Rebirth of the big era of online games

Chapter 429 Black and White: Ark Games
The reason why Fang Jie came up with the idea of ​​STEAM is, of course, because games are his basic platform. Of course, this series of overseas actions also started with the game industry.

But he didn't fool anyone. The STEAM platform was indeed very hip before. It's really better to leave it to his Ark International to do it.

The birth of the STEAM platform was due to the fact that in 97, Fat G wanted to sell his own game "Half-Life". As a result, although the game's reputation was overwhelming when it was exhibited at E3, it hardly made any money afterwards.

Because foreign countries are also pirated!

The matter of pirated games and prostitution gangs is not exclusive to China, it is the same all over the world.

After all, prostitution is the nature of human beings, regardless of race, age, or country. This has little to do with quality, because in front of money, the quality of all human beings is not high...

Not to mention "CS" and those domestic stand-alone games, classic games such as "Diablo", "Warcraft", "Red Alert" and "Age of Empires" also have the same fate. They are obviously necessary for Internet cafes to install. There are more than tens of millions of players, but the sales of genuine copies are less than one in ten.

Of course, Europe and the United States are a little stronger, and the crackdown on pirated CDs is relatively strict. After all, where capital has the final say, if you dare to touch the cheese of capital, then you must punish pirates to death!

But there is another problem: the inconvenience of channel sales.

Countless players went to the physical store to buy the game CD of the popular game "Half-Life", but they often ran all the way for nothing. The game CD was either sold out, or they had to wait in a long queue. Might have been sold out.

And the game developers and publishers are also in a difficult situation. The production of game discs is too small, not enough to sell, and too many. If the game hits the market and cannot be sold, there will be a huge backlog of inventory, and a huge loss!
Well, the Internet age has come.

So Fatty G had a whim, why not build an online game store?

In this way, the game can be downloaded online, updated online, paid online, and played online, saving a lot of trouble!

So G Fat went to Internet giants such as Microsoft and Yahoo, and wanted to work together to develop an online game store, but was rejected, saying that he was whimsical.

Well, since none of you are willing to do it, then I will do it myself!

Therefore, G fat found the father of BT seeds and built an online game platform with extremely fast download speed. From this, the famous STEAM was born!
But in 03, it was bundled with "CS Version 1.6", just to sell its own "CS".

Only gradually, some third-party developers also joined in.

Especially for those small workshops and independent game companies, they can't find distribution channels, and they don't have the money to engage in large-scale publicity. channel.

After all, no matter what, STEAM has brought enough player traffic just by relying on the world-class explosive game "Half-Life", and advertising on it to promote your own game is enough to achieve a good promotion effect.

The "My World", "My War", and "My Origin" trilogy of boiling games are also launched on the STEAM platform in this way.

It’s just that at the time everyone thought that Boiling Games, a Huaguo game company, had to go to STEAM to promote it in order to get out of the circle. They didn’t expect that all three of these games would become hits, and instead brought more to STEAM. traffic.

But at this time Fatty G is still unaware of what the traffic of STEAM can bring him in the future.

After all, engaging in STEAM is just a primitive impulse of his game madman, because he feels that the offline sales model of games is inconvenient, and it is more from the player's perspective. What is the essence of traffic, or in other words, it does not look at STEAM from the perspective of a channel provider or capital.

And these things, Fang Jie is really clear, let alone him, any player in the future will know the meaning of STEAM, once this stuff is handed over to him, it will be a king in the game industry !
Anyway, Fatty G now thinks that STEAM is just a subsidiary product of Valve Corporation, and does not involve core interests, so there is no pity to throw it out.

Secondly, he is not at a loss for this acquisition. STEAM entered Ark International with a 30% premium converted into shares, and judging from the current development momentum of Ark International and Ark World, this is a very promising deal, and it can even be used as a He felt that it was an honor for the core partners to participate, and there was really no reason to refuse.

Speaking of the core partners of Ark International, let’s see what companies are there: Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung, IBM, Netflix (Netflix), palpay, Cisco, Oracle, Qualcomm, Goldman Sachs, etc., as for Facebook's Zuckerberg, survival expert Bell, etc., are no longer ranked. Fat G can participate, which is definitely a very face-saving thing.

As for the Internet companies and capital on the Huaguo side, after the personnel changes in the Boiling Group, they all expressed their plans to establish overseas branches as if they had made an appointment. At this time, relevant personnel adjustments and capital transfers are being made, and they will soon participate in Fangzhou Some international investment projects.

