Reborn: Billionaire in College

It has been almost a month since Feng Ji came to Dongjiang with the Game Science founding team. He is still a little uncomfortable returning to work after the New Year.

The scenes of the annual meeting are still vivid in my mind even after the Spring Festival.

The more you are in this group, the more you can understand how big it is and how much wealth and power that familiar yet unfamiliar young man holds.

That feeling of powerlessness is like that of a young man from a small country town who goes alone to a big city with a snakeskin bag on his back. The moment he walks out of the station and sees the magnificent city skyline and the high-rise buildings lined up in front of him, he feels lonely and insignificant.

Feng Ji had heard that he was chosen by the big boss and thought he would be particularly valued. However, he did not expect that he had not been received by the big boss after one month. It must be said that he was a little discouraged.

Especially when he saw so many bigwigs and talented people at the annual meeting who he could only see in financial news on weekdays, Feng Jicai finally understood and gave a bitter smile.

You are nothing!

He has too good an opinion of himself. After all, as a studio manager at his level, he doesn't have any mature products on hand. How could Chen Pingjiang possibly look at him differently?

"Yang Qi, today is the first day of work. Let's hold a meeting to get everyone focused and quickly arrange the planning tasks for "Black Myth One."

Seeing that most people had arrived, Feng Ji immediately gave instructions for the arrangements.

About ten minutes later, Feng Ji took the lead and walked into the meeting room.

Their office is on the 19th floor, a -square-meter area temporarily opened up, which is enough for the few staff members of Game Science.

Just after he said a few words at the meeting, Feng Ji's cell phone rang.

Feng Ji, who hated being disturbed during meetings, immediately turned his phone to silent mode. When he was about to turn over the phone to cover the screen, he unexpectedly saw the name of the person on the caller ID. After thinking about it, he picked up the call.

"Mr. Tian, ​​Happy New Year. Do you have anything to ask me on your first day at work?"

Tian Hongrui's hurried voice came from the other end of the phone, "I just received a notice that Director Chen will be coming to the company in 20 minutes and specifically asked to inspect your studio. Are all the people on your side here? Hurry up and get ready?"

It was not until he heard a beep from the other end of the phone that Feng Ji came back to his senses, his brows knitted together in excitement: "Hurry up, Director Chen will come over for inspection in 20 minutes, so hurry up and tidy up the work area and take out some planning ideas we brought from Shenzhen."

Everyone was startled, and then everyone became excited and encouraged.

Whether Chen Pingjiang came for inspection or not, work would be done as usual. However, receiving an inspection from the big boss on the first day of work in the new year meant something different to them at Game Science.

It is also sending a message to the outside world - You Ke must be quite capable to be able to work here.

In just twenty minutes, Feng Ji, Yang Qi and others did not dare to relax for a moment.

Not only do you have to pay attention to your personal image, you also have to pay attention to the office environment. In addition, you have to do your homework to face possible questions from the boss.

In short, be sure to leave a good impression on the other person.

Counting the last meeting at the annual meeting, this was Feng Ji's second time meeting Chen Pingjiang, but he was not less nervous. Last time, there were so many people there, and Feng Ji was not the main character, so there was not much to consider, but today's inspection was a solid test.

At 10:30 a.m., as the elevator lights went out, the elevator door slowly opened...

The first person to come out was bodyguard Li Fu, who looked around before nodding in the direction of the elevator. The next to come out was the chairman's secretary Xu Rui and Renren Games Group CEO Tian Hongrui, followed by Renren CEO Li Xi and Chen Pingjiang.

Feng Ji originally thought it was just a simple incognito visit, but he didn't expect it to be such a big deal.

The boss is here, the boss’s boss is here, and the boss’s boss’s boss is here too!
"Feng Ji! Hello, this is our second meeting. The last annual meeting was very noisy and it was not convenient to communicate alone. I came here specially today to see you. I hope I didn't disturb your work?" Chen Pingjiang said amiably with a harmless smile.

Feng Ji waved his hands quickly: "No, no, my colleagues and I were just about to report our work to you, Director Chen. We are all very excited to have Director Chen come to inspect us in person on the first day of work in the new year."

After some simple polite remarks, Feng Ji welcomed Chen Pingjiang and his party into the conference room.

Chen Pingjiang walked in front accompanied by Feng Ji, while Li Xi and Tian Hongrui fell behind.

"A AAA masterpiece, a stand-alone game? I wouldn't have known if you hadn't told me." Li Xi was a little surprised when he heard the news. "I can hardly name any domestic stand-alone games, so I have to rely on Mr. Chen to help."

