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Chapter 366, page 0353: [The Vietnamese are coming too!]

"Click, click!"

At the signing ceremony, camera shutters were clicking non-stop.

As Chen Guiliang and Alexander shook hands, they showed the reporters the contract they had just signed.

Print media is a bit slower, while online reporting is very fast. This news is expected to appear on websites like 17173 and Sina Games by this evening.

This year's GJ Expo saw a significant number of contracts signed.

Moreover, the negotiation speed is particularly fast, and it can be completed in an average of one day, for fear that if they are too slow, someone else will snatch it away.

Most of these contracts are actually domestic.

This refers to some small domestic game developers who bring their self-developed games to exhibitions and are selected by large companies to negotiate distribution rights. In some cases, the entire company is even acquired by a large company!
Chen Guiliang said, "I hope we can cooperate more deeply in the future."

“I’m really looking forward to Youke’s new game,” Alexander said.

Before the signing, the leaders had already given their congratulations, and now they were all sitting on the sidelines smiling and applauding.

Alexander grabbed the contract and left, and the leaders also departed one after another, while the reporters began to interact and ask questions.

"Mr. Chen, Youke only brought a few small games this year; the rest are some older titles. When will 'Wulin Gaiden' be released?" a reporter asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "The development of 'Wulin Gaiden' has already begun. The official website for the game has also been launched for a long time, and we post updates on the project every month."

"The web game market is booming right now, and Youke has also released two web games. Is it going to go all out to enter the web game market?"

"It's just normal operation. Youke platform has been operating web games for a long time. Now that web game technology is becoming more and more mature, we launched the web version of 'Three Kingdoms Kill' this year. The strategy battle web game 'Fengyun Three Kingdoms' has also been well received since its launch, with monthly revenue of more than 500 million yuan."

"Dingguo Technology launched a domestically produced game console, but sales were not very good. Will Mr. Chen continue to support them in making handheld consoles?"

"Although Youke is a shareholder of Dingguo Technology, he generally does not interfere with Dingguo Technology's operations."

"..."

Those guys at Dingguo Technology have their own ideas, and Chen Guiliang can't persuade them at all.

"Seven Nights" won awards abroad and was widely popular in China, with official sales approaching 40 copies. Piracy was rampant.

Next, "The Road to the Underworld" also sold well, with 14 official copies sold.

Then they went and made handheld game consoles!
Tang Kai, the CEO of Dingguo Technology, used to work in the handheld game industry. He actually contacted manufacturers in Shenzhen to launch a domestic handheld game brand and then ported two of his self-developed mobile games to it.

Surprisingly, some people actually came to buy it.

Those suckers are all die-hard fans of "Seven Nights" and "The Road to the Underworld".

Dingguo Technology's handheld console has numerous problems, and fans who bought it have been posting complaints about being ripped off. This severely damages its reputation, which is Dingguo Technology's most valuable asset.

Moreover, they lost most of the money they made from "Seven Nights" and "The Road to the Underworld" because of the failure of making handheld consoles.

Now they've finally behaved themselves and obediently gone to develop a mobile game sequel to "The Road to the Underworld".

However, Chen Guiliang felt that Ding Kai would cause more trouble in the future. Once he made some money from mobile games, he would most likely go and make handheld consoles.

It's already 2008, why are you still fighting so hard with handheld consoles?
After the press conference, Chen Guiliang headed straight for Bailian Technology's exhibition area. He passed by Tencent's booth; it was absolutely huge! Tencent had rented over an acre of space this year.

Linekong Online's exhibition area was also quite large. This company was only established last year, and this year they brought out five games, including "Conquer the World" and "Mercenary World".

Although most of the games are still in production, it's quite impressive that the company is developing five games at the same time, especially considering that it has only been established for a year.

The number of employees is even more than that of Youke!
There's no way around it, the founder of Linekong is awesome.

They came from Kingsoft Software, and before they even got their company license, a bunch of venture capitalists were already vying to give them money.

This year was the first time the founder participated in the ChinaJoy electronics show, and he was invited to give a speech at the main forum... although he was the last person to go on stage.

Next to the Linekong Online booth is Kingsoft, where Lei Jun has resigned and Qiu Bojun is personally representing the company this year.

Qiu Bojun's speech at the main forum yesterday morning was rather uninteresting.

Some say the Chinese online gaming industry is too superficial, with everyone rushing into whatever makes money. Kingsoft, however, makes games for the sake of games, not just to make money.

What the hell are you talking about?
The three major factions within Kingsoft's gaming division have been locked in infighting for years. Even after employees left for other companies, this infighting continued; Sohu's Changyou was thrown into chaos by their actions. How dare you claim to be idealistic?
Chen Tianqiao's speech was very insightful, stating that the Chinese online game market still has great potential and encouraging manufacturers of all sizes across the country to flourish. He emphasized the need to be patient, resist temptations, avoid vicious competition and mutual defamation, and work together to improve the industry and correct public misunderstandings about games.

No wonder he's always the first to speak on stage every year.

When Chen Guiliang arrived at Bailian Technology's booth, Tao Chenggang immediately picked up the microphone and said, "Please welcome Mr. Chen Guiliang, a shareholder of Bailian Technology and CEO of Game Science!"

"Chen Shiyi is awesome!"

"Hurry up and finish making 'My Own Swordsman'!"

"..."

