Ten Years Against the Current of Rebirth

If you really want to make a game, it’s not difficult to say it, but it’s not easy to say it’s easy either.

If someone like Xu Xing has ready-made ideas and frameworks in his mind, knows all the shapes of the final results, and knows exactly what effect he wants, then the production team will not make any detours, and the actual development process will be extremely smooth.

.

But if you are a newcomer like Mihuyou Studio who has just started, even if you have accumulated a certain amount of technical strength before, you will still stumble if you really want to make your own games.

It took them nearly a year to make a game called "Honken Campus", and the labor cost alone was in the hundreds of thousands.

Thanks to the excellent strength of Cai Haoyu and Liu Wei, they have won many prizes from entrepreneurship competitions and received various subsidies from the school and the government, so they can barely survive.

Even so, they still had to accept investment from Qunxing Company to be able to sustain until now and produce this game.

But even at this point, after the finished game is released, they still cannot sit back and relax. They still need to accept the test from the market. At least they can make profits and offset the costs, so that the studio can go further.

Otherwise, once the sales of the game do not meet expectations, unless they continue to accept external investment and continue to lose control of the studio, it will be possible to maintain the operation and development of the studio.

This is a very difficult choice for all startups. No one will willingly make a wedding dress for others.

Now, the only thing that makes Mihuyou Studio more fortunate is that Mr. Xu from Qunxing Company is not very interested in taking the lead in their game production, and has not even interfered with their game production process from beginning to end.

Except for the initial investment, in which he expressed the hope that they would switch from a buyout system to a free in-app purchase system, Mr. Xu really did not do anything to intervene.

Game companies that accept investment are most afraid of outsiders judging them. Investors like Qunxing Company who only invest are certainly the most comfortable.

Not to mention that it can also provide high-quality channels like WeChat Game Center.

Mihuyou’s original plan was just to log in on the App Store.

Now with the blessing of WeChat, in the eyes of Liu Wei and Cai Haoyu, their prospects are bright.

"You try it and see."

Xu Xing followed Liu Wei into their office, and after getting the trial phone, he handed it into the hands of Yan Chijuan beside him.

Yan Chijuan took the phone with a curious look on his face, and after entering the game, he saw Mihuyou's logo and the icon of "Collapse Campus".

The gameplay is very simple, you just control the Q version of the two-dimensional cute girl protagonist, shoot your way through levels and fight zombies in a horizontal version. After receiving rewards, you can strengthen your character and equipment, and then continue to fight zombies.

Judging from future generations, it is indeed relatively crude, but in the current period when mobile phone carrying capacity is weak, the two-dimensional painting style of Mihuyou's mobile Q version is indeed a masterpiece.

But when it comes to letting people spend six yuan to buy and play...

When he thought that this game was a buyout system, Xu Xing was a little bit dumbfounded and didn't know how to evaluate it.

"What do you think, Mr. Xu?" Liu Wei asked Xu Xing from the side with some anxiety and anticipation.

His own children are always the most cherished and cherished. Of course, Liu Wei also hopes that "The Collapse of the Campus" will be well received.

Xu Xing didn't want to attack the opponent. He left this thankless task to the market and players.

So he just smiled and said: "There is no problem with the quality. Although the gameplay is relatively ordinary, this is not important in mobile games. Just do good numbers. The key is your buyout system."

"It may be OK on the App Store, but you'd better be mentally prepared for the effects on WeChat Game Center and Bizhan."

"After all, WeChat Game Center currently has free games, and Bizhan has a large number of free users. It is still difficult to get them to support buyout games."

Liu Wei's face straightened and he nodded to express his understanding. As long as the quality of the game is good, the rest can only be left to the players.

Whether a game is good or not can be analyzed from various angles, and various results can be obtained.

But for a game company, there is only one key factor in the quality of a game, and that is whether it makes money.

Especially for a start-up company like Mihuyou, any dreams of games and the quality of AAA masterpieces have to wait a little longer.

Survive first and then talk.

After what Xu Xing said, Liu Wei's original excitement about the game's upcoming release was somewhat relieved, and he began to think about these issues.

"Does Mr. Xu think it's not okay?" This question is a bit strange, but Liu Wei still asked worriedly.

Today is different from the past.

At the beginning, Liu Wei, Cai Haoyu and others felt that a buyout system like that in foreign countries was the right way to go, and that free service would never be on the table.

But after these few months, Qunxing, a game company that has emerged in China with free mobile games, has changed the minds of Liu Wei and others.

It seems...in the country, is the free in-app purchase system more likely to survive?

