Top of the big era

Zhou Buqi made a phone call and called Lawrence, the president of Manchester United's commercial business, from London to Manchester, intending to talk about the share buyback and the top-level planning of the Manchester United Hotel.

While Lawrence was preparing, Zhou Buqi really responded to Sun Wanran’s call and, together with a group of people from the city hall, investigated the local gaming industry in Manchester.

The authorities take this very seriously.

The mayor is busy in the morning, but he has already said that he will come to accompany him in the afternoon.

This is a big deal for Manchester.

The British gaming industry ranks first in Europe. The European headquarters of many multinational gaming giants are basically located in the UK. It has the most talents, the best industrial policies, and the most advanced infrastructure.

Undersea optical fiber communication is mainly between Britain and the United States.

Then, with the United Kingdom as the hub, it opened up the relationship between the United States and the European continent, which is a strategically important location.

However, most gaming giants focus on London.

These other game cities, such as Manchester, Brighton, Guildford, Liverpool, Yorkshire, etc., have more local game development companies. Multinational game companies generally only have operations departments here, but no development departments.

The core area of ​​the game industry is development.

The so-called operations department is after a game is successfully developed and recognized by the market. These operations personnel are responsible for stably promoting the game to users.

Game development is the real creative industry; game operations are more of a blue-collar position.

To see whether a local game industry is strong or not, it mainly depends on the game development capabilities of the region. For example, between the two game companies Perfect and The9, who is stronger? Of course, it is perfect, because "Perfect World" is a self-developed game, and The9's games are just agents of foreign games for domestic operation.

Game development talents are the top talents in the game industry.

For Manchester, in order to develop the local gaming industry, the first step is to retain outstanding gaming talents.

How to retain these game development talents?

We must provide them with suitable, competitive and good positions.

Some of the local game studios are not good enough.

Changyou is different.

This is a world-class gaming giant. Especially since its launch this year, it has been in the limelight. If it can be introduced to Manchester, it will be a huge driving force for the local gaming industry.

Boss Zhou is the most cherished entrepreneurial resource of the Manchester authorities.

In fact, as early as two years ago, Zhou Buqi had conducted a general survey of the British game industry and was deeply impressed, so he urged Lao Zhang to quickly lead Changyou to the UK.

Things are different now. Zhou Buqi is about to take charge of Changyou himself. He has to go deeper into the fields to understand more detailed industrial conditions.

Especially Manchester.

Manchester United is here, it's special here.

Accompanying him in the investigation was a young man named Jason Fiennes. He was handsome, wearing a suit and had a tall figure. He was even one year younger than Zhou Buqi.

But he is already the director of the Greater Manchester Gaming Industry Planning and Development Committee.

The first stop is the University of Manchester.

The largest on-campus game research center in the UK has been established here to promote the development of the local game industry.

It’s too detailed and I can’t see too much. The main thing is to have a clear picture of Manchester’s gaming industry.

Jason Fiennes, as the official spokesperson, mainly interpreted it from the policy level, "In the UK, most game development activities can be defined as scientific research."

The two parties left the University of Manchester and went to a local game studio for research.

Zhou Buqi asked with a smile: "I heard the policy is very good."

"Of course, the UK was the first country to propose creative industries, and this goes back to the time of Margaret Thatcher. The UK has the best policy in the world in this field. At that time, Japan had a tendency to catch up with the UK in the creative field, and a series of Driven by policies, the UK has firmly consolidated its second position in the world."

Jason Fiennes is like a treasure trove.

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Can you tell me more specifically?"

Jason said: "For game development, the main ones are tax exemptions and patent bonuses. The British government will spend 50 million pounds every year to support the research and development of patents in the game industry."

"Give money directly?"

"Not only will it give money, but it will also reduce taxes."

"Isn't there any cheating?"

"ah?"

Jason Fiennes was slightly startled, as if he didn't quite understand what he meant.

Zhou Buqi really felt the ignorance of local officials, "The threshold for game development patents is so low, and there are subsidies for applying for patents. Are there some studios that specialize in applying for subsidies and tax refunds as their main business?"

Jason smiled and said, "It should happen, but it won't affect the overall situation."

"Um?"

"There are still many subsidies and industry support funds. In addition to the Ministry of Finance, there are also the Bureau of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Culture, Information and Sports, universities and gaming associations, and dozens of non-governmental public groups."

