Chapter 62: European Contract
Chapter 62: European Contract
At first, he spoke with a smile, but once the topic turned to the revenue split, he suddenly became firm.
“We are not bluffing. You must have seen the response our game received in the American market, haven’t you?”
Hyein only felt frustrated that, because of their contracts, she could not mention the terms they had with other distributors. From her perspective, she had already lowered her demand considerably in consideration of the European market’s characteristics, yet the other side reacted as though they were being ripped off.
“I know. But the European market is different. Isn’t it normal to begin with somewhat lower terms at first, then raise them gradually from the next title onward after verification is complete?”
Jean spoke with a rich expression, as though he were sincerely pleading.
His tone seemed sincere enough, but Hyein only found it absurd.
“Excuse me. Didn’t you contact us first this time because our game has been fully verified in the American market, and because you confirmed that both imported packages and pirated copies entering Europe are becoming popular? What verification is still needed?”
“Well, the European market is different from North America.”
There was no getting through to him. Hyein still tried persuading him several more times and even lowered the terms further to thirty-seven percent, but the other side remained stubborn.
“Anything above twenty-eight percent will be difficult.”
Hyein barely stopped herself from pressing her fingers against her forehead. There seemed to be no point in continuing this negotiation.
It’s not as if there are no other European master distributors.
They had made the appointment because Ludovox contacted them first, so she assumed the other side had recognized their true value and come running in urgency. Reality was far from what she expected.
“Understood for now. We will discuss this internally and contact you again.”
“Pardon?”
Jean seemed to have thought they would actually sign under those terms, because only then did he look somewhat flustered. But this time, it was their turn to be firm.
He hurriedly explained how dominant their position was in the European market and what kind of support they could provide, but no matter how much he said, none of it mattered if the selling price was dirt cheap.
When Hyein shook her head firmly to the end, Jean had no choice but to retreat.
Afterward, Hyein and Seongcheol began contacting the other European master distributors again. It would have been better if the other side contacted them first, but they could not simply sit under a tree with their mouths open until the persimmon fell.
For now, none of the companies showed no interest. That was only natural, since Parallel Soft had already established itself firmly in America, the center of the global game market.
Their previous title, TLF, was still popular, and even its sequel was succeeding at the box office, so there was no need to even mention the strength of their brand power. The fact that they were being mentioned in the gaming world alongside Civilization could also be considered one of their guarantees.
However, none of them offered the bold terms they had hoped for.
“No matter how we look at it, anything above thirty-five percent will be difficult.”
It seemed Ludovox had not been speaking complete nonsense.
Even the negotiator could not give a definite answer and needed approval from higher-ups, but the best unofficial condition they mentioned was thirty-five percent.
In truth, since the European market was a region made up of many countries with different languages and cultures, translation, distribution, taxes, and other costs were inevitably higher than in single-market countries like America or Japan. That naturally lowered the maximum percentage they could offer.
Seongcheol and Hyein were still dissatisfied, but they could not squeeze water from stone. In the end, they signed with Bit & Brew Ltd., which had offered the highest terms.
The final condition, decided through rather fierce negotiation, was thirty-four percent. For reference, this distributor was based in the United Kingdom.
However, Bit & Brew had one condition as well. As a safety measure, they would first contract and distribute TLF, then distribute MFN only if the results were good.
In that case, MFN’s European distribution would be pushed back somewhat.
Still, it would be six months at most. In another sense, although the genres were different, releasing games from the same company with similar systems at the same time might be worse than giving gamers some time to recover their spending power.
And from the start, they did not even assume TLF would fail. MFN might be another story, but TLF had achieved great success in every market, so they had gained at least that much confidence.
Ludovox belatedly contacted them again with better terms, but the game was already over.
The funny thing was that the “better” condition they brought was only thirty-two percent. Hyein barely managed to hide her sneer and maintain courtesy.
“Thank you for reaching out, but we have already signed with another company.”
“Ah!”
Naturally, Ludovox’s negotiator was rejected and had no choice but to leave Parallel Soft in disappointment.
The year became 1992, and Insu turned nine.
His age was still only a single digit, but perhaps because he had eaten well, moved his body often despite being busy with development, and slept enough, he had grown quite a lot.
“Ah! So close! One hundred thirty-seven!”
His mother placed a measuring tape against the wall and measured Insu’s height. She said it was close, but for a nine-year-old, this height was already fairly high-ranking.
His weight was also thirty-five kilograms, similar to that of some adult women with smaller height and frames. Also, because Korea had long used the Korean age-counting system, saying he was nine made him sound extremely young, but being nine in full years meant he was around the third or fourth grade of elementary school.
At this point, he could be said to have barely escaped being a little child and entered the beginning of boyhood.
Of course, in modern society, adulthood and legal rights were granted by age regardless of one’s body, but it still felt good.
