Rebirth of America, this is my time

After announcing the theme of the meeting, Steve Ross, chairman of Warner Communications, also stood up and dragged a whiteboard that had been prepared from one side of the conference room to the center.

I picked up the oil-based pen and raised my hand to write. I heard a creaking sound and the dark words suddenly appeared.

Ethan Jones's name hangs at the top of the whiteboard. Below it, from left to right, are Destiny Games, Destiny Pictures, Michael Blanco Manufacturing Company, Jones and Johnson Agricultural Production Company, Apple Computer Company, and Nintendo Kyoto Chip Manufacturing Company. , Western Design Company, Microsoft.

Further down, on the third level of the pyramid, Steve Ross drew countless lines——

Below the Destiny game are the Johnson home console and Starfield video games;

Below Destiny Pictures is the Alien movie;

Below the Michael Blanco Manufacturing Company is a major production site for electronic arcade machines and home consoles;

Below the Jones \u0026 Johnson Agricultural Production Company lies more than ten thousand acres of California farmland;

Below Apple Computer are the APPLE 2 and Disk II;

Below the Nintendo Kyoto Chip Company is the MOS 6502 notebook production line;

Below Western Design Company is a variant patent of MOS 6502;

What's underneath Microsoft is unknown.

When the huge business map appeared, the five people who were staring at the whiteboard all frowned involuntarily. Although the five of them have all had head-to-head confrontations with Ethan Jones, it was only friction in a single area, and there was no comprehensive confrontation, so they have always felt that Ethan Jones is a genius and has good luck. As for the rest? What else could he have?

But now—

Steve Ross's announcement made them a little unbelievable!

Because now Ethan Jones is not just working in the video game industry!

In addition to video games, he is involved in the personal computer industry, semiconductor industry, traditional manufacturing industry, agriculture in the primary industry... he is involved in all of these!

This special code is terrible!

What they can't understand the most is Microsoft, which is at the end of the industry.

The word seems artificial?

It seems to be the splicing of MicroComputer (microcomputer) and Software (software)?

Several people present did not understand.

Ron Miller, the actual controller of Disney, even asked: What is Microsoft?

This question caused a few others to nod slightly, but Warner boss Steve Ross answered in a simpler way. He created a fourth layer of the pyramid, and those who can appear on this layer are all related to Ethan. Jones has connected real power holders.

For example, Evelyn Johnson, Fred Terman, Arnold Spielberg, and Ralph Bell were hung at the bottom of the Destiny Game by Steve Ross.

This means that the relationship between the four people supports the operation of the entire company.

For another example, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Lawrence Rockefeller appeared at the bottom of Apple Computer.

That means their presence makes Apple Computers a better company.

In this way, what appeared at the bottom of Microsoft were Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Lawrence Rockefeller, and further down, William Gates, president of the Washington State Bar Association and the descendant of the former president of the National Bank. Mary Gates, the person who founded the company, explained the company’s background clearly.

When Ron Miller saw the series of titles clearly, a look of constipation suddenly appeared on his face. At this moment, he no longer wanted to know what the company Microsoft was! Because it is not a thing at all, it is a collection of countless powers!

Okay, I've finished writing, do you still have any questions?

Steve Ross asked with a smile as he capped his pen.

Everyone present shook their heads.

So... let's start? Steve Ross tilted his head, Since I am the speaker, let me tell you my thoughts first?

Hmm~ The five people present leaned on their seats almost instinctively, and they had no objection.

In other words, the reason why they gathered together was simply because they had been severely beaten by Ethan Jones during a single confrontation. When the method of killing himself with eight bullets in the body was unavailable, they could only huddle together to keep warm. Try using a compound attack to knock Ethan Jones off his pedestal.

In this case, whoever takes the lead must take the lead.

And Steve Ross also understood all this, so he pointed to the whiteboard and said: The overlapping businesses of our Warner Communications and Ethan Jones are in the two fields of video games and film entertainment.

“Although we acquired Atari, the pioneer company that opened up the video game industry, to be honest, Atari does not have much advantage in video games, so we don’t have much idea how to use video games to compete head-on. Good idea. But...

Steve Ross drew a circle on Starry Sky and Alien and drew equal signs in their blank spaces, It is true that we cannot use conventional means to compete with Destiny Games, but now that they want Don’t blame us for suppressing them if they create a linkage between video games and film entertainment.”