"How much money?"

Zhou Buqi stopped saying "people are stupid" in the second half of the sentence at the right time.

"It's understandable." Jason nodded, "Just like the film industry, many Hollywood blockbusters are produced in the UK, just for tax rebates and subsidies. It is inevitable that there will be some scammers, but it does not affect the overall situation. With enough money and wide social participation, even if there are scammers, it will be difficult to defraud the entire industry. Scamming a small amount of money is nothing."

Zhou Buqi comes from the domestic technology industry, and he has seen too many tricks here. Those who work hard and down-to-earth cannot make money, only liars can make money.

However, given his status, he would not be able to play tricks like deception.

But through the trick of deception, a new direction was found to lead the development of Changyou.

The simplest trick is to imitate.

Bring some code or design drawings from abroad, modify them a little, and then apply for a patent, so you can cheat. Many domestic technology companies do this.

For the British game industry, it is entirely possible to take advantage of Changyou's international layout of games, adapt some Korean games, and games from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and apply for patents in the UK.

Zhou Buqi doesn't bother to do such a low-level act of exploiting loopholes.

How much money can I get by cheating?

The British fiscal year's patent subsidy to the gaming industry is only 50 million pounds.

But this model provides a new idea.

It’s the creative inspiration provided by the information gap!

The vast majority of games have distinct localization characteristics. Only a handful of games can break through cultural and geographical barriers and become popular all over the world.

Those games that can only take root in the country will create an information gap for other countries.

For example, many games in Japan.

These games can only be sold in Japan and are not known to overseas markets. Many excellent games can only survive locally.

However, there are always some merits in these games, right?

Bring it to the British market, let local game design talents delve into it, explore it, use an imitation mentality to change it, look for inspiration... and it will become a local game.

You can learn from each other's strengths.

In the creative industry, the most difficult thing is creativity.

It’s much easier to imitate.

Find a template, even if it is modified beyond recognition, but with a template as a reference, many design inspirations and ideas will emerge like a fountain.

In this regard, China is very good at it.

Including domestic self-developed games such as "Dragon" and "Perfect World", they actually have the shadow of many Korean online games and American online games.

It's not so good here in Europe, it's too rigid.

When it comes to game development, you really start from scratch... Even if there are some small companies that imitate, they usually look for imitators in Europe. When a British game company sees a German game becoming popular, they quickly imitate it; when a French game company sees a Swedish game becoming popular, they will also produce a similar game.

There is a relatively large gap between Asian games and European games.

This information gap provides a reason to learn from each other, learn from each other, and imitate each other, and it provides a source of inspiration.

There is no need to "imitate patents" to cheat.

"Imitating the game" to win the market is a normal business operation.

As for copyright disputes...

That would be easier

Zhou Buqi has long planned that after he takes charge of Changyou, he will use his strong financial resources to take advantage of the current downturn in the global game market to launch a strategy of buying and selling.

Go to South Korea to buy a company, and then imitate its games to the UK, buy a company in France, and then imitate its games to Japan... They are all copying themselves, how can there be any copyright disputes?

Previously in China, the great master Ren Yuxin, who was poached from Penguin Games, expressed similar views.

However, what he is talking about is South Korea and Japan acquiring a large number of game studios and then adapting them to the domestic market.

Zhou Buqi accepted this concept from a larger perspective, and it can be implemented all over the world.

Creativity is so hard.

Many times, people will be limited to their own limited fields and cannot break through. Let alone break through to the infinite. If they cannot even touch the edge, it is difficult to generate creativity.

At this time, dragging the ideas from other finite elements into your own finite element may bring about a burst of inspiration.

The technological and creative industries in China have made rapid progress in recent years, and this is basically what they do. When new features are launched on the iPhone, the lowest way is to copy them exactly the same.

A smarter way is to find new inspiration based on the idea proposed by the iPhone.

The iPhone has launched fingerprint unlocking, and you have also launched fingerprint unlocking. This is called plagiarism. But if you follow the direction of smart unlocking and find new solutions and launch iris unlocking, it is innovation, and you can even apply for a patent.

Creativity is so hard to find.

If Changyou wants to quickly capture the market during the changing times, it must launch enough games... If creativity cannot keep up, it is necessary to find an executable direction of "creative industrialization".

What happens next, we’ll talk about it later.

We need to start quickly in the short term.

Capture the market.