Gamenova's moves are always fast, accurate, and ruthless.
For Ken Kutaragi side of the Pacific Ocean, this was undoubtedly another incredibly stressful ordeal.
But the flowers that bloom in such adversity are the most capable.
Thinking of this, Sam's tone became slightly more serious. "Speaking of which, Sony has officially announced the establishment of the SCE department. Does this mean—"
"I told you long ago, it's better for us if they continue to hang out with Nintendo."
Lin Lixin grinned, showing little concern.
If Sony doesn't step up its game soon, it'll really be killing itself before the match even begins.
The pace of progress has accelerated slightly more than before.
Perhaps Norio Ohga sensed the threat posed by Gamenova.
Or perhaps Ken Kutaragi was forced to run a few steps faster.
In any case, SCE was established almost a year earlier than I remembered.
"Should we continue to promote the CD player and try to get Satoshi's side to put in some effort?"
Compared to Lin Lixin, Sam was still somewhat worried.
After all, Sony is a legitimate listed giant, a behemoth in every sense of the word.
In the past, the enemies that GAMENOVA faced sounded strong, but in reality, they were just a bunch of ugly, mud-brick-and-mortar people.
Atari may look like a financial giant, but it's actually just a pawn that Warner Bros. can discard at any time.
Nintendo is a conglomerate that started as a Hanafuda (flower card) company and has a bit of a yakuza background.
EA is a typical Silicon Valley startup, and they are part of the same new money pool.
But Sony is different.
"No, Sam, we've done everything we were supposed to do."
Lin Lixin shook his head and said into the phone, "If Sony really has the ability, no matter how much we try to stop them, we can't truly eliminate them."
"Can----"
"If video games could truly be monopolized, then Gamenova could never have risen from the ruins of Atari."
Sam's expression shifted slightly, then he fell silent.
Lin is right.
How can video games possibly be monopolized?
If they truly have the ability to create a device that is both user-friendly and offers great games, players will naturally be willing to buy it.
Nobody said a player can only have one game console, right?
But Sam was definitely not happy to watch helplessly as the other party entered the market that GAMENOVA had almost completely dominated.
" Sam, a reliable competitor's model, is more beneficial than harmful to us."
How so?
"Making games is like running a restaurant. Sam might be the best restaurant on this street, and people will always come to eat there. But if all the other restaurants on this street go out of business, we won't be far behind."
The host system itself is a healthy competitive model.
Competition among several companies may divide the market, but more often it also promotes mutual development.
You Sony has powerful specs and lavish games? Well then, Nintendo will focus on the home market, developing niche consoles like the Wii and Switch, and the Xbox can also leverage its financial resources and the Windows platform to create something different.
"Players may indeed like us, but we also need to give them the freedom to choose, even if they ultimately choose us."
The key issue isn't who to choose, but whether there's any choice at all.
Choosing GAMENOVA after comparison and having no other choice but to choose GAMENOVA are two completely different concepts.
This applies not only to players.
Even those seemingly loyal third-party developers.
They may not actually want to see Gamenova dominate the market.
"Even if we take a step back and say there's nothing to compare us to, how can we show how great we are?"
"So—we don't need to wipe them out completely?"
Sam nodded thoughtfully.
"Yes, putting some pressure on them is enough. What we really need to consider is how to make a better game, one that players can't refuse from among all the options."
Lin Lixin glanced towards the door; Carmack's car was slowly pulling up in front. "And—they're designing chips that they want us to manufacture."
Globally, there are very few companies capable of making deep submicron level processors.
Among companies that specialize in specific game genres, GAMENOVA is the only one.
In the semiconductor field, Sony's competitors are NEC and several other Japan domestic manufacturers.
From this perspective, GAMENOVA could actually be a strong partner for Sony.
Just like Gamenova was to Motorola.
Such is the way of the world; it's nothing more than opportunism and the duality of friend and foe.
"Okay, that's all for now. Oh, and by the way, tell Will to add an age rating filter or something to the Spore sharing feature; right now it's full of kids making Dieck and Big Drummer stuff!"
As he hung up the phone, Carmack walked to the door and knocked.
"Come in."
"Forest."
This wasn't Carmack's first time here.
The new headquarters basically allocated one apartment to everyone in the core circle.
However, the move isn't finished yet, and this place is a bit far from the old headquarters, so it's not very convenient. People still prefer to stay there most of the time.
Do you know why I called you here?
"---- Quake 3?"
