As Hollywood's most high-profile rising star, Daenerys Entertainment's foray into the video game field has been a focus of media attention from the start. In the Forbes 400 richest Americans list published in September, Blizzard Studio was specifically listed in the notes regarding Simon's personal assets.
Blizzard Studio's pilot project was 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles', a franchise that has been a sensation since its birth in 1984. After the game project was announced in February this year, it was even rated by some magazines as one of the most anticipated video games of the year.
However, Blizzard Studio spent a full 8 months developing the Action Role-Playing Game version of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles', far exceeding the average video game development cycle of 3 to 5 months in this era.
Just as the outside world had almost forgotten about it, Nancy Brill finally officially launched the promotion for the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' video game in October.
Because so many miracles have been created in recent years, projects produced by Daenerys Entertainment naturally carry a halo that attracts the attention of the media and the public, creating great convenience for the marketing of the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' game.
Relying on a large amount of spontaneous follow-up reporting from the media, the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' game achieved results that other game companies might not reach with $5 million, with a comprehensive marketing budget of only $1 million.
By the time it officially hit shelves on November 3rd, the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' game was almost a household name among player circles in the two major video game markets of Japan and the United States.
The New York Times, evaluating the game before its release, compared 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' for Blizzard Studio to Atari's 'E.T. the extra-terrestrial'.
The poor quality of 'E.T. the extra-terrestrial' triggered the famous 'Atari Shock,' yet it still sold a best-selling 1.5 million copies back then, relying on the immense popularity of the global blockbuster film 'E.T. the extra-terrestrial'.
As for 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles', The New York Times asserted that given the attention brought by Daenerys Entertainment's own fame, there was almost no possibility of commercial failure; it was just a matter of how much profit would be made. However, if 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' failed to gain player recognition or even suffered negative reviews like 'E.T. the extra-terrestrial', the halo would fade after this game, making it very difficult for Daenerys Entertainment to establish a foothold in the video game field.
Both Simon and Nancy understood the logic of The New York Times. Otherwise, Blizzard Studio's first game wouldn't have spent a rigorous eight months being polished to near-perfection.
Amidst attention from all sides, the ARPG version of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' went on sale simultaneously in the United States and Japan on November 3rd.
The first batch of distribution was 100,000 cartridges, with a retail price of $60 in the U.S. and 7,000 Yen in Japan.
To achieve maximum hype, through Simon's indirect connections in Australia, 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' even landed the cover of Nintendo's official game magazine, Nintendo Power, for the November issue.
In the following days, alongside media discussions about Simon Westeros's Boeing 767 private jet, game reviews for 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' also began to emerge.
Nintendo Power gave 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' a good score of 8 out of 10. While Daenerys Entertainment's PR efforts played a part, Nintendo's official affirmation of the game was also beyond doubt.
Ratings from other professional game magazines were also generally excellent.
Of course, criticism was unavoidable.
The Japanese game magazine Famitsu accused 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' of imitating many details from Nintendo's 'Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link' and Konami's 'Getsu Fūma Den'.
Both 'Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link'; and 'Getsu Fūma Den' were side-scrolling ARPGs released in previous years, and the first 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' also belonged to the side-scrolling ARPG genre.
After writing a rough game proposal based on the Konami version from his memory, Simon did have the design team play several famous side-scrolling ARPGs like 'Zelda II' and 'Getsu Fūma Den', but it was essentially limited to reference.
Even if the Blizzard Studio team wanted to directly plagiarize, Nancy, who had been keeping a close eye on the project, would never have allowed it. Furthermore, with side-scrolling games having flooded the market in recent years, phenomenal games like Contra and Super Mario were also side-scrollers, Famitsu's accusations were inconsequential.
Game sales statistics are not as timely as movie box office numbers, especially with simultaneous releases in the U.S. and Japan.
However, during the week of November 3rd to November 9th, the initial batch of 100,000 cartridges sold out quickly, and Daenerys Entertainment urgently placed an order for another 200,000 cartridges with Nintendo.
