Top of the Great Era

The next day, early in the morning.

Mai Feixue woke up, staring blankly at the ceiling, feeling dizzy in her head, feeling that everything around her was full of unrealism when she accompanied her boss on a business trip to the UK.

I thought last night would be a long-awaited and dreamy sweet get-together with the big boss, but I didn't expect that the sweetness is so sweet...it's not a space for two at all.

Ning Lu also got involved.

It was past 9 o'clock in the morning, and several people got up to wash up.

"Maizi, how did you rest last night?"

During breakfast, Zhou Buqi ate a piece of bacon and expressed his concerns in a very easy-going way.

Mai Feixue still couldn't be as calm as Sun Guanran and Ning Lu, her face flushed again, "It's... not bad."

Zhou Buqi looked up at her and asked with a smile, "Excuse me? Are you shy?"

"No, it's okay."

Mai Feixue lowered her head, drinking milk to hide her embarrassment.

Zhou Buqi said earnestly: "If you have time, learn English well. When you meet foreigners, you can't even do the most basic daily communication. How can you have more business trips in the future?"

Mai Feixue said in a low voice: "I will study hard."

Zhou Buqi jokingly said: "Last night I taught you how to fly double, next time I will teach you how to fly three times, four times, seven or eight times."

"Boss, you hate me to death!"

Mai Feixue became coquettish, her face turned red, and she almost covered her face and ran away.

However, there is also some doubt in my heart.

Is this the big shot?
Life is like climbing a mountain. After coming to a high place from the bottom of the mountain, I really saw many scenes of life that are completely different from the perspective of ordinary people.

Seeing that she still couldn't let go, Zhou Buqi stopped teasing her, and then turned to look at Sun Guanran, "Who is that at the city hall... McGregor, he said he wanted to invite me to investigate Manchester's software industry?"

Sun Guanran's English is much worse than Ning Lu's, but it is enough for daily communication, so he can play a role at work, "Well, I want you to invest."

"How is it? Have you checked the information?"

Zhou Buqi's question is a bit out of line.

Fortunately, Sun Guanran has withstood the test. She is not a complete flower vase, but has a strong subjective initiative. She chuckled and said, "I checked it, it's pretty good. Manchester used to be an industrial city, but now it's going to be transformed. Only rely on football And tourism, can’t support such a big city.”

Zhou Buqi held a piece of bread in his hand and looked up at him, somewhat surprised, "Transition to the technology industry?"

"Yes, it's quite impressive. I checked some information last night, and I was quite surprised. In Manchester's current industrial structure, 22% of GDP is created by the technology industry."

"which aspect?"

"It's mostly software."

"Well, software." Zhou Buqi has a better understanding of this, "Europe's Internet industry is backward, but fortunately, intellectual property rights are well protected, and there is a good soil for the survival of the software industry."

Sun Guanran went on to say: "In addition to some local commercial industrial software, the public level is mainly game software. Now the UK is promoting the development of the game industry from the policy level. Manchester is the second largest game city in the UK."

"Ah?" Zhou Buqi was very surprised, "Is it true? Is it wrong? Why didn't I feel it at all?"

Sun Guanran said with a smile on his face: "It's true. I checked a lot of information to prove it. London is the largest game city, and there are 700 game studios there. Manchester is the second largest city, with only 70, which is one-tenth of London's. one."

Zhou Buqi laughed and said, "No wonder! There's a big guy out of a dwarf, no wonder you can't feel it!"

What second largest city?

That's because, except for London, other cities in the UK are too weak, and Manchester is ranked No.2.

Zhen Yu woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning. She had already had breakfast, and she just sat here and watched everyone eating breakfast. When she heard this, she suggested, "If Manchester intends to promote the development of the game industry, we It’s best to be actively involved.”

"Ah."

Zhou Buqi nodded.

Zhen Yu pursed her lips and said, "I guess the UK must be covered by world-class game giants, such as EA, Blizzard, Microsoft, Konami, Ubisoft, if Changyou passes by, it won't be too big or leaky."

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "If Changyou's key layout in Manchester is to be the core leader of Manchester, this is the way of thinking."

To be in the game industry, you don’t have to do research and development.

Operation, maintenance, and upgrades also require a large number of talents, which will also be classified as game talents.

For example, "DOTA2" under Changyou has become popular all over the world. In the WCG World Electronic Sports Competition jointly held with Samsung, the prize money of "DOTA2" has reached 120 million US dollars, ranking first among all games!
Where there is money, there is a market.

Countless professional players rushed in, and then drove many young players, who were fascinated by e-sports like fans.

