Just half a month ago, many media around the world believed that the development of Makino Technology had entered a bottleneck period. They believed that Li Mu's genius and innovation had finally gone from a blowout to a period of silence after the volcanic eruption. However, they did not expect that... Half a month later, Li Mu once again dropped a nuclear bomb on the entire Internet world.
The power of this nuclear bomb is beyond everyone's imagination. It is like a full-scale indiscriminate attack. Almost every netizen, regardless of nationality, gender, and age, will be brainwashed by his game.
In the face of such a super hit product, the media did not hesitate to give all attention to Makino Technology, to "Plants vs. Zombies Online", and to Li Mu. This also made the media realize that geniuses are geniuses after all, dad. He is his father after all. In the future, we must not think that his father is old and unable to walk just because he takes a vacation occasionally.
As a result, various media outlets were not stingy with their praises and put Li Muhe's game on all front pages.
At the same time, because of the small game "Plants vs. Zombies Online", the entire Internet world has fallen into an unprecedented state of madness.
The brainwashing game mode and the addictive online experience have dragged netizens around the world into a common "abyss."
Lin Qingya, who was in the United States, called Li Mu excitedly and told Li Mu a very interesting news: throughout Silicon Valley, there was a large-scale late arrival due to the game "Plants vs. Zombies Online" today. Many companies The boss even called Lin Qingya and "complained" to her, saying that "Plants vs. Zombies Online", which was launched early this morning Silicon Valley time, caused a large number of employees and management personnel in their company to forget about work hours.
Just forget about working hours. After arriving at the company, almost all employees of Silicon Valley companies are eagerly discussing this game that instantly became popular all over the world. For these Silicon Valley elites, this game is not only super attractive. In addition, it also has strong research value.
Why, why can such a simple game become popular all over the world in such a short period of time? In one morning, the number of simultaneous online users exceeded 20 million. In one day, the highest number of simultaneous online users exceeded 30 million. This is a situation that many game company bosses dare not dream of. Within 12 hours, Makino Technology It’s done within 1 minute, why is this
Lin Qingya also said that today, in addition to receiving calls from the bosses of major companies in Silicon Valley, she also received calls from executives and even CEOs of the five major investment banks in the United States.
While congratulating Makino Technology for its new breakthrough, these investment banks are also concerned about Makino Technology's next capital operation plan. Everyone knows very well that with the super strength shown by "Plants vs. Zombies Online", if it is given half a year With development time, creating a greater peak while creating more capital flow, Makino Technology can easily achieve an IPO on Nasdaq, and may even become the leader of the world's Internet companies through an IPO.
At this time, investment banks naturally hope to maintain a good relationship with Makino Technology. When Makino Technology IPOs in the future, investment banks will have the opportunity to become the securities dealers for Makino Technology's IPO business.
Li Mu himself was shocked by the unimaginable popularity of "Plants vs. Zombies Online". He knew that "Plants vs. Zombies Online" would become a hit in this era, but he did not expect that it would become such a complete hit...
Not only him, but the entire society did not expect that a game could become so popular in a short period of time.
Most of the phenomenal hits have greatly exceeded social expectations. When Steve Jobs released the first iPhone, Nokia and the people around the world didn’t think that this phone could become a global hit, let alone create a phone worth hundreds of billions of dollars. super empire;
When Psy released "Gangnam Style", no musician expected that it would become a hit across five continents, so popular that even the first lady of the United States at the time was imitating his horseback riding dance;
Domestic musicians never dreamed that "Mouse Loves Rice", which can only be regarded as a second-rate online song, paired with a singer whose appearance is indistinguishable from Sun Nan and Wang Daye, could become popular all over the country. song cycle;
Well-known game manufacturers such as Blizzard, EA, KONAMI, and Rockstar suddenly found that their world view had been completely overturned overnight.
When they worked hard to develop various large-scale games that challenged the limits of today's technology and hardware, when they racked their brains to build a huge world view in the game, an unprecedented hit game suddenly appeared in the world, and this The simplicity of the game really makes these game elites cry without tears.
At this time, Blizzard Entertainment, which is located in California with the U.S. branch of Makino Technology, has fallen into a state of doubt about life from top to bottom.
At the same stage, Blizzard Entertainment has become a leader among game manufacturers in the world. In the past ten years, they have exported a number of classic hit games to the world, including the Warcraft series and the Diablo series. , as well as the StarCraft series.
These three series of games have laid a strong foundation for Blizzard Entertainment, so they secretly launched a new plan this year: using the plot of the "Warcraft" series of games as the game background, relying on the world view, heroes and characters of this game. Historical events have created an unprecedented super online game. The name of this super online game is "World of Warcraft".
Blizzard regards "World of Warcraft" as the company's major strategic product in the next few years. A metaphor often used internally by Blizzard's CEO is to build "World of Warcraft" into Blizzard Entertainment's strategic nuclear missile.
