Top of the big era

Compared with application software, the game software industry is actually simpler.

The main reason is that the monopoly is not strong.

For example, Microsoft Office almost monopolized the global business office market after its development. But games can’t do that. No matter how fun a game is, it’s impossible for everyone to like it.

Games are a creative industry, just like movies, TV series, and music. No matter how good a movie is, it is impossible to completely dominate the box office.

This is also the reason why Zhou Buqi is relatively indifferent to the game industry.

No rush at all.

However, now is the period of change from PC Internet to mobile Internet, and it is also the dividend period for the emerging smartphones. It is indeed necessary to enter the market!

Nowadays, there are various smart phone systems on the market, and there are as many as seven or eight mainstream systems.

With so many types of systems, it is very painful for developers.

When making an app, which system should it be designed for? Symbian or BlackBerry? Is it Android or Microsoft?

Many small companies or independent developers can only develop versions for one or two systems due to limited capabilities. Therefore, in order to encourage developers to develop apps for their own systems, major system manufacturers will introduce a series of developer reward mechanisms.

The one that benefits the most is the English version of Helo on Android.

In order to promote this product to sweep the smartphone market in a short period of time, Ziweixing spent a lot of money on advertising in the Google Store, and it has a strong tendency to dominate the rankings.

It stands to reason that Ziweixing should pay a large amount of advertising fees for Google, right?

In fact, Ziweixing only paid 30% of the advertising fees.

Because Helo has a large number of downloads and is well received by the market, it then received a large bonus subsidy from the Google Store, which is equivalent to advertising while accepting developer rewards from Google.

In the past five months, Ziweixing has only paid US$300,000 in advertising fees.

Therefore, from simple short-term benefit considerations, now is also the best time to enter casual games on smartphones!

In a few years, various mobile phone operating systems will be dead, leaving only iOS and Android to equally share the market, forming a monopoly. At that time, developers will have no choice and bonus subsidies will disappear. Without power, there are no rights.

Zhou Buqi will personally take care of this matter.

take off.

Direct flight to Seattle!

Pokai, the game development company of "Plants vs. Zombies", is headquartered in Seattle.

Ning Lu and Xue Baoshan sat together and looked up information on their laptops on the plane, both with serious expressions on their faces.

Suddenly, Ning Lu found some very important information. She said "Yeah", got up and ran from the bedroom, intending to inform the big boss of the important information.

There are three bedrooms on the aircraft, namely the master bedroom, the second bedroom and the guest bedroom.

Ning Lu ran all the way to the door of the master bedroom. Just as she was about to push the door open, she heard some strange noises. She stopped as soon as she stepped forward. She put her ear to the door and listened for a while before snorting angrily.

"Vixen!"

Ning Lu clenched her teeth, feeling that those two little stars were really disgusting, typical foxy people. It's okay to go to bed or something, and it's normal to make some embarrassing noises.

But these two little stars went too far. They kept calling daddy and cheering in cooperation.

Good men have been taught bad things by little fairies!

"well."

Ning Lu sighed softly, feeling a lot of pressure.

In the future, if I want to please myself, the difficulty will have to escalate step by step.

She didn't dare to break in and disturb her, so she could only return to the office area angrily and sit opposite Baoshan.

Xue Baoshan raised her head, a little strange, "What's wrong with you? Are you in a bad mood?"

"Ah? No, I made an important discovery, but...but the boss is taking a break." As a secretary, Ning Lu has a very good professional ethics.

Xue Baoshan pursed her lips, "What did you find?"

Ning Lu's beautiful eyes were shining and she was very excited, "Baokai!"

This made her very proud.

The game "Plants vs. Zombies" was discovered by her and recommended to her boss. Then the boss got really interested and wanted to go to Seattle to acquire Baokai Game Company!

Somewhat smug.

"What's wrong with Baokai?"

"Baokai has many casual games. There is a very popular game called "Glutty Fish" on my friend's website. It was originally copied from Baokai. They developed "Glutty Fish" in 2002. Also There's "Jewel Puzzle", which is a game like Xiaoxiaole. Oh, and there's "Ningbo Mahjong" too!"

Ning Lu was afraid that Baoshan wouldn't understand, so she said in a very showy way: "But don't get me wrong, Baokai has no business in China. The "Ningbo Mahjong" they developed is also for Americans, um... maybe Chinese."

Xue Baoshan couldn't help laughing.

Ning Lu looked strange, "Why are you laughing?"

Xue Baoshan pursed her lips and said: "Baokai not only has "Gem Puzzle" and "Ningbo Mahjong", but also "Mao Maoqiu", "Zuma" and "Fruit Pie". The fruit cutting that Jiang Bingjie played on her mobile phone just now belongs to them. ."

"Ah?" Ning Lu was stunned, "Really?"

Xue Baoshan glanced at him jokingly, "Your boss has been paying attention to Baokai for more than a year."

"How can it be?"

Ning Lu was very unwilling.

Baokai Game Company was obviously recommended to the boss by himself!

How could the boss have been paying attention to it for more than a year?

Xue Baoshan asked: "Ziweixing International also has a game studio, did you know?"

"Really?" Ning Lu looked embarrassed, "I don't know much about the business in the United States. My work is mainly in China."

