Chapter 429 333 What? ! Acquire Blizzard? !

Chapter 429 333. What? ! Acquire Blizzard? !

The Matrix is ​​an American science fiction action movie released in 1999.

It tells the story of a programmer named "Neo" who suddenly one day discovered that the world he was in turned out to be virtual.

Neo also returned to the real reality and escaped from the matrix under the guidance of Morpheus.

Only then did Neo realize that he had been living in a virtual world.

He joins forces with a group of rebels in an attempt to uncover the truth about the Matrix and free the people trapped within it.

Qing Zhiyuan personally likes the Matrix trilogy very much because it deeply implants the fear of "Brain in a Vat" into people's hearts. At the same time, it also seriously explores the very interesting and terrifying issues such as "Omnic Crisis" and the fate of mankind. proposition.

The Matrix's special effects and action scenes were avant-garde for its time, especially those jaw-dropping "bullet time" sequences.

These innovative visual effects not only amazed the audience, but also opened up new possibilities for subsequent film creation.

Qing Zhiyuan plans to add its Link time, ah, bullet time or time slowdown mechanism into the game, instead of using a dazzling combat camera.

The so-called bullet time slows down all surrounding enemies and the bullets they fire, but the protagonist's actions are not affected in any way.

In fact, if you can achieve this level, the experience will become quite special.

When Qing Zhiyuan was about to return to Neon, he asked Hitotsubashi Mune to make arrangements. He first wrote the outline of the first version of the script and gave it to her.

There should still be enough time now, so I have to register the project first.

Qing Zhiyuan is fully confident about adapting The Matrix into an action-type game.

The game incorporates bullet time and cool fighting actions, and it will definitely become a classic third-person action game.

The movie itself has a strong topicality. As long as the shooting goes smoothly and with pokeni's technology, there is no reason for failure.

Whether it's a movie or a game first, Qing Zhiyuan feels it doesn't matter, there can be a chemical reaction between the two.

To a certain extent, it may be the best rhythm to release the first movie to build momentum, and then release the game alternately.

It can also maintain heat continuously.

However, the specific decision will have to be made after Qing Zhiyuan returns and holds a meeting with Tsuda Nao and Hitotsubashi Fumi to discuss it clearly.

…

Qing Zhiyuan sat in the exhibition area for a while, and then wandered around the entire E3 exhibition site.

There are many game manufacturers, many of which he has heard of and loved before, but some have disappeared in the long river of history due to various reasons.

For example, Sega, which my uncle likes very much.

There is also Nishiki, which developed real-time strategy games a long time ago and can even be said to be the dominant player in this field.

It's a pity that due to the terrifying power of the river crab mythical beast, there is no way to do the Red Alert and Command and Conquer series. Otherwise, Qing Zhiyuan would still be happy to take over Westwood, which is on the verge of bankruptcy.

The scene was in chaos. Qing Zhiyuan had his hands in his pockets and was so cold that he seemed to be separated from the entire real world and became a unique and unique existence.

It was as if everything around him had nothing to do with him.

At this moment, Qing Zhiyuan was also in a trance. He felt like a time traveler rather than a participant. Time had brought time to him in a real way, not just through words or images. look back at past.

Qing Zhiyuan seemed to have walked into an old photo, but what he saw, heard, and happened now was so real.

I just thought of "The Matrix" before, and it felt like I had entered a virtual world.

However, Qing Zhiyuan stopped.

Time froze, and what he saw in front of him pulled him back from this feeling of alienation.

A down to earth feeling.

Everything in front of me suddenly became real again, the lights, the crowd, the noise, all came back at once.

The old photos gradually became clearer and then became reality.

In the front exhibition area, a small company called Blizzard is promoting their new game this year——

"Starcraft"

Several computers were also prepared for trial use.

Qing Zhiyuan raised his head and took a look. The young people standing in the exhibition area all had fluffy hair and bright eyes.

He wasn't sure if these people were the founders of Blizzard, so he stepped forward to have a chat.

After introducing each other, Qing Zhiyuan learned that several people were indeed the founders of Blizzard.

One is named Allen Yardham, one is named Mike Mohami, and the other is named Frank Pierce.

Seeing Qing Zhiyuan's arrival, several people were a little nervous.

You may not have known him before, but after the previous pre-exhibition press conference, Qing Zhiyuan left a deep impression on everyone.

The key is--

This is pokeni's boss.

Paradox's games are very popular in the Omi region and are well-known to every household, especially Pokémon, which they themselves are still playing.

"We are actually pokeni players. I personally like The Witcher very much, especially this year's The Witcher 2. The plot and gameplay of Devil's Egg really refreshed my understanding of the game."

said short-haired Mike Mohami.

Several people are actually quite talkative, especially Mike.

From the perspective of communication skills, Mike should be the backbone among several people.

