Top of the big era

Integrating the game divisions of Changyou and Ziweixing International is a big plan.

Zhou Buqi is ambitious.

Don Mattrick is also excited because the new company after the merger will surpass EA and become the world's largest game software company.

Being the head of such a large company is definitely an opportunity to show off your skills!

Should not be missed!

However, Don Mattrick is a very good manager with a very impressive past record.

For example, EA's most popular game "FIFA Football" was improved by him when he was working at EA, and it became a game comparable to "Pro Evolution Soccer"; another example is Microsoft's Xbox game business, which was also replaced by Sony's PS2 He was so beaten that he changed the status quo of the industry when he was working at Microsoft.

He is very familiar with the gaming industry.

So I immediately put forward a rather sharp point of view, "What about my friend's studio?"

Friends Studio is a studio under the Game Division. It mainly develops some lightweight social games for the Facebook open platform. In the past year, its revenue reached US$180 million.

At first glance, it looks good, but in fact, the performance has shrunk seriously.

At the beginning, Friend Studio's expectations were no worse than Zynga's. In the past year, the two sides have widened a huge gap.

Mainly because of Zhou Buqi's strategic choice to focus the game on the mobile side, friend studios were not taken seriously and lacked motivation.

But now the question arises. If the game division is merged into Changyou, what will happen to this friend's studio?

Social games are developed based on social interaction. The reason why it is called Friends Studio is because it comes from "Friends Network". All games in this studio are adapted from social games on domestic Friends Network.

Zhou Buqi gave a clear and concise plan, "Incorporate into Changyou together!"

"this……"

Don Mattrick was a little unsure.

Zhou Buqi said: "It doesn't matter, just develop in the general direction."

Don Mattrick said: "No, no, Zhou, these may...maybe two completely different game concepts. During the time when I was in charge of the game division, I felt more and more that my concepts were incompatible. Affect the overall business development of the company."

"Um?"

Zhou Buqi raised his eyebrows.

Don Mattrick said: "The product logic of social games is low R\u0026D investment, short profit cycle, highly social, and completely lightweight. It is not the same concept as other normal game products."

Zhou Buqi has a deep understanding of this, because the most popular social game "Grab a Parking Space" in the early days of Friends.com is no longer played in China. He said: "Social games are about fast in and fast out. A gust of wind comes, and a game becomes popular. , a gust of wind comes and another game takes its place.”

Don Mattrick said: "Yes, the traditional game concept still needs to pursue some long-term value. Even the casual games of Baokai are classic games that can withstand the test of time, such as "Jewel Puzzle". A game that lasts forever.”

"Gem Puzzle" is actually a gem elimination game, suitable for players of any age.

Zhou Buqi said: "Changyou is a real game company, not a social game company."

Don Mattrick frowned slightly and said slowly: "The current game industry is not in a good situation. There is even a voice in the market that looks down on the traditional game concept and advocates working with Zynga and Friends. The concept of social games like Room, with its low R\u0026D investment, short return cycle and strong earning power, seems to be a new trend in future games."

After a pause, he continued: "Zhou, do you know that after Changyou went public, the stock price fell into a downturn in less than half a month?"

"Oh?" Zhou Buqi was so busy that he really didn't pay much attention to it. "What's your opinion?"

Don Mattrick said: "This is actually the impact of the general environment. Not only Changyou, but also the stock prices of game giants such as EA and Blizzard have continued to fall during this period. This is because the capital market's perception of the game industry has seriously changed. Disagreement.”

Zhou Buqi tentatively said: "What is the difference between the lightweight fast-in and fast-out style brought about by social games and the traditional game product development and pursuit of long-term value?"

"That's right!"

"What's this called?!"

Zhou Buqi couldn't laugh or cry.

The trend of social games was driven by him through the friends network, passed to Facebook, and then it became out of control in the global market.

Relying on the powerful appeal of Facebook, social games are really profitable!

Not only does it have strong earning power, but it also has a large user base!

Even for a super gaming giant like EA, how many players can it have in the world?

10 million players would be great!

But Zynga, which focuses on social games, has an astonishing number of players, reaching 220 million!

The fraction is more than the total amount of EA!

If the gaming industry wants to make money, in the final analysis it still makes money from players.

The more users, the greater the base for making money!

It means more potential in the future!

Lu Qi savored the logic here and couldn't help but said: "This is the Internet's way of playing. It is an attack by the Internet model on the traditional model."

Zhou Buqi thought deeply, "It's true!"

