Although Daenerys Entertainment's gaming division held a special slot with Nintendo, it couldn't compete with domestic veterans like Capcom. In recent years, feeling threatened, Nintendo subtly suppressed games produced by Daenerys Entertainment.
Simon had a clear understanding of the future landscape of the console industry.
The past two years marked the last glorious period for Nintendo consoles. Once Sony launched the PlayStation, Nintendo would rapidly decline.
Then there was the rise of PC gaming.
This was the aspect Simon valued the most.
PC games, including both single-player and online games, had a market potential not inferior to console games. Moreover, Daenerys Entertainment and the entire Westeros system held many advantages in this area.
Leveraging Daenerys' expertise in 3D technology, EA had released several 3D games over the past two years. Although the current 3D effects seemed crude to Simon, they surpassed many 2D console games, highlighting a key advantage of the PC platform.
Additionally, an online battle version of the single-player RTS game based on the "Dune" series had been launched experimentally. This could be considered a pioneer in online gaming, with network interaction being another strength of PC games.
In the original timeline, due to historical developments, the Western single-player game industry flourished significantly, somewhat hindering the growth of online games. In contrast, China's gaming industry, which emerged later and faced a console ban, thrived directly in the online gaming era, with the single-player game industry making little headway due to inadequate copyright protection.
For Simon, the previous development direction wasn't unchangeable.
Currently, Daenerys Entertainment, in conjunction with Ygritte Corporation, had the capacity to lead and create a new trajectory for the American gaming industry.
At EA headquarters in Redwood City, North Palo Alto.
It was January 17, 1994, a Monday.
After the reorganization, all of Daenerys Entertainment's gaming businesses were consolidated under EA, including the relatively independent Blizzard and the recently acquired Silicon & Synapse studio. While personally overseeing EA's next phase of development, Simon also conceptualized a collaboration project between EA and Ygritte Corporation's Facebook social network.
Happy Farm.
This was a web game Simon remembered well.
The idea didn't arise from a sudden whim but served several other purposes.
Following the introduction of online video technology at the end of last year, Ygritte's software department quietly released two new software tools: Ygritte Flash and Ygritte Flash Player. The former was a tool for creating interactive animations for web pages, and the latter was an embedded player for users to view web animations and video/audio content.
In the original timeline, these two software tools were initially prefixed with "Micromedia" before being acquired by Adobe.
However, in this timeline, Micromedia had been entirely swept away by Ygritte Corporation, and Adobe continued to focus on developing software related to printers, mainly in collaboration with Apple's Macintosh computers. Apple remained a major shareholder in Adobe, and Simon had also purchased some Adobe stock after the 1987 stock market crash.
With both companies deviating from their original development paths and the World Wide Web already on the rise, the development of foundational software tools was imperative.
Over the past few years, Ygritte had successively released the Ygritte Dreamweaver software for web design and the Ygritte Fireworks software for web image processing. With the recent release of Ygritte Flash for interactive animation design, the so-called "trio" of web design tools had been fully assembled by Ygritte's software department.
Moreover, Ygritte had quietly acquired the increasingly mature Photoshop software last year. Meanwhile, Tinkerbell, owned by the C-girl, only retained a portion of the most basic functions to offer the free image browsing and processing software iSee. Alongside the launch of online video, Ygritte was also developing a video editing software, Ygritte VideoStudio, scheduled for release mid-year.
From the earliest Dreamweaver for web design to the soon-to-be-released VideoStudio for video editing, each foundational software release marked a significant enhancement in the richness of content on the World Wide Web platform.
For example, with the release of Flash and its accompanying Flash Player.
Ygritte's portal had already launched online gaming services a few years ago, primarily consisting of casual puzzle games like card and board games.
Before Flash technology, developing an online game with a graphical interface required extremely complex scripting, with disappointing display results.
After the release of Flash, a similar game could be developed by a skilled Flash user in just a couple of days, with display and performance far superior to those achieved through scripting alone.
Happy Farm was precisely a web game realized using Flash technology.
Simon's motivation to develop Happy Farm was primarily to showcase Flash technology to developers and users, promoting the rapid adoption of this new technology. Additionally, if Happy Farm achieved success similar to its original incarnation, it could further enhance user interaction on the Facebook social network, boosting user engagement.
As for profitability, Simon wasn't overly concerned.
Originally developed by a company called "Five Minutes Studio" and released on the Xiaonei platform, Happy Farm quickly became a hit, peaking with over 16 million users. However, the Xiaonei platform didn't generate significant revenue for the operator.
It wasn't until the game was ported to the QQ platform, becoming QQ Farm, that its revenue soared from an annual intake of 3 million yuan on the Xiaonei platform to a staggering 50 million yuan per month on the Tencent platform.
Simon had played several versions of "Happy Farm" and was particularly impressed by Tencent's varied in-game purchases.
Due to differing consumer habits between the East and the West, Simon didn't expect North American users to embrace the original in-game purchase system. However, given Facebook's near-monopoly on the North American social network user base, if the game gained traction, selling simple items like fertilizer should still yield considerable revenue.
