Game Development Giant

As spring goes and autumn comes, time flies by.

Mars Entertainment has developed steadily in the past three years, and everything is going as Jester expected.

GTA3 was quietly released on the console half a year after the PC version was released. There was not much publicity at the beginning, but the popularity accumulated on the PC in the previous six months made the game just available on the console. The sales achieved were very good.

On PC, GTA3 sold more than one million copies in half a year. After the console version was launched, although there was no large-scale publicity, it sold more than one million copies in two months. Thousands of sets.

For a little-known studio, selling more than two million units in eight months for the PC version in half a year and the console version for two months is a pretty good achievement.

If you're lucky.

Maybe three million copies will be sold within a year.

Three million copies!

This is not a small number. Many games that have spent countless promotion costs don’t know if they can sell this number.

However, Jester knows, people from Mars Entertainment know, and even people from other game companies know that three million is definitely not the limit for this game - because this game has not been widely promoted. Large-scale promotion, plus if it could be released at the same time, this game could even sell tens of millions of copies a year.

Of course, this is also a matter of trade-off for Mars Entertainment.

They are willing to give up the sales of GTA3 to boost the sales of Dreambox 4. Of course, they have a more suitable plan in their eyes.

It is indeed as Satoru Iwata envisioned. His housewife guide was very successful. Dreambox 4 built a very good image in the minds of these housewives and mothers. In the Christmas war in the second year of its release, Sony was fully prepared. They have previously reduced the share difference between their PS3 and Dreambox 4 to only 10%.

They hope that during the Christmas war, they can further reduce their share of the competition.

I don’t dare to think about catching up and overtaking Sony.

All they want is to reduce the gap to 5%, and the gap is achieved step by step. You can't eat it and become a big fat man.

Ken Kutaragi and the people at Sony know this deeply. After all, Sony has been engaged in the electrical appliance war for decades, so they cannot fail to see this clearly. Moreover, the PS3's DVD strategy, coupled with the numerous Japanese games, has indeed attracted many people who have never been exposed to video games to play them. It can be regarded as opening up a new market.

However, Dreambox4’s sales during the Christmas War were really amazing.

Especially some house mothers who prepare Christmas gifts for their children. Many of them choose Dreambox 4 without much thought. In their eyes, this thing is simply perfect as a gift for their children. No shortage of.

Their children love game consoles, and Dreambox 4 meets their expectations, especially the sense of motion. It is simply tailor-made for their children.

So, in the Christmas war. Mars Entertainment relied on the efforts of these stay-at-home mothers to prevent Sony's plan from succeeding. Not only did it not allow them to narrow the gap in share, it actually increased the share to almost 3%.

After GTA3 was sold on the console for two months without any publicity, Satoru Iwata also felt that his Dreambox 4 positioning had basically been determined, and the news of one or two games could not shake them at all, so, slow down. Slowly, start promoting this game.

Of course, for a game that was made more than half a year ago. The role of large-scale publicity will not be great.

After all, this is what Jester said to Satoru Iwata personally. This is a game that can sell at least 10 million, and in Satoru Iwata's opinion. He doesn't dare to think about ten million sets now, but a few million console versions may bring hundreds of thousands or even millions of console sales. This is not a small number.

Besides, GTA3 relies on its own reputation. It has received support from many players, and even many people in the industry have taken a new look at this game.

This is not a purely violent game. There are many things in this game that all designers can learn from.

The advantages of GTA3 are almost endless in the eyes of many designers. It perfectly inherits the ideas of sandbox games mentioned by Jester, his design methods, and what he embodied in it. Many technologies make many designers feel worshiped.

Many people even say that this game is a well-deserved game of the year.

However, some people in the industry don't see it that way.

It's not that the game is not good. As far as the game is concerned, apart from the subject matter and the spirit promoted by GTA3, as far as the game is concerned, there is basically no shortcomings in this game.

However, a game of the year is not just about a good game.

Therefore, although both VGA and GDC nominated this game as a candidate for Game of the Year, in the eyes of many industry insiders, GDC, where designers vote for Game of the Year, is unlikely to choose GTA3 as Game of the Year.

However, the VGA, which is composed of major game media, does not care about so many awards. Judging from their reports, they are likely to select GTA3 as the game of the year.

But when the final result was announced, it surprised some people.

VGA's Game of the Year is indeed given to GTA3. This is something that many people have guessed before, and this game is indeed well-deserved.

But the most surprising thing is that the GDC Game of the Year award was also given to GTA3.

You know, many people in the industry have said before that they would never vote for GTA3, but the results are completely different from previous surveys.

Finally, some media interviewed the GDC organizing committee.

Their answer did not hide anything, and the answer was very simple: It is true that many people disagree with giving GTA3 the Game of the Year, but the problem is that other games cannot be selected together with GTA3.

