Rebirth of the Wild Age

Because of Song Weiyang's shit-stirring plan, Tencent no longer voluntarily withdrew from the competition for the agency rights of "World of Warcraft" like Yuanshikong did. Instead, a large-scale computer room was built, and all hardware equipment was purchased according to Vivendi's requirements, and then Vivendi's bidding team was invited to inspect. In fact, the computer room was prepared for the Tencent game platform and the upcoming 3D online game "Triumph".

Immediately, Netease and Jinshan announced in a high-profile manner that they also wanted to represent "World of Warcraft".

Sohu and Sogou directly established a joint venture "Soupai Changyou". Ding Ming claimed to be a die-hard fan of "Warcraft", and he wanted to win the Chinese agency rights of "World of Warcraft" desperately.

These companies are big players in the IT industry, and they are all optimistic about "Warcraft". This news caused an uproar in the industry in an instant. Guangtong, Ogilvy and Ninetowns were so frightened that they immediately raised their quotations, and the signing fee was directly fired to 5 million US dollars. As for Ubisoft (Sheng Hai), it automatically withdrew. This company just represented "Ever Mission", and the negative reviews were raging.

Some experts in the IT field jumped out to criticize: "Last year, the overall size of China's online game market was only 1 billion yuan. Now many companies are competing for "World of Warcraft", which is a disorderly and vicious competition. What is the concept of a signing fee of 5 million US dollars? This is just a signing fee, not an agency fee! The agency contract signing fee for a game actually accounts for 4% of the overall market size! What a joke! It is reported that Vivendi also requires the participating agency companies to be the "World of Warcraft" "Provide early-stage development costs. Use our Chinese company's money to sponsor the development of American games, and then pay a sky-high signing fee, just to get the agency right, and there will be a lot of copyright fees or share fees in the future. This is The comprador behavior in the online game industry will definitely disrupt the healthy development of the Chinese online game market..."

Those companies that did not have the strength to compete for the agency rights also rushed to follow suit, frantically ridiculed and abused the competing companies, and crazily slandered Vivendi's behavior of raising prices on the ground.

Facing the raging public opinion, Vivendi was not only not afraid, but became extremely excited. Send people to investigate Netease this week, send people to inspect Jinshan next week, and then go to Sopai Changyou next week, and after the inspection, they will not express their views, say good or bad, or even start formal negotiations, and then continue next month Explore everywhere.

The more this is the case, the more panicked the competing companies are, and they can't wait to raise their quotations, which makes Vivendi even more confident. Anyway, "World of Warcraft" has not yet started the internal beta, so let's continue to investigate slowly, and you can walk the Chinese company like a dog.

As for Excalibur Internet Technology Company, it kept a low profile, keeping silent except for information about "Legend". Obviously, the development of "Excalibur 3D Engine" has been completed long ago, but some insiders deliberately leaked information, saying that the development of "Excalibur Engine" is not satisfactory, and it is currently being rebuilt, and the project progress of "Shan Hai Jing" may be delayed by one year time.

Immediately afterwards, the marketing director of Excalibur Company was interviewed by reporters, and clearly stated: "The 3D engine specially created for "Shan Hai Jing" did encounter difficulties, and Excalibur Networks is determining new game products. At present, the company has formed a third A studio named 'Bubble Studio' is working hard to develop a small casual game called 'Bubble Hall'. At the same time, the company is also looking for agency game products, and "World of Warcraft" is also included in the scope of investigation. Excalibur The network may join the "Warcraft" proxy competition."

Later, another insider revealed that Song Weiyang was furious at the company and ordered Excalibur Network not to get involved in the muddy water. The insider even said that Song Weiyang was very dissatisfied with the cannibalism of companies such as Netease, Jinshan, and Tencent, because he has a large number of shares in these companies.

Jinshan responded immediately: "We no longer participate in the competition for the agency rights of "Warcraft", we want to develop games that belong to the Chinese!"

