Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 455 The Two Giants of Korean Gaming
Shinji Kikuno had already learned about Nexon's details through the group's branch in South Korea.

So after a few polite words, he got straight to the point.

"President Kim, I have a rough understanding of your company's 'Kingdom of the Wind' and 'Dark Continent'."

"Although it is relatively simple to play, it is perfect for novice players in countries with underdeveloped gaming industries."

"I just don't know, what is President Kim's estimated value to the company?"

Shinji Kikuno didn't care at all about revealing to Kim Jung-soo that the Starhae Group was more interested in his company.

Given Nexon's current price, even if Kim Jung-soo wanted a higher valuation, he couldn't ask for an exorbitant amount.

Whether it's a few million more or a few million less, it's all small change for Starsea Entertainment.

Although his main focus was on acquiring game companies, his primary purpose was actually to investigate the situation in South Korea and prepare for the group's next moves there.

With limited time, there was naturally not much time to waste on Kim Jung-soo.

"Could we wait a moment and discuss this together?"

Kim Jung-soo was taken aback by Kikuno Shinji's decisiveness.

Although he had discussed the terms of investment with his subordinates, given the current situation, it seemed that he could get a little more money, so he naturally decided to wait.

"Of course, that's how it should be."

Shinji Kikuno nodded in understanding, and then continued.

"I'll say it again: Xinghai Games has high hopes for your company, so we'd like to be more open with each other."

After speaking, Shinji Kikuno glanced at Kalinsky and left the rest of the conversation to his deputy.

After receiving the hint, Kalinsky simply handed a document to Kim Jung-soo.

"These are our investment conditions; there are only two."

"First, the stake in Xinghai Games must be no less than 30%."

"Secondly, games developed by Nexon are published and operated by Starsea Games in overseas markets."

Nexon's most valuable asset is its overseas game operation rights, which Starsea Games must firmly hold onto.

For this reason, Starsea Games is willing to spend an additional $10 billion.

Of course, this is just a metaphor.

Given Nexon's current size, even if Kim Jung-soo were to ask for an exorbitant amount, he wouldn't dare raise the company's valuation to the hundreds of millions level.

Yes, although Nexon is the largest game company in South Korea, its valuation is still less than $1 million, or even less than $5000 million.

This is the main reason why Shinji Kikuno didn't use any tricks and went straight to the point.

It's really not worth getting bogged down in a few million.

"We have already established a branch office in the United States and are operating 'Kingdom of the Wind'."

Kim Jung-soo was reluctant to part with the company's revenue in the United States, and he looked embarrassed.

"Okay, then, how about game publishing rights outside of North America?"

Kalinsky was very optimistic about the American online gaming market, but he had received instructions from his own chairman to simply give up that part of the profits.

Although he couldn't understand why the Chinese market was more important than the American market in the chairman's eyes, it didn't matter; in the end, the chairman would definitely be right.

Yes, in just over a year, Kalinsky was also influenced by the corporate culture of Xinghai Group and firmly believed that Masato Takeshita was omnipotent and infallible.

As for the fact that my ideas differ from the president's, it must be because I haven't thought things through properly.

"Okay, there shouldn't be any problems."

Kim Jung-soo is one of the few founders of South Korean game companies who has an international perspective.

Last year, a branch was established in the United States, and a branch will be established in Japan next year. Later, they even established an independent distribution company in China through a roundabout approach.

However, considering the company's current development status and the fact that the Asian financial crisis was still raging in South Korea, he finally struggled to agree.

Even the grandest dreams require practical steps.

He was worried that if he missed this opportunity, his company would lose its number one position in South Korea.

Yes, Kim Jung-soo has seen through Starsea Group's investment strategy in the South Korean gaming industry.

It doesn't matter who's number one in South Korea right now; in the end, the one that accepts investment from Starsea Group will definitely be the number one game company in South Korea.

The logic is simple: Xinghai Group's vast capital and resources enable its invested game companies to poach talent from other game companies and even acquire them.