On November 13th, the first-week sales figures for 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' were officially released. The combined sales volume for the North American and Japanese markets was 263,000 copies, with sales revenue reaching $15.7 million.
Compared to movie box office, the sales curve of video games is more like music records, possessing strong longevity.
The first-week sales of 263,000 copies for 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles', while failing to break the industry records of 400,000 to 500,000 copies set by some games, still stunned many people. This was because those previous record-holding games were mostly second or third sequels, whereas 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' was an original first entry.
With 263,000 copies in the first week, and considering the game's excellent quality and word-of-mouth, total sales over the next year reaching four to five million would be no problem. An expected total sales of 5 million copies, while not reaching the heaven-defying tens of millions of the Super Mario series, would definitely belong to the rank of phenomenal video games.
Game sales signify market approval. Daenerys Entertainment immediately invested in a second wave of large-scale promotion. As attention increased further, it inevitably drove the sales of the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' game once again.
Best-selling phenomenal video games usually have very long lifecycles.
Therefore, the success of just this one 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' game, through the development of subsequent sequels, could sustain Blizzard Studio for at least five years. This undoubtedly meant that Daenerys Entertainment had established a firm foothold in the video game field in one fell swoop.
Daenerys Entertainment Headquarters.
The time is Wednesday, November 15th, 1989.
Inside the conference room.
With the success of the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' game, Nancy began to plot Blizzard Studio's next expansion plan.
"For a game cartridge priced at $60, compared to manufacturers like Capcom who can produce their own cartridges and have royalty discounts resulting in gross margins as high as 50%, our studio's gross profit margin is only around 30%. However, just with this one 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' game, the first-week sales of 263,000 copies have already allowed us to recover all of Blizzard Studio's investment over the past six months and realize a net profit of $2 million. Over the next year, the expected net profit for this game will reach $100 million. My next plan is to expand into the PC game field. Starting from scratch is too slow; since we already understand the game industry, I hope to expand directly through acquisitions".
Before Simon could speak, Amy, who had also been doing a lot of work recently, asked: "Nintendo's exclusivity is very strong, Nancy. How do you plan to solve this problem?"
Nintendo could almost be said to have unified the console game market now. The market share of the Famicom/NES in both Japan and the U.S. exceeded 90%. Consequently, the company was in its most powerful phase; even the six major third-party developers closest to them could be blacklisted at will, let alone second- or third-tier game production companies.
Nancy had clearly considered this issue and said: "We can maintain the PC game department as a separate operation with no crossover with Blizzard Studio. Furthermore, we won't cooperate with Nintendo's competitors like Sega or Atari. After acquiring a PC game manufacturer, we can also choose some excellent PC games to port to the Nintendo console platform, which will minimize Nintendo's hostility".
Amy clearly didn't think so and turned to look at Simon.
With the sales performance of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' being so outstanding, she didn't feel it was necessary to expand into PC games.
The PC game market size in this era was still far from comparable to console games. if expanding into the PC field provoked Nintendo and led to Blizzard Studio being targeted, the losses would outweigh the gains.
Simon also didn't believe the tyrannical Nintendo would let Daenerys Entertainment be 'half-hearted'. However, he also didn't intend to tie Blizzard Studio to the sinking ship of Nintendo, which had already passed its peak. So he asked: "Have you identified a suitable target?"
Nancy nodded and handed two sets of materials to Simon and Amy respectively, saying: "Electronic Arts (EA). This is a video game manufacturer headquartered in San Francisco, founded in 1982, which initially developed games for Atari consoles. After Atari's decline, EA began to focus on PC game development and has accumulated a number of very best-selling sports game brands over the years".
Simon flipped through the materials in his hand, once again having to admire the vision of his petite female executive.
EA, huh.
Although it had the notoriety of being a 'studio killer', EA was undoubtedly one of the largest game developers and publishers in Simon's memory, with a market value once approaching $50 billion at its peak.
