Chapter 455 359 It’s Time to Make Your Own Steam

Chapter 455 359. It's time to make your own Steam

After discussing the future Pokémon development plan with Lisa Asano, Qing Zhiyuan felt that it was very stable.

Then he called Ken Akanishi into the office.

"President, you're looking for me?"

Ken Akanishi was obviously a little flustered.

Seven years ago, he liked chatting with Qing Zhiyuan. At that time, the company was just starting out and everyone was penniless.

Chatting together and bragging about the future.

However, as the boasts he made were realized step by step, Ken Akanishi became more and more afraid of being called into the office by Qing Zhiyuan.

Because——

There is no good thing. Generally speaking, it is related to game development. Qing Zhiyuan always makes some weird things and adds burden to the programming department.

And the requirements are more and more weird.

Ken Akanishi said he couldn't stand it.

Sitting on the sofa and glancing at Qing Zhiyuan, from the expression on his face, it can be seen that there must be another important task for him to do.

Ken Akanishi's heart skipped a beat.

"President, we are very busy developing the new Pioneer engine, and we may not be able to add additional requirements."

"This task is actually quite simple, Akanishi-san, don't be so nervous, it won't take much time, and we can recruit more if we are short of manpower." Qing Zhiyuan said with a smile.

"Okay, President." Akanishi Ken nodded.

No matter what, as the program director, he still has to face what he has to face, and if it doesn't work, there is still the president to support him.

Now...

For some reason, Akanishi Ken always feels that the president doesn't look like an original artist, and his current programming thinking has been trained quite well.

It even makes Akanishi Ken suspect that Qing Zhiyuan is born to be a programmer.

Otherwise, it is impossible to always come up with programming solutions at critical moments, and always be able to put forward new programming requirements just right, not too much or too little.

It's just a little more than the current technology mastered by the company, and it seems to have taken half a step forward.

It is not impossible, nor is it easy to do. At first, it may seem alarmist and unrealistic, but it can be implemented in practice. With a little effort, you can achieve your goal in half a year or a year.

The president who can do this is a genius!

Akanishi Ken took a deep breath, then put his hands on his knees and looked at the president calmly, "President, what is the demand? We promise to complete the task."

"It's very simple," Qing Zhiyuan smiled and put the project plan he had written on the table in front of Akanishi Ken.

Akanishi Ken flipped it open and saw the words [Game Community Platform] written on the cover of the plan.

Then there was a paragraph written below:

[Game Community Platform] is a virtual platform based on the Internet, which provides and sells games and game-related services to players through the Internet.

In the future, on this platform, players can buy and download games online.

"Huh?" Akanishi Ken was shocked, "Are we actually going to make this kind of thing?"

At the same time, a huge doubt and fear surged in his heart-

Can we really make this kind of thing?

It doesn't look like a product of this era at all.

Qing Zhiyuan poured him a cup of tea and explained with a smile:

"The game platform itself can be regarded as a virtual game electronic supermarket," Qing Zhiyuan gestured, "Think about it, in this game supermarket, we will make the games developed by Pokeni into digital products and put them on the shelves, and there will be a steady stream of new games added to this supermarket in the future.

It is equivalent to opening a platform that can be purchased directly through the Internet in addition to the physical store.

If it can be done, this is a very large sales network, a super powerful sales channel."

"Wow."

Akanishi Ken's face was full of shock.

He chewed the president's words carefully, "That means players no longer need to buy discs, but can play our games through the Internet?"

"Yes," Qing Zhiyuan nodded with a smile, "Not only our games, I will also attract more game manufacturers to join our platform in the future."

Ah!

Akanishi Ken suddenly opened his eyes wide, and at this moment he trembled all over, finally understanding the president's intention.

This thing is like a spider web. If the world's networks can be connected, then through the online sales channel, you can even bypass the physical store directly, there is no disc production cost, and there is no transportation and packaging cost, which can directly reduce the cost a lot.

In addition, as long as the scale of the platform is large enough, it will become the world's largest electronic game sales channel in the future.

As long as there is this channel, it is equivalent to having Sony's game console platform. Any game manufacturer who wants to be listed on the pokeni game platform must pay royalties.

This set of Akanishi Ken is very familiar and deeply experienced.

It is equivalent to collecting seigniorage. The more games are added, the larger the platform is, and the larger the platform is, the higher the royalties will be collected.

As long as it succeeds, Pokeni will be able to make money without doing anything in the future even if he doesn't develop games himself.

"That's awesome, President!" Ken Akanishi admired him so much.

Hahaha, Qing Zhiyuan laughed happily, it's not me that's great, it's Steam that's great.