He had already lost a genius, and now the rest of the company's game producers were also resigning one after another.

At that point, let alone creating new games, even maintaining existing games will likely be a challenge.

However, considering the future, he left an opening, hoping to acquire a few more market segments.

For example, in China, Nexon will also be directly responsible for the future.

"As expected of the founder of South Korea's largest game company, President Kim has a keen eye for talent."

Having achieved his goal, Kalinsky naturally didn't hold back his flattery.

This is the best free way to increase the success rate of acquiring shares, and he liked to use it even before joining Xinghai Group.

"No, we're just a small company."

"That's not important. The most important thing in the gaming industry is creativity. As long as there is creativity, even a small company can quickly become a giant."

"Isn't Square Enix's story the best proof?"

When Kalinsky acquires new game companies, he likes to talk about Square's development story.

On the one hand, it proves the wisdom and strength of Xinghai Group, as the companies it invests in can all achieve great progress.

On the other hand, it was also to dispel the company founder's wariness of Xinghai Group.

The vast majority of entrepreneurs value control over their companies highly.

They firmly believe that the company is only a true business when it is in their own hands.

In the future of China's gaming industry, the most typical examples should be NetEase and miHoYo.

Of the two companies, one is listed, but it's as if it's not.

Because Ding Lei owns a majority stake in NetEase, no one can challenge him.

As for miHoYo, they simply choose not to go public.

In this way, the founder's control over the company is maximized.

Of course, miHoYo's failure to go public was more of a coincidence.

When they wanted to go public, they couldn't because of qualification issues.

After being able to go public, the explosive growth of games like Genshin Impact made it unnecessary to go public.

Xinghai Group is able to be successful in the investment market, even surpassing established companies such as Sequoia Capital.

The company's strategy of not interfering with the founder's control, as well as the fact that many of its investment targets have achieved leapfrog development, have made a significant contribution.

However, Square Enix is ​​not actually the company that has contributed the most to Starsea Group's investment business.

The biggest one is Yahoo!

This mini-giant, born from the internet, has been incredibly effective at promoting Starsea Investments. In any economically developed country, simply branding Yahoo is a surefire way to gain traction.

After quickly agreeing on the initial terms, Kalinsky and Kim Jung-soo chatted for a while about their future prospects in the gaming industry.

"I think PC games are very likely to replace arcade games and become an important supplement to console games."

"As for online games, they also have good prospects for the future."

"This can be clearly seen from the development momentum of internet cafes and game arcades in your country."

"President Kim, what do you think?"

Kalinsky highly values ​​PC games, believing they can replace arcade games.

However, his focus is currently limited to the PC single-player game sector.

For example, Blizzard Entertainment, which Starsea Games recently acquired, has games that he highly regards and likes—StarCraft and Diablo.

As for online games, Kalinsky's impression of them was so-so.

He doesn't think online games have much of a future, believing they will only be a small branch of the PC game market.

It can have good development potential, but ultimately it's just so-so.

It can only be said that the world has changed too fast in the Internet age, making it impossible for people to keep up.

The gaming industry alone, where online games are still very weak at present, will grow into the absolute dominant force on PC in 10 years.

Later, online games even launched a counterattack against the console game market.

Many major console games have been made available online.

Major titles like GTA and Call of Duty have all developed in this direction.

Kim Jung-soo first nodded in agreement, then smiled and offered a different opinion.

"That's true, but I think the future of the PC gaming industry will be online games. Because the charging model of online games can eliminate piracy to the greatest extent."

If you were to ask PC single-player game developers what their biggest problem is, piracy would definitely be listed as number one.

It destroyed the PC single-player game market in countless countries.

The most typical example is in developing countries, where PC single-player games were just beginning to emerge when they were extinguished by piracy.

For example, in China, there were many single-player game companies at the end of the 20th century, but they quickly transformed into online game companies.

There was no way around it; pirated copies of single-player games flooded the market as soon as they were released.

If you can't make money, but you still need to live, you have no choice but to change your career path.

