dkrc Chapter 208 Ballmer's Anger
Chapter 208 Ballmer's Anger
At 10 a.m., a line of more than 20 people had already formed outside the Spark Internet Cafe on the corner of Santa Clara Street in Silicon Valley. A sign that read "Full Today" was hanging inside the glass door, but the people in line did not disperse. They craned their necks to look into the store—on the fifty monitors, almost all of them were showing StarCraft battle scenes.
"Someone will definitely get off the plane in another half hour," a young man in a gray hoodie said to his companion. "When I came here at seven in the morning, those guys who stayed up all night were still playing."
His companion stood on tiptoe to look at the timer screen on the wall inside the store: "Machine number 48 has 12 minutes left... wait, he renewed his subscription."
They both sighed at the same time.
Inside the internet cafe, the demo area had three empty machines—free demo units set up by the manager yesterday, placed there when the cafe opened at 7 a.m. this morning. Now, four or five people were gathered behind each machine, watching. The users were frantically typing, the keyboards clattering, the mice gliding rapidly across the mousepads. They were using the new optical mice from Xinghuo Electronics Factory, their red breathing lights flickering in the dim light of the cafe.
"That mouse doesn't drift," commented a bespectacled spectator. "Look at how accurately he hits the rifleman."
"The system runs smoothly," another person chimed in. "I tried the demo version at home last night with Windows 95, using the same graphics card, but the frame rate was significantly lower."
Store manager Chen Lingling—who was transferred from Jinan to the United States three months ago for training and is now in charge of this flagship store—came out of the warehouse carrying a case of canned Coca-Cola. Her English still had an accent, but her movements were efficient. She put the Coca-Cola into the refrigerator at the front desk and turned to the customers in line, saying, "Sorry everyone, there are really no seats available right now. You can register to make a reservation, or buy game discs first; there's a display area over there."
The display stand was located to the left of the internet cafe entrance. What used to be a magazine stand now displayed a StarCraft packaging box—the StarCraft System Special Edition—a dark blue box printed with images of Ultralisks and Marines battling. Next to it was a price tag: $49.99. Five or six people were gathered around the display stand, one of them picking up the box and looking at the back.
"Only the Starry Sky version?" he asked.
"Currently, yes," Chen Lingling said as she walked over, "Blizzard said the Windows version will have to wait until next year."
The man put down the box and looked at the flickering screens in the internet cafe. A game sound effect of "Nuclear launch detected" blasted from the speakers, followed by cheers. He pulled out his wallet: "Give me a set. By the way... do you sell the mouse and keyboard separately?"
"Yes, this way please."
On the shelves to the right of the counter, Spark brand keyboards and mice were neatly arranged. Membrane keyboards were priced at $39.99, and optical mice at $59.99, both ten dollars cheaper than Logitech's comparable products. Next to them was a small sign: "Enjoy a 10% discount when you experience and purchase at Spark Internet Cafe."
The man took the keyboard and mouse, then went back to the display stand to get the games, and carried them to the cashier. Chen Lingling scanned the codes, put them in a bag, and handed him a card: "This is a membership card; you'll get a 15% discount next time you come online."
"You should open more stores," the man said.
"The Palo Alto store will open next month," Chen Lingling said with a smile.
At the same time, in the conference room on the second floor of Building 3 at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Seattle.
Steve Ballmer slammed a copy of the San Jose Mercury News onto the long table. The newspaper slid across the sleek cherry wood surface and came to a stop against the edge of a ThinkPad. The business section's front page featured a two-column headline: "StarCraft Ignites Silicon Valley, StarCraft System Becomes a New Gamer's Favorite."
The accompanying photo is of Xinghuo Internet Cafe – a full house of computers, the Xingchen System logo on the wall, and players' faces glued to the screen.
"Can anyone tell me," Ballmer's voice wasn't loud, but each word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, "why is a game that could be Game of the Year launching on a platform that's our competitor?"
There were eight people in the conference room: Jim Olson, VP of Operations; Sarah Mitchell, Director of Marketing; Robert Chen, Head of Strategic Partnerships; and several heads of relevant departments. No one spoke, and the air conditioning vents hummed.
"Jim," Ballmer called out.
Jim Olson cleared his throat: "We only noticed this game last week. Blizzard has been very low-key before, and the testing has only been limited..."
"Limited scope?" Ballmer interrupted him, picking up the newspaper. "All five Spark Internet Cafes in Silicon Valley are running this game, and you call that limited scope? Did those tech reporters only find out yesterday? What about our intelligence system?"
He stood up, walked around the table to the whiteboard. Remnants of last week's discussion about the IE 4.0 promotion strategy still lingered on the whiteboard. Ballmer grabbed a marker and heavily wrote a few words in the blank space: Blizzard, Stars, Exclusive.
"This is a slap in the face," he turned around, tapping his pen on the whiteboard. "A blatant slap in the face. A new company, with an operating system less than two years old, has secured the launch of this year's most anticipated game. And we, Microsoft, the operating system provider for 95% of the world's personal computers, have to wait three months?"
Robert Chen began, "We've always had a partnership with Blizzard. The Windows version of Diablo..."
"That was last year!" Ballmer slammed his pen on the table. "I need to know why they chose StarCraft this time. Money? Technology? Or some kind of agreement we're unaware of?"
Sarah Mitchell swiped her laptop to pull up a document: "According to the information we've obtained, StarCraft Technology signed a cooperation agreement with Blizzard this August. The specific terms are unclear, but it includes technical support and marketing. StarCraft's system has undergone deep optimization for the game, and their open-source graphics driver performs better than our DirectX in certain scenarios..."
"So, our technology is inferior?" Ballmer stared at her.
Sarah paused for a moment: "They've dedicated more people to specific game optimizations. Also, several engineers on the Blizzard development team are active members of the open-source community, and they're more familiar with Astral's kernel environment."
Ballmer walked back to his seat but didn't sit down. He leaned forward, his hands on the edge of the desk. "Listen," he said, "I don't want excuses. I need two things: First, contact Blizzard immediately and get a timeline for the Windows version's release, no matter the cost. Second, find out which other game companies StarCraft has signed with. I need the list, before I leave work today."
He looked at Jim Olson: "Jim, you go yourself. Fly to Irvine and see Mike Morhaime. Tell him that Microsoft is willing to provide all necessary technical support, including having the DirectX team on-site. I want this game to run better on Windows than the Starry Night version. Understand?"
Jim nodded: "I'll fly this afternoon."
"And another thing," Ballmer added, "check out that Spark Internet Cafe. How many do they have in the US? What methods are they using to promote it? I need a detailed report."
The meeting ended ten minutes later. People packed up their notebooks and left, talking quietly. Ballmer remained in the meeting room, standing by the window looking out. The parking lot was neatly lined with cars, and further away, evergreen trees stretched out. He picked up his phone and dialed a number.
After the call connected, he paused for two seconds before speaking: "Bill, it's me. You saw what happened with StarCraft... Yes, I sent people to Blizzard. But this isn't just about the game... StarCraft is building an ecosystem, from hardware to software to offline experiences. We need to adjust our strategy."
As he listened to the response on the other end of the phone, his fingers unconsciously tapped on the windowpane.
"I know we're keeping up with the open-source community, but we're not moving fast enough. Their browser, Starlight, has now released a Windows version... and user growth is faster than we expected. Okay, we'll discuss this further when you get back."
After hanging up the phone, Ballmer stood by the window for a while. Then he went back to the table, picked up the newspaper, tore off the page with the picture of Xinghuo Internet Cafe, folded it, and put it in his pocket.