game trailblazer

Chapter 156 Hong Kong Annual Meeting

Xu Yeming presided over the seminar, and the participants included Tang Liyan from Asia Interactive, Peter Drucker from Activision, Brian Clough from Eidos, Yao Gaofei from Maixs, Cai Min and Li Baochun from Tianzhiyuan , Craig Brest of American Blue Dragon, Tim Stamp of British Rare Company, Liu Tianhua of Konami Company, Wang Guangyuan of Capcom Company, Mike Morwaimi of Blizzard Entertainment, etc. Li Chunlin and Chu Jing were also sent to participate in the creative workshop that did not make any achievements.

"The future focus of the company will be on the distribution of games," Xu Yeming said straight to the point: "But this does not mean that we will reduce investment in production companies, and we will continue to maintain the previous practice of not excessively interfering with production companies. "

When Mike Mohuaimi came to Hong Kong, he felt very confused. It was obvious that an American fund bought their company before, but how suddenly it was acquired by a company in Hong Kong. He has been a little uneasy about this, but this morning When he found out that the strength of this group seemed to be very strong, he felt a little more at ease, but he was still a little worried, so as soon as Xu Yeming finished speaking, he asked, "Mr. Xu, I want to ask what the previous practice is. What's it like?"

"It's very simple. We have two options." Xu Yeming gestured with his hands while explaining: "One is that the production company raises funds to develop the game itself, then we will not interfere in any way, and you can decide what project to do , how to do it, when to go public, and the other is that we invest in specific projects. There are three levels of investment amount. Of course, the amount is different in different countries. Take the United States as an example, commercial C-level production, we currently give The quota is no more than 80 US dollars; commercial B-level productions, we currently give a quota of 80 to 300 million US dollars, and commercial A-level productions, we currently give a quota of more than 300 million US dollars. The final performance appraisal of different levels is different. Similarly, commercial A-level production has the strictest assessment. Once commercial A-level production fails for two consecutive developments, the corresponding production company will be classified as B-level and temporarily lose the opportunity to apply for commercial A-level production. In our investment Under the circumstances, we mainly only manage the use of funds. As for how to develop the game, you still have to decide. You are all experts in game production. I believe that in terms of how to make players like the games you develop, everyone You should have more say. Mr. Mo Huaimi, I wonder if you can understand my explanation?"

Mike Morwaime thought for a while. What he just said seems to be the same as the promise before the acquisition. It can even be said that it provides more choices. For Blizzard Entertainment, it can still maintain its current independence, so he clicked No more questions.

"Well, let me continue talking about distribution." Xu Yeming saw that Mike Mohuaimi had no doubts, and continued: "Last year, our publishing company released a total of 187 games around the world, including the same game with different games. Versions in different languages ​​of the country have achieved good results, but compared with the size of the entire game market, they are still only a small part. In the entire game industry, distribution is a very important part. Seizing the distribution channels, it can be said that It is to seize the lifeline of the game industry, so in the next five years, our strategic goal is to control the distribution of more than half of the world's games, and expand our distribution network to every market. In order to achieve this The goal is that Asia Interactive, Activision and Eidos need to continue to expand the market in the divided regions, and at the same time allow games to be released to other regions, but they must go through the channel of the regional management company. For example, if Asia Interactive releases games to the European region, then it must Follow the channel established by Eidos in the UK. In order to make this plan go smoothly, we will initiate a share swap. Asia Interactive, American Activision and British Eidos will exchange shares in equal proportions, which means that in the future, Asia Interactive will hold American animation 15% each of Activision and Eidos UK, as well as Activision USA and Eidos UK.”

Representatives of Asia Interactive, American Activision and British Eidos have different complexions. The three companies are different in fat and thin. Naturally, some people are happy and some are worried about this exchange of shares, but Xu Yeming's next words immediately make them all happy by coincidence stand up.

"In order to have more game resources for distribution, the headquarters will allocate funds to acquire more professional game production companies." Xu Yeming glanced at the representatives of Asia Interactive, Activision and Eidos, and continued. : "The three of you should have a lot of interesting ones. As long as there is acquisition value, you can all report them. In addition, due to the special nature of the mainland market, we will find a way to establish another game publishing company in the mainland to be responsible for the future. The development of the mainland market...

