Restart life

Chapter 502 0492 [The Advancement of Youke]

Choosing one of the showgirls to make a movie was not only because Okada Saka herself was quite suitable, but also because Chen Guiliang was essentially spending a fortune to find a suitable candidate.

This will attract even more beautiful women to apply next year.

He left the exhibition venue and returned to the Kerry Hotel in Pudong.

This year's summit was held at this hotel, and the invited guests were also accommodated there.

That evening, a leader arrived.

"Director Song!"

"Haha, I've long admired Mr. Chen's reputation."

Director Kou has stepped down to the second line, and the new person, surnamed Song, took office after the Spring Festival this year.

He appears quite authoritative, yet also has an approachable demeanor, making it difficult for people to understand his attitude and thoughts.

Chen Guiliang said, "For Youke and ByteDance to grow and thrive, they cannot do without the guidance and direction of their leaders. If there is an opportunity, I hope Director Song can come and provide guidance."

"I've wanted to visit Youke and ByteDance for a long time; they're both major companies in their respective fields in China," Director Song said with a smile.

The plan was set, and it was just a matter of when he would come to inspect.

Director Song's responsibilities extend beyond online games; he oversees all electronic publications, including online games, e-books, e-newspapers, online literature, digital educational publications, and database publications.

Director Song sat down and said, "I'm new to the Digital Publishing Department, and there's a lot I'm not familiar with. For the past six months, I've been learning and understanding the relevant fields so that I don't end up giving unsolicited advice to you experts. That includes online games."

Chen Guiliang casually offered a couple of compliments.

Director Song praised, "Youke has not only achieved the top position in China, but has also done a great job overseas, with six or seven of its games already launched abroad."

Chen Guiliang said, "We are also exploring and moving forward little by little in the overseas game market."

Director Song laughed and said, "Future Era is quite good, it's been a huge success in Southeast Asia and Europe. When are you going to expand into North America?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Future Era and the Korean game DNF are competitors. The failure of DNF in North America made us postpone our plan to sell Future Era to North America. Side-scrolling fighting online games are not well-received in North America, and no distributor is willing to negotiate prices anymore."

"Do American and Canadian players not like this type of game?" Director Song asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "We are also investigating the reasons, but it's hard to say for sure. It could be due to slow updates, poor servers, poor localization, rampant cheating, or insufficient marketing in North America."

Director Song chuckled: "Good heavens, any two of these reasons you mentioned would cause failure. And 'DNF' actually managed to gather them all?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Whatever the reason, American companies are unwilling to distribute similar games. If 'Future Era' wants to sell in the North American market, it can only open its own branch company to operate it."

"I know that Youke has opened a branch in Europe and is doing very well. Are you planning to expand into North America in the future?" Director Song asked.

Chen Guiliang replied ambiguously, "We do have that plan. Once our European branch has grown a bit more, we'll open a branch in North America. As for Japan and South Korea, I also plan to give it a try when the time is right."

Director Song was very pleased: "It's a very ambitious plan, and I look forward to Youke growing into a large international enterprise. If you encounter any difficulties going overseas, please feel free to speak up, and the department will do its best to help you make connections."

"We rely entirely on the support of our leaders," Chen Guiliang stated.

After chatting for a while, Director Song picked up his coffee, and Chen Guiliang took his leave.

The ChinaJoy expo, which officially opens tomorrow, will be Director Song's first public appearance since taking office. His early appearance at the hotel tonight is simply to meet with various game companies.

Director Song must be meeting with many people.

Sure enough, as soon as Chen Guiliang stepped out of the room, he saw Ding Sanshi sitting outside waiting.

"How did the talks go?" Ding Sanshi asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "Director Song is very approachable."

Ding Sanshi breathed a slight sigh of relief: "Let's have dinner another day, it's on me."

"Don't try to renege on your promise," Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

Bosses such as Pony Ma, Zhang Chaoyang, Chen Tianqiao, and Shi Yuzhu did not personally attend the CJ exhibition this year.

Ding Sanshi had no choice but to come; he needed to cultivate a good relationship with the new leader. The previous Director Kou's resignation was very likely due to the uproar surrounding the Warcraft game license issue.

Chen Guiliang returned to his room and had just lain down to rest when Tao Chenggang knocked on the door.

"Didn't you go to pay your respects to the new leader?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Tao Chenggang plopped down on the sofa in the guest room: "There are quite a few people lining up to pay their respects; it'll take a while to get through them all. My live streaming platform also launched a few days ago. I poached a few of your signed e-sports streamers; don't mind."

Chen Guiliang was both amused and exasperated: "How can I not mind what you're saying?"

“I didn’t dig up the most popular ones,” Tao Chenggang said.

Chen Guiliang said, "Is it because poaching them is too expensive?"

Tao Chenggang laughed heartily: "You saw through me? Don't be angry. You're a shareholder in my lousy company too. We're family, so let's not be so formal."

