Chapter 462: Legend of Hot Blood
Although what Lu Yiming said was very impolite, it was actually very to the point without any lies. Jiang Rongfa wanted to refute it, but he didn't know where to start and could only stand there staring blankly.
The so-called console games can be understood as stand-alone games.
Almost all console games of this era can be played on your computer without going online.
The way this type of game makes money is by selling cards or discs. If users like your product, they will pay for it and then use it at home.
Therefore, you can intuitively know whether a console game is popular by looking at the total number of copies sold.
For example, the Mario series, which dominated the entire gaming industry during the Famicom era, sold a staggering 240 million copies, a number that will probably never be surpassed by any subsequent franchise.
But times have changed. The advent of the Internet heralds the beginning of an industrial revolution in gaming.
What's more, developing console games in Xia Country, where piracy is rampant, isn't that just asking for trouble?
So Lu Yiming looked at Jiang Rongfa and teased him, "You claim to be making online games, but in the end you make money by selling CDs. This is not Internet at all."
Jiang Rongfa was getting a little impatient and asked, "Is there anything wrong with me selling CDs? Isn't this how my peers in the gaming industry make money now?"
“It’s a huge problem.”
Lu Yiming sighed silently in his heart. This was the so-called limitation of the times. Jiang Rongfa's thoughts were still stuck in the past, while Lu Yiming saw the future.
"Let me ask you, among those who sell CDs on the street, are there more genuine ones or pirated ones? How much do you plan to sell a copy of your game for? Can the price be lower than that of pirated CDs? Or do you have special anti-piracy techniques?"
“Ah, this…”
Jiang Rongfa was left speechless.
There is no doubt that he had never thought about what Lu Yiming said.
He has always naively believed that as long as his game is well made, players will flock to it due to its quality and playability, and then he will make a fortune.
Seeing Jiang Rongfa being criticized for nothing , Ni Cong couldn't stand it anymore, after all, the one being criticized was his cousin.
So I stood up and said a few words: "Lu Yiming, what you said may be right, but those investors may not pay attention to this, right?"
Lu Yiming smiled softly, then turned to look at Ni Cong: "The angle they focus on is definitely much more tricky than mine. I didn't spend a penny, I'm just talking nonsense here, but they are actually going to pay, what do you think they will think and say?"
Ni Cong hesitated to speak, and finally sighed helplessly with a dejected expression: "That's right."
But they are cousins after all, and Ni Cong doesn't want Jiang Rongfa to become a "millionaire" all of a sudden, so he immediately asked, "You're talking so much, aren't you just saying that my cousin's company is completely hopeless?"
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "That's not the case. After all, the shelf has been set up. If we find a noble person who knows the value of the goods to help us, we can still save it."
When Jiang Rongfa heard that there was still a chance to save his career, his eyes suddenly lit up and he asked, "Can someone help me? Who can save me?"
Lu Yiming pointed at himself: "Me."
"you?"
Jiang Rongfa thought that Lu Yiming was talking about how he could convince investors to invest in the company, so he immediately said, "Even if you really have a good idea, it will be useless if you can't convince the investors. We only have a few dollars left in our company account now, and distant water cannot quench immediate thirst."
“Money has never been an issue for me.”
Facing everyone's surprised gazes, Lu Yiming said this calmly.
Then he said to Jiang Rongfa: "I can buy your company with money. Since you founded the company, I will give you 5%. After that, you can make a game according to my requirements. I guarantee that the company can survive and make good profits."
Lu Yiming had never told his roommates that he was rich, so they were all caught off guard when they heard him speak so loudly.
Jiang Rongfa naturally thought that Lu Yiming was making fun of him, so he immediately said, "Okay, no problem. How much do you plan to pay?"
Lu Yiming calculated silently in his mind, and finally gave Jiang Rongfa a valuation that he could not refuse: "The most valuable thing about your broken company is a polished game production team, so if you find them back as soon as possible, I will give you a valuation of 5 million. 95% of the shares is 4.75 million. I believe no one can offer higher than me."
Jiang Rongfa, who had a smile on his face, was stunned after hearing this.
You have to know that when he started his business, he only had 200,000 yuan in cash in his pocket, and he had to borrow money from relatives and friends to get the money together.
Although the company is now much larger than when it first started, it is definitely not worth five million!
At this moment, in Jiang Rongfa's mind, Lu Yiming's image suddenly became tall and noble.
He straightened his back, looked directly at Lu Yiming, and asked solemnly: "Are you serious? Are you kidding?"
Lu Yiming also said seriously: "Of course I am serious. As long as you nod, the money will be deposited immediately."
Jiang Rongfa hesitated for a moment, but finally had to bow to reality and ran to draft the contract without saying a word.
The ideal valuation of the investors he had found before was just over two million. Lu Yiming more than doubled it. Only a fool would refuse!
