Who? Alexander Mikhailov, General Director of the Buka company.
Where? Russia, Moscow, office of the Buka company.
Buka's company last month twenty. Her story is almost the history of the formation of the Russian gaming industry. Once upon a time, it was Buka who ”introduced the Russian market with licensed games, first selling them in large cardboard boxes, and then in economical Jewel Box. The company survived two crises and gave us a huge bunch of legendary games – from Wangers to Petkai.
To find out how and under what circumstances Buka lived, we went to a meeting with Alexander Mikhailov, General Director of the Company.
Beginning and "dashing nineties"
January 2, 1994 Igor Ustinov, founder of Buka, invited his friends to establish a company selling a company. Why on the second of January, on the holidays, no one remembers, but on February 14, on the day of all lovers, Ustinov received a registration certificate for the company "Buka". The countdown went.
THIS IS INTERESTING: The first working name of the company was "Bravo". “Buk” is actually not a reference to a fabulous creature, but an abbreviation from the names of the creators of the company.
Buka took its first loan – an astronomical amount of one million dollars at forty percent per annum at that time, and began to establish contacts with foreign publishers. The easiest way was to agree with the manufacturers of the game iron, so they decided to do first of all.
Alexander Mikhailov : “The founders of the company went to London, to exhibitions where representatives of the industry gathered, and already concluded certain agreements there. At first, it was exclusively about the export of the consoles, so the entrance to the market was not very difficult – we bought consoles at European prices and sold them here. Everyone happily came to contact with one condition – money forward. Our first partner was the SEGA company, from which we bought Mega Drive 2 And the game of games – TINY TOON , Sonic And Marco Polo. Later they pulled up the contacts and with Sony, they began to carry PlayStation , But the 1998 crisis almost buried this matter, and we switched to computer games "
► one of the first stores with licensed prefixes from Buki.
Everything was a little more complicated with publishers of computer games-they did not understand how the business model in Russia works and why the purchase cost of the game is one and a half dollars, and the deductions for the copies sold were twenty cents. Only after Buke managed to persuade the company Acclaim (at that time one of the largest publishers in general) to work together, things went uphill – the other publishers saw one after another that according to such a scheme, one can also be fruitfully cooperated. But this did not happen at once.
► The second backbone of the Buka team. Among them are still bearded Mikhailov.
We were robbed, and twice.
Alexander Mikhailov _: “For the first couple of years, none of the founders almost received a salary, it was calculated literally hundreds of dollars for all. For the first time, we powerfully announced ourselves in 1994 at the Electronic Consumer Show (analogue of Westernes) on Krasnaya Presnya, we had a hundred -meter stand. This is not bad by modern standards, but then the mid -nineties are in the yard. Our stand was more than that Stippler (The same that sold _Dendy ), and everyone went in shock – who is it at all and where did they get so much money from. The risk was great, but Igor Ustinov believed in success and believed that it was precisely this should be invested. Almost all of our money went to the exhibition, but thanks to it we found our first buyers and began to slowly build a sales network.
It is funny that we bought this stand somewhere in Germany, and a week before the exhibition, the truck that was driving it disappeared without a trace. Everyone got off their feet, going around customs and police. At the last moment he was found, the truck was trained, and everything managed to organize.
Then they robbed us, and twice. It was in 1996. For the first time, everything happened at night – the truck struck the gate to the territory where the office was located, and the crooks through the basements went to our warehouse, carried out one of the largest parties of the console.There was no protection – they saved on everything that was possible, and the result was a rather unpleasant situation. The MPO "Electrotechnics", where we are still and are, had a waugch grandmothers, but they vowed that they had not heard anything. Maybe it's good that you have not heard ".
► The second exit for Buki was the exhibition "Entertainment Industry". Here the stand was much more modest – only thirty square meters.
Your first games
The first of his own game "Buki" was "Russian roulette". In the yard stood 1996. As they say, the circulation of the "roulette" amounted to fifteen thousand boxed copies, not counting the pirate versions. The cost of the game before denomination (after it, a thousand rubles began to be considered in one ruble) amounted to one hundred and forty thousand rubles.
► "Russian roulette" greatly looks like a Descent – only it is not about space.
The development of "roulette" was engaged in the company " Logos ", Which consisted of former employees of the Department of Cybernetics of MEPhI and engaged in the production of software for monitoring exchanges, warehouse automation and accounting. In the early nineties, Logos was made by the BMP-2 military simulator for the needs of the Ministry of Defense, and in 1994 Logos supplied Buke software for accounting. Company employees made friends, Logos showed Buka its simulator of military equipment, and the company decided to make its own game at its base.
People who were engaged in the sale of products came with the words: “We will put a“ roulette ”next to the boxes of sweets!"
