Villain’s Programming - Chapter 265



Only Noblemtl

Episode 265: Why Develop a Console?

‘The reason why we decided to release it on console… … .’

Dojun stirred the cup with a teaspoon and thought about his past life.

‘The Korean gaming industry was in dire straits in 2022.’

Korean games grew significantly in the late 1990s and into the 2000s, as MMORPGs became huge hits worldwide and brought in huge amounts of money.

In the 2010s, it made another leap forward with mobile games.

‘But in the late 2010s, the Korean gaming industry began to decline. Chinese games developed so much that they dragged down all Korean games.’

When the first Chinese games came out, Korean developers laughed at their crudeness. However, after a few years, the crudeness disappeared and the game playability was supported, and Korean games soon lost their place.

‘But the collapse of the Korean gaming industry wasn’t just due to the growth of Chinese games. What was bigger was that Korean games lost their diversity and playability.’

Korean games have made a lot of money from ‘online games’ including MMORPGs. Technology related to MMORPGs has developed, and game planning related to them has developed.

This was obviously a huge achievement, but it also caused all Korean game companies to focus solely on developing online games.

Suddenly, investors stopped investing in games that weren’t online, and all game companies and developers learned to only make online games that would make money.

‘Eventually, the Korean package game market died in the 2000s. Since it wasn’t profitable, no game company made package games. Not to mention unfamiliar console games.’

In such a situation, with China dominating the online gaming market, Korean games no longer have a place to stand.

‘Of course, neither the developers nor the game companies are stupid. They knew this in advance and tried countless different things.’

The media and gamers often criticize new games for being “just the same old game.” This is half true and half false.

Many game companies in Korea have tried to escape this by developing various genres of games internally.

However, only about one out of ten games were shown to users. The rest disappeared during development or after CBT.

‘Even if you try something new, users won’t play that game. They’re unfamiliar. But the funny thing is, if you just change the graphics and make it similar to the existing game, users will play the game even though they’ll complain.’

But that changed in the 2020s. Even Korean users were getting tired of the same old MMORPGs.

Dojun took a sip of coffee. The sweet coffee mix lingered on his tongue and went down his throat.

Dojun said while looking at Sally.

“The gaming industry in our country is doing quite well right now. Many online games are becoming hugely successful worldwide.”

“Yes, it’s really great. Everyone wonders how Korean games can be so successful.”

Dojun said with a bitter smile at Sally’s compliment.

“But Sally, I don’t think that will last long. Ten years at most? If it’s short, maybe five years before Korean games start to decline.”

Sally opened her eyes wide.

“That’s ridiculous. Things are going so well?”

“They’re doing well. But that’s the problem. Everyone is only making online games that make a lot of money. That’s why they don’t try other types of games. Even if they try, they don’t have the know-how, so they don’t succeed.”

Sally understood what Dojun said right away.

“Ah! I never thought about that. Then, the reason Dojun wanted to make it into a console is… … .”

“Yeah, I’m trying to pioneer the console game market in Korea. I want to show Korean game companies that they can make a lot of money with console games. If I pioneer that path, Korean developers will definitely follow.”

Sally looked at Do-jun, who spoke calmly, with shining eyes.

“I didn’t know you were thinking that way. Dojun, you look really cool today.”

“Sally, I’ve always been cool.”

Sally chuckled and asked.

“But Dojun, why a console? If that’s the case, wouldn’t a PC package game be okay too?”

“The reason PC package games failed in Korea is not only because of the game quality issues, but also because of the issue of piracy.”

“Ah! Consoles don’t have the problem of piracy.”

“It will happen over time, but it won’t happen in a few years.”

Dojun drank the rest of his coffee in one sip and spoke as if making a pledge.

“That’s why I definitely want to make a game that will be successful on consoles. I’m releasing a PC version three months later because I want more users to enjoy the game I made, even if it’s pirated. Of course, I’ll do my best to prevent pirated copies. The PC package market also has to survive.”

After hearing Do-jun’s words, Sally stood up, kissed Do-jun on the cheek, and said.

“Dojun, if there’s anything you need my help with, just tell me. I’ll do my best to help.”

“Thank you, Sally.”

Dojun and Sally made eye contact. The atmosphere between them was gradually becoming more and more ripe.

“Oh, right. Dojun, why don’t you ask William? About package game security.”

“William?”

“Yeah. I heard William made something for fun a few days ago. Something to do with cloning.”

* * *

The next day, Dojun asked Sally, who was going to work, a favor.

“Sally, check out that cloning technology that William created.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll check as soon as I get there.”

After kissing, the two went to work each.

Do-jun entered the CEO’s office, sat down on a chair, turned on the computer, and checked his email.

‘come.’

The email contained proposals from MS and Sony. Do-jun read the proposals from both companies and folded his arms.

‘Hmm. So you’re saying you’ll never give up on porting to PC?’

Neither company accepted Dojun’s proposal, but the porting period to PC was shortened.

‘MS allowed porting after 1 year, Sony after 2 years.’

This was very different from what Dojun wanted. But if we were going to release it on console, we couldn’t not join hands with them.