Ni Cong was stunned after hearing this, and it took him a long time to come back to his senses: "Lu Yiming, are you sure you are not kidding? Do you really want to buy my cousin's company?"
Lu Yiming looked relaxed, as if he had just casually bought a serving of pancakes: "It doesn't cost much anyway, so I bought it for fun. I just happened to want to make a game, but I'm too lazy to start my own company."
Wang Dazhuang was speechless after hearing this: "It doesn't cost much? That's five million, not five hundred yuan."
Ni Cong glanced at him sideways and said sourly, "That's right, our Da Zhuang doesn't even have 500 yuan!"
Wang Dazhuang's face suddenly turned dark.
His living expenses were still sent by his parents on a monthly basis, which was only three hundred yuan. He really didn't have such a "huge sum" as five hundred yuan!
Then, he turned to Lu Yiming, with a complicated mood: "You are so low-key, we didn't realize you are actually a rich second-generation!"
Lu Yiming didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said, "I'm not some rich second generation. I was forced into this. If I don't work harder, I'll become a negative second generation, with a debt."
Before his rebirth, Dingyuan Mould Factory suffered heavy losses and constant struggles. Lu Yiming never enjoyed the life of a rich man for a few days. Instead, he lived in pain and despair for most of his short life.
"I don't believe you, you are such a bad old man."
After a while, Jiang Rongfa came back with the drafted contract.
"Here is the contract, take a look and sign it if there is no problem."
Lu Yiming was very serious about the contract. He said, "I need to fax this contract to my lawyer."
"Can."
Lu Yiming called Li Qiu and then faxed the contract to Li Qiu for review. After Li Qiu confirmed that there was no problem, Lu Yiming decisively signed the contract and then called Li Yiwen to ask Li Yiwen to transfer the money.
After Li Yiwen received Lu Yiming's call, his head was buzzing: "Five million? To buy a game company? Even if your money came from the wind, you can't do that."
The current game market in Xia Country cannot be said to be a desert, but it can definitely be described as a deserted place.
The most successful one among them is Xishanju, a gaming company under Kingsoft and Mr. Lei’s own son.
But even Xishanju basically relies on Kingsoft's CEO Lei to pay for its survival, and it is still a long way from making money.
This can be clearly seen from the game sales. With works such as "Zhongguancun Revelation", "Swordsman Love", and "Battle of Korea", Xishanju has successfully become popular in the domestic game circle this year. In 2000, it created a sales miracle for domestic games at that time with the sales of 200,000 copies of "Swordsman Love II".
What about the island country’s console game “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” released at the same time?
One million four hundred and fifty thousand copies were sold in the island country alone!
Overseas sales have reached an astronomical figure of 6.2 million copies!
The sales volume of domestic games is not even a fraction of others.
This is the cruel reality. The pond water is too shallow and it is difficult to raise a real dragon.
Lu Yiming smiled and explained to his cousin, "Am I that stupid? I know better than you that making console games in China is a dead end, but making games is really profitable, so we have to plan ahead."
Li Yiwen frowned: "I'm confused by what you said. You said console games are not profitable, but you said making games is very profitable. Are you playing schizophrenia with me?"
In desperation, Lu Yiming had to further analyze the ecology of the gaming industry for Li Yiwen: "Domestic games are not selling well. The main problem is piracy. We can't change this environment. So why don't we just stop making stand-alone games?"
Li Yiwen never plays games, so he has no idea what Lu Yiming is talking about.
"What's the meaning?"
Having personally experienced the era when online games and mobile games were extremely popular, Lu Yiming is naturally very optimistic about the prospects of the game industry: "We will make it into an Internet game. When the time comes, if users want to play our games, they will have to pay by time. We don't sell the games themselves, but game cards."
After listening to this, Li Yiwen became even more confused: "Selling point cards?"
The first online game in China to truly adopt a time-based charging model is "Stone Age", which is well-known to many players born in the 1980s.
In January 2001, Jingcheng Huayi acted as the agent for the Japanese online game "Stone Age", and adopted a new game billing method, the WGS system, which is the so-called point-based charging system.
This system is the point card billing model that many players later became familiar with.
Lu Yiming is now planning to activate this system in advance on the game "Legend of Mir 2".
The reason why console games are easily pirated is that the cost and technical content of making pirated copies are negligible. All you have to do is buy a genuine copy and copy it. Anyone who can copy and paste can do it.
But they can't copy online games, because everything is stored in the game server. The user gets an installation file, which can be understood as a desktop shortcut to access the game server.
Selling pirated copies of this kind of game is like being the game company's tap water, helping the company promote the game.
After listening to Lu Yiming's explanation, Li Yiwen complained: "Others sell games on a one-time basis, but you charge by the minute? If someone doesn't know you, they would think you are a telecom operator. Is it really okay to make money so madly? And if you do this, will anyone be willing to pay?"
