Adam Edgar saw Jester going to walk around with Claudia after the concert, and he didn't mean to be a light bulb between the two, so he took the initiative to go back early, in fact, Jester didn't care, he didn't mean anything else to Claudia, just because he didn't finish talking about Nintendo's royalties before, and Claudia was very interested in it, so he took the initiative to find a place to have a drink, by the way.

Claudia excitedly offered to take him to a traditional English pub.

Bar culture is one of the representative cultures of the United Kingdom, and it can even be said that this is an absolutely indispensable part of the United Kingdom, in the last life, Jester had a friend from the United Kingdom, he was a fan of Manchester United like Jester, so the two talked very happily, he told Jester, if you haven't been to a bar in the UK, then it means that you haven't been to the UK.

It shows the status of the bar in the minds of the British.

There are 61,000 pubs in Britain, which is the equivalent of a province on the mainland, and the word 'pub' comes from the Victorian name for the 'Pblic-House', which as the name suggests, was a public place for people to gather and socialize, and then gradually evolved into the term PUB.

Jester had never been to a traditional English pub, or even touched it, so on the way there, Claudia carefully explained to him many of the unwritten rules of an English pub.

For example, if you don't need to line up at the bar, just find a place to sit down, the bartender will naturally know that you need service, don't shout, don't tap coins on the bar, don't flick your fingers, don't wave your arms like a drowning person, don't stretch your face, don't sigh, don't roll your eyes. When you're bored, don't shake the bell that hangs behind the bar, it's the bar owner's use to indicate that it's closing time. The key is that you let the bartender see you. You can hold up an empty cup or money, but don't shake it. You can have a waiting, expecting, and even slightly anxious look on your face. If you look too satisfied, the bartender will think they've served you.

The most important thing is not to tip the bartender, it may not be exact, to be precise, it is not to talk to the bartender about money, if you think the bartender service is good, you want to tip him, then the most correct thing you do is to invite him to have a drink, as for whether he drinks or not is his business, but you have to pay for this glass, although it is the same as tipping, but the bartender's feelings will be completely different.

Truth be told, Jester didn't believe his eyes when he followed Claudia to the famous bar she was talking about.

Because this pub is so unobtrusive, even though it is located in the Wembley neighbourhood.

Outside the street, Jester couldn't see the bar's sign with a name like 'Bar' or 'café' that could characterize it, as if the bar's proprietors didn't want strangers to know that he was a pub from the outside.

While Jester was marveling at the name of the tavern in the novel, Claudia led him in.

Jester was still a little surprised when he just walked into the bar, it was different from the bars he had been to with loud music, there was no music playing in it, just a few people gathered together to drink and chat, the only thing that made Jester a little dissatisfied was that the bar was smoky, and the drinkers inside seemed to be smokers in addition to being drunkards.

Almost everyone he saw was holding a large oak glass full of beer spilling white foam in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other.

To Jace's surprise, however, Claudia, who has always been known for her elegance, seems to be extremely familiar with the place.

"Hey! Claudia! ”

As soon as Claudia entered the bar, a middle-aged man with a beard greeted her with a smile, and at the same time raised the wine glass in his hand to her, some drinks were shaken out, and a strong and powerful man with a sea anchor on his bare arm also smiled and stretched out his palm to greet Claudia.

Looking at where he was before, Jester knew he might be the bartender at this bar.

"Smack!" Claudia smiled and slapped her white palm on the bar's generous slap, "Long time no see, Willie." ”

The bartender named Willie only pouted, and he said with some dissatisfaction: "It's been a long time since I see you, Claudia, and I'm here every day." Then, Willy's gaze shifted to Jester, who grinned, revealing his white teeth, and at the same time, stretched out a hand, "Hello, Claudia's friends, all my Willy's friends." ”

"Thank you." Jester reached out and shook the bartender's hand.

When Jester and Claudia found a random place to sit down, Claudia smiled and looked at Jester with a puzzled look on her face, she pulled her hair, spread her ponytail and said, "Strange? ”

Jester nodded.

"You've been in the UK for a long time, and pubs are a very important place to socialise in British culture...... Look where I'm going, it's useless, I mean, after I was kicked out of the house by my father, I came here a lot, I grew up in the West End, that's it, a lot of people here know me, don't look at me like that, I'm not here to drink to drown my sorrows, English pubs are not just for drinking. ”

Seeing Jester's look of surprise when she heard her words, Claudia knew that maybe the man next to her had gone somewhere else, so she couldn't help but roll her eyes and explain.

"I'm here to think about my future plans...... You know, it's a tradition in England to think about things in pubs, for example, the rules of table tennis were done in a small pub in Hambreton, and Thomas Paine wrote "A Theory of Human Rights" in a pub in London, whether it was Chaucer, Shakespeare or Dickens, they all had the habit of writing in pubs......"

Although Claudia's explanations were getting more and more confused, Jester understood what she meant, so he nodded.