Strategic nuclear missiles in a peaceful world are a deterrent that may never be used in actual combat. However, strategic nuclear missiles in the Internet industry are born to blow all enemies to pieces. Blizzard has placed its trust in "World of Warcraft" The hope is to use it to conquer the online game market around the world, disrupt all other companies' online games, and become the dominant player in the online game industry.
Blizzard has conducted in-depth investigations into the online game market and has also conducted in-depth calculations on the future development space of "World of Warcraft". In Blizzard's view, if they operate this game to the extreme, it is possible that in the next three years, it will be Recruiting tens of millions of paying players around the world, in their view, is already the pinnacle of the industry. Moreover, this super game with a magnificent background, huge architecture, exquisite graphics, and first-class experience has the potential to impact the world's computers. The development of hardware brought a huge boost.
With such a big dream, I worked hard, but I didn’t expect that a game with a shockingly simple technical level would dominate netizens all over the world overnight. Blizzard executives immediately organized a core team meeting, and at the meeting , asking everyone to experience "Plants vs. Zombies Online" live, and then discuss what is awesome about this game and what can be learned or even imitated.
A bunch of people started playing the game in the conference room with their laptops in hand. It was a stand-alone version at first, and then someone shouted: "Hey, how about we try the online mode experience."
Afterwards, everyone began to unknowingly get immersed in experiencing "Plants vs. Zombies Online" with their friends.
Until noon, everyone was still eagerly "experiencing" this highly brainwashing game mode, and shouting could be heard from time to time in the conference room:
"Jimmy, come on, help me plant a peashooter on this line, I can't hold it anymore!"
"Oh, shit! Angelou, the nut wall is almost gone. Has your CD cooled down? Help me plant a nut wall!"
"I found a good way to deal with the pole vault zombies. Plant a piranha in an empty space behind the nut wall, so that the pole vault zombies will be eaten by the piranha as soon as they land, hahaha I’m such a genius!”
"Pete, didn't you find that mashed potato bombs are also very useful? Duang's are gone in no time, and they're super cheap too!"
"But that thing is disposable. Although it's cheap, it still has to wait for the CD to cool down, and it will take time for it to grow in size!"
"Tom, for God's sake, help me plant an ice shooter to slow down these zombies. I can't stop this line!"
"Sorry Justin, I also need ice shooters to strengthen the defense. How about I throw a cherry bomb for you first?"
…
After "Plants vs. Zombies Online" became popular, all games on the market were greatly affected. Even Makino Technology's own "Paradise Town" was the same. The number of active users dropped by about 10%, and the average user usage Duration dropped by more than 30%.
Li Mu analyzed the reasons. "Paradise Town" is not a fast-paced game. On the contrary, it is a very slow-paced business game. After long-term management in the game, users have their own industry in the game. The longer the game lasts, the higher the user stickiness will be. However, after the game foundation is laid, although active users will log in every day, they will no longer spend a lot of time immersed in the game like in the early stage;
"Plants vs. Zombies Online" is a fast-paced game, especially the single-player mode and the cooperative battle mode with friends in the dungeon. The pace is very fast. What users mainly like is the fast-paced and refreshing battle. This kind of game is extremely easy. It causes users to be immersed in it in a short period of time, and they forget the time when they dive in;
For a time, various characters in Plants vs. Plants became popular. Whether it was the various plants in the game or the cute and funny zombies, they became the favorite cartoon characters of the whole country.
In order to enhance the global influence of "Plants vs. Zombies Online", Li Mu decided to strike while the iron was hot and convened a meeting with the game's art team and the entire Makino Technology product team to prepare to promote the derivative development of "Plants vs. Zombies Online".
In Li Mu's concept, there are many development directions for derivatives. Take "Plants vs. Zombies Online" as an example. It can be made into animations, comics, movies, and various derivative products using game images, such as dolls, pillows, and keychains. , homework books, etc., etc., and can even be sold to McDonald's and Funny Eggs as themed gifts.
Just like the animated image of the Minion, as long as it is developed in depth, the derivative space is huge and can penetrate into every field of life.
However, if you want to strike while the iron is hot and produce the first batch of derivatives at a fast pace, animation, comics, movies and various physical products cannot be the first options because the development and production time cycles cannot be broken.
Therefore, Li Mu personally selected several first-stage derivative directions, including:
1. Official high-definition wallpapers are immediately designed by artists and are available for users to download and use for free on the YY website. The production cost of wallpapers is very low and game materials are all available. Excellent artists can create multiple themed wallpapers a day. Although this thing does not Direct economic value, but can further promote the coverage efficiency and user influence of the game;
2. The YY product team immediately developed a custom skin interface with "Plants vs. Zombies Online" as the element, and also launched "Plants vs. Zombies Online"-related cartoon show products in the YY show;
3. The BD team immediately contacted and cooperated with brands such as McDonald's, KFC, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi-Cola, and prepared to license the "Plants vs. Zombies Online" brand and image to them for use in special products.
McDonald's VS KFC, Coca-Cola VS Pepsi-Cola, all choose the combination of rivals. In this way, Makino Technology will have the opportunity to gain maximum benefits.
(End of chapter)