"The main reason is that the market is different." Xu Xing shrugged helplessly and explained, "If your game is released abroad, then I fully support the buyout system, but the domestic market attributes are here, and user habits have not been cultivated.

Piracy cannot be controlled, and the buyout system is difficult to achieve scale.”

Of course, Xu Xing does not think that there is really no way to implement a buyout system in China.

As long as the national economy continues to develop, the national disposable income continues to rise, the diversification of entertainment methods and the improvement of laws and regulations will further promote the development of the game industry.

The biggest difference between buyout games and free games is that.

Games with a buyout system do not need to consider the user's desire to earn money in the game, they can just make a fun game.

And free-to-play games attract players who don’t want to spend money by relying on free money, which will inevitably create an irreconcilable conflict with players - if you want players to spend money, but players don’t want to, you can only find ways to use various means to make players spend money.

gold.

Because of this, the domestic game industry has developed a completely different path from that of foreign countries, which is to tap into human nature and set up layers of cards through various numerical and prop restrictions, so that players will always be stuck in an uncomfortable game experience.

superior.

Whenever players need to improve their gaming experience, they must first spend money to buy it, otherwise they will have to spend a lot of time playing.

There are even certain levels, certain bosses, certain environments, and certain characters that you can't solve without spending money.

These are irreconcilable conflicts between game companies and players, and the most they can do is find various ways to alleviate them.

"Anyway, let's just do it this time. Maybe there will be a miracle?" Seeing that he was deep in thought, Xu Xing comforted him a little, "Whether it succeeds or not depends on the effect of the day after tomorrow."

"At that time, I have to ask Mr. Xu to take more care of me." Liu Wei said sincerely.

…

After sending Xu Xing and Yan Chiju away, Liu Wei sighed, sat down at his desk, and said to Cai Haoyu, "I'm wondering if the original direction was really wrong? Maybe I really shouldn't insist on the buyout system.

."

"Whether it's right or wrong, there is no room for change." Cai Haoyu was a little more decisive than Liu Wei, "And what Mr. Xu said is just a family opinion. Our main market is the App Store."

"Those who can afford the Pineapple phone, at least their purchasing power is not a problem. The key lies in publicity and promotion."

"The first is the recommendation position on the App Store, the second is the push from the WeChat Game Center, and the third is the promotion to 2D users on Beep."

[A book-chasing app recommended to me by an old book friend I have known for ten years, Yeguo Reading! It is so easy to use. I rely on this app to read and listen to books while driving and before going to bed. You can download it here www. 】

This time they were making a desperate move. Xu Xing had invested one million, but now they had only spent about one hundred thousand, which was the personal salary and daily expenses of several members.

The office space was a reward won in the entrepreneurship competition, but a considerable amount of rent was left.

But in terms of promotion and publicity, Mihuyou has to invest at least hundreds of thousands in order to make some splash in the market.

Even though WeChat belongs to Qunxing Company, after all, Mihuyou is only an investment target of Qunxing Company and is not the parent company. It is impossible to treat them like their own sons.

So even if Mihuyou wants to advertise on WeChat or Tianshu Games, it still has to spend money.

At most it's a little cheaper and a friendly price.

But even if it is a friendly price, given the size of several games currently owned by WeChat and Tianshu, just one open-screen advertisement will cost tens of thousands of yuan a day.

This is the result only for users of Pineapple mobile phones.

If the sales of "Broken Campus" cannot guarantee profitability, then their subsequent research and development funds will only be around 500,000 yuan, and they don't know if they can support the development of the next game.

"With a buyout price of six yuan, our operating costs are not high, and the total cost per month is only tens of thousands of yuan." Liu Wei said, "If the monthly sales volume can be ten to twenty thousand yuan, we can guarantee

break even."

…

"Aren't you optimistic about Mihuyou's game?" Yan Chijue asked strangely after following Xu Xing away, "If they didn't do well, why did you invest in them in the first place?"

In Yan Chijuan's opinion, Xu Xing is a genius in making games, and he is familiar with various game types. In this case, investing in Mihuyou but not interfering with the content of the games really does not seem like Xu Xing's style.

"What I like is people." Xu Xing couldn't tell the real reason, so he could only explain vaguely, "It doesn't matter whether this game makes money or not. As long as their ideas can be changed, it will become what we are doing in the future."

An important weapon for conquering cities and territories in the two-dimensional field.”

Yan Chijiu had long been accustomed to Xu Xing's determination in this aspect, but he still couldn't help but ask: "Then can't we do it ourselves?"

