Top of the big era

Zhou Buqi is not a game fan, he doesn't play many games, and he doesn't know enough about the rich and diverse games. But a visit to P Club really made him feel the charm of the game.

It was so shocking.

In P Club, a staff member played "Hearts of Iron" for half an hour in front of him. This should be a prototype computer with extremely high configuration, so when playing the game, all the special effects were fully activated.

The image is really pleasing to the eye.

This is the game!

This is what real games should exist for!

Compared with this kind of game, the graphics of several games owned by Changyou, including the agent "World of Warcraft", are like mosaics and have no nutrition.

No wonder some families in Europe and the United States encourage their children to play games. This game is also different. A game with World War II as the background, such as "Hearts of Iron", is like watching a World War II-themed movie. It contains rich historical knowledge, and also includes many factors such as politics, economy, diplomacy, and culture.

Playing games like "Dragon" and "World of Warcraft" can only be played. It is a pure waste of time and money. Once you have played it, you have played it, and it has no nutritional value for the players.

However, playing games such as Hearts of Iron, Kingdom Rush, Crusader Kings, and Europa Universalis under the P agency is not just about playing games, it has very positive social and humanistic values. .

Zhou Buqi was very excited.

Ask about the price again... ha!

shocked!

!

P Agency has not yet been listed on the market, and the market valuation given by local financial institutions in Sweden is only US$75 million.

You know, this is a well-known European game company with huge influence in the industry. It has so many heavyweight games with good reputations, but they are only worth so little money in the market.

The Cyprus-based outfit7, which Changyou is currently in contact with, has only been established for two years. It has only launched two young children's games, "Talking Cat" and "Talking Cat 2". Changyou offered US$620 million, but the other party seems to be willing to accept the offer. Not very satisfied and want a higher quote!

It's so unfair!

Even Zhou Buqi feels that the capital market is too bullying, and there is no such thing!

Judging from the game alone, Outfit7 is not qualified to lick the feet of P Club. They are two completely different companies. P Club can be called one of the gods in the game industry, and Outfit7 is an ant.

However, capital markets only look at direction.

Although outfit7's games are far inferior to P's, they have stepped into the right niche and kept up with the era of mobile games. The "Talking Cat" series has nearly 200 million players worldwide!

Only by keeping up with the general trend can you wave your money in the capital market!

The number of players in outfit7 is a fraction more than that of P club.

No matter how good the game is, what's the use if no one plays it? No matter how bad the game is, as long as it has a wide audience and many players, it will be profitable and you can make a lot of money in the future!

This is like doing technology.

Many companies are unwilling to engage in technology research and development, and this is also the reason.

What’s the use of technology?

No matter how good the technology is, it will be thrown into the trash can if it cannot be promoted or recognized by users. Whoever can capture the minds of users and sell products to consumers is the most important thing in the market.

For most companies, not engaging in technology is the right choice.

However, if technology is developed, this is the brand, industry status, and the foundation behind the vitality of a company.

No matter what industry you are in, the general logic of business is the same.

Zhou Buqi has long since determined Ziweixing's route. To develop technology, it must build a strong foundation internally and support a strong brand externally.

For example, outfit7 was founded only two years ago. It had no foundation and was just a lightweight game. Then it became popular all over the world, with a valuation of more than 600 million US dollars.

However, once the trend changes, or "Talking Cat" does not work well, the company will close down and it will be finished. In the previous life, Outfit7 could not continue to operate and was divided up by Chinese-funded companies; including the Australian game studio behind "Fruit Ninja", it soon died after a few years.

This means that the foundation is insufficient and the vitality is too low.

It's different for game companies like Paradox. This kind of large-scale game that doesn't make much money is actually building a foundation and brand. It has strong vitality. It has survived for more than ten years in the past, and it will at least be able to survive in the future. Live for decades.

Games like "Talking Cat", "Fruit Ninja" and "Angry Birds" are all like a gust of wind. When the wind comes, it becomes popular, and when the wind goes away, it becomes silent. They take off by relying on the wind blowing from the great era. of.

P Club's games are different. They really rely on the hard power of the game itself. Don’t take advantage of the popularity or the limelight, just make high-quality games in a down-to-earth manner and let the games themselves speak for themselves.

This is like many companies that focus on technology research and development. It is a very stupid choice, but it is the most respected.

At this time, Zhou Buqi felt more and more that the advice Sun Wanran gave last night made sense.

Just like Ziweixing.

If Ziweixing wants to become a great company, it is not enough just to make money. It must lead the world in technology.