"If I weren't a shareholder, I would have turned against them long ago," Chen Guiliang said speechlessly.

Tao Chenggang tossed Chen Guiliang a cigarette: "Last year I invested in a few startups, and two of them are doing quite well this year. One is called Tuanmei, and the other is called Meituan. Don't they look like twins?"

"Tuanmei?" Chen Guiliang had never heard of this company.

Tao Chenggang said, "Tuanmei changed its name last year; it's now called Jumei Youpin." Chen Guiliang suddenly realized, and instantly thought of the advertising slogan, "I feed myself salt."

In recent years, Tao Chenggang has invested in more than 30 companies.

But he didn't invest much in each company, between 50 and 1000 million RMB. He was casting a wide net, hoping something might work out.

During last year's group-buying war, Tao Chenggang invested in five group-buying websites in one go, and Meituan was just one of them.

Shi Yuzhu was in a similar situation. He and Tao Chenggang were like brothers in misfortune, unable to make a breakthrough in the gaming industry, so they simply took their money and invested everywhere.

Chen Guiliang suggested, "You could consider making an additional investment in Meituan's Series B round."

Tao Chenggang asked, "Do you think this company is promising?"

"It's alright, I can vote for it," Chen Guiliang said.

Tao Chenggang said, "Meituan is currently in its Series B funding round, led by Alibaba. They even asked me a few days ago if I wanted to invest more. Since you've put it that way, I'll add another 1000 million (RMB)."

Tao Chenggang's decision to vote was tantamount to his own, so Chen Guiliang said nothing more.

After chatting for a while, Tao Chenggang left, as he also needed to visit his new leader.

……

The summit was officially held the following day.

Chen Guiliang was mainly there to promote "My Own Swordsman". During his speech, he boasted a lot and invited everyone to experience his own exhibition area.

Someone actually accepted the invitation.

Blizzard Vice President Michael Lee is attending ChinaJoy for the fourth time this year. He has met Chen Guiliang three times; although they haven't had in-depth conversations, they are old acquaintances.

The booth for "Wulin Gaiden" was packed with players, with a huge queue of people waiting to play the game.

Michael Lee stood behind a player, watching the game's action-packed fights and the exquisite buildings, and was so astonished that his mouth gaped open wide enough to fit an egg.

"I bought it!"

Michael exclaimed in surprise and asked, "How long have you been working on this game?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Several years."

Michael asked, "Are all skills non-targeted?"

Chen Guiliang said, "There are targeted skills and non-targeted skills. Players can choose. Those who are not very good at operation can join a guild that mainly uses targeted skills... um! In Chinese, it's called a sect."

"This continuous jumping motion is very similar to the movie 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'," Michael said.

Chen Guiliang said, "It's lightness skill. It's also a skill, and there are all kinds of lightness skills within it."

There are many ways to play the game, and it's not just about slaying monsters and fighting.

However, players at the event can only experience the game briefly, as they will likely focus on fighting and won't have the time or inclination to explore other game content.

Chen Guiliang said, "After the ChinaJoy expo ends, I have an offline finals for one of my games being held right here. Are you interested in participating?"

"What game?" Michael asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "OE".

Michael said, "The one that beat League of Legends in Europe?"

“Yes,” Chen Guiliang said.

Michael laughed and said, "I'm very interested."

The bugs introduced on the European servers are something Riot Games has completely given up on, because they simply can't fix them. They can only let players apply for fixes themselves, and then customer service will manually review and approve them.

They did release a few nice new skins, but Riot's definition of "nice" left players speechless.

This is no longer a problem with the art director, but a problem with the entire art system.

To put it more bluntly, Riot Games' current art team simply doesn't have the capability to create good skins. They need to recruit top-tier game artists, upgrade their art team, and redefine their art style.

This is a systemic change, not something that can be achieved overnight.

With a mix of chaotic factors, League of Legends players in the European server are continuously leaving, with people quitting every day to switch to Oracle Era.

Currently, Oracle Era has 260 million registered users on the European server, and its activity level far surpasses that of League of Legends on the European server.

The punches in this timeline are clearly losing momentum.

Putting everything else aside, the financial situation is terrible.

It should be noted that since they unilaterally broke the European distribution contract and took back the game to operate it themselves, they are obligated to pay compensation to the European distributor.

After paying the compensation, they even set up a Riot Games European headquarters, and then built their own European servers and distribution channels. All of these operations cost money!
Without the substantial profits from the Chinese market, and with revenues in the European market continuing to decline, and Tencent ceasing its investment and share acquisitions, they are struggling to survive solely on the North American market.

With limited funds, Riot Games did not upgrade its art system, which resulted in their game interface and skins always being ugly!
"Boss, Japanese and Korean companies are interested in 'Wulin Gaiden'!"

"Let's talk to them slowly."

(End of this chapter)