, Rejection 3

Chapter 19 Three Refusal

In fact, Ethan had already prepared himself for failure before coming to Exidi.

Over the past two months, while in Milwaukee, he has witnessed firsthand what kind of lives game developers lead in this era.

Ethan works as a marketing specialist, earning eighty dollars a week. This is roughly the same salary for similar jobs on the market.

And what about the engineers who make video games?

As Pete Kaufman said, they were paid two hundred dollars a week.

On the surface, engineers are in a much better position than marketers, earning 2.5 times their salary.

The problem is that sales involve commissions.

Engineers all have fixed salaries.

Yes! No matter how good the game is, these guys won't get a single penny!

In Ethan's previous life, this was almost impossible!

You should know that in the future, a wildly popular game could enable countless people to achieve financial freedom!

The programmer of "Honor of Kings" once showed off his annual salary of one million yuan, while Xu, the chief planner who worked for Ding Lei on "Fantasy Westward Journey" and later left NetEase to start his own company, could support a football team!

But in this era, nobody cares about these people.

Almost all industry professionals believe that people like video games because they have an extraordinary charm and reflect the general public's curiosity about new things.

Under this philosophy, bosses eager to make money naturally won't pay developers much, but when someone comes to them with their ideas...

A one-time buyout—that's what they consider kindness!

There's nothing we can do; capitalists are all the same.

So even though Exidi refused to share the profits, Ethan Jones was not discouraged.

After driving south along Highway 5 for six hours with frequent stops, we finally arrived in Los Angeles at 4 p.m.

With no intention of visiting the Hollywood Walk of Fame or gazing at Beverly Hills, Ethan drove straight into the gates of Sega after arriving in California's most bustling city.

In later generations, the company that became known to the world, Liben Sega, was actually a well-known American company in this era.

It was officially established in 1940. At first, their business was not so legitimate. They manufactured slot machines and sold them to military bases in Honolulu for soldiers stationed there to gamble.

Later, due to the Gambling Equipment Transportation Act, slot machines were no longer allowed in America. So Sega expanded its business to Liben, selling slot machines to military bases there. After the business became saturated, it further extended to Southeast Asia, still serving American soldiers in military bases.

It wasn't until the 1960s that the U.S. Air Force, thoroughly annoyed by them, finally snapped and cracked down hard on this gambling business that had entered the military. Only then did Sega reluctantly change its business. To evade responsibility, the founder sold Sega to a Lippen company, and only then did the nature of the company change.

Of course, this is just a shell; the vast majority of the shares still belong to the Americans.

Therefore, when Ethan arrived with the snake, he was greeted by a white man.

After seeing the effects of the Snake game, the white man in the suit revealed a greedy look in his eyes.

"Mr. Jones, would you sell it for twenty thousand dollars?"

"That's impossible," Ethan Jones shook his head and refused, saying, "I didn't even accept Exidi's offer of fifty thousand."

"Oh! That's such a shame!"

The white manager smiled and said, "Mr. Jones, I admit that Snake Game is a good game, but at the same time, I also want to tell you frankly that I don't think any company on the market will accept your profit-sharing proposal. If you really want to enter the video game industry, I suggest that you make your own machines and sell them yourself. Don't show these machines to other companies, because that could easily lead to a tragedy like Pong."

Although the Sega manager was very careful in his wording and very sincere in his tone, Ethan Jones knew that this guy was just a wolf in sheep's clothing, trying to get information about the game's copyright registration from him.

If he appeared extremely nervous, Ethan believed that after sending him away, Sega would definitely rush to produce a draft of a copy within a day and register the copyright with the copyright office.

Ethan Jones's answer to this common shopping mall tactic was simple.

"Sir, thank you very much for your reminder and for your kind intentions, but I think that in California, no one would be so foolish as to plagiarize my work. Before I came here, Professor Barbara Babcock of Stanford Law School had already assessed the rights to this product, and she said that we are 100% able to successfully defend our rights in the event of plagiarism."

"? 』

Ethan's answer surprised the Sega manager.

"Mr. Jones, are you from Stanford?"

"No, I'm not from Stanford, but this work is."

Ethan smiled slightly and said, "Because the inventor is very busy, he asked me to help sell them."

"..."

The white manager paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Looks like I was overthinking it."

"Good luck."

"Thanks."

Since Sega was unwilling to cooperate, Ethan simply left.

Continuing south, we headed to San Diego to discuss matters with Gremlin there.

As a game company that was founded around the same time as Expedi and had already taken over all arcade production in the San Diego area, like Expedi and Sega, it was also very interested in Snake, but the conditions it offered were actually just so-so.

It's impossible to split the profits; the only possibility is a buyout.

This fact also made Ethan Jones laugh and shake his head, indicating his refusal.

