Restart life

Chapter 539 0527 [Transit of Venus]

It was still a long way before Chen Guiliang went to Shanghai to inspect Kangheng Environment, so he first had a meal with Li Ming, the CEO of Sino-Ocean Land.

The reason Chen Guiliang bought that villa was so expensive was not only because it was huge, but also because it was surrounded by a lake on three sides. It was like a peninsula, with the villa built in the center of the peninsula, and his gardens encircling the entire area up to the lake.

Moreover, according to strict calculations, the garden area is not just 2 square meters, but actually a little more than 2.1 square meters.

At the dinner table, Li Ming also introduced some "neighbors." The names of these neighbors were only revealed to Chen Guiliang with their consent.

There weren't many celebrity homeowners in Phase 1; most of them were company owners.

Later, when the film and television industry experienced a boom and celebrities were making a fortune, the number of celebrity homeowners in this neighborhood increased significantly. For example, Huang Bo and others.

The community has a clubhouse with professional facilities for swimming, basketball, and fitness, as well as Chinese and Western restaurants. It's a great place for families to hang out and for people to socialize with their neighbors.

After having lunch, Chen Guiliang ran into Guo Feng in the elevator on his way back to the company.

"What are you carrying?" Chen Guiliang asked curiously.

Guo Feng picked up a welding mask: "These are protective goggles. I just bought them when I went out."

Chen Guiliang: "???"

Guo Feng laughed and said, "I'll take you to see something good."

Chen Guiliang was completely confused, but followed him into the elevator and went straight to the top floor.

As a result, the door leading to the rooftop was locked.

Guo Feng called the property management again, pleading with them to open the door. But the property management, fearing something might happen to them on the rooftop, sent a security guard to accompany them the whole time.

The security guard was also completely bewildered, not knowing what these two were up to.

Guo Feng held up his welding mask to look at the sun for several seconds before putting it down, rubbing his eyes, and saying, "Haha, I see it!"

"What the hell?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Guo Feng handed the welding mask to Chen Guiliang: "There's a small black dot on the sun."

Chen Guiliang took the mask and looked at it, and indeed found a small black spot: "Sunspot? No, that's not right, this little black spot is quite big and very obvious."

"Transit of Venus!" Guo Feng laughed heartily.

Chen Guiliang was speechless: "You have quite a wide range of interests."

Guo Feng said, "Ever since I saw the total solar eclipse a few years ago, I've become interested in astronomy and even bought a professional telescope. This is the last transit of Venus this century; we'll have to wait more than a hundred years to see it again."

Chen Guiliang stopped criticizing him and instead transformed into a master, calculating with his fingers: "Venus transiting the sun is an omen of Yin dominance, which will inevitably lead to a female ruler seizing power and national turmoil. It is even possible that a powerful minister will usurp the throne and change the dynasty!"

The property security guard stood by, silently watching the two lunatics.

Chen Guiliang pointed at Guo Feng: "Tell me, are you trying to seize power? To take over ByteDance!"

"Feudal superstition!"

Guo Feng did not cooperate with his acting, but instead snatched the welding mask to continue observing astronomical phenomena.

Guo Fengzi wasn't satisfied after watching it, so he called his girlfriend again: "Honey, I saw the transit of Venus. I went out at noon to buy a welding mask... Are you doing an experiment? Can you take a few minutes off to come out and take a look? Okay, I'll wait for you."

Chen Guiliang remained silent, handed a cigarette to the security guard, and then went downstairs to return to the company.

Bored out of his mind, the security guard, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, pulled out his low-end smartphone and posted on Weibo: "You'll never guess what billionaires are doing... I'm watching the sun with two big bosses using welding masks. One of them is Chen Guiliang, and the other is his vice president."

After signing two documents at ByteDance, Chen Guiliang went to Youke.

Qu Guohao came to Chen Guiliang's office: "This year is the 10th anniversary of CJ Expo. The leaders in charge attach great importance to it, and the bosses of major game companies have confirmed their participation."

“It makes sense,” Chen Guiliang said.

Qu Guohao pulled out a nearly 100-page report: "This is the report on the Chinese online game market for the first quarter of this year. It's a compilation of our company's internal data and third-party survey data from iResearch. The online game industry may really be about to undergo a major transformation."

"Just summarize it," Chen Guiliang said casually, flipping through the nearly one hundred-page report.

Qu Guohao said, "In 2010, traditional MMO games still accounted for 70% of the market share. Last year, it dropped to around 62%. In the first quarter of this year, it has already dropped to 58%. It is very likely that it will drop below 50% in the next two or three years."

Chen Guiliang said, "It won't take more than two or three years; I estimate it will drop below 50% next year."

Qu Guohao said, "So I convened a meeting with the senior management of Youke to discuss that, apart from continuing to update 'Wulin Gaiden,' we should not easily launch any more MMO projects. We will only use the self-developed engine of 'Wulin Gaiden' to make another new game when the market for 'Wulin Gaiden' becomes weak."

"At the same time, we need to increase our efforts in developing web games, mobile games, and PC games for short bursts of play. Especially FPS (first-person shooter) games. Tencent has 'CrossFire,' and we lack a competing product to rival them." "Therefore, I want to initiate a project to develop an FPS game."

Chen Guiliang nodded and said, "Okay, go ahead and do it. We must make sure the engine for this game is good. Even if we fail, we can still gain experience."

It's too early to develop PUBG now; many computers can't handle it. But we can develop a game similar to CrossFire first to gain experience in shooting game development.

Qu Guohao continued, "During the ChinaJoy expo, I would like to convene a meeting with the CEOs of Youke's overseas subsidiaries. I want them to have a face-to-face exchange, share their experiences of success and failure, and discuss how to further collaborate across borders."

Chen Guiliang said, "That's a great idea."

Qu Guohao added, "The Chinese, South Korean, and Southeast Asian markets are very similar right now. MMO games are sluggish, while web games, mobile games, FPS, and MOBA games are on the rise. This is even changing the landscape of internet cafes. Did you know that internet cafe software in China has started to become free?"

"Hahaha!" Chen Guiliang was amused.

There are many types of internet cafe software, including billing software, monitoring software, security software, game update software, and so on...

In particular, game update software is a major channel for promoting many new games in internet cafes. Directly partnering with software vendors eliminates the need for sending teams to each internet cafe for on-the-ground promotion, as was done before.

These internet cafe software programs used to be paid, but now they're offering a free model directly to internet cafes, making money through various forms of advertising.

Internet cafes are also declining!
The main reason is that home computers are becoming more and more popular, and mobile phones have diverted a large number of users.

Nowadays, fewer and fewer people play MMO games in internet cafes; most are playing FPS and MOBA games. They're either playing "CrossFire" or "Oracle Era."

Therefore, some people jokingly say that internet cafes have been taken over by Tencent and Youke.

Chen Guiliang thought for a moment and said to Qu Guohao, "Select some elites from the mobile game and web game departments, as well as the 'Future Era' project team, to form a new project team. The most popular web game right now is the gacha game we created. I want to port this to mobile and make a game from it."

"Gacha games? There already are, and more than one or two, all from small companies. We even have a licensed one, and it's making good profits," Qu Guohao said.

Chen Guiliang shook his head and said, "Current gacha mobile games are too crude, no different from gacha web games. What I want to make is a high-quality product."

"The game framework is similar to 'Future Era' and 'Fantasy Westward Journey'. Players can move around on the map and go through dungeon levels. Players play the role of capturing and subduing demons, and can recruit demons for their own use, which is equivalent to drawing cards."

"I need to present turn-based combat scenes on mobile phones, and I also need to present beautiful cutscenes on mobile phones..."

Qu Guohao asked doubtfully, "Can a cell phone handle it?"

Chen Guiliang said, "The current mobile phones can't drive it, but the mobile phones of one, two, or three years from now will be able to. Mobile phone development is very fast, so we need to plan ahead! By the way, let Shuxia Yehou do the world-building and plot planning."

Shuxia Yehou stopped writing novels a long time ago. Because of the huge success of "Future Era", he is now a senior employee of Youke.

Chen Guiliang didn't want to make "Onmyoji" exactly the same; he wanted to create a gacha mobile game with a Chinese mythology background.

In just one week, Tree Fox created the game's world view.

The game is tentatively titled "The Scroll of Mountains and Seas," but it incorporates classics such as "Classic of Mountains and Seas," "Investiture of the Gods," and "Journey to the West," and even includes elements from "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" and historical figures.

The story is set several years after the journey to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth is becoming increasingly scarce, the Heavenly Court is closed, Mount Ling is sealed off, the Underworld is in turmoil, and demons roam the human world.

Even some of the former gods, great demons, and monsters have become much weaker, and some have even lost their memories.

The player's mission is to find the truth of the end times and rebuild the order of the world.

The game is divided into four factions: Heaven, Netherworld, Primordial World, and Human World, each corresponding to different myths and folk legends.

The human faction doesn't necessarily have to consist of humans; there are also ghosts and spirits that have been trapped in the human world for a long time.

For example, Meng Po belongs to the Nine Netherworld faction, while Nie Xiaoqian belongs to the Human Realm faction.

Chen Guiliang personally oversaw this project. When he received the game's story background from Shuxia Yehou, he said with a wry smile, "It's another hodgepodge."

Shuxia Yehou said, "Choosing a single background or creating a self-made story won't quickly attract more players. This kind of mixed bag is the most suitable, after all, it's a gacha game. I will design a story for each character."

"For example, the Three Immortal Maidens of Sanxiao, they perished and were left with only a wisp of their souls and lost their memories. After being defeated by the protagonist, they followed the protagonist to find the truth, rebuild order, and gradually regain their strength."

"I plan to design these legendary gods, demons, and bodhisattvas as growth cards, rather than fixed SR or SSR cards. They may start as the lowest-level white cards, but with battle experience and spiritual energy replenishment, they may eventually become super SSR cards."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Players will definitely spend a lot of money to develop this kind of character."

Shuxia Yehou said, "Making money is secondary; the main thing is that I think this is the right positioning for them."

“Great idea, let’s do it this way,” Chen Guiliang said.

(End of this chapter)