Dojun thought about it and thought back to his past life.

‘Wait, the PS4 came out in 2013? That’s right. It was November 2013. The Xbox ONE came out within a few days of that!’

Do-jun clenched his fists as he recalled his past life. A way to persuade the two people came to mind.

Do-jun, who had gathered his thoughts, suggested a meeting to both of them.

The next day at 11:00 AM, two people came to Black Cat Studio. They were Richard Fay and General Manager Hoshino.

The two people who entered the main gate flinched when they saw each other.

“You all came.”

Richard asked with an ‘ahem’ at Dojun’s words.

“Representative Hwang, didn’t you give this person the wrong meeting date?”

Hoshino said while looking at Richard.

“That’s what I’m going to say. Mr. Hwang, didn’t you have a meeting with me today?”

Dojun said while looking at the two people.

“Both of you have a meeting with me today. Today’s meeting is with you two.”

The two were surprised by Do-jun’s words. It was against custom to call competing companies to discuss important contracts.

Chief Hoshino frowned. Even Richard, who was close to Dojun, kept his lips tightly shut.

“Of course, I know that my actions just now are rude. However, I think that what I have to say today needs to be heard by both of you, so I have arranged this event.”

Richard sighed and answered.

“There is nothing meaningless in what Representative Hwang does. I see.”

“Thank you for your understanding. First, let’s go to the conference room.”

Do-jun took the two people into the prepared conference room. After they sat down and drinks were brought in, Do-jun spoke to the two people.

“I carefully reviewed the proposals you two sent me. However, they were not at the level I wanted.”

Hoshino said it right away.

“No. It’s a huge concession. Usually, it takes five years to break a monopoly, so a two-year monopoly is a huge concession.”

Richard agreed.

“That’s the same for us. Of course, we proposed one year, but there was a lot of talk about this internally.”

Dojun looked at the two people and asked.

“The two of you are like this, of course, because of the market share, right?”

Both of them avoided eye contact and could not answer.

“Okay. I have something to show you. Let’s go first.”

Do-jun took the two people out of the CEO’s office and into the development room. Do-jun spoke to CTO Yang Ha-seong.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes. Which one would you like to see first?”

“Let’s look at the PS first.”

As we moved along the slope, we saw the PS3 and the monitor connected to it.

“Let’s get started.”

At Dojun’s words, CTO Yang Ha-seong manipulated the pad. Then, a character appeared on the monitor and began to move. It was the same female character that we saw at the presentation.

At that moment, Hoshino shouted in surprise.

“Huh! A dog warrior?”

Hoshino shouted as he kept looking at the cable connecting the PS3 and the monitor.

“This… is it really possible to run it on a PS3?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening… … . Is it possible for this level of quality to come out on a PS3?”

The monitor showed a screen showing the gameplay of the Dogma Warrior with great graphics.

Of course, it was inferior to the presentation video, but it was still incomparably better than the original PS3.

“Aren’t you seeing it with your own eyes?”

“This doesn’t make sense. With graphics like this, shouldn’t the frames be dropping? How many frames are we getting now?”

The answer was given by CTO Yang Ha-seong.

“It goes back and forth between 40 and 60 frames.”

“Oh… How could this happen? What on earth did you do?”

Dojun answered Hoshino’s words.

“We are using SPU efficiently.”

SPU stands for the CPU used in Plus.

“SPU? I heard it’s very difficult to use.”

“Yes, it is tricky. That is why game developers have not been able to use it efficiently until now. However, after research, we have found a way to use SPU efficiently.”

“ah!”

Hoshino was amazed by Dojun’s words and couldn’t take his eyes off the monitor.

“This time, let’s go towards Xbox.”

The Xbox was right across the partition. When Do-jun told them to start, CTO Yang Ha-seong operated the pad.

A female character appeared on the monitor. At that moment, Richard opened his mouth without realizing it.

“This is… an Xbox 360?”

“Yes. It’s pretty good, right?”

“This is not okay. Oh my god, can I control it?”

“Of course.”

Richard, who received the pad from CTO Yang Ha-seong, moved the character around to examine the background and movement.

“This is amazing. All the existing Xbox users will be amazed. The graphics are like this, but there are no frame drops. And the graphics look better than the PS3.”

Hoshino frowned at those words, but said nothing. The Xbox looked better to him, too.

“That’s right. The Xbox’s GPU performance is better than the PS3’s. It has a lot more pixels and vertex processing power. Gaemusha has pushed that to the limit. Of course, it’s still a lot lower than what you can do on a PC.”

“Still, with this level of quality, users will almost feel like they’re playing on a new console.”

At Richard’s words, Dojun snapped his fingers.

“That’s right. That’s what I want. For gamers, and for you two.”

The two people blinked at Dojun’s words because they didn’t understand what he was saying.

“The two of you, no, MS and Sony, must have made such offers to me because of market share.”

Dojun continued speaking while looking at the two people.

“Let’s give up that share this time.”

The two people looked surprised at Dojun’s words.

“yes?”

“No. What is that… … .”

Dojun said.

