Horrible! Actually playing this kind of game!

Chapter 429 333. What? ! Acquire Blizzard? !

The Matrix is ​​an American science fiction action movie released in 1999.

It tells the story of a programmer named "Neo" who suddenly one day discovered that the world he was in turned out to be virtual.

Neo also returned to the real reality and escaped from the matrix under the guidance of Morpheus.

Only then did Neo realize that he had been living in a virtual world.

He joins forces with a group of rebels in an attempt to uncover the truth about the Matrix and free the people trapped within it.

Qing Zhiyuan personally likes the Matrix trilogy very much because it deeply implants the fear of "Brain in a Vat" into people's hearts. At the same time, it also seriously explores the very interesting and terrifying issues such as "Omnic Crisis" and the fate of mankind. proposition.

The Matrix's special effects and action scenes were avant-garde for its time, especially those jaw-dropping "bullet time" sequences.

These innovative visual effects not only amazed the audience, but also opened up new possibilities for subsequent film creation.

Qing Zhiyuan plans to add its Link time, ah, bullet time or time slowdown mechanism into the game, instead of using a dazzling combat camera.

The so-called bullet time slows down all surrounding enemies and the bullets they fire, but the protagonist's actions are not affected in any way.

In fact, if you can achieve this level, the experience will become quite special.

When Qing Zhiyuan was about to return to Neon, he asked Hitotsubashi Mune to make arrangements. He first wrote the outline of the first version of the script and gave it to her.

There should still be enough time now, so you have to register the project first.

Qing Zhiyuan is fully confident about adapting The Matrix into an action-type game.

The game incorporates bullet time and cool fighting actions, and it will definitely become a classic third-person action game.

The movie itself has a strong topicality. As long as the shooting goes smoothly and with pokeni's technology, there is no reason for failure.

Whether it's a movie or a game first, Qing Zhiyuan feels it doesn't matter, there can be a chemical reaction between the two.

To a certain extent, it may be the best rhythm to release the first movie to build momentum, and then release the game alternately.

It can also maintain heat continuously.

However, the specific decision will have to be made after Qing Zhiyuan returns and holds a meeting with Tsuda Nao and Hitotsubashi Fumi to discuss it clearly.

…

Qing Zhiyuan sat in the exhibition area for a while, and then wandered around the entire E3 exhibition site.

There are many game manufacturers, many of which he has heard of and loved before, but some have disappeared in the long river of history due to various reasons.

For example, Sega, which my uncle likes very much.

There is also Nishiki, which developed real-time strategy games a long time ago and can even be said to be the dominant player in this field.

It's a pity that due to the terrifying power of the river crab mythical beast, there is no way to do the Red Alert and Command and Conquer series. Otherwise, Qing Zhiyuan would still be happy to buy Westwood, which is on the verge of bankruptcy.

In the messy scene, Qing Zhiyuan, with his hands in his pockets, was so cold that he seemed to be separated from the entire real world and became a unique and unique existence.

It was as if everything around him had nothing to do with him.

At this moment, Qing Zhiyuan was also in a trance. He felt like a time traveler rather than a participant. Time had brought time to him in a real way, not just through words or images. look back at past.

Qing Zhiyuan seemed to have walked into an old photo, but what he saw, heard, and happened now was so real.

I just remembered "The Matrix" before, and it felt like I had entered a virtual world.

However, Qing Zhiyuan stopped.

Time froze, and what he saw in front of him pulled him back from this feeling of alienation.

A down to earth feeling.

Everything in front of me suddenly became real again, the lights, the crowd, the noise, all came back at once.

The old photos gradually became clearer and then became reality.

In the front exhibition area, a small company called Blizzard is promoting their new game this year——

"Starcraft"

Several computers were also prepared for trial use.

Qing Zhiyuan raised his head and took a look. The young people standing in the exhibition area all had fluffy hair and bright eyes.

He wasn't sure if these people were the founders of Blizzard, so he stepped forward to have a chat.

After introducing each other, Qing Zhiyuan learned that several people were indeed the founders of Blizzard.

One is named Allen Yardham, one is named Mike Mohami, and the other is named Frank Pierce.

Seeing Qing Zhiyuan's arrival, several people were a little nervous.

You may not have known him before, but after the previous pre-exhibition press conference, Qing Zhiyuan left a deep impression on everyone.

The key is--

This is pokeni's boss.

Paradox's games are very popular in the Omi region and are well-known to every household, especially Pokémon, which they themselves are still playing.

"We are actually pokeni players. I personally like The Witcher very much, especially this year's The Witcher 2. The plot and gameplay of Devil's Egg really refreshed my understanding of the game."

said short-haired Mike Mohami.

Several people are actually quite talkative, especially Mike.

From the perspective of communication skills, Mike should be the backbone among several people.

"Actually, I am also a Blizzard player." Qing Zhiyuan said.

"Walter? Real or fake?"

