Top of the big era

That night, Zhou Buqi didn't go anywhere. He didn't go for a bubble bath or a human body feast. He was really disgusted by this old thing. He is a man of seventy or eighty years old and looks well-dressed. When talking about a little girl of thirteen or fourteen years old, he looks so happy that people want to rush up and beat him.

He didn't even have much communication with another more serious old man, Kenzo Tsujimoto, the boss of Capcom.

Fortunately, when I met Ren Yuxin the next morning, he said something festive, "That Tsujimoto Kenzo, his intention to cooperate is very clear."

"Oh? He said that?" Zhou Buqi was a little surprised, "He doesn't like mobile games."

Ren Yuxin said with a smile: "Changyou doesn't only have mobile games, "Dragon Babu" and "DOTA2" are all computer games. Moreover, he is actually interested in Changyou's channels."

"Channel? Domestic channel?"

Zhou Buqi heard what Tsujimoto Kenzo said yesterday.

Capcom's ace game "Monster Hunter" has launched an online game version for PC, and is currently available in South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.

very popular.

However, it has been unable to enter the domestic market.

This is related to the general situation.

In the past few years, China and Japan were in the honeymoon stage... In other words, during the 2008 Olympic Games, it was the peak period in the country. It was a time when literally thousands of countries came to North Korea and they got along very well with all countries.

However, that’s not possible now.

Last year, Japan caused trouble on the Diaoyu Islands, and relations between the two countries quickly cooled down. It is very difficult for Japanese online games to enter the domestic market.

If Zhou Buqi wants to promote this matter, he can still do it, but he is really not interested.

Because "Monster Hunter" is the ace IP in the field of handheld games, but China has lagged behind in the past few decades and has never experienced the era of handheld game consoles, so it lacks awareness of the game "Monster Hunter".

Even if this game is represented in China, it will be difficult to have a large market.

Ren Yuxin said with a smile: "It's not domestic, it's European and American channels, mainly Europe. That's right. In 2009, Capcom launched "Resident Evil 5", and it sold out immediately, making it the first game in Capcom's history. The highest-selling item has reached 7 platinum levels.”

"What is 7 Platinum?"

"The way they calculate it, 1 million sales means a platinum work. 7 platinums means 7 million sales."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Oh, it's similar to the record statistics rules in Hong Kong and Taiwan."

Ren Yuxin said with a smile: "Yes, the surge in sales of "Resident Evil 5" mainly comes from one thing..."

Zhou Buqi sat in the car and went to Konami with him to talk about "Pro Evolution Soccer". When he heard this, he immediately thought of the result, "Computer version."

Ren Yuxin said: "Yes, it is the computer version. The first few versions of "Resident Evil" only had Sony's PS and PS2 versions, which could only be played on TV. Starting from "Resident Evil 5", Capcom has launched In addition to the PS3 version, two versions have been added, one is Microsoft's Xbox version, and the other is the PC version of Windows system. The reason for making such a change, I think, is due to two reasons. First, Sony's focus on home games The second is that the gaming industry has been in recession in the past few years, and Capcom really couldn’t sustain it anymore, so it had to launch a computer version.”

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "Then Tsujimoto Kenzo finally realized belatedly that the sales of the PC version of "Resident Evil" were so good that the entire company would start to transform into computer games."

Ren Yuxin smiled and said: "Yes, the sales of "Resident Evil 5" were so good, it was 7 platinum. It's not just that, because "Resident Evil 5" sold so well in 2009, and "Resident Evil 5" was launched the next year. "Crisis 5 Gold Edition" continued to sell money, and more than 2.3 million units were sold. Combined, the total sales of the two types of games exceeded 10 million units."

Zhou Buqi snorted coldly.

Yesterday, Kenzo Tsujimoto said a lot of beautiful words, and even said without shame that Capcom did not make mobile games because it did not want to use opaque means to harvest players, thereby destroying the game market.

I don’t know, but I actually believe it!

Fortunately, Zhou Buqi took a detour in his mind and immediately realized that his words were illogical.

After hearing Ren Yuxin say this, I understood everything.

Get the hell out of here!

How deceptive!

"Resident Evil 5" was released in 2009 and was a hit, and then "Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition" was released, which was a hit again... Isn't this just adding some new elements to harvest players again?

This is much worse than EA.

EA has dozens of computer games, and each generation of products is only sold once. If new elements are added, an update package will be added to players for free.

It's not like Capcom, which just adds a few new elements, then changes the skin and sells it again.

But even with this unconscionable harvest, Capcom's performance has continued to decline in the past few years, which shows how bad the old guy Kenzo Tsujimoto has done to the company.