After all, there is no impenetrable wall in the world. The words and hints that Fang Jie said in the internal meeting, let alone domestic companies, as long as overseas companies have a certain level, they will know immediately.

But so what?
Since it is purely for making money, there is no problem. Not only will the overseas capital be completely relieved, but also the domestic capital will be ecstatic - if you have money, don't make a bastard, as long as you can lead us to earn money. Money, and still going overseas to earn money, so what are you talking about being unscrupulous, you must copy the guys together!
Leaving aside the domestic capital that is moving after hearing the news, Fang Jie's move has once again given the foreign capital a reassurance. It seems that the richest man in China is indeed a fellow, and he has the demeanor of our capital. There is nothing wrong with it, so let's invest together Make money!

As for who earns money... capital has no borders, as long as it is not money in one's own pocket, it doesn't matter if it is money from one's relatives or neighbors, even if it is from one's own father, it must be earned first!

Therefore, the dozens of subsidiaries established by Ark International have capital from all over the world participating in the division.

Some of the founder teams of these companies are the employees who were cut from the personnel of the Boiling Group, and some are the management teams of overseas capital itself, and the company's shareholding structure is quite complicated. to have absolute control and the right to speak.

This is also the reason why Ark International is "trustworthy", just as Fang Jie himself said: Ark International is open, co-created, and unlimited partnership, and I am only one of the partners, not everyone's God, I lead The way of Ark International, in the words of Hua Guo, is four words: rule by doing nothing!

Govern by doing nothing?

Ghost letter!
Everyone knows that is impossible, but in any case, this kind of corporate structure does form a certain balance and restriction. Even if Fang Jie is called the "Father of the Ark", it is impossible to do whatever he wants and prevent some uncontrollable problems. risk.

For example, the first established Ark Games is a subsidiary of many core partners, including Microsoft, V Agency, and Google, all of which participated in the investment. Although Fang Jie and his Ark International are its major shareholders, their shareholding ratio is also high. Only 20.8%, not even a veto.

As Fang Jie's representative, the company's CEO's lover and his management team have even fewer shares, with the combined total being only 8.3%. Some major decisions must be voted by the general meeting of shareholders before they can be implemented.

Of course, everyone still fully trusts Fang Jie and the management team he selected for the time being. As long as they can lead everyone to make a lot of money together, or as long as they can tell a story about making money that convinces everyone, then everything is easy to talk about.

As for storytelling, Fang Jie was really good at it.

At the IPO investment meeting of Ark Games, in addition to representatives of various investors, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and the underwriters who were rushing to list Ark Games from the beginning, they also participated in the meeting.

As the representative of the largest shareholder Ark International and the initiator of the meeting, Fang Jie told everyone the story at the meeting: "Although the Ark game was mainly established for the follow-up development and upgrade of the Ark world, this is just its one of our business."

"Of course, this business alone is enough for the investors here to get rich returns. Because Ark International will pay the version update and production costs of Ark World in full and on time. Believe this, no one should doubt it Ark World's ability to absorb money in the future and Ark International's ability to pay?"

There was a burst of low laughter from the audience, but the point of everyone's laughter did not lie in Ark World's ability to attract money, because the concept had already been explained, there is no doubt about it, what Fang Jie said was nonsense.

Everyone was just laughing, but Fang Jie did not say clearly: Ark Games is a subsidiary of Ark International. This is the left-handed and right-handed operation of fathers giving pocket money to their sons. Putting the funds raised from public offerings all over the world into everyone's private pockets, anyway, it will definitely not make my son suffer.

The following speech by Fang Jie really confirmed this point: "Ark Games will make Ark World into a 3A-level masterpiece in the future, instead of the current 2D circle game. It will consume A lot of time (a lot of time), A lot of resources (a lot of resources), A lot of money (a lot of money), so Ark International will pay a lot of game production fees for Ark Games, and it will be continuous."

Hearing this, the investors off the market nodded their approval one after another, and the market makers also had bright eyes.

