Back To 1995

   Chapter 320 Sharpening the knife

   Now the ICQ side has basically stabilized, and there is no real competitor yet, and the technology and patents are far superior to the opponent.

What    has to do is to take advantage of its advantages to raise funds and go public. It is hard to say what will happen in the future, but within the past two years, ICQ is basically hard to find an opponent.

  If the PPT is done well, ICQ may not be able to be blown up like Yahoo and AOL. After all, when the frenzy came, the market value of several Internet companies such as Lycos and Excite exceeded 10 billion US dollars.

  Waiting for ICQ to go public, Song Yang will definitely cut a crop of leeks. This may be the last crop of leeks within the next ten years. After the Internet bubble burst, within ten years, the leeks of the Internet will not be cut.

The manager in charge of ICQ community and NFT avatar business also reported to Song Yang the revenue of these two major businesses. ICQ, NFT avatar, games and portal websites are the main revenue businesses prepared by ICQ, that is, to make money. of.

  ICQ community space has now become a new Internet platform, attracting a number of stars, celebrities, etc., to publish their daily life, crew photos, etc. in the ICQ community, and of course, sometimes also publish advertisements.

   Relying on the celebrity effect, the ICQ community has also attracted countless young users, and now the users of the ICQ community are quite active.

   "The current advertising revenue of the ICQ community is not ideal. It mainly depends on the revenue of ICQ users' advertising. Advertising investors are still a little hesitant about this advertising model!"

The person in charge of the ICQ space community said that the current advertising model of ICQ is basically the model of penguin space plus meager. ICQ community space puts some advertisements by itself, and then stars and so on. The money earned from advertising in the ICQ community must be distributed to ICQ. .

  Space communities and forums can only implement soft advertisements. It is impossible to directly put advertisements on web pages like search and portal websites, and force them to the user's face, which will affect the experience too much.

  The revenue of the ICQ space community is actually increasing continuously. Now it has even reached the level of tens of millions every month. It can be spent more, so that ICQ can earn more thanks to it.

The NFT avatar business has also begun to stabilize now. Except for the NFT avatar auction at regular intervals, the rest is the opening of paid avatars, that is, users spend ten dollars a month and can use NFT for one or two months. The avatar is just like the various drills of the penguin.

Song Yang nodded, ICQ as a whole is not bad, the key is that there are no rivals, and before the tragic battle this year, except for Netscape's bad luck, the rest of the Internet companies have a good life. good.

  After reporting from other ICQ departments, Ken Williams and his wife also started reporting to Song Yang on behalf of Xue Leshan.

After being acquired by ICQ, after Snow Leshan was merged into ICQ, it can be said that people want money for money. I would rather ICQ headquarters be hungry, but not the game department of Snow Leshan, and I hope that Snow Leshan can support it. Half the Sky at ICQ.

   Ken Williams and Roberta, who have returned to Xue Leshan as presidents, are both excited and worried. A few years ago, if Xue Leshan had an owner like ICQ, how could they not be able to play.

The worry is that if Xue Leshan fails to meet the requirements of ICQ, then, I don't know what kind of shock it will cause. After all, the Williams couple has experienced a Wall Street-style face change. Today, Song Yang, Irene, etc. People, there is a lot of support for Xue Leshan. If there is no cubs and no eggs in the future, no one knows whether they will turn their faces or not.

   "The Xue Leshan online platform is under development. It is expected to be launched together before the end of this year when Blizzard releases "Diablo"!"

  Ken Williams said that the Snow Mountain online platform basically relies on "Diablo" to promote, allowing users to download Snow Mountain Online on the computer.

Looking at Song Yang, Ken Williams said, "Currently, Snow Mountain is acquiring some game copyrights, but Song, once the Snow Mountain platform goes online, it may affect the relationship with game console platforms such as Sony and Nintendo, and other game console platforms. Game retail channel dealers, I am afraid they will also have opinions!"

   Now a new game is released mainly through two channels, one is to sell it on game consoles such as Nintendo, and the other is to sell it on the store shelves of channel providers such as Game Station.

   And now, once Xue Leshan Online is online, it will be the third game sales channel. No stores or game consoles are required, as long as you log in Xue Leshan Online on your computer, you can download the game!

   This will definitely be a shock to the game industry. Whether it is a game console platform or a game retail store, I am afraid that they will not be so satisfied, and I am afraid that they will also have opinions about Xue Leshan.

   Ken Williams is to remind Song Yang that once Snow Mountain Online is launched, he is afraid that it will become the target of public criticism in the game industry.

   Song Yang had no expression on his face when he heard this, "Xue Leshan is online, it will definitely be online, this must not be changed."

