Investment Life

I chatted with Mike about some details, and the phone rang suddenly. Chen Yuanming took a glance at the phone, smiled and apologized to Mike, and quickly walked out of the living room full of people, and picked up the phone in the other corner of the suite. phone.

"Merry Christmas!"

The voice from the phone was full of laughter and joy from the heart, which made Chen Yuanming laugh too.

"It's more than half of Christmas over there, isn't it?"

There is a 13-hour difference between China and the United States during non-daylight saving time, and it is already noon on the 25th in Beijing today.

"It's not Christmas here, so it's only meaningful to tell you now." Xiao Junyi smiled slightly, "Why, listening to the movement on your side, it's lively right now?"

Even if he went to the corner, he couldn't stop the laughter from the room.At this time, it was midnight, Christmas finally came, and it was also the time when "Diablo" officially began to be sold. The noise in the whole room could almost blow off the roof, and the nose was full of the sweet smell of alcohol and cake.

"I'm with the Blizzard group. The new game is released today, and I've been tossing all night." Different from the noise in the room, the voice on the phone seems to come from another world, quiet, calm, and full of warmth , like the sunshine in winter in Beijing.Chen Yuanming leaned against the wall and brought the receiver closer, as if he wanted to feel the warmth from inside.

"I didn't expect you to be so interested in the game, and this time you are going to make a big deal again?" Xiao Junyi chuckled, he still couldn't understand Chen Yuanming's enthusiasm for the game, this is not the person's usual investment style.However, surprisingly cute, it also makes him look more in line with his age.

"There are not many things that are interesting and costly." Chen Yuanming relaxed and changed his stance. "What about you? Now you are finally back in Beijing."

For more than a month, Xiao Junyi has indeed not been idle. The work of the company's southward relocation is more complicated than imagined. He has also traveled to Hangzhou. The exhausted journey and the time difference between the two sides have no chance to calm down and say a few words. many.However, no matter how drained their energy is, hearing the voice of their lover will bring a little relief. Although they have not entered the information age, cables and satellites still build bridges for them, so that they will not really separate.

"Well, I'm going to take another look at the development of Hongshang. After the Spring Festival in Beijing, I will go south to pave the way for the new factory."

"Then we may have more chances to meet next year." Chen Yuanming smiled, "Next year, the game company plans to relocate part of the game to China, and the place booked now is Suzhou, which is not too far away."

"It's not far away." Xiao Junyi's smiling eyes couldn't help but curl up, "It's only a 2-3 hour drive. Now that you say it like that, my heart starts to itch."

"Then itching for another two days." Chen Yuanming said calmly, raising the corners of his lips, "After finishing the annual meeting in North America, I will try my best to return to Beijing on the 30th."

"Spend New Year together?"

"Wash it up and wait for me."

Both calm and ambiguous, this time the heart is not just itchy, but thumping.Xiao Junyi suddenly hated those noisy movements on the phone, if possible, he would rather be the one staying there.

He let out a sigh of relief, and there was a bit of complaint in his voice, "This is really hard..."

Not bad these days.But Chen Yuanming really couldn't say such a thing.Same as Xiao Junyi, at this very moment, hearing his voice on the other side of the earth is really hard.

"As soon as possible……"

"Don't." Xiao Junyi smiled and shook his head, "With your hard work, you don't know what you're going to do soon. I'll wait for you, and call me before you come back."

"it is good."

"You boy."

There was a moment of silence in the microphone, neither of them spoke, just letting the other's breath echo in their ears.In the end, a chuckle came from the opposite side, "If you are crazy enough, go to bed early, Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas."

An overseas phone call only takes a few minutes.Chen Yuanming hung up the phone, let out a long breath, and walked towards the group of boys who had already fallen out.

Seeing Chen Yuanming's figure from a distance, Allen whistled sharply, "Chen! There's news from the store, 500 copies have been sold!"

"Good news." The smile on Chen Yuanming's face has not faded, "It will exceed the sales volume of Warcraft 2."

"Yes!", "Of course!" Several voices shouted loudly at the same time.

Ignoring the annoying group of booing spirits, Mike approached Chen Yuanming with two glasses of wine, and smiled, "It was your girlfriend's call just now?"

Chen Yuanming took the wine and raised his eyebrows, "Is it so obvious?"

"Hey, it's not like I haven't been in love before! Just your expression..." Mike made a face, "But that girl is really lucky..."

"Lucky is me." Chen Yuanming interrupted the other party's words, raised the wine glass in his hand, "for luck."

"For Blizzard!"

The wine glasses collided with each other, and there was a pleasant whisper.

Although it was still in the long Christmas holiday, Chen Yuanming sat down with the person in charge of Blizzard and Eagle's Nest the next day to discuss the eastward advancement of the game industry.

Nowadays, the domestic animation industry is not indifferent to the animation industry. On the contrary, since 1995, the Central Propaganda Department and the Press and Publication Administration have jointly launched a Chinese children's animation publishing project code-named 5155, which is to strive to establish five animations within two or three years. Publishing base, focusing on publishing 5 sets of large-scale series of children's animation books, and creating 15 children's animation publications.