“Instead, give users the experience they’re experiencing now. The Xbox 360 came out in 2005 and the PS3 came out in 2006, so why not give the gamers who’ve had those consoles for a long time the gift of ‘Gae-ma-musa’?”

Richard opened his eyes wide at Dojun’s words.

‘It’s been a long time since the Xbox 360 was released. Wouldn’t it be nice to give this kind of gift to users who have been playing Xbox for a long time?’

Richard was impressed by Dojun’s opinion. They only thought about ‘business’, but Dojun thought about ‘gamers’.

At that time, Hoshino, who was next to me, said something unexpected.

“Surely that means it won’t be exclusive, but will be released simultaneously on Xbox and PS?”

“Yes, that’s right. But instead, we won’t charge you any development fees. And the PC release will also be delayed by five months.”

The two people took on serious expressions at Dojun’s words. It was because they wanted more ‘exclusivity’ from the gameplay Dojun had just shown them.

Dojun raised the corners of his mouth as he looked at the two people who were not answering. This was because he had expected this to happen.

‘I knew this would happen, so I prepared one more.’

Dojun said to the two people.

“Is it hard to decide? Then let me make one more suggestion.”

The two people looked at Dojun again.

“I think both MS and Sony are developing their next consoles right now. The release date will probably be around the second half of 2013.”

In an instant, both people’s eyes widened.

“How about that?”

Dojun shook his head at Hoshino’s words.

“That’s not the point. What’s important is that when you announce a new console, you always announce a new game. And it’s a game that can take advantage of the new console and show off the graphics. That way, you can show how great the new console is.”

Dojun continued speaking, tapping the monitor.

“As you can see, we have the technology to make a game that maximizes the performance of the console. So I offer you an offer. To the company that accepts my terms, we will provide the best graphics that maximize the performance of the new console machine along with the Gaemamusa expansion pack in 2013.”

Richard and Hoshino bit their lips tightly at Dojun’s words.

‘This is… a one-sided move!’

Richard clenched his fist.

‘When a new console comes out, will another company be able to make a game as good as Gaemamusa?’

Richard imagined that when the new Xbox came out, the only game in town would be the PS.

‘If you release a game with already proven gameplay on PS, a new expansion pack, and more advanced graphics, all gamers will buy a new PS.’

Hoshino also had similar thoughts.

‘This isn’t just a question of whether or not we bring in promising games. This is the future of the new console.’

Richard looked at Hoshino. Hoshino also looked at Richard.

Richard said to Dojun.

“Ahem, I heard what you said. I’ll talk to the company about this and get back to you as soon as possible.”

Hoshino also answered.

“Me too. I will come to you right away after discussing it with the company.”

So the two of them went back. And before that night, they got a call.

* * *

[Gae-ma-musa, released simultaneously on Xbox 360 and PS3!]

[Gaemamusa, PC version released 5 months after console version release!]

As soon as the article came out, the gaming community became heated again.

– Wow, really? A simultaneous release on two platforms! I think this is the first time I’ve seen something like this.

– It’s not that there weren’t any. It’s just that there’s never been an S-class game like Gaemamusa like this before.

– Seriously, Black Cat is the real deal. How does she manage to please gamers with everything she does?

Gamers have praised Black Cat Studios for releasing the game on all platforms including Xbox, PS, and PC.

But not all gamers were like that.

– But does this make sense? After all, isn’t the real Gaemamusa only playable on PC? The specs on both consoles are too low?

– Right. I don’t think it’s necessary to pay for it. It might be better to wait 5 months and buy the PC version.

– Haha, that’s right. When the PC version comes out, it’ll be released on torrents, right? We can do it then.

Gamers thought that a proper ‘dogmamusha’ would not be released due to the console’s low performance.

But the next day, everyone was speechless by an article in ‘Sky Sports’.

[Dog Warrior, Xbox 360, PS3 demonstration video]

The article contained the exact gameplay screen that Dojun showed to Hoshino and Richard.

– This is crazy. Is this really played on a PS3?

– Xbox 360 is crazier. It seems like the quality is better than PS3?

– This makes a difference. I have no choice but to buy the game as soon as it comes out, right?

This anticipation wasn’t just shared by Korean gamers.

[Gamers around the world selected Gaemamusa as the most anticipated game of the year.]

The console footage shown by Gaemamusa swept the world.

Dojun laughed while reading the comments on the article.

‘Fortunately, it turned out the way I wanted. Better than I expected.’

The response from gamers was very positive.

‘Besides, many developers are watching Gaemamusa.’

Game companies that were planning to develop online games began to show interest in ‘console’ games.

‘What’s left is to show that console games can be successful if you make a good Gaemamusa.’

Dojun clenched his fists because that day seemed not far away.

But then, Dojun’s cell phone rang.

‘Who is it?’

Dojun looked at the LCD. There was an unexpected name written there.

“Jobs?”

Dojun quickly answered the phone.

“Jobs?”

– Dojun, how have you been?

Do-jun heard Jobs’ weak voice in his ears. Do-jun flinched for a moment, then turned his head to check the date.

‘May 23rd?’

Today marked five months until Jobs’ death.