Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

However, the music copyright for the anime might be held by a music company, the copyright for the derivative radio drama might be held by Onsen, and the game copyright might be held by Bandai Namco.

This is why many anime-themed games are made by Namco.

However, that's not all.

For example, starting this year, Yao Meng signed game copyright buyout agreements with many animation companies. As a result, these companies will no longer need to seek investment from game developers in their animation committees in the future.

Because Lin Li had already paid in advance.

That's probably what it looks like.

Come back to the present moment.

For Bandai Namco...

The sudden arrival of numerous Chinese companies was a completely unexpected and delightful surprise for them.

These IPs are of little use even if they are kept by Namco.

Being able to monetize is naturally a good thing.

The only problem is that too many people came.

Lin Li glanced at the conference room.

If you didn't know this was Bandai Namco, you'd think it was some kind of China Game Industry Summit.

Actually, thinking about it, this makes sense.

After all, the current ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) market is different from last year's.

Historically, at the end of 15, anime-style mobile games were not yet popular. As long as you acted quickly, even small studios had a chance to acquire the copyright.

It won't cost much.

But in 16, several leading companies boosted revenue.

Let's see what happens in November.

Three games generated an astonishing revenue of nearly 10 billion yuan, making it hard for investors to ignore.

As a result, many companies hoping to find bargains are basically out of luck.

After all, Namco isn't stupid. No, even if they were, they would see this situation.

I also know what to do.

Of course, a large-scale operation isn't all bad.

This is not.

The presence of a group of Chinese manufacturers directly drew out Kento Miura, the newly appointed president of Bandai Namco.

President Kento Miura looked at the conference room full of representatives from China Company, feeling both surprised and somewhat expectant.

For a moment.

He even considered developing his own mobile game.

After all, during the console era, Bandai Namco developed console games based on a series of IPs such as One Piece and Naruto.

But this thought only crossed my mind briefly.

Bandai Namco is no young company; it can't bite off more than it can chew.

With decades of development, and despite Japan abolishing lifetime employment in 1996, the ingrained habits of long-term employment and not dismissing employees unless they are in dire straits still remain.

Therefore, the larger the company, the greater the management costs.

For Bandai Namco at present, the establishment of a brand new project has become an extremely complicated matter.

Furthermore, with Kento Miura having just taken office, it's possible he might suddenly decide to make a mobile game.

If it succeeds, great; but if it fails... oh dear.

"Dear friends who have traveled from afar, thank you for your attention and support for Bandai Namco. I know that you have all come for the IPs we hold in our hands."

"I want to tell everyone that we cherish these IPs very much and hope to work with insightful people to develop them and let them shine on a bigger stage."

Chapter 124 Copyright Dispute

After Kento Miura finished his polite remarks, Lin Li was the first to applaud.

This action quickly drew surprised glances from Kento Miura.

In fact, Lin Li's reputation is probably even greater in Japan than in China.

After all, FGO's revenue of 10 billion was just last month, and although many companies came today, not many bosses were there in person.

And most of them... no, or rather almost all of them, were Chinese business owners whom Kento Miura did not recognize.

He did know Lin Li.

So he smiled and greeted Lin Li, who responded in kind.

To Kento Miura, this was just something he did casually, but to the other Chinese business owners, it felt rather strange.

Immediately afterwards, the head of Bandai Namco announced that everyone present was a leader in the gaming industry and a friend of Bandai Namco.

If we negotiate cooperation with each party individually, it would not only waste everyone's time, but it would also be difficult for Bandai Namco to make decisions among friends.

Therefore, Wanda Namco will use a sealed bid method for this IP copyright cooperation.

Eight major IPs, including Naruto, One Piece, and Gundam, were packaged together and secretly invested in. Each company submitted its own bid, and Wanda Namco will comprehensively consider the results to select a partner.

The bidding period is set for three days from now.

Bandai Namco has booked hotels for everyone these past few days.

Everyone can go back and rest today. The tender document template is very simple; it's a general template. It was also mentioned in the tender document announcement that joint bidding is allowed.