In front of the booth, a group of game fans started jeering when they saw Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang took the microphone: "It's a great honor to meet everyone here, and congratulations to Bailian Technology on the launch of its second self-developed online game. I haven't played this game yet, but I'll be there to try it out." Following "The Emperor's Reign," Bailian Technology finally has a new game to launch.

It's not a reskinned pay-to-win game. If it were really going to be a reskinned game, Tao Chenggang might as well have made a few more dungeons for "The Emperor's Reign".

Chen Guiliang was led to a computer and instructed to use the keyboard and mouse to log into the game.

The graphics are pretty good; it uses the Unreal Engine 3.

Although this engine is very expensive, there are still manufacturers willing to buy it.

Chen Guiliang was exploring the starting village, doing quests, and he could tell that the game was made with care. But to be honest, the gameplay was rather standard, similar to games like "Tian Long Ba Bu".

You can definitely make money, but it's very difficult to become famous.

How much money you make depends on your operational capabilities, since it's essentially a copycat business.

After playing for a while, Chen Guiliang started praising it, saying it was one of the best online games he had played in the past two years. He even invited everyone to play together.

Huge posters of Li Lianhua were displayed inside and outside the booth. Tao Chenggang had spent a lot of money to hire Li Lianhua to endorse the new game.

Yesterday, Li Lianhua personally went to the event to promote the product, which caused quite a stir.

After showering him with praise, Chen Guiliang went backstage.

Tao Chenggang asked, "How does it feel?" He added, "To be honest, we're not going to mince words."

Chen Guiliang said, "It's very similar to 'Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils'."

Tao Chenggang sighed, "The domestic martial arts and fantasy games of the past few years are all pretty much the same, and innovation is very difficult. I can only try my best to work on the game's storyline."

"Don't be discouraged, the quality is still pretty good. As long as the operation doesn't go wrong, we'll definitely be able to make money," Chen Guiliang said.

Tao Chenggang asked, "And you? How many overseas distributors have come to discuss 'Future Era'?"

Chen Guiliang said, "None of the Japanese and Korean manufacturers have shown up. There are some distributors from Hong Kong and Taiwan who have contacted us, but they are pushing the price down too hard. They said that there are already similar games like 'DNF' in Hong Kong and Taiwan, so they are under a lot of pressure to distribute 'Future Era'. Two companies from Southeast Asia have also inquired, but their willingness to distribute the game is not very strong. My feeling is that they are looking to pick up a bargain."

Tao Chenggang was speechless: "Damn it, why aren't any overseas companies distributing 'The Emperor'?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Even 'Zhengtu' didn't sell well. Your two companies are in similar situations. You only managed to attract a large number of loyal players by entering the free-to-play market very early. And it requires a lot of operational capabilities."

After chatting with Tao Chenggang for a while, Chen Guiliang returned to his exhibition area, where an employee immediately came over and said, "There's potential for a Vietnamese agency."

……

At the Tencent booth, Ren Yuxin had previously met with a Vietnamese person.

VNG, Vietnam's largest game distributor, sent a representative named Nguyen Van Hai who asked very respectfully, "There are many Chinese games this year. Which one would be most suitable for me to distribute?"

Ren Yuxin suggested, "We could contact Youke. 'Future Era' is pretty good. And there's Perfect World's 'Zhu Xian'."

“Thank you. I’ve tried both games at the booth, and I’ll go negotiate with them right away,” Nguyen Van Hai said.

Tencent has been making massive investments overseas this year, and it's definitely not just about acquiring stakes in its flagship companies.

VNG, a Vietnamese company, has also received investment from Tencent. Furthermore, Tencent plans to continue investing over the next few years, eventually acquiring a quarter of VNG's shares.

In 2004, VNG licensed the game "JX Online" to Vietnam. At one point, it captured 80% of the Vietnamese market share, and one in three Vietnamese internet users had played "JX Online".

However, the situation has changed very rapidly in the past two years.

Last year, FPT became the distributor of "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils," and by waving the banner of free access, it launched a disruptive attack, quickly seizing the market and firmly establishing itself as the number one player.

Then DEC acquired the rights to distribute Perfect World in Vietnam. Also a free-to-play game, it now boasts the second-largest player base and the highest number of female players!

The third one is "CF".

The once dominant game in the Vietnamese market, "Sword Net," has now fallen to fourth place, causing VNG Company great anxiety.

Just last month, VNG acquired the rights to "Swordsman Online," but they still felt it wasn't safe enough and decided to develop another Chinese game as a backup.

After talking with Ren Yuxin, Ruan Wenhai did not discuss "Future Era" but went straight to the "Zhu Xian" booth.

Because martial arts and fantasy games are popular in Vietnam!
"We apologize, but we are about to sign a contract with Cubinet and have already sent out invitations to reporters for the signing ceremony," said a staff member from Perfect World.

Nguyen Van Hai thought the other party had made a mistake and quickly reminded him, "I'm from Vietnam, and I'm talking about the Vietnamese agency rights. Cubinet is a Malaysian company."

The staff explained, "Cubinet will sign the agency rights for 'Zhu Xian' in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam."

Nguyen Van Hai said, "I think we can renegotiate. Cubinet doesn't have the operational capacity in Vietnam."

The staff member said, "We're sorry, we've already sent out invitations to the signing ceremony to reporters."

Nguyen Van Hai was speechless. He had just asked about it yesterday, before anyone was even vying for the Vietnamese distribution rights for "Zhu Xian." And now they're about to sign a contract?
Without time to dwell on his frustration, Ruan Wenhai quickly ran towards the Youke exhibition area.

(End of this chapter)