Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 22 I wonder if this pie is big enough?

at the same time.

A bookstore somewhere in Los Angeles.

"Hurry up and pile all these books by the door."

The bookstore manager anxiously piled copies of "The Fault in Our Stars" into the hands of the bookstore employee, until even the burly bookstore employee could not lift them anymore.

He glanced at the bookshelf again.

There are still five or six books that can’t be stacked up anymore, but there’s no need to.

So he waved his hand and said, "Let's go!"

At the same time, he brought back Stephen King's "Lisey's Story" from the door and filled the remaining space on the bookshelf.

After the bookstore manager and staff left, a handsome young white man walked in.

"The new book section... yes, let me look for it... this is it."

Mark Merrill checked the book titles in the text message and found Gu Bei's new book. He quickly paid the bill and returned to the Riot Games office.

"Mark, have you found the book?" Brandon Baker asked when he saw him come back.

"of course."

Mark shook the blue book in his hand.

"Lines from Shakespeare's plays." Brandon saw the title and flipped through the book. "How is the book selling?"

"It doesn't look good. It only occupies a small area in the new book section, and there are still five or six books left that haven't been sold. Stephen King's new book next to it takes up half of the bookshelf!" Mark thought about the situation in the bookstore.

“This is a good thing!
If this book is a bestseller, how can we convince him to join Riot?"

Brandon analyzed enthusiastically, "The book's sales aren't very good right now, but it means extra income. Maybe we can convince him to do the same as us and just take shares instead of a salary!"

“That’s a great idea!”

Mark also became excited. If he could save the salary of the game producer and technical director, it would be a great benefit to Riot Games, which has insufficient funds!

"What time will he arrive?" Brandon put down the book, looking a little impatient.

"He told me earlier that he was recording a radio program and should be here around two o'clock."

While Mark and Brandon, the two founders of Riot Games, were anxiously waiting, they finally received a text message from Gu Bei.

"He's at the door!"

Gu Bei stood at the door, looking at the old workshop in front of him.

He felt a little sad that the future famous Riot Games actually started from this shabby place.

This office is called an old workshop, but in fact it is just an abandoned factory building, and it is located under an interstate highway overpass.

The outer shell is made of common steel plates, and the white paint has revealed the original color of the steel plates under the erosion of Santa Monica's long-term sea breeze.

The floor height is about six or seven meters, and there are probably two floors, but no windows were seen.

"Bruce, are you sure this is your friend's office? Have we come to the Leatherface family's residence?" Joel couldn't help but complain using the Texas Chainsaw Massacre meme.

"This is California, not Texas."

Gu Bei saw the rolling door being pulled up and two young white men walked out.

Although their faces were slightly different from a decade ago, Gu Bei could still recognize them easily.

"Mark?" Gu Bei walked up.

"Yes, it's me. This is Brandon, the one I mentioned to you." Mark smiled and gave Gu Bei a hug.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, they walked in.

The first floor is occupied by other companies, and you have to walk up a flight of iron stairs to reach the second floor.

"Let me show you what we've made recently."

Mark enthusiastically showed Gu Bei some concept drafts and the hero rotation selection interface they had made.

Gu Bei saw a lot of familiar things.

Little Loli Annie was not a red-haired little Loli at that time. Her hair was green and she was wearing a pure black Gothic skirt. She looked more like a girl of fourteen or fifteen years old.

Alchemy, on the other hand, looks about 70% similar to the future.

"This rotation selection interface of yours should be based on World of Warcraft, right?"

"Yeah, that's pretty cool, isn't it?"

Mark said proudly.

At this time, the hero selection interface has a row of hero portraits on the top and a large character model with a background below, similar to when selecting characters in an MMO. All of this is calculated in real time.

That is to say, there are only six models now. If there are more models, the computer will be directly stuck!
"Indeed, but have you ever considered that Dota already has 40 heroes? When you have 40 heroes, will the interface still be as smooth as it is now?"

Mark was stunned when he heard this. He didn't know programming, so he looked at the programmer next to him.

"You didn't tell me there would be so many heroes!" The programmer looked innocent.

"It's okay, it's my fault!"

Mark was humble and readily admitted his mistake.

Immediately, he looked at Gu Bei with envy. Riot Games now had 11 people, including programmers, visual effects artists, concept designers, and interns. The only thing missing was a game producer who could take charge of the overall situation.

Right now, there is no one more suitable for this position than Gu Bei!
After the tour, several people came to the conference room.

As soon as he sat down, Mark couldn't wait to paint a rosy picture for Gu Bei: "Bruce, we are both experienced gamers. Do you know what I have discovered in the past few years?"

"What did you find?"

Gu Bei wanted to see what kind of cake Mark was going to paint for him.

"Players are unhappy about paying $39.99 for a game that will rarely be updated.

Dota has proven the success of this model. It is not forgotten after development, but continues to develop, iterate, expand, and provide new content with updates. Compared to stand-alone games, it is more like a TV series like "Friends."

Mark said excitedly.

"I agree with you on this point."

Gu Bei decided to paint a bigger picture for Mark and the other two. "Last year, Microsoft launched an online store when it released its next-generation consoles. This year, Sony also launched its own online store when the PS3 was released. DLC (downloadable content) has been integrated into the gaming industry.

But I think that’s not enough, Mark, have you heard of SaaS?”

Without waiting for their response, Gu Bei answered his own question: "Software as a Service, this was proposed by another Mark in 1998. Soon after, he left Oracle and founded Salesforce. This year, Salesforce's market value has reached 300 billion US dollars.

Gaming as a Service (GaaS) will be the biggest opportunity for the gaming industry in the future.

If you want to seize this opportunity, you can't be confined to the past, you must specialize in creating new categories of games like Salesforce did.

I would call it a service game!"

I wonder if this pie is big enough?

(End of this chapter)