After hitting a wall three times in a row, Ethan Jones had already visited all the game developers in Southern California. If he wanted to continue, he could only head north. Before that, he drove a thousand miles round trip and went home first.

Thomas's exhausted appearance drew concern from his family, and after listening to his story, he immediately put down his knife and fork.

"Oh, Ethan, I don't really understand, does the arcade business have to partner with other companies?"

"I mean, can't we do it ourselves?"

"Evelyn might not have the time, but hiring a few apprentices to assemble it shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"If it's about money, I can invest 100,000 in you."

"You know, We are a family."

Evelyn thought her father's suggestion was a good one.

Meanwhile, propping her elbows on the table, she added, "How about I submit another entrepreneurship application to the school? If I start a company in my name, Stanford can provide free startup space. It's not difficult; entrepreneurship is very common among students in our engineering school. Faculty members can sign off on it directly, and the school can even sponsor $5,000."

"Oh, Thomas, Evelyn, thank you."

Ethan, sitting at the table, clasped his hands together and smiled in thanks, "But...no need..."

"As for the reason, I told you before, if it were two years ago, when there weren't so many electronic arcade machines on the market, Thomas, if you said you would give me 100,000, I would definitely ask you for 200,000. If you said you would give me 200,000, I would definitely ask you for 400,000, because the more money we have, the more likely we are to seize the opportunity."

"But now, it's impossible to use money to achieve large-scale market dominance. Thomas, those arcade machines that entertainment venues buy for over a thousand dollars each are like the loading trucks in our orchard. You spend five thousand dollars on a loading truck, and after only three to five years, they want you to replace the whole thing. Would you be willing to do that?"

"uh-huh?"

Ethan gave a soft snort.

When it came to questions that directly affected his own interests, Thomas decisively shook his head. "I'd snap that salesman's neck!"

"Although I can afford it, that's not how you spend money!"

"Yeah~" Ethan nodded with a smile, "So, it's not about money now."

"It's a matter of market acceptance."

"I think Thomas, you should understand that."

"Hmm." Thomas nodded.

"So what are you planning to do now?" Although Ethan wasn't making any money right now, and was even encountering trouble on his way to earning it, Thomas liked Ethan's current state. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"To be honest, I really like how you are right now."

"I feel much more energetic than when I was working before."

"Thank you," Ethan said with a smile, adding, "Thomas, if you really want to help me, then lend me the Ford for a few more days. I also have a company in Sacramento; I'll go see if they're willing to cooperate."

Just as Ethan was trying to recall the name of the company in Sacramento, the phone suddenly rang.

Thomas got up to answer the phone, said a few words, and then called out to Ethan, "Ethan, it's for you."

"Looking for me?" Ethan asked, puzzled.

Because he clearly remembered that he had not left his number with Sega and Gremlin.

"Could it be that Exiddi has changed his mind?" Ethan Jones muttered to himself.

But when he answered the phone, he heard a voice on the other end that he didn't want to hear at all.

"Ethan Jones? It's Frank! Frank from San Francisco! Do you remember me?"

"Oh, of course I remember, Mr. Foberle."

Frank's voice made Ethan very unhappy.

Because he remembered the threat he had faced that day.

That's absolutely terrible!

Ethan said irritably, "Did you need something?"

"Hey bro! I don't like the nickname you gave me!"

The head of the San Francisco electronics supply company on the other end of the phone let out a surprised cry before saying, "But since you're about to apologize, I'll forgive you for now!"

"..."

Ethan Jones was speechless at the inexplicable words.

"I don't understand what you mean. Bro, if you don't have anything important to say, I'm hanging up."

"No! No! No!"

Ethan Jones' threat elicited screams, and the guy on the other end of the phone raised his voice, "Don't hang up! You'll regret it! Mirova kid, if I remember correctly, your company didn't receive an invitation to the upcoming video game expo in San Francisco, did it? But I! The great Frank! Have an invitation!"

"Brother, I misunderstood you last time! So I've decided to use this invitation to apologize! What do you say, will you accept?"

Note: ① It's worth noting that in those days, a game developer's best-case scenario was a weekly wage of $200. This meant their annual salary was at most $1976, with no revenue sharing whatsoever. This was stated by Activision founder David Crane himself; they were the first in the global gaming industry to independently develop games and negotiate revenue sharing with publishers, and that was in 1979. ② Gremlin: Founded in 1971, Gremlin's most famous game is *Blockade* (1976), one of the two most popular games in the US that year. While the name might not be familiar, its evolved version is called *Snake*. The original *Blockade* was a two-player game where two players controlled a snake crawling on the screen; whoever hit a wall first or the other died. There was no concept of eating. Later, the company was acquired by Sega in 1982.

(End of this chapter)