In Li Mu's eyes, Lao Xu is one of the very few people in China who truly understands games.
The leaders of the world's game industry are the United States and Japan. Although South Korea's overall strength is much worse than these two countries, the quality standards of its employees are not low. There are often some small Korean game companies with no more than 20 or 30 people. Able to develop some hit games, although China's game industry is very large compared to these three countries, its overall level is so poor that it often makes people unable to complain.
China's domestic game industry is very much like domestic animation, with huge output, few high-quality products, and only a handful of truly awesome practitioners.
If Li Mu were asked to identify three truly awesome people in the Chinese gaming industry, then Lao Xu would definitely be among them.
This is why Li Mu recruited Lao Xu to Makino Technology and asked him to lead the development project of online games like Journey to the West.
Lao Xu's suggestion for "Plants vs. Zombies Online" at the meeting also made Li Mu feel bright, as if he had opened up an unprecedented new world.
In a previous life, the popularity of "Plants vs. Zombies" was indeed phenomenal, but its sustainability did not last too long. Although the game itself was fun, it lacked depth, which made it easy for users to play through it. game, and then lost interest, and the subsequent revisions and upgrades of this game were all about changing the soup without changing the medicine, and did not bring an amazing feeling to users, so it gradually fell silent.
The same fate as "Plants vs. Zombies" is "Angry Birds". This popular game on smartphone platforms has attracted at least hundreds of millions of players around the world, and its spin-off operations are also very successful, even with the same name. Big movies have earned a global box office of 300 million US dollars, but this game did not become popular for too long. The single gameplay made this game disappear in a short period of time.
Because of this, Li Mu particularly agrees with Lao Xu's point of view. If "Plants vs. Zombies Online" wants to have a longer lifespan and influence, it must carry out in-depth upgrades on the existing gameplay.
The suggestions put forward by Lao Xu have touched upon the origin of turret defense games. This type of game has two key points, one is the "turret" and the other is the "map". Various plants in Plants vs. Zombies are "Turrets" have many varieties, many functions, and large combination space, but "maps" appear to be too single. If more new maps can be developed, it will definitely enhance the fun of players to a great extent.
When Li Mu used to play Red Alert, his biggest dissatisfaction was basically about the maps. First of all, the official rarely added new maps, and the overall level of player-made maps was poor. Ordinary players would play all the maps. After getting familiar with it, you will naturally lose interest in this game. I am afraid that in the near future, players of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" will also feel bored with the single map of this game.
So, Li Mu made the decision on the spot: "Immediately start the development of version 2.0 of "Plants vs. Zombies Online", with Lao Xu as the chief architect, and all updates must be confirmed by Lao Xu."
After that, Li Mu told Old Xu: "Old Xu, "Plants vs. Zombies Online" is of great strategic significance to the company. You are an expert in games, so you must take on the responsibility for the development of the next iteration. Greater responsibility comes.”
Lao Xu nodded immediately: "Don't worry, Mr. Li, I will do my best."
Li Mu smiled slightly: "The four words you are enough."
After confirming the game upgrade, Commercial Director Ding Jian said: "Mr. Li, let me talk about our derivative cooperation. We have already communicated with the four companies KFC and McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, and informed us of the cooperation. These four companies are very interested in the overall model. Let me introduce the cooperation intentions of the four companies in detail."
"KFC's response to us was that they were very interested and looked forward to cooperating with us. They hoped that we could inform them of a clear copyright royalty. They would conduct research and discussions after receiving the quotation and then engage in contact negotiations with us."
"Compared to KFC, McDonald's is more attentive. After they learned about our intention to cooperate, they contacted us by email and gave us a cooperation plan they expected. The specific plan is: they hope that we can bring all They will designate manufacturers to produce derivatives based on all the game images, and then they will simultaneously launch the "Plants vs. Zombies" themed packages in McDonald's stores around the world, as well as the packaging, promotion and related materials of the themed packages. They will use our brand image and give away derivatives produced based on our brand image. In addition, they will also open the purchase of derivatives in the store, that is, you can purchase any package and add a certain amount of cash. Cooperation plan for exchange for derivatives, for which they are willing to pay us the copyright royalties of the brand image and 30% of the sales proceeds.”
When Li Mu heard this, he smiled slightly and said, "It seems that McDonald's is indeed more considerate than KFC."
"Yes." Ding Jian nodded and said: "McDonald's has a lot of experience in cooperating with well-known cartoon characters, so it is easy to operate. In comparison, KFC's experience in this area is slightly weaker, and its depth of thinking is also slightly inferior. Some."