"Actually, I am also a Blizzard player." Qing Zhiyuan said.

"Walter? Real or fake?"

Several people looked at each other and laughed.

It's unlikely. Blizzard specializes in developing real-time strategy games for the PC, which are very different from games developed by pokeni. No matter how you look at it, it's unlikely that Neon people overseas will come into contact with Warcraft.

"It's true." Qing Zhiyuan smiled and nodded, "I'm very good at Warcraft, and I often discuss it with my friends, and I often play 1v1."

Qing Zhiyuan said that what I told was the truth, but it was just when I was in college in my previous life.

And the one-on-one version is already the Frozen Throne.

Listening to Qing Zhiyuan talking endlessly about the contents of Warcraft, as well as various operations that they had never thought of——

For example, controlling the farmer's card position, harassing the airship, or directly destroying the opponent's house with a wave of towers is simply astonishing.

Several people looked at each other: Can our game produce so many cool operations?

After communicating for almost half an hour, they already believed that Qing Zhiyuan was a Blizzard player.

"How about this new game?" Qing Zhiyuan raised his chin and stared at the computer screen next to him.

A player is playing Zerg.

The three founders looked at each other and then smiled sheepishly.

"To be honest, the game sold less than we thought."

“We produced and launched StarCraft last year,” Mike said, “but it was an instant hit. Players complained that it was no different from Warcraft 2.

So we spent a year redesigning StarCraft.

Making the game a more pure strategy game will test the players' command skills and large-scale corps operations. "

The biggest difference between StarCraft and the Warcraft series is actually this. In Warcraft, every unit is valuable. The value provided by a soldier is much higher than that of a soldier in Warcraft. Moreover, Warcraft has heroes, and the richness seems to be greater. High, but the requirement for players is to operate each unit in a more refined manner.

StarCraft, on the other hand, prefers team combat, which requires both overall view and operation. However, it is not as detailed as in Warcraft, where every unit must be controlled in such detail.

"Oh." After listening to their explanation, Qing Zhiyuan discovered that interstellar upsets had happened before.

etc.

He keenly sensed an opportunity——

In other words, Blizzard’s current economic situation is not as good as imagined?

The only one that can always be used is Warcraft?

An idea came to Qing Zhiyuan's heart. I had already bought half of Blizzard, why not buy the remaining half?

"By the way, are you interested in joining pokeni?"

Qing Zhiyuan directly extended an olive branch.

"What?!"

Several Blizzard founders were a little confused, thinking that the neon man had said the wrong word?

"It's about cooperating with pokeni, not joining pokeni, right?" Mike Mohami asked cautiously.

"No, what I mean is," Qing Zhiyuan paused and said with a smile, "I want to buy Blizzard."

"ha?!"

The three young people were a little confused.

After Qing Zhiyuan's serious explanation, they realized a terrible problem——

The boss of this pokeni is serious!

"After buying it, we will not interfere with your game development and production, and pokeni has ample funds to support Blizzard's future development content." Qing Zhiyuan said with a smile.

Several people lowered their heads and felt a little embarrassed.

"Why don't you come to my hotel later and let's have a good talk." Qing Zhiyuan asked Takahashi Kazuma to write down their hotel address and room number and handed it to Mike Mohami.

It might not be clear for a while at E3, so Qing Zhiyuan planned to invite them to the hotel.

…

At around 2 o'clock in the afternoon the next day, the three people arrived at the appointment on time.

Qing Zhiyuan and Takahashi Kazuma sat on the bed in the room, inviting them to sit down as well.

"Sorry, the room is a bit small. It's a standard room. We never thought about negotiating such a big deal at the beginning, otherwise we would have booked a presidential suite."

Qing Zhiyuan smiled and took out a bottle of red wine from the freezer and poured a glass for everyone.

In fact, everyone is about the same age. Mike Mohami is a few years younger than Qing Zhiyuan, but the American looks more mature than his appearance.

"Actually, it's like this." The three of them sat on the sofa and hesitated for a long time. Finally, Mike took the initiative and said, "We are very grateful for Mr. Qing's invitation. For us, as long as we can do what we like, we can do it." enough.

It is indeed our dream to be able to make the games we like and get ample funds. "

"But what?" Qing Zhiyuan's heart skipped a beat.

Such words are often followed by a but.

"But, I'm very sorry, our company has been sold a long time ago." Mike said embarrassedly, "If Pokeni wants to acquire it, they may have to talk to our parent company."

This experience is very complicated to talk about.

They talked for a long time, and Qing Zhiyuan finally understood-

It turned out that Blizzard was bought by Davidson & Associates, an American educational software developer, at a shocking price of 6.75 million US dollars at the time in February 1994.

Then in February last year, in order to expand its business into the interactive entertainment field, a company called CUC spent a very exaggerated price of 1.5 billion US dollars to acquire Sierra, and another 1.8 billion US dollars to acquire D&A's shares.