Steve Ross set his sights on MGM boss Kirk Kerkorian and Walt Disney’s actual controller Ron Miller, and said with a smile: “And this requires the cooperation of the two.

I need you two to exercise your power.

The words without preface were faced by Cornelis van der Klucht, CEO of Philips North America, Jack Trammell, boss of Commodore, and Willard Rockwell Jr., chairman of Rockwell. Dew is confused, but for Kirk Kerkorian and Ron Miller...

This is simply clear.

MPAA? Kirk Kerkorian's eyes lit up.

You want to prevent Alien from being released on a large scale? Ron Miller was a little surprised.

Steve Ross couldn't help but nodded and said: Yeah!——

It's the American Film Association!

He looked at everyone at the scene with a smile and said: No matter how good Ethan Jones's movie is! Even if Ethan Jones's movie is known to everyone! But so what?

He is just a newcomer in the entertainment industry!

He can't decide whether his movie can be released on a large scale!

And we—

That's OK!

When Steve Ross found out that the movie he had invested over 50 million in was buried alive by Ethan Jones, he had only one thought in his mind -

That's choking Ethan Jones!

And when he couldn't borrow the wave of the times like Ethan Jones and smash the enemy into pieces, the sniper plan he came up with was to realize his power!

In the barbaric days when Hollywood was just born, there was no such thing as a rating for movies here. Major studios could invest in any movie they wanted to invest in. Similarly, the producers and directors of the movie could also add elements they liked. Among them, it doesn’t matter whether these elements can be displayed to the public.

In that era, racial issues, alcohol or drug use, violence, gore... these could all be filmed directly and watched by people of all ages. However, with the continuous development of the entire industry, all kinds of inappropriate The elements are indeed not suitable for all disclosures, so censorship before release also occurs.

The most famous of these is the Hayes Code, which is a series of censorship regulations formulated by Will Hayes, chairman of the Motion Picture Association, for major studios.

For example, nudity must be banned in all movies, ridicule of religions and religious people must be banned in all movies, language that may make the audience think it is offensive, all movies must be banned Interracial marriages are banned in every movie, and so on.

Because the terms were so stringent, Hollywood creators felt like they were dancing in chains, and because non-American films didn't have to undergo such stringent censorship, the rise of television put the film industry into decline. Therefore, under the uproar of the major Hollywood giants, the Hays Code was finally abandoned in the late 1960s.

What succeeded him was the film rating system.

And this...

The classification system is directly controlled by us.

Steve Ross laughed and explained to the people at Philips, Commodore and Rockwell -

“The film rating system is run by the Motion Picture Association, and the members of the Motion Picture Association are all our own people in Hollywood. The current members include Paramount, Fox, MGM, Universal, Disney, as well as Warner and a medium-sized production company. , Embassy Films.”

“In our daily film review, we operate in a tacit understanding, and the movie ratings of each company are within the range that the public can watch. Unless it is a very obvious and uncomfortable picture, we will raise the rating. Of course, before determining the rating, we still focus on communication.”

But now—

Since Ethan Jones has made a horror film, shouldn't it be rated as high as possible? I personally think that the X rating is in line with his identity, so...

What do you think?

Steve Ross raised his eyebrows and looked at everyone.

As he explained, all five people present smiled knowingly.

Currently, there are four ratings for movies, namely G rating, which can be watched by all ages, PG rating, which is recommended to be watched under the guidance of parents, and R rating, which can only be watched by parents or adult guardians for those under seventeen years old. and X-rated films, which are prohibited from showing to anyone under the age of seventeen.

Under normal circumstances, R rating is already the maximum limit.

And now, Steve Ross's X-rated...

That is to explicitly ban the movie Alien from entering North American theaters!

Because in some states, such as Tennessee, there are clear regulations on the public screening of movies. Cinema chains can publicly screen X-rated movies, but if someone discovers that a child under the age of seventeen has watched the movie, they will be caught. Immediately punishable by twelve months' imprisonment.

Under such high pressure, theater chains will directly refuse the release of X-rated movies.

If Alien can really be rated as X-rated, it will definitely be a huge blow to Ethan Jones. Rockwell's chairman, Willard Rockwell Jr. said about this He was very satisfied with the plan, but at the same time, he also wanted to know: How confident are you?

