Before getting off work, Amy Pascal was invited to Simon's office. Her boss was having a video call with someone. Since Simon didn't let her avoid it, she sat down across from the desk. She quickly heard that the person opposite her boss was a very important person in Asia. The one I rely on most is Chen Qing.
The topic is about online games.
Simon didn't let Amy wait. When she sat down, he paused the conversation over there and handed over a piece of information: "Amy, take a look at it first. You can take it away and study it carefully later."
Amy nodded and took it, looked at the label on the cover, and immediately remembered the document that her boss had multi-tasked during the summer release meeting this morning. She glanced at the desk and saw that the eye-catching blue folder was still in Simon's hand. Apparently exactly the same.
What Simon and Chen Qing were talking about would be discussed with Amy later, so there was no need to avoid her. He continued to look at the computer screen and said, "In the information, the project settings you submitted to me as cases are all great, but , my request is not only these three projects, but in South Korea, you go back immediately tomorrow and acquire a group of potential game development teams as soon as possible."
Chen Qing, who was in New York, was in her apartment on the Upper West Side. After hearing this, she said: "Boss, is it necessary to do this? The Korean game industry has just started. We only need to poach people from three entertainment giants. This will be very costly." Small. At most, you can buy a few of the more outstanding ones with money?"
"Normally speaking, your idea is correct, the problem is time," Simon explained patiently: "South Korea's game market is relatively very small, and there is no comparison with China and the United States. However, South Korea focuses on the MMORPG type of game development trend. It fits perfectly with the game industry layout that I have been promoting, which means they have a head start in terms of time. The problem now is that I hope to promote MMORPG in big markets such as China, North America and even Europe as soon as possible, but I certainly cannot let South Korea take over. It’s so cheap, so we need to buy up all the projects and companies we like.”
When Simon explained this, Chen Qing immediately understood, and Amy, who was already reading the information opposite, also pricked up her ears.
My boss obviously wants to make big moves again.
Not surprising.
Since last year, two consecutive super hit games have greatly promoted the strong growth of Daenerys' revenue and the continued rise of the stock price. As the film and television business gradually becomes saturated, the music industry is declining again, focusing on games. Domain layout is undoubtedly a very wise choice.
Amy just doesn't quite understand why her boss is interested in South Korea's gaming industry.
On the other side, Chen Qing made a rough calculation and said: "Boss, there are currently no large game companies in South Korea. They are basically small and medium-sized studios. However, we want to acquire a large number of people in the short term, and the price will not be too low. According to On average, it costs 3 million U.S. dollars to buy one house, and buying 10 houses means 30 million U.S. dollars. The boss obviously wants more, so he needs to prepare at least 50 million U.S. dollars, which is close to 100 billion won. For example, the one in the information I gave to the boss Mini6 Studio, which developed "Frozen Age", invested 3.5 billion won in that game. Since the game was launched in November last year, in half a year, even though it has good reputation and popularity, the revenue is only 600 million won, and it is expected to be only 10 for the whole year. With a revenue of 100 million won, we can recoup at most half of the cost within the two-year life of the game. According to this ratio, if we completely buy out those studios and related games, once the overseas promotion fails, a lot of money will be directly wasted?"
After hearing what Chen Qing said, Simon nodded slightly: "I know all this. I just said that the scale of South Korea's game industry is relatively small. What I am looking at is overseas. You should know "Counter-Strike OL" and "StarCraft" Battle for Hegemony is such a success, so if we spend 50 million, as long as one game can be a big success overseas, we can recoup all our investment."
"Boss, I think the game audiences in Europe, America and Asia are very different?"
"How many languages do you speak?"
Chen Qing didn't know what kind of twist her boss had taken, but she still said proudly: "In addition to Chinese, there are also English, French, Russian, Japanese and Korean. I can speak some Spanish and Italian. Of course, I'm still not as good as the boss."
"Don't compare with me, otherwise you will feel like you are just here to make up for the numbers."
Simon spoke seriously, and Chen Qing on the other side of the video and Amy on the other side of the desk couldn't help laughing. After laughing, I realized that what someone said was really the truth.
Simon continued: "Eight languages, right? Then write the words 'Pride and Prejudice' a hundred times in each of the eight languages you know, and give it to me next time."
