Almighty Video Game Designer - Chapter 288
Chapter 288: One billion US dollars for a hero, then
In the studio, Chen Mo was thinking about how to promote League of Legends.
Even though League of Legends was a game with strong popularity, early marketing strategies were still very important. This was because Thunderbolt gaming platform’s current distribution network was far from Penguin’s in his previous life.
Moreover, League of Legends had a much weaker player base in this world.
In Lin Jie’s previous life, DOTA had been the best of the best. When League of Legends hit the market, it happened to be at a critical period. DOTA was very popular among young people, especially among students, but its development was limited by many factors such as popularity, ranking mechanism, difficulty of getting started, cheating, and so on.
League of Legends had become less difficult to get started with, and with the powerful operation and promotion ability of Penguin, it gradually became popular.
Putting aside their grudges, it was an undeniable fact that League of Legends had taken advantage of DOTA. After all, DOTA was the pioneer of this market.
But what about this world?
Although COG had the prototype of a MOBA game, it was still an imperfect map. It was still far from DOTA.
The Warcraft player base was much smaller than in his previous life, and only a small number of players had actually come into contact with COG.
One could imagine that when Chen Mo released League of Legends, most players would be “what kind of game is this” and not “wow, there’s finally a reliable MOBA game”.
…
Therefore, he had to think about how to promote League of Legends.
Just as he was thinking about it, the phone on the table rang.
Chen Zhao picked it up and saw that it was an unknown number from Shanghai.
Chen Mo picked up.
A man’s voice came from the other end of the phone. He was very polite.”Hello, are you Mr. Chen Mo from Thunderbolt entertainment?”
It’s me,”Chen Zhao said.
The male voice on the other end of the line said,”Hello. Let me introduce myself first. I’m the person-in-charge of GA’s Shanghai branch. You can call me Peter.”
Chen Mo frowned. Peter?
Although it was an English name, he spoke Chinese very well, so he shouldn’t be a foreigner. On second thought, Chen Mo felt that it was normal to use an English name since he was an executive in a foreign company.
GA had a branch in Shanghai, which matched the location of the phone number.
“Hello,” Chen Zhao said.”What’s the matter?”
“It’s like this,”Peter said,” our GA headquarters are currently working on a new game called COG. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this. As this game was originally a map from your game, Warcraft, and used a lot of resources from the game, we’d like to ask if you could sell us the art rights? Of course, we can discuss the price. ”
“I’m not selling,” Chen Zhao said without thinking.
“Ahem.” Peter coughed twice and said,”Mr. Chen Mo, it’s just some art copyrights. Actually, with GA’s research and art level, it’s not difficult to make a game that completely surpasses Warcraft. The reason why we want to buy your art copyrights is mainly to continue the players ‘habit of COG’s original graphics and to ensure the game’s consistency …”
“I’m not selling it,” Chen Zhao said.”If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.”
“Please wait a moment!” Peter was a little surprised by Chen Mo’s firm attitude. He didn’t even ask about the price.”You should know that GA is a very strong and financially sound company. As for these copyrights …”
“Oh, how about one billion for a hero?”
“Huh?”
This time, Peter was flabbergasted. 1 billion?
Your hero is made of gold? Besides, even if it was made of gold, it couldn’t be worth so much money!
Peter probed,””You mean, Yuan?”
“No, dollar,” Chen Zhao said.
Peter：“……”
One billion dollars for a hero, why not just Rob it? Does that mean that if COG were to produce 30 heroes, it would have to spend 30 billion?
That’s already the value of the entire GA company!
Peter was a little unhappy. Clearly, Chen Mo’s attitude was insincere.”Mr. Chen Zhao, I don’t know the reason, but I feel like you might have some misunderstanding …”
“There’s no misunderstanding,” Chen Mo said.”I’ve already told you that I won’t sell anything in Warcraft.”
“By the way, please tell Clive Lehmann that although COG is a good map, it’s still far from perfect in my opinion. The nerdy Chinese will make a game that completely overpowers cog.”
“Mr. Chen Mo …”
Before he could finish, Chen Zhao had already hung up.
Actually, buying and selling copyrights wasn’t a rare thing. It wasn’t a big deal at all. To most game companies, as long as they had enough money, anything could be discussed.
As for why Chen Zhao was so determined?
Firstly, Warcraft’s IP value was hard to measure with money, and since COG was a competitor, Chen Mo couldn’t possibly shoot himself in the foot for short-term benefits. Secondly, Chen Zhao was very unhappy with their contemptuous attitude.
Clearly, Clive Lehman and GA were looking down on themselves.
Clive Ramon didn’t believe that Chen Mo could make a game like COG, while the GA thought, isn’t it just the art rights for a few heroes? It was just a small company in a developing country. He could just buy the copyright with some money.
Moreover, Chen Mo didn’t have a good impression of the GA. They would eventually become his opponents, so he didn’t need to worry about their feelings.
However, Chen Mo knew that changing art resources wasn’t difficult for a GA, and it wouldn’t have much of an impact on COG.
After all, there weren’t many players in COG right now. When the time came, the names of the heroes, the models, and more new heroes would be changed, and the players would definitely slowly accept it.
However, at least they had to struggle a little more.
……
The following period of time seemed to be rather calm.
Even though Emperor dynasty entertainment and fantasy gaming platform had the largest distribution platform Alliance in the country, there were still many independent video game designers who chose to release their games on Chen Mo’s platform.
In the end, it was because this new channel lacked a decisive product to prove its power.
Just like during the war of live streaming platforms, poaching streamers through price wars was only a means. The real way to highlight the foundation and hard power of a live streaming platform was to create gods.
It doesn’t matter if you poached my popular streamer. I’ll promote another big streamer in a month or two, even more popular than the one you poached.
It was the same for distributors. It didn’t matter how many players they had. They could only prove their strength if they could release a harvest-level PC or VR game.
As such, before a game like this appeared, all the players and designers were just sitting back and watching. Even though Chen Mo’s Thunderbolt gaming platform was in a disadvantageous position, it was still too early to say that Emperor dynasty and divine fantasy would win.
The key was to see how Emperor dynasty and divine illusion would perform in the next game.
