A real cheat was blocked, and the game industry was rectified with a backhand

The little tricks used by the British country are progressing very smoothly.

On the other hand, the Switch is selling like hot cakes as expected, and Naughty Cat is still making big moves, recruiting and investing non-stop.

There is no sign at all that it has been jointly targeted by several major industry giants.

At the same time, life is going on in China, at the Souni headquarters.

Ito Makoto's face was as gloomy as water, and his five fingers tapped irregularly on the table, carefully thinking about the layout of the past year.

"Hey, I thought I had thought highly of Lin Mo, but I didn't expect that I still underestimated him."

He sighed with regret.

The gaming business has not been going well recently.

It's quite unlucky!

Neither the sales of game consoles nor the sales of games are optimistic.

The game "Dead End 6" was not expected to be a huge success, nor was it expected to surpass "Breath of the Wild".

If Tudou Factory's games could easily beat Switch's flagship games, Naughty Cat would not have become the behemoth it is today.

But it was still a little unexpected that he died so suddenly.

Even the original mission - to cause some trouble to the naughty cat.

This strategic task has not been completed.

The dominance of Switch will probably continue for a long time, as can be seen from the official data.

According to this trend, the sales growth rate of Switch will only slow down after the sales volume exceeds 1500 million units.

Although, the combined sales of XGame and PlaySquare consoles totaled 1.15 million units, far ahead of the competition.

But if this continues, the situation of dividing the world into two parts will definitely not be able to be maintained.

He couldn't accept having one more person to share the cake.

"It seems that this game still cannot rely on outsiders. However, Lin Mo, don't think that this cake is so delicious!"

Ito Makoto snorted coldly.

Switch is not without its shortcomings!

Today's rapid development and explosive sales are largely due to the popularity of the fitness ring and the hot sales of the first-party game "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild".

Apart from these two first-party games, third-party games actually sell far less well on Switch than Soni and Gigantic.

This is largely due to insufficient installed capacity.

People who buy consoles now basically do so to play Naughty Cat's first-party games.

As long as the exclusive games of Switch can be curbed, the sales growth of Switch can be slowed down.

As long as it can hold out until the new generation of consoles comes to the market, it will still be the number one in the game console market.

As for the giant hard company, it seems that it is no longer a rival.

Game consoles have a limited lifespan.

In this generation, it is almost certain that Soni will win.

It has long been rumored that Giant Game Company is considering transforming its gaming business.

Looking at the news that just came out, it is true.

The acquisition of Baofeng Entertainment was a move that most people did not expect.

The biggest feature of Baofeng Entertainment is that it has a complete and mature community ecosystem.

Player stickiness is very high!

It can be said that it is second only to Naughty Cat.

Encountered "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare", which is considered a monstrous work by people in the industry.

The latest game of "Warzone" can still reach tens of millions of copies.

And before that, Warzone was the king of this field.

Buy a copy of Warzone every year and play it for a year.

This has almost become a habit for many European and American players.

It has to fight against the giants who are trying to overtake by taking a different approach, and the naughty cats who are trying to make a breakthrough with their solid first-party games.

It would be difficult to rely on third-party games.

"It seems that we have to rely on our own games after all."

"Don't think that only your first-party games are of great quality, but don't forget how our Soni game consoles have achieved their current status!"

He took a deep breath and signed his name on the application to increase the marketing budget for the new work.

The original intention of this game was to invite Naughty Cat to join in the production.

But unfortunately, not only did the subsequent cooperation fail to be achieved, but the naughty cat was also offended, and the two sides became enemies fighting bloody battles.

Since it is a game, it is made to be sold and played by players.

As for its strategic significance to the company, it depends on the current environment.

Since the Switch has come, use it to deal with Lin Mo!

A week passed in peace.

Early May.

As the release date of "Road to Heaven 4" draws closer, everyone at Baofeng Entertainment is busy.

Not long ago, Baofeng Entertainment and Juying Company jointly issued a statement on the acquisition.

As the saying goes, an ugly daughter-in-law has to meet her parents-in-law, although the current situation of Baofeng Entertainment is not as good as before.

