Chapter 135: Creative Freedom

In a certain sense, Sid Meier was, in many ways, even more extreme than Will Wright.

Rather than artists, the two of them were more like the stereotypical engineering-minded programmers when it came to game design. They took complex and often obscure real-world systems, distilled them down to their most essential and enjoyable elements, and presented them to players.

Of course, there were obvious differences in their design philosophies as well. For example, Sid would never create a completely open-ended sandbox game like SimCity.

But still fundamentally, the two were remarkably alike.

Thud.

Bill heard something fall to the floor behind him. It was immediately followed by hurried footsteps. He turned around in confusion and saw his friend sprinting toward the entrance.

Only then did Bill remember to look at the business card in his hand.

[CEO of GAMENOVA, Ethan Hayes]

"?!"

"Mr. Hayes, what a coincidence. We were just playing GAMENOVA's newest game, SimCity."

The two of them led Ethan over to the PC and showed him the modestly sized but already well-developed city on the screen.

With just a single glance, Ethan could tell that Sid had been seriously playing the game.

It was a city running with remarkable order. Its income wasn't especially high, but it was stable and steady, constantly providing enough funds to support further expansion.

"Impressive. I had to restart five times during my own playtesting. This game is actually pretty difficult."

Ethan was genuinely surprised.

The original SimCity hadn't yet undergone the numerous adjustments made in later generations to make it more accessible to casual players. Or rather, most games of this era simply weren't easy in the first place.

Although he had made some adjustments to the finer details and improved the disaster system, the game was still every bit as challenging as Fire Emblem.

"Just like I'd expect from one of your games, Ethan. It's as original as ever, and somehow still unbelievably fun."

Sid loved this kind of enjoyment built upon logic and absolute rationality, as it aligned perfectly with his own design philosophy.

"Strictly speaking, this was actually designed by another developer at GAMENOVA. Believe me, you two would definitely have plenty to talk about."

Ethan said with a laugh.

These two legendary game designers would go on to become giants of the same era and genre, but even years later, they never hesitated to praise each other's work in interviews.

Many of Will's later designs were influenced by Sid, and the reverse was equally true.

The birth of the immortal masterpiece Civilization, the towering monument that would dominate the strategy genre, was inseparable from Will Wright and his SimCity.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Even their fates turned out to be astonishingly similar, as naturally, intellectual properties this interesting couldn't escape the attention of capital.

During its decline, MicroProse was acquired, changed hands several times, and eventually ended up under Hasbro in 1998 before officially shutting down in 2003.

Although Sid later founded a new studio called Firaxis, it had already lost the most valuable decade in which it could have seized the initiative, and even in later years, Firaxis was merely one of the development studios under 2K Games, itself a subsidiary of Take-Two.

"Sid, would you be interested in joining GAMENOVA and continuing your creative work there?"

"?"

Sid had never expected to hear such an offer. For a moment, he simply stood there, stunned.

Join GAMENOVA? That was an opportunity countless game developers could only dream of.

"GAMENOVA is undoubtedly the greatest game company in the world but..."

Sid spoke slowly, wearing a polite smile.

"MicroProse is my home, Ethan, and only here can I freely develop the games I truly want to make."

MicroProse had been built from the ground up by Sid and Bill together, starting in a tiny basement office. It was the kind of story people loved to tell about classic startups.

To Sid, MicroProse meant far more than just a company. It was something deeply personal. Simply put, money was no longer a concern for him.

Over the past two years, although their games hadn't become massive blockbuster hits, they had sold well enough to make both of them financially independent.

For Sid, making games had become a form of self-fulfillment, so a free and independent studio suited him perfectly.

GAMENOVA's greatness was also a kind of shackle.

The larger GAMENOVA became, the less it could focus solely on making games the way a small studio like theirs could. They needed commercially successful blockbusters.

"Ethan, if possible, we'd be happy to develop games for GAMENOVA. It would be an honor to become one of GAMENOVA's third-party developers."

Sid didn't want his creative thinking to be driven by capital. Hearing his refusal, Ethan fell silent for a moment. Sid Meier wasn't Will Wright, he was already in his thirties, right in the prime of his career.

For a game designer who wasn't short on money and had little pressure in life, perhaps the greatest joy was simply staying in this office, writing code.

Ethan walked over to Sid's PC and gently picked up the mouse box.

"SimCity really is an excellent game."

Though he was talking about SimCity, what occupied his mind was another game entirely, Civilization.

He even thought of famous masterpieces like Hearts of Iron and Stellaris.

Were they fun? Yes, they were ridiculously fun. The kind of masterpieces that could make players sit in front of their computers for an entire day without realizing it, but they all shared the same problem.

Critical acclaim without massive commercial success.

"Electronic Games gave this game an exceptionally high score of 9 out of 10."

Sid listened with a frown, unsure where Ethan was going with this.

"But..."

"As of the moment I boarded my flight to come here, its sales had only just surpassed 200,000 copies."

Although the game had only been on sale for a week, among GAMENOVA's catalog, that result was firmly at the bottom.

After all, even an absurdly difficult hardcore title like Fire Emblem had achieved over a million sales in Japan alone. Not to mention a mega-hit like Tetris, which had sold in the tens of millions.

"So few?"

Sid didn't react much to the number. But Bill, who handled the sales side of their business, immediately realized the issue. Those figures weren't much different from some of the flight simulation games they had released.

If this had been the work of an independent game studio, those sales would have been considered excellent. But this was GAMENOVA, so calling it a commercial disappointment wouldn't be an exaggeration.

Once you removed the attention generated by the GAMENOVA name itself, how many of those sales had actually come from ordinary consumers? The answer certainly wouldn't be flattering.

"Well, I'm not trying to complain or play the victim or anything. I just want to say that, to me, a game's sales simply don't matter."

"Huh?"

A game company whose owner didn't care about game sales?

"I have only one requirement for a game."

"It has to be fun!"

"Beyond that, I can fund the hardware requirements myself, and I'll help out wherever I can with any technical challenges."

"As long as it's genuinely fun to play, I don't care if it doesn't even sell 100,000 copies."

Ethan paused before continuing, "To put it simply... GAMENOVA isn't short on money."