Chapter 144: The Real Issue is Plagiarism! - Part 2

Let's not even mention that his brain isn't Chat GPT-4, utterly unaware of how many games there were in his past life's gaming circles. Even if he knew and copied them, it would be futile.

Because if he could copy the classics from his past life, so could others!

You see, games are just like articles! Mr. Shuren once said, "All articles under heaven are but a grand act of copying, it all depends on how well you copy."

And this saying applies perfectly to the gaming industry!

In Ethan's past life, many game companies did just that!

Take "Street Fighter" and "King of Fighters"...

Aren't they extremely similar competitors?

Or "Need for Speed" and "Gran Turismo"...

Who can say there are no similarities between the two? And then there's "CS" and "CF", "Zelda" and "Orig..." 

Cough, cough, cough...

When countries can reach a consensus, where legal protection for game copyrights extends only to the game's appearance and content, not the gameplay...

Imitation becomes the norm in the industry.

Ethan believes he might shock the world with one innovation after another, but stopping others from making games? That's just a pipe dream.

No one is imitating "Snake" and "Pac-Man" now simply because the entire industry is undergoing Magnavox's hammer storm. When all companies copying "Pong" are begrudgingly paying up, their instinctive reaction to "Snake" and "Pac-Man" is that they can't copy.

Because they know, once they copy, Ethan backed by Stanford could sue them to death!

But...

What if someone catches on?

What if they realize they don't have to copy exactly, but just the gameplay? Like, "Pac-Man" is a maze adventure game, so they could ditch the Pac-character and ghosts and make another maze adventure game.

Like, cops and robbers?

Once this realization hits, even if Ethan had three heads and six arms, he couldn't stop it!

Waiting for Atari and Magnavox to catch on...

Owning machines! Having a development team! And with backers! They naturally dare to imitate!

By then...

It would be extremely difficult to crush them.

"I've made a mistake."

Ethan rested his chin in his hand, saying, "To be honest... I anticipated they could make a CPU-based home console, but I didn't expect them to reach this level."

"I also didn't anticipate their acquisition of game companies was for the promotion of consoles."

Ethan admitted his oversight, his failure to act.

And his words made Evelyn shake her head: "Oh, Ethan, I'm not blaming you."

"I just want to know if Magnavox and Atari's home consoles pose a threat to us, and if so, should we start developing our console now?"

If it were a few years ago, Evelyn would care about such matters but wouldn't actively inquire.

She would wait for Ethan to make a decision and then act according to his ideas.

Because she wasn't interested in business.

But now...

After experiencing the charm of money, she truly considered Destiny Game her own company. After all, who would refuse readily available wealth?

Regarding his sister's inquiry, Ethan, who had already pondered this, said: "We definitely need to make a home console, but definitely not now. Because even if we start development right now, we won't catch up with Magnavox and Atari's progress. Rushing could just mess things up."

"More importantly, our company currently doesn't have enough game reserves."

"Although I believe just moving 'Pac-Man' to a home console would attract countless buyers, using 'Pac-Man', a game still available in arcades, to promote the home console..."

"How different would we be from scammers in the eyes of the consumers?"

Ethan thought he could outperform Magnavox and Atari, but unexpectedly, he's now being outplayed by these two giants. A machine that carries nine games? A machine that carries twelve games? This seems like a direct challenge to him!

Even with countless ideas in Ethan's head, creating them takes time. So, when Ethan realized he couldn't catch up no matter how fast he acted, taking it step by step became the reluctant choice.

But while development can be slow, action cannot be postponed.

Ethan doesn't want Magnavox and Atari to establish a foothold in the console industry.

Because America is only so big, it can't accommodate three ambitious entities.

"So, what we need to do now are three things."

"The first thing is to develop a new arcade game to secure our market share while driving other game companies into the console industry, then eliminate them in one fell swoop. We're already behind in the console industry, we absolutely can't let the arcade industry slip away from us. We need to ensure we can dominate in at least one field."

"The second thing is to find a way

 to weaken Magnavox and Atari's influence in the gaming field. This might seem simple, as we can prove their incompetence in creation through our hit arcade games, but it's actually difficult. Because those who want to buy home consoles will still pay for them. What we can do is influence those neutral parties as much as possible, making them feel it's more worthwhile to spend money on arcade games because they're fun, whereas buying home consoles is not worth it since their games aren't as interesting as ours."

"The third thing is to find a way to gather information on Atari and Magnavox. If they're imitating our creativity, we must accelerate our console development. Because once these two companies capture a certain market share, it won't be easy to take it back. But if they're not imitating, then we still have time..."

Ethan's clear plan had Evelyn nodding in agreement. Although creativity isn't something you can have every day, since Ethan spoke so confidently, she felt reassured.

"I can handle development, but information..."

Evelyn asked, "What are you planning to do about this?"

Information?

This word made Ethan close his eyes and think for a while.

When he reopened them, he had made a decision, "There's no way with Magnavox anymore, as Rudolf just told me they've completely cut off contact with him."

"And as for Atari..."

"Although Nolan Bushnell is cautiously wary of me, I still want to try. I'll go to Steven and see if he can get some information about Atari's development from Warner..."

While it might seem far-fetched to ask Warner for information on Atari's development, Ethan believed this approach was sound.

After all, in his past life, Warner's nickname as "the producer of flops" was globally recognized, all thanks to their internal power struggles, even more dramatic than palace dramas.

Therefore, with their internal discord, asking Spielberg to inquire might just make Warner's executives, who are at odds with those leading the video game projects, spill some beans.

As for whether Spielberg knows anyone at Warner, Ethan wasn't worried. Spielberg once mentioned that Warner had invited him to direct "Superman."

But when Ethan drove overnight to Universal Studios in Los Angeles...

Before he even entered the Universal Pictures studio building, he saw Spielberg, in the early morning of early February, hurriedly walking out while fastening his pants.

Yes, that's right.

The man was fastening his pants while walking out.