In July last year, after CUC completed the acquisition, CUC Software was established around D&A.

In other words, Blizzard was sold to CUC in a package.

If you count carefully, D&A is the first father of Blizzard, and then the father and son were sold to CUC together. Now CUC has become the grandfather of Blizzard.

At the same time, after the integration is completed, Blizzard can only be regarded as a sub-studio under CUC Software Company under CUC.

It's probably like this.

"So if you want to buy Blizzard, you have to negotiate with CUC."

Mike laughed, "In fact, we don't have to reply at all, but we felt very happy talking to you yesterday, Mr. Qing.

For us, CUC and D&A are actually good parent companies. They give money and promise not to interfere with our development.

In fact, we all think it's good."

Okay.

It's good to know the attitudes of several people in Blizzard.

After Qing Zhiyuan sent them away, he felt a headache.

Blizzard's fate...

It's basically a gift, and anyone can take it away.

Qing Zhiyuan frowned, if Pokeni bought CUC?

What would Blizzard call us? !

Great grandfather?

...

It's quite troublesome to think about it, but it's a pity that Blizzard is helpless now, otherwise the deal would have been done.

But--

Since we are here, why not take this opportunity to deal with everything?

So Qing Zhiyuan took Kazuma Takahashi to make an appointment with CUC first, and then visited in person.

The current CUC chairman and CEO is an old man over 50 years old, who looks very energetic. His name is Walter Forbes.

After a brief introduction, the two sides exchanged business cards and information. After getting to know each other, Walter invited the two to the president's office for negotiation.

Walter was still a little surprised by Qing Zhiyuan's arrival.

The name Qing Zhiyuan may be a little unfamiliar, but the name Pokeni is now well-known to Walter.

As long as you are involved in the European and American electronic game market, you will definitely hear of Pokeni and know something about its games.

Qing Zhiyuan briefly introduced himself, and then got straight to the point and stated his purpose, "We hope to acquire your company's Blizzard Studio. I wonder if your company has any price requirements?"

Hearing Qing Zhiyuan's words, Walter laughed out loud.

"Sorry, if you want to buy CUC software, you might consider it. We may not have the intention to buy Blizzard alone."

"Then..." Qing Zhiyuan gritted his teeth and asked, "If you want to buy CUC software, how much does it cost?"

"Sorry, please forgive my impoliteness, but I think you may not have enough funds to buy it. If you really want to know, the price I suggest is 4 billion US dollars."

Takahashi Kazuma next to him almost spit out a mouthful of water.

What? !

4 billion US dollars? !

CUC spent 1.8 billion US dollars just to acquire D&A, and now the entire cuc software directly integrates D&A and Sierra, and is waiting for them to make money for itself. In fact, it is not in a hurry to sell.

In the absence of financial pressure, it is natural to ask for a certain premium.

I thought the young boss in front of me was joking, but I didn't expect Qing Zhiyuan to be so serious, which made him a little embarrassed.

...

Qing Zhiyuan couldn't help but take a breath.

Although Pokeni seems to make a lot of money, in fact, all game sales must first be shared with Sony or Sega and dealers, and taxes and so on must be paid.

In addition, a large number of employees must be supported.

Water, electricity, equipment, and the operation of Yuehe...

The funds that Pokeni can take out now are actually quite limited. Qing Zhiyuan estimated that it is about 2 billion US dollars.

It is impossible to buy CUC Software.

Walter is asking for too much.

It seems that this guy has no intention of selling his software company.

Good guy, I should have bought Blizzard a few years ago.

The reason for buying Blizzard is not just because of the talents of their company, but more importantly, for the two IPs of Warcraft and StarCraft owned by Blizzard.

Originally I thought it was troublesome to build a car myself, but now it seems that the price of buying it directly is too high.

Forget it, let's go back to my Diablo and Ashes of Eternity.

The world view of Diablo is a little weak, but it is also very famous.

The world view of Ashes of Eternity is very grand. If Ashes of Eternity is expanded, it may not be worse than Warcraft.

"If that's the case, then..."

Qing Zhiyuan stood up and put one of his business cards on the table, "If you want to sell Blizzard in the future, I'm still interested. Please contact us then.

But I definitely can't afford such a high price."

Now Blizzard has actually lost its thigh of Diablo. With one leg lame, Blizzard can only jump around in Warcraft and StarCraft. How high can the price of such a company be?

But if you want to buy the entire CUC software in a package, it is indeed a bit exaggerated.

Qing Zhiyuan can only sigh that he came at the wrong time. The current Blizzard is equivalent to the innermost layer of the Russian set, and there are already too many fathers outside.

He only wanted to buy Blizzard, but ended up buying it for his father and grandfather as well. Qing Zhiyuan felt that he was not that stupid.

…

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No update tonight

Thanks everyone

See you tomorrow