Nancy noticed a flash of strangeness in Simon's expression but simply continued: "EA just had its IPO a month ago and then ran into the stock market crash on October 13th. The company's current market value is only $170 million, with a P/E ratio of 13. If we issue a friendly takeover bid and get a response, $300 million should be enough to take it. EA's performance has been very excellent in recent years; an acquisition at a P/E ratio within 25 times is acceptable".
Simon asked: "What if the friendly takeover bid doesn't get a response, or if another competitor suddenly appears?"
Nancy said: "In that case, we can raise our chips by another $50 million."
"Then it's settled. I'll give you a $350 million budget to take this company", Simon said without hesitation, then looked at Amy. "You two discuss this yourselves; you can also get Jim to cooperate. Janette and I are going to Europe this weekend. For a long time after that, I will let go of company matters as much as possible. Don't let me down".
Amy and Nancy already knew about Simon's plan, and both almost simultaneously believed that their boss couldn't possibly ignore company affairs for a long time.
A leopard can't change its spots.
You, a control freak, saying you don't plan to control the company anymore?
Who would believe that!
Therefore, neither opposed Simon's plan to 'take a long vacation'.
After the meeting, Amy and Nancy went about their business, and Simon also rushed to participate in the male lead audition for 'Misery'.
In the original version of misery, the male and female leads were James Caan and Kathy Bates, respectively. Kathy Bates even won the Oscar for Best Actress for this role.
However, Simon didn't intend to use the original cast this time.
Simon had seen the original film. Kathy Bates's performance was indeed quite good, but Simon believed the reason she was able to win the Best Actress award was more due to the role and the PR efforts.
It is well known that the Oscars favour all kinds of mental illnesses.
Because so many 'patients' with mental illnesses, serial killers, and mania had won the little golden man, the Oscars were once mocked as a mental asylum.
At the same time, Kathy Bates was an artist under CAA. If Simon hadn't appeared, CAA would definitely have been the most powerful talent agency in Hollywood in recent years. This could be seen from the fact that even under Daenerys Entertainment's sniping at the beginning of this year, CAA still secured a second little golden man for Dustin Hoffman.
However, compared to the original Annie Wilkes played by Kathy Bates, who merely made the audience feel a sickly and manic tension, Simon also hoped the new version's female lead could bring the audience a strong sense of danger from the perspective of the abused writer character.
Thinking he had met a kind stranger, only to end up heading towards hell.
To achieve this result, appearance definitely needed to be considered.
Combining looks, acting skills, and some unavoidable personal considerations, Simon ultimately chose Susan Sarandon.
Susan Sarandon is 43 years old this year, about the same age as Kathy Bates, and fits the general setting of the female lead in Stephen King's original novel.
Moreover, Susan Sarandon had already received her first Oscar nomination for Best Actress in 1981; her acting skills were beyond doubt.
Although over forty, Susan Sarandon was extremely well-maintained. In the film 'The Witches of Eastwick' two years ago, this actress's charm was not at all inferior to Michelle Pfeiffer and Cher.
Last year, Susan Sarandon also co-starred with Kevin Costner in a very successful sports-themed romance film, 'Bull Durham'. In the film, Sarandon was ten years older than Costner, but the two appeared very well-matched, with no sense of age difference at all.
Speaking of which, Simon was quite impressed by the film 'Pretty Baby' in which Susan Sarandon appeared in 1978.
Most people would only feel that Brooke Shields was the core of 'Pretty Baby'. Simon, however, felt nothing for Brooke Shields's flat figure in the film. Instead, the scene where Susan Sarandon, playing Brooke Shields's mother, lay sideways on a sofa posing nude for a photo was like a beautiful classical oil painting, leaving a lasting impression.
Upon receiving Simon's invitation, although Susan Sarandon was somewhat hesitant about playing a manic and psychotic extreme fan, after consideration, she quickly agreed to perform.
The actress clearly saw the breakthrough this role could bring her.
As for the male lead, Simon's requirements for this role were not high, so it inevitably invited many personal favours and lobbying.