Chapter 384: What I give you is yours. If I don’t give it to you, you can’t take it away.
" Next Monday, Huanmeng will release an announcement, which is two days away."
At this moment, the atmosphere in the Golden Wind Conference Room was solemn.
Shen Miaomiao sat in the first seat, her face as gloomy as water.
On her left, Gu Sheng's expression also did not look relaxed.
You know.
At this time, their first wave of full-score reviews for "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" had just been released. With the double harvest of sales and word of mouth, they should celebrate and it would not be an exaggeration to even have a team-building dinner.
But now.
All the executives of Golden Wind, including the chief executives of its three major studios, were present, but they were not there to celebrate.
because--
The prices of the engines "Fantasy 5" and "Dream 3" under the Fantasy Dream Group are about to be adjusted, and the price adjustment will be implemented at the beginning of next year.
This is the information that Moritani learned from Konami's upper channels, and its credibility is over 80%.
In fact, the engine price adjustment was already expected by Gu Sheng.
After all, with the development and progress of the game market over the years, the emergence of continuous excellent new works and the updating and iteration of motion sensing cabins, the entire game market is expanding, and many large and small manufacturers are making a lot of money.
As an engine manufacturer, Huanmeng will certainly increase the usage price of its engine platform accordingly.
When one prospers, all prosper.
Since everyone makes more money, Huanmeng naturally wants to get a bigger share, which is understandable.
But the problem is!
This time, Huanmeng’s price adjustment policy is not simply to “get more points”!
According to what Moritani learned.
Starting from the beginning of next year, both of Huanmeng's two major engines will implement price policy changes.
Note that it is modification, not adjustment.
The original charging strategy has been completely abandoned and a new generation of charging standards will replace it.
First, Fantasy 5.
As a motion cabin game production engine, Huanmeng 5 has always had a high market share. At present, Huanmeng 5's charging strategy is: if the total revenue of the game exceeds 1 million US dollars, it is required to pay a 5% licensing fee, or directly buy out the license at a one-time price of 2 million US dollars at the beginning of the game development.
According to Gu Sheng's previous speculation, even if the price of Fantasy Dream 5 increases, at most it will only increase the price of the one-time buyout license from 2 million US dollars to about 3 million US dollars, and other things will remain unchanged.
However.
This time, Gu Sheng miscalculated.
There is no such thing as "other things remain unchanged", but "everything changes"!
After the fee modification, Fantasy Dream 5 will be completely free in the future!
but!
When a game developed using Huanmeng 5 has been installed more than 200,000 times, Huanmeng Group will charge the development company a "runtime fee" of $0.5 for each copy of the game as long as the game is downloaded once.
Please note that it is not “purchase charge” but “download charge”!
When a user buys Call of Duty and downloads it for the first time, Golden Wind will have to pay $0.5 to Phantom.
Afterwards, in order to free up space, the user uninstalled "Call of Duty" and the money was not refunded. Moreover, when he wanted to play "Call of Duty" again and downloaded the game again, Golden Wind had to pay another $0.5 to Fantasy.
One download, one charge.
That is to say!
If this user repeatedly downloads "Call of Duty" more than 120 times, then "Call of Duty", which sells for $60 per copy, will start to cause losses to Golden Wind.
This is the "Dream 5" engine.
"Fantasy 3", which is the mainstream development engine for non-motion cabin games, has naturally also made adjustments in line with the change in charging policy.
Previously, the charging rules of the "Fantasy 3" engine were: users with annual income less than $100,000 could use the personal version, which was completely free; if the annual income exceeded $100,000, they needed to purchase the enhanced version, which cost $40 a month; and if the annual income exceeded $200,000, they had to purchase the PRO version, which cost $150 a month, or $1,800 a year.
It is billed on a monthly basis.
But after the modification, "Fantasy 3" was upgraded to PRO version. It is free if the annual revenue is less than 200,000 dollars, but if it exceeds 200,000 dollars, the fee will be calculated based on the number of times, with each download charged at 0.2 dollars, or a one-time buyout of 2 million dollars for the authorization of the work.
