Back to 1995

Chapter 320
At present, ICQ has basically stabilized, and there is no real competitor yet, and the technology and patents are far ahead of the opponent.

What has to be done is to take advantage of the advantages to raise funds and go public. As for the future, it is hard to say, but within the past two years, ICQ has basically had no rivals.

If the PPT is done well, ICQ may not be able to be blown into the sky like Yahoo and AOL. After all, when the frenzy came, the market value of several Internet companies such as Lycos and Excite exceeded US$[-] billion.

When ICQ goes public, Song Yang will definitely cut a crop of leeks. This may be the last crop of leeks in the next ten years. After the Internet bubble burst, within ten years, the Internet will not be able to harvest leeks.

The manager in charge of the ICQ community and NFT avatar business also reported to Song Yang the revenue of these two major businesses. ICQ, NFT avatars, games, and the portal website are the main revenue businesses that ICQ is preparing for, that is, to make money of.

The ICQ community space has now become a new Internet platform, attracting a group of stars and celebrities to settle in, post their daily life, crew photos, etc. in the ICQ community, and of course sometimes publish advertisements.

Relying on the celebrity effect, the ICQ community has also attracted countless young users, and now the users in the ICQ community are quite active.

"The current advertising revenue of the ICQ community is still not ideal. It mainly depends on the share of advertisements posted by ICQ users. Advertising investors are still hesitant about this advertising model!"

The person in charge of the ICQ space community said that the current advertising model of ICQ is basically the penguin space plus a meager model. The ICQ community space itself places some advertisements, and then stars, etc., will share part of the money earned by advertising in the ICQ community. .

Places such as space communities and forums can only promote soft advertisements. It is impossible to directly place advertisements on web pages like search and portal websites, and force them on users' faces, which will affect the experience too much.

The revenue of the ICQ space community is actually increasing continuously, and now it has even reached the level of tens of millions per month, and more can be spent, so that ICQ can earn more and lose more.

The NFT avatar business has also begun to stabilize now. Except for the NFT avatar auctions every once in a while, the rest is to open paid avatars, that is, users spend ten dollars a month and can use NFTs for one or two months. The avatar is like all kinds of drills of penguins.

Song Yang nodded. Overall, ICQ is not bad. The key is that there is no opponent. This year has not yet reached the time of fierce fighting. Except for the bad luck of Netscape, the rest of the Internet companies are still living a good life. good.

After the other departments of ICQ finished reporting, Ken Williams and his wife also started reporting to Song Yang on behalf of Xueleshan.

After being acquired by ICQ, and after Xueleshan was merged into ICQ, it can be said that people ask for money and give money. I would rather ICQ headquarters starve themselves than starve Xueleshan’s game department. I hope that Xueleshan can support it. ICQ half the sky.

Ken Williams and Roberta, who returned to serve as the president of Sierra Mountain, are both excited and worried. A few years ago, if Sierra Mountain had a club like ICQ, how could it be impossible for Sierra Mountain to continue playing.

What is worrying is that if Xuele Mountain fails to meet the requirements of ICQ, then I don’t know what kind of shock it will cause. After all, the Williams couple have experienced Wall Street-style changes. Today, Song Yang, Irene, etc. People, I have a lot of support for Xueleshan. If I can't give birth to cubs in the future and can't lay eggs, no one knows if I will turn my face at that time.

"Xue Leshan online platform is under development, and it is expected to go online when Blizzard releases "Diablo" before the end of this year!"

Ken Williams said that the Sierra Online platform basically relies on "Diablo" to promote it, allowing users to download Sierra Online on their computers.

Looking at Song Yang, Ken Williams said, "Currently, Xueleshan is acquiring some game copyrights, but Song, once the Xueleshan platform is launched, it may affect the relationship with Sony, Nintendo and other game console platforms. I am afraid that the game retailer will also have opinions!"

Now a new game is released mainly through two channels, one is to sell it on game consoles such as Nintendo, and the other is to sell it on the store shelves of channel providers such as GameStop.

And now, once Xueleshan Online is launched, it will be the third game sales channel. It does not require stores or game consoles, as long as you log in to Xueleshan Online on your computer, you can download games!
This will definitely be a shock to the game industry. Whether it is a game console platform or a game retail store, I am afraid that they will not be so satisfied. I am afraid that Xue Leshan will also have opinions.

Ken Williams is reminding Song Yang that once Sierra Online is launched, it may become a target of public criticism in the game industry.

Hearing this, Song Yang had no expression on his face, "Xue Leshan is definitely going to be online, and this cannot be changed."

