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Chapter 479 0469 [The Arrangements and Strategies of All Parties]

At this time, Lee Sin, Riven, Jarvan IV, Ahri, Yasuo, Leona, Thresh, Zed, Jinx, Draven... none of them had appeared yet in League of Legends.

Chen Guiliang has already robbed quite a few, and plans to continue robbing them!

Chen Guiliang could have created his own heroes, but he insisted on stealing the credits from League of Legends.

He did it on purpose, partly to disrupt the hero design of League of Legends, and partly out of curiosity about what new hero the other party would create after being outmaneuvered.

It's clearly working now, and if everything goes smoothly, League of Legends should have released 69 champions. But so far, only 65 have been released.

Last year, Tencent gave Riot Games feedback and sent them detailed information about "Oracle Era". In short, they wanted Riot Games to learn from some of their peers' innovative ideas.

August, who was designing Irelia, suddenly realized that a similar champion had already appeared in China. Although the specific skills were slightly different, and the names and appearances were completely different, the overall design concept was the same.

how to say?

It's like you painstakingly write a great poem, only to find that it has already been written by an "ancient person," with only slight differences in word choice and phrasing.

August was depressed for more than half a month because of this, and was so angry that he gave up on the Irelia that he was almost finished designing.

……

Tencent.

Ren Yuxin, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business Group, is listening to a report from Ma Xiaotie, vice president of the Games division: "After acquiring AcFun, Youke signed a large number of top e-sports players, as well as well-known players of some popular games. They use these people's fame to attract viewers and also drive traffic to their own multiple platforms."

"I know that. It was reported a long time ago, and the higher-ups are discussing which live streaming platform to invest in," Ren Yuxin said.

Ma Xiaotie said, "My main point is that AcFun is currently the only platform in China that allows live streaming of games. However, they prohibit the live streaming of Tencent games, including 'Crossfire' and 'League of Legends'!"

Ren Yuxin was taken aback: "Is that so? Ask the legal department to see if it constitutes unfair competition."

Ma Xiaotie said, "Their reason for banning the broadcast is that they did not obtain authorization from Tencent Games and were afraid of being sued by us, so they dared not broadcast."

Ren Yuxin chuckled: "That's a very valid reason, calling unfair competition 'compliance with the law'."

Ma Xiaotie said, "I think game live streaming has a bright future. Now even live streaming of 'Three Kingdoms Kill' has people watching. A group of viewers are like watching old men play chess in a park, constantly sending bullet comments to tell them how to play their cards. If the streamer makes a slight mistake, they will be ridiculed by the bullet comments."

Ren Yuxin said, "We'll come up with a solution first, but whether it will be approved depends on a meeting at the higher levels. After all, it involves multiple departments."

Tencent's top management was previously hesitant, but now they are inclined to enter the live streaming field.

The main disagreement lies in whether to build their own live streaming platform or invest in (or acquire) other platforms.

Pony Ma already has a general idea: build it himself and acquire it together, and allocate resources to whichever side performs better.

To put it bluntly, it's like raising a treacherous bird, which is Tencent's consistent practice.

Ma Xiaotie continued, "We still need to urge the US side; their response speed is too slow. We can modify the skins ourselves, but we don't have the authority to modify hero data. Some heroes' skills are too buggy, seriously affecting game balance and player experience."

Ren Yuxin nodded: "I understand."

It's normal for hero skills to be unbalanced in games, but Oracle Era can be modified immediately, while League of Legends has to wait for Riot Games to make adjustments.

In the Chinese market alone, League of Legends is no match for Oracle.

The difference in gameplay experience is already quite significant, and issues reported by players regarding "Oracle Era" are generally resolved within a week.

As for issues related to League of Legends, minor problems are resolved quickly, but for major problems, you'll have to wait!
In fact, League of Legends was also facing numerous difficulties in Europe at this time.

With its innovative MOBA gameplay, League of Legends has attracted a core group of players in the Dota community. User numbers are steadily increasing, but it remains a relatively niche game.

The current European distributor for League of Legends is GOA, a subsidiary of France Telecom.

GOA, backed by France Telecom, is surprisingly experiencing bandwidth issues. Furthermore, its servers are extremely old and unstable, client response times are slow, and game patches and updates are significantly behind those in North America.

Players expressed strong dissatisfaction, and the conversion rate to paid subscriptions is getting lower and lower.

Riot Games continues to pressure the GOA, demanding that they upgrade their servers and bandwidth.

GOA complained that League of Legends wasn't profitable, causing them to lose money for a year. They offered to upgrade servers and bandwidth, but only if Riot Games reduced its revenue share.

The two sides had a very unpleasant falling out, and Riot Games is already discussing whether to take back the European operating rights and instead set up a company in Europe to operate League of Legends themselves.

GOA really doesn't have the money to upgrade its hardware!
France Telecom suffered heavy losses during the economic crisis, and its sweeping reforms led to the suicides of more than 30 employees.

Amid scandals, France Telecom is cutting and consolidating divisions and its brands.

This means selecting Orange, the company's best-reputed and most successful brand, and gradually merging other departments and brands into Orange.

The company plans to completely abandon the "France Telecom" brand within the next two to three years and rename the entire group Orange.

In this situation, it's already a miracle that GOA wasn't laid off; where would France Telecom get the funds to support it?

