My rebirth is different

Chapter 686 The Way of Money

While handing the document to Yu Wenfei, she said with a smile, "It just so happens that when I went to the United States this time, I was actually thinking about making money for the company. This plan is what I thought of, and I plan to use it in the new games of Blizzard and Valve Use it on the Internet, Mr. Fei can help me refer to it."

Yu Wenfei took it over and took a look. The original plan was about the charging system of World of Warcraft and CSOL.

World of Warcraft, if Yu Wenfei hadn’t acquired Blizzard, it might have been delayed for half a year.

But now because of Yu Wenfei's intervention, Blizzard's fate has been changed, the company's turbulence is very short, and all the main backbone personnel have stayed.

Therefore, the development of the game did not waste time, and the work efficiency was of course much higher when the people's hearts were stable.

As a result, World of Warcraft was released half a year ahead of schedule. After the internal beta, it will soon enter the stage of global release.

At that time, the general charging system for online games was generally based on the duration of the fee or a monthly subscription.

Just like Shanda Legend, at the beginning, there was no monthly fee, only time cards.

A point card for 120 hours is priced at 35 yuan.

This price doesn’t seem expensive, but don’t forget, that’s the price in 120. Moreover, [-] hours is really not much. For a true legendary player, who doesn’t play for three or four hundred hours a month? .

In 35, Legend began to introduce a monthly card system, and the monthly subscription fee was also [-] yuan.

Some people may think that the 35 in [-] is so expensive, will SB really buy it?

I can tell you responsibly, some...

Moreover, after the launch of the monthly card, the price is 35 yuan, but because it is too popular, when you actually go to buy it, you even have to pay forty or fifty to buy it!

For an online game like Legend, if you play seven or eight hours a day, you can only be regarded as a light player or a casual player.

Really heavy players, they never go offline!

So the monthly subscription system seems to be very conscientious. If it is really calculated according to the duration, those heavy players will need 200 yuan a month just to order a card!

And after a monthly subscription, even if it costs forty or fifty to buy it, it seems very cost-effective.

…………

In Effie's plan, only the charging system for the mainland market is planned, and the first one is about the charging method of World of Warcraft.

The first is the release of the game. Domestically, the game body is going to be used to provide online free downloads, and a physical collection model will also be launched.

If you buy a genuine CD, it is not expensive, and there are two versions for you to choose from.

The normal version only costs 68 yuan, including two game discs and exquisite game posters.

The collector's edition is amazing. It is packaged in a tin box. In addition to the game CD and game poster, there are also exquisite decorations and an original art book.In addition, there is a month's monthly card gift!
And the price of the collector's edition is only 288!

This is for rich players.

Yu Wenfei asked in surprise: "Are there still charges for online games? Is the physical version too expensive? Will anyone buy it?"

But Effie replied: "What is this? In Europe and the United States, even online downloads are charged. The North American company's pricing is that online downloads cost $19.99, and physical CDs are even more expensive. I just considered Due to the national conditions in China, it provides free online downloads. However, there must be quite a few users who will not have a physical version, because the game installation package is quite large, and it may take a long time to download online.”

Yu Wenfei suddenly realized that he was used to the free online games of later generations, but he forgot that it was 2003!
Because of the bandwidth, it is indeed a bit slow to download from the Internet for large-scale online games like World of Warcraft.Moreover, Blizzard has always been relatively "stingy". World of Warcraft in Europe and the United States is indeed charged for the main body, and also for online play, and even after the expansion pack is still charged!

However, their games are indeed doing well, even if they charge everywhere, players still buy it.

…………

Next is the online charging model. Effie's plan is to coexist with time-based charging and monthly subscription charging, giving players the opportunity to choose freely.

Calculated by the duration, the 50-hour point card is priced at [-] yuan, which is [-] cents for an hour.

The price of the monthly subscription card is 60 yuan, two yuan per day.

In other words, if your game time is less than four hours a day, you can choose a time card so that the monthly fee will not exceed [-].

If you are a heavy player, you must choose a monthly card for more than ten hours a day, and the cost for one hour is very cheap.

"Sixty per month... isn't it a bit expensive, how much is the grand legend?" Yu Wenfei frowned.

"The Legendary monthly card is 35, but Mr. Fei, in terms of game quality, Legendary is not worthy to be compared with World of Warcraft, so it is normal for our game price to be higher than it." Effie said disapprovingly.