   "The games under Xue Leshan can give game distributors more share, so that they can continue to sell Xue Leshan games!"

   This is to exchange the market with US knives. For those game retail channel providers, more part is divided, so that they can continue to sell games to Xue Leshan.

  This method is simple, rude and direct. The three major game platforms like Sony, Nintendo, and Sega will probably not tolerate the appearance of Snow Mountain Online, but other game retailers, for the sake of the knife, will not block Snow Mountain Online!

   "The first TGA Awards Ceremony has now been confirmed and will be officially held next year. At that time, the first batch of Global Game Hall of Fame members will also be announced at the TGA Awards Ceremony!"

Compared with other businesses such as Xue Leshan Online, Ken Williams and his wife have more thoughts on the TGA Awards Ceremony and the Game Hall of Fame. Since these two news came out, the game industry has entered the Hall of Fame in order to win awards and enter the Hall of Fame. And there were countless people who found the two of them.

  The Williams couple who have returned to Xue Leshan have truly experienced the feeling of returning to the power of the game industry. Even if the "masters" of the game industry in the past met them now, they were also somewhat polite!

"Blizzard will launch two games, Diablo and StarCraft this year and next. Valve is also developing "Half-Life", which is expected to be released within two years. Rockstar Studios is developing the "Grand Theft Auto" game, Id Games The "Quake 2" is expected to be launched next year!"

Now it’s not a few big game companies. When they were sharpening their swords for a few years, in order to prove themselves to the new owners, whether it was Blizzard, V, or R Star, they were all working hard to develop games, just for fear that the new owners would demolish them. .

  Xue Leshan basically divided the game R&D department into four major game studios, Blizzard, Valve, R Star and Id. They mainly started running and publishing games, and also held TGA, Game Hall of Fame, etc.

   Among them, Blizzard and Id Game Studio have both proven themselves, and they are also the most anticipated by ICQ and Xue Leshan, so I hope they can turn the tide and help ICQ expand its game business.

   The two studios of V Club and R Star are purely newcomers, mainly Song Yang is optimistic, but in comparison, Blizzard and Id Games are the ones that represent the facade of Xue Leshan now.

   Hearing the "StarCraft" game, Song Yang couldn't help thinking of the e-sports that became popular in ten years or so. StarCraft is the originator of e-sports.

   "After the launch of StarCraft, Xue Leshan Online can launch a game battle platform, allowing players to match each other, and even hold game events to attract users to participate with bonuses!"

Hearing the concept of "e-sports" proposed by Song Yang, the Williams couple, as well as the people from the game department who attended the meeting by phone, were all stunned. This is a prototype of the concept of e-sports, but for games For the industry, it is an unprecedented event.

  In the past, games were all single-player games, and only players faced the game, but Song Yang proposed a brand new concept. In a game, let two players face off? !

   The people from Blizzard, Rockstar, and V who attended this meeting couldn't help but start to liven up their minds, thinking of the feasibility of this matter. If it is feasible, it may be a sea-shaking change for the game industry.

Song Yang just mentioned to Ken Williams that it is basically impossible to make money by hosting e-sports now. In a few decades, it will be hard to say that money is made by that stuff. In fact, it is still to promote games for the sake of popularity .

But wait for a while, wait for more e-sports games, wait until Half-Life is developed, and the TGA game awards ceremony can be hyped into the Oscars of the game industry. , Red Alert, Half-Life, etc. became the first batch of e-sports games.

   "Currently, the game lab is developing a suitable game engine for Valve's "Half-Life", and I am also developing a general-purpose version of the game engine!"

  The voice of John Carmack came from the phone, he left the Id game and entered the game laboratory established by ICQ for it. John Carmack, the top technology giant in the game industry, seems to be living a good life.

Without the feud with Id Games, the current Snow Mountain Game Lab is basically John Carmack's final call. With a sufficient budget and no one to interfere with his experiments, John Carmack can figure it out. A lot of new technologies, especially the game engine, not only improved the game engine for Valve and Blizzard, but John Carmack also came up with more than a dozen new game technologies, which made the game run faster and better. quality improvement.

After listening to the reports from the crowd, Song Yang clapped his hands, expressing his approval for what ICQ, Xue Leshan, John Carmack and others have done, and then said, "Not only on the PC, but what ICQ and Xue Leshan need to do. More."

   "Alcatel Mobile is developing a new generation of mobile phones. I need ICQ and Xue Leshan to develop suitable products and games for Alcatel mobile phones!"

  Song Yang explained to Erin, Ken Williams, Wesley, John Carmack and others.

   (end of this chapter)