However, it is not easy to operate this game.

With Changyou's current strength, it can't even operate globally, so it can only choose some agents to help with operations.For example, in France, a French game distribution company is chosen to be responsible for the operation and maintenance of local players.

This is obviously not the style of the gaming giant.

Game giants like Blizzard, except for some exclusive markets that cannot enter and can only rely on the agency model to operate, the business in most countries is directly operated, and Blizzard directly opens local branches, and then comes operate.

If Blizzard only had one game, World of Warcraft, the direct sales model would not be good, and the cost would be higher.

However, one of the biggest characteristics of the technology industry is that the larger the scale, the lower the marginal cost.

Blizzard also has many games.

This is a gaming giant.

In this way, Blizzard has set up branches or directly-operated studios in large and small markets to operate and maintain its own company's games, and the cost will be lower.

It is also more conducive to the confidentiality of data and the early perception of future market changes.

After Zhou Buqi took over Changyou, the first thing to do is to establish a self-operated game publishing system around the world as soon as possible, and be able to vertically deploy many large and small markets.

In the past, Lao Zhang was in charge of Changyou, even with Zhou Buqi's constant guidance and advice behind him, his courage was still a bit weak, and his steps were still a bit small.

He led Changyou and indeed acquired 3 game studios in the UK.

But still too slow.

Now is the stage of transformation of the times, and it is the critical period of staking the land in the early days of the mobile Internet. It would be too expensive to waste the current excellent entry period and wait a few years for the layout.

Sun Guanran chose another angle, and said softly: "The most important thing to do business in European and American countries is to create job opportunities, not how much GDP is created, because job opportunities largely represent the recognition and recognition of the current government by the people. Votes. If Changyou’s games are operated vertically, then these jobs will be provided by Changyou. If they are represented by local game publishers, the jobs will be provided by these agency companies. From a social perspective, most The company still needs more employees.”

Zhou Buqi praised: "Well, there is progress!"

Sun Guanran was very happy when he was praised, and Yan Ran said: "I think we should focus on the layout in Manchester, not only the operation and maintenance of the game, but also the development."

"is it?"

"Well, I checked, and the research and development game companies here in Manchester are mainly casual game software. I also checked, and in the casual game software market, the UK is the third largest market in the world, second only to The United States and Japan, this is very consistent with the importance you attach to Baokai Game Studio!"

"Wanwan, you are getting better and better!"

Zhou Buqi praised him sincerely this time.

China is also a big market for games, but domestic piracy is prevalent, so that domestic casual games can only be promoted for free, and cannot create much output value.

But it is different here in Europe and America, software can be sold for money.

Casual games are an important category in the game field, especially with the advent of the smartphone era, it is even more critical.The performance of the early smartphones was relatively poor, and they could not play too exquisite and complex large-scale games, mainly casual games.

This is also the reason why Zhou Buqi had to acquire Baokai Game Studio no matter what.

Facts have proved that this deal is also successful enough.

At this stage, there are as many as four "4 million-level" user-scale casual games under Baokai Studio, namely "Plants vs. Zombies", "Jewel Array", "Swallow Fish" and "Peg ".

Casual games are enduring.

Relying on the terminal platform of smartphones, the vitality of casual mobile games is much stronger than the short-lived PC-side social games.

Encouraged, Sun Guanran became more confident and came here with confidence: "There are a lot of game talents in the UK, more than Germany and France combined. If you want to do game business in Europe, the most important thing is the UK market. I also read A set of data shows that British universities can produce 3 game graduates every year. There should be no shortage of talents. If there are enough good game companies and jobs in the local area, then these local game talents will You don’t have to go to America to work.”

Zhou Buqi smiled and praised, "Well, it's high!"

Sun Guanran was a little embarrassed by the praise, and her beautiful eyes were watery, very gentle, "Even the UK is facing the dilemma of brain drain every year, so the UK has launched many programs to retain creative talents in the past few years." Policy. It’s like... just like “Star Wars”, most of the shooting and post-production are carried out in the UK, and only the top special effects production will be brought back to the United States to find Industrial Light and Magic for production.”

Lucasfilm is now a subsidiary of Ziwei Star Global. As the closest assistant to Boss Zhou, Sun Guanran usually has access to too many materials, so he can easily come up with references.

"Well, the UK has better policies for creative industries, with lower tax rates, more subsidies, a more positive environment, and a broader definition of scientific research." Zhou Buqi nodded and jokingly said, "Okay, I I was persuaded by our family Wan Wan! I will listen to your arrangement!"