Game Development Giant

It took a while before Bill raised his head and looked at Jester carefully, seriously and intriguingly for a while before he sighed.

You mean forming an alliance?

At this time, Bill Gate mentioned the word Jester used just now, which was not cooperation, but alliance.

Yes, alliance.

Jester said with a smile, as if he was talking about a very general thing.

However, Bill Gate had obviously thought carefully about it. A trace of hesitation flashed across his face. He might not have made up his mind yet, but in the end he shook his head and rejected Jester's proposal: I don’t want to go so deep in the beginning, cooperation can be discussed, but the time for alliance has not yet come.”

Hearing Bill Gate's answer, although Jester's face had not shown any expression, he was still a little disappointed in his heart. He knew that Microsoft would form a prestigious micro-tel alliance with Intel in the near future, that is, This alliance worked closely together and finally completed the unification of the PC field. However, Jester thought about it carefully and knew that the reason why Microsoft will form this alliance with Intel in the future is because both of them can They complement each other in their respective areas of advantage, but they themselves do not have the strength to impress Microsoft. At least the gaming industry, especially the PC gaming industry, is not favored by Bill Gates. In fact, even Jester is not very optimistic.

Bill Gates is not too anxious about cooperation. He is more concerned about Jester saying that he will buy shares of Microsoft. To be honest, Microsoft's shares are not difficult to sell now. Many people want to buy them. The problem is At this critical moment, at the beginning of the new year, he is about to go public, and the most important thing is who he sells his shares to. And Jester is indeed a more suitable choice.

No way, Jester is famous enough, rich enough, and his entrepreneurial experience is legendary enough.

Of course, this kind of purchase is definitely not a small amount, and the price will not be low.

Bill Gate asked the question of how many Microsoft shares Jester would buy in a very subtle way. Jester thought about it for a while. Although he couldn't buy too little, he couldn't buy too much either. Just keep a relatively moderate amount. If you want, you can continue to increase your holdings of Microsoft stocks in the future, because Jester knows that the reports that Microsoft can bring to him must be huge and terrifying.

Therefore, Jester revealed a price.

Although Bill Gate had heard about the profitability of Mars Entertainment before, and a game could sell over 100 million US dollars in sales in just a few days, it seemed to him that there was something in it. However, looking at Jester's boldness, it seems that it is not fake. He is very satisfied with the offer, which not only expresses his sincerity. It can achieve the purpose of publicity and attract attention, and it does not overwhelm the guest. In essence, he agrees. Microsoft is not a company where he alone can have the final say, even though he is the founder of Microsoft. So far, it still controls the vast majority of Microsoft shares. Selling such a large amount of shares, which is about 5% of the total shares, still needs to be discussed by the board of directors.

But first Bill Gate must understand. When the other party offers this money to buy Microsoft shares, in addition to showing their sincerity, they also need to ensure that the other party is not selling the shares to make money after Microsoft's stock price rises after the listing, although it will definitely be done when trading stocks. There is a no-trade clause within one or two years, and if you ask Jester now, you may not tell the truth, but Bill Gate still thinks it is more appropriate to ask.

Jester's answer also made Bill Gate extremely satisfied.

Mr. Bill, actually, I knew that I had this plan when I had you in today's speech. I heard before that you are currently raising shares, and your company also plans to go public after the year. I am very concerned about this. I'm very interested, so that's why I said what I just said when we met at UCLA today. Of course, I'm also very sincere about the cooperation on graphics operating systems. I also really want to work with your Microsoft company. Make alliances.”…

Bill Gate smiled after hearing this. He felt that it was not impossible to form an alliance, but that it was not necessary for the time being. In his eyes, the intersection of the development of Jester's game company and his Microsoft company was It is impossible to intersect.

In the end, the two only reached a verbal agreement, and the specific content will have to wait for a later agreement.

Before leaving, Bill also invited Jester to a charity party he held a month later. There would be a small charity sale. Of course, the most important thing was to discuss the listing of Microsoft. There would be many Wall Street bigwigs attended.