Without a doubt!
When he first heard the news, Gu Sheng even thought Moritani was joking!
He even joked, "Mr. Moriya, April Fool's Day is still more than four months away. Are you preparing so early?"
This is enough to show how outrageous this so-called "runtime charging" principle is!
In Gu Sheng's opinion, this wasn't even asking for too much, it was just eating someone's food without leaving any residue!
Are you crazy? A dream?
If such charging rules are changed, how much market outrage will it cause? Don’t they have any foresight at all?
However!
Moriya's words woke him up and made him realize -
Currently, the market share of Fantasy 5 in the motion sensing cabin market is 45%, while the market share of Fantasy 3 in the non-motion sensing cabin market has reached 38%.
Whether it is a somatosensory cabin or a non-somatosensory cabin!
The engines under Huanmeng are all qualified to be called "leaders" in the market!
A leading enterprise, even if it is crazy and blinded by profits, is greedy and wants to reap the global game development market.
As the party being harvested, what can the manufacturers say?
Change engine?
You don't need it; there are plenty of people who can.
Do you really think there is anyone who shares your hatred for the enemy?
What everyone is thinking must be - I hope that no one else will use it, and I will be the only one to use it, so that I can monopolize the engine with the strongest overall performance on the market. In this way, even if some profits are cut off, it will not be a big deal as I am making a lot of money.
Gu Sheng doesn’t even have to think about it!
When the news is announced, the manufacturers will definitely curse and use it.
Who is more courageous? The engines reap the profits from the manufacturers, but the manufacturers will not reap the users?
Anyway, the wool comes from the sheep, so let's see who can carry it.
Therefore, it can be expected that Huanmeng’s move will not only not lead to its own collapse, but it may even make a lot of money and the stock price will rise in a short period of time!
not to mention !
The situation is not that simple!
This price change was not a decision made by Huanmeng's top management on impulse!
Because it is under this new rule of price change!
There is also an additional extra content -
[Based on the "transaction exchange rate and the impact of relevant policies and regulations", the runtime fee for Chinese registered manufacturers to use "Fantasy 5" is 7 yuan/time (about 1 dollar), and the runtime fee for "Fantasy 3" development is 3.5 yuan/time (about 0.5 dollars)]
All regions in the world are $0.5 and $0.2!
Only manufacturers “registered in China”!
The price doubled!
1 dollar and 0.5 dollar!
Transaction exchange rates and related policies and regulations?
Where is the transaction exchange rate 0.5 dollars = 7 yuan?
Which policies and regulations stipulate that manufacturers registered in China must pay double the price for engine usage?
Obviously.
Now, Huanmeng’s targeted policy is aimed at game manufacturers registered in China and curbing the development of China’s game industry.
It not only blocked Golden Wind, which had been using the Dream Engine 5, but also prevented more manufacturers like Golden Wind from emerging.
At the same time, it is targeting China as a target, making price comparisons to appease other manufacturers' resistance to changes in charging policies.
Kill three birds with one stone!
Huanmeng's move of discriminatory treatment is clearly intended to give up the Chinese game development market.
After all, the Chinese game development market is not as good as the game sales market. For Huanmeng, the revenue in China has never been too high, so it doesn't seem a pity to give it up.
The most important thing is!
"This time, the Chinese manufacturers, no, the manufacturers registered in China, were treated differently. Someone must be secretly supporting Huanmeng."
After confirming the situation, Gu Sheng quickly reacted:
"Such targeted measures are definitely not groundless,"
"But neither Konami nor CloudWise has the power to persuade Animation Dream,"
"Then, there is only one possibility—"
Vivendi.
Everyone was not stupid. After hearing what Gu Sheng said, they quickly came up with the answer in their minds.
but!
What good would it do even if I knew?
Do you want to continue using the Dream Engine series?
Obviously not.
Because according to internal information, in order to detect the number of downloads and installations of its engine games, the reform of Huanmeng's charging policy has specially created a patented data model for "fair" detection of game download numbers.
