Top of the Great Era

It is a big plan to integrate Changyou and the game business department of Ziweixing International.

Zhou Buqi has great ambitions.

Don Mattrick is also looking forward to it, because the new company after the merger will surpass EA and become the world's largest game software company.

Being the head of such a big company is definitely an opportunity to show your skills!

Should not be missed!

However, Don Mattrick is a very good manager with a very good track record.

For example, "FIFA Football", the most popular game under EA, was led by him when he was working at EA, and became a game comparable to "Pro Evolution Football". Another example is Microsoft's Xbox game business, which was also replaced by Sony's PS2. It was also when he was working at Microsoft that he changed the status quo of the industry.

He is all too familiar with the gaming industry.

So immediately put forward a rather sharp point of view, "What about the friend's studio?"

Friends Studio is a studio under the Game Division. It mainly develops some lightweight social games for the Facebook open platform. In the past year, its revenue reached 1.8 million US dollars.

At first glance, it looks good, but in fact, the performance has shrunk seriously.

At the beginning, the expectations of Friends Studio were no worse than that of Zynga. In the past year, the two sides have widened a huge gap.

The main reason is that Zhou Buqi’s strategic choice puts the focus of the game on the mobile terminal, which leads to the friend’s studio being ignored and lack of motivation.

But now the question arises, if the game division is merged into Changyou, what about the friend studio?
Social games are developed based on social networking. The reason why it is called Friends Studio is because it comes from "Friends Network". All the games in this studio are adapted from social games on Friends Network in China.

Zhou Buqi gave a plan neatly, "Merge into Changyou together!"

"This……"

Don Mattrick was a little uncertain.

Zhou Buqi said: "It doesn't matter, just develop according to the general direction."

Don Mattrick said: "No, no, Zhou, these may...maybe two completely different game concepts. During the period when I was in charge of the game business department, I felt more and more incompatible with the concept. Affect the overall business development of the company.”

"Ok?"

Zhou Buqi raised his eyebrows.

Don Mattrick said: "The product logic of social games is low R&D investment, short profit cycle, highly socialized, and completely lightweight, which is not the same concept as other normal game products."

Zhou Buqi has a deep understanding of this, because the most popular social game "Parking Space" in the early days of Friends.com has been played by few people in China. He said: "Social games are fast in and fast out. When a gust of wind comes, a game becomes popular , a gust of wind comes, and another game takes its place."

Don Mattrick said: "Yes, the traditional game concept still needs to pursue some long-term value, even those casual games of Baokai are classic games that can stand the test of time, such as "Jeweled Array" A game that lasts forever."

"Jewel Puzzle" is actually a game of matching jewels, suitable for players of any age.

Zhou Buqi said: "Changyou is a real game company, not a social game company."

Don Mattrick frowned slightly, and said slowly: "The current game industry is not in a good mood, and there is even a voice in the market, looking down on the traditional game concept, and admiring the work of Zynga and friends. The concept of social games such as the studio, with less R&D investment, short payback period, and strong earning power, seems to be a new trend in future games.”

After a pause, he continued, "Zhou, do you know why Changyou's stock price fell into a slump in less than half a month after it went public?"

"Oh?" Zhou Buqi was so busy, he really didn't pay much attention to it, "What's your opinion?"

Don Mattrick said: "This is actually the impact of the general environment. Not only Changyou, but the stock prices of game giants such as EA and Blizzard have continued to fall during this period. Because the capital market's perception of the game industry has seriously changed. Disagreement."

Zhou Buqi tentatively said: "The difference between the lightweight fast-in and fast-out style brought about by social games and the development of traditional game products and the pursuit of long-term value?"

"That's right!"

"What is this called?!"

Zhou Buqi couldn't laugh or cry.

The trend of social games was promoted by him through Moments, passed on to Facebook, and then it became out of control in the global market.

Relying on the strong appeal of Facebook, social games are really making money!

Not only is the ability to make money strong, but the scale of users is also large!

Even if it is a super game giant like EA, how many players can there be in the world?
1000 million players is not bad!
But Zynga, which focuses on social games, has an astonishing number of players, reaching 2.2 million!
Fractions are more than the total amount of EA!

The game industry wants to make money, in the final analysis, it still makes money from players.

The more users, the bigger the base for making money!
It means more potential in the future!
Lu Qi savored the logic here, and couldn't help saying: "This is the Internet style of play, and it's a blow of the Internet model to the traditional model."

Zhou Buqi took it seriously, "It's true!"

Social games play the way of the Internet, frantically expanding users through free methods, attracting hundreds of millions of players, and then earn advertising fees through these players.

