Chapter 459
Edward looked at the two founders of Riot Games expressionlessly, "According to the information I investigated, the two of them have no experience in game production or work experience in a game company, right?"
"How can a company founder with no game production experience produce good games?"
The two founders attended Southern California Business School, and after college, Brandon worked for a large consulting firm and Merrill worked for U.S. Bank.
Later, the two felt bored at work, so they quit their jobs and rented a house to play games together. They also often visited game forums to give various suggestions for games.
Of course, game companies usually take players’ words as nothing, so it’s no surprise that no one paid heed to the suggestions of these two people.
So the two people came up with the idea of making their own games, so they founded Riot Games.
Facing Edward's doubts, Brandon Baker showed a confident smile.
"Because our team has the real father of DOTA, Steve Guinsoo, who created the game DOTA in the true sense."
"He is the person who knows DOTA best. With him leading the project, we can make a better DOTA than the existing version."
"Mr. Edward Damon, the current DOTA is just an RPG map based on "Warcraft". It has great limitations. Blizzard's own Warcraft editor has restricted the development of DOTA."
"And we seized this opportunity and invited Steve Guinsoo to join last year, as well as Tom Cadwell, the chief planner and numerical balancer of "Warcraft III", and we created a DOTA dream team."
"We will completely reshape the entire DOTA game, give it a new body, give it a new life, and perfectly transform into a real DOTA game."
After listening to the other party's story, Edward's expression did not change at all. Like a ruthless capital machine, he asked coldly: "That's all?"
The smile on Brandon Baker's face froze, a little embarrassed, as if his words did not impress the investor in front of him.
Marco Merrill, who was sitting next to him, quickly added: "Our new DOTA game will far exceed the original DOTA in terms of gameplay and modeling. We use a new game engine, which is more advanced than the game engine of "Warcraft". Excellent.”
After hearing this, Edward flipped through the documents in his hand and asked calmly: "What game engine are you using? Is it a mature commercial engine?"
Brandon Baker quickly explained: "Well, it is a game engine developed by us. It is written based on C++. The server side mainly uses C++ to handle game logic and real-time communication. The client's underlying graphics rendering and performance optimization are also mainly written in C++. .”
"I don't know anything about programming." Edward said straightforwardly, "I only care about whether your game engine is mature and whether there are any bugs?"
This question caused the two founders to fall into silence. They couldn't just say that their game engine would be fine.
How could there be no problem? The development has not been completed yet. There are a lot of bugs. Whether the game demo can run is still a problem.
However, Marco Merrill knew that he could not avoid the problem at this time, so he quickly said, "Our technical strength is still very strong, and we have enough ability to improve this engine. It will not become an obstacle to developing games."
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Edward did not comment, but took out another document and glanced at it, "The North American game market is still dominated by console games. At that time, the annual revenue of console games in North America reached 10.7 billion US dollars, while the online game market was only 21 billion, the PC gaming market continues to be undervalued.”
"The consumption habits of mainstream gamers in North America are to play console games and buy CDs. The mature market makes game developers and agents more willing to invest in console games. The game you produced is based on PC-based online games. Overall, it belongs to Niche.”
"From an investment perspective, the risk is high and the market's future expectations are not high. Am I right?"
Everyone in Riot Games fell into silence.
Edward threw the information in his hand back to the assistant and changed to a comfortable sitting position. "I will give you ten minutes now. If you can give me a reason to convince me, I will consider investing."
Brandon Baker perked up, and he and Marco Merrill looked at each other and whispered a few words.
Then Brandon Baker said: "Mr. Edward Damon, do you know the game platform Steam?"
"Of course." Edward nodded.
How could he not understand? For this business, he had acquired a lot of knowledge about the game industry and knew all the game companies in North America.
Especially the steam game platform, which is a project started by my own boss.
"Then you should have noticed how rapidly the steam game platform has developed." Brandon Baker said seriously, "According to our observations, the number of PC game users is also growing rapidly."
"In the past, gamers who wanted to play games had to go to the store to buy discs. If there was a large-scale version update, players had to continue to spend money to buy upgrade packages. Steam has perfectly solved this problem. All games and version updates can be updated. Purchase online through the platform ”
"More importantly, the steam platform has changed the distribution and business model of past games."