"Indeed, piracy has always been a very big problem."

Kalinsky followed with a helpless expression, because in today's world, it's impossible to stop the rampant spread of pirated games.

Not to mention PC single-player games, even console games face the same problem of piracy.

The Little Tyrant and other game consoles that were very popular in China in the 1990s, along with their game cartridges, were pirated single-player games.

Of course, the console gaming industry is slightly better at resisting piracy.

On the one hand, the main sales markets for the latest consoles are developed countries, so piracy is much less prevalent.

On the other hand, the console game market is more closed, making piracy more difficult.

In this way, the latest piracy problem in the console market can be considered barely resolved.

As for the older consoles, well, I'm sorry to say. Even Nintendo, with its world-leading legal department, has no choice but to admit defeat.

If this is the case in the console gaming industry, which is dominated by three companies, then the PC market, with its many competing players, is even more lawless.

Piracy is a matter of degree; there are only two types: almost entirely pirated, partially pirated, and partially pirated.

Of course, PC single-player game developers are not entirely helpless against piracy.

The most typical example is Blizzard, which established the Battle.net online gaming platform. Only users who have purchased the official version can play against each other on Battle.net.

This tactic worked very well, at least adding a million more in sales for StarCraft.

Soon, the morning was over. Kim Jung-soo, as the host, led Kalinsky and the others to a decent restaurant.

Although it's Korean food, the dishes are world-class.

After lunch, Kalinsky and his group did not rush to the second company, but instead returned to the hotel for a short rest.

Don't act too hastily, lest you leave too many openings for others to see.

It was three o'clock in the afternoon when Shinji Kikuno leisurely led Kalinsky and the others to NCsoft, the other of the two giants of the Korean game industry in later years.

This company was just established last year and has not yet released any works.

Despite this, the company remains a well-known name in the South Korean gaming industry.

The reason is simple: Song Jae-kyung, the lead producer of "Kingdom of the Winds" and known as the father of Korean online games, is one of the founders of this company.

Yes, Song Jae-kyung, a major contributor and founder of Nexon, was persuaded by his senior, Kim Taek-jin, last year to leave Nexon, which was already the number one game company in South Korea, and choose to start a new business.

Therefore, even though NCsoft has not released any new works to date, it is still considered a top-tier game company in South Korea.

This is an outward manifestation of Song Jae-kyung's status in the South Korean gaming industry.

Whichever company he joins, that company becomes a top star in South Korea.

After exchanging greetings, Kalinsky first chatted briefly with President Kim Taek-jin, and then quickly turned his attention to the company's other founder, Song Jae-kyung.

"President Song, we've heard of your name in Japan as well."

"Our Xinghai Games also intends to enter the online game market, and we hope to receive your guidance."

Xinghai Games has always had the idea of ​​entering the online game market, but it has not yet been implemented due to various factors.

Now that a new opportunity has presented itself, Kalinsky is naturally eager to give it a try.

"No, I'm just imitating what others are doing. We learn from each other."

Song Zaijing has a bit of a homebody vibe and an artistic temperament, and he has a very friendly personality.

Kalinsky himself was very willing to share his knowledge and skills regarding the learning he mentioned.

The reason I left the already successful Nexon company was also partly due to my inner artistic temperament.

He didn't want to create simple, boring, repetitive works; he wanted to be more innovative.

These are things that Nexon cannot accept.

"President Song is too modest. Even our president has heard of President Song's talent."

"President, is this President Takeshita?"

Song Zaijing raised an eyebrow, looking at Kalinsky in surprise. He couldn't believe that he, an unknown nobody, would be known by a world-class figure.

"That's right, it's President Masato Takeshita. The president really likes games and has even tried his hand at games like 'Kingdom of the Wind' that you created."

"After playing for a while, he said, 'You are the future number one player in Korean games.'"

Kalinsky couldn't help but reminisce as he thought about his chairman trying out various games.

However, he remained clear-headed, his eyes looking at Song Jae-kyung with kindness and sincerity.

(End of this chapter)