Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

You're already married?! And not just anyone, but an industry giant, Spark!

This melon was really delicious!

Soon enough, players wanted to know what had happened, and the media seized the opportunity to report on it.

This report, you know what, actually uncovered some information.

Xinghuo's acquisition can be described as a complete "hero saves the damsel in distress" scenario.

The story is not complicated. Simply put, the original owner of Disco Elysium judged that this was the time when the company's value was at its highest.

So they decided to sell the company to recoup their investment and make a profit.

Up to this point, the story is still quite normal. Moreover, when this boss was selling the company, he did not make an offer to the public, but instead consulted two other small investors of ZA/UM Studio first.

They weren't interested in taking over either.

Then came the bizarre move: the two small investors naturally wanted to take over the investment, but they didn't have the money.

What if I don't have money?

They used their status as investors in the studio to scam the developers of ZA/UM Studio by acquiring "artwork" and "development resources" at inflated prices.

Then, using ZA/UM Studio as collateral, a bank loan was obtained, and through a series of other operations, the goal was ultimately achieved: to use the money from ZA/UM Studio to buy ZA/UM Studio.

In my past life, this outrageous plan was ultimately successful.

The three main creators of Disco Elysium were eventually ousted from ZA/UM Studio, the company they founded, which also lost its ability to continue development.

It became a company that completely relied on the success of Disco Elysium.

However, in this timeline, although Lin Li didn't have time to pay attention to this matter, he did make sure that the European headquarters of the Spark Platform paid special attention to it.

Therefore, account managers in Europe and America astutely discovered this problem and ultimately exposed the conspiracy of these two investors ahead of time.

And it guided Xinghuo to complete the capital injection and acquisition.

However, at that time, Spark acquired the game without doing anything like EPIC did, such as removing games released on Steam. Instead, the games were released normally on Steam.

After ZA/UM Studio was acquired by Spark, the three main creators retained their shares, so they are now quietly fixing bugs and preparing DLC.

The DLC that was not included in the previous version of Disco Elysium due to internal divisions is now in the late stages of development.

Because the developers didn't keep their work quiet, and Spark didn't announce it either, there was almost no news about the acquisition.

The media didn't notice anything amiss either.

It wasn't until the StarCore handheld event started that players discovered the clues, and it eventually became a huge hit.

After this was exposed, players immediately noticed the key point: ZA/UM Studio, a subsidiary of Spark Studio, now has its games available on Steam.

Furthermore, Spark has promised that, at least for the game Disco Elysium, Spark will not change its game launch plans due to the acquisition.

In other words, players who bought the game on Steam can continue to play it.

And so...

"So, does that mean players who buy Disco Elysium on Steam can also achieve the feat of playing Spark games on Steam!?"

"Can Spark also receive money transferred from the Steam platform?"

"Hahaha, what are you thinking? Spark platform is already offering a discount, but Steam is still selling at full price. This is Spark's blatant scheme..."

Lin Li made this very clear in an interview.

Business competition is ruthless.

Disco Elysium was kept on Steam to avoid hurting players, while the price reduction on the Spark platform was for competition, since Spark currently holds the pricing power.