"But, I have only one question," Ken Akanishi said with a frown, "The concept of this game supermarket is actually quite advanced, but it may be difficult to implement with the current technology. You also know that the current network transmission speed is very limited. , especially to achieve large-scale game transmission exceeding 500M, is almost impossible.

It may take dozens of hours to complete the transmission.

Users didn’t get positive feedback and even complained about our platform being too slow.

This problem is not easy to solve. "

Qing Zhiyuan smiled.

It’s time to be your own steam, but, as Ken Akanishi said, you can’t spread your business too big at the beginning.

It is almost impossible to download games online and support independent studios to upload games in one go.

The network transmission speed is here.

"I am going to divide this platform into several steps,"

Now that Ken Akanishi has understood the development intention, the next explanation is much easier. Qing Zhiyuan sat down and continued, "The current network transmission speed is definitely not able to support the downloading of large games.

However, in the first step, we can build the platform first, and then don’t make the stall so big. Let’s make it a base for a small game first.

For example, on this platform, players can easily download some games that are only a few MB in size and run them through the platform's own virtual machine.

In addition, we will provide some online multiplayer social games and operate the platform first. When technology continues to advance in the future and network speeds increase, we will expand step by step until we finally form a large-scale game supermarket. Games of GB or dozens of GB can be downloaded. "

"Yeah." Akanishi Ken nodded.

The president's consideration is quite comprehensive. It seems that he knew from the beginning that he could not achieve that level. Before, he was just painting a pie for him and letting Ken Akanishi know what kind of towering tree this thing will grow into in the future. .

However, no matter how big a tree is, it starts from a small seedling.

What Qing Zhiyuan said now was to let Akanishi Ken make the seedlings first.

Realize network transmission and provide several Mbytes of small game downloads. The game platform comes with a game simulator, so you can also play it on a computer.

At the same time, the game store function and the in-game social module will be opened.

The game platform must also integrate chat functions, community attributes, bulletin boards, etc...

In fact, the workload is quite large.

Even Ken Akanishi is not sure that he can do it well. It is really hard to say whether it will produce the desired effect in the end. How specific it is.

etc.

Ken Akanishi realized several more fatal problems.

"President, how will we make a profit when we make it?" Ken Akanishi asked, "If virtual products are placed in the game supermarket, how will players buy them?"

Just this step alone, Akanishi Ken couldn't figure it out.

“In physical sales points, players pay at the checkout counter and then take away their goods.

But the online platform does not have a cashier. "

Akanishi Ken crossed his hands and thought with a frown, could it be said that players are just like worshiping gods, throwing money into the void, and the money will be transported to pokeni? !

It doesn't exist!

What the hell is this? !

It’s not like I’m writing novels or engaging in the magical world.

"You don't have to worry about this matter now," Qing Zhiyuan smiled, "I'll take care of it."

This problem must be solved. Without online banking and online payment functions, the gaming platform is just a castle in the air.

But online payment should be relatively easy to solve. According to what Qing Zhiyuan learned, Son Zhengyi and others are already doing these things.

It’s just that we need to have a meal with Boss Sun and push him more.

At this point, we have to say that Masayoshi Son has a long-term vision. This guy has determined from the beginning that the future world will definitely be dominated by the Internet, so he has already started to lay out the Internet a long time ago. Two years ago, he was already leading the promotion of the next generation. With advanced network transmission technology, ADSL should enter the market in less than two years.

The subsequent online banking and online payment functions are all promoted by Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank.

"We will build a free game platform first," Qing Zhiyuan said.

"Huh?!" Akanishi Ken couldn't help but widen his eyes.

That expression seemed to be saying——

President, are you crazy?

I know that the president sometimes has some wild ideas and always makes mistakes.

However, this was the craziest thing he had ever heard.

"Have you ever thought that even RTT is free, so what if our game platform is free?" Qing Zhiyuan smiled.

"Where do we have so much money to burn?"

Speaking of RTT, Ken Akanishi feels a little annoyed now. The monthly service fees, loan fees, electricity and equipment losses alone for RTT alone cost hundreds of millions.

It's like making a game for nothing.

Just like this, Qing Zhiyuan still wants to keep it. So far, Ken Akanishi hasn't seen anything good about RTT.

Yes, this thing has indeed brought convenience to countless Internet users and made communication and communication much more convenient, but the problem is-

It's a big melting pot. They just burn money into it but get nothing in return.

Fortunately, Masayoshi Son was willing to invest money in it, otherwise pokeni would have suffered a huge loss by now.

But that's not all. Qing Zhiyuan wants to launch a free gaming platform. Have you ever seen someone buying something in a supermarket and taking it away without paying?

What is the point of such a supermarket?

“Adopting a curve charging method,” Qing Zhiyuan said, “we can then sell point cards offline, allowing players to recharge on the gaming platform by purchasing physical point cards.