This inquiry also made Commodore boss Jack Trammell nod. As far as I know, the current president of the Film Association, Jack Valenti, is from Universal?

Yes. Steve Ross did not deny this. We know that he is from Universal, but we also know that he is very dissatisfied with Universal's interference in his work... interference in his work. So we are confident that we will win him over. Come here, after all, Alien is also a Universal movie.

Okay. Jack Trammell, the boss of Commodore, knocked on the table.

Said he no longer had any problems.

When Steve Ross, chairman of Warner Communications, showed his sincerity, the atmosphere in the venue suddenly became a lot more harmonious, and under his narration, everyone gradually understood his thinking.

His method of revenge is very clear, and that is to use all possible means within a limited scope.

Now that the marketing focus of Destiny Games next year has emerged, which is home consoles and movies, they will join forces with MGM and Disney to prevent the release of the movie by raising the rating of Alien. At the same time, they also want to join forces with Philips to defeat The home console of Destiny Games.

Before coming, I have communicated with Steve, and we have found a clear countermeasure in the field of video games. With the end of Steve Ross, Cone, CEO of Philips North America Lies van der Krugt also took over the opponent's oil pen and stood in front of the whiteboard to talk, We really can't compete with him head-on in the field of video games, and we really can't make something that surpasses the inspiration of Ethan Jones. Fun game, but we could attack Ethan Jones by taking advantage of his console and hurting the user...

Cornelis van der Krugt, CEO of Philips North America, wrote Milova Apollo on the whiteboard, then pointed at the product and said: “I think everyone here should be aware of our previous plans at Philips. We understand that only if the games on home consoles are fun enough, people will buy our products. So when we reached cooperation with Paramount, MGM and Disney, we stipulated in the contract that if the three of them want to sell console games , then you can only log in to our home host.

This actually proves one thing to everyone. Home consoles are capable of replacing games, and Warner's Atari new generation is the same.

When both of our products have this kind of long-term use attribute, we believe that Ethan Jones, who started developing the console after we released it, would not be able to let this plagiarism pass.

“Because this ability is a good thing for merchants. When home consoles become popular, merchants can earn high profits by selling games. It is also a good thing for players. One machine can play multiple games. The fact that this game can reduce their game expenditures a lot, but at the same time, this is also a good thing for us at Philips and Warner...

Because it allows us to create tons of crap games!

In his name!

Having said this, Cornelis van der Klucht, CEO of Philips North America, knocked hard on the whiteboard, and the clanging sound made several people at the scene realize instantly!

Since the outside world now has a consensus that Ethan's products must be high-quality, then smearing his public image and smashing his food bowl is the best way to make him fall quickly!

And the method is also very simple!

Just spread a bunch of garbage games on the market in the name of Destiny Game!

When players who go to the Destiny game with high expectations and pay for it, once they return home, they find that the game they purchased is just a piece of shit...

The disappointment will make them extremely sad!

The angry flames will burn Ethan to death!

Although this approach is somewhat harmful to others, because it not only damages Ethan Jones's personal image, but also causes serious damage to market confidence, but...

No matter how bad the future environment is, how bad can it be?

When every company is losing money as soon as they get up to play games, destroying the entire market, tearing everything down and starting over, that is the biggest expectation of little people like them!

If you have to describe what Philips and Warner want, it is actually a whale falling! All things are born!

As long as they can kill Ethan Jones, they can all come back again!

However, no matter how powerful this approach is, it still has many problems.

First of all, I want to know, how do you develop games based on the Johnson home console?

Jack Trammell, the boss of Komodo, crossed his arms, frowned and asked, If I'm not wrong, it's impossible for your new generation of Milova Apollo and Atari to be developed at will, right?

You must have a self-protection mechanism.

This could be an encrypted code? Or it could be a hardware setting?

Because if you can develop it at will, wouldn't your product be equivalent to having no trade secrets in the eyes of the enemy? I don't know if you can accept this, but we in Komodo have no way of accepting it. Yes, all our personal computers have protection mechanisms...

These words made Steve Ross, who was sitting in the main seat, laugh.

Ben stared sideways as Cornelis van der Krugt, CEO of Philips North America, told him. He turned his head and said, Of course we know all this, but we have a solution.

