Top of the big era

Companies must be cautious when airborne executives.

If things go well in China and Zhou Buqi has enough prestige, the direct line executives will fully support his transfer orders and personnel arrangements, and they will respect him from top to bottom.

It's different in the United States, where Zhou Buqi needs richer management skills.

Previously, Ziweixing had a game studio here in Silicon Valley, and it hired creative director Bin Gordon from EA to serve as president. This time Ziweixing established a game business group, and it stands to reason that Bin Gordon should be promoted to the president of the business group.

But the level of this position is too high.

Moreover, he has to manage many studios across regions. Bin Gordon does not have enough management experience, so he may not be able to do it well. Recruiting Don Mattrick from Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Division is the best choice!

Even the only option!

Because the two of them were old acquaintances and had a very good relationship.

By the way, why did Bin Gordon join a small friend game studio at the end of 2007? Are you going to start a social web game with unknown prospects?

The answer is Don Mattrick is out!

That's right, Don Mattrick was once the senior vice president and chief creative officer of EA. He was originally the leader of Bin Gordon. He was poached by Microsoft in July 2007.

This led to the resignation of a large number of EA's game creative officers, including Bin Gordon.

When Zhou Buqi chose Don Mattrick, he also conducted a detailed background check on him, and he increasingly felt that he was the president of Ziweixing International Game Business Group.

Do your part!

This man is 45 years old this year, but his style is still the same as before. He often likes to go out racing, and his passion and impulse have not faded. He is a luxury car enthusiast. He dropped out of school at the age of 17 to start his own game company. With the first money he earned, he bought himself a Ferrari.

At the age of 26, his company was acquired by EA, and he joined EA accordingly. With more resources, he could carry out more game design.

The first game he led the design of was the famous "Need for Speed".

Because he is a luxury car enthusiast.

this point is very important.

Compared with computer games or feature phones, the biggest feature of smartphones is that they can have more device functions and add sensors.

This adds a lot of interesting operability to smartphone games, and racing games are a typical example.

Zhou Buqi spent a year in London and accepted invitations from the British authorities to participate in various game industry symposiums. He has a deep understanding of British game companies.

This is the advantage.

It is necessary for Ziweixing to go to the UK to acquire a game company, Codemasters, which is quite famous in the UK. The core product of this company is racing games!

This is a British gaming company, and CVC, the controller of the F1 event, is a British investment institution, so cooperation is easy.

The "F1" series of racing games authorized and designated by the F1 event are produced and launched by this company.

This is one of them.

Second, after EA rose to the top and gained more real power, Don Mattrick reformed many of EA's well-known games, such as "The Sims."

"The Sims" was originally just a small game that allowed players to build houses.

But he insisted that "the people in the house are more important than the house itself" and set the game to be people-centered. People in the game should have different behaviors, postures, appearances and even sounds and emotions, turning the mini-game into a world-famous game.

This kind of experience is also very beneficial to the development of another major game "Minecraft" that Zhou Buqi is interested in.

The third is sports games.

When Don Mattrick first started his business, he was making a baseball game called Hardball. Later, he joined EA and began to lead the reform of two games, "Madden Football" and "FIFA Football".

It is his credit that "FIFA Football" can gradually catch up from a market position that is far behind "Pro Evolution Football".

For Ziweixing, football games must be an unavoidable hurdle!

It must be combined with the business of Ziweixing Digital Media!

With these three advantages, coupled with a lot of information provided by the headhunter, Zhou Buqi basically decided that he would be in charge of Ziweixing's game business without seeing Don Mattrick.

However, interviews are a two-way street.

The two met at a Starbucks coffee shop near Building 78 of Microsoft's headquarters.

Zhou Buqi was sitting on the second floor of the coffee shop. He could see the new building area under construction in the distance, and he couldn't help but sigh at the size of the big company. It was really big.

There are more than 100 office buildings for the headquarters alone.

Don Mattrick dared to meet outsiders at the headquarters, which showed that his mind was already wandering. However, he and Zhou Buqi still looked forward to the development of mobile Internet games and the development direction of Ziweixing's game business.