Finally, it has come to this.

This acquisition of the century, which left all peers speechless and players astonished, has finally been revealed to the world.

Originally, Moreno was a little worried. Storm Entertainment had suffered repeated setbacks in the past year, and this news would not be so favorable to the company.

Unexpectedly, the stock price rose sharply after the news was announced.

This made him sigh in relief.

It seems that although the project has suffered setbacks, the acquisition is still favored in the capital market.

There's just one more problem.

In order for the deal to be successfully concluded, there is one more decisive factor.

The bet must be fulfilled!

In other words, Baofeng Entertainment’s revenue must meet the minimum revenue line required in the gambling agreement.

Thinking of this, Moreno's face became gloomy again.

Originally, he wanted to make some money through the contract renewal negotiations for the Chinese version of "Cosmic Rift", and asked the agent to pay the fees in advance to fill the holes caused by various reasons.

But unexpectedly, the renewal not only failed, but also failed.

This made West, the head of the giant game business, furious.

The angry questioning seemed to tear Moreno apart.

In the Chinese market, Juying's development has not been very good before due to direction problems.

But just because it wasn’t so good in the past doesn’t mean that we don’t take it seriously.

One of the reasons why Tencent is determined to acquire Baofeng Entertainment is that Baofeng Entertainment has a very sticky and large fan base in the Chinese market.

Now, before the acquisition even happened, Baofeng Entertainment has already cut off one of its own arms.

How can Party A’s father be happy?

Now, in addition to "Cosmic Rift", an evergreen game that has been around for more than ten years, this hole will be filled by the upcoming "Road to Heaven 4".

Thinking of this, Moreno felt so angry that his teeth were itching.

"Lin Mo, it's all your fault!!! I want to see if you are still feeling proud now!"

In this generation's console war, although the difference is not particularly large, Sony is undoubtedly the winner.

In the console market, there is Souni.

The giant company has also announced plans to launch a subscription-based plan and is eyeing cross-platform expansion.

There are other old rivals, such as Electronic Arts.

Surrounded by wolves.

There is only one Lin Mo, I want to see how you can turn the tables.

but.

What we need to do now is to conduct anti-monopoly review.

Don't worry about your daily life.

In China, everything is handled impartially.

Now that the service suspension has become a fact, from another perspective it will be helpful to pass the anti-monopoly review of the Market Supervision Administration.

As of now, Storm Entertainment has no games available in China, so the censorship will not be as difficult to pass as in many countries.

As for other countries and regions, they have to rely on the power of Juying Company on the one hand, and on Baofeng Entertainment on the other.

There must be no problems at this critical juncture!

Being rejected once or failing a review means a lot of time is wasted.

I thought about it over and over again.

We have also taken care of many peers, the antitrust agencies in the UK, the beacon country and the EU.

As for Souni, he was determined to trip me up, so I just ignored him.

"Logically speaking, there shouldn't be any problems, right?"

After thinking about it for a while, I started working.

After one hour.

Moreno was in his office looking at a report.

In front of me is the latest report on "Road to Heaven 4".

Due to the previous holes, "Road to Heaven 4" has done some new things.

The first is the price.

The regular version is $70.

The deluxe version costs $90, which unlocks the game one week in advance, and also comes with some in-game decorative props and the first season pass.

The ultimate edition costs $100 and, in addition to the above rewards, also comes with a rare skin mount and a 20-level pass.

The physical collector's edition is also $100.

There is a cloth map, an art book, a mouse pad, a pin, two art candles with bases, two paintings, and a beautiful packaging box.

Looks pretty good, right?

Well, there is no game.

Yes, it’s just the peripherals, there’s not even an activation code.

You need to spend at least $70 to buy a regular version of the game.

If you want to play a week early, you have to buy the $90 deluxe edition.

Doing this will definitely increase your income, and not just a little bit.

The side effect is overdrawing reputation.

Therefore, this report is about the public opinion among the player community from the start of the pre-sale until now.

After reading it, Moreno breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's OK, it's OK. Although there is some backlash on the reputation, it's acceptable and generally not a big problem."

