Restart life

Chapter 296 0293 [Investing in a Mobile Game Company]

The gaming industry's attention to "Future Era" only began after the Spring Festival.

Before the Spring Festival, on the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, Chen Guiliang flew back to his hometown.

After getting off the plane in Chengdu, he was going to visit a game company.

At last summer's ChinaJoy expo, a group of founders of small and medium-sized game companies hoped that Chen Guiliang would invest in their games.

At the time, none of Chen Guiliang's family were interested.

Now another small company has been sending emails to Chen Guiliang for help for several days in a row.

That's Chen Guiliang's public email address; people who are even slightly close to him won't post there.

Because there are so many random emails, he usually doesn't check them personally. Instead, his assistant at Youke first filters them, only reporting those deemed valuable, and treating the rest as spam.

Of course, Chen Guiliang would also personally check things out from time to time to prevent his assistant from doing anything behind his back.

The game company that sought help from Chen Guiliang was called Dingguo Technology.

They claim to have developed a mobile 3D game engine based on the Symbian platform and have even created a 3D mobile game (a work in progress). However, they are out of money and facing severe difficulties.

Youke is entering the mobile game market, and Chen Guiliang has already recruited an 8-person R&D team.

It's unbelievable that a small workshop has developed a mobile 3D game engine?

Out of curiosity, Chen Guiliang decided to check the situation himself. Since he was going home for the New Year anyway, he could stop by on the way and it would only take him half a day at most.

"I've arrived. Where are you?" Chen Guiliang asked over the phone.

The other party replied, "I've been at the main gate of the residential area the whole time. I've been waving, Mr. Chen, did you see me?"

“I saw it,” Chen Guiliang said.

A young man in his early twenties, wearing a down jacket, waved wildly at the entrance of the residential compound.

His name is Tang Kai, one of the founders of Dingguo Technology.

"Hello."

"Mr. Chen, it's so good to see you. And this is?"

“This is my driver, Yang Shuo.”

"Hello, Mr. Yang."

"..."

Tang Kai led them into the residential complex and soon arrived at a three-bedroom apartment. A sign reading "Dingguo Technology Company" hung on the door.

Tang Kai opened the door and introduced, "Our company has a total of seven people. We are all bosses and employees. We are determined to become the Blizzard of China, and none of us take a salary. We have been doing this for a year."

I'm doing this out of love.

With seven people all being owners, it indicates that the equity is very dispersed, which can easily lead to conflicts as the company grows larger.

However, they clearly didn't think that far ahead, because they couldn't even afford to pay wages; they were all working for themselves for free.

Tang Kai said, "This three-bedroom apartment is both our company and our residence. For a whole year, we basically didn't go downstairs except to eat. We didn't have fixed working hours either; it was normal to work more than ten hours a day. We would just fall asleep as soon as we were tired. Then we would continue working the next day."

Yang Shuo thought to himself: This is a bunch of lunatics.

"Have you thought about how to sell the game?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Tang Kai shook his head and said, "Let's finish making the game first, then we'll take it to big companies. We're making two games at the same time. One is called 'Huangquan Dao,' a 3D adventure fantasy mobile game. The other is called 'Seven Nights,' a 3D horror suspense mobile game. We don't know which one will have a better market, so we're making both at the same time."

Chen Guiliang was speechless but also very impressed.

This shows that Chen Guiliang was not familiar with the mobile game market in the early days of the game, because both "Huangquandao" and "Qiye" were very famous in the eyes of early mobile game players.

In particular, Seven Nights will be nominated for the IMGA "Best 3D Game" this year, and only 5 games worldwide are nominated for this award.

However, even if only one person is sent to participate, the round-trip airfare and basic accommodation will cost 6300 euros.

These seven young people couldn't come up with the money.

They posted for help on game forums, requested sponsorship from major domestic companies, and emailed the organizers of IMGA for assistance.

However, the IMGA organizers did not reply to the email, no major domestic companies were willing to help, and the money raised by netizens in the forum was not enough.

So they had no choice but to give up the award.

Both "The Road to the Underworld" and "Seven Nights" received positive responses, especially "Seven Nights," which garnered rave reviews. However, they were met with a deluge of pirated copies, making it impossible for legitimate copies to sell.

Piracy became rampant, and finally a big company took notice of them, investing money to develop a sequel to "The Road to the Underworld".

The sequel finally made money, but the large company that invested in them swallowed up all the revenue and refused to invest any more.

That big company is called "Huaxinfei," which means "the rise of Chinese chips."

“The other six partners have all gone home for the Chinese New Year, so I’m the only one left in the company now.” Tang Kai invited Chen Guiliang to sit on the sofa and went to make tea for Chen Guiliang and Yang Shuo.

Chen Guiliang asked, "After you graduate, you'll start your own company to make games?"

Tang Kai said, "I graduated in 03 and joined a Japanese company, developing games for the PS2 and Xbox platforms. Last year, I quit to work in the game industry and started a company with six like-minded brothers. We're all young and haven't worked for many years, so we don't have much savings. We've almost used up our savings." Chen Guiliang asked, "Didn't you go to the ChinaJoy expo this summer?"