Lu Yiming smiled and said disapprovingly: "People need entertainment to live, especially young people who like to try new things. Socializing is also one of people's main needs. If we make a stand-alone game into an online mode, we can solve these two major needs of entertainment and socializing at once. Are you still worried that no one will be willing to pay for it?"
Li Yiwen found it to be true. The game was fun in itself, and he could play it with a group of people. Wouldn't that be double the fun?
Is it reasonable not to spend money on such a happy thing?
In the end, Li Yiwen failed to convince Lu Yiming, but was convinced by Lu Yiming instead.
"Okay, I'll go get the money."
After taking over the company, Lu Yiming asked Jiang Rongfa: "Have you ever played Diablo?"
"Diablo 1" was released in 1995 and is an action role-playing game released by Blizzard.
Recently, the news that "Diablo 2" will be released in 2000 has been widely circulated.
As a hardcore game player, Jiang Rongfa has of course played this game before and is very familiar with the plot and characters.
"Are you asking me to imitate Diablo? Diablo 2 is about to be released. If I make another identical game, how can a pirated version beat the legitimate one?"
Lu Yiming smiled meaningfully. "There's an old saying, 'Those who learn from me will live, those who imitate me will die.' I'm just giving you an example to help you understand what an Internet game is. Who told you to copy it?"
"As for you, use this game as a blueprint, and change the plot and story style to an oriental fantasy background, and make a brand new Internet monster-killing and level-up game. The game mechanism must be simple and direct, the kind that even elementary school students can operate directly. At the same time, the game graphics can't be too good, at least most Internet cafe computers now must be able to run smoothly."
Jiang Rongfa felt that he was an aspiring game producer, so after listening to Lu Yiming's requirements, he immediately quit and even said sarcastically: "The game made according to your requirements is completely rubbish. Who would be willing to play such a game?"
Lu Yiming did not get angry, but instead gave his analysis: "Xia Country has just started its reform and opening up, and most people have never been exposed to electronic games, so even if our games are bad, they can meet their basic entertainment needs. As for the small number of users who like to play high-quality console games, the base is too small, and they are also difficult to serve. It is too troublesome to make money from this, so it is better to just give up."
Although these words were unpleasant to hear, they struck Jiang Rongfa directly in the soul, giving him a sense of enlightenment, as if he instantly saw clearly many problems that had previously puzzled him.
When he started his own business, he chose to start a gaming company mainly because he liked playing games and he also saw that foreign gaming companies were making a lot of money.
But in fact, he had no idea about analyzing the market and users. After listening to Lu Yiming's analysis, he suddenly realized: "I was wondering why I couldn't make money before. It turns out that I was going in the wrong direction."
Seeing that he finally figured it out, Lu Yiming showed a relieved look: "Yes, you don't even know whose money you want to make, it would be strange if you can make money."
"As for those so-called hardcore gamers, they are all very nagging and difficult to please. They are also very stingy and simply don't want to spend money. It is a thankless task to satisfy their needs. You should win over and unite the general public."
"This is especially true for young people who have never been online before, and those nouveau riche who have suddenly become rich but have never seen the world. As long as your website is big enough and has a large enough player base, even if only 1% or even 1% of the players are paying users, you can still make a lot of money."
Jiang Rongfa's eyes suddenly opened, and he immediately became full of energy.
Although Lu Yiming's request was strange, with money, the company could survive, and he could continue to engage in game development. He would always find an opportunity to make a good game in his mind.
"What you said makes a lot of sense. Let's get started right away and establish a new game project!"
"So, what's the name of this game?"
Lu Yiming said without hesitation: "Legend of Mir 2. I will write a plan for the basic structure of the game, and you can find people to implement it according to my plan. You can recruit the team yourself."
"no problem!"
Most of the troubles in this world are caused by lack of money. Now that we have money, these problems are naturally no longer a problem.
Jiang Rongfa was like a nouveau riche who was engaging in revengeful consumption. He gritted his teeth and said, "I will go and find a bigger studio, build a hundred workstations, and recruit a hundred top game developers!"
It’s more than four million, so you can just build it however you want, right?
Lu Yiming had no objection to Jiang Rongfa's "generosity".
"It's up to you, but I want it to be quick. I'll give you three months at most. If the game isn't out by New Year's Day, I won't invest in it later."
Lu Yiming personally came up with the settings and structure, and Jiang Rongfa was only responsible for forming a team to implement the content. If it couldn't be done in three months, it basically meant that there was no value in the cooperation - because the genuine Legend of Mir 2 would be released .
Although Lu Yiming didn't give him much time, but thinking of the huge sum of more than 4 million, Jiang Rongfa gritted his teeth and said, "No problem, I will make the game even if I don't sleep for 100 days."