If you make more money, you will become business partners with others; if you become more skilled, you will be truly respected by others.

Changyou should not only focus on those games that can sell well and make a lot of money, but also focus on those large-scale stand-alone games that do not make much money but can truly realize the value of games.

After visiting P Club for more than an hour, Zhou Buqi made up his mind.

Sun Wanran's advice should be followed.

That’s how it should be done!

Today's Changyou lacks nothing but the foundation and powerful top-level games that can really be played.

After leaving P Agency, Zhou Buqi asked Mattrick what he thought of this company.

Don Mattrick shook his head, "It's very ambitious, but its strength is too weak."

Zhou Buqi followed him back to the hotel. In the car, he asked curiously: "How do you say it?"

Mattrick said: "From the structural design point of view, their games are very big, very big, and they cover the whole world. But to support such a large scale, you need a powerful game engine. Game engine … Just like the overall structure of Friends Network, if the structure is small, the upper limit is limited, and it is difficult to support too much data.”

"Is their technical level not up to par?"

Zhou Buqi knows that there is actually no technical content in making games. The only technical content is the game engine, which domestic game manufacturers are deliberately avoiding.

With domestic technology, it is of course possible to develop an excellent domestic game engine, but the investment is too high and is not necessary.

Just use someone else's, not only save money, but also don't have to bear development risks.

Another point is that domestic piracy is rampant, so that some very large 3A-level stand-alone games are not available in China at all, and even if they are developed, they cannot be sold.

As for the development of "small games" such as "Perfect World" and "Dragon", it is much simpler. You can just find a game engine from abroad to develop it.

Games like P's "European Universal Universal" and "Hearts of Iron" have such large architectures that there is no such game engine in the world. There is no other way, they can only develop it themselves.

At this level of the Swedish IT industry, it is obviously not enough.

Mattrick was very proud, "Yes, the technical level is not good, and the game engine is defective, resulting in too many bugs in their games. This is the most criticized point. It is also difficult for them to compete with the real top game manufacturers. reason."

"Well……"

Zhou Buqi was speechless.

Mattrick continued: "Their business model is too simple and crude. They adopt the DLC model."

Zhou Buqi did not hide his ignorance in the gaming field, "What is DLC?"

Mattrick said: "It's a paid download package. For games like "European Universalis", the larger the data size, the more fun it is, but the global forces have too much data. So every once in a while, they will launch a data package, The price may be US$5.99, US$9.99, or US$19.99, and players need to pay for it.”

Zhou Buqi frowned, "This service is really bad!"

Product upgrades actually cost money.

In order to make money, you will do whatever it takes.

Mattrick said: "There's no way, their products don't sell much. For a flagship game like "European Universal", it's hard to sell more than 1 million units of a single version, which is tens of millions of dollars in sales. Sweden The wages and tax rates here are extremely high. If the company wants to have more income to survive, it can only make money from players in different ways."

"What a mistake."

Zhou Buqi shook his head, feeling very disappointed.

This mode is really too low.

It’s simply fishing for the best!

Sales volume was already poor, less than 1 million. Then, in order to make money, game companies have to continuously harvest the wool from these 1 million players, constantly launch new data packages for them to pay to download, and cut the leeks over and over again.

Players are not fools, can they feel comfortable?

Mattrick said with a smile: "Fortunately, the quality of their games is really good, even great, and the game design is also exquisite. They should be the best company in the global historical strategy games, with a A large number of loyal players. These players know that the game is niche and the company is in difficulty. In order to prevent the company from going bankrupt, they are willing to continue to pay for them. Even many mods are made for them by players for free."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "I'm very emotional. Yes, as long as it is a truly top-level game and a game developed with care, there will be a large number of touching players who are motivated by love."

He owns Manchester United, so he has paid attention to a football game called "FM Football Manager".

The player database inside covers the whole world.

However, the developer of this game is only a small company. How can they have so much manpower, material and financial resources to collect so much player information from all over the world?

Many are even teenagers who even professional scouts don’t know about.

Answer: Because of loyal players.

Players all over the world who love this game have spontaneously set up organizations to provide them with data for free. Anyone who discovers a football talent in the local area quickly reports it and enters it into the game's player database.

This allows them to have the largest scouting system covering the world, far exceeding the World Football Federation and UEFA.

This is the god-level game in the football field.

It can be said that games and players complement each other.

The game treats players with sincerity, and players will treat the game with sincerity.

Zhou Buqi fell in love with P Club, but he didn't approve of the way they treated players.