game trailblazer

Chapter 297

With the arrival of the new millennium, there were no large-scale power outages, or even nuclear explosions, nuclear pollution and other disasters, as some people thought, but the impact of the "millennium bug" still appeared, but the places where it appeared were somewhat different. expected. The "Year [-] Bug" crisis did not appear in the United States, which has the most advanced computer technology, but landed in Africa, showing its power in the West African country Gambia.

The unlucky Gambia is also unlucky. Those countries that introduced computer systems late cannot catch up with the "Y[-] bug" problem. Those countries that started early have basically fixed the "Y[-] bug" problem. Just in time.

According to the latest reports, Gambia is not only facing power supply interruptions in many places, but also sea and air transportation, financial and government services are also greatly affected, among which the Ministry of Finance, tax bureau and customs cannot operate.For this reason, the Gambian government also urgently declared February 2000, 2 (Monday) as a non-working day, in order to buy more time for the repair of the "Year 3 Bug" problem, and at the same time reduce the burden of the departments that encountered the problem. facing pressure.

However, from a global perspective, the impact of the "Y2 bug" crisis is not as great as imagined, and the scope of the impact is not as wide as imagined. Of course, this is also a factor that governments and companies attach great importance to. inside.With the advent of the new millennium, many computer systems in the observation period passed through safely, and the Y2K emergency response teams of many companies were also disbanded, including the two major groups of Dongfang Industrial and VisualSystem.Although he is very confident in his computer system, necessary defensive measures are still needed out of safety considerations. Now that he has survived safely, the mission of the temporarily established Y[-]K emergency team is naturally over.

With the advent of the new millennium, the disadvantages of Sony Computer Entertainment's development system for PS2 game consoles have gradually become apparent, and many game development companies have complained again and again. For this reason, Kutaragi Ken had to ask his staff to quickly find a solution, but the short-term negative impact has already disappeared. Unavoidable, the most direct consequence is that quite a few games have been postponed, so that throughout the first half of the year, Sony Computer Entertainment can only rely on the games developed by itself to support it, just like that unlucky Sega just launched the Dreamcast console. will be the same.

In order to solve this problem, on the one hand, Sony Computer Entertainment is working hard to improve the PS2 game development system, and on the other hand, through the support of the headquarters, it is trying to acquire as many game developers as possible, so as to enhance the game development capabilities in its hands, so as not to Always act on the face of those third parties.

Several game development companies have entered Kutaragi’s eyes, such as LostBoysGames in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Level-5 in RB Fukuoka, SuckerPunchProductions in Washington State, USA, etc., and even a Verant Interactive, a company that operates online games.The reason for the emergence of Verant Interactive is that on the one hand, Sony Computer Entertainment is very optimistic about the future online game market in North America; 25 paying users, although it is not the largest in North America, but it is already quite a lot.

Bellevue, Washington, USA...

Bruce Oberg put down the phone in his hand, feeling mixed feelings in his heart.The call just now was from a friend who had met once, Jack Tretton. The last time the two met was last year, at a game developer's party.Bruce Oberg went there with the idea of ​​communicating with people, but unexpectedly met Jack Tretton, who was then the executive vice president of product development of Sony Computer Entertainment America. As a courtesy, Bruce Oberg showed him the "Sly Fox Adventure" he was conceiving, a game with an open plot and a cartoon rendering mode.

Jack Tretton was deeply interested in this and expressed his intention to further cooperate with each other. Bruce Oberg thought the other party was just out of courtesy, because he heard that Sony Computer Entertainment was in contact with Naughty Dog and InsomniacGames. It is good at the same type of games as Sac Punch Production Company, and it is more famous in the industry, with successful games as its signature, there is no reason why Sony Computer Entertainment will still look at the unknown Sack Punch Production Company.After all, Sac Punch Production Company has only been established for three years, and the game has only released "Rocket: Roboton Wheels" on the N64 platform, and the game development experience is not as good as those of the established game development companies.

Later, Jack Tretton did not contact him any more, and Bruce Oberg gradually forgot about it.Unexpectedly, almost three or four months later, Jack Tretton suddenly called again, bringing up the matter of cooperation again, and Bruce Oberg was a little hesitant for a while.

Now it is not three or four months ago. At that time, Sac Punch Production Company was basically nobody interested in it. In order to develop a game for the N64 platform, they had to come to ask for help. When someone else came to the door, just three days before Jack Tretton came to contact, the VisualSystem Group also sent someone to contact.

Speaking of which, Sac Punch Productions actually has a lot to do with the VisualSystem Group. The founders of the company are Bruce Oberg, Chris Zimmerman, Nathan Fox, Brian Fleming and others. Originally they all worked at Microsoft, and later Microsoft was acquired by VisualSystem Group and became the Raymond branch. They still continued to do their previous work, developing various commercial software (excluding games).But after a long time, they got a little tired of developing commercial software games, and wanted to change the environment to engage in game development. Originally, they wanted to change places through internal transfers, but at the beginning there were only "Flight Simulator" and "Mecha Warrior". 》 and a few other options, which happen to be not the type they like, so they broke away from the VisualSystem Group in 1997 and established the current Sac Punch Production Company with self-funded funds, intending to develop games according to their own wishes .

