Chương 183: Chapter 183: The Game Changer - Part 2
Spielberg, shaking his legs in amusement, declared, "This disc player is actually quite handy. It allows people to enjoy the joy movies bring at home."
"If you like it, just take it."
"If you want to burn other movies, I can help."
"Any company's movies are fine."
Spielberg's words were magnanimous.
Looking at the contracts signed by various companies, the current 'Big Seven' indeed formed an alliance.
However, as he narrated, the clouds of concern in Ethan's brows did not dissipate but grew denser. He realized a problem: if Philips had already partnered with MCA back in 1969, then why would Spielberg so casually choose to help him when a subsidiary of Philips had a dispute with him? This defied logic!
"Steven..."
Thinking this, Ethan hesitantly asked, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Of course!" Spielberg responded with a smile. "What else do you want to know?"
"I'll certainly share anything I know."
The more nonchalant Spielberg appeared, the more puzzled Ethan became. When Ethan's astonishment was finally shown, the man lounging on the sofa took up the conversation.
"Oh, Ethan, you're asking why I chose you over Philips?"
"Brother, that's an easy question! Because Philips broke the treaty first!"
Spielberg chuckled, "We at MCA had high hopes for the disc initially, but those hopes were destroyed by Philips!"
"Didn't I just tell you? We had developed the current disc as early as 1972! Yet, that year, Philips did something that angered us!"
"As for what that was..."
"You know, right?"
"After all, you came here for this!"
With Spielberg's reminder, Ethan suddenly remembered. In 1972, Philips released the world's first domestic video recorder, the Philips N1500!
Philips opened the door to the era of home video recorders! And in the same year, MCA also tinkered with a commercially viable disc player?
Oh—
That was a betrayal! "So, you mean Philips's collaboration with you was just to block your patents, to better promote their own products?" Ethan asked. "They might have tampered with the disc research?"
"Who knows?" Spielberg shrugged, saying, "I just know their actions greatly angered MCA's bosses! They questioned Philips about what they were doing!"
Though that was the case, Spielberg's personal conviction was immensely strong.
"If it weren't for Philips suddenly releasing the N1500, how could the disc issue have dragged on until now? If Philips hadn't discovered that Sony and JVC's products were superior to their own, they probably wouldn't have returned to the disc field, right? After all, they lacked the basic patents!"
With this statement, Ethan immediately understood why Spielberg helped him.
When Philips fooled MCA in their collaboration, Sidney Sheinberg, MCA's CEO and president, definitely wanted to crush them!
In such a scenario, when Spielberg found out that helping Ethan Jones could annoy Philips, thus venting on behalf of his discoverer...
Not helping would be the real problem!
Not to mention, he was quite fond of video games.
To hammer Philips under these circumstances wouldn't cause him any psychological pressure! "Well... I thought it was because I'm handsome..."
Ethan muttered.
"What?" Spielberg, puzzled, didn't catch it.
When Ethan suggested that it was his handsomeness that won Spielberg's friendship, the acclaimed director burst into laughter.
"Ha ha ha—Oh, Ethan—ha ha ha—you really are—ha ha ha—"
Spielberg was amused by Ethan's words.
And Ethan, trying to keep a straight face, retorted, "Am I not handsome?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Ethan couldn't hold back a laugh, covering his eyes.
The next second, the modestly sized office became a sea of joy.
With Ethan's jesting, the previously somewhat serious conversation atmosphere vanished, and in the subsequent casual talk, Ethan also learned the latest about the disc from Spielberg.
Though the laser disc product was very impressive, MCA's senior management unanimously believed that promoting the product would be challenging, primarily because it was too expensive.
After discussions between Philips and MCA, they decided to introduce the disc player to the market at seven hundred dollars—a price at which one could buy a home computer (excluding Apple) at the time.
More importantly, selling the machine at this price meant they were still at a loss.
When the price of a disc player remained high, and selling it meant incurring losses, failure was inevitable. But such attempts were necessary, as MCA was a public company. Without a market failure, the management would need to explain to shareholders why a developed product was not being launched.
"That would be troublesome, right?" Spielberg winked at Ethan.
"Yeah~ Public companies are such a hassle," Ethan nodded with a smile.
Ethan arrived at Universal in the afternoon and didn't leave
until after dinner.
His communication with Spielberg made him very happy, not only because he confirmed the patent ownership of the disc but also learned about the relationship between Philips and MCA, and even that MCA internally was not optimistic about the disc product, being forced to proceed due to shareholder pressure.
When such issues were laid before him, what could Philips's early arrangements do?
After all, business is business, but in commerce, if one side deliberately becomes a traitor, they can't blame others for continuously targeting them!
Besides, Spielberg disclosed another matter to Ethan.
"In fact, there's always been a voice within MCA suggesting temporarily abandoning video recording and focusing on sound storage, using discs to encroach on the tape market."
"This approach would allow us to promote the disc product at a lower cost and show Philips a thing or two. The world's first cassette tape was manufactured by them, and they hold the patents. If we could take down tape, we could free ourselves from Philips's constraints and seize more benefits."
"Unfortunately, this voice isn't strong within MCA, because VHS recorders are too convenient. Some people think magnetic storage might continue to develop, and discs should be halted."
When Ethan heard Spielberg's words, he remained silent.
Because a song spontaneously played in his ear—
"Give you a CD of the past, listen to our love then."
Indeed, Ethan thought of Eason's song.
If discarding video storage and focusing solely on sound, wasn't that just Sony's CD player?
Though it didn't kick tapes into history, it indeed was a revolutionary product! Moreover, Sony successfully promoted its CD format with it!
So...
The other ideas within MCA that Spielberg mentioned actually had feasibility.
But in his memory, it seemed MCA hadn't done these things?
After a brief contemplation, Ethan set these thoughts aside.
With a sigh of sentiment, "Damn... This era really is filled with gold!"
"Just chatting casually about industries that start with billions!"
Too bad, such things still seemed a bit distant for him.
Now, he was in a mess.
When Destiny Game was set to develop games and consoles, and even confront Nintendo...
His single brain and two hands were definitely not enough!
With his hands full, where would he find the time for these endeavors?
"Sigh—"
"If only I knew how to clone myself—"
"Split into a bunch of guys to work, then I could happily slack off~"
Note:
David Gregg obtained the patent for the disc in 1961 and then switched from Western Electric to 3M. Together with the Stanford Research Institute, they researched disc technology, improving recording, copying, and signal storage functions. By 1963, Stanford had already developed the disc video recorder, later known as the disc DV. MCA, the company holding the disc patent at the time, was called MCA DiscoVision. They developed the videodisc with Philips and launched the player in 1978, with the first movie indeed being "Jaws". However, the cooperation with Philips ended in 1981 due to their betrayal, leading to the agency license being given to Pioneer, hence more Pioneer LD players. The company was eventually renamed due to the patent expiration, now called Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The world's first LD-loaded video game was Sega's "Astron Belt" in 1982. This technology wasn't reserved for the PS era. Often, product promotion fails not due to technical issues but because of the single product's profitability (colloquially, squeezing the toothpaste), and market competition.
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