Tang Kai said, "At that time, we had just started making games and didn't have any products to offer. There would be nothing to do if we went there, so it was better to stay in Chengdu and save on travel expenses."

“I’d like to see your game,” Chen Guiliang said.

Tang Kai took out his phone and handed it to Chen Guiliang, showing him the unfinished version of "The Road to the Underworld".

This is a 3D fantasy mobile game; as long as your phone's specs can handle it, it can run on any brand of phone. However, the graphics might be better optimized for Symbian devices.

To be honest, it's very rough and has a low resolution.

Some monsters are just a lump, and it's impossible to tell what kind of creature they are.

But in 2007, a phone was lucky if it could even play 3D games. What more could you want?

Chen Guiliang is now playing the role of a disciple of Mount Shu in the game, searching for the fragments of the three divine artifacts to seal the exit between the Yin and Yang realms and prevent the sealed demons from reappearing in the human world.

If you get used to this rough, dark art style, it's actually quite fun to play, although the buttons take some getting used to at first.

Chen Guiliang never imagined that he would one day be playing a fantasy mobile game using physical buttons on his phone.

"You developed your own 3D mobile game engine?" Chen Guiliang put down his phone.

Tang Kai nodded with considerable pride and said, "Yes. It's China's first 3D mobile game engine, and as far as I know, it's also currently the only self-developed 3D mobile game engine in China."

Chen Guiliang then asked, "How much money have the seven of you invested in total?"

Tang Kai said, "About two or three hundred thousand. It's mainly used to buy equipment, as well as rent, utilities, food, and the cost of getting the company license. Although we don't get salaries, our meals are paid by the company. It's like they provide room and board."

Chen Guiliang fell silent again. With an expenditure of two to three hundred thousand yuan, they had created China's only self-developed 3D mobile game engine, and were simultaneously developing two mobile games. The team only had seven people.

Chen Guiliang asked, "How do you want to cooperate? By investing or by acquiring?"

“We hope to retain some shares,” Tang Kai said.

Chen Guiliang thought carefully for a moment and said, "Game Science will invest 200 million yuan to acquire 60% of Dingguo Technology's shares and will be responsible for your future game sales. I won't send anyone over to give unsolicited instructions; you can continue to manage the company yourselves. After my investment, your salaries will be paid at the normal rate."

"I need to discuss this with the others," Tang Kai said.

Chen Guiliang smiled and nodded: "Okay."

Tang Kai walked into a bedroom with his phone in hand, excitedly saying before even closing the door, "Old Ding, President Chen is here at our company! President Chen... you know, President Chen from Game Science... yes, he saw those emails I sent asking for help..."

He called everyone one by one, asking them to go online and discuss the matter in the QQ group.

Some people thought that selling 60% of the shares for 200 million was too cheap, as they believed their game would be a huge hit. But after much discussion, they all agreed.

The main reason is that everyone is really short of money. If things continue like this, they will probably have to ask their parents for money again, or do outsourcing work for other companies.

Moreover, after Youke invested, they no longer need to worry about game sales.

If Chen Guiliang doesn't step in, after they finish the game, they'll just be foolishly posting it on game forums, without any sales channels whatsoever.

Moreover, Chen Guiliang promised not to interfere in the company's management.

After talking for a full twenty minutes, Tang Kai returned to the living room and said, "President Chen, we agree to this equity investment plan."

Chen Guiliang cautioned, "If these two games are profitable, you can take a share and continue to grow the company. If these two games are not profitable, then my subsequent investment will dilute your 40% stake."

“We are willing to take the risks,” Tang Kai said.

Chen Guiliang stood up and said, "Alright, let's finalize the investment intention today. I'll send someone over to sign the contract after the Spring Festival holiday."

Tang Kai very warmly saw him out of the residential area.

The two hailed a taxi.

After getting on the bus, Yang Shuo couldn't help but say, "They're really working hard to start a business. If the game doesn't sell, wouldn't all their work be for nothing? They've even put all the money they earned from their previous jobs into it."

“They have dreams,” Chen Guiliang said with a smile. “I like people who have dreams and are willing to pursue them.”

Tao Chenggang doesn't count; that was a deliberately crafted persona.

However, Chen Guiliang's investment in Tao Chenggang's "The Emperor's Reign" has indeed become a legendary story in the gaming industry.

Tang Kai's repeated emails to Chen Guiliang seeking help were influenced by this story. He felt that if Chen Guiliang could invest in Tao Chenggang, he might also invest in him.

It worked, and both sides got what they wanted.

These seven individuals are clearly experts in mobile game development. If they can continue to persevere, the smartphone era will be their time to truly shine.

If Chen Guiliang gives them some pointers then, they can really take off.

Chen Guiliang took out his phone and called Bian Guanyue: "Guanguan, I'm almost there."

Since we're passing through Chengdu, we should definitely stop by the Yue family's house near the border and borrow a car to drive back to Longdu.

At that time, there weren't even any car rental companies in Chengdu; those things only existed in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

(End of this chapter)