Alexander Mikhailov : “Russian roulette” is notable for the fact that it was thanks to it that the network sales network expanded in the country. At a press conference, we announced that one hundred thousand dollars were spent on promoting the project-you know, the amount at that time is fabulous. Advertising was everywhere, and this even pulled out those who had no concern for the games at all. People who were engaged in the sale of products came with the words: “We will put a“ roulette ”next to the boxes of sweets!»Since there were almost no licensing stores for the sale of games, except in Moscow, this allowed to sell the game an unimaginable circulation of fifteen thousand copies. And after her there were " Allods "," Vananers " And " Truckers ".
By the way, the first "truckers" were our idea – we completely developed and produced the game, but in Russia it published "1C". The reason is banal – they paid ahead, and the money was very needed.
In the West, we sold the game ourselves. Due to the mistake of the translator, she was called not Heavy Truck, as we initially planned, but Hard Truck. Western retailers really liked this, and they attacked our brainchild like hot pies. Particularly flooded the game in the United States – even lasted several weeks in the tops of sales. Then we first received huge deductions for the game released in the West "
Economical "Petka and Vasily Ivanovich"
The first "Petka" greatly influenced the quest genre in Russia as a whole. It was thanks to him that the whole back of the Russian quest arose, and jokes about the brave commander Chapaev went to the people with a new wave.
The first "Petka" was a little unlucky – he went out just at the height of the crisis.
Alexander Mikhailov : “The developers of the first“ Petka ”came to us almost already with the finished game. I was put on producing, it was necessary to bring the project to mind. The project programmer had one, the game engine was already ready, so he simply prescribed scripts. The programmer, to put it mildly, liked to lay behind the collar, and if he left the office, he could easily disappear for several days. The deadlines were settled, so we and I, the head of the developers, in turn, in turn, sat in the office, he was a rented apartment, for a single goal-to prevent the programmer from leaving somewhere. That is, we spent the night there literally. Sitting there, I tested the project and the game re -tried an unthinkable number of times.
After the release, a flurry of calls collapsed, and the concepts of “technical support” were not in principle. As a result, I had to sit on the phone and constantly answer users, help them in passage.
► All the same Alexander Mikhailov became the first technical support employee in Buka.
The first “Petka” was a little unlucky – he went out just at the height of the crisis, and we had to look for ways to sell it as cheaper as possible. “Petka” occupied as many as three discs, and we thought how to sell it at the lowest possible price. Therefore, this was our first game released in Jewel – which allowed to sell at a price close to the price of pirate products. Due to the low cost of the “licensed”, it was pointless to print counterfeit, so the official discs with “Petka” eventually came to the sellers of pirate products and began to spread through their channels. This increased sales by almost an order of magnitude: even several thousand copies to sell at that time was a considerable achievement, and here once – and several tens of thousands ”.
THIS IS INTERESTING: In the nineties there was a joke about Russian localizations: "voiced by professional programmers". This was due to the fact that due to the lack of funds had to be twisted, and the roles of voice acts were given literally people from the street. "Petka" was an exception, it was voiced by professional theatrical actors – for example, Alexander Anatolyevich Pozharov, known as Shura Karetny in the world, was in the voice of Chapai.
The 1998 crisis actually buried the sales of consoles, and we had no choice but to completely switch to the implementation of the PC-IGR.
In the mid -nineties, the majority of licensed computer games were sold in large boxes, and in addition to the treasured disc, the guidelines for games, a lot of advertising booklets and, what the hell are not joking, different bonuses like T -shirts were always lying. And it never occurred to anyone to call such a set of “collection publication” – it was customary, and it was normal … before the 1998 default.
In a crisis, the population could not always afford food-where is there about the purchase of boxing games to think! And it was much easier with jewels: it costs inexpensively, and it seems to be real, working, copy. The second game in Jewel became well -known " Heroes of Sword and Magic 3 ", Who just the other day hit fifteen years.
► All the forces of the company were thrown to the localization of the “heroes”, and transferred the whole world. The result paid off – in the first year the game brought three times more funds than it was spent on it.
Alexander Mikhailov : “We collaborated with 3DO for a long time – we imported their console, and then, when sales did not particularly go and the company turned the project, switched to their games, and one of our first projects became just the third“ heroes ”.
Note: 3DO Interactive Multiplayer – Fifth generation console from 3DO. For her time, it was the top of technical perfection-powerful computing ability, CD-drive and the ability to use the prefix as a video player. Nevertheless, due to the lack of intelligible protection against piracy, the cost of $ 599.95 (for example: SNES at the start cost $ 210, and PlayStation-$ 299) and incredible competition in the 3DO market lasted only three years.
Alexander Mikhailov : “The 1998 crisis actually buried the sales of the consoles (their purchase value was tied to the dollar, and it cost a lot), and we had no choice but to completely switch to the implementation of the PC-IGR. Nevertheless, the crisis has become an important milestone for the economy as a whole – after it the market began to develop an incredible pace, and we did not know much problems for ten years
From the interesting: at that time we released Grand Theft Auto 2 And they decided to fuck with localization, and at the same time put on the box the then famous phrase of Putin "Wet in the toilers". It was risky, we did not know what would do with us for it. But everything worked out, and the boxes with the game were grabbed instantly. ".