It is also because the animations from Japan and the United States have begun to be imported in large quantities in the past two years, which has attracted the attention of the upper echelons to the industry.However, in Chen Yuanming's impression, this action did not seem to have caused any waves. In his memory, there are only products such as Blue Cat and Xiyangyang left in China. Not to mention international competitiveness, even a complete industrial chain does not exist. .No matter what happened in the middle, it is clear that there has been a break in China's animation industry.Combined with the ban on the sale of game consoles, and the unrelenting crackdown on game halls and computer halls, the entire game industry has become a "poisonous weed" after 2000, and the previous fire has been completely extinguished.

After the Internet really started to develop, China's computer halls had only online games from the United States and South Korea.

On the one hand, it is the hot pursuit of the upper class, and on the other hand, there are all kinds of pirated game discs in Zhongguancun, and the huge group of online games in the computer hall that play CS, Red Police, Warcraft and even later generations of online games all night.In between, there is no room for China's original game industry to struggle unless pirates and computer hall owners are fattened up.

If you want to establish an industry, the most important thing is to let people taste the sweetness.In the optical disc industry, he succeeded once. In the animation and game industry, he may not be able to change his mind and do it again.

like what he wants to do now...

"Just animation?" Mike asked suspiciously.

Chen Yuanming shook his head lightly, "Animation first."

Chen Yuanming's suggestion is different from Blizzard's imagination, but the root of the problem lies in the fact that today's computer games don't use too many artists.Everything is still in the most primitive and rough state. On the one hand, the computer hardware is obviously not up to the standards of later generations, and on the other hand, it is also because everyone is not focused on the picture effect.From the perspective of Blizzard, the demand for "artists" can be reduced to a minimum.

But Chen Yuanming felt that it would be a good choice to add some video promotional trailers to Blizzard from now on.The picture is rough, but there is still room for imagination, and it is this enrichment of the plot that gives Blizzard games more charm.In this pre-computer game era, maybe it would be a good attempt.

Hearing this suggestion, several Blizzard leaders who attended the meeting immediately whispered to each other.

After a while, Mike still nodded, "Now Blizzard needs as close contact and cooperation as possible in terms of programs. Outsourcing is not as convenient as hiring new employees. But animation is indeed a feasible direction. The effect of the promotional animation before the release of Diablo It’s very good, if it can reach a certain level and has enough cost performance, it will be a good choice. In this way, when we release the new expansion pack, we can release some animation plots.”

Although many, many years earlier, this idea does fit into Blizzard's operating model.Chen Yuanming nodded, "Nowadays, there are already some animation outsourcing factories along the coast of China—although most of them are set up by Taiwanese—there are also a lot of European and American animations, and they have already established some foundations. First, set up the shelf and build a base. , and then move on to a deeper level.”

As he said that, he turned to look at the person in charge of Eagle's Nest who was sitting on the side, "There are quite a few companies on the market that want to transplant games, right?"

Eagle’s Nest came this time with Mr. Swaer, an important member of the sales department, and he nodded, “Eagle’s Nest has acquired many potential game studios, and most of these studios want to develop their own original games. Games, so some low-end transplant works have vacated the market. For example, transplanting to FC, or Sony’s new PS, or even some small games adapted from comics and movies. There is still a lot of room in the market now. There is a lot of potential for development.”

"That's right." Chen Yuanming smiled slightly, "Let's start by outsourcing small games like this first, and then start to expand the battle line after half a year or a year. Feiyan's game console is currently under development, and it will be launched next year if nothing unexpected happens." , making more masterpieces for our own hosts at that time is also a very important part. Let's use all available forces to develop the Chinese market together."

In fact, this kind of outsourcing is also harmful to the current American game industry.In this sunrise industry, there are still too many small studios relying on porting and adapting games to make money and accumulate experience. Both Blizzard and Northern Blizzard have done similar work.Just like LV100 without any heroes appearing on the stage, this kind of adaptation is also an indispensable link in the game industry chain.Now that their jobs are going to be taken away by the Chinese, many American studios that make a living from this will start to starve.

But neither Blizzard nor Eagle's Nest care much about it.They are, after all, real businessmen, not philanthropists.If you can promote the development of your own company faster and better, why care about how those small studios survive?Perhaps instead, there will be a new impetus for those talented people to join their own families.

Now what Chen Yuanming proposed is exactly what they need.With this premise, there will be no obstacles in the negotiation.The final foothold is the expected Suzhou Economic Development Zone, where a group of mature animation outsourcing teams have gathered. As long as they can operate properly, whether they can train people is the second priority, and profitability is absolutely inevitable.And when a company makes a profit, more people will invest in this industry. Chinese people have never lacked a herd mentality. As long as this mentality reaches a certain height and popularity, it will naturally become the soil and opportunity for originality to sprout.

Now that the Win95 system has been launched in China, it's time for genuine game discs to enter the mainland market and grab some space from the crazy pile of pirated game cards.