Well, that's the main plan, so that's all for now.If you have any opinions and suggestions, you can say it now, and we will work together to improve the plan. "

Everyone was silent for a while, and Li Chunlin from the creative workshop asked. "Mr. Xu, I would like to ask, does the establishment of a game publishing company in the Mainland need our assistance?"

"It's very possible, but we need to understand the relevant regulations first, and then we can talk about how to operate." Xu Yeming explained.

"Well, Mr. Xu, I would like to ask how much money will be used to acquire a game development company." Brian Clough from Eidos UK continued to ask: "Hey, we should know..."

"This question has not been finalized for the time being, but it can be guaranteed that it will not be less than 20 billion US dollars. However, one point for the three of you is much less, so it is best to consider more potential and smaller production companies. Of course If there is indeed a very suitable target, you can still propose it.”

"20 billion US dollars!" Many people gasped. This amount of money is not very huge for the distribution company, but it is simply astronomical for the production company. Therefore, Xu Yeming announced that many production companies Representatives of the company all looked at the representative of the issuing company with envious eyes.

Seeing that some people still showed a little disappointment on their faces, Zhang Lexing cleared his throat and joked, "Don't be too envious of the distribution company. In fact, the money will not fall into their pockets."

Everyone burst into laughter, and the expressions of the representatives of the production company were much better than before.

Zhang Lexing continued: "Well, we also plan to set up a new level called 'experimental works' in addition to the three levels of commercial production. The investment amount of experimental works is expected to be around 100 million US dollars, which will be based on different countries. The situation will be adjusted, and the sales of the game will not be assessed, but the experimental work must have something unique, or create a new game operation mode, or create a new game type, in short, there must be innovation place, it has to be a different game.”

As soon as this remark came out, the representatives of the production company immediately burst into smiles.What the production company is afraid of is that the selected theme will not sell well. It is not scary just that the sales of a game has problems. It’s not scary, what’s scary is that they rush to the streets every day.”Now that the boss has said that "experimental works" are open, then in the future, when encountering a game that is not sure of the market, it can be regarded as an experimental work, or if it hits the street, making an experimental work to take a breather, maybe the time will come.

The reason why Zhang Lexing raised this point is also to reduce the pressure on his own production companies, so that they will not be overwhelmed by commercialization. Game production cannot be separated from commercialization, but if it is too commercialized, often what is produced is no longer a game. up.Zhang Lexing hopes that there will be no more cases of reckless cooking for the sake of making money, frantic release of expansion packs, and regardless of the quality of the game in order to rush work, at least not in the production company under his control. It doesn't matter if it is more commercial in other places, but at least the game will be produced Make it fun to play.

Successive good news made everyone excited, and offered advice and suggestions on the development of the electronic entertainment industry. Some people proposed to plan the theme well, control the number of games with the same theme launched each year, and prevent certain themes from overheating and affecting the players' interest. Acceptability, someone proposed to unify the development of the game engine, reduce the difficulty of game development, and so on...

In the course of intense discussions, the agenda of the first day passed in this way. On the early morning of the 20th, just after breakfast, Zhang Lexing received a bunch of reports from Yan Ruofei. According to her, they were the future business strategies and specific implementation plans drawn up by the nine business divisions.After returning to his suite to rest for a while, Zhang Lexing opened these reports one by one and looked at them.

The first thing I looked at was the report submitted by the Electronic Entertainment Division. The main content was exactly what was discussed yesterday, but it was described in more detail and a specific implementation plan was attached.Turning to the end, Zhang Lexing found that there was also a list provided by Asia Interactive, Activision of the United States and Eidos of the United Kingdom, which included the list of production companies that planned to acquire.Zhang Lexing looked at it casually, and suddenly found the name of the British company Bullfrog Production. Behind the name of Bullfrog Company, it was written that the estimated acquisition amount was 3200 million US dollars. The reason for the acquisition was that the games produced by Bullfrog Production Company were very innovative. , and some of them have the potential to become best-selling products.Zhang Lexing is very familiar with the bullfrog company, and has played many products launched by this company, such as the "God Is Crazy" series and the "Theme xx" series, etc. They are all amazing, so Zhang Lexing immediately marked the name of the bullfrog company On "must buy".Except for Bullfrog Company, the name of other companies on the list is very strange to Zhang Lexing. For example, one of the companies named Bungie listed an estimated acquisition amount of US$800 million. The reason for the acquisition is that Bungie is better at making Macintosh platform Games, the FPS game "Marathon" developed by it sells very well, and the company's development strength on the Macintosh platform can be enhanced through acquisitions. try it.