After all, the operating costs for this online Flash game were minimal, with a gross profit margin exceeding 90%.
Moreover, Simon's primary goal for developing this game wasn't profit. As long as it successfully promoted Flash technology and increased Facebook's user engagement and activity, the actual revenue generated was secondary. Even if it didn't make money, that would be acceptable.
Preliminary financial data for the past year was still being compiled, but based on initial estimates, Ygritte's performance in 1993 was incredibly impressive.
Simon would not allow Ygritte to deviate from its core mission just because a business opportunity presented itself.
Search engines, social networks, e-commerce, and cloud computing services remained Simon's top priorities. Even the news portal, which currently had the largest user base, had to make way for the four core businesses if conflicts arose.
Currently, with AOL, MSN, and other sites fiercely competing, Ygritte's primary focus was to maintain its industry advantage at all costs, avoiding any unexpected overtaking by competitors.
"In summary, the basic setup of this game is very simple. The key is its sustainability and interactive system, which you should discuss further. Just now, Vic suggested the idea of wild boars attacking the farm, which is very interesting. Not only can pets chase away the boars, but friends can also help each other drive off attackers, greatly enhancing the game's interactivity. However, remember to keep the game simple. A complex system can be dangerous for a casual game like this. My requirement is that players should be able to get started with a simple guided task immediately after entering the game. Any other questions?"
In a conference room at EA headquarters.
Despite his busy schedule, Simon took an hour and a half to explain the basic design concept of "Happy Farm" to the selected development team. Due to a long-standing interest, he also named this group the "Five Minutes Studio."
In his memory, "Happy Farm" was developed in just two weeks.
For a more polished product, Simon gave the ten-person team a full month.
After Simon finished speaking, all ten members raised their hands, eager to seize the rare opportunity to speak directly to the boss. Simon smiled and pointed to Victor Aiken, the engineer he had just praised.
The young, slightly dark-skinned engineer in his twenties, who had been with EA for three years, stood up and said, "Boss, can we leave the city and choose a farm to work on developing this game? You know, it would definitely inspire us."
Simon glanced at the others, all smiling, clearly having pre-discussed this.
Nodding, Simon asked, "Where do you want to go?"
Victor Aiken didn't hide his plan: "My family's farm in Alabama is quite nice. I talked to the team, and everyone wants to see it."
Simon laughed and said, "That's quite the request. But alright, just remember you have only one month. If you can't deliver a satisfactory game by then, you'll stay on that Alabama farm as farmers. Any other questions?"
Everyone raised their hands again.
Simon scanned the room, feigning ignorance, and said, "Hmm, looks like no more questions. Meeting adjourned. Go prepare."
This bit of dry humor made everyone laugh, reducing the awe towards the legendary young boss and fostering a sense of camaraderie.
Since the boss had spoken, no one pressed further, and they began leaving the conference room.
Just in time, the new EA CEO Larry Probst entered, half-jokingly complaining, "Simon, you're too lenient with them."
Simon took a sip of coffee handed by an assistant, motioning for Larry Probst to sit down, saying, "I'm playing good cop, so you'll have to be the bad cop."
Allowing the "Happy Farm" development team to work on a farm in Alabama was just one of the many small steps Simon took to "loosen the reins" for EA's various game studios.
Providing the most relaxed work environment and the greatest creative autonomy for game development meant
Larry Probst's job would involve handling many unpredictable risks. If not for the top position and generous salary, Larry Probst might have hesitated to accept the role.
Spreading his hands helplessly, Larry Probst said, "The problem is, Simon, if I play bad cop, the employees might invoke you, the good cop."
Simon shook his head, "Larry, I'm not an indulgent boss. The permissions granted are mainly for creative control in game development. I want everyone to have a relaxed development environment. Outside of that, any misconduct by employees falls under your management. Honestly, I'll be more involved with EA for the next couple of years to reshape its corporate culture and operational approach. Once that's done, even if you want me involved, I'd rather not."
This reassurance left Larry Probst feeling both relieved and concerned but he had no objections. Unlike the previous founder Trip Hawkins, who valued his control over the company, Probst was a capable manager skilled in executing the owner's vision while maintaining his own principles.
Simon fired Trip Hawkins because of this.
Founders often leave a deep imprint on a company, coupled with an inevitable strong desire for control.
To reshape EA, Simon needed to eliminate the founder's influence from the ground up.
With some reassurance from Simon and understanding his boss's intentions, Larry Probst shifted the conversation to "Happy Farm" and other projects EA was currently developing.
In addition to the recently acquired Silicon & Synapse studio working on "Warcraft," EA had several well-known games in development, including "Dune II," "SimCity," "Need for Speed," and "Dungeon Keeper."
EA's sports games, such as basketball, baseball, and football, were industry benchmarks no other companies could match.
Moreover, after establishing the necessary 3D game development technology, Simon selected a 3D first-person shooter from EA's incubation projects, provided extensive design input, and personally named it "Counter-Strike" (CS).
Simon had even privately drafted an eSports competition plan, intending to use popular PC games under EA to host tournaments, further promoting the EA brand.
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