Riot Games was also completely taken aback that GOA, as a game operating company under France Telecom, could have such terrible servers and bandwidth!

……

France Telecom headquarters.

The negotiators sent by You Ke are in direct contact with the vice president of France Telecom.

"You want to acquire GOA?"

"Yes, a full acquisition would be best. You can also retain some shares, but no more than 15%."

"Sorry, we have no plans to sell GOA at the moment."

"GOA seems to have been losing money since the economic crisis. The online games they currently operate are heavily criticized for their terrible servers and bandwidth. France Telecom headquarters currently lacks the resources and manpower to support GOA. Are they just going to let it continue to lose money?" "We need to discuss this further. How much are you willing to offer?"

5000 euros.

"That's too little, it's impossible. If it's this price, I can't even bring it to a meeting to discuss it."

"How much do you think is appropriate?"

"1.5 million euros."

"Then we'll have to find other companies to cooperate with. By the way, we can offer additional terms. For example, after acquiring GOA, Youke can designate France Telecom as a long-term partner and give them priority access to France Telecom's broadband services."

Negotiations to acquire GOA are destined to be protracted; it's impossible to reach an agreement in just two or three months. It could take anywhere from six months to seven or eight months.

It's impossible for it to take any longer; Youke can't wait that long.

You can't put all your eggs in one basket, and Youke is also in contact with other European operators.

……

Beijing.

Lei Jun is watching live streams, switching between YY Live and AcFun Live.

Meanwhile, he was also having a video call with YY founder Li Xueling.

After watching the live stream for a while, Lei Jun felt increasingly uncomfortable.

Compared to the live streaming platform Chen Guiliang created on AcFun, YY Live's content was too vulgar and borderline offensive.

Or rather, this applies to all current live streaming platforms, including Sixrooms.

Due to software limitations, these platforms cannot stream game content; instead, they feature various kinds of live shows with revealing clothing, provocative language, and sexual innuendo.

That's why "live streaming" is now synonymous with vulgarity.

Lei Jun used to think it was normal, but now that he sees Chen Guiliang doing game live streaming, it's clearly a greener and healthier option!

Only green and healthy products can truly be presented on the table and can develop in the long term, without being constantly subjected to the iron fist of the "Clean Internet Campaign".

As YY's second-largest shareholder and the leader of its third-largest shareholder, Lei Jun wields considerable influence.

Li Xueling said, "I want to separate YY Live from YY Voice and start a separate live streaming company. Moreover, game live streaming has great potential. My next plan is to let YY continue broadcasting live shows. At the same time, we will develop our own software that can stream games and strive to launch a game live streaming channel next year."

“Your idea is good,” Lei Jun reminded him, “This year there may be a large-scale clean-up campaign on the internet, so you should limit the scale of YY’s live show broadcasts.”

Li Xueling laughed and said, "I know. YY Show is already very restrained. Room 6 is much more explicit than us."

Lei Jun reiterated: "Don't let your guard down."

“Understood,” Li Xueling said. “By the way, Tencent sent people to contact us, wanting to invest in YY.”

Lei Jun said, "YY Voice will not accept investment from Tencent. But we can separate YY Live and let Tencent invest only in YY Live, and the Tencent share cannot be too large."

Lei Jun (CEO of Xiaomi) accepted Tencent's investment not because he wanted to develop a live-streaming business. He simply wanted to go public and cash out!
Lei Jun, CEO of YY Inc., the parent company of YY and Duowan, is already planning to list the company in the United States.

Bringing Tencent into the picture could increase our chances of going public.

After ending the video call with Li Xueling, Lei Jun called Shang Jing, the CEO of Qilin.com.

“Genghis Khan had fantastic revenue last year,” Lei Jun said. “I just watched some game streams on ACFun and noticed that no streamers were playing Genghis Khan. You could totally organize an event to attract players to stream games on ACFun. The audience there is full of gamers, which could drive traffic to Genghis Khan.”

Shang Jing immediately agreed: "Okay, I'll make a plan."

This game, which was very popular last year, generated tens of millions in revenue every month, and Lei Jun (CEO of Xiaomi) also invested in it.

A-site's live streaming platform primarily serves users from four groups.

One group consists of users of A-site itself.

One group consists of fans of esports players like SKY, who came from various online forums and message boards.

One source of traffic is platforms such as Renren.com, HaiNei.com, and ByteDance Weibo.

One part is the promotional activities for various games under Youke.

The addition of Chen Guiliang personally participating in the live stream further boosted the popularity of A-site's live streaming platform, attracting a large number of gamers.

Lei Jun saw the potential in these players, so he sent Shang Jing to get involved, hoping to persuade some viewers to play "Genghis Khan".

After ending the call, Lei Jun planned to close the webpage and refresh it one last time.

Suddenly he noticed a live stream on the homepage featuring a talent show, with the room name "Monkey Mountain's Number One Diva".

Clicking through, you'll see a beautiful woman singing.

The number of viewers in the room increased rapidly, and the barrage of comments became increasingly dense.

This is currently the only singing livestream among the numerous game livestreams. A group of seasoned gamers, forgetting about the game, flocked to see the beautiful woman.

Well, YY is planning to expand its business into game live streaming, but here they've started doing live show streaming as well.

Running in both directions.

(End of this chapter)