Chen Qing immediately became extremely happy and sad, and said with a bitter face: "Boss, I'm actually not very familiar with Spanish and Italian."
"Then write it a hundred times more to make it more familiar?"
"No, no need, I'm familiar with it."
"Okay, back to the topic," Simon continued: "Single-player games are indeed still the mainstream of the global game industry, but I firmly believe that online games with stronger social interaction attributes will be the future, and at least the two will coexist. Danny Liz has been deeply involved in the stand-alone market for these years, so it is not easy for the game business to switch to online games in a short period of time. South Korea just happened to step on my idea, so we can only trade money for time. Moreover, in advance The benefits of buying out a large number of online games will be obvious. You have to know that people are very nostalgic creatures. As long as some of the IPs we buy out can be successful in the global market, in the next ten or twenty years, we will They can all rely on this IP to make a lot of money, just like Japan's "Super Mario", do you understand?"
Chen Qing thought about Pride and Prejudice eight hundred times. How could she not understand? She nodded and said, "Boss, I will fly back to South Korea tomorrow morning. Well, do I need to pass by Los Angeles and listen to the boss explain something face to face?"
"No need," Simon said, "I will go to San Francisco tomorrow to arrange the split of Ygrit China."
Chen Qing was a little surprised: "Didn't the boss say we have to wait a little longer?"
"It still has something to do with what we are discussing," Simon said: "I said that I am not very optimistic about the performance of "Counter-Strike OL" and "StarCraft" in the Chinese market..."
Chen Qing interrupted briefly: "Boss, is this considered pride and prejudice?"
"Calculate."
"That… "
"I don't know how many languages I know. If I don't count according to your standards, would you write it for me eight hundred times?"
Chen Qing shed tears whenever she said she would. She squinted her big eyes, wiped the corners of her eyes with her two index fingers and said, "Oh, boss, I was wrong."
"Success or failure depends on the person. Maybe I am wrong," Simon said without further interruption: "However, I am still more optimistic about promoting MMORPG in China. Since there is already a source of content, the matter of splitting up Yigrit China You can also advance. In the end, Yigrit will only retain the software and service business with cloud computing as its core. Other portals, e-mails, instant messaging, etc. will be widely transferred or authorized. This is also the reason for your return to Asia this time. My personal explanation for what needs to be done is, well, it is better to spread it out. Some teams can be placed in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and it is better to raise Gu. In addition, under the background that China has just issued a ban on game consoles, the game business is sensitive after all. . If our online game strategy can achieve widespread success across China, submit a large amount of taxes to the Chinese finance, and focus on the general trend of China's economic development, there will no longer be a crisis of the entire industry being cut across the board."
Opposite me, Chen Qing also wiped away her tears and returned to seriousness. She lowered her head to write down on the memo, then raised her head and asked, "Boss, is there anything else I should pay attention to?"
"Many, specifically, you need to win a group of game companies in South Korea first. In addition, you can also let the Chinese side make some preparations for the introduction of Korean games, set up an operation team, etc."
Chen Qing responded, knowing that the call was about to end. After thinking for a moment, she tentatively said: "Boss, the three game materials I gave you, "Wind Kingdom II", "Paradise" and "Frozen Age", boss Which one do you like more?"
Simon didn't hesitate at all and blurted out calmly: ""Paradise"."
Chen Qing didn't expect Simon to answer so simply, and blinked: "Boss, you won't lie to me, right?"
"What are you lying to?"
The three games, "Wind Kingdom II", "Paradise" and "Frozen Age", all belong to the role-playing genre, but their styles are different. Some are biased towards development, some focus on combat, and some are prone to adventure. These are all secondary. .
The key is that among the three games, "Kingdom of Wind" and "Frozen Age" should be originals of this time and space, and Simon has never heard of them anyway.
The other "Paradise" is famous.
The most successful game exported by South Korea to China was undoubtedly the "Legend" series. Even ten or twenty years later, it seems that no one plays the "Legend" game in the subconscious of ordinary people. In fact, through various web and mobile games The spin-off series can still earn billions of dollars in revenue in China every year.
However, the most successful game in South Korea is the "Lineage" series, and this game is also very long-lasting. Even if it enters the mobile Internet era more than ten years later, the "Lineage" IP is only a mobile game series and can be popular in just two or three years. It has brought developers more than 4 billion US dollars in revenue globally, far exceeding the popularity of "Legend" only in China.
