Chapter 136: Japanese Challenge

In a sense, it was an outrageously arrogant statement, yet there was no way to refute it.

By this point, GAMENOVA was no longer merely a company that made money by selling games. Its reach had already extended into numerous industries, each one continuously feeding resources back into the company.

Even if one looked only at the gaming business, the two phenomenal blockbusters, Pokémon and Tetris, were more than enough to keep GAMENOVA alive indefinitely. Not to mention The King of Fighters, whose steady stream of DLC continued generating long-term revenue.

Aside from the semiconductor industry, Ethan genuinely couldn't think of another business where the company could possibly run short of money.

"Come to GAMENOVA."

Ethan extended the invitation once again.

After finally digesting the astonishing remarks, Ethan had just made, much of Sid's resistance had already melted away.

Although he didn't understand business particularly well, there was one thing he understood perfectly. With the video game industry developing at such a rapid pace, it wouldn't remain this fragmented forever.

EA, Activision, Sierra On-Line, Origin Systems, once companies like these reached their growth bottlenecks, once they crossed that threshold, the next stage of the gaming industry would inevitably arrive.

The big fish would eat the small fish. The industry giants would continuously acquire and absorb smaller studios, consolidating intellectual properties and resources while growing ever larger.

Like every other industry, capitalization was an unavoidable trend, and the blue-ocean era created by Atari's collapse was coming to an end.

Could MicroProse truly continue sailing steadily through the coming chaos? Sid couldn't honestly give an optimistic answer.

If he truly wanted to continue creating games with complete freedom, then perhaps the path Ethan was offering was actually one of the few viable options.

Instead of answering immediately, he turned to look at Bill beside him.

Noticing Sid's gaze, Bill was momentarily stunned before reaching out and patting him on the shoulder.

"Congratulations, Sid. This is the opportunity countless game developers dream of."

"Bill, I..."

"You should just accept Ethan's offer. As for me, I've honestly been getting a little tired of this lately. I'm thinking about starting a sales company or something."

"Hm?"

Ethan scratched his head and looked at Bill.

"You're not coming?"

"Huh?"

This time, Bill was the one left dumbfounded.

"I can come too?"

"Didn't I say so? I'm here to acquire MicroProse."

"But... Ethan... I don't know anything about game development."

Looking at the two of them, Ethan couldn't help feeling that this arrangement was almost identical to the partnership he and Sam had once shared.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"GAMENOVA is currently preparing its own publishing network. We need people with experience in that area. I've heard that, back in the day, you practically built MicroProse's sales operation from scratch by yourself?"

According to the information he had gathered, MicroProse hadn't followed Sierra's publishing model. They hadn't hired a publisher. Instead, Bill, the businessman of the pair, had personally gone out to persuade retailers.

To put it simply, he drove across the country himself, visiting stores one by one and personally pitching their products. It was a rather clumsy approach, but surprisingly, it worked.

Back before MicroProse had even been officially established, the two of them had earned over two hundred thousand dollars in just one year through that very method.

Ethan looked at Bill's status panel. Although there was still a considerable gap compared to someone with absurd stats like Dell, Bill was still an A-rank talent. More importantly, he was much easier to manage than Dell.

As GAMENOVA continued expanding, Ethan couldn't rely forever on big distributors or independent distribution channels like Dell's company. He needed a sales network of his own.

With that, the final obstacle to the negotiations disappeared. The three of them quickly reached an agreement, drafted a preliminary contract, packed their things, and hurried off toward California.

....

When Ethan brought Sid into the office, he found Will sitting there with a gloomy expression. It seemed that SimCity's first-week sales had indeed dealt him quite a blow.

"Hey, cheer up. You sold 200,000 copies, and you're still not happy?"

"Ethan..."

Will looked as though he might burst into tears on the spot.

He had thought he had finally found someone who truly understood him. He had thought he was finally about to prove himself. Instead, he ended up creating the lowest-selling game in GAMENOVA's history.

It was thoroughly embarrassing.

"Don't worry. Once hardware technology catches up, you can add back all the features you were forced to cut. Its sequel will definitely be a huge hit."

At the end of the day, the PC gaming market was still in its infancy. It was nothing like the future, where it would utterly dominate the console market in terms of market share.

Not to mention that Will's true masterpiece, the universally beloved life simulation game, hadn't even been born yet, and there was absolutely no question about Will's talent.

"So, this is the designer of SimCity?"

Standing beside Ethan, Sid had clearly pieced together the conversation. He looked at Will with surprise.

He had imagined the designer would be a meticulous old professor or perhaps some scholarly academic. The last thing he expected was someone much younger than himself.

"That's right. Let me introduce you. This is Will Wright. Will, this is Sid Meier. Starting today, he's officially part of GAMENOVA."

"Will! SimCity is truly an outstanding game, especially its interpretation of urban dynamics."

"Hehe..."

Hearing someone praise him so highly, Will instantly forgot all his previous frustrations.

His eyes lit up as he eagerly grabbed Sid and prepared to explain his design philosophy.

"Anyway, let's leave it at that for now. Sid, you two should get acquainted first. Later, I have an idea I'd like to discuss with both of you. I call it a '4X strategy game.' Basically, it's…"

Before Ethan could finish speaking, Sam suddenly walked out of the office and waved him over.

"Ethan, it's Satoshi on the phone."

"Satoshi? Why is he calling at a time like this?"

He froze for a moment, gestured for the two of them to continue chatting, and quickly walked into the office.

"Hello?"

"Ethan, we've run into a bit of a problem."

On the other end of the line, Satoshi's voice wasn't exactly panicked, but there was unmistakable concern in it.

"Nintendo released a new game today. It's Dragon Quest, developed by a third-party company called Enix."

"It looks like they're using this game to slow NovaBox's momentum."

"Nintendo has gone all out with the marketing campaign. They even brought in Akira Toriyama for the character designs and Koichi Sugiyama to compose the music. The scale of the promotion is enormous."

As he listened to Satoshi's report, Ethan frowned slightly.

Dragon Quest was one of Japan's three legendary national RPG franchises. The other two being Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda. That fact alone was enough to demonstrate its significance.

Judging by the timeline, Dragon Quest had been released nearly a month earlier than it had in the original timeline. It was a truly monumental work with an overwhelming influence in Japan.

In fact, it was Dragon Quest that laid the foundation for the distinctive style of Japanese fantasy in later generations, indirectly exerting a profound influence on manga, anime, and countless other forms of entertainment.

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