And Claudia also found that the more she spoke, the more she deviated from the subject, but she really didn't want Jester to think that she was a girl who often clubbed, as far as she knew, Americans, especially Chinese Americans, didn't think that girls who often clubbed were good girls.

Therefore, she simply stopped explaining, and thought about changing the topic, anyway, this time coming to the bar was also a temporary idea for Jester, and he promised to explain Nintendo's royalty system to himself in detail.

This is all said before.

"Okay." Jester nodded, and just as he was about to begin to explain, the bartender Power walked over with a tray full of two large beers, Jester could smell the rich aroma of wheat, and placed the two beers in front of the two of them, and then a warm smile appeared on his face again: "To celebrate the return of our princess Claudia to our crown and iron anchor, so I invite these two glasses." ”

"Thank you." Jester nodded hurriedly in thanks, he had heard Claudia say before, like this kind of bartender can't refuse to take the initiative to ask for wine, this is their friendly behavior, if you refuse, you are rejecting their friendliness.

Claudia grinned and put her glass under her nose to sniff it, then said in a very affirmative tone, "Irish stout." ”

Willie snapped his fingers, then gave her a thumbs up.

"Try it, Willy is Irish, this pub has been around since the Victorian era, he passed it down from his great-grandfather, and the dark beer made here is very famous in London's West End." Claudia smiled at Jester, and she took a sip from her glass.

Jester also took a sip of his wine glass after hearing it, it was indeed very good, and it had a very unique taste.

"Then let's talk about Nintendo's royalties?" Claudia asked, a little expectantly.

"Hmm." Jester agreed, thought for a while, organized the wording, and then said, "Actually, it's not complicated to say that the royalties are complicated, and it's not easy to say that it's simple, you can generally see that this is a four-part distribution clause, which is aimed at those game makers who release games on Nintendo's FC consoles." ”

Claudia held her chin and listened quietly.

"First of all, you have to know that Nintendo's FC console is different from Atari, FC is a closed game platform, it only allows development companies that have been authorized by Nintendo to publish games that can run on it, as for how to get Nintendo's authorization? It's very simple, that is, make the game first, send it to Nintendo for review, and only after Nintendo's review, then it will be allowed to burn the FC cassette, which ensures the quality of the game released on the FC on the largest program. Jester said simply, but the first one made Claudia wonder.

"So all the risk is transferred to the game development company, who didn't even know if the game could be released at the beginning of the game. Will the game development company agree to such harsh conditions? So Claudia immediately voiced her doubts.

Jester nodded, he took the glass of Irish dark beer again and took a sip, he found that this beer was really delicious, swallowed a sip of wine, and after exhaling, he continued: "You're right, but don't forget about it, I told you before, Nintendo is taking advantage of their FC's crushing sales advantage over other game consoles, and I have a report on the sales trend of home game consoles in Japan after the FC was released, The number of home consoles from other brands combined is not a fraction of Nintendo's FC, which sold less than half a million units at the end of last year before the quality crisis, but recently, they have sold 1.6 million units. ”

At this time, Claudia suddenly realized, and she immediately understood that this was Nintendo's oppression.

However, although the advantages of this are obvious, the disadvantages are also obvious, Nintendo can do this now when there are no other competitors, not afraid of betrayal by those franchised game software developers, but what about other competitors? What about when the gaming platform was no longer dominated by Nintendo? After all, if the video game industry can really recover, then it is impossible for other capital not to see the huge profits in it.

She felt that Nintendo was playing with fire.

Thinking of this, Claudia glanced at Jester seriously, for example, Mars Entertainment, which is like the man next to her, is not planning to release his own console at the end of the year?

Obviously, Jester also saw her question from Claudia's expression, and Jester didn't hesitate, and directly explained to her: "So, there is the second part of the royalty system. Each game developer can only make three games for FC every year, and every game released on FC cannot be released on other game platforms for three years, and although Nintendo did not say it explicitly, there is still an unspoken rule that as long as a royalty participant publishes a game on another game platform, then it cannot continue to be published on FC. ”

Hearing Jester's explanation, Claudia couldn't help but smack her tongue and sighed Nintendo's viciousness, which almost blocked the back roads of other game companies, so that they could only make games for Nintendo's FC with peace of mind, but then again, since FC is the platform with the highest market share, isn't it good for those game companies to concentrate on making games on FC?

"It's that simple." Hearing Claudia's somewhat naïve thoughts, Jester shook his head, and then said with a sneer, "How can such a shrewd person as old man Yamauchi be so good at talking, the third part of the premium is about the sharing terms of FC games, you may not believe it, all games released on FC, after deducting the distribution cost, sixty percent of the net profit belongs to Nintendo." ”

"What!" This time, Claudia finally exclaimed, she really couldn't believe that a game development company worked hard to produce a game, and then it was only able to get forty percent of the game's profits, and Nintendo didn't need to do anything, just to provide a game platform, but to share sixty percent of the profits, in her eyes, Nintendo's behavior is simply knocking on the marrow, and those game manufacturers, how could they agree to such an unfair agreement?