Next is the report submitted by the Microelectronics Division, which reads: "The main plan for the next five years is to produce the R-3000A special processor for PS game consoles. It plans to gradually improve the production line, increase the yield rate, and reduce production costs. The implementation plan is as follows...Continue to promote the research and development of the next generation of special processors for game consoles...Expand the use of R-3000A in other fields and carry out related research work...Design and produce consumer electronics products (such as electronic dictionaries, VCD players) To carry out corresponding research work to reduce the cost of IC production, the specific implementation plan is as follows..."

The report of the media business department reads: "Further expand the distribution channels of its newspapers and magazines. The specific expansion plan is as follows... In order to further strengthen the strength of the scholarly newspaper industry, targeted acquisitions will be carried out. The target is an influential Li’s English newspaper, the specific acquisition plan is as follows...According to the requirements of the company’s headquarters, a professional game magazine will be established this year, mainly for people who use Chinese, and a Japanese and English game magazine are also planned to be acquired and integrated , to expand the company's influence in the game circle, the specific implementation plan is as follows..."

The report of the animation business department mainly revolves around the expansion of the market. It is written as follows: "Further consolidate the Asian market and gradually expand to overseas markets. It is planned to find suitable comic companies in North America for mergers and acquisitions, while the European market is to establish sales channels. Lord..."

The report of the Consumer Goods Division reads: "The main task in the next five years is to expand the toy and clothing design center in Hong Kong...The production will gradually shift to OEM..."

The Consumer Electronics Division wrote in the report: "Phase out the current learning machine production line...develop and promote VCD solutions, deepen related research on the improvement of electronic dictionaries, and conduct preliminary research on other new electronic products..."

The software business department aims at the overseas market, continues to consolidate the situation in the domestic market, vigorously expands the scope of business, further develops the foundry business, and tries to promote the software in hand to overseas markets.

The goal of the financial business department is very simple, which is to gradually increase the number of holdings in Standard Chartered Bank. One is to start from other small shareholders, and the other is the 13.5% equity in Qiu Deba's hands.

The main task of the real estate business department in the future is to plan and prepare for the Hong Kong R&D park while completing the construction of the BJ R&D park, and to find suitable land for the construction of the R&D park in Shanghai and Shenzhen.

The investment business department is focusing on the emerging high-tech industry, preparing to invest in some potential companies, and plans to obtain corresponding benefits from packaging and listing in the future.

In the process of reading the report, every time Zhang Lexing read a copy, he would call the assistant who attended the meeting, so as to fully understand the situation at that time.After reading the report, Zhang Lexing will write down his opinions and suggestions based on his impression of the future development and the current situation. "Biography" animation film and comic series requirements.Zhang Lexing hopes to launch the game first to establish a shadow of the world of "Legend of Sword and Fairy", and then gradually complete the world and history of "Legend of Sword and Fairy" through related animations, comics and even official novels, just like Blizzard perfected Ai Ze Just like the legend of Las Continent, Zhang Lexing hopes that one day "Legend of Sword and Fairy" can do the same, and even develop an online game "World of Sword and Fairy" based on this in the future.

……

In a blink of an eye, the three-day corporate annual meeting ended. Before returning to the United States, Zhang Lexing made a stop by to Shenzhen to explore the camp, while Dongfang Industrial Group began to act according to the negotiated plan.The first move was Dongfang Electronic Entertainment Co., Ltd., holding high the banner of acquisitions, starting from RB, then North America, and then landed in Europe, and acquired more than ten professional companies including the British Bullfrog and the American Bungie in one go. A game production company, and has eaten several small game publishers.Then Kunpeng Animation acquired a French comic publisher and established a bridgehead in Europe.The same is true for other industries, and the Oriental Industrial Group has begun to speed up...

(End of this chapter)