However, if nothing unexpected happens, the calculation of this data model will be a black box for all manufacturers except Huanmeng.
I won't talk about whether your data model is accurate or not. I also wonder whether it is possible that malicious competing manufacturers could directly bypass the firewall to destroy it, such as Guangyao maliciously brushing download data for Nuyan.
Take the core of this operating principle as an example. A black box data model is in the hands of Huanmeng. It is completely opaque. Do they really need to solve the problem of data security?
Anyway, no matter you brush me or I brush you, in the end, a lot of Mane will flow into Huanmeng's hands.
and!
Let’s go deeper.
If it is true as we guessed, the adjustment of charging standards is ultimately due to Vivendi's support for Huanmeng.
So who can guarantee that Huanmeng will not secretly change the data under the instructions of Vivendi and double the number of downloads of our game?
If you continue to use Fantasy Dream.
There is no doubt that the lifeblood of his company is in their hands.
The electronic contract is there. If you want to use it, you have to sign it. It has legal effect worldwide. Even if the lawsuit goes to the ends of the earth, it will be just a fantasy.
But what if not?
We have no other engines available right now.
The reason why Huanmeng dares to play like this is because they are sure that they are one of the most advanced engines in the world and the game engine with the highest comprehensive quality.
At this time, if you want to be backward compatible, not only will you need to re-learn the engine operations in depth, but the final rendering will most likely not be at the level of Huanmeng.
Besides.
Today is the day when the American dream begins to take effect.
You don't have to, it's okay.
But tomorrow it may be the Phoenix of Japan, the surge of Malaysia, and the pride of Poland.
As long as the engine is not in your hands, you will always be a fish on the chopping board being led by the nose!
We have to have our own engine
Even though it is very difficult to say this.
The investment in self-developed engines is definitely not a small amount.
Moreover, during this long period of time, they will fall into an extremely embarrassing and suffocating situation of "no support available"!
but!
This step now has to be taken.
Whether they want to go or not, they can go!
This step!
“…We have to go!”
In the conference room.
Shen Miaomiao's face was solemn and she spoke loudly.
In fact, if it comes down to it, the change in the charging strategy of the Dream Engine, especially targeting Chinese manufacturers led by Golden Wind, is absolutely beneficial to her system.
Let it go up!
Am I afraid you won’t charge?
I really want to help you guys. It would be best if this game could bankrupt us. If it gets downloaded 20 billion times, I'll be rich right away!
but.
Over the years, Shen Miaomiao has been obsessed with losses and has been defeated time and time again, experiencing life and death.
But one thing has never changed—
[What I give you is yours. If I don’t give it to you, you can’t take it away.]
I can pay this money willingly.
But you can't use despicable means to force me to pay.
I'm happy to be a sucker.
But do you really think of me as a sucker?
You are in trouble.
In fact, under the influence of the family environment, there has always been an idea that is deeply rooted in Shen Miaomiao's heart.
Although this sounds a bit dark, even a bit extreme and absolute, and quite arrogant.
But that’s the truth—
99% of the problems in this world can be solved with money.
The fundamental reason why the problem cannot be solved is that there is not enough money.
And now.
What Shen Miaomiao lacks the least is a bottomless funding gap.
Because her system is above the bottomless pit.
If the loss gap caused by the engine development cost is [infinite], then the funds held by Shen Miaomiao are that [infinite] + 1
Choking my neck?
Don’t you even consider your own weight?
You bastard, you won’t exercise after being in a good mood for two days.
Dry!
It's just an engine!
Develop! Must develop!
Thinking of this, Shen Miaomiao stretched out her little hand, and with the aura of a king, she held Empress Gu's slightly cold hand and gave him an affirmative look.
My beloved! This time! I must lose my life to my heart's content!
Gu Sheng:?
However!
While the two were still exchanging eye contact!
Buzz——
Suddenly, Gu Sheng's cell phone on the table vibrated.
Turn it over and take a look:
【Huayudian-Chairman Jiang Yingcai】