In order to ensure that Sac Punch Productions will not deviate from the planned track due to someone’s reasons, Bruce Oberg and others did not choose the very common president system, but adopted a collective leadership system of power sharing, although there are also companies The titles of president and vice president, but they are not the same as the president and vice president in the usual sense.After breaking away from the VisualSystem Group, Sac Punch Production Company has gone through a difficult time, because everyone has zero experience in game development, that is, relying on the good habits of developing commercial software, plus a lot of games This experience has been supported to this day.Now that the weather has finally cleared, Sac Punch Productions is starting to attract attention.

But sometimes having too many choices is not a good thing. This is how Bruce Oberg feels now. On one side is the VisualSystem Group DreamBox128, and on the other side is Sony Computer Entertainment PS2. Even a fool can see that the two sides are at war at the moment. If you want to have both sides, It's not something that ordinary companies can do, at least the Sac Punch Production Company doesn't have the ability.The conditions provided by both sides are very favorable, and the game consoles on both sides are excellent. Of course, as the first game console to go on the market, Bruce Oberg is still a little familiar with the DreamBox128 game console. At least he has been playing at home for several months. For The understanding of PS2 is more in the data, but judging from the performance of PS period, he is still optimistic about the future of PS2 game console.

"You said, which side should we choose?" Since he couldn't figure it out, Bruce Oberg decided to hand over this question to his companions, and let everyone worry about it together.

"Hmm..." Nathan Fox touched his chin and said, "I have used the DreamBox128 game console. Judging from the performance of those first games, the performance of the game console itself is quite powerful, although I don't know if it can reach The effect in the promotion, but it looks good intuitively. I also heard that the development system of the DreamBox128 game console is very convenient to use, and not only can develop the games on the DreamBox128, but also can develop the PC version of the game at the same time. It is said that at the bottom With the support of the system, there are not many codes that need to be modified. Therefore, I think it is better to choose VisualSystem Group.”

"I don't think so," Chris Zimmerman said, shaking his fingers, "It is true that the DreamBox128 game console has good performance and the development system is very convenient, but the PS2 is not bad either. The system is a bit difficult to use, but we can make an agreement during the negotiation and ask the other party to provide corresponding support, I believe this will definitely not become an obstacle.”

"That's right!" Brian Fleming nodded, expressing his support for Chris Zimmerman, and then said: "We can't just focus on the performance comparison of the machines on both sides, we also have to consider our The future. Naughty Dog and InsomniacGames have officially joined the DreamBox128 platform. The game style they make is very similar to ours. If we go to join in the fun, the competition we face will be unprecedented. But if we switch to the PS2 platform, at present There is no game of the same type above, and I believe it will definitely achieve good sales results. With the leading advantage, I think it should be much easier to go down.”

"2 vs. 1", PS2 currently has the upper hand, and Bruce Oberg's heart is also a little shaken.Originally, he was a little inclined towards the PS2 game console. After all, the success of the PS game console lies there, and the strength of Sony is obvious to all. It is impossible to let the PS2 game console fail.What Chris Zimmerman and Brian Fleming said also spoke to his heart, especially the competition mentioned by Brian Fleming, which resonated with him even more. Tretton is being polite because Sony Computer Entertainment is in contact with Naughty Dog and InsomniacGames. Now that these two companies have decided to join the DreamBox128 platform, there is no need for Sac Punch Productions to join in the fun.

Although he has already made a choice, Bruce Oberg is not a rookie who just came out to start a business. He knows that if you come to ask others for some things, you will usually get very little, but if someone else comes to ask you , plus there are competitors next to them, the results will often be very different.The current situation is very favorable for Sac Punch Production Company, with VisualSystem Group as a foil, I believe Jack Tretton will definitely reconsider their conditions.

The situation was similar to what Bruce Oberg expected. When he euphemistically explained the situation, Jack Tretton really gave in. Not only did the amount of development funds be greatly relaxed, but they were also given a lot of money for game development. The degree of autonomy, and even specially arranged for a technical support team in Foster City, California to help them assist Sac Punch Productions to develop PS2 games.The only request made by Sony Computer Entertainment is to hope that "The Adventures of the Fox" can be released before this year's Christmas. Bruce Oberg can understand this very well. After all, this year is the most critical period for the development of PS2. One year, if we don't grasp it well and fall too far behind the DreamBox128 platform, we may not have a chance to compete next year.

In the extraordinary period, those red tapes were reduced. After the two parties negotiated the conditions, the signing was completed very quickly. According to the agreement, Sac Punch Production Company will develop three exclusive games including "Sly Fox Adventure" for the PS2 game platform. , Sony Computer Entertainment will provide several sets of PS2 game development kits and other technical support for free to Sac Punch Productions.

As soon as the signing was completed, Jack Tretton couldn't wait to report the good news back to the headquarters.After seeing the description of "The Great Adventure of the Fox", Ken Kutaragi couldn't help but be overjoyed. At the beginning, he wanted to recruit Naughty Dog and InsomniacGames, but he fell in love with "Crash Bandicoot" and "Little Dragon Spear" developed by them on the PS game console. ", but in the end it was unsuccessful. For a while, there was a lack of this type of game on PS2, and he was worried about it for a while.Now Ken Kutaragi can finally rest assured. With the support of "The Great Adventure of the Fox", he has the confidence to contend with the traitors on the two PS game platforms, and his subordinates can also find more similar games.With the support of "The Great Adventure of the Fox", Sony Computer Entertainment can have more confidence in the future negotiations, and there is no need to be led around by the nose like before.

(End of this chapter)