If things continue like this, the revenue shortfall can be made up a lot.

The project manager was about to report some other issues when his cell phone rang first.

Naturally, I couldn't answer the phone in the boss's office, so I hung up without hesitation.

However, just a few seconds after hanging up, the phone rang again.

Looking at the embarrassed person in charge, Moreno nodded lightly, indicating that you can take it, it doesn't matter.

"Hello? Do you know where I am? Damn it, stop calling. What? Wait, say that again?"

By the last sentence, his voice had risen noticeably.

Moreno felt something was wrong.

After hanging up the phone, he quickly asked, "What's going on? What's the problem?"

The project manager of "Road to Heaven 4" looked as if he had seen a ghost, and said, "Boss, something bad has happened. I just received a notice that I need to appear and accept the antitrust investigation questioning of the British Competition and Markets Administration."

There was silence in the office for two seconds.

"Ah??!! Say it again??"

Moreno's eyes were shocked and he stood up directly with an incredible look.

Antitrust review?

The production team of "Road to Heaven 4"?

Why? How?

"What's going on? Why is there a sudden antitrust investigation into this project?"

The person in charge didn't look too good either, and said sullenly, "It's said that the CMA in the UK received a complaint that the acquisition of Baofeng Entertainment by Juying Company would form a de facto monopoly in the field of top-down action RPG, which would damage the interests of game producers in their country and also affect the rights of consumers."

Hearing this, Moreno felt it was both funny and ridiculous.

Top-down perspective, action, RPG.

Is it appropriate for you to add so many adjectives?

As we all know, anyone can be the best in the world if he adds more adjectives.

Isn't this just a false accusation?

“Who is complaining?”

"It's a British game company called Northern Star."

Moreno was even more confused when he heard this.

Because he has no idea about this company!

No one knows how many game companies there are in the world.

Even the most experienced practitioners cannot fully understand all their peers.

It took a little bit of Google before some information came to the table.

"A weird little workshop??!! Why did it alarm the CMA??"

The project manager said weakly, "Because many of this company's games have not been exported, but they are childhood memories of many people in the UK, and they only make this type of game. In addition, his complaints on Tiktok resonated with many people."

Moreno really wanted to curse that damn Northern Star was a scam company.

Even without this acquisition of the century, this small company would not have been able to survive for a few more years and would have disappeared in the fierce competition without leaving its name.

Moreover, most of these small companies are fan-oriented.

Logically speaking, even if Baofeng Entertainment is acquired, it will hardly have any impact on it.

He smelled a conspiracy when someone jumped out to cause trouble like this.

But who is the other party?

I searched for related news, but there was nothing noteworthy, and there were not even many news items.

I expected someone to cause trouble, but I never expected them to come so early.

I originally thought that the competitors who did not want to see this acquisition happen would focus on the big annual IP "Warzone".

We have been prepared for this.

But the hidden attack against "Road to Heaven 4" was completely unexpected.

Also. Caught off guard.

"Boss, what should we do?"

This question completely stumped Moreno.

How to do?

Nothing works.

If we ignore the release, it would be tantamount to giving up on the huge gaming market in Britain.

If you do not accept the CMA's investigation, it means you have acknowledged the fact of monopoly. If you are even more unlucky and similar games are released at the same time, it will be a bloody fact presented to other antitrust agencies.

What if you accept an investigation?

How long will this delay be?

Now there is less than half a month left before the game is released, so it will have to be delayed.

After such a long period of promotion, if there is any delay, a huge amount of promotion costs will be wasted.

Moreover, delays may lead to changes. Who knows what new unexpected things may arise after the delay.

Time waits for no one in a bet agreement.

The efficiency of the British side is really touching. What if the investigation takes a year or two?

By the time the deadline of the bet agreement expires, it will be too late!

"Damn it, who is it? Don't let me know! Damn it, what a sneak attack!"

"So, then, Boss, what about our game?"

The project manager was met with Moreno's murderous gaze.

But he knew that even if he got scolded, he had to ask the boss for advice.

The scheduled release date is not far away.

A decision must be made quickly.

As a small person in charge, he cannot bear this responsibility.