"How do you put this..." Xu Xing was a little confused, "The second dimension has a unique flavor that is difficult for ordinary people to understand. I am not good at this aspect."

After reluctantly deceiving Wanyan Chiju, the two of them returned to the company smoothly in the afternoon.

Yan Chijuan went to prepare for the release of "Junjiu Dressing Diary", while Xu Xing returned to the office, and soon Liao Qinyu was waiting for him.

"Mr. Xu."

"Well, how's it going?"

"Tencent's offer is 1 billion."

"One billion?"

"Yes, a beautiful knife."

"Oh haha." Xu Xing's expression was a little playful, "Then what?"

"I shared this quotation with Alibaba." Liao Qinyu laughed and said, "They gave me a new quotation, which is US$1.2 billion."

"Money is just a number to them. I'm more curious about other conditions." Xu Xing shook his head and asked.

You have to ask whether the billions of dollars are worth it. For ordinary companies, it must be acquired at a premium. After all, WeChat is still only the second largest player in the industry, and there are still hundreds of millions between it and QQ.

differences among users.

But for Tencent and Alibaba, WeChat obviously has strategic significance. For them, more than one billion US dollars is completely within the acceptable range, and even higher is no problem.

"Alibaba is tougher and needs absolute control." Liao Qinyu chuckled, "The advantage is that it will fully import the traffic of Taobao and Alipay into WeChat, open up the accounts of these three parties, and complete social-e-commerce-

The payment triangle stabilizes the ecosystem.”

"As for Tencent, the conditions are quite relaxed. As long as we accept the acquisition, the control will still be handed over to us. We just need to cooperate with Tencent's overall strategy in the general direction, which can be regarded as a supplement to QQ's social ecological niche."

"And Tencent doesn't have to do a complete acquisition. Simple investment can also be discussed. As long as Tencent can hold shares and occupy a seat on the board of directors, it doesn't matter if it doesn't acquire."

After hearing this, Xu Xing smiled and nodded: "It's really a distinctive style."

"Mr. Xu, what's next?" Liao Qinyu asked.

"Go on, don't be in a hurry." Xu Xing said, "How can we not discuss this important negotiation for a month or two?"

"Continue to increase the number on Weibo and reveal the news that Tencent has also joined the acquisition ranks."

"Such a good publicity opportunity cannot be wasted."

…

After watching Liao Qinyu leave, Gong Ao couldn't wait to run into the office and asked Xu Xing for follow-up game development plans with a dissatisfied look on his face.

"Mr. Xu, a new game is about to be launched. What should we say next?"

"When you see a company's new game is about to be launched, you turn around to develop the next project?" Xu Xing looked at him speechlessly, "At least it allows the people under him to relax, and in the future, we will focus on game maintenance and versioning first.

Update first.”

"What about the three directions you mentioned before?"

"Which three?"

"Cards, MOBA, battle royale."

"If you really have nothing else to do, let's get a team together to make a card system first." Xu Xing said after thinking about it, "Exercise your abilities and skills in this area, and then establish specific projects after the New Year."

"No problem!" Gong Ao nodded vigorously, but did not leave. He stood eagerly in front of the desk, glancing at Xu Xing's drawer from time to time.

Xu Xing: "..."

"Okay, okay, I'll give you the planning plan in a few days."

"Okay!"

After hearing Xu Xing's promise, Gong Ao was finally satisfied and left the office obediently.

After finally sending this guy away, Xu Xing smiled helplessly and took out a blank document from the drawer.

And just when Xu Xing was about to write the planning plan from scratch, his phone vibrated.

When I picked it up and looked at it, I found that it was a call from Pei Qinglan himself.

"Hello? Aunt Pei?"

"What should I call you?" Pei Qinglan said with a smile on the other end of the phone, "Mr. Xu?"

"Ahem...it's not like that." Xu Xing said with a smile.

"It doesn't matter, I won't take advantage of you." Pei Qinglan said politely, "In the business world, this is the right call for Mr. Xu."

"Mr. Pei is joking."

Pei Qinglan pondered for a while on the other end of the phone, and then said: "How about we meet for dinner on New Year's Day?"

"Can."

"I will bring someone over when the time comes." Pei Qinglan thought for a moment and then said, "There is someone who wants to meet you."

"Huh?" Xu Xing was a little surprised, "Who is it?"

"Here in the Shanghai stock market, some people are very interested in the founders of local emerging Internet companies." Pei Qinglan said tactfully, "The person who comes to see you is a secretary."

Hearing this, Xu Xing suddenly looked stern.