The game concept in the past, selling genuine games, selling game props, selling point cards... It seems to be the same as many traditional industries that have been beaten down by the Internet industry.

Under the vigorous wave of the Internet, relatively traditional game companies will inevitably be looked down upon by the capital market.

Don Mattrick went on to say: "There is a second reason for the decline in Changyou's stock price, which has caused the stock prices of all game companies in the world to decline, and is considered a disruptor of the industry."

"Who?"

"Zynga."

"What?"

Zhou Buqi was very speechless.

Don Mattrick said: "That's right, because Zynga just released the news recently that they will be listed on Nasdaq in July, and they are extremely favored by the market. Companies like EA and Blizzard are game companies. Among traditional companies; Zynga is an Internet company among game companies, and is widely favored by the capital market.”

Only then did Zhou Buqi understand why Changyou's stock price broke and why it was under such great pressure.

It turns out that the capital market has different perceptions of the game industry!

He grows, this disappears.

This is a misunderstanding of Lao Zhang.

It's really not the fault of him dating a female star!

This is miserable, the female star can't play anymore, and the stock price can't be saved.

Lu Qi also doesn't know much about the current situation of the game industry, "How about Zynga? It has a good prospect of going public?"

Don Mattrick said: "At the end of last year, Zynga completed the last round of financing before going public. Reed Hoffman, Peter Thiel, Google, DST, Tiger Fund and other funds represent the vane of the Internet. Enter. The scale of financing has reached 2.5 million US dollars, and the valuation has reached 100 billion US dollars.”

Zhou Buqi suddenly realized: "No wonder the capital market is so optimistic about it."

Don Mattrick said: "Yes, Zynga is now the most eye-catching game company in the United States. All the big capital and big institutions are waiting for this IPO. It is said that Zynga's IPO financing scale may reach 20 billion U.S. dollars, the market value will exceed 200 billion U.S. dollars.”

"So high?" Lu Qi frowned slightly, "It's almost the same as Changyou's IPO!"

Don Mattrick coughed and looked at Zhou Buqi, "Should...should be hotter than Changyou, and it will be July in just over 3 months. They want to be in such a short period of time." Such a large-scale IPO was completed within a short period of time, which shows that the capital market is very welcoming, and there is no need for too complicated roadshows before.”

Zhou Buqi twitched the corner of his mouth.

How embarrassing!

When Changyou went public half a month ago, it was very aggressive.

The actual situation was that there was an issue of shares that could not find a financial institution to accept the order. They had to redesign the issue plan or lower the issue price... Zhou Buqi didn’t want to make things so complicated, so he paid 8.1 million US dollars out of his own pocket and bought it. The remaining stock made Changyou's IPO very smooth.

There is really no comparison with Zynga.

However, Zhou Buqi was not convinced!
Zynga?

What kind of shabby company, I have never heard of it in my previous life.

Zhou Buqi said indifferently: "Whether it is going well or not, this is nothing more than another capital game in the capital market. How big is Zynga? It has created a few social games and can do whatever it wants? Is it better than Changyou? Don't believe this one!"

"Huh?" Don Mattrick blinked and saw the meaning of the big boss, "Zhou, you don't like this kind of Internet thinking game concept?"

"Not optimistic!"

Zhou Buqi responded decisively without hesitation.

Don Mattrick's expression became complicated, "It seems that you brought up the trend of social games."

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "It is because I brought it up that I know that this method will not work at all. The essence of social games is social interaction, not games."

Don Mattrick was silent.

He was willing to move from Microsoft to Ziwei Star International at the beginning. In fact, he felt that Microsoft's game model was too traditional and conservative, and he felt that there was no big way out.

He wants to have new explorations in the direction of social games.

After all, Ziweixing is the leader of the trend of social games.

Unexpectedly, the leader flinched first.

Zhou Buqi said: "The core of social games is social interaction, which is a platform logic. The essence of a game is a game, which is a content product. If you master the platform or the content, you can have core competitiveness. Zynga will definitely fail. , making social games...they don’t have the platform, which belongs to Facebook, and they lack real content, and social games lack the richness of content. If you don’t rely on both sides, you don’t have real core competitiveness.”

Lu Qi said with a smile: "You are telling the truth about the entire game industry. The current capital market obviously has a completely wrong understanding of the game industry."

Zhou Buqi looked at Don Mattrick and said with a smile: "So let me tell you, we must focus on the mobile terminal and make games based on smartphones. This is the next era. As for Friends Studio The resulting ideological differences should be directly suppressed!"