"Games under Xueleshan can give game distributors more share, so that they can continue to sell Xueleshan's games!"

This is to change the market with a dollar, and give those game retail channel operators more share, so that they can continue to sell games to Xueleshan.

This method is simple and straightforward. The three major game platforms like Sony, Nintendo, and Sega probably won’t tolerate the emergence of Sierra Online, but other game retailers, probably for the sake of the dollar, will not block Sierra Online!
"The first TGA award ceremony has also been confirmed and will be officially held next year. At that time, the first batch of members of the Global Game Hall of Fame will be announced at the TGA award ceremony!"

Compared with other businesses such as Sierra Online, Ken Williams and his wife have paid more attention to the TGA Awards Ceremony and the Game Hall of Fame. Since these two news came out, in order to win awards and enter the Hall of Fame, the game industry has And countless people found them.

The Williams couple, who returned to Sierra Mountain, now truly experienced the feeling of returning to the power of the game industry. Even those "master" figures in the game industry in the past, when they meet them now, they are also somewhat polite!

"Blizzard will launch two games, Diablo and StarCraft, this year and next. Valve is also developing "Half-Life", which is expected to be released within two years. Rockstar Studios is developing the game "Grand Theft Auto" and Id Games. "Quake 2" is expected to be launched next year!"

Now it’s not just a few big game companies. When they have been sharpening their swords for a few years, in order to prove themselves to their new owners, whether it’s Blizzard, V Agency, or R Star, they are all working hard to develop games, just because they are afraid that the new owners will dismantle them. up.

Xueleshan basically assigned the game development department to the four major game studios of Blizzard, Valve, Rock Star and Id, mainly to start running and publishing games, and also to hold TGA and Game Hall of Fame.

Among them, Blizzard and Id Game Studio have proven themselves, and they are also the most anticipated by ICQ and Xueleshan. They are expected to turn the tide and help ICQ expand its game business.

The two studios of V Agency and Rock Star are purely newcomers, and Song Yang is mainly optimistic about them. But in comparison, Blizzard and Id Games are the ones that represent Xueleshan's facade.

Hearing about the "StarCraft" game, Song Yang couldn't help but think of the e-sports that would only become popular in the next ten years. StarCraft is the originator of e-sports.

"After the launch of StarCraft, Xueleshan Online can launch a game battle platform, allowing players to match each other, and even hold game events, and use bonuses to attract users to participate!"

Hearing the concept of "e-sports" proposed by Song Yang, the Williams couple, as well as the people from the game department who called to participate in this meeting, couldn't help being stunned. This is a prototype of the concept of e-sports, but for games For the industry, it was unprecedented.

In the past, the games were all stand-alone, and only the players faced the game, but Song Yang proposed a brand new concept, in a game, let two players face off? !
People from Blizzard, Rockstar, and V Agency who participated in this meeting couldn't help but start to think about the feasibility of this matter. If it is feasible, it may be a huge change for the game industry.

Song Yang just mentioned it to Ken Williams, holding e-sports now basically does not make money, and in a few decades, it is hard to say that it will make money from that thing, in fact, it is still to promote the game for the sake of popularity .

But wait for a while, when there are more e-sports games, when Half-Life is developed, and the TGA Game Awards Ceremony can become the Oscar of the game industry, then it may not be possible to hold an e-sports event, let StarCraft , Red Alert, Half-Life, etc. became the first batch of e-sports games.

"Currently, the game lab is developing a suitable game engine for Valve's "Half-Life", and I am also developing a general version of the game engine!"

The voice of John Carmack came over the phone. He left the Id game and entered the game laboratory established by ICQ. John Carmack, the top technology expert in the game industry, seemed to be living a good life.

Without the discord between the Id Games Company, the current Sierra Game Lab is basically John Carmack's final say, with ample budget and no one to interfere with his experiments, allowing John Carmack to come up with Many new technologies, especially the game engine, not only improved the game engine for Valve and Blizzard, John Carmack also developed more than a dozen new game technologies, which made the game run faster and have better image quality. quality improvement.

After listening to everyone's report, Song Yang clapped his hands, expressing his approval of ICQ, Xueleshan, John Carmack and others, and then said, "Not only on PC, ICQ and Xueleshan need to do More."

"Alcatel is developing a new generation of mobile phones. I need ICQ and Sierra to develop suitable products and games for Alcatel mobile phones!"

Song Yang explained to Irene, Ken Williams, Wesley, John Carmack and others.

(End of this chapter)