Social games play like the Internet, wildly expanding users through free methods, attracting hundreds of millions of players, and then earning advertising fees through these players.

The past game concepts of selling genuine games, selling game props, selling point cards... seem to be the same as many traditional industries that have been defeated by the Internet industry.

Under the vigorous wave of the Internet, relatively traditional game companies will inevitably be looked down upon by the capital market.

Don Mattrick went on to say: "There is a second reason for the decline in Changyou's stock price, which has caused the stock prices of all game companies in the world to decline and is considered to be an industry disruptor."

"Who?"

"Zynga."

"What?"

Zhou Buqi was speechless.

Don Mattrick said: "That's right, because recently Zynga just released the news that they will be listed on Nasdaq in July, which has been extremely favored by the market. Companies like EA and Blizzard are game companies. Zynga is a traditional company among game companies; Zynga is an Internet company among game companies and is widely favored by the capital market."

Only then did Zhou Buqi understand why Changyou's stock price broke and why it was under such great pressure.

It turns out that the capital market has different perceptions of the game industry!

What grows, this disappears.

This time I misunderstood Lao Zhang.

It’s really not his fault for picking up female celebrities!

This situation is miserable, female celebrities can no longer play, and the stock price cannot be saved.

Lu Qi also didn’t know much about the current situation of the game industry. “How about Zynga? Is the listing prospect very good?”

Don Mattrick said: “At the end of last year, Zynga completed its last round of financing before going public, with a number of funds representing Internet trends such as Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, Google, DST, and Tiger Fund. Enter the market. The financing scale has reached US$250 million, and the valuation has reached US$10 billion.”

Zhou Buqi suddenly realized: "No wonder it is so favored by the capital market."

Don Mattrick said: "Yes, Zynga is now the most watched game company in the United States. All big capital and big institutions are waiting for this IPO. It is said that Zynga's IPO financing scale may reach 2 billion US dollars, the market value will exceed US$20 billion."

"So high?" Lu Qi frowned slightly, "It's almost the same as Changyou's IPO!"

Don Mattrick coughed his throat and looked at Zhou Buqi, "It should...it should be more popular than Changyou. There are still more than three months until July. They want to be in such a short period of time." It took such a long time to complete such a large-scale IPO, which shows that the capital market is very welcoming, and there is no need for an overly complicated road show before."

Zhou Buqi twitched the corner of his mouth.

How embarrassing!

When Changyou was launched half a month ago, it was quite popular.

The actual situation was that there was an issue of shares that could not be found by a financial institution to take over. They either redesigned the issuance plan or lowered the issue price... Zhou Buqi didn't want to make things so complicated, so he spent US$810 million from his own pocket to buy it. The remaining stock made Changyou's IPO very smooth.

It's really incomparable to Zynga.

However, Zhou Buqi was not convinced!

Zynga?

I have never heard of such a shabby company in my previous life.

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "What's going well or not? This is just another capital game in the capital market. How big a company is Zynga? It has produced a few social games and can do whatever it wants? Is it better than Changyou?" Don’t believe this!”

"Huh?" Don Mattrick blinked and saw what the big boss meant, "Zhou, are you not optimistic about this Internet-thinking game concept?"

"Not optimistic!"

Zhou Buqi responded decisively without hesitation.

Don Mattrick's expression became complicated, "You seem to have started the trend of social games."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "It is precisely because I was the one who brought it up that I know this method will not work at all. The essence of social games is social interaction, not games."

Don Mattrick was silent.

When he was willing to switch from Microsoft to Ziweixing International, he actually felt that Microsoft's game model was too traditional and too conservative, and he felt that there was no big future.

He wants to make new explorations in the direction of social games.

After all, Ziweixing is the leader in social gaming trends.

Unexpectedly, the leader backed down first.

Zhou Buqi said: "The core of social games is social interaction, which is a platform logic. The essence of the game is a game, which is a content product. If you master the platform or master the content, you can have core competitiveness. Zynga will definitely fail. , making social games... They neither control the platform, which belongs to Facebook, nor do they have real content. Social games lack rich content. If they don’t rely on both sides, there will be no real core competitiveness.”

Lu Qi said with a smile: "You have revealed the truth about the entire game industry in one sentence. The current capital market obviously has a completely wrong understanding of the game industry."

Zhou Buqi looked at Don Mattrick and said with a smile: "So I tell you, we must focus on the mobile terminal and make games based on smartphones. This is the next era. As for Friend Studio The ideological differences that arise will be suppressed directly!"