This story is good. Relying on the ever-upgrading Ark World, we continue to engage in game development and production. It is justifiable that the left hand turns to the right hand, and it also guarantees the harvest. In any case, it is impossible for the Ark game to starve to death due to lack of work. As long as the Ark The world is upgraded from time to time, and the Ark game can always make a lot of money!
Fang Jie's voice continued: "Of course, as I said just now, this is just one of the businesses of Ark Games. In addition to Ark World, Ark Games will also develop independent 3A masterpieces and share them with players all over the world... "

At this time, an investor representative stood up and said, "Sorry, just to interrupt. I have a question: You mentioned just now that making a 3A game will consume a lot of time, resources and money, so may I ask, How can Ark Games guarantee that the game will be a hit? How can you guarantee the quality of the game? What if the game fails to sell and causes huge losses? How do you control the risks involved?"

Fang Jie smiled slightly, expressing his understanding of the other party's doubts.

Capital is the most sensitive to money matters, and money matters are nothing more than two outcomes: making money, or losing money.

Making money without risk, of course, everyone will not have any objections, such as upgrading the world of Ark, but developing a 3A masterpiece by yourself, the risk is huge, who can guarantee that the 3A masterpiece that he threw a lot of money into will be a big hit Woolen cloth?
Not to mention big sales, whether capital preservation is a problem.

"It's not a problem."

Fang Jie met the opponent's gaze confidently and said: "The 3A I just said was not for you, but for the players, or to put it bluntly, it's just a gimmick to fool players all over the world. Of course, we will hype up this concept in the future to make all players believe this, and feel that 3A masterpieces are synonymous with high-end games.”

"Actually," Fang Jie looked away, looked around at the capital representatives present, and said with a chuckle, "Our Ark Games only makes 1A games, that is, A lot of money, that's enough!"

Uh, what does that mean?
Only high investment?Doesn't matter what the playability is?
Even the smartest capitalists off the stage were puzzled by these words, unable to understand Fang Jie's routine at all.

Fang Jie paused for a few seconds, and fired another blank shot: "To be precise, it's actually not a 1A game, but a 0.5A game, or even less than 0.5A."

This……

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, feeling more and more that they were listening to the heavenly scriptures.

At this moment, Fang Jie stopped being a joke, but said directly: "High investment in the game is a must. This is the guarantee of the quality of the game. High investment will bring higher picture quality, more details, and a bigger picture." Better maps, smarter AI, better-looking characters, richer plots, and fewer pieces of cloth on the characters... er, no, more beautiful skins..."

puff!
When they heard the last sentence of reversal, the audience suddenly burst into laughter.

Some people whistled, while others yelled: "Mr. FANG, there is nothing to shy away from. Ark Games is making games overseas, not in your country. Don't be so shy like a bitch, even if the characters in the game are not Clothes can be divided into grades at most, and games can be sold all over the world!"

"Okay, okay, I just want to liven up the atmosphere, don't be so excited, let's get back to business."

After Fang Jie made a joke, he returned to the topic: "I just talked about high investment...but at least half of the funds should be used for channel promotion and publicity, not for making games. For example, a plan For a masterpiece with an investment of 1000 million, according to my idea, at least another 1000 million will be added for channel promotion, so it can only be regarded as a 0.5A game.”

After hearing this, everyone off the court couldn't help thinking, as if they had grasped a key point.

Just listen to Fang Jie said: "The quality of a game is indeed very important, and quality determines word of mouth. However, word of mouth is actually highly superimposed with the effect of publicity. As long as the cost of publicity is sufficient, the problem of insufficient quality can be completely offset .”

"Even if you have a good product, if you are not willing to spend money on publicity, how can you let players know your existence? You can't sell so much by relying on core players alone."

"Therefore, as long as the game itself is not too flawed, even if there is no decisive breakthrough in the gameplay of these games, but the picture quality has become better, before the release, a lot of publicity and popularity will still be able to generate stable income!"

What Fang Jie really wants to say at this moment is that those so-called 3A masterpieces, such as "GTA", "Call of Duty" and the like, aren't that the case?
These games, if you want to say how much playability they have, it is not at all, it is nothing more than that the gameplay and plot are not flawed, and the graphics are quite exquisite, just like Hollywood blockbusters, which makes people look dumbfounded, and the cost of publicity is far away. Exceeding the production fee, and then the word of mouth naturally rose.

3A, at most, can only mean that a game has spent a lot of money, time, and resources. It doesn’t mean how fun the game is. Under the psychological and comparison psychology, a certain word-of-mouth effect has formed, but this kind of word-of-mouth is actually not worth scrutinizing.