Several people looked at each other and laughed.

It's unlikely. Blizzard specializes in developing real-time strategy games for the PC, which are very different from games developed by pokeni. It seems unlikely that Neon people overseas will come into contact with Warcraft.

"It's true." Qing Zhiyuan smiled and nodded, "I'm very good at Warcraft, and I often discuss it with my friends, and I often play 1v1."

Qing Zhiyuan said that what I told was the truth, but it was just when I was in college in my previous life.

And the one-on-one version is already the Frozen Throne.

Hearing Qing Zhiyuan talk endlessly about the contents of Warcraft, as well as various operations that they had never thought of——

For example, controlling the position of farmers, harassing with airships, or directly destroying the opponent's house with a wave of towers is simply astonishing.

Several people looked at each other: Can our game produce so many cool operations?

After communicating for almost half an hour, they already believed that Qing Zhiyuan was a Blizzard player.

"How about this new game?" Qing Zhiyuan raised his chin and stared at the computer screen next to him.

A player is playing Zerg.

The three founders looked at each other and then smiled sheepishly.

"To be honest, the game sold less than we thought."

“We produced and launched StarCraft last year,” Mike said, “but it was an instant hit. Players complained that it was no different from Warcraft 2.

So we spent a year redesigning StarCraft.

Making the game a more pure strategy game will test the players' command skills and large-scale corps operations. "

The biggest difference between StarCraft and the Warcraft series is actually this. In Warcraft, every unit is valuable. The value provided by a soldier is much higher than that of a soldier in Warcraft. Moreover, the richness of heroes in Warcraft seems to be higher. , but the requirement for players is to make the operation of each unit more refined.

StarCraft is more focused on team combat, which requires both overall perspective and operation. However, it is not as detailed as in Warcraft where every unit must be controlled in such detail.

"Oh." After listening to their explanation, Qing Zhiyuan discovered that interstellar upsets had happened before.

etc.

He keenly sensed an opportunity——

In other words, Blizzard’s current economic situation is not as good as imagined?

The only one that can always be used is Warcraft?

An idea came to Qing Zhiyuan's heart. I had already bought half of Blizzard, why not buy the remaining half?

"By the way, are you interested in joining pokeni?"

Qing Zhiyuan directly extended an olive branch.

"What?!"

Several Blizzard founders were a little confused. They thought the neon man had said the wrong word?

"It's about cooperating with pokeni, not joining pokeni, right?" Mike Mohami asked cautiously.

"No, I mean," Qing Zhiyuan paused and said with a smile, "I want to buy Blizzard."

"ha?!"

The three young people were a little confused.

After Qing Zhiyuan's serious explanation, they realized a terrible problem——

The boss of this pokeni is serious!

"After buying it, we will not interfere with your game development and production, and pokeni has ample funds to support Blizzard's future development content." Qing Zhiyuan said with a smile.

Several people lowered their heads and felt a little embarrassed.

"Why don't you come to my hotel later and let's have a good talk." Qing Zhiyuan asked Takahashi Kazuma to write down their hotel address and room number and handed it to Mike Mohami.

It might not be clear for a while at E3, so Qing Zhiyuan planned to invite them to the hotel.

…

At around 2 o'clock in the afternoon the next day, the three people arrived at the appointment on time.

Qing Zhiyuan and Takahashi Kazuma sat on the bed in the room, inviting them to sit down as well.

"Sorry, the room is a bit small. It's just a standard room. We never thought about negotiating such a big deal at the beginning, otherwise we would have booked a presidential suite."

Qing Zhiyuan smiled and took out a bottle of red wine from the freezer and poured a glass for everyone.

In fact, everyone is about the same age. Mike Mohami is a few years younger than Qing Zhiyuan, but the American looks more mature than his appearance.

"Actually, it's like this." The three of them sat on the sofa and hesitated for a long time. Finally, Mike took the initiative and said, "We are very grateful for Mr. Qing's invitation. For us, as long as we can do what we like, we can do it." enough.

It is indeed our dream to be able to make the games we like and get ample funds. "

"But what?" Qing Zhiyuan's heart skipped a beat.

Often these words are followed by a but.

"But, I'm very sorry that our company has been sold a long time ago." Mike said sheepishly, "If pokeni wants to acquire it, it may have to talk to our parent company."

This experience is very complicated to talk about.

They talked about it for a long time before Qing Zhiyuan finally understood——

It turns out that Blizzard was bought by Davidson \u0026 Associates, an American educational software developer, in February 1994 for a then astonishing price of $6.75 million.

Then in February last year, in order to expand its business into the field of interactive entertainment, a company called CUC spent an exaggerated price of 1.5 billion US dollars to acquire Sierra Mountain, and another 1.8 billion US dollars to acquire the shares of D\u0026A Company.

By July last year, after CUC completed the acquisition, CUC Software was formed around D\u0026A.