► Many GTA fans still consider the second part of the best in the series.
Sales rose, the line of both own and Western projects steadily grew up, the market developed, and, it seemed, nothing foreshadowed the trouble. As always, after the white strip, black begins – another crisis crept unnoticed. But before him another ten years – a whole era.
Buka and Gabe
In 2005, Buka began to cooperate with Valve. At that moment, Gabe Newell, the Vivendi publishing house, ended the company, and Valve returned the rights to all her games. Then they came to Russia.
Alexander Mikhailov : “Then many developers worked according to this scheme: to spread the game in the West, the project was given into the hands of large publishers, and in Russia they preferred to sell games on their own. After the expiration of contracts with Vivendi Valve, all the contracts for the distribution of its games, including in Russia. Jason Holtman came here – one of those people in the industry whom I respect the most. Unfortunately, he has already left Valve.
So, he met with all representatives of publishers in Russia, but in the end he chose us. As I found out later, then Valve was not even the main financial conditions for Valve – they needed to have their projects with dignity and qualitatively positioned. What we did.
► Licensed Counter-Strike was sold by an unthinkable circulation, and this despite the fact that the pirate version of the game could be found literally on every corner.
The defense was terribly imperfect – so many players from Russia banned, although in fact they were not to blame for anything.
We began to spread four games: Half-Life 2 , Counter-Strike: Source , Initial anthology Counter-STRIKE and the first anthology Half-Life . Although these were far from new items, licensed copies of these games were first sold in jewels. Jason showed the Steam schedule for users in Russia: in 2005-2007, the indicators increased by an order of magnitude.
We have done gigantic work on testing and localization of Steam. Technical support almost lay down – we almost spent the night at work, there were a lot of problems. Steam had a tough regional protection so that Russian boxes with games were not taken to Europe. The defense was terribly imperfect – so many players from Russia banned, although in fact they were not to blame for anything. Just the system believed that the user is in the USA or Europe, but in fact, either he used a proxy or the Internet operator crookedly distributed an IP address. All two thousand sixth years, people dealt with Steam problems for five to six days so that it finally became convenient, safe and localized ”.
Crisis again
We greatly underestimated the risks. The number of staff had to be reduced by half, and a year later – again.
Golden days have gone through. World financial crisis I did not go around the "Buka" side. In 2008-2009, the company suffered cash losses, almost curtailed the Love Casino development of its own games and reduced a lot of employees. Take off afloat and survive the dark times, both old projects and new ones, among which turned out to be Company of Heroes And Saints Row 2.
► Saints Row 2 became a very cheerful and reckless alternative GTA 4, which on serious things showed the history of the immigrant from Eastern Europe.
Alexander Mikhailov : “We greatly underestimated the risks. The number of staff had to be reduced by half, and a year later – again. It was very unpleasant and very hard for me personally. We tried to say goodbye to employees as honestly as possible, but there was no other way out – the company had to be saved. The second headache is the need to re -sign contracts with Western publishers on the amounts of contracts. We talked for a long time, agreed for a long time, and, fortunately, everyone managed to come to mutual understanding.
As for the projects, almost all of them went into plus. From our games – "" Collapse: rage ", From foreign – all. Looking back, I understand that it would be better to cover Collapse at the very beginning of the crisis, and spend the money launched on it more reasonably. But, fortunately, it sold quite well, and then our affairs went uphill again ".
Stable present
And then the "Buk" returned, as they say, Back to Basics. In other words, to the import of consoles. By the beginning of 2010, the company established cooperation with Microsoft and began to supply Xbox 360 to Russia and accessories to it. Now the share of the "Bukin" Xbox in the Russian market is a little more than half.
Then an agreement was signed on cooperation with Alawar, one of the largest publishers of casual games in the world. Valve also helped her crowned Portal 2. The company gradually restored and expanded again – in three years the staff increased almost one and a half times. And then he arrived in time Far Cry 3.
► the Russian voice acting Far Cry 3 was grabbed to quotes, which can still be heard in the most unexpected places.
"Petka" for tablets – the case of the coming months.
Alexander Mikhailov : “Far Cry 3 – Our best project last year. After a failure second part, taking this game was quite dangerous. No one knew what to expect from her, but the result surpassed all the expectations. I am very pleased with the localization (Denis Davydov in our blog was picturesque about it), it was also a very dangerous step, but everything worked out.
As for the affairs of recent days – more recently, we went to Steam as official publishers and can now download our own projects there. We will soon enter the mobile market, Petka for tablets is a matter of the coming months … "
* * *
We broke up on this note, but our story has not yet been finished – the Russian industry has many more parties that should be revealed. Write in the comments what or about who you would like to read the next time. We will definitely return!