“Because our country has legal provisions, when a company has a litigation dispute with another company, both the complaining party and the respondent have the right to submit a statement to the Patent Center, indicating that the patent of a certain product of the other party may be incompatible with The lawsuit is related, so we can get the patent related to it.

Ethan Jones should be very aware of this matter, because when he was sued for infringement by Milohua, he had already obtained the application document for the video game patent in this way.

So, as long as he registers a patent for his machine, we can get the details of his machine. And with those things in hand, are we still afraid that we won't be able to make games?

Um?

Steve Ross winked at Commodore boss Jack Trammell.

The winning question made everyone present smile.

That's right! Power is something that is always mutual!

When Ethan Jones saw the patent content of Mirova Odyssey through litigation in 1975, now, Warner and Philips can also see his patent!

In normal times, this kind of sighting would be innocuous at all. Only people with brains would do such obvious infringements. But now, when Warner and Philips are determined to kill Ethan Jones...

This kind of seeing is very important!

Because I can know how your machine was invented!

This even saves the time of reverse cracking!

You still have a lawsuit with Ethan Jones?

Rockwell's chairman, Willard Rockwell Jr., was a little surprised.

This question made Steve Ross and Cornelis van der Crucht, CEO of Philips North America, smile cruelly, Yes...

The reputation infringement case we sued him before has not been accepted by the courts in the Bay Area~

Oh—— Everyone at the scene recalled it instantly.

That was Warner's first collision with Ethan Jones.

At that time, they released the new generation of Atari and Milovan Apollo. They felt that they had a chance to win, and wanted to step on Ethan Jones to become the leader, but they didn't think so...

They were ripped off by Ethan Jones.

Okay, then there's a second question.

Rockwell's chairman, Willard Rockwell Jr., raised two fingers and said: Even if you can crack their home console, you can't directly release junk games to the outside world.

Because once this kind of impersonation and market-destroying behavior is caught by Ethan Jones, he will definitely overturn the table. When the time comes... can you bear his wrath?

Willard Rockwell Jr.'s words were very reserved, but everyone present understood them.

When Rockwell and Commodore just used commercial means to rob Ethan Jones, and Ethan Jones dared to pick up a dinner plate and smash it in their faces, then when Philips and Warner wanted to cut off Ethan Jones After Jones... they believed that Ethan Jones would definitely pull out a gun and kill them.

As the cruel facts emerged, MGM boss Kirk Kerkorian, Walt Disney CEO Ron Miller, and Commodore boss Jack Trammell all set their sights on this. Steve Ross, the convener of the meeting.

After he felt everyone's doubts and confusion, the corners of Steve Ross's mouth also curled up slightly.

His pupils were flashing with a playful smile.

We certainly understand that, he said, so we're not prepared to do it ourselves.

? These words caused everyone present to frown.

When they looked confused and expressed confusion, Cornelis van der Krugt, CEO of Philips North America, knocked on the whiteboard first, motioned for everyone to look over, and then wrote one word——

Japan.

Note: ① Laomi’s grading system actually has no meaning, it is all about autonomy. The giant thinks my movie is PG, so the film association must give it a PG rating. The most exaggerated case is related to Spielberg. His Indiana Jones and Gremlins are all bloody and violent. According to the rules, it is impossible to be defined as PG. However, he refused to modify it, so the association could only give it a He passed. This tolerance aroused dissatisfaction among other directors. In order to solve the problem, Spielberg suggested that the association introduce PG-13. Then, at the urging of his real father Sidney Sheinberg, the entire association Pillberg changed the rating rules alone. ② I have written about obtaining a copy of the patent through litigation before. The case written in the article is actually a prototype in reality, and the victim is Nintendo. After the collapse of Atari, Atari was split into two, and the company that operates games was renamed Tengen. In order to bypass Nintendo and release games on the Famicom (to avoid licensing fees and Hiroshi Yamauchi's censorship), They obtained copies of all patents registered by Nintendo in North America in the way I wrote in the article (they did not even litigate with Nintendo at the time, but obtained the patents on the grounds of suspected legal risks), and then, the world There are pirated games for Famicom and cracking methods for Famicom. Again, the U.S. Patent Office is a fool. Of course, Tianyuan lost in the end, and they lost everything. However, they came back from the dead in the 1990s and merged back into Time Warner Interactive.

PS, I wrote it down.