Age of Legends

Chapter 283 The feeling of stealing is extremely strong
In short, the future that Zhang Chen described to Pony Ma was a vast world in which Tencent owned a social network, while Wanxiang Jianghu was responsible for incubating game ideas and was Tencent's strategic partner and official operator in the game field.

Tencent's platform provides core distribution and user access for Wanxiang Jianghu, while Wanxiang Jianghu focuses on game development and operation, and Tencent's platform provides traffic. Both operate in their respective fields, supporting each other.

All of this requires a deep partnership between the two parties.

After a moment's hesitation on the phone, Pony Ma said, "You can't come directly to Tencent. Can't you take charge of the games section? I can hand it over to you completely!"

Zhang Chen said, "I'm only a senior in high school now, bro. I have a long college life ahead of me, and I don't want to fail any courses."

“Bill Gates dropped out of school,” Little Ma advised again, “and you have the talent for it.”

"My pursuits are different; I don't need to drop out of school. And I won't live in Shenzhen permanently. I have my own things to do, and this kind of distribution hinders communication. My roots are still in Fuzhou, where a group of people who are starting game businesses are. When Lao Wang and I invested in Tencent, we envisioned Tencent becoming the largest lifestyle and entertainment platform in the future, with games being just a small part of it. QQ's value lies in social connections and its platform, not in content creation. Do you agree with that?"

Little Ma chuckled dryly, "That's true."

Zhang Chen: "The future internet will definitely be an era of content and platform collaboration. QQ focuses on building a strong platform, connecting users with all services. Games are just one of the services, so do you think it's feasible for QQ to invest a lot of energy and resources in game development?" Zhang Chen is essentially exploiting an information gap. Pony Ma (Ma Huateng, founder of Tencent) turned his fortunes around with games; the explosion of QQ Games truly gave QQ a turnaround, but that happened in 2003.

It is now 2001, a year of intense activity and fierce competition. The world is changing rapidly, and no one can see through the fog yet.

Zhang Chen continued, "From now on, Wanxiang Jianghu will focus on this area to fill the gap in Tencent's business. The games we develop will be given priority, or even exclusively licensed to Tencent for operation. This means that QQ can obtain the revenue from the games, but will not have to bear the corresponding development risks. Because there are still many examples of game development failures before us."

After a moment's hesitation, Pony Ma's voice came through the microphone again: "...What kind of strategic alliance are you planning?"

Zhang Chen thought the real show was about to begin and said, "The two sides will form a deep partnership. Tencent will exchange its equity for 30% of Wanxiang Jianghu's equity."

As expected, this was the most difficult part. Little Ma asked, "Then how many shares should be exchanged for?"

Such concerns are normal. Although the value of Tencent is not that high at this stage, even after Wang Bowen's investment, its market value is only tens of millions. However, everyone inside sees the future prospects of QQ through the growth curve. Although there was a bubble in the internet industry this year and a wave of NASDAQ failures, there are still investors working privately. Tencent's future business prospects are very promising. The impact of NASDAQ can only be said to be that there is no longer a high premium, but the opportunity to be invested in will not be affected. In fact, some investors have already inquired, but no agreement has been reached yet.

The current Wanxiang Jianghu is still a fledgling team, and the market value of the two parties is not equal, which means that this so-called alliance is of unknown origin.

Moreover, Zhang Chen's proposal was quite far-fetched. He and Wang Bowen already owned 20% of QQ's shares, making them major shareholders besides Pony Ma. Now, Wanxiang Jianghu is Zhang Chen's personal company. If QQ were to offer shares in exchange for Wanxiang Jianghu's shares, persuading the entire founding team to dilute their stake would be an impossible task under the current circumstances. Zhang Chen said, "It's definitely impossible now because Wanxiang Jianghu hasn't achieved anything yet. So I plan to spend a year, maybe less, on this. Wanxiang Jianghu will first create its first hit game, and then we'll use that as a basis for further communication."

"As for whether to conduct a deep equity swap or have QQ invest and take equity, either option is acceptable."

Little Ma said, "You mean you can produce results in less than a year, in the first semester of your freshman year this year?"

Zhang Chen said, "That's the plan."

“Sure. If Wanxiang Jianghu can prove it has strong content creation capabilities, I think everyone will accept this proposal,” said Brother Ma.

Zhang Chen's statement was quite broad, and he didn't forcefully try to align himself with Tencent. He also wanted to see what the final outcome would be. If what he said was true, then it wasn't impossible for Tencent to make a strategic investment ahead of schedule.

Having reached a preliminary agreement with Pony Ma, Zhang Chen knew it was essentially a gamble. If Wanxiang Jianghu wanted to replace Tencent's future gaming sector, its first web game needed to make a name for itself.

This wasn't an easy task, because Zhang Chen knew that according to the established plan, their game would launch at the same time as "Legend of Mir." The strength of "Legend of Mir" was undeniable. Although Zhang Chen hadn't originally intended to compete with "Legend of Mir" for market share, "Legend of Mir" had actually made significant contributions to the game distribution channel market and the internet cafe gaming industry. He wanted to pursue a different path.

There's no intention to defeat Legend. Putting aside everything else, just considering Legend's performance at that time, with 70% of the national online game market revenue, a 6 million yuan resale would be possible. Even if QQ weren't eligible for equity swaps, they might just buy QQ outright. At that point, Pony Ma wouldn't be able to negotiate any consideration or swap with Zhang Chen.

The first game in Wanxiang Jianghu certainly can't directly compete with it, but the market channels brought by Legend can be used by Zhang Chen to create a favorable situation. Moreover, Legend is a client-based MMORPG, while they are web-based strategy games. They are different types, but they may complement each other. This is because Wanxiang Jianghu's war strategy doesn't require constant online operation; instead, it's a long-term operation like a "fishing game."

You can team up with your brothers to fight in legendary nation wars in the Sand City, and at the same time, you can also wage war against other countries in another time and space, in the Three Kingdoms game of Wanxiang Jianghu. However, it often takes time to get feedback.

That's how it is. When you're enjoying online games, you'll always be thinking about your place in the Three Kingdoms world. Have you conquered any cities? Is it time to collect resources? Are the wheat fields ripe for harvest? Have you looked back at the suggestions accumulated among the people to see what happened and whether there are any deeds waiting for you, the "lord," to make a decision?

Thinking this, Zhang Chen came back to his senses.

Why does the first game in the game "Wanxiang Jianghu" feel so much like stealing?
(End of this chapter)