You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 459

Edward looked at the two founders of Riot Games expressionlessly. "According to the information I have investigated, you two have no experience in game production, nor have you ever worked for a game company, right?"

“How can a company founder who has no experience in game production make a good game?”

The two founders attended the Southern California Business School, and after graduating from college, Brandon worked for a large consulting firm and Merrill worked for U.S. Bancorp.

Later, the two felt bored at work, so they quit their jobs and rented a house together to play games. They also often hung out on game forums and gave various suggestions for the games.

Of course, game companies generally ignore what players say, so it’s no surprise that no one paid attention to the suggestions of these two people.

So the two of them came up with the idea of ​​making their own games and founded Riot Games.

Facing Edward's questioning, Brandon Baker smiled confidently.

"Because we have the real father of DOTA, Steve Guinsoo, in our team. He is the one who created the real DOTA game."

“He is the one who knows DOTA best, and with him leading the project, we can make a better DOTA than the current version.”

"Mr. Edward Damon, the current DOTA is just an RPG map based on Warcraft. It has great limitations. The Warcraft editor that comes with Blizzard's game has restricted the development of DOTA."

"We seized this opportunity and invited Steve Guinsoo to join us last year, as well as Tom Cadwell, the lead planner and numerical balancer of Warcraft III. We created a DOTA dream team."

“We will completely reshape the entire DOTA game, give it a new body, let it be reborn, and perfectly transform it into a real DOTA game.”

Edward's expression remained unchanged after listening to the other party's story. Like a ruthless capital machine, he asked coldly, "That's all?"

The smile on Brandon Baker's face froze, and he looked a little embarrassed, as if his words did not impress the investor in front of him.

Marco Merrill, who was sitting next to him, quickly added: "Our new DOTA game will far surpass the original DOTA in terms of gameplay and modeling. We use a new game engine that is better than the game engine of Warcraft."

After listening to him, Edward flipped through the documents in his hand and asked calmly, "What game engine are you using? Is it a mature commercial engine?"

Brandon Baker quickly explained: "Well, it's a game engine we developed ourselves, written in C++. The server mainly uses C++ to process game logic and real-time communication, and the client's underlying graphics rendering and performance optimization are also mainly written in C++."

"I don't know anything about programming." Edward said bluntly, "I only care about whether your game engine is mature and whether there are any bugs."

This question made the two founders fall into silence, as they didn’t want to just say that there was definitely no problem with their game engine.

How can there be no problems? It hasn’t been completed yet, there are a lot of bugs, and it’s still a question whether the game demo can run.

However, Marco Merrill knew that he couldn't avoid the problem at this time, so he quickly said, "Our technical strength is still very strong, and we have enough ability to improve this engine. It will not become an obstacle to the development of the game."

Edward did not comment, but took out another document and glanced at it. "The current North American game market is still dominated by console games. At that time, the annual revenue of North American console games reached 107 billion US dollars, while the online game market was only 21 billion US dollars. The PC game market is still expected to be in a bleak state."

"The consumption habits of mainstream gamers in North America are to play console games and buy discs. The mature market makes game developers and agents more willing to invest in console games. The game you made is a PC-based online game and is generally considered a niche game."

"From an investment perspective, the risk is high and the market's future expectations are not high. Am I right?"

Everyone at Riot Games fell into silence.

Edward threw the information in his hand back to his assistant and changed to a comfortable sitting position. "I will give you ten minutes now. If you can give me a convincing reason, I will consider investing."

Brandon Baker perked up, and he and Marco Merrill looked at each other and whispered a few words.

Then Brandon Baker said: "Mr. Edward Damon, do you know the game platform Steam?"

"Of course." Edward nodded.

How could he not understand? For this business, he had crammed a lot of knowledge about the gaming industry and knew every gaming company in North America like the back of his hand.

Especially the steam gaming platform, which was the project started by my boss.

"Then you should have noticed how rapidly the Steam gaming platform has grown." Brandon Baker said seriously, "According to our observations, the number of PC game users is also growing rapidly."

"In the past, if gamers wanted to play games, they had to go to the store and buy discs. If there were large-scale version updates, players had to continue to spend money to buy upgrade packages. Steam has perfectly solved this problem. All games and version updates can be purchased online through the platform."