Zhou Buqi said: "The changes in the Internet era are getting faster and faster, and even technology giants like Microsoft have a sense of being eliminated by the times. This feeling will become stronger and stronger after the arrival of the mobile Internet. But I can be sure , Microsoft will definitely not fall behind. It’s not because Microsoft can keep up with the development of the times, but because Microsoft’s vertical business is too deep, which is the foundation of Microsoft.”

Don Mattrick immediately understood, "Is Ziweixing doing the game business also for vertical development?"

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "The game business is a horizontal expansion of Ziweixing's business, and it is also a vertical extension. Just like Facebook, this is a social company, but Facebook's open platform has become the largest game gathering area. These web games It enhances the vitality and vitality of Facebook."

Don Mattrick nodded, "Ziweixing's core area is social interaction."

Zhou Buqi said: "Indeed, we may compete with Facebook in the next few years. However, Facebook does not seem to be changing fast enough under the new situation. Ziweixing must be the first to respond and attack."

Ziweixing International currently has two social products, Helo and YikYak.

There will be no competition with Facebook in the short term.

But in the long run, the two sides must be inseparable competitors.

How can we ensure that Ziweixing remains invincible?

It is a strategy to use the breadth of business to cross-subsidize the ecosystem. Another way is to dig into the business and dig the moat deeper.

Just like WeChat.

There are so many chat software, why do you have to use WeChat? In addition to user relationships, WeChat also digs deeper into WeChat's business. Once you jump in, it is impossible to jump out, such as friends circle, quick payment, mini programs and other functions.

Zhou Buqi wanted to invite the other party to Ziweixing International to serve as vice president and co-president of the game business group. This is a proper M6 level executive. As the business develops, he will also have the opportunity to join the decision-making committee.

For such an important executive, it is impossible to trick him into entering Ziweixing through deception.

You can only tell the truth and rely on sincerity and a huge and far-sighted strategic plan to attract him.

Don Mattrick asked: “Does MSI have any cross-business advantages in making games?”

"That's too much!" Zhou Buqi laughed, "Let's talk about the main business. Compared with computer games and feature machine games, smartphone games have two major advantages, portability and linkage. Computers can be linked , but not portable; feature phones are convenient, but cannot be effectively linked. This provides a new direction for smartphone games, that is, real-time strategy games with multi-player battles or multi-player rankings."

"Integrated with social products?"

"Yes, at present, YikYak's development momentum in Europe and the United States is not as good as expected, but Helo's development trend is very good. As long as there is platform support from a strong social user group, some highly interactive casual games can rely on social networking Friend relationships on the platform develop reciprocally.”

"Um."

Don Mattrick nodded.

This is not surprising.

The games on Facebook's open platform have this kind of business model, except that they are doing it on the PC side. Ziweixing did not choose "overtaking in corners", but chose "changing lanes to overtake", eyeing the track of mobile Internet.

Zhou Buqi continued: "Ziweixing is not a company, it is an Internet industry group. Its subsidiaries include Ziweixing Sports Digital Media Company, headquartered in London. The current main business direction is football, and it may expand to more sports industries in the future. penetration."

"Ziweixing Digital Media?" Don Mattrick responded quickly, "Football game?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Yes, Ziweixing Digital Media will become the largest football Internet community. Promoting football games on this platform will be a very important industry linkage. As far as I know, sports and competitive games are games A big hit in the industry, and football games are at the top of the list."

"That's right."

"Third, the Aster mobile phone is actually a product of Ziweixing's holding company. It has in-depth cooperation with Google and is the world's first Android-based smartphone. With such a platform, Ziweixing's games can gain huge resource tilt in the short term. "

Don Mattrick took a deep breath, "Ziweixing is a giant company no less than Microsoft!"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Also, Ziweixing Global. Well, it's very popular in the media now, have you heard about it?"

Don Mattrick raised his eyebrows, "Movie company?"

"Absolutely." Zhou Buqi smiled, "Film, television, music and games are all creative industries. They are essentially the same, so they can promote each other."

"Make a movie!"

Don Mattrick's spirits immediately rose.

Many well-known games in the gaming industry have been made into movies, which is a huge achievement for gaming. The influence of Hollywood movies is far greater than that of video games, and their social status is also higher.

The games developed under his leadership have never received such treatment. This is an attractive yearning and expectation.

Hollywood not only appeals to ordinary people, but also to celebrities and successful people.