Jester also agreed wholeheartedly. He didn't care about Jester, a big shot on Wall Street, because his company would not be listed and he would not have much interaction with those people. The future was unclear, at least for now. , and Sandy Weir is also steadily carrying out his comeback plan. He has basically negotiated with the Data Control Company on the acquisition of the Commercial Credit Company. In a few years, he will only be the Commercial Credit Company. Second to Sandy Weill's stock holders, he himself will naturally become a big shot on Wall Street.

A few days after returning, Jester originally wanted to think about what to do for his next game. Now that Heavy Soldiers is about to be released, his team has also taken a vacation to make corrections, and there are also people in the team. People have vaguely expressed the idea of ​​​​making their own games independently, and Jester has to consider these things.

With the development of the company and constant photos, Mars Entertainment is now the largest game development company in the world. As far as Jester knows, his company has at least seven games in production at the same time. There are more than ten development teams, including those wholly owned independent studios.

The more development teams the better, but Jester is happy to let things go. Those design teams whose works do not sell well will naturally face the embarrassing situation of disbanding.

Game development is so cruel. Although the successful designers are dazzling and the development teams that produce best-selling masterpieces can turn into phoenixes and become luxurious in an instant, under the feet of these famous development teams , but the ones who gave them a foothold were failed development groups or studios one after another.

Some development teams that can leave their names in future generations have actually experienced stumbling development, not just in Japan, but also in the United States. For example, Naughty Dog was founded on a whim by two high school students who love games. One of them One does the programming while the other does the drawing.

At the beginning, Naughty Dog's games were only made for their classmates to play, and they were only PC games. As for why not make FC or NES games, this is not something you can make if you want to. Although game companies that are not members of the Nintendo FC Alliance can also purchase development machines to develop games on FC, Nintendo's game review is very strict. At that time, Nintendo certification was synonymous with high-quality products.

Whether it can pass Nintendo's certification and prevent one's development investment from being wasted is not a matter of discussion. The price of an FC development machine is beyond the reach of two high school students.

At that time, the game company of these two founders was not called Naughty Dog, but called Jam Software. Their first game earned two hundred dollars among their classmates, which greatly enhanced their confidence. So they began developing on the Apple 2 computer, which was very popular at the time.

To be honest, if the first generation of game designers in Japan were trained through FC, then the first generation of game designers in the United States were trained on Apple 2. Unlike other PCs, the promotion of Apple 2 at that time was This is an entertainment computer. To put it bluntly, this is what a game console means. Therefore, compared to other brands of computers, although the configuration of Apple 2 is insufficient, it is very popular among children. The game programs on it are also Much.

Basically, the earliest batch of computer game developers in the United States started their game development journey with Apple 2 computers.

The development of Naughty Dog, or Jam Software, was not very smooth. When they started making games on the Apple 2, they experienced many failures and some modest successes. A person in charge of EA even met with them, and They were encouraged, but the two young people and their pet, a pet dog named Morgan, were also confused. Faced with the heavy studies in college, they felt that they should change the name of this family to Naughty Dog's gaming company continues.

Later, when these two young people were confused about their future, they met Mark Saini, who was then the vice president of Universal Interactive Entertainment and later Vivendi Entertainment. He met them and learned about their experiences. After playing the game, Mark Saini immediately knew what kind of treasures the two people he met were, and then he began to do his best to guide and help them.

So much so that later on, when the two Naughty Dog founders talked about Mark Saini, they would always refer to him as their spiritual mentor. Without him, Naughty Dog might not be what it is today.

And now Jester is also in a kind of confusion. It's not that he has no inspiration for games. In fact, even if he has one game every day, he can't copy them all in ten years, but Jester This time Te wrote four or five game plans in a row, but he suddenly felt a sense of disgust at the beginning, and then tore the plans into pieces that he had written a lot of.

He suddenly didn't know what game he should make.

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