Carmack could actually guess a little bit about it.
After all, the design of the new controller involved developers like them throughout the entire process.
The advantages of dual analog sticks are very clear.
It allows games that were originally only playable with a mouse to be played with a gamepad.
While its positioning may be somewhat different, it is definitely an epic revolutionary upgrade.
Facing the next-generation NovaFusion, it will definitely need a lot of supporting games.
He was somewhat disappointed that Spore had secured the first release.
But the fact that Lin Lixin summoned me today clearly indicates that it's about this kind of matter.
It looks like I have a chance to be second.
Cars, guns, and sports – timeless themes in North America.
" Spore " is meant to tell the world the tone of this machine.
Ultimately, the real pillars supporting sales must come down to shooting games.
"Hmm... no, but there is some connection."
Lin Lixin shook his head.
If the next project is related to Quake QUAKE, that's actually true.
Because it truly is a descendant of QUAKE in every sense of the word.
That year, two senior programmers from Microsoft left, taking with them a huge sum of money they had earned at Microsoft, and went on to work in the video game industry.
They acquired a license for the Quake Engine and modified it.
It was transformed into a completely customized, entirely new product.
GoldSrc Engine.
Commonly known as Half-Life Engine.
The name of this engine might be unfamiliar to gamers.
But based on the works it has produced, even people who don't play games have heard of them to some extent.
Half-Life - Half-Life, Team Fortress (TF), and Counter-Strike (CS) are all games that have earned a prestigious reputation in later generations.
With the assets they accumulated from these works, they decided to create a platform.
And so Steam was born.
Looking at Valve's history, it's practically a Legend story, like that of a protagonist.
A group of incredibly talented individuals who have almost never failed, and a super team composed of geniuses.
Valve has created a system that the gaming industry had never imagined before.
That means developing games, supporting the modding community, recruiting talent from within the modding community, and directly absorbing them into Valve as developers.
Coupled with the explosive growth of Steam, it created a legend in the PC gaming world.
"NovaFusion's graphics performance is sufficient to support us in doing many things that were impossible in the past, such as more powerful AI intelligence, and of course, more detailed 3D models."
Using the Gouraud shaders accumulated during the Spore era, they could have directly iterated the quality of the entire graphic to an incredible level.
By combining all these graphics technologies, the Quake Engine can undergo a comprehensive upgrade.
Surpassing GoldSrc is not impossible.
" The Quake Engine is already very powerful, but what I want is a product with a different focus."
"For example?"
Carmack raised an eyebrow, immediately showing interest.
Rather than simply developing a sequel, this is what he truly wants to do.
To overcome higher technological barriers and continuously iterate and update engine technology.
He was an extreme engine enthusiast.
"For example—physics, what if we created a 3D world with physical simulations?"
"A physics engine?"
"Yes, strictly speaking, it's an open-source physics engine."
"Pretty!"
Carmack suddenly shouted, as if he wanted to jump off the sofa.
This request was exactly what he wanted.
Imagine a Quake with a realistic physics engine!
That's what a sequel should be like, not just a simple overlay of visuals.
"Don't rush, besides that, it also needs to enhance another function."
"WHAT?"
"Live-time performance; this is an engine that doesn't require CG animation."
GAMENOVA has made many attempts in the field of live performance.
Live2D uses splitting and Spine, 3D procedural animation, and motion capture data.
GAMENOVA has always been committed to advancing this area.
And now, it's finally time to reap the rewards.
Facial expression animation, real-time scene performance, physical simulation, NPC interaction, cluster behavior, collaborative responses.
Environmental response, skeletal animation, K-inverse dynamics skeletal animation, material systems, network stack, sound physics, ragdolls,
Particle systems, dynamic lighting, scripting systems----"
Lin Lixin listed them out one by one as if they were his own treasures.
Even Carmack seemed somewhat dazed at this moment.
Because it is too complete.
It was so complete that it seemed Lin Lixin already had a complete picture of the engine in his mind, and now it was just a matter of describing it to him in reverse.
However, despite his surprise, Carmack also keenly noticed the unusual aspects of this new engine.
"Lin, are you planning to make a 3D story-driven game?"
This speculation is not without merit.
Because these systems may seem bizarre, they all ultimately come down to the same thing – real-time performances.
The fact that this aspect has been strengthened to such an extent is enough to explain what the true focus of this engine really is.
Strictly speaking, it's a narrative FPS, and that's our debut title for next year. I'll call it Half-
Life"."