been a gap between the management and marketing team led by Recasa, and the technology department. These business school graduates seem to have some understanding of the Silicon Valley environment. Unaccustomed to the environment, Atari's follow-up product development has been in an embarrassing state of listening to the wind but not seeing the rain, while resource consumption is not at all low.

Take the relationship between the Atari 400/800 series personal computers and the Atari 5200, it is a confusing matter.

Although the Atari 2600 was very successful in the market, it was the first generation product after all, and its R&D team could not come up with a package of near-perfect solutions like Tang Huan did.

Therefore, the Atari 2600 has many technical deficiencies, such as only 128 bytes of memory, which is an increasingly serious criticism.

In this case, the technical team started working on the next generation of the model, addressing all found flaws.

But the Atari 2600 project cost Warner $2600 million. After driving Bushnell away, Re Casa, who took office, had the first task of turning the Atari [-] into US dollars as soon as possible. Immediately, the focus shifted from focusing on technology to focusing on marketing. As a result, there was a stalemate with the technical department, which led to the continuous departure of R&D personnel.

The project of the Atari 2600 next-generation model obviously could no longer be maintained under the original name, so it became the Atari 400/800 series personal computer.

However, since the project was originally established with the goal of home game consoles, some anti-radiation designs were added to the circuit board, which resulted in a needless increase in costs, and its performance was lackluster in the highly competitive personal computer market.

Now Atari wants to turn the Atari 400/800 series personal computer back into the Atari 5200 game console. After tossing and tossing back to the original point, there are many problems in it.

Recasa, who is technically a layman, has nothing to do about it. The pressure from various aspects makes him only choose this solution to drive ducks to the shelves.

But Recasa is also a seasoned and seasoned corporate executive, so he naturally wanted to prepare for himself. It just so happened that Nintendo took the initiative to join in at this time, so negotiations began.

Unexpectedly, Steve Rose didn't rub the sand in his eyes, and noticed that Recasa was opportunistic in his business, and he had a tendency to completely lose control of the game console.

"Of course it needs to be inherited. The game console platform is better than our own. This has been proved by experience." Recasa quickly thought of excuses, "But the technology in Silicon Valley is changing with each passing day, and the market does not wait for others. We need to find An appropriate compromise point between technology and the market, to strive for a breathing space, and then to complete the battle, to give the opponent a fatal blow."

Not to mention, the words of retreat that Recasa pulled out in a hurry actually reached Steve Ross's ears, causing his expression to soften.

At this time, the assistant sent a folder, reporting that all media reports on Tang Huan's recent activities had been collected in it.

Steve Ross opened the file, and the first report he saw was that Tang Huan returned to New York, the United States, EA's stock price officially entered the era of 70 US dollars, and the entire market value exceeded 100 billion US dollars. A tribute to the international humanitarianism of a young billionaire with a net worth of US$35 billion.

Seeing such disgusting praise, Steve Ross felt as sick as eating a fly. Warner, which he had worked hard to manage, finally reached a stock price of more than 60 US dollars, but EA, a raw melon and egg, staggered to the 70s. Dollar steps.

He took out the newspaper and slapped it on the table, and said sourly: "The guys on Wall Street are really getting more and more hypocritical. They always find all kinds of deceitful rhetoric to cover up their greed."

Recasa, who had already read these reports on the plane, echoed casually: "It's true. Wall Street only sees EA's strength, and what the hell has it to do with humanitarianism. Now EA is not a pure video game company. Yes, in the past two years, it has acquired a large number of related industry companies, and even invested in real estate, and managed them all under the name of Yanle Entertainment Group, forming a strong backing, and its ability to resist industry risks is not generally high."

Speaking of this, Recasa recalled, "I remember that in the first quarterly report released by EA this year, the share of Latin America was clearly mentioned for the first time. Recently, Tang Huan suddenly went to Falkland for no reason. It was done, and it was touted by the media there as a friend in Latin America. Obviously, this is good news for EA to expand its global market share, and Wall Street must have expected this.”

"Tang Huan, an opportunist, is really willing to let go. I have to say that he has been in danger this time and has received a corresponding reward." Steve Ross, who was full of apprehension in his tone, kept throwing away the newspapers he had read. to the table.

Recasa took a few glances and saw some large pictures showing Tang Huan hanging his injured arm around his neck with a bandage, greeting UN Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar and the President's Special Envoy respectively. U.S. Secretary of State George Pratt Shultz - Group photo of George Pratt Shultz and others.

"However, a young man is a young man. I went to the Maldives Island, which is nothing to shit on. When I came back, I couldn't wait to be sensual." Steve Ross snorted and threw out the last newspaper he read. , Then leaned on the back of the sofa and began to think.

Recasa glanced again, and saw that it was a report on some entertainment pages, saying that in order to welcome Tang Huan's safe return, his friends in the entertainment circle spontaneously held a sympathy dinner and watched Spielberg's latest movie together A preview of ET: The Extra-Terrestrial.

The well-known girl model Brooke Xiaosi, the up-and-coming singer Madonna who won the top eight on the US Billboard [-] album list, and other popular female artists all kissed Tang Huan intimately, letting everyone see this scene The audience couldn't help but wonder.

"It's nice to be rich, it's nice to be young, it's nice to be rich and young, and it's better to be rich." Recasa murmured enviously.

"It seems that the movie "ET Alien" will have an extraordinary performance this year." After talking to himself, Steve Ross turned his eyes to Recasa, "EA did not release the wind, and disclosed that the When will video games adapted from movies be launched on the market?"

"How could EA miss out on the movie Tang Huan invested in? It has already been circled with 3000 million US dollars. It's just that EA seems to be too focused on the development of the PC game platform, which has led to the delay in launching this project." Recasa endured. With the urge to roll his eyes at this idiotic question, he answered it patiently.

"It's circled with 3000 million dollars? What does that mean?" Steve Ross raised his brows and asked.

"When Tang Huan first invested in "ET Aliens", he set a video game license at a relatively low price. It seemed that in order to appease Spielberg, Tang Huan made an agreement hypocritically. If a third party is willing to $3000 million, then Spielberg has discretion."

Speaking of this, Recasa snorted mockingly, "The price of 3000 million US dollars is almost three times the investment of "ET Alien". How could anyone be willing to pay such a high price? Tang Huan's calculation, It was really good.”

"It turns out that 3000 million US dollars is such a thing." Steve Ross nodded playfully, "Did Tang Huan really think that with such a restriction, he could sit back and relax?"

"Even if this is a loophole, no one is willing to take advantage of it." Recasa shook his head with a smile.

"That's not necessarily the case. What do you think, let Atari develop the "ET Alien" video game?" Steve Ross asked slowly with bright eyes.

"I think its a dumb idea. Weve never really made an action game out of a movie." Surprised, Recasa subconsciously expressed his truest thoughts, "This is a dumb idea, how can we It is possible to adapt such a childlike movie into an action game."

Seeing Steve Rose's complexion suddenly turned into the bottom of the pot, Recasa immediately realized that he had made a slip of the tongue, and hurriedly tried to make amends, "I just think that "ET Aliens" with a childish plot may not be too good at the box office. performance, adapting a video game doesn’t make much sense.”

"This guy is too ignorant, let him work until the end of the year at most, and then let him get out." Steve Rose sentenced Recasa to death in his heart.

(End of this chapter)