Chapter 189: Bold Offer

"Bethesda handled the 3D rendering?" Ethan stroked his chin, suddenly becoming quite interested. He hadn't expected Bethesda and EA to be working together. 

Bethesda was still a relatively small studio at this point, best known for sports games. The entire company seemed to revolve around its founder, Christopher Weaver, and in another year, Bethesda would release its next major sports title, Wayne Gretzky Hockey. 

On paper, Bethesda and EA were surprisingly similar. They focused on many of the same genres, targeted the same platforms, and even relied on similar marketing strategies. 

If anything, that should have made them competitors. Yet here Bethesda was, listed among the developers working on an EA project through Interplay. That immediately caught Ethan's attention. 

Christopher Weaver was no ordinary developer. His background in physics gave him an unusually technical perspective, and he had already built a reputation for pushing the boundaries of what game development could achieve. 

This wasn't some simple trick like the physics effects used in Pinball. Weaver was interested in actual physics simulation. 

That was probably one reason Bethesda was one of the few studios at the time willing to build and experiment with its own game technology instead of relying entirely on existing solutions. 

And Bethesda was small, the entire studio had fewer than ten employees. Besides Weaver himself, there was Julian Lefay, the studio's lead programmer and one of the key figures behind what would eventually become The Elder Scrolls. 2

A physicist who knew his way around game engines. And a man who would one day help build The Elder Scrolls. Ethan had to admit, that was a combination worth paying attention to. 

The real question was whether he could get to them first. 

'Should I try to recruit them before EA gets too comfortable with them?' 

.... 

Bethesda Softworks, Maryland. 

Whatever the outside world thought about the partnership between Bethesda and EA, Christopher had already gotten what he wanted. Fallout was in his hands, and he'd made a considerable amount of money from the deal. But he wasn't thinking about either of those things right now. 

Today was one of the most important days of the week. It was Bethesda's tabletop RPG night, and no matter what else was happening, nothing was supposed to interrupt it. 1

Inside the studio's fairly spacious lounge, several people were gathered around a long table. 

A large pile of dice was scattered messily across the table, including six-sided dice, twenty-sided dice, and dice of all kinds of shapes, along with that there were also miniature figures depicting all kinds of fantasy creatures, most of which looked like they had been collected from somewhere over the years. 

Julian sat at the center of the table, speaking in a low, dramatic voice like a storyteller setting the stage for an adventure. 

"You push open the door. The hinges groan, rusted almost to the point of breaking. From somewhere in the darkness beyond, you hear something breathing." 

As he finished, Julian took several exaggerated breaths himself. Christopher leaned back in his chair and reached for the dice. 

"Make a Perception check." 1

The die rolled across the table several times before finally stopping on eleven. With his attribute modifier added, it was just enough to pass. 

"Shh," Julian whispered, immediately raising a finger to his lips and signaling everyone to quiet down. "You heard that sound," he continued, lowering his voice even further, "something seems to be approaching, judging by the slow, heavy footsteps." 

"One step…" He paused, listening carefully. 

"Then another…" 

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" 

The lounge door was suddenly hammered on, startling everyone inside. 

"Who the hell interrupted our sacred tabletop RPG session!" 

Christopher shot to his feet, visibly annoyed, and marched over to open the door. It was one of the company's assistants, and judging by the interruption, whatever she needed was probably important. 

Christopher was about to ask what was going on when he noticed someone standing in the reception area behind her. 

Ethan Hayes. 

Christopher stopped and, for a moment, simply stared before quietly pulling the door shut behind him and nodding to the assistant. Well, if the game had been interrupted, then so be it; at this point, he might as well hear what Ethan had to say. 1

"If you're here about the 3D rendering module for Fallout, I'm afraid you've made the trip for nothing." 

The two men eventually sat down in the reception room, and before Ethan could say anything, Christopher got straight to the point. 

"I already sold it to EA." 

"3D rendering?" Ethan waved a hand dismissively. "No, that's not what I'm interested in." 

He deliberately put on an almost arrogant expression. And, honestly, he had earned the right to be confident. The BSP tree technology behind DOOM had taken only a little over a day to develop. 

Most of the remaining development time had gone into optimizing OpenGL and producing the game's art assets. 

Fallout's use of 3D technology had certainly caught his attention but compared with the technology GAMENOVA was currently working on, it was nowhere close. 

At best, it could be considered as an interesting experiment. A small project compared with what GAMENOVA was building. Still, Christopher had just given Ethan something useful. 

"You sold it to EA?" Ethan leaned forward slightly. "Would you mind telling me what they offered?" 

"Hmm…" Christopher hesitated before answering, "I suppose there's no reason not to tell you."  

"The Fallout IP, ten percent of the game's sales revenue, and seven million dollars in cash." 

Ethan stared at him for a moment before shaking his head, and a second later, he burst out laughing. 

"Seven million?" 

Where had EA found such a sucker? 

Christopher's expression shifted as he looked at him, clearly not amused. 

"Is there something funny about that?" 

Ethan tried to suppress his laughter. 

"Ahem… No, no. Christopher, I'm not interested in your 3D rendering technology." He paused before continuing, "What I want is your physics engine." 

Only then did Ethan explain why he'd actually come. 

"To put it simply, I'd like to acquire Bethesda and bring the studio under GAMENOVA." 

Christopher's expression shifted slightly when he heard that. 

"I'd want Bethesda to focus on developing game engines, especially physics technology, and I'd also like the studio to work on RPGs." 2

Activision was already well established, but people like David were still, at their core, game developers. Having them spend all day buried in mathematics and engine development wasn't necessarily the best use of their talents. So, Bethesda could fill that role. 

Although such an aggressive proposal was tempting enough to pique Christopher's interest, it was still far from sufficient to make him accept. After all, if he was capable of creating an outstanding physics engine, why would he need to rely on someone else instead of using it in his own games? 2

And if he could develop RPGs himself, what reason would he have to involve Ethan and his team? 

As a prodigy who had graduated from MIT, Christopher acknowledged that GAMENOVA's hardware development capabilities might indeed be beyond his current reach. But when it came to software technology, he saw nothing particularly extraordinary about what they had accomplished. 

Given enough time and resources for research and development, he was confident that he could quickly catch up with even their most seemingly advanced technologies. 

Take DOOM, for example. 

Its most important technical breakthrough was a BSP tree. After spending a week studying it carefully, he had easily worked backward from its implementation and reverse-engineered the entire system. 

He was confident that he could eventually recreate the rest of DOOM's improvements as well. And as for developing 16-bit games for NovaXeno? That hardly seemed like a challenge at all. 1

Weaver saw the situation clearly. Although NovaXeno's specifications were currently unmatched anywhere in the world, he knew it was only a matter of time before the PC market caught up. PC manufacturers would inevitably close the gap once they had time to respond and adapt. 

He shook his head, making his position clear. 

[Ding!] 3

[Quest Issued]: Show Bethesda What Real Technology Looks Like 

[Description]: Release a game so technologically advanced that Christopher is left completely outclassed. 

[Reward]: All Attributes +100, Skill Package ×1 3

"Hmm…" Ethan thought for a moment. 

'What perfect timing.' 

A smile slowly spread across his face as he leaned back in his chair, "Alright then, Christopher, but before you make a decision, there's something I'd like you to see." 

"Our latest game is already in internal testing, so I'd like you to play it and give us your honest feedback." 

Ethan's smile widened slightly as he continued, "Especially when it comes to the physics system, because if we can get advice from someone with your background, I'm sure it'll help us push the game even further." 1

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