This situation was quickly fully interpreted by people in the industry, who believed that Rebus could not withstand Song Weiyang's pressure. Then, the state incorporated the development of online game engines into the 863 plan, and Jinshan brought its semi-finished self-developed engines to become the first batch of key support objects of the plan...

Sohu and Sogou's joint venture "Soupai Changyou" has also become less active, and seems to have also been forcibly interfered by Song Weiyang.

But Tencent and NetEase are in a frantic competition, raising their bids again and again. The outside world generally understands this as: "Tencent is trying to get rid of the control of Song Weiyang, the major shareholder, and Ding Sanshi is also in conflict with Song Weiyang. Especially Netease, Ding Sanshi has always been an absolute controlling shareholder, and his personal share exceeds 50%. Ding Sanshi is Don't pay attention to Song Weiyang."

Finally, in the face of this fierce competition, Vivendi suddenly threw out the "North and South Market" plan, selling two products with one product, and wanted to rule out the agency rights of "World of Warcraft". Guangtong, Ninetowns and Ogilvy called "Mom sells approval", and then became more enthusiastic, and began to accept Vivendi's unreasonable request to sponsor the early development costs.

At the same time, SARS broke out!

China's online game industry seems to have fallen into a cold winter, because according to idc data, more than 50% of Chinese players play games in Internet cafes. The data from domestic survey agencies is even more frightening. 70% of Chinese players play games in Internet cafes. Internet cafes in many big cities are now ordered to close down, and the number of online games of various companies has dropped sharply.

Ever since, all the companies competing for the agency rights of "World of Warcraft" began to complain, and united to resist the "North and South Market" plan that broke the rules.

In fact, the Chinese online game market has not fallen into a cold winter. Although the number of online players has decreased, the average online time of players has increased, and it has more than doubled! Many players spend their usual time going out playing games, even the parents don't intervene, as long as the children don't go out and run around, it's better to be addicted to games than to contract SARS.

Even some white-collar workers who have never played games have fallen into the trap. They have to take risks during the day to continue to work, and spend time on the Internet after returning home. It is inevitable that they will be dragged by netizens to play games.

Take "Legend" as an example, the online peak period used to be from 8pm to 11pm, and now it is at its peak from 6pm onwards.

"Legend" also took advantage of the opportunity to launch the "SARS Prevention and Control Campaign", inviting medical experts to help produce game quiz content. Every city in the game has a new npc. Players can go to the npc to participate in answering questions every day. The content is all about SARS prevention and control knowledge. As long as the player answers all the questions correctly, he can immediately draw a piece of equipment as a reward, and if he answers wrong, he will also give the correct answer.

"Boss, I want to ask for leave to go home and have a look." Shen Si said suddenly.

Song Weiyang asked: "What's wrong?"

Shen Si said worriedly: "Didn't I buy a house for my parents? Some time ago when they moved there, suspected cases of SARS appeared in the community, and now the whole community has been quarantined. I shouldn't have bought them a house. It should be done later, I'm the one who killed them!"

"Did you call them?" Song Weiyang asked.

Shen Si said: "I called, and they said it's fine for the time being. But now the community can only enter but not exit, and it's even inconvenient to buy vegetables. The government specially sends people to transport vegetables into the community. I have to go back and have a look, otherwise I will really Don't worry about it."

Song Weiyang comforted: "Don't worry. Have you read the pamphlets on the prevention and treatment of SARS? Generally, such suspected cases are first observed and treated for a few days, and the isolation will be released after the SARS epidemic is ruled out. You wait in Shenghai for a few days first. God, keep in touch with your family at any time, and wait until the news is confirmed. And it's useless for you to go back, you are not a doctor, you can only take risks with them."

"I know what you said, but I just don't feel relieved!" Shen Si was in a daze, even her eyes were red, SARS was too scary.

Song Weiyang patted her on the shoulder, pulled her to sit down and said, "Hey, listen to me, I'll chat with you for a while. You're in a bad state, you need to calm down first, and you can tell me anything. "