“In terms of movies, it is in our interests to promote Westinghouse’s acquisition of Sony Pictures. Although it runs counter to our other strategy of placing more major studios in the hands of overseas giants, in the longer term, we want Westinghouse to take back the weak Sony Pictures. , which is better than letting it go to Disney or Paramount. Therefore, next we need to ensure that there will be no turnaround in Sony's film business, and we will try our best to grab high-quality projects that may fall into Sony's hands."
"There are also aspects such as special effects," Amy Pascal added: "We can refuse to provide special effects support for Sony's important projects by increasing the quotation."
"Yes, in short, the goal is to force Sony to surrender and give up the film business."
Los Angeles, Malibu.
In a small conference room at Daenerys Studios, this is an annual summary and strategic planning meeting for core executives including Amy Pascal, Robert Egger, and the heads of three labels of Daenerys.
After discussing the film business, Simon looked down at his memo, looked up at Nancy Brill, who was participating in the meeting via video in London, and continued: "Let's talk about games. First, pick up the topic just now, Nancy In order to suppress Sony and pave the way for our own console plan, Daenerys will temporarily reduce the development of console games or port them to console game platforms. This includes Nintendo consoles. This year and next, We try our best to develop online games and PC stand-alone games."
After hearing what Simon said, Nancy immediately said: "Boss, I think it's enough to snipe Sony. There is no need to target Nintendo too much. Nintendo's 32-bit console has many problems and it is difficult to pose a threat to us in the future. And its 8-bit The market for mobile phones and 16-bit consoles is still very large, and we also have preferential royalties from Nintendo, so our annual profits are considerable."
Several other executives in the small conference room had slightly subtle expressions when they saw Nancy unceremoniously questioning Simon's decision.
In fact, Nancy has always been like this.
However, during this period, because rumors spread that a certain boss of his own had finally hooked up with a small female executive, it was immediately fun to listen to Nancy pick on Simon.
It seems that it is still not completely conquered.
Simon has always been a person who allows his subordinates to give him suggestions and find faults. Of course he will not be angry because of this, and it is even less likely that he will not allow a small female executive to contradict him just because his relationship with Nancy has changed. He smiled and nodded after hearing this: " I’m just setting a general direction, and you can handle the specific details yourself.”
Nancy nodded and lowered her head to write and draw on the screen, looking completely businesslike.
Simon also continued: "In terms of content, the recent success of "Counter-Strike OL" has led some people to believe that PC games and console games will be eliminated, and that we should completely turn to online games. I have already expressed my attitude on this. , I would like to emphasize again this time that although I strongly support the development of online games, I do not think stand-alone games will be eliminated. Therefore, our investment in stand-alone games will not be reduced, but will continue to be increased. Over there in the game department, you guys They all need to clearly show a similar attitude to avoid fluctuations in the hearts of some teams."
"Counter-Strike OL", which was first launched in the United States on November 21 last year, cannot be described as a simple success, but a complete phenomenon.
As of January 1 this year, in just six weeks since its launch, "Counter-Strike OL" has sold a total of 4.54 million units in North America after selling 1.13 million units in the first week.
Based on a unit price of US$69, the game’s sales reached US$310 million in North America alone.
Even if the game's hottest sales momentum has begun to slow down as the year-end holidays pass, considering that games far exceed the long-term sales cycle of movies, and it is only in the United States, it will only be time before "Counter-Strike OL" sales exceed 10 million units Problem, even impacting sales of 15 million to 20 million is not impossible.
Overseas, after being successful locally, Daenerys quickly launched the game overseas. Currently, "Counter-Strike OL" has been launched in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and other regions. As of last week, overseas The cumulative sales volume has exceeded 2.3 million units, and the revenue is close to US$160 million when the selling price is basically the same as that in North America.
Even though a huge R&D and marketing budget totaling US$50 million was invested in this game in the early stage, "Counter-Strike OL" has already made Daenerys a lot of money based on sales in the month and a half since its release.
Compared with many previous single-player games, which often took one or two years to accumulate sales of millions and tens of millions even for phenomenal games, "Counter-Strike OL" has already achieved a cumulative global sales volume of 6.8 million units in just one and a half months. It is expected that It will take at most three months to break through the 10 million mark.
This kind of sales speed will inevitably lead many people to think that online games are the future of the electronic game industry.
Simon has no control over how other game companies will change their strategies. For Daenerys, even though "Counter-Strike OL" was forced by Simon, he still did not lose his judgment.
Online games and stand-alone games each have their own advantages and disadvantages, just like theater movies and TV movies, they can share and coexist.
If Daenerys was a small company, Simon might focus on one or the other, but with the current size of Daenerys Entertainment, a two-pronged approach is more in the long-term interests.
This was a small-scale summary and decision-making meeting, which did not involve too many details. Everyone discussed it and quickly turned to television, music, theme park and other businesses.
When the one-hour meeting was over and the others left temporarily, Simon looked at Nancy on the wall screen and asked, "How are you doing?"