"With the changes in distribution and business models, there will definitely be a lot of opportunities in the online game market. The change in distribution model means that with the improvement of network bandwidth, online downloads will replace game discs, and games will be updated frequently. A game can also have a lot of room for expansion beyond its content.”
"At the same time, we will adopt a new business model that is different from the traditional model, a disruptive change. The game itself is free but charged for props."
Edward pondered for a moment and smiled, "The game is free, but the items are charged. It sounds interesting."
The two founders of Riot Games looked happy and looked at Edward with expectation.
"Eight million U.S. dollars, 20% of the shares." Edward gave the offer, "How about? We only get the equity income and do not interfere with the company's operations."
The two people hesitated and couldn't make up their minds for a while.
When Edward saw this situation, he didn't rush him and stood up directly, "Then you think about it slowly and call me when you think about it."
After saying that, Edward took the people away.
Brandon Baker looked very depressed after sending the guests away, and punched the wall, "Farke, just a little bit."
"It's okay, Baker." Marco Merrill persuaded from the side, "We can also find other investments."
Baker said frustratedly: "But TNB's conditions are already the best among them. Other investors don't even have five million US dollars."
"We are running out of time, the bank loan will expire in a few months."
Marco Merrill was at a loss for words. The two established the company with some savings and bank loans.
Since the development of the game requires a large amount of financial support, the progress of the entire game is not satisfactory. Because of the lack of experience, the two people were too optimistic about the difficulty of game development. After half a year of development, Merrill and Brandon almost exhausted their resources. capital.
Now the two have to find various investments to keep the company afloat.
They started looking for investors everywhere, but after seeing their game, no company was willing to invest in them.
At this time, TNB was the only company willing to invest money, and they had no choice.
"OK." Marco Merrill thought for a moment and could only say, "We will call Edward soon and accept his conditions."
……
At this time, Qin Shaoyan and Mingyue were playing in Seattle.
"This is the famous V Club. Half-Life and Counter-Strike are the companies that do this." Qin Shaoyan took Mingyue's hand and introduced himself into V Club.
Looking at the familiar environment in front of him, Qin Shaoyan sighed: "V Club, your emperor is back!"
Soon, warm applause and cheers erupted in the office. Employees who were familiar with Qin Shaoyan gathered together to warmly welcome Qin Shaoyan's arrival.
Qin Shaoyan shook hands with these old friends with a smile and said hello, and at the same time asked his secretary Xiao Chen to hand out the gifts he had prepared in advance.
After all, he is also the CEO of a listed company. A rich man worth half a billion dollars, naturally he cannot come to see an old friend empty-handed.
The gifts are not very expensive, but they are all carefully selected handicrafts. They are exquisite and interesting, so they are naturally loved by everyone.
Qin Shaoyan took Mingyue to the office he had used before. The place remained the same, and there was a sign with Qin Shaoyan's name hanging on the door.
"I was working here in 2003, and it was here that I made my first pot of gold." Qin Shaoyan touched the computer on the table and sighed, "Well, but strictly speaking, this cannot be regarded as the first pot of gold. .”
Mingyue was a little curious, "Where did the first pot of gold come from?"
"Of course it is sponsored by the clothing company." Zhang Pingyi said, "The two bosses who make clothes are really generous."
"What kind of sponsorship? It's donated to charity for the Olympic Games." Qin Shaoyan corrected, "What's wrong with Boss Wang and Boss Tian being enthusiastic about charity?"
"Ah, yes, yes." Zhang Pingyi nodded in agreement.
Qin Shaoyan was too lazy to pay attention to him, and still explained to Mingyue his working experience.
This book was recently updated in ##六@@九@@书@@!! Updated!
As the boss, Fatty G quickly rushed over and enthusiastically hugged and shook hands with Qin Shaoyan.
Because Qin Shaoyan gave him a set of very cool-looking knives, which were designed based on the shape of a knife box designed in a certain Jin Yiwei movie. There were more than a dozen knives hidden in the exquisite wooden machine box.
Fatty G himself likes to collect all kinds of knives, and he loved this gift even more.