I’ve also reached the point where I’m no longer an eerie and suspicious being, but merely an astonishing genius.
A person who showed high intelligence and outstanding achievements despite being young was called a genius, but if even that went too far and departed from common sense, there was a chance they would be ostracized. That was why he had hidden himself so thoroughly until now. But now, even if he were discovered, it seemed he could simply receive ordinary(?) admiration and be done with it.
Though I still have no intention of stepping forward for no reason.
He was not the type to crave attention, and he already had two successes, sufficient funds, and trustworthy helpers in the form of his mother and father. There was no need to gather resources by drawing attention to himself.
Rather, it would likely only interfere with his focus on development.
Even though he had aged a little and grown slightly, there were no particular changes to his life or environment. He still went to work the same way and devoted himself to TLF’s development.
If there was anything unusual, it was that they were developing a multiplayer function these days.
Of course, this did not mean they were creating a proper online RPG. It was an extremely limited system that made maximum use of modems’ limited capabilities, allowing a small number of players to form a team and clear dungeons together.
“Since we’re using modems, there’s no need to assign IP addresses. Let’s go with a method where we modify the phone number and assign an identification number.”
Since Insu had come from the future, he had at least some basic knowledge of TCP/IP, so he was able to plan this system and discuss it with Brian.
“Then should we use AT commands?”
AT commands were commands used to control modems, such as when dialing a phone number to connect to a PC communication server. By adding a specific sequence to the dialing string, the server side could use it like an identification number.
“That’s not bad either, but aren’t the number of commands too limited? I think the total number of combinations will be too small.”
“Ah, you’re right. If TLF2 becomes as big a hit as the previous game and multiplayer spreads in earnest, that identification method alone could quickly hit its limit.”
In truth, by 2025 standards, this was not particularly impressive knowledge. But in this era, it was something only a small number of specialists handled, so the other team members could only vaguely grasp the conversation while listening. They could not understand exactly what was being discussed.
Insu did not know it, but this could be considered one of the moments that further solidified his image as a genius boy among the team members.
“Then should we add DTMF afterward?”
“…I think that would be fine.”
In truth, even this did not completely eliminate the risk of overlap. Still, since adding digits would reduce the probability of duplication, and since they planned to operate a separate relay server anyway, the weak security was unlikely to matter much.
The server would simply serve as a relay. Since the game itself would proceed through a P2P method where gamers connected directly to each other, they did not need anything particularly impressive. Eight 486-class PCs equipped with modems and the same number of phone lines would be enough.
(Translator’s Note: P2P (Peer-to-Peer) — A network structure where users connect directly to one another without relying entirely on a central server.)
We have a few empty rooms anyway.
Even all together, it would cost less than thirty thousand dollars, and operating costs would probably not exceed two thousand dollars per month. Of course, even that was still an expense, but it was an investment they could easily make for the game’s success. In particular, considering that this was necessary to secure network development ability and operational know-how before MMORPG development, even ten times that amount would not feel wasteful.
The target date for the prototype was sometime between February and March. And since this multiplayer function was one of TLF’s core systems, perfect quality would be impossible, but they planned to develop it to at least a level that could be demonstrated inside the development office.
Development proceeded relatively smoothly. After all, the concept was unfamiliar, but compared to a full-fledged online game, its scale was small and the system itself was fairly simple.
So although this was their first time building such a network system and they fumbled quite a lot, they still managed to design it well enough.
However, building TCP was somewhat difficult.
Put very simply, this referred to a series of systems for transmitting data over a network by breaking it into pieces small enough for the line to handle, then reassembling them afterward.
The important part was that information on how the data had been divided also needed to be sent, so the receiving side could reconstruct it exactly as it originally was based on that information.
That might not sound difficult, but the above was only the simplified concept. To implement it in reality required all kinds of technologies, including two-way communication, flow control, error control, and congestion control.
It could be compared to a traffic control system. If only one car existed in the world, it could simply depart and arrive, and that would be the end. In reality, however, countless vehicles moved across incredibly complex roads, each with its own direction and speed.
It was similar to making sure those vehicles could move smoothly with few accidents, and even if an accident occurred, ensuring it could be resolved quickly.
Fortunately, they were not dealing with the truly complex environment of the internet era. Only a limited number of people would play his game, and they would exchange a small amount of game data within the limited system of the game, so the difficulty was relatively low.
Otherwise, Insu and Brian, along with Yoonsu, who was working hard to keep up and join this network system, would never have dared to develop a TCP system with only three people.
Aside from this network function, there were several other systems they needed to show in the prototype.
There was the strategy mode introduced in MFN, the trade system, and world events. There was also the Great Magic system derived from MFN’s Domain Magic, along with the summoning system and prisoner system proposed by the team and supplemented by Insu’s ideas. They all seemed good as ideas, but they needed to confirm, at least briefly, how they would actually work in the game.