Xue Baoshan suggested: "You should pay more attention to it. Your English is so good and you are not like Sun Wanran and Feng Muer. If possible, you should read more documents."

"oh."

"At the beginning of last year, the game studio in Silicon Valley was established. At that time, there was no US branch of MSI. It was mainly about cooperation between Friends.com and Facebook on social games on open platforms. At that time, their ideas were poached from EA Director Bing Gordon becomes studio president."

"It's an open platform!" Ning Lu understood this more or less, "I think I heard my boss say that the social games on Facebook's open platform have made us a lot of money, with annual revenue exceeding US$100 million. "

Xue Baoshan nodded lightly, "Yes, mainly from farm games and parking games. Ziweixing's Friend Game Studio is the second-ranked casual game manufacturer on the Facebook open platform. Do you know who is number one?"

Ning Lu understood her extended meaning, covered her mouth and whispered, "It can't be Baokai, right?"

Xue Baoshan pursed her lips, "Zynga is first, and Baokai is third."

"That's it..."

Ning Lu was very disappointed, very disappointed.

She thought that the big boss wanted to acquire Baokai in Seattle, so he accepted her suggestion and was impressed by "Plants vs. Zombies"!

Unexpectedly, people had already thought about it and were just following the trend.

In the field of casual social networking, Zynga Studio is the first, Friends Studio is the second, and Baokai is the third. In order to compete with No. 1, Ziweixing acquired Baokai and then merged with a friend's studio. Wouldn't it surpass Zynga and become No. 1 in the industry?

This is the most common means of capital operation.

Xue Baoshan is kind-hearted, and of course she will not deliberately expose the mystery to hurt others. She said sweetly: "Don't pout, don't you think your boss loves you very much?"

"ah?"

Ning Lu was a little confused.

Xue Baoshan said softly: "He has clearly been eyeing Baokai for a long time, but he told you that he acquired Baokai because of the game "Plants vs. Zombies". Isn't this just to make you happy? Doesn't this mean that he Does it hurt you a lot?"

"That's right..." Ning Lu's face turned red and she felt dizzy. She closed her laptop and lay on the table, looking at her with beautiful eyes. "Baoshan, you are so kind, gentle and warm." , no wonder the boss likes you so much."

Xue Baoshan smiled and said, "You too."

Ning Lu shook her head gently, "I can't compare to you, everyone likes you."

"You are full of poetry and calligraphy. You are different from those two little stars. They are Israeli waiters, and there may be a new group of people in a few years. What about you? If you don't look down on them, you have to keep working hard. ah."

"Well, I understand. Sister Baoshan, thank you."

This time, Ning Lu's mood suddenly became clear.

Yes, no matter how coquettish and flirtatious those little stars are calling them daddy, they are just the lowest level of sexual pleasure. In a few years, what will they have left?

Just like Bao Shan, there is no need to look down.

…

Zhou Buqi went to Seattle, and there were already three big-nosed foreigners waiting at the airport.

This was a headhunter from Heidrick \u0026 Struggles whom he had been working with for a long time.

The communication was smooth.

The person has been found!

This time when I came to Seattle, in addition to acquiring Baokai, I also wanted to meet someone - Don Mattrick, President of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Division.

Microsoft's interactive entertainment division is the Microsoft Game Division.

Zhou Buqi wants to recruit him to serve as the vice president of Ziweixing International and concurrently as the co-president of the game business group, in charge of the expansion of the game market in Europe and the United States.

The headhunter swore firmly and gave three reasons, saying that this recruitment would definitely be successful.

First, Don Mattrick is only the president of the Interactive Entertainment Division, but does not concurrently serve as the vice president of Microsoft. This shows that he is not taken seriously internally.

The main reason is that Microsoft's home game console Xbox has been unable to gain an advantage when competing with Sony and Nintendo.

Second, differences in strategic direction.

Microsoft's game focus is mainly on home game consoles and computer games, but Don Mattrick believes that it should focus on the mobile Internet to welcome the new era.

This idea was considered by Microsoft CEO Ballmer to evade responsibility. He felt that the Xbox could not compete with Sony and Nintendo, and he wanted to find a reason to develop new areas.

Like a deserter.

Third, Microsoft is in decline!

When the subprime mortgage crisis broke out in full force last year, technology companies were wailing and their stock prices took a sharp hit. However, after more than half a year has passed, the stock prices of many technology companies have rebounded significantly.

Only traditional companies continue to slump.

Microsoft's stock price has nothing to do with technology. It continues to slump just like traditional companies, with no signs of rebounding.

All sectors of society have unanimously criticized Microsoft, believing that the company has lost its creativity and can only live by selling bundled software with Windows systems.

Under this circumstance, people with lofty ideals within Microsoft are fleeing in large numbers, and a number of senior executives above the vice president level, including Kevin Johnson, Paul Maritz, and Jeff Sundquist, have all resigned.

Even Nokia jumped out and wanted to poach Microsoft Senior Vice President and President of Commercial Division Steven Elop to serve as Nokia's CEO and lead Nokia into the smartphone era.

Ziweixing is a prosperous Internet company. If you go to Microsoft to poach Don Mattrick, there is a high probability that you can succeed!