Simon doesn't know if "Legend" still exists in this time and space, and the reason why "Paradise" appears again is because this game is actually adapted from an original comic by a Korean cartoonist.
Of course, two time and space, even if they are both "Paradise", are probably already two 'Paradises'. The name of the new "Paradise" developer is Acrab Online.
After checking, I found out that Acrab is the code name for a star in the constellation Cancer, which also means scorpion in Arabic. Maybe the game team wanted to register for 'Cancer Online' or something like that, but found that the authentic 'Scorpio' had been registered in advance. I had to change to one of the stars.
This is normal, after all, Koreans have well-known ambitions for the entire universe.
Let’s talk about the game itself.
Historically, the "Legend" that was first introduced to China was actually not the first generation of "Legend". The first generation of "Legend" was already online in 1998, but was actually the second generation of "Legend".
The various settings of "Legend II" are largely imitated by "Paradise", which was very popular in Korea at the time. Under the light of the "Paradise" series, "Legend II" was tepid in South Korea, and was only picked up by the developer. It was sold to Chen Shoufu at a reserve price of US$300,000, creating a business legend.
As for the fact that "Legend" was too popular in China, which caused all kinds of bullshit by Korean companies that lasted for more than ten years, this is a digression.
In short, even though there are already two "Paradise", the attribute of this game focusing on 'real-time battle' has not changed. Compared with the other two MMORPGs that are more focused on developing adventures, this is what Simon is more interested in.
Chen Qing, who was on the other side of the video, thought about how her boss really had no reason to lie to her, and said directly: "Then, boss, can I give "Paradise" to my closest team?"
"If I mess up, I will also settle the score with you," Simon said without minding this, "However, the name "Paradise" is not a good one."
"Um?"
"Too..." Simon couldn't find the right words for a while, so he said directly: "How about adding a suffix, "The Legend of Heaven"?"
Chen Qing thought about it for a moment, nodded and said: "Very good, the word 'paradise' seems too neutral, and 'Legend of Paradise', as soon as you hear it, there is a story in it."
"In addition, this game is planned to be launched in June, so there is no need to rush. After it is won, some details can be adjusted."
"Does the boss want to give his opinion in person?"
"Set up a server and I'll take the time to try it out. There's no rush. You can win over the development company first."
"clear."
After hanging up the video call with Chen Qing, Simon looked at Amy who had already flipped through most of the information in his hand: "What do you think?"
Amy thought for a moment and said, "It's a very novel design idea."
"There is also a CD information, please take the time to study it carefully," Simon said: "Also, um, forget it, wait until the Korean side gets it done. We have a mature enough team here, so there is no need to prepare too early. By the way. , I will let Ygritte participate together, or the two companies will compete."
If possible, Amy certainly doesn't want to do this. Compared with Daenerys, Ygritte has too many advantages in platform channels for promoting online games. However, she also understood that this was the strategy Simon had always focused on.
It is better to maintain internal competition than to be defeated by external competitors and occupy the market.
Thinking of this, Amy also smiled and said: "The boss just said that he is very optimistic about one of the games, "Paradise", can I win this one in advance?"
"No problem," Simon said with a smile, "But I still say what I said, if I mess up, I will find someone to settle the account."
"I'll keep an eye on it myself," Amy promised, then added: "Boss, if you plan to separate Ygrit China, Jeff should have some objections. After all, China has a population of 1.2 billion. A huge market?”
"This is due to many considerations. Perhaps you know about China's Great Firewall that isolates internal and external networks?"
Amy nodded.
"This is not only China's attitude, but also an obstacle for us. Generally speaking, I think China's Internet industry will form a relatively closed market in the future, and industry culture, legal policies, etc. will all be inconsistent with The West is very different. In fact, the failure of Yigrit's deployment in Japan over the years has proven this. Japan, South Korea, and China all belong to the Greater China cultural circle. It would be difficult for us to adapt if we go directly, so it is best to do Investors, or provide corresponding technical support, and then hand over the specific matters to the local team.”
When Amy heard what Simon said, she expressed approval, but still said: "Actually, I think it should be no problem if the boss, a China expert, controls the overall situation?"
Simon smiled and said: "It is precisely because I know China very well that I have to do this. This is the best choice for us."