In other words, Blizzard was packaged and sold to CUC.

If you really count, D\u0026A is Blizzard's first father. Then the father and his son were sold to CUC, and now CUC has become Blizzard's grandfather.

After the integration is completed, Blizzard can only be regarded as a sub-studio of CUC Software Company under CUC.

Something like this.

"So if you want to buy Blizzard, you have to negotiate with CUC."

Mike laughed, "Actually, we don't have to reply at all, but our conversation with Mr. Qing yesterday made us feel very happy.

For us, CUC and D\u0026A are actually good parent companies. They provide money but also promise not to interfere with our development.

In fact, we all think it’s pretty good. "

Fine.

It’s good to know clearly the attitudes of several people at Blizzard.

After Qing Zhiyuan sent them away, he only felt that one was bigger than the other.

Blizzard is such a fate...

It's just a bonus, anyone can pack it up and go.

Qing Zhiyuan frowned, what if pokeni bought CUC?

So what is Blizzard going to call us? !

Great-grandfather?

…

It's quite troublesome to think about it, but it's a pity that Blizzard can't help it now, otherwise the deal would have been settled in one fell swoop.

but--

You’re already here, why not take this opportunity to sort things out?

So Qing Zhiyuan and Takahashi Kazuma first made an appointment with CUC, and then visited him personally.

The current chairman and CEO of CUC is an old man over fifty years old, who looks very energetic, and his name is Walter Forbes.

After a brief introduction, the two parties exchanged business cards and information. After getting to know each other, Walter invited the two to the president's office for negotiations.

Walter was still a little surprised by Qing Zhiyuan’s arrival.

The name Qing Zhiyuan may be a bit unfamiliar, but the name pokeni is now well known to Walter.

As long as you are involved in Omi's electronic game market, you will definitely have heard of pokeni and have some understanding of its games.

Qing Zhiyuan gave a brief introduction, and then went straight to the point and explained his intention, "We hope to acquire your company's Blizzard Studio. Do you have any price requirements?"

Hearing Qing Zhiyuan's words, Walter laughed directly.

"Sorry, if you want to buy CUC software, you might also consider buying Blizzard separately. We may not have this plan."

"So..." Qing Zhiyuan gritted his teeth and asked, "If you want to buy CUC software, how much will it cost?"

"Sorry, please forgive my rudeness, but I think you may not have enough funds to buy it. If you really want to know, the suggested price I am giving is 4 billion US dollars."

Next to him, Kazuma Takahashi almost spit out a mouthful of water.

What? !

It actually costs US$4 billion? !

CUC spent US$1.8 billion just to acquire D\u0026A, and now the entire CUC software directly integrates D\u0026A and Xueleshan, and is still waiting for them to make money for itself. In fact, it is not in a hurry to sell.

In the absence of financial pressure, it is natural to demand a certain premium.

I originally thought that the young boss in front of me was joking, but I didn't expect that Qing Zhiyuan would be so serious, which made him feel a little embarrassed.

…

Qing Zhiyuan couldn't help but take a breath of cold air.

Although pokeni seems to be making a lot of money, in fact, all game sales must be split with Sony or Sega and distributors first, and in addition, taxes and other things must be paid.

In addition, there are a large number of employees to support.

Water, electricity, equipment, plus the operation of the Moon River...

The funds that pokeni can now use are actually relatively limited. Qing Zhiyuan himself estimated that it is about two billion US dollars.

It is simply impossible to download the CUC software.

Walter, this is completely a lion's mouth.

It seems that this guy has no plans to sell his software company.

Man, I should have taken down Blizzard a few years ago.

Blizzard is not only interested in their company's talents, but more importantly, it is for the two IPs of Warcraft and StarCraft owned by Blizzard.

Originally I thought it would be quite troublesome to build my own car, but now it seems that the cost of buying it directly is too high.

Forget it, let's keep going back to my Diablo and Ashes of Everscar.

Diablo's world view is a little weak, but it is still very famous.

The world view of Ashes of Eternal Marks is very grand. If Ashes of Eternal Marks is expanded, it may not be worse than World of Warcraft.

"If that's the case, then..."

Qing Zhiyuan stood up and put one of his business cards on the table, "If you want to sell Blizzard in the future, I am still interested. Please contact us then.

However, I definitely can't afford such a high price. "

Now Blizzard has actually lost its leg in Diablo. Blizzard is lame on one leg, and only World of Warcraft and StarCraft can jump around. How high can the price of such a company go?

But it is indeed a bit exaggerated to buy the entire cuc software in a package.

Qing Zhiyuan could only lament that he came at the wrong time. The current Blizzard is equivalent to the innermost layer of a Russian suit. There are already too many fathers outside.

He only wanted to buy Blizzard, but even his father and grandfather bought it. Qing Zhiyuan felt that he was not that stupid.

…

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No updates tonight

thank you all

See you tomorrow