"That's right. I've always been worried about whether it's necessary to make a stand-alone game. I don't see any hope of making money at all."

Li Xi smiled and nudged Tian Hongrui with his arm. "It only takes a few bucks to make a game like this, and it's a financial investment in itself. It's a drop in the bucket for the group. Don't always measure everything with profits and KPIs. When you're in Mr. Chen's position, you're more likely to consider influence and the big picture."

"Mr. Chen, I'm sorry, we just moved in not long ago, and then came the annual meeting and New Year's holiday. We didn't have time to clean up a lot of things, and the place is a mess." Feng Ji said politely.

Chen Pingjiang smiled and shook his head: "We are all entrepreneurs. We all know what the working conditions are like when we first start a business. There are not so many details. This picture is good. Is this the protagonist of your new project?"

Chen Pingjiang asked the question even though he knew the answer. He pointed to a sketch of Sun Wukong in front of him and started asking.

"Yes, I have discussed this with Mr. Tian before. We at Youke have already started a new game project, tentatively named "Black Myth". This is the protagonist of our first game."

"Sun Wukong?"

Yang Qi at the side quickly explained: "The character controlled by the player is just a monkey in Huaguo Mountain. The name we have imagined is - Tianmingren. The main plot of the story is that the player needs to collect six roots to gradually restore the power of the Monkey King. In the end, there will be multiple endings. Inherit the Monkey King's tight spell and become a new Monkey King, or give up the tight spell and transcend the world. Of course, there may be other endings, such as going to the Heavenly Palace, etc."

Chen Pingjiang nodded and followed Feng Ji and Yang Qi into Yang Qi's personal office, or art room.

At this moment, the walls of the office are covered with sketches.

There are images of game characters, monsters, game maps, or game props. "You guys are really quick. As far as I know, the project has only been in place for a short time, and there's the Chinese New Year holiday. Have you prepared so much?"

Yang Qi explained: "Not all of them were drawn during this period. Most of them are ideas that I had when I was working on "God of War" at Tencent. In addition, I have accumulated them over the years with occasional flashes of inspiration or casual writing and drawing. I hope that they can all come in handy for this new project."

After visiting the studio, everyone returned to the conference room.

As soon as he sat down, Chen Pingjiang said, "I was very busy before the New Year. I kept saying that I would come over in person to see you and welcome you all, but I really can't spare the time. I'm really sorry."

When these words were spoken, the founders of the game science team present were all shocked.

Who is speaking?

The richest man in China, the No. 1 in the Internet industry, a young super-rich man, it is not an exaggeration to say that he is the most influential figure in the country's science and technology innovation world. It is really hard to imagine that he would say such humble words.

"No, no, Mr. Chen is a noble man, and he needs to manage so many people..."

……

After chatting about a few irrelevant topics, Feng Ji took the lead and cut to the point: "Mr. Chen, with all due respect, I would like to ask, have you ever heard of 3A masterpieces before? Do you know how much it costs to develop a 3A masterpiece?"

The purpose of asking this question was that Feng Ji wanted to confirm how much confidence Chen Pingjiang had in this investment and whether he knew how big the difficulties would be, so as to avoid seeing no returns in time, causing Game Science's new project to fail halfway or returning to Tencent's old path of short-term profit.

Chen Pingjiang raised his eyebrows and said, "Even if I don't know, the data is available. The R&D cost of Call of Duty MW09 in 2 was about 3 million, and the R&D cost of Star Citizen the year before last was 3.2 million US dollars. According to my estimation, the R&D cost of Black Myth Wukong will not be less than 3-5 million if it is developed according to the requirements."

"In addition, I know that not only is the development cost very high, but it also takes a long time. The development time of Duke Nukem Forever in 11 was as long as 14 years, and the development time of a general 3A masterpiece is 4-8 years."

After hearing what Chen Pingjiang said, Feng Ji and others breathed a sigh of relief.

Although he had confirmed it with Tian Hongrui many times before, it was all Tian Hongrui's retelling after all. Now that he heard Chen Pingjiang say it in person, the effect was naturally different.

It is a consensus in the industry that 3A games are more difficult to develop than online games.

In terms of R&D costs alone, 3A and online games may be similar, but don't forget that 3A requires a one-time investment and is extremely risky. It is not suitable for small companies at all. Once something goes wrong, the company will be gone.

However, online games can be sold while being produced, and the costs can be spread out through long-term operations.

If a 3A masterpiece has its own IP, it can still make a lot of money. But if it doesn’t have an IP, in terms of money-making ability, 3A can’t catch up with online games.