Ren Yuxin said with a smile: ""Resident Evil 5" and "Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition" together sold a total of 10 million units, but "Resident Evil 4" only sold 2.3 million units. The main reason for the surge in sales was The reason is that "Resident Evil 5" has added a computer version. Among the 10 million units, the PS3 and Xbox versions only have 3.6 million units, and the remaining 6.4 million units are computer versions. Among them, the European market has the highest sales volume, reaching 4.2 million units. set."

Zhou Buqi suddenly realized, "No wonder you care so much about European sales channels. Is Capcom vomiting blood because of the European sales channels?"

"Almost!" Ren Yuxin laughed. "Do you know what Tsujimoto Kenzo said to me yesterday? He said that he hopes to hand over the operation of the "Resident Evil" series in Europe and the United States to Changyou in the future, and the income will be split 50-50."

"50%?"

Zhou Buqi was really amused.

In order to be only given 50% by the channel dealer, Kenzo Tsujimoto asked Changyou to be the sole agent of this business at the cost of giving up the company's shares and board of directors seats.

It can be seen that in the sales of "Resident Evil 5" in the European and American markets, Capcom was deceived by European and American distributors, and the commission ratio was far more than 50%.

This is also a common phenomenon for Japanese companies to do business overseas in recent years. Japanese companies doing business in their own country have established relationships with them for decades. The entire industry is very mature and stable, and doing business is relatively simple.

When you go to the European and American markets, you have to break new ground. You are used to the comfort and enjoyment of the domestic market. When you get to the aggressive negotiation table in the European and American markets, it is difficult to negotiate good terms.

In this regard, Japanese companies are far behind domestic private companies and almost the same as domestic state-owned companies. At home, one is better than the other, and abroad, one is more ridiculous than the other.

"Huh?" Zhou Buqi immediately thought of something, "Where's Steam? They didn't pay attention?"

Ziweixing International has built a gaming platform through acquisitions.

Among them are the game video platform twich and the game trading platform Steam.

Especially Steam, as the exclusive battle platform that operates "DOTA2", relying on the popularity and traffic brought by this game, has become the largest game platform in the world today, with a total number of users of more than 40 million, and the number of games exceeds 3,000. Monthly sales exceed US$500 million.

As a platform, Steam will take a 30% commission from sales.

This is lower than Capcom’s requirements!

If Capcom put the game on Steam, wouldn't it only take 30% off? This is an open and transparent game platform, and there is no need to find a trusted person. Game manufacturers can upload genuine games to the Steam platform on their own.

Is Tsujimoto Kenzo so old and confused that he has never even heard of Steam?

Ren Yuxin simply explained: "Steam only takes a commission from sales, and there is an additional operating expense. Capcom develops all Japanese games, and European and American operators need to make language adjustments and prepare servers and other basics. The facilities run the game.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Well, that's the truth."

Ren Yuxin said: "Another point is that "Resident Evil 5" was launched in 2009, and Steam was not popular at that time. "Resident Evil" relied on game manufacturers to spend advertising on different platforms, so it was finally promoted. DL version. This channel fee may be higher than Steam’s 30% commission.”

Zhou Buqi doesn't care about these details, "It's always a good thing! Changyou will be the sole agent for the European and American markets... I don't think the European and American markets will be the same. In addition to the domestic market of Japan, Capcom will operate it on its own, and other overseas markets , leave it all to Changyou.”

Ren Yuxin smiled and said: "Okay, I'll fight for it and let's talk about it. It would be best to win over the overseas agency rights for all Capcom's games. Just follow Kenzo Tsujimoto's request and the income will be divided in half."

Zhou Buqi said: "Well, then authorize it directly to the Steam platform."

After all, Changyou and Ziweixing International are not the same company. Ren Yuxin has no shareholding relationship with Ziweixing International. Zhou Buqi explained a little more, "Platform economy needs to be self-operated and third-party. Its significance That is, products can drive the development of the platform, and the developed platform can drive the sales of products. Just like JD.com, it first makes the platform successful through high-quality self-operated products. When the platform becomes successful, it can attract more third-party products. Franchise, and the platform can promote the sales of more self-operated products through rankings. Changyou’s games should exist as self-operated products on the Steam platform. Now is the growth period of Steam, and Changyou must help first.”

Ren Yuxin smiled and said, "Of course, except for Charles, we have no objections!"

"Lao Zhang?" Zhou Buqi made an understatement and didn't take it seriously. "Don't worry about him. If he has any objections, let him come to me."

Ren Yuxin knew that there was some love-hate relationship between Boss Zhou and Boss Zhang, so he did not get involved. He thought happily: "If we can really reach such a comprehensive strategic cooperation with Capcom, Changyou will be the sole agent overseas. market. By then, Capcom's revenue will definitely increase. Then, as you said, other Japanese game companies will take the initiative to cooperate with Changyou when they see that Capcom has benefited. The point-to-point effect appears.”