Santa Monica.
In the conference room at Daenerys Entertainnt headquarters, after hearing EA's managent present their report on operations, everyone turned to the main topic of today's eting.
A secretary handed out a packet of materials, and the room collectively started dredging up everything they knew about the novel ntioned inside, one called Dune.
Dune was not a single novel, but the na for a series of science-fiction books centered around the planet known as Dune.
After North Arica's fad sci-fi writer Frank Herbert released the first Dune novel in 1965, he spent the rest of his life refining the "Dune universe" until his death in 1986, publishing multiple works in first editions along the way, including Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, and Dune ssiah, all revolving around the sa desert world.
Those novels were largely set on a sand-covered planet called Arrakis.
In the distant future, people discovered a substance on Arrakis known as "spice." It could extend human lifespan and assist with space folding, among other functions, enabling interstellar travel. And for many years, Arrakis was the only planet known to produce spice, so countless stories unfolded around that world of endless dunes.
With its richly built setting and sweeping narrative structure, the Dune series had exploded in popularity almost from the mont it appeared, even being dubbed by so dia as The Lord of the Rings in space.
And, much like The Lord of the Rings, people had wanted for years to bring the story to the big screen.
In 1984, De Laurentiis Entertainnt hired David Lynch to direct and ultimately burned through forty million dollars to make a film adaptation at last. The result, however, was not good. With forty million invested, the movie's North Arican box office barely cleared thirty million.
Sitting in the conference room now, even Simon couldn't help being curious how De Laurentiis's boss had decided to let a director as artsy as David Lynch tackle a massive comrcial sci-fi epic, and then had the nerve to spend forty million doing it.
Forty million in 1984.
De Laurentiis Entertainnt was bankrupt now. Simon quickly pulled his thoughts back, walked to the whiteboard at the front of the room, picked up a marker, and wrote a few words:
Real-Ti Strategy Ga
EA's current strength was sports gas, and Simon had no intention of overturning that.
But while keeping EA dominant in sports titles, he planned to have them focus next on real-ti strategy gas, the genre that would beco the most popular throughout the 1990s. Because of how the genre worked, it also fit the PC platform better.
Even though he planned to port many of EA's gas to ho consoles, Simon still intended for EA to maintain its edge in the PC space.
For today's eting, Simon had already done a lot of howork. Based on what he rembered, he had personally compiled the materials everyone was now holding.
Real-ti strategy gas had begun to take shape in the early 1980s, but they only reached their peak in the 1990s with titles like Warcraft and StarCraft, when the concept of RTS was fully refined. Right now, the various RTS gas out there were only rough prototypes. They typically lacked the defining elents of a mature RTS, things like resource gathering, unit production, and real-ti combat.
On top of that, Simon wasn't about to pull out the peak-tier RTS gas he'd played, like Warcraft and StarCraft. Partly because hardware still imposed limits at the mont, and partly because he wanted EA to practice first and build experience.
In his original tiline, RTS gas only beca truly mature after more than a decade of trial and accumulation. EA had no experience in the genre yet. If they jumped straight into the deep end, they might ruin a few classics Simon rembered.
And in any case, the RTS gas adapted from Dune had been quite successful in that other tiline as well. That was why Simon had told Nancy to pay top dollar to secure the ga adaptation rights for the Dune series.
Daenerys Entertainnt offered the rights holder terms similar to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles deal: a base adaptation fee of five hundred thousand dollars, plus five percent of net profit from all Dune related video gas. Word of Nancy's negotiations had already leaked, and there were competitors making probing offers, but in the end the rights still landed with Daenerys Entertainnt.
After all, the five hundred thousand up-front fee was secondary. If Dune could achieve the kind of success the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ga had, then the five percent net profit share alone would be a huge payout.
The failure of Lynch's 1984 Dune film had instantly turned what many studios once coveted into sothing no one wanted. The Dune rights holders had already been burned hard on screen adaptations, so naturally they weren't going to make the sa mistake with a ga license.
Compared to the film's failure, video gas based on Dune had all been very successful.
In Simon's original tiline, Blizzard's Warcraft was widely regarded as an imitation that followed the 1992 RTS ga Dune II.
Simon went into detail for everyone in the room, explaining the key points for developing an RTS resource-gathering system, a real-ti combat system, and a unit production system. He also briefly described the genre's future in networked multiplayer. Finally, he said, "That's the rough picture. You'll need to explore the detailed plan yourselves. Personally, I'm very optimistic about RTS gas. This genre can push EA's advantage in the PC space to the limit, so I hope you treat this project with real seriousness."
EA's current chairman and CEO, and also the company's founder, Trip Hawkins, spoke up after Simon finished. "Simon, the way you describe it, developing this ga sounds similar in many ways to SimCity, which we released this sumr."
Simon nodded. "I've read the materials on SimCity, and I've played it. The first version isn't exactly a success, and I think that's mainly due to platform limitations. If it can be further developed into a 3D version, it'll be very popular. But SimCity doesn't have a combat system. What I'm describing as RTS is a different concept."
Another EA executive asked, "So, Mr. Westeros, are you saying the core of this ga is combat?"
"Of course not. If it's only combat, then it becos a different concept again. What matters is how the real-ti combat system, the resource-gathering system, and the unit production system work together. During developnt, I hope you'll spend the first few months refining the setting. Don't rush. This is your first attempt, so building experience is the most important thing."