I believe that players who have played this kind of 3A masterpiece have the most say. The real evaluation of it is generally-it feels okay, not bad, the picture is very exquisite, the configuration is good, the masterpiece is worth playing, and it is not a loss!
It’s really not a loss. If you spend tens of dollars to watch a Hollywood blockbuster made with hundreds of millions of dollars, you won’t feel it’s a loss, or even a profit. But what about after watching the blockbuster?
Ha ha……

The same is true for 3A games.

Fang Jie said to everyone: "My marketing method that emphasizes publicity is essentially the business model of Hollywood blockbusters. Think about why Hollywood blockbusters with lackluster content and connotations can make money, and you can understand this." Hollywood-style 3A game masterpiece", why can it make money. "

After hearing this, the investors in the audience suddenly came to a realization. They finally understood why they felt a little familiar just now. It turns out that this is actually the business model of Hollywood!

Now that Hollywood has succeeded with this business model, which is an effective sales method, is it still doubtful whether the game will be successful?

They are all cultural products, entertainment products, and mass consumer products, and they are all popular. After cutting a wave of leeks, they will stop immediately. Anyway, all the money that should be earned has been earned. As for word-of-mouth and so on, no matter what It's also a high-quality masterpiece, at most it's a joke without connotation, and it won't be scolded as rubbish.

Of course, there are also many Hollywood blockbusters that hit the street, but it is usually because of the quality of their own hips, or the channel promotion is not done well, not that this marketing model is not good.

At least relatively speaking, games or movies of the same quality must be more competitive and profitable under this marketing model. If you encounter a product with good quality, it will definitely sell well, but if you ignore the channel promotion, No matter how good the product is, it may be that "the smell of wine is afraid of deep alleys"...

After trying to understand the joints, the participants applauded unconsciously. Fang Jie's words made them suddenly realize that game sales can still be played like this, which is enlightening.

And Fang Jie's next sentence made the audience applaud again: "Maybe, our Ark Games may not produce many good games, but we can consistently produce 3A masterpieces; maybe our games have losses and profits, but this In this mode, the profit must be more than the loss; maybe we are not necessarily the greatest game company, but we must be a representative of well-made word-of-mouth. In the game circle, word-of-mouth is money, even if the last game hits the street, There are still people willing to pay for the next game!"

After the applause fell, Fang Jie calmly said: "The third business segment of our Ark game is the STEAM game platform. Of course, it has now been renamed the Ark game platform."

"Next, Ark Games will carry out a series of upgrades and revisions to the platform."

"The first is to join the player game community section and instant chat plug-in, so that players can communicate and interact with each other on the platform to form a player community."

"Secondly, I think the channel fee of 30% is too high, and it can be lowered appropriately to attract more third-party game developers and independent game companies to enter. The goal is to build the platform into an online game covering all games in the world. Stores, in addition to stand-alone games, also include online games."

"Then we will use some discounted marketing methods to attract more users to buy games. Of course, these discounted marketing methods and pricing are the prices after our background big data analysis. In jargon, this is called precise pricing. In the words of economic experts It's called "price discrimination", and in our own slang terms, it's called big data killing..."

"As for the whole set of algorithmic logic of big data killing, I won't go into details here. It is related to commercial secrets. Interested investors can participate in the investment promotion meeting of Ark Internet. I will appropriately disclose some interesting information... "

Following Fang Jie's eloquent talk, among the participants at this time, the lover who is the future manager of the Ark game gradually confirmed some guesses in their hearts.

Overseas, whether the game produced by Ark Games is a good game or not is not the most important thing. It is of course better to make a good game, and it doesn’t matter if it can’t be done. The only goal of the company is two words : Make money!
To put it further, it is to earn money from foreign players by all means!
To put it more bluntly, it is to engage in the affairs of foreign players and squeeze out their wallets, without thinking about moral integrity!
This makes my lover feel lucky for the domestic players: the leader is not ignorant of capitalism, but has always been quite restrained. Fortunately, he did not play like this in China, otherwise the domestic players would be miserable. The sky scolds the leader of the black heart, it seems that the lyrics of "Daytime does not understand the darkness of night" has a new interpretation...

If you think about it carefully, the Ark game is like this, so what about the other subsidiaries of Ark?

Then what Ark Internet's big data killing is familiar, if you don't know it, it sounds scary. I'm afraid it's not as simple as just engaging players, but killing indiscriminate groups...

(End of this chapter)