And with the momentum of being elected Game of the Year, coupled with the gradual increase of Mars Entertainment, the sales of this game also experienced a blowout after the selection of Game of the Year. In a single month, the sales volume of the console version alone exceeded one million. set. The PC version also has hundreds of thousands of copies. You must know that this is the result of the PC version after it has been released for almost a year.

These things happened more than two years ago.

Jester was actually just a spectator to these things, after he resigned from his senior position at Mars Entertainment. He no longer cares about the affairs within the company and hands all power to Satoru Iwata. At most, he will attend high-level meetings to listen, but basically does not express his own opinions. Regarding game development matters, he did as usual, participating in the game when he had nothing to do or when there was not much to do, and gave an introduction to himself.

However, as the development of WOW became more and more intense, Jester rarely participated in things that were not related to WOW development.

In the past four years, Satoru Iwata has done an outstanding job in the position of president. Finally, at a board meeting held by Claudia as the chairman of the board of directors a few days ago, Satoru Iwata was nominated to concurrently serve as the CEO of Mars Entertainment. Finally, It was also passed unanimously.

Everyone knows. Claudia's appointment must have been Jester's intention.

However, the development of Jester's WOW has been basically completed. After four or five years, the full picture of this game was finally revealed to everyone.

Four invitations to the closed beta test caused an uproar in major forums each time, and each time it was done better and better than the last. Finally, Jester finally announced something in a forum post in response to players' questions. That is, in November 2004, WOW will conduct an open beta, and the open beta will last for one to two months.

If there are no other questions. Then after the public beta is completed and the final correction is made in a short period of no more than two weeks, WOW, a game that has been anticipated by countless players for five years, will be officially launched.

The announcement of this news also caused an uproar.

Of course, what’s more important is the reluctance of the players.

Because they remembered what Jester said when he was developing WOW. This game will be his last game. After developing this game, he will officially retire from Mars Entertainment, and he may not participate in the front-line development of the game in the future.

Therefore, someone immediately asked Jester if he really planned to retire after the World of Warcraft conference.

Unexpectedly, Jester did not answer directly this time. He said that there will be a press conference for the public beta of World of Warcraft in a few days, and he will answer this question at that time.

This slightly perfunctory answer once again made many players feel surprised.

Because Jester didn't admit it directly.

You know, he said this himself in the first place. This time someone asked, it was just a casual question, and he didn't have much hope in the first place.

Moreover, judging from Jester's behavior over the past four years, he no longer interferes with Mars Entertainment matters and will not even attend the carnival. According to people within Mars Entertainment, even Jester attends high-level meetings. They won't be attending.

All of this is enough to show that Jester has decided to retire.

But this time, when Jester was faced with whether it was true that he would retire after developing WOW, he did not admit it. There must be other reasons.

Therefore, many players are eagerly looking forward to what miracle will happen during WOW's public beta conference.

For example, Jester said that he had new inspiration recently. He decided to develop another game, and he also ensured that it would be something that players like them had never seen before, just like when he pioneered side-scrolling, 3D and motion sensing. Similarly, although Mars Entertainment and Sony have been competing with each other in recent years, Dreambox 4 and PS3 are both very good consoles. When the share of the two was the lowest, Mars Entertainment was chased by Sony to 8%.

There are many excellent games released on these two consoles.

However, players are still looking forward to Jester's games. They all hope that Jester will find some inspiration in the past four or five years of WOW development, and once again develop some groundbreaking games on the new console.

After all, the console war between Dreambox 4 and PS3 has been going on for four years. Based on the lifespan of a console being about five to six years, both companies should have started developing next-generation consoles now, but both sides seem to be confident. They all keep their next-generation consoles secret, and the outside world doesn’t hear much about it.

Finally, the day came for the WOW public beta conference.

The date is seven days after the press conference, in early November, and also on the Monday after the Mars Entertainment Carnival.

Qualifying for the open beta is easy, but not available to everyone.

Because of the server, only some people can obtain this qualification.

In addition to those attending the carnival, who can directly obtain a test card with their carnival admission card, other players who want to obtain this qualification can only apply when the official application is open.

Application is not by lottery.

Instead, players will be given test qualifications directly in the order of application.

Of course, each person can only obtain one test qualification, not based on account number or IP, but based on machine code. In other words, each PC can apply for one qualification.

A total of 150,000 people are qualified.

It's gone after all is distributed.

The test lasted one month and fifteen days.

Of course, Jester also said at the press conference that he would consider whether to release more test qualifications based on the specific circumstances of the test.

Even if no more test qualifications are developed during the test, a stress test will be conducted in the last few days of the test. As for the specific time of the stress test, it has not been decided yet.

Of course, he also answered the question that many people are interested in: whether Jester will officially retire after the development of WOW is completed.

This question... I said it a few years ago, and I still think so. I will retire when WOW is developed to the point where I feel it is appropriate, but it does not mean that I will retire as soon as WOW is released. In my vision Among them, I almost have to develop a follow-up expansion pack for WOW, so that I can safely leave this industry where I have worked for 20 years. (~^~)