As soon as you press the switch, the mechanism box pops up and unfolds by itself, revealing the knife hidden inside. Just like Transformers, no one can resist it.
"John, I love the gift you gave me so much. It's a perfect piece of art." Fatty G rubbed his hands together excitedly, "I'll have someone customize a display cabinet right away, and I'm going to put it on display in the hall. ”
"As long as you like it." Qin Shaoyan said with a smile.
"I haven't had time to congratulate you yet. Congratulations on your company's listing." Fatty G said with emotion.
Qin Shaoyan was a college student who couldn't afford a plane ticket three years ago, but now he is the president of a listed company, a wealthy man worth billions of dollars.
But this rich man is still his good friend, the kind of good friend who can bring wealth.
"Thank you." Qin Shaoyan asked casually, "How's it going? Is everything going well lately?"
"Everything is fine." Fatty G raised his wrist and looked at his watch. "I have asked George to pick up the ice frog. They will not be here in an hour. Do you want to go and see our new project first?"
"Of course."
George came back much faster than expected. More than half an hour later, he walked into V Club with a young and tall guy.
Different from the common stereotypes, this ice frog, the real soul of DOTA, is neither an obese otaku nor an IT nerd wearing glasses. Instead, he is very cheerful and lively.
He accepted the invitation of V agency as a guest and came to Seattle from Los Angeles.
As soon as Bingwa entered V Club, he noticed that there was an atmosphere of joy everywhere in the company. It seemed that everyone in the company was very happy.
Then he followed George into the reception room and met Gabe Newell, the boss of V Agency, the famous producer of "Half-Life".
In addition to Fatty G, there were two Chinese people sitting in the reception room, looking at him constantly.
"Hello, Mr. Ice Frog." Fatty G shook hands with him, "This is John, and his friend Zhang."
After the introduction, Fat G sat down and stopped talking. George did all the talking and communication.
"We invite you here this time because we want to discuss the game DOTA." George said straight to the point.
"What do you want to do?" Ice Frog asked.
"Mr. Ice Frog." The Chinese named John suddenly said, "Have you had any contact with Blizzard officials?"
"There has been contact." Ice Frog asked in confusion, "How did you know?"
"I guessed it." The other party smiled, "Formal introduction, my name is Qin Shaoyan, you can also call me John, or Qin."
"Mr. Qin, what else did you guess?"
"I guessed a lot." Qin Shaoyan said with a smile, "You have been involved in the production and maintenance of DOTA since last year. You love this game very much and have invested a lot of time and effort."
"And we have to endure various restrictions brought by the Warcraft editor, as well as various inexplicable BUGs."
"Although the gameplay of DOTA seems to be very mature now, you know very well that there is still a huge gap between DOTA and completeness."
"It is not official, there is no disconnection and reconnection without third-party software support, there is no automatic matching, and there is no friend system..."
"It doesn't have anything players need."
"Of course, I know this is not your problem. It's not that you don't want to provide these, but that you are unable to provide them."
Qin Shaoyan added, "DOTA was supposed to be an independent game, but now it has to be parasitic on another game. How sad this is."
"As the father of DOTA, you don't want to see it go down like this, right?"
"So, looking for cooperation with Blizzard is your first choice."
"You're right." Ice Frog readily admitted, "I did contact Blizzard, and they are willing to provide me with a job."
"With all due respect, Mr. Ice Frog." Qin Shaoyan said unceremoniously, "This is a wrong decision. You will not get what you want."
"Why do you say that?" Ice Frog frowned.
"Blizzard doesn't care about DOTA, and they won't fulfill your wish to turn it into an independent game." Qin Shaoyan said with a sneer, "It's really in their interests to keep DOTA parasitic on Warcraft."
"Do you really expect Blizzard to help you?"
"Blizzard has more experience in game production." Ice Frog replied.
"We have more than Blizzard." Qin Shaoyan said confidently, "Give up on Blizzard as an unrealistic partner. Only we can help you."
“We have the platform with the most users, the most advanced game engine, and sufficient R&D funds. We will completely reshape the entire DOTA game, give it a new body, give it a new life, and perfectly transform it into a real DOTA game. .”
"Join us and you can give DOTA a better future."
(End of chapter)