Seeing that Effie is so confident, of course Yu Wenfei can't say anything, after all, he doesn't know much about the game market.When it comes to the big development trend, Yu Wenfei naturally knows it, but the details are not so good.

If it's just these, then it's nothing, but to Yu Wenfei's surprise, Effie also added additional charging items such as "clothes" and "mounts" to World of Warcraft.

This is a bit "black hearted"...

After all, it is a paid game. Players have already paid for it for a long time, so why spend money on such fancy things as clothing and mounts?

Of course, this is considered from the player's point of view. On the contrary, from the perspective of game manufacturers, of course, it is necessary to find all charging methods that can drain the player's wallet.

Moreover, in the final analysis, Yu Wenfei was the first to propose this "cheat krypton" model, and Effie just carried it forward.

In CSOL, the method of deceiving Krypton is much more "pure". Opening the box to produce gun skins can deceive countless Krypton.

Anyone who has played CSGO knows this...

After reading Ai Fei's plan, Yu Wenfei sighed, patted Ai Fei on the shoulder, and praised: "There is a way to make money!"

Of course, Effie heard it as "promising", and she immediately felt flattered to be praised by her boss.

Naturally, Yu Wenfei would not cut off Effie's charging methods for the sake of the so-called "conscience". Playing games is something that one would like to fight and one would like to suffer.

And relatively speaking, Effie has done very "kindly". Those skins and props that need to be bought with money do not affect the balance of the game, they are just garish and beautiful.

Some players with better financial conditions are willing to pay for these extra items, so there is nothing wrong with that.

Compared with the bottomless cheating methods of those mobile games in later generations, this is nothing.

The plane flew directly to New York, and when they arrived in New York, everyone split up.

Yu Wenfei brought his secretary, Shen Nanpeng, and Yang Yuanqing to meet Zhou Mengyi and the others, preparing for the final negotiation with IBM. The location of this meeting is in New York, where IBM also has a headquarters building.

And Effie went to California, she was going to the North American branch of Facebook Games, as well as Blizzard and Valverde.

…………

After arriving at the hotel, everyone washed up, and found a meeting room without taking a rest, and started the meeting directly.

Zhou Mengyi first reported the recent contact with IBM.

"Sam Palmisano has formally notified us on behalf of IBM's board of directors that he is willing to sell the personal computer business unit at a cash price of US$[-] billion, including all employees, fixed assets, patented technology, trademark goodwill, etc.

However, the other party requires two points. One is that the acquisition must be paid in cash after approval, and the other is that the positions, salaries and benefits of existing employees must not be reduced. The number of layoffs within three years shall not exceed 20.00% of the total number of employees. "

Yu Wenfei nodded slightly. To do business in other countries, you have to abide by other people's game rules. There is nothing to say about this.

In Europe and the United States, the power of trade unions is very strong. I don’t know how many Chinese companies suffer from this aspect when they set up factories in Europe and the United States.

However, IBM's personal computer business department is better to talk about. After all, most of the employees are technical personnel. Relatively speaking, most technical people are more restrained and don't like to make trouble.

The auto workers in the United States are the best, and they directly messed up Detroit, a world-renowned motor city...

Detroit used to be known as the "Automobile Capital of the World". It was synonymous with the automobile industry as early as 100 years ago. It was once one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the United States. The first highway and the first department store all appeared here.

Moreover, the headquarters of the three major auto giants General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are located here.

As a result, because there are too many auto workers and the power of the trade unions is too great, several major auto giants are miserable.The worst thing is that not only several major auto giants have declared bankruptcy one after another, but GM has survived with huge government aid. Even the local government of Detroit has declared bankruptcy...

The auto union organizes strikes at every turn, forcing companies to make concessions, allowing workers to get higher benefits and wages, and not allowing companies to fire workers. Those workers who should be eliminated do nothing and get their wages.

In the situation there, it is really hard to tell who is a capitalist and who is a proletarian...

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that more than 80.00% of the population here is African American.Not to mention the law and order in Detroit, even few Americans are willing to go there, the streets are full of idle young people, and murders happen every day!
Sometimes, poor people must have something to hate, this sentence is still very reasonable.

…………

There is no problem with paying in cash, and there is no problem with not laying off employees. The original reason for acquiring IBM's personal computer business unit is because there are a large number of experienced engineers here. This is a valuable asset. Of course, Yu Wenfei will not lay off them.

"Contact IBM. Tomorrow we will start the final negotiation, and the battle will be settled quickly!" Yu Wenfei ordered simply.

(End of this chapter)