3A is a one-time purchase, and at most you can add some DLC later, how much does it cost?
No matter whether it is a monthly card system or an in-app purchase system, online games always surpass 3A games due to their long-term operation, not to mention the occasional skin events.

Moreover, the Chinese market had not yet been developed in 2014, and there were not as many loyal single-player game players as in the United States and China. The domestic single-player game market needed several games such as Ring of Legends and Cyberpunk 2077 to be developed.

At this point, Chen Pingjiang changed the subject and said with a smile, "Don't worry about my sincerity and my confidence in you. Renren.com itself has the gaming gene, and the gaming industry will become more and more popular in the future. Even now, the film and music industries are only half of the gaming industry, and the scale of the global gaming industry continues to grow at a rate of 10% per year. It is precisely because of this that I hope to make the game well and make a game that is popular all over the world. It would be best if we can export culture overseas in the process."

Everyone in the room agreed with Chen Pingjiang's words.

Li Xi nodded repeatedly: "Among the other nine technology companies with the highest market value in the world, excluding our Renren, seven of them - Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Facebook, and Tencent are closely related to games, and have been accelerating the layout of the game industry in recent years. Among the top 7 electronic game markets in the world, there are four Asian countries - China, Japan, South Korea, and India. Among them, China is the largest electronic game market, with revenue reaching 10 billion US dollars in 2013. It is expected that by the end of 170, the Chinese game market is expected to increase to 2020 billion US dollars, and then it will surpass the United States and become the world's number one."

"At present, mobile games are gradually coming to the fore, and the market share is growing rapidly every year. According to the estimation of our data department, mobile games will occupy 70% of the entire game market in the future. However, there are good and bad mobile games. Many game manufacturers regard "paying gold" as the core of the game, which leads to the poor quality of many games. In order to enable game manufacturers to produce more sophisticated and meaningful games, not only does it require the managers of the game industry to strengthen supervision, but the society also needs to have a correct understanding of games. Only in this way can the game industry develop better. This is what Mr. Chen has always taught us. I think this is also the real reason why Mr. Chen invested in your game science. In the final analysis, he still hopes that you can make good games."

Li Xi's words caused different expressions among the people present.

Chen Pingjiang smiled and nodded with satisfaction. He was very pleased with the performance of his "half-apprentice".

Tian Hongrui smacked his lips twice and couldn't help but shout "Awesome" in his heart.

Li Xi's words not only derived and supplemented Chen Pingjiang's meaning, but also praised Chen Pingjiang. The most important thing was that he showed his understanding of the game market and the game industry. It can be said that he achieved three goals with one stone.

"No wonder Mr. Chen trusts him so much. He is growing really fast."

When Tian Hongrui first came to Renren, Li Xi was still very young. Now, after a few years, he has grown very fast. If you don’t look at his age, you would think he is a veteran in the industry.

After realizing that Chen Pingjiang was sincere and determined, the atmosphere during the chat became much more pleasant and relaxed.

"You guys have been here for almost a month, haven't you recruited anyone before the New Year? If there is anything you need Old Tian's help with, just let me know. Don't hesitate."

Feng Ji smiled bitterly, "We came too late. It will be the Chinese New Year soon after we finish cleaning up. There will be people asking us to come back to work after the annual meeting. To be honest with Mr. Chen, we are short of a lot of people now, and we are far from the minimum team of 30 people."

Chen Pingjiang waved his hand with great wealth and said, "What can thirty people do? Don't save money. Go ahead and recruit a hundred people. I know you guys are in great need of people."

《塞尔达传说·旷野之息》的制作团队至少有300人，而《使命召唤》的制作团队由500人组成，《赛博朋克2077》的制作团队则有800人之多，《荒野大镖客2》的制作团队达到了惊人的3700多人。

Otherwise, why are the R&D costs so high?

The food, clothing, shelter, and labor costs of so many people over the years, as well as the office space rental fees, may not seem like much on a per-item basis, but when added up over the years it becomes terrifying.

Chen Pingjiang had specifically found out that one hundred people was just the threshold and barely enough.

Among them, there is a huge art team doing action design and image design, which requires dozens of people. There will also be a huge programming team to write programs, and there will be people specifically responsible for audio effects. There are dozens of people here again.

When Yang Qi, the art director, heard what Chen Pingjiang said, he rubbed his hands excitedly: "Many of the landscapes in Black Myth: Wukong are real. I plan to have people go to various places to shoot real scenes, and then analyze the pictures one by one and import them into the game. We must ensure that they are authentic and put all of our Chinese culture, ethnic customs, and historical sites into the game as much as possible to present them to the audience." (End of this chapter)