Then buy the games you want through the gaming platform.

However, I decided to make some of the games free and open, and the game platform is also free to download.

You know what I mean? "

The solution Qing Zhiyuan mentioned is actually the card payment method used in the early days of online games in China.

The principle is also very simple. The company has its own point card database, automatically generates activation codes corresponding to the points, and then prints these activation codes on the corresponding point cards and puts them into the physical market in the form of scratch-off tickets.

In this way, even without online banking and online payment functions, players can still recharge by purchasing point cards and entering the corresponding activation code on the game platform.

In other words, the server needs to do all the verification functions.

"I see."

Akanishi Ken nodded, and the doubts in his heart disappeared.

Even more admiration for the president.

Isn't this guy Qing Zhiyuan too scary? How did his brain grow?

I can actually think of such a weird payment method.

"Then this is equivalent to us still selling the game to physical dealers, just in the form of selling cards, right? So why do players want to buy online instead of directly offline? How about buying the game you want in the form of a physical disc?”

"right."

Qing Zhiyuan snapped his fingers and smiled very happily.

Being able to ask such a question shows that my program director really has something.

"So, we have to provide unique value online."

"Huh?" Akanishi Ken looked at the president in confusion.

"Sparrow soul."

Qing Zhiyuan crossed his hands, thought for two seconds, and finally said this word.

"Huh?!" Akanishi Ken was even more confused.

"Can you play mahjong?" Qing Zhiyuan asked.

"Yeah. I can still play mahjong, but I'm not good at it."

"I didn't mean to invite you to my house to play mahjong," Qing Zhiyuan waved his hand, dispelling Ken Akanishi's unrealistic fantasy, "I meant to make an online mahjong game.

The name of this game is Bird Soul. Players can freely use the two-dimensional avatars and character paintings we have set.

The rules of the whole game are the same as playing mahjong.

On the gaming platform, the point cards that players recharge can be exchanged for currency in Quehun. In this way, they will have a long-term need to purchase point cards. "

"As for making money..." Qing Zhiyuan pondered, "We charge room fees and take a cut. For example, at the end of each card game, we take a cut of 10% or even lower to 5%.

Then players will naturally spend the currency. "

This set of procedures is actually a side ball. As long as the game can still provide cash redemption, it is a complete gamble.

Therefore, Qing Zhiyuan said that it can only be made into a game that can only be entered and not exited, which means that players can only recharge into it but cannot withdraw cash. Pokeni officials will not provide any rebates, even for physical exchange rewards. None of this exists.

This will also help you avoid legal risks.

But in fact, it doesn’t matter even if it is turned into a gambling game, because the fishing and pachinko machines in the neon arcade are actually blatant gambling machines.

It's just a gray area and has not been written into the law. In addition, everyone seems to have accepted it, so it has not been banned.

And official horse racing betting is legal.

Of course, Qing Zhiyuan does not want to make it a real gambling game. This is just the first step and cornerstone of the game platform.

We at pokeni win with content, there is no need to go to that extent.

"What? That means we not only want to develop a game platform, but also an online mahjong game?"

Akanishi Ken wanted to slap himself twice.

Each time, more work was added by asking questions that shouldn't have been asked.

Akanishi Ken, Akanishi Ken, can't you just stop at the game platform?

Now it's great. Not only does it have to be a game platform, but it also has an activation code recharge function, and correspondingly it has to develop some cards.

In addition to these, an online multiplayer game has been added.

You really deserve to die.

Akanishi Ken cursed himself deeply.

Fortunately, the development of Quehun is not difficult. Mahjong games are a very common type in Neon. It is not complicated to make. The only thing that takes some time is the network interaction.

But they had accumulated some experience when they made "Border" before, so it was not difficult to do it.

Thinking about it carefully, Akanishi Ken couldn't help but feel a huge fear in his heart.

To this point, it seems that everything was arranged by Qing Zhiyuan clearly, and each step is a preparation for the next step, and the transition is so smooth.

You didn't even think that the game would reach this level at the beginning, but it just came step by step inexplicably.

It's terrible. If all of this was planned by the president and within his calculations...

Akanishi Ken can only say that Qing Zhiyuan is too terrible.

Can he see the future ten years later at a glance?

...

The two spent a few more hours to blend all the contents clearly, and Akanishi Ken was relieved.

It felt difficult at first, but it was not as complicated as imagined after sorting it out.

And according to the plan they finally decided, the development time of the game platform and the soul of the sparrow is about half a year.

The specific details will have to wait until the development process in the future to understand, and I can't think so much now.

"Well, then what is the name of this platform?"

Akanishi Ken asked the last question.

"Grandma Tan." Qing Zhiyuan said with a smile, "I hope it can fly around like a dandelion and take root."

……

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There is another chapter in the evening