Santa Monica.
In the conference room at Daenerys Entertainment headquarters, after hearing EA's management present their report on operations, everyone turned to the main topic of today's meeting.
A secretary handed out a packet of materials, and the room collectively started dredging up everything they knew about the novel mentioned inside, one called Dune.
Dune was not a single novel, but the name for a series of science-fiction books centered around the planet known as Dune.
After North America's famed 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 Messiah, all revolving around the same 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 moment it appeared, even being dubbed by some media 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 Entertainment 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 American 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 commercial sci-fi epic, and then had the nerve to spend forty million doing it.
Forty million in 1984.
De Laurentiis Entertainment 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-Time Strategy Game
EA's current strength was sports games, 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-time strategy games, the genre that would become 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 games to home consoles, Simon still intended for EA to maintain its edge in the PC space.
For today's meeting, Simon had already done a lot of homework. Based on what he remembered, he had personally compiled the materials everyone was now holding.
Real-time strategy games 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 games out there were only rough prototypes. They typically lacked the defining elements of a mature RTS, things like resource gathering, unit production, and real-time combat.
On top of that, Simon wasn't about to pull out the peak-tier RTS games he'd played, like Warcraft and StarCraft. Partly because hardware still imposed limits at the moment, and partly because he wanted EA to practice first and build experience.
In his original timeline, RTS games only became 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 remembered.
And in any case, the RTS games adapted from Dune had been quite successful in that other timeline as well. That was why Simon had told Nancy to pay top dollar to secure the game adaptation rights for the Dune series.
Daenerys Entertainment 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 games. 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 Entertainment.
After all, the five hundred thousand up-front fee was secondary. If Dune could achieve the kind of success the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game 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 something no one wanted. The Dune rights holders had already been burned hard on screen adaptations, so naturally they weren't going to make the same mistake with a game license.
Compared to the film's failure, video games based on Dune had all been very successful.
In Simon's original timeline, Blizzard's Warcraft was widely regarded as an imitation that followed the 1992 RTS game Dune II.
Simon went into detail for everyone in the room, explaining the key points for developing an RTS resource-gathering system, a real-time 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 games. 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 game sounds similar in many ways to SimCity, which we released this summer."
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 game is combat?"
"Of course not. If it's only combat, then it becomes a different concept again. What matters is how the real-time combat system, the resource-gathering system, and the unit production system work together. During development, 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 time it was noon, the meeting 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 development team. About half of them are going to resign. They plan to form their own studio."
Blizzard Studio's first game had become a phenomenon. Naturally, the development team's value rose with it.
Game development in this era didn't yet require the kind of massive teams seen years later, with hundreds of people coordinating together. Sometimes 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 game had brought Daenerys Entertainment over a hundred million dollars in profit. They didn't see the relentless investment Daenerys Entertainment had made in publishing and distribution.
Without Blizzard Studio, without Daenerys Entertainment's financial backing and channel support, those people were naively convinced that if they'd learned a few key points about development, 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 game was going to end.
Once the 1990s arrived, game development was destined to become large-team work. Tens or hundreds of people building a single game. The risks involved were not something a handful of individuals could shoulder. Even if they found another patron to bankroll them, the odds of recreating a phenomenon 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 phenomenon, a game 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 some development 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 Entertainment 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 Entertainment was never going to hand over studio equity just because one game had hit big.
Hearing Simon say that, Nancy replied, "I'll start recruiting again as soon as possible. If needed, we can also borrow some technical staff from EA."
"Actually, I've been thinking about game studios lately…" Simon started, but by then they'd already reached the ground floor. He decided, "How about you come with me 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 Entertainment parking lot, Simon continued. "I don't think a game studio can easily maintain long-term, vigorous vitality. For a studio to produce one or two successful games over its entire life cycle is already rare. So Daenerys Entertainment can adopt a model similar to film development. 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 memory, excellent game 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 memory, 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. Game 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 dreamed 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 game 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 development 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 became true phenomena, that was success.
After all, video games usually had long life cycles. When a game 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 development."
When it came to long-term returns, most people were willing to accept lower pay up front.
In game development now, it might not be obvious yet. But once the industry moved into the era of games built by teams of dozens or hundreds, labor costs would become the single most important factor in a project budget.
"Take some time 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 me one?"
"That depends. If you threaten me and say you'll jump ship immediately 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 me and demanding things."
"That's a very unreasonable way of thinking."
"I'm too busy to argue reason with you."
"..."