Once the topic opened up, others in the room began asking all kinds of questions.
By the ti it was noon, the eting finally ended.
Simon still had to head to the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills for the signing luncheon hosted by Qintex. He'd just stepped out of the conference room when Nancy hurried after him and said quietly, "I couldn't finalize the next pay structure with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles developnt team. About half of them are going to resign. They plan to form their own studio."
Blizzard Studio's first ga had beco a phenonon. Naturally, the developnt team's value rose with it.
Ga developnt in this era didn't yet require the kind of massive teams seen years later, with hundreds of people coordinating together. Sotis one or two people could do it all. Because of the enormous profits expected from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the team had demanded raises, and Nancy had been dealing with it recently.
In the end, it still didn't work.
Simon, however, didn't particularly care.
Those developers likely only saw that a single Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ga had brought Daenerys Entertainnt over a hundred million dollars in profit. They didn't see the relentless investnt Daenerys Entertainnt had made in publishing and distribution.
Without Blizzard Studio, without Daenerys Entertainnt's financial backing and channel support, those people were naively convinced that if they'd learned a few key points about developnt, they could replicate the miracle. It was, frankly, childish.
And with the arrival of the thirty-two-bit console era and further growth of the PC platform, the age when one or two people could make a full ga was going to end.
Once the 1990s arrived, ga developnt was destined to beco large-team work. Tens or hundreds of people building a single ga. The risks involved were not sothing a handful of individuals could shoulder. Even if they found another patron to bankroll them, the odds of recreating a phenonon like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were slim to none.
After all, while Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles might not reach the heights of Super Mario, it was still a phenonon, a ga that could sell millions of cartridges.
Simon could predict its success only because of his foreknowledge, and he'd poured in enormous manpower and resources. Even if those people had picked up so developnt tricks, all they could do next was gamble on projects and hope.
And luck was the least reliable thing in the world.
"Let them go," Simon said. "This industry never runs out of technical talent."
As he spoke, he noticed Nancy didn't look particularly worried either. His executive clearly understood that Daenerys Entertainnt held far more advantages than a pure dev team ever could. Losing a batch of engineers would mostly affect the schedule for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sequel. Daenerys Entertainnt was never going to hand over studio equity just because one ga had hit big.
Hearing Simon say that, Nancy replied, "I'll start recruiting again as soon as possible. If needed, we can also borrow so technical staff from EA."
"Actually, I've been thinking about ga studios lately…" Simon started, but by then they'd already reached the ground floor. He decided, "How about you co with to Beverly Hills for the luncheon, and we can talk on the way?"
Nancy didn't overthink it. She nodded and got into Simon's luxury car with him.
As the sedan pulled out of the Daenerys Entertainnt parking lot, Simon continued. "I don't think a ga studio can easily maintain long-term, vigorous vitality. For a studio to produce one or two successful gas over its entire life cycle is already rare. So Daenerys Entertainnt can adopt a model similar to film developnt. Build a team, invest in a project, and when the project ends, if a sequel is necessary, the team stays. If not, dissolve the team."
What Simon was really thinking about was how, in his mory, excellent ga studios usually declined quickly after being acquired.
But right now, that hadn't happened yet. EA was still far from earning the reputation of a "studio killer."
Back then, as an outsider, Simon had hated seeing EA "ruin" one studio after another. Now, standing in the position of an owner, his way of thinking inevitably shifted.
In his mory, studios that declined after being acquired by major publishers might have been constrained by their parent companies. But another possibility was that the teams gradually lost their creative edge. Ga companies had to make profits. They couldn't keep pouring money into a studio forever just because it once made a hit, letting it develop whatever it dread up without regard to cost or return.
And to be blunt, when publishers bought studios, what they often wanted most was the successful IP the studios already held.
If that was the case, then it was better to imitate film production and invest from scratch in ga projects with strong ideas. Costs would drop sharply.
For example, acquiring Blizzard, with rights to hot franchises like Warcraft and StarCraft, might cost tens of billions. But investing only in the developnt of projects like Warcraft and StarCraft might cost just a few million. There would certainly be many failures along the way, but as long as one or two out of ten projects beca true phenona, that was success.
After all, video gas usually had long life cycles. When a ga hit, it often supported many sequels.
After hearing Simon's idea, Nancy agreed. "It's worth trying. Also, to motivate the teams, we can promise them profit sharing. That would let us compress costs a bit in early developnt."
When it ca to long-term returns, most people were willing to accept lower pay up front.
In ga developnt now, it might not be obvious yet. But once the industry moved into the era of gas built by teams of dozens or hundreds, labor costs would beco the single most important factor in a project budget.
"Take so ti and think it through. Put together a proposal," Simon said, then smiled. "And speaking of pay, do you want a raise?"
Nancy shot him a sidelong look. "Are you planning to give one?"
"That depends. If you threaten and say you'll jump ship imdiately unless I raise your pay, then of course I'll give you a raise."
"And then I'll end up like Robert."
"Very possible. I'm actually a very generous person, but I don't like people coming to and demanding things."
"That's a very unreasonable way of thinking."
"I'm too busy to argue reason with you."
"..."
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