"It's going very well. Both EMI and PolyGram are very active in our contact. If external conditions permit, we will have no problem winning them both at once." Nan hoped, still looking businesslike: " However, since I can only win one, I am considering poaching some singers from EMI next.”
Simon smiled and said: "I know this, I'm asking you how are you doing lately?"
Nancy paused for a moment, but still couldn't hold it back. She wrinkled her little nose and said in a serious tone: "I have moved out of your property in London, and when I go to the Netherlands, I don't plan to live in the accommodation you arranged. Boss, when I get to know more about your life, I realize that you have raised so many women, many more than I thought."
Simon ignored some of Nancy's words and looked conniving: "It doesn't matter, you can live wherever you want."
Nancy rolled her eyes slightly and said with a bit of arrogance, "I'm still reconsidering our relationship."
Draw red envelopes!
Simon nodded: "Yes, but you must be cautious. If you miss a good man like me, you will never meet again."
Nancy lost her temper and glared at someone: "Boss, I am very serious."
Simon also restrained his tone and expressed sincerely: "I am also very serious. I have never thought about raising the women around me to be caged birds. You are all free. I am also happy to see the women in my life be happy. Wonderful."
When Nancy heard what Simon said, her expression softened a little unconsciously, but her mouth was still unforgiving: "It sounds a lot like rhetoric."
"Do you want to hear more?"
"No," Nancy raised her chin slightly and refused. After a moment's hesitation, she couldn't help but ask, "Are you really dating Princess Di?"
"No, she doesn't meet my aesthetic taste, and her skin is quite rough. I don't like it."
Nancy looked in disbelief: "Liar, did you think I didn't hear about it? Jenny ran over some time ago... Tsk, she actually hit Princess Diana... It's so disgraceful." After speaking, she immediately added, adjusting the target of the attack: " all because of you."
Simon raised his hands in a gesture of surrender: "Okay, my fault."
"So, you admitted it?"
"Not really."
Nancy tilted her head and suddenly reacted: "Then how do you know that Princess Diana's skin is not good?"
Simon fired a discharge at the woman opposite: "I have eyes, very attractive ones, and my eyesight is also very good."
Nancy pouted and looked away: "You changed the subject again."
"Well, I just pity her a little. After all, it would be a pity for a woman who has done a lot of things over the years to suddenly die one day."
Nancy was very smart and immediately heard the implication of Simon's words. She subconsciously turned her head and looked over: "You... mean... you can't, right?"
"If I were the British royal family, I would probably do something to prevent a willful woman from constantly damaging the royal family's remaining prestige."
Nancy blinked, understood, and then attacked again: "You mean, if one day I am too willful and damage the prestige of the Westeros family, you will also kill me?"
"Why do you want to harm the prestige of the House of Westeros?"
"I mean what if?"
"Women should not easily make such assumptions that embarrass men. It is very dangerous."
Nancy chased after her: "So you will definitely kill me, right?"
"Baby, how about we break up now?"
"asshole."
After saying that, it was dark over there.
However, Simon also knew that instead of hanging up, Nancy deliberately raised her hand to cover the camera, and there was obviously a rustling sound coming from the speaker.
After a moment, the little hand moved away, revealing Nancy's petite face again: "Then will you take a step further with her?"
Simon shook his head firmly without hesitation: "No."
"fraud."
"I'm going to Europe on Friday. Don't be in a hurry to come back there. How about we spend a few days together then?"
The little woman opposite was obviously interested, but she said, "I'm very busy."
"I'm very busy too, but no matter how busy I am, I still need to rest, right?"
Nancy tilted her head, looking very reluctant, and deliberately said: "I want to go to Ukraine. It is said that you have raised more little girls there, is that okay?"
"Okay, what kind of girl do you like? I'll find a group for you."
Nancy repeated, "I mean your little girl."
"I guarantee they are all raised by me."
Nancy: “…”
In an office at Daenerys's London headquarters, Nancy was very confused. It was clear that the guy opposite had completely complied with all her attempts to make things difficult for her, so why didn't she feel like she had the initiative at all
Think about it for a moment.
Then it dawned on me.
asshole.
A playboy who is good at coaxing women with sweet words.
I am not that easy to coax!
So I stopped pretending and actually stopped the video communication this time.
Let’s see how you perform!
However, after hanging up the call, I sat alone in the spacious conference room, looking out the window at the night that had already enveloped London at around six o'clock in the afternoon, and felt inexplicably nostalgic.
I want to reopen video communication again, but I feel that I should be more reserved.
perhaps.
Because he was offline, he had already left.
After hesitating, he finally decided to take another look. If he just left like this, it meant that this guy didn't actually care about him.
Then...
As he spoke, he clicked the China Unicom button on the video communication software again.
The little heart is raised high.
It was picked up almost instantly, and then there was the hateful smile of a guy on the screen: "Baby, you missed me so soon?"
Nancy felt like a little mouse caught red-handed while stealing food. Her cheeks felt a little hot for some reason, so she decisively hung up the line again.