All you need to do is fill in the price and the copyright revenue sharing percentage, and then affix your official seal.

~~~

Such a grand event.

Penguins were there too, of course.

Zhao Ming was the representative of the penguins on this trip.

A person whom Lin Li did not know, but who knew Lin Li.

After confirming the rules, he walked out the door and then called headquarters with his men.

After briefly explaining the situation, he got into the car to go to the hotel and immediately asked his assistant, who was looking through documents next to him.

"Have you checked? Are the bids opened and the results announced immediately after the bidding process?"

“Yes, the bids will be opened and the results announced on the spot as soon as the deadline arrives.” The assistant paused after speaking. “But after the bids are opened, it’s not an absolute winner-takes-all situation. Namco has the final decision-making power, probably to prevent malicious bidding.”

Zhao Ming nodded, then glanced out the car window at Lin Li, who was walking out of the Namco building with a smile on his face.

"What bad luck, I run into him everywhere."

Then Zhao Ming recalled the scene at the meeting and frowned again.

"Do you think this kid might have already reached a cooperation agreement with Namco?"

After a moment of silence in the car, the assistant realized that Zhao Ming seemed to be genuinely asking him a question, so he answered.

"I don't think so. If a cooperation were truly reached, why would there be a bidding process?"

"Hmm...that makes sense."

The assistant then took out his phone and asked a question.

"Mr. Zhao, are we going back to China?"

"I'm not going back. There are too many uncertainties if I go back to China now. Namco is so cunning. They want to raise prices just because there are many people, and they even bundled eight IPs together for sale..."

Say something.

From the bidder's perspective, this type of bundled bid is the most difficult to submit.

Because it's difficult for you to estimate the price.

If we look at it in parts...

For example, you might be thinking that One Piece is worth 1 million, Naruto is worth 1 million, and the rest are worthless trash, so you'd give them a total of 1 million.

But what if other people think that the Gundam IP is worth 1 million, or even 2 million?

Or, for example, Bleach and Gintama are both worth 1 million, so they might ask for 6 million...

So in order to get the IP you want, you either have to find someone to cooperate with you privately to bid together.

Or just add more money.

Either way, it's a good thing for Wanda Namco.

On the one hand, there are so many Chinese manufacturers who can participate, so we are not afraid of them joining forces.

Secondly, bundled sales can also sell off less valuable IPs in a package.

It can be described as winning on top of winning.

Finally, it's also easier to handle the aftermath once the product is sold out.

That evening, Spark Japan.

It was already 8 p.m.

But the company was still bustling with activity.

Although Lin Li has advocated against working overtime on weekdays when there are no major events, the overtime culture in Japan cannot be changed by his words alone.

Many office workers who go home early will get teased by their wives, who will ask if they're about to lose their jobs and why they're home so early.

After mentioning it several times without any effect, Lin Li stopped mentioning it.

They simply added benefits such as employee meal allowances and late-night snack subsidies.

~~~

The chairman's office at Xinghuo Games.

"Everyone's estimate is that the bottom line is around 4 million, and 8 million would be quite high." So I'm thinking, "If we really want to get it, we should be very confident of getting 8 million."

Lin Li frowned: "What kind of 'big shot' do you mean?"

“I have some contact with the Chinese companies that came, except for Tencent. Some of the smaller ones have already approached me, hoping to get a group bid or subcontract some work after we win the bid.”

Lin Li took two bottles of water from the refrigerator in the chairman's office, handed one to Yao Meng, and placed the other in front of himself.

"How many companies did you contact?"

"About seven or eight companies, including NetEase. They contacted me before, wanting to understand the Japanese market. The manager who came here just happened to be the one I talked to last time. There's also miHoYo and Bilibili. The people who came this time also contacted us. After discussing it, we all felt that 4 million to 8 million, plus 5% to 8% of the copyright revenue, was a reasonable range."

Lin Li nodded.

Namco's practice of bundling and selling mixed IPs is indeed disgusting.

Because the prices of these IPs vary greatly.

In the previous life, the copyright purchase for Naruto was around 1 million yuan, and it wasn't a buyout. If the developer wanted to use new characters from the anime later, the contract would have to be renewed.

The copyright for One Piece is more extensive, but the exact number was unclear in the past, and it's even more unclear now.

The only thing that is clear is that in April of this year, iQiyi paid Toei Animation 200 million RMB to purchase the broadcasting rights to a series of anime, including One Piece, Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Slam Dunk, and Sailor Moon.

This will supplement the copyright fees for Naruto.

It's probably between one and two hundred million.

However, there is still a problem.

In China, there are many pirated versions of Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece, and some of these pirated games are even profitable. They also came to the event.

They came here hoping to become permanent employees.

Take One Piece as an example. Currently, 9game and DangLe are jointly developing and operating Dream One Piece.

By 13, their revenue had stabilized at around 2000 million, and they had made a lot of money over the years.

Although they were unwilling to spend money in their previous life, they did not obtain the copyright and were eventually removed from all platforms in 19.