If it were her, she wouldn't have agreed anyway.

After Jester heard Claudia's exclamation, he just smiled disdainfully, and he replied in a very flat tone: "Because those game manufacturers have no other way, if they want to make games, they must join Nintendo's royalty, otherwise, they won't even get the forty percent of the profits." ”

Hearing Jester's statement, Claudia was speechless in shock, Nintendo's royalty plan simply made her feel chills all over her body.

This plan is too harsh and overbearing, and now Nintendo is overwhelming people, and other manufacturers who are interested in making games can hardly refuse Nintendo's plan, because, if you don't participate in the royalty plan, you will lose the right to make games on FC, and you will not have the right to release games on FC, so you will basically lose the possibility of engaging in game development.

If you participate, you will lose the excess profits in the game industry and can only make some hard-earned money, which also makes those game developers lose the opportunity for rapid development.

It's almost a bottom-of-the-box plan.

"It's not over yet."

Jester continued, he first drank half of the Irish dark beer, and then, he said in an admiring tone, "This is not the most greedy part of the royalty plan, the core of the royalty plan is its fourth part, even if they are selected to release the game for FC, then all the cassettes of their game must be made by Nintendo, which requires the game developer to take money, of course, there will always be privileges in it, Six developers who have already developed games for FC last year have the privilege of making their own zuò cassette, but they also need to pay royalties. ”

"For example, Namco and Hudson, the strongest of these six companies, need to pay Nintendo 100 yen for each FC cartridge they make, while the other four - Konami, Teto, Capcom and Jericho need to pay 700 yen, while the other manufacturers do not have the right to produce their own cassette, their cassettes must be produced by Nintendo, and each cassette must charge a royalty of 2,000 yen."

"That's where the name royalty scheme comes from, and as the name suggests, the so-called royalty is that the game developer needs to pay a lot of money to buy the rights to publish the game in FC."

Jester's tone was very flat, and even vaguely had a hint of appreciation for the royalty plan, he looked at Claudia, who was deep in thought after listening to his words, and continued to add: "And game developers need to predict how much their game can sell in advance before producing game cartridges, if a game developer predicts that it will sell 200,000 copies, then he needs to pay 200,000 copies of the royalty before he can produce it, but if he can't sell 200,000 copies, the royalty will not be refunded." ”

"In other words, Nintendo will not take even the slightest risk during the whole process."

Claudia listened, and after more than ten minutes of silence, she gritted her teeth and said the first sentence she had said after listening to Jester's Nintendo royalty plan.

"It's just cannibalism."

Jester listened, just smiled, didn't speak, to be honest, if he was in the position of the old man in Yamauchi, then he would not hesitate to use the royalty plan, but now, he can't do this, now Nintendo's strict and domineering royalties can help them get the maximum profit without taking any risks, and they can also control those game developers, it's like killing three birds with one stone, but the problem is, just like Crowe said earlier, not all game developers, are willing to swallow the royalty plan, so he has the idea of taking the opportunity to recruit game companies that are unwilling to give in for the time being.

Of course, his home console has not yet been officially released, and it is impossible to confront Nintendo's royalty plan head-on, so if he wants to recruit those game companies to resist Nintendo's royalty plan, he will have to spend a huge price, and Nintendo will have to lure them to their advantage.

It may have been costly, but in Jester's view, it was worth it, because he couldn't go it alone against Nintendo and so many software vendors around Nintendo, after all, two fists are no match for four hands.

Without a third-party gaming platform, it is destined to have no future, and Sega is a living example of this.

While Jester and Claudia were drinking and chatting in the bar after listening to the concert, the people of the Japanese branch of Mars Entertainment were not idle, and even the head of the Japanese branch, Yuxiu Yoshiro, personally stepped out, if not for anything else, because he received instructions from his own boss to persuade the two companies to give up the royalty plan to join Nintendo.

Of these two companies, one is a company called Dark Ei Co., Ltd. in Kanagawa Prefecture that just released the PC version of Nobunaga's Nobo last year and has a small reputation, and the other is a small company called Denyusha that is not famous in the slightest.

The first Dark Glory Co., Ltd. is just that.,After all, it's just a game company.,And this small company called the Electric Friends Society.,Tamaki Yoshiro asked someone to inquire before.,It's just a not very big electrical appliance company.,And his boss asked him to persuade this company not to join Nintendo's royalty plan.,It's just a game development department that this small electrical appliance company has just been established.。

The most ridiculous thing is that the head of this game development department turned out to be a part-time student named Hironobu Sakaguchi, who is currently studying at university.

Before leaving, Tamahideyoshiro thought that Jester's second mission was simply extremely funny.

PS: Ask for a recommendation ticket!!