"More importantly, the Steam platform has changed the distribution and business model of past games."

"With the changes in distribution and business models, there will definitely be a lot of opportunities in the online game market. The change in distribution model means that as network bandwidth increases, online downloads will replace game discs, games will be able to be updated frequently, and a game will also have a lot of room for expansion beyond content."

"At the same time, we will adopt a new business model that is different from the traditional model, a disruptive change, a model where the game itself is free but the props are charged."

Edward pondered for a moment and smiled. "The game is free, but the props are charged. It sounds interesting."

The two founders of Riot Games looked happy and looked at Edward with anticipation.

"Eight million dollars for 20% of the shares." Edward made an offer. "How about it? We only take the equity income and do not interfere with the company's operations."

The two people hesitated and couldn't make up their minds for a while.

Edward stood up without urging anyone to do anything. "Then take your time to think about it. Call me when you've made up your mind."

After saying that, Edward took his men away.

Brandon Baker looked very depressed after sending the guests away. He punched the wall and said, "Fuck, it was almost there."

"It's okay, Baker." Marco Merrill advised, "We can still find other investments."

Baker said frustratedly: "But TNB's conditions are already the best among all. Other investors don't even have 5 million US dollars."

"We don't have much time left. The bank loan will expire in a few months."

Marco Merrill was speechless for a moment. The two of them started the company with some savings and bank loans.

Since game development requires a lot of financial support, and the progress of the entire game was not satisfactory, due to lack of experience, the two were too optimistic about the difficulty of game development. After half a year of development, Merrill and Brandon's capital was almost exhausted.

Now the two have to look for various investments to keep the company running.

They started looking for investors, but after seeing their game, no company was willing to invest in them.

At this time, TNB was the only company willing to invest money, and they had no choice.

"OK." Marco Merrill thought for a moment and could only say, "We will call Edward and accept his terms."

……

At this time, Qin Shaoyan and Mingyue were traveling in Seattle.

"This is the famous Valve. Half-Life and Counter-Strike were made by this company." Qin Shaoyan took Mingyue's hand and introduced them as they walked into Valve.

Looking at the familiar environment in front of him, Qin Shaoyan said with emotion: "V Club, your emperor is back!"

Soon, warm applause and cheers broke out in the office. Employees who were familiar with Qin Shaoyan gathered together and warmly welcomed Qin Shaoyan's arrival.

Qin Shaoyan smiled and shook hands with these old friends, and asked his secretary Xiao Chen to distribute the gifts that had been prepared in advance.

After all, he is the CEO of a listed company and a billionaire. Naturally, he cannot come to visit his old friend empty-handed.

The gifts were not very expensive, but they were all carefully selected handicrafts. They were exquisite and interesting, so they were naturally loved by everyone.

Qin Shaoyan took Mingyue to the office he had used before. It was still the same as it was before, with a sign with Qin Shaoyan's name hanging on the door.

"I started working here in 03, and that's where I made my first pot of gold." Qin Shaoyan touched the computer on the table and said with emotion, "Well, strictly speaking, this can't be considered the first pot of gold."

Mingyue was a little curious, "Where did you get the first pot of gold?"

"Of course it was sponsored by a clothing company." Zhang Pingyi said, "The two clothing bosses are really generous."

"What sponsorship? That's a donation to the Olympic charity." Qin Shaoyan corrected, "What's wrong with Boss Wang and Boss Tian being enthusiastic about charity?"

"Ah, yes, yes." Zhang Pingyi nodded in agreement.

Qin Shaoyan didn't bother to pay attention to him and continued to explain his work experience to Mingyue.

As the boss, Gabe Newell also came over quickly and enthusiastically hugged and shook hands with Qin Shaoyan.

Because Qin Shaoyan gave him a set of very cool-looking knives, which were designed based on the shape of a knife box in a Jinyiwei movie. There were more than a dozen knives hidden in the exquisite wooden mechanism box.

Gabe Newell likes to collect all kinds of knives, and he loves this gift even more when he sees it.