Li Mu nodded and said, "Let's do this. Let's cooperate with McDonald's. I can reduce the copyright fee to a symbolic $1, but McDonald's must agree to a condition for cooperation."
Ding Jian hurriedly said: "Please tell me, I will take note of it and contact the McDonald's interface person after the meeting."
Li Mudao: "First of all, McDonald's restaurants around the world must replace the advertising display posters outside and inside the store with advertising materials containing elements of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" within one month of signing the contract. Each store must have at least three posters. , and each display poster with a size of no less than 0.4 square meters must be hung for one year;”
"Secondly, within one month after the contract is signed, the paper plates, burger boxes, fries packaging, take-out paper bags and plastic bags in McDonald's restaurants around the world must be replaced with new packaging printed with elements of "Plants vs. Zombies Online". The service life Also for one year, if McDonald's can agree to these two points, the copyright fee for "Plants vs. Zombies Online" will only be charged to McDonald's US$1 a year, and at the same time, we are willing to give up all derivatives shares."
Ding Jian said in surprise: "Mr. Li, the profit margin from derivatives sharing is very large. If we give up this part of the income, then in the end we will only get this dollar for the copyright fee for the entire game... "
"It doesn't matter." Li Mu smiled calmly: "We must have a clear positioning ourselves. Some things are done to make money, and some are for other purposes. We use the copyright of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" to cooperate with offline companies , what I want is not to make money, but to increase offline exposure and expand influence. Not to mention not making money, even if we have to spend money, we still have to spend what we should spend. Now we give up this part of the benefits in exchange for McDonald's It’s been well worth it for us to get greater, longer-term exposure.”
Ding Jian nodded: "I know Mr. Li, I will convey your conditions to him after the meeting."
"Yeah." Li Mu said, "Continue talking about Coca-Cola and Pepsi."
"Okay, Mr. Li." Ding Jian said hurriedly: "PepsiCo is more interested in our cooperation, but they rejected your 'promise number of exposures' cooperation model. They prefer to hold the initiative in their own hands. So their idea is that we will make the quotation, and everyone will negotiate on the price. After reaching a consensus, Pepsi-Cola will pay us the copyright royalties, and we have no right to interfere with Pepsi-Cola's subsequent specific plans and plans."
Li Mu frowned and said with a smile: "No wonder we are an alliance company with KFC. It really complies with that sentence. It's not like one family cannot enter the same door."
After that, Li Mu asked again: "Where's Coca-Cola?"
Ding Jiandao: "Coca-Cola has had in-depth cooperation with us, and the results of the cooperation are very good. They have tasted the sweetness of offline companies joining forces with online companies to promote cooperation, so they are still very excited about this cooperation on "Plants vs. Zombies Online" Interested, they are also very interested in the "committed impressions" cooperation model you proposed. Their current feedback to us is that if the two parties reach a cooperation, they commit to "Plants vs. Zombies" within a one-year cooperation cycle. The image of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" covers 60% of their product packaging. In other words, judging from Coca-Cola's annual sales of tens of billions of bottles, once they reach a cooperation with us, they will sell our "Plants vs. Zombies Online" within one year. The cartoon image is printed on the outer packaging of tens of billions of bottles of Coca-Cola and other beverages under the brand."
When Li Mu heard this, he slapped the table without hesitation and said: "It's decided, let's cooperate with Coca-Cola. As long as they promise to print our cartoon images on more than 60% of their product packaging, we will also only charge for one year. One dollar in royalties!”
In today's era, Coca-Cola is much more popular than the Internet. At least half of the people in the world know about Coca-Cola and have consumed Coca-Cola, but the number of global Internet users is less than 10% of the total population.
Coca-Cola itself attaches great importance to brand marketing, so its annual promotion budget in the global market is astonishingly high. The more this happens, the more they need to cooperate with some powerful non-competitive brands to exchange resources and complement each other's advantages.
For fast-moving consumer goods companies like Coca-Cola, real-life competitors are very cruel. Pepsi-Cola invests huge amounts of marketing funds every year and invites a series of big-name celebrities and football stars to establish its brand image. Everyone’s competition starts from brand promotion. , packaging design, offline distribution, container display and other aspects have entered a fever pitch.
In this case, Coca-Cola has long realized that it needs a unique element that it has but its competitors cannot have. Through this unique element, it can improve consumers' recognition and even increase consumers' willingness to purchase.
Just at this moment, Makino Technology came to the door. The image of Plants vs. Zombies is currently exploding on the Internet. For Coca-Cola, if it can get the cartoon image of Plants vs. Zombies for use in its own product packaging and promotion, it will Being able to achieve a clear distinction from competitors will definitely be a huge boost to offline sales!
(End of chapter)