Same game, different prices—that's enough.

~~~

美国

Gavin Mike made himself a cup of coffee as usual when he got up in the morning.

As an employee of Spark America.

Before joining Starfire, he was a crazy game enthusiast. Later, he joined DECI America and worked on the Battlefield series. Just a few days ago...

He finally switched jobs to Xinghuo.

"Life is so comfortable."

Starting in March of this year, Spark America began implementing a work-from-home plan and simultaneously closed its external recruitment channels. Those who can still join Spark America now are either employees of competitors that were previously poached but were not successfully recruited.

Or it could be an internal referral by an employee.

Xinghuo is quite strict in this regard.

However, despite closing its external recruitment channels, Spark America's staff has been rapidly expanding in recent months.

This is because, with the increase in deaths at the beginning of the year, many American companies have begun to implement work-from-home policies.

Logically speaking, if we're going to work from home, then let's just work from home.

The problem is that many American companies' work-from-home arrangements are temporary and sudden, and management has not even thought about how to manage employees working from home.

Either everyone just gives up, or something else will happen.

That means busy people are working themselves to the bone at home, and they still have to risk going back to the company frequently to get things, while those who are idle might just stay online during meetings every day.

This phenomenon is particularly evident in mega-corporations like EA and Ubisoft.

Large companies face significant pressure regarding project deadlines. For example, EA (Expert Advisor) specifies when a certain stage must be reached, and the development team must then reach that stage.

If you say a game is going to be released, then it has to be released.

"Cannot tolerate even the slightest imperfection"

For example, in the Battlefield series, there were some experienced veterans, but as masks became more common and people started working from home, they quickly discovered that the entire Battlefield 5 project had fallen into serious chaos.

The people above only know how to frantically ask the senior employees for things. Even a member of Mike's team was fined because he was a little behind in progress for a week.

Chapter 589 Electronic Cricket Fighting

With encouragement from friends who had previously worked at Xinghuo, I decided to go all in and switch jobs.

There are many people like Mike.

So much so that the first thing Mike did after joining Xinghuo was to go home and use the internal communication software to see who he knew.

Since he just joined the company and is still undergoing online new employee onboarding training, he's not very busy.

With a video playing on the computer, I listened to it while sipping my coffee and opening Spark's internal communication software.

A long list of familiar names popped up on the screen.

"Hey, isn't that Jack? He's here too?"

Mike opened Jack's chat window and quickly typed a line of text.

"Dude, when did you switch jobs? Why didn't you tell me?"

A few seconds later, Jack's reply popped up.

"Haha, Mike! I knew you'd come too. We 'war refugees' will get together sooner or later! Wait for me, I'll add you to our group chat."

After saying that, Jack actually added him to an internal communication group.

The group's name really is "Wartime Refugee Camp"...

"Hey guys! The money's in!! The latest refugee to our company is Mike! Not Jonah!!!"

"Damn it, you guys actually made a bet on this?"

"Hey, wanna join us? The next round is guessing whether Jonah will join our company within a week..."

Mike smiled and shook his head.

Then I noticed a detail: although the group was called Battlefield Refugee Camp, they referred to Spark as our company.

This word is quite unfamiliar.

Back when we were at EA, nobody said that.

Just as he was thinking about it, he suddenly saw a familiar name appear before him.

Hillar!?

She's here too. Mike knows this girl because she was the UI designer he worked with on the battlefield project at DECI.

Secondly, naturally, those who know, know.

“Hilal, you’re on Starfire too? Great!” Mike typed quickly.

"Yes, I've finally escaped that hell!"

Hillar's reply was tinged with obvious excitement.

"I can finally get a good night's sleep, and I won't be woken up in the middle of the night by phone calls to fix the interface anymore."

Mike looked at the screen, a wave of emotion washing over him.

Although he hasn't officially started working yet, he has already looked at some of Spark's internal documents.

In terms of management model, Xinghuo's management of working from home is perfect.

It even has a complete "virtual office" system and a full set of hardware equipment.

This "virtual office" allows team members to communicate via voice, transfer files, and complete tasks together. The reason the system is so well-developed is because this software has been used in China for almost half a year.

In addition to the software, there are many rules and regulations, reward and punishment mechanisms, and task allocation logic.

In short, after watching it, I can only sigh.

How did you think of all that?

After chatting for a while, the coffee was ready and the bread was baked.

The aroma of coffee filled the morning air. He gently blew on the rim of the cup, took a sip, and felt the warmth slide down his throat, waking up his still somewhat groggy mind.

He casually picked up a perfectly toasted slice of bread, spread a thin layer of peanut butter on it, and then added a small jar of jam. The breakfast he had been eating since childhood was ready.

Sitting at the dining table, he ate while swiping the screen of his tablet with his other hand.

To some extent, this can be considered a characteristic of contemporary young people.

No matter what you're doing, your hands can't be idle.

The news he was browsing on his tablet was from the Spark platform's news section.

This section features a front-page video that broadcasts the day's hottest news in a relatively entertaining format.

Its interface is actually very similar to the CCTV Evening News.

It's just that the content is what players like, and the pace is fast, so it gets a lot of plays. Many people listen to it almost every day, and feel uncomfortable if they don't listen to it for a day.

Mike was one of them.

However, the first news item today was about him frowning.

In the "Gundam Battlefield Server Showdown," Team USA suffered a shock defeat to Russia, failing to advance to the quarterfinals...

"How could you lose like this?"

He sighed, took a bite of toast, and could still feel the crispness of the toast and the creaminess of the peanut butter as he chewed.

"No way, what kind of game is this? How did they get beaten 3-0? I could have done better..."

He muttered something under his breath, just as a highlight reel of the match was playing on the screen.

The international competition in "Gundam Battlegrounds" is quite different from professional e-sports competitions; it's a very interesting international battle mode.

It was a gimmick that Wang Wei prepared during the promotion period of "Gundam Battlegrounds".

Before the official launch of "Gundam Battlegrounds", Wang Wei, who was nervous, prepared a lot of promotional gimmicks in addition to VR.

Even though they've already sold very well, they're still being released gradually.

This "server battle" is one of them.

The gameplay is very simple.

First, the game will announce the draw results for the international server battles to the world. Since this is the first competition, the event is relatively simple.