Chapitre 356: One's favor or kindness
"Have you considered launching this game on GS1?"
During the conversation, Takayuki asked the question he wanted to ask the most.
Burn was taken aback, then sighed and said, "Of course we've considered it, why wouldn't we? GS1 currently has the largest user base. If we could launch our game on that platform, it would definitely attract more attention. But the licensing fee for GS1 is not something we can afford right now."
If a game developer wants to launch their game on a gaming console, the biggest barrier is the licensing fee, also known as the patent fee.
This is essentially the entrance fee to join a gaming console.
And this entrance fee generally comes with a high price tag, making it difficult for small game studios to afford.
Unless their work becomes famous later on, it's only then that they might be able to use the money earned to expand their influence by launching on other platforms.
Launching on PC, on the other hand, doesn't require these fees. You just need to publish the game on the PC platform, and naturally, players will download and play it.
However, PC gaming also brings about another issue: piracy.
Gamestar Entertainment doesn't really care about piracy. Even if Doom is cracked on PC to a scale exceeding tens of millions, it doesn't really affect Gamestar Entertainment's user base.
Takayuki himself started playing games from pirated copies, so he maintains this tolerance towards newcomers.
And for a large company, cracked games might not always be a bad thing.
It means these players are still focused on their product, and sometimes, the number of users is also a considerable wealth.
Estimates from external sources suggest that the total number of users of legitimate and pirated copies combined for Gamestar Entertainment might have already exceeded around 130 million.
This massive user base is something that ordinary companies cannot reach.
Just the valuation brought by this user base has already exceeded tens of billions of dollars.
Now, as long as Takayuki is willing to loosen his stance, countless capital investors will immediately clamor to join in with money.
And they would all value Gamestar Entertainment at least $20 billion.
Even if Takayuki sells one percent of the shares externally, that's $200 million, which is the budget for a large-scale production similar to FF7.
However, for Takayuki, piracy is not an issue, but for small studios like Burn's, they might be dragged down by piracy.
They might end up bankrupt because they sold one or two fewer copies of their game.
Looking at this post-apocalyptic role-playing game, Takayuki quite likes it.
It reminds him of the feeling he had when he played Fallout 2.
If he misses out on this game, he would definitely regret it.
However, people in this world are not very familiar with this form of gaming, and cautious investors, seeing that it's not a popular game, would definitely demand a lion's share of the studio's stocks, or they would choose higher-quality game studios.
Even though the gaming industry is booming, investors are still very cautious.
This seems to be the norm for investors in this world.
At this point, Takayuki said, "The patent fee is indeed quite troublesome, but I've actually heard recently that Gamestar Entertainment is carrying out a new plan. The goal is to unearth more potential electronic games and offer patent fee discounts to early game studios with little capital, such as only charging the patent fee after selling a certain number of game copies."
Burn was stunned, "Really? How come I haven't heard of this?"
This thing does not actually exist, but Takayuki is the boss of Gamestar Entertainment, so if he says it exists, then it must.
But this was just a sudden whim of Takayuki.
He had been wanting to recruit some gaming development talents, but he also forgot that not everyone is willing to work for a company. Many geniuses hope to go independent and become a game development group under their own control.
Even though Gamestar Entertainment's position itself is enough to attract quite a few talents, these more independent geniuses are not easily attracted.
He had been so immersed in the gaming development environment that he had overlooked this.
But it's not too late to make amends now.
Takayuki nodded, "Indeed, there is. I'm somewhat of an industry insider myself, and... Gamestar Entertainment has had some media interviews and exchanges. The interview a few days ago did indeed reveal that Gamestar Entertainment has this plan. Honestly, I think your game is quite good. Perhaps you can take the initiative to contact Gamestar Entertainment. Even if that plan hasn't been officially announced yet, if you have a high-quality game, they probably won't mind giving you the green light in advance."
Takayuki's words immediately livened up Burn's thoughts.
The opportunity to log on to GS1 for free?
That's quite rare.
In the early days of the FC era, Gamestar Entertainment naturally wouldn't charge too much for patent fees, with the bulk of the revenue coming from revenue sharing.
Later, as more game companies joined, Gamestar Entertainment naturally needed to make some changes, needing to kick out some people who were only looking to fish in troubled waters, not wanting to affect its own development.
But now it seems that this strategy is not entirely correct, because it did block a lot of people just looking to fish, but at the same time, it also discarded these game developers with great potential.
After Takayuki finished speaking, Burn's attitude towards him completely changed.
"Sir, may I ask for your name?"
"You don't need to ask for my name. I'm just lending a small hand. Right now, I'm just a player."
"Well... I really want to thank you because you've revealed this information to me, which is really important to me and Dainley. If not for you, we might suffer heavy losses."
Takayuki smiled, "There's no need to be so exaggerated. Anyway, even without me saying it, in a few days, maybe even at this expo, Gamestar Entertainment will announce the new plan. But even so, I'm still very grateful to you."
Burn thought for a moment, then immediately took out a notebook from the side and wrote down his name and a paragraph of text.
'I, Burn Stamper, and Tim Dainley, owe you, sir, a favor now. If there's anything you need from us in the future, please feel free to use this to find me. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to repay you.'
Because Takayuki was wearing sunglasses and a mask, Burn could only roughly guess from his accent that he wasn't American.
He also respected Takayuki's choice not to reveal his identity, so he came up with this way to record Takayuki's favor.
Then, he tore the paper off very seriously and handed it to Takayuki sincerely.
"Sir, please accept this. Perhaps this thing doesn't have much value, but I hope that in the future, I will still have the chance to repay you. Even if our game development ultimately fails, even if nobody cares about our work, and we both have to go work odd jobs, as long as you use this to find me anytime, I will repay you immediately."
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone