Rebirth 08: Can a mobile game company also build a tech empire?

Inside the office, Lu Chen was the first to recover from his shock, and he excitedly announced:

"Everyone! We did it!"

As Lu Chen broke the silence, everyone realized what was happening.

"Very good!"

"I knew it would work!"

"We did it!"

The crowd shouted loudly in Lu Chen's office.

Chu Yu blushed with excitement, having witnessed the company's growth step by step.

Wu Zhixuan also breathed a sigh of relief, all the pressure from before dissipating at this moment.

Seeing everyone happy, Tao Manwen stood among them and grinned foolishly.

Jiang Chang excitedly jumped around in the office.

Honestly, he initially advocated for high prices, but when he heard that sales were poor, he felt like the sky was falling.

Although Lu Chen took the blame for him, he has decided to resign if sales are still poor this time.

The others were also celebrating with each other.

They never imagined that Fruit Swordsman could become so powerful simply by adding a friend system!

Sales have increased more than tenfold from 5.5!

They went straight for 60.2!

Although this sales figure is still far from what we'll see in truly wildly popular games, the employees at Journey Technology have never seen anything like it.

All they know is that they created a game worth tens of millions.

This achievement might not seem like much in the broader gaming industry in China.

But this gave everyone hope.

Perhaps Journey Tech can continue to develop its games one after another.

Eventually, they became behemoths like penguins!

Amidst everyone's boundless imagination, Lu Chen coughed twice and took over the conversation.

"Ahem, everyone, calm down and let me say a few words."

The office fell silent, and everyone looked at Lu Chen with excited eyes.

Whenever a project succeeds, it is also the time when the cohesion among company employees is strongest.

"The success of Fruit Swordsmen is inseparable from everyone's joint efforts;

Everyone has worked hard this past month, and the game's sales figures are the best proof of that; the fruits of everyone's labor are evident in them.

As usual, Lu Chen started by saying a few words of approval.

"However, the Fruit Swordsman is not our final destination."

"We at ZhengTu Technology will bring more high-quality games to players worldwide in the future."

"So, boss, do you have any new ideas?"

Jiang Chang's eyes lit up, and he took the initiative to ask.

"Get lost! Do you think I'm Doraemon? Just pull it out of your pocket whenever you want to make a new game."

"Ha ha ha ha……"

Everyone laughed.

Indeed, the fact that Boss Lu had proposed two globally popular games in quick succession was already unbelievable to them.

Boss Lu can already be called a god of games.

The idea for this new game doesn't just come out of nowhere.

"Okay, let's get back to our previous topic."

ZhengTu Technology is still very weak now, but ZhengTu Technology will definitely not be weak in the future!

I hope everyone can continue their efforts and make progress together.

To open up a wider world for Conquer Online Technology!

We hope that everyone, like our company name suggests, will always be on a journey!

"good!"

Everyone applauded in unison, and for a moment, enthusiastic applause echoed throughout the office.

Lu Chen patted his hand and continued speaking.

"This time, we won't have any celebration banquet. Let's just give everyone money. Each person will receive a bonus equivalent to three months' salary."

Hopefully, this time next year, we can book the entire hotel for our company's annual meeting!

"oh!!!"

"Long live the boss!"

The applause grew even louder.

I don't know if it was because I was inspired by Lu Chen's ambitious words, or because I was counting my bonuses for three months.

However, no one took Boss Lu's words to heart.

After all, bosses like to make empty promises to their employees.

The company has only nine people, including the boss.

If even a private room isn't full, why bother holding the annual meeting at a hotel?

Of course, some people are just laughing it off, while others are taking notice.

Wu Zhixuan seemed lost in thought as he clapped.

Boss Lu has mentioned twice that he wants to further develop the company.

It seems the company will soon have its next move.

Should I stand out a bit so that Boss Lu thinks I can be entrusted with important responsibilities?

……

At a time when everyone at ZhengTu Technology is filled with the joy of success.

A meeting is being held within Tencent Games' business unit.

The current Penguin Games operates under a unified management model, encompassing the Linglang Tianshang Studio, Quantum Studio, Penguin Pets Team, and the agency operation team, all under the leadership of the Penguin Games Business Unit.

The model of a group of studios plus sub-studios, led by TiMi Studio, Photon Studio, Magic Cube Studio, and Aurora Studio, has not yet been formed.

Neither of these two models is inherently superior or inferior.

In 2008, Penguin Games' annual revenue was approximately between 30 and 40 billion yuan.

It is far from reaching the future revenue scale of hundreds of billions.

Therefore, due to limited resources, Tencent Games could not have adopted a competitive model among the four major studios in 2008.

Instead, concentrating resources and making unified arrangements to invest in game production, game distribution, and other businesses is the best solution at present.

Of course, this is also inseparable from the fact that games are not valued within Tencent.

In 08, gaming was often seen within Tencent as a "side hustle to make quick money."

Until 2010, game revenue accounted for more than 50% of Tencent's total revenue.

It was only then that Pony Ma and other high-level executives truly realized the strategic value of the game.

The person who created all of this is Ren Yuxin, the current leader of Tencent Games.

In 2007, he defied public opinion and won the agency rights for "Dungeon & Fighter" for a high price of 100 million RMB.

It became the game with the highest agency fee at the time.

And DNF has lived up to expectations, consistently topping the list of most popular games in internet cafes, and is currently Tencent Games' cash cow.

In the same year, Tencent acquired the rights to "Battlefield Online," but Ren Yuxin set his sights on its bundled product, "CrossFire."

With keen insight, Ren Yuxin invested heavily in local optimization and launched a national internet cafe team competition.

As a result, CF quickly became the "national FPS" and shouted the slogan "the gunfight dream of 300 million mice", which established Tencent's dominant position in the field of competitive games.

As 2008 approached, Ren Yuxin supported the release of self-developed games such as "Penguin Racing" and "Penguin Dance".

They also established a research and development center in Jincheng to pave the way for the future incubation of TiMi Studio.

It can be said that 2008 was the year that Penguin Games rose to prominence.

Let's get back to the meeting of the Penguin Games division.

Today's meeting focuses on Tencent's investment in Riot Games and a summary of Tencent Games' performance in the first half of the year.

Ren Yuxin chaired the meeting.

The audience consisted of employees from the agency team and the studio.

Ren Yuxin began by saying:

"The main topic of our meeting today is our investment in Riot Games. To the operations team, please tell us about your situation."

Wang Fan, from the agency operations team, adjusted his glasses and said to the computer screen:

"We have conducted a comprehensive evaluation of Riot Games."

Riot Games publicly accepted investment because its game League of Legends, currently in development, has suffered severe cost overruns.

The initial budget was three million dollars, but the current production cost is about 15 million dollars.

Therefore, the amount of this investment is approximately seven million dollars.

The goal of this investment is to secure the exclusive operating rights for League of Legends in mainland China.

Meanwhile, other investment institutions also see potential in Riot Games.

To complete this investment, we need at least $1.5 million in cash.