Restart life

Chapter 316 0313 [The Grand 18 Plan]

In 2000, "Three Kingdoms: Rise of Kingdoms" was showcased at E3 and distributed globally by a foreign company, becoming the first Chinese game to break into the "GLOBAL 100" list.

Even before it had won any awards, the mere news of it reaching China sent countless Chinese people into a frenzy. Capitalizing on this momentum, it was released in mainland China, and sales exceeded 10 sets on its first day!

Because of a century of humiliation, the Chinese people have long lacked self-confidence.

When foreigners praise a domestic product, everyone assumes it must be excellent, and their national pride instantly surges.

The same was true of King Hu's "A Touch of Zen" back then.

The film flopped at the box office when it premiered in Taiwan, and only the first part was shown before the second part was canceled by theaters. It took another two years before the second part was finally released.

Five years after filming was completed, "A Touch of Zen" won an award at Cannes.

It became an instant hit, and they quickly condensed and re-edited the two parts, which made a fortune at the box office when it was re-released in Taiwan!
When news of "Seven Nights" winning an award at Cannes spread, sales surged by over 5000 copies on the first day. The news spread even further on the second day, with single-day sales exceeding 1 copies.

Soon after, word of mouth for the game began to spread, with everyone who had played it saying it was awesome.

As a result, daily sales surged to 4 units.

This is also thanks to the game's compatibility with all device models. As long as the device's performance is sufficient, everyone can play "Seven Nights," with the only difference being the game's graphics.

If that Korean game had won an award, players wouldn't have been able to play it even if they wanted to buy it, because it was only compatible with high-end devices. That's why that lousy Korean company eventually went bankrupt.

……

Shanghai, grand and magnificent.

Chen Tianqiao is playing "Seven Nights," a game he really enjoys. He finds it insightful, saying that completing it prompts reflection on life.

The reason he paid attention so quickly is that Chen Tianqiao reads every issue of "China Computer News" to stay informed about industry trends.

Since the failure of Shanda Box, Chen Tianqiao has been busy with business transformation.

He shifted from primarily distributing games to primarily developing his own, and expanded from PC games to mobile games. Last year, he also launched "Legend of Mir Mobile," and he recently acquired a game company in Chengdu.

Chen Tianqiao acquired Rongcheng Jintian Technology, with an investment exceeding 1 million RMB!

The 23-year-old entrepreneur, surnamed Peng, is a wealthy second-generation heir from Chengdu who became a Canadian citizen. He became a multi-millionaire after selling his company. Moreover, he started another company this year, which he will sell to Shanda next year for another 1.4 million yuan.

Chen Guiliang invested in Rongcheng Dingguo Technology, but the amount was pitifully small, only in the millions of yuan.

Between the two, Chen Tianqiao is more domineering.

Jintian Technology's "Fengyun OL" and "Legend OL" will definitely outperform "Seven Nights" in terms of profit. Even "Legend of Mir Mobile" will outperform "Seven Nights" in terms of profit.

But Chen Tianqiao just felt uneasy!

He has no shortage of games that can make money; what he lacks is a game like "Seven Nights" that has intellectual and cultural depth.

Chen Tianqiao called the person in charge of the "18 Project" over: "When screening entrepreneurs in the future, don't just look at market potential, but also whether the game itself has value! I'm talking about cultural value and company reputation!"

The project manager hesitated, but could only agree in front of the boss.

The so-called "18 Plan" involves all of Shanda's top executives, including Chen Tianqiao, setting aside their work to listen to entrepreneurs tell their stories on the 18th of each month. If the startup project proves valuable, Shanda will invest.

However, it's impossible to let entrepreneurs flock in all at once. The person in charge needs to conduct an initial screening to determine who will speak this month and who will speak next month.

How are the responsible persons selected?
Of course, you should choose those that sound reliable and can make you a lot of money.

They hardly watch any PC single-player games, let alone the even more niche mobile single-player games!
The person in charge left in a state of panic, not daring to reveal the truth: Tang Kai had sent an email to the "18 Project" email address at the end of last year. At that time, he mentioned "Seven Nights" and "The Road to the Underworld," and also said that he had developed a self-made mobile 3D game engine.

He immediately sensed it was unreliable; developing two games simultaneously without funds, and spouting nonsense about a self-developed mobile 3D engine. He dismissed Tang Kai as a fraud!
Since Shanda announced the "18 Plan", there have been many scammers like this, making it extremely difficult for him to screen projects.

Chen Tianqiao leaned back in his office chair, a cigarette dangling from his lips as he stared at his phone screen.

They wish "Seven Nights" were one of their own games.

If it's your own, you can show it off everywhere. Instead of bragging about how much money you've made, you can boast about how deep and meaningful your company's games are.

In addition to the "18 Plan" to support entrepreneurs, Shanda also has the "20 Plan" to encourage the creation of high-quality games.

He divided the company's internal development teams into independent groups. If a self-developed game was successful, the team would receive 20% of the profits.

The fact that 20% of the game's revenue is directly distributed to the R&D team has driven everyone in Shanda Games' department crazy.

But it doesn't seem to be entirely a positive stimulus.

It also brought negative impacts!

The heads of each development team are racking their brains trying to figure out how to integrate a payment system. There are numerous conflicts between the teams due to competition for development resources. They're even trying to curry favor with the operations team, hoping to secure more operational resources…

Driven by the promise of a 20% revenue share, the project manager wasn't thinking about creating a high-quality game. Instead, they were focused on getting their game online as quickly as possible and securing their share. What? Slowly building a masterpiece?
There's something wrong with your mind!

We need to finish the game quickly and get the money in our hands as soon as possible. What if the boss changes his mind one day?

Besides, a high-quality product that takes two or three years to develop may not necessarily be more profitable than a poorly made one.

Chen Tianqiao thought he was being very sincere and that this would result in a high-quality game, but he never expected things to turn out the opposite way.

Every time he went to inspect, he saw the R&D team in high spirits and heard that a certain project was being meticulously crafted.

The next day was the 18th again.

All of Shanda's top executives accompanied Chen Tianqiao to listen to the entrepreneurs' stories.

"Greetings to all the senior leaders of Shanda," a young man said. "My name is Zhu Zhihao, founder of Shanghai Youqu Company... I hope to purchase the game adaptation rights to 'Ghost Blows Out the Light'..."

"and many more!"

The person in charge of the selection process for the "18 Project" said, "The materials you submitted don't seem to tell this story, do they?"

Zhu Zhihao said with a mournful face, "President Chen, please be kind enough to sell me 'Ghost Blows Out the Light'! It wasn't easy for me to start my business, and I finally opened a company, only to get scammed when I tried to buy 'Ghost Blows Out the Light'!"

Chen asked curiously, "How did you get scammed?"

Zhu Zhihao's expression was as if his mother had died: "There's a company called Mancheng that claims to have the full copyright to 'Ghost Blows Out the Light.' I spent 200 million yuan to buy the game adaptation rights, only to later discover that they only have the comic adaptation rights to the first part of 'Ghost Blows Out the Light,' and they don't have the right to sublicense the game adaptation rights. But I'm already working on the game!"

Upon hearing this, the top executives of Shanda couldn't help but chuckle, and some even burst out laughing.

I've never seen such a stupid entrepreneur; they even managed to buy the wrong game copyright.

Chen Tianqiao asked, "How far have you progressed with the game?"

Zhu Zhihao said, "The team was already in place, the game content planning was done, and the character concept art was basically finished... If Shanda doesn't sell the copyright, I'll have no choice but to jump off a building. I simply can't pay back the money I invested in the startup!"

After carefully reviewing the game design proposal for "Ghost Blows Out the Light" and looking at the character concept art, Chen Tianqiao nodded and said, "It's not bad. Is this a 3D game? I can sell you the 3D game rights to the first part of 'Ghost Blows Out the Light.' Remember, it's limited to the 3D game rights for the first part. You're not allowed to make content for the second part, nor are you allowed to make 2D online games, single-player games, or mobile games. A flat price of 500 million."

Zhu Zhihao's expression remained desperate: "If I spend 500 million to buy the copyright, I won't have a single penny left. How am I supposed to develop the game? How about we sign an agreement to pay the copyright fee after the game is released?"

Chen Tianqiao said irritably, "I kindly sold you the copyright, so don't push your luck. Also, I have an additional condition. If you produce 'Ghost Blows Out the Light,' Shanda has priority in distributing it. Only if Shanda doesn't want it can you operate it yourself or find a third-party distributor. As for funding, you'll have to find that yourself."

Zhu Zhihao later actually found funding. He used Shanda's promise to sell the copyright of "Ghost Blows Out the Light" to persuade the son of the chairman of Delixi Group to invest.

After more than two years of procrastination, they finally finished developing *Ghost Blows Out the Light Online*. But Shanda also released *Ghost Blows Out the Light: Side Stories*...

This lousy company was poorly managed, and Shi Yuzhu had to come and take it over because he was friends with the boss of Delixi Group.

After the story-listening session concluded, Shanda's senior executives returned to their respective posts.

They were in a good mood, treating it as a farce.

Chen Tianqiao, however, called over the person in charge of "Project 18" and gave him a good scolding. This was both embarrassing and a waste of his time!
Sigh, why do all my efforts to support entrepreneurs go awry?
Even if you have money, you can't give it away.

……

Chen Guiliang wasn't giving money; he was taking money.

The highest single-day sales of "Seven Nights" reached 48,000 copies, but after a brief peak, sales quickly dropped back, with cumulative sales approaching 200,000 copies.

It is estimated that around 30 copies will be sold in the end, but once pirated versions come out, they will not be able to sell anymore.

There will definitely be some profit, but in terms of net profit, it's not even a fraction of what Shanda made from acquiring those games.

Chen Guiliang wanted to switch places with Chen Tianqiao.

Damn, Jintian Technology released two hit online games in a row. Although they were far from being as popular as "Quan Yu Tian Xia", they were still quite successful, and Shanda directly spent over 100 million yuan to acquire them in full.

Chen Tianqiao revealed earlier this year that he had prepared 20 billion yuan to acquire emerging companies and support entrepreneurial projects.

They're incredibly wealthy; even selling Chen Guiliang wouldn't yield that much cash.

Just as the gaming industry was praising "Seven Nights", Chi Yufeng from Perfect World called: "Xiao Chen, haha, I rang the bell in the US and went public!"

"Congratulations!" Chen Guiliang said repeatedly.

Chi Yufeng rambled on for a few minutes and then hung up, probably to call others and brag about it.

Damn it, what a show-off.

In a while, I'll be able to show off too, I can't let Chi Yufeng steal the spotlight.

(End of this chapter)