With the press of a switch, the mechanism box pops out and unfolds, revealing the knife hidden inside. It's just like a Transformer, and no one can resist it.

"John, I love the gift you gave me so much. It's a perfect work of art." Gabe Newell rubbed his hands excitedly. "I'll have someone customize a display cabinet right away. I'm going to put it in the lobby for display."

"As long as you like it." Qin Shaoyan said with a smile.

"I haven't had the chance to congratulate you yet. Congratulations on your company's listing." Gabe Newell said with some emotion.

Three years ago, Qin Shaoyan was a college student who could barely afford a plane ticket, but now he is the president of a listed company and a billionaire with a net worth of tens of billions of dollars.

However, this rich man is still his good friend, the kind of good friend who can bring him wealth.

"Thank you." Qin Shaoyan asked casually, "How are you doing recently?"

"Everything is fine." Gabe raised his wrist and looked at his watch. "I've asked George to pick up IceFrog. They won't be here until an hour later. Do you want to go and take a look at our new project first?"

"of course."

George came back much faster than expected. More than half an hour later, he walked into Valve with a tall young man.

Contrary to general stereotypes, IceFrog, the true soul of DOTA, is neither an obese otaku nor a bespectacled IT nerd. Instead, he is very cheerful and lively.

He accepted the invitation of Valve and rushed to Seattle from Los Angeles.

As soon as IceFrog entered Valve, he noticed that the company was filled with a joyful atmosphere, as if everyone in the company was very happy.

Then he followed George into the reception room and met Valve's boss Gabe Newell, the famous producer of "Half-Life".

In addition to Gabe Newell, there were two Chinese people sitting in the reception room, constantly staring at him.

"Hello, Mr. IceFrog." Gabe Newell shook his hand. "This is John and his friend Zhang."

After the introduction, Gabe Newell sat down and didn't say anything. It was George who did all the talking.

"We invited you here this time because we want to discuss the game DOTA." George said directly.

"What do you want to do?" IceFrog asked.

"Mr. IceFrog," the Chinese man named John suddenly asked, "Have you contacted Blizzard officials?"

"Yes, we did have contact." Ice Frog asked in confusion, "How did you know?"

"I guessed." The other party smiled and said, "Let me formally introduce myself. My name is Qin Shaoyan. You can also call me John, or Qin."

"Mr. Qin, what else did you guess?"

"I guessed a lot." Qin Shaoyan said with a smile, "You have been involved in the production and maintenance of DOTA since last year. You love this game very much and have invested a lot of time and effort."

"And we have to endure the various limitations brought by the World of Warcraft editor, as well as various inexplicable bugs."

“Although the gameplay of DOTA seems mature now, you know very well that DOTA is still a long way from being perfect.”

"It's not official, there's no disconnection and reconnection without third-party software support, no automatic matching, no friend system..."

“It doesn’t have anything that players need.”

"Of course, I know this is not your problem. It's not that you don't want to provide these, but that you can't provide them."

Qin Shaoyan added, "DOTA was supposed to be an independent game, but now it has to be parasitic on another game. How sad it is."

"As the father of DOTA, you don't want to see it go down like this, right?"

"So, looking for cooperation with Blizzard should be your first choice."

"You're right." IceFrog readily admitted, "I did contact Blizzard, and they are willing to offer me a job."

"Excuse me, Mr. Icefrog." Qin Shaoyan said bluntly, "This is a wrong decision. You won't get what you want."

"Why do you say that?" Ice Frog frowned.

"Blizzard doesn't care about DOTA, and they won't satisfy your wish to turn it into an independent game." Qin Shaoyan sneered, "It's in their best interest to let DOTA continue to be parasitic on Warcraft."

"Do you really expect Blizzard to help you?"

"Blizzard has more experience in game production," IceFrog replied.

"We have more than Blizzard has." Qin Shaoyan said confidently, "Give up Blizzard, this unrealistic partner. Only we can help you."

"We have the platform with the most users, the most advanced game engine, and sufficient R&D funds. We will completely reshape the entire DOTA game, give it a new body, let it regain new life, and perfectly transform it into a real DOTA game."

"Join us and you can give DOTA a better future."

(End of this chapter)