Due to Song Weiyang's-stirring stick plan, Tencent no longer took the initiative to withdraw from the competition for the agency of "World of Warcraft" like the original time and space. Instead, a large computer room was built, all of which were purchased in accordance with the requirements of Vivendi, and then invited Vivendi's bidding team to come over for inspection - in fact, the computer room was prepared for the Tencent game platform and the 3D online game "Triumph" that was about to be represented.

Immediately, NetEase and Kingsoft announced in a high-profile manner that they also wanted to represent "World of Warcraft".

Sohu and Sogou simply directly set up a joint venture "Soupai Changyou", Ding Ming claimed to be a die-hard fan of "Warcraft", and he wanted to win the Chinese agency of "World of Warcraft" desperately.

These companies are all predators in the IT industry, and they are all optimistic about "Warcraft". This news caused an uproar in the industry in an instant, and Guangtong, Ogilvy and Jiucheng were so frightened that they hurriedly raised their offers, and the signing fee was directly fried to $5 million. As for Ubisoft (Sheng Hai), it automatically withdrew, this company has just represented "Endless Mission", and the number of people online has plummeted every day, and there is no money to compete under the great damage to the vitality.

Some experts in the IT industry jumped out to criticize: "The overall size of China's online game market was only 1 billion yuan last year, and now many companies are competing for "World of Warcraft", which is a disorderly vicious competition. What is the concept of a signing fee of $5 million? This is just a signing fee, not an agency fee! The agency contract signing fee for a game actually accounts for 4 percent of the overall market size! It is a big joke in the world! It is reported that Wei Wangdi also asked the participating agency companies to provide pre-development expenses for "World of Warcraft." With the money of our Chinese company, we will sponsor the development of American games, and then pay sky-high signing fees, just to get the agency, and there will be a lot of copyright fees or royalties in the future. This is a comprador behavior in the online game industry, which will inevitably disrupt the healthy development of China's online game market......"

Those companies that do not have the strength to compete for agency rights also rush to follow suit, frantically mocking and insulting the companies participating in the competition, and madly slandering the behavior of prestige Di sitting on the ground and raising prices.

In the face of turbulent public opinion, Wei Wangdi was not only not afraid, but became extremely excited. Send someone to inspect NetEase this week, send someone to inspect Jinshan next week, and then go to inspect Soupai Changyou next week, and after the inspection, he will not express his position, do not say good, do not say bad, and even do not start formal negotiations, and then continue to investigate everywhere next month.

The more this is the case, the more panicked the competing companies become, and they can't wait to raise their offers, which makes Vivendi even more emboldened. Anyway, "World of Warcraft" hasn't started the closed beta yet, so let's continue to investigate slowly, and you can completely treat Chinese companies as dogs.

As for Excalibur Network Technology, it is becoming more and more low-key, and everything else remains silent except for information about "Legend". Obviously, the "Excalibur 3D Engine" has been developed a long time ago, but some insiders deliberately leaked the news, saying that the research and development of the "Excalibur Engine" is unsatisfactory, and it is currently being rebuilt, and the project progress of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" may be delayed by a year.

Immediately afterwards, the marketing director of Excalibur Company was interviewed by reporters and made it clear: "The 3D engine specially built for the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" is indeed experiencing difficulties, and Excalibur Network is determining new game products. At present, the company has set up a third studio, called 'Bubble Studio', to develop a casual game called 'Bubble Hall'. At the same time, the company is also seeking to represent game products, and "World of Warcraft" has also been included in the scope of investigation, and Excalibur Network may join the agency competition for "Warcraft". ”

Later, insiders disclosed that Song Weiyang was furious in the company and ordered the Excalibur network not to wade into troubled waters. Even the insider said that Song Weiyang was very dissatisfied with the cannibalism of NetEase, Kingsoft, Tencent and other companies, because he had a large amount of equity in these companies.

Jinshan immediately responded: "We no longer participate in the competition for the agency rights of "Warcraft", we want to develop games that belong to the Chinese!"

This situation was quickly fully interpreted by industry insiders, who all believed that Rebus could not withstand Song Weiyang's pressure. Then, the state included the development of online game engines in the 863 plan, and Kingsoft became the first batch of key support objects of the plan with its semi-finished self-developed engines......

Sohu and Sogou's joint venture "Soupai Changyou" has also become significantly less active, and it seems that it has also been forcibly intervened by Song Weiyang.

But Tencent and NetEase are competing frantically, raising their offers again and again. The outside world generally understands this: "Tencent is trying to get rid of the control of the major shareholder Song Weiyang, and Ding Sanshi is also in conflict with Song Weiyang." Especially NetEase, Ding Sanshi has always been absolutely controlled, and his personal shareholding ratio exceeds 50%, so Ding Sanshi ignores Song Weiyang. ”

Finally, in the face of this fierce competition, Wei Wangdi suddenly threw out the "North and South Market" plan, selling two goods at a time, and wanted to divide the agency of "World of Warcraft" into the river. Guangtong, Jiucheng and Ogilvy called "mom sell batch", and then became more enthusiastic and began to accept the unreasonable request of Weiwangdi to sponsor the pre-development costs.

At the same time, SARS broke out!

China's online gaming industry seems to be in a cold winter, as IDC data shows that more than 50% of gamers in China play games in Internet cafes. And the data from domestic research agencies is even more frightening, with 70% of Chinese gamers playing games in Internet cafes. Internet cafes in many major cities are now closed, and the number of online gaming users of companies has plummeted.

As a result, all the companies competing for the rights to represent World of Warcraft began to complain and joined forces to resist the rule-breaking "North-South Market" scheme.

In fact, China's online game market has not fallen into a cold winter, although the number of online users has decreased, but the average online time of players is increasing, and it has directly more than doubled! Many players spend their usual time going out to play games, and even parents do not intervene, as long as their children do not go out to run around, it is better to indulge in games than to be infected with SARS.

Even some white-collar workers who never play games have fallen into the pit, they have to take risks to continue to work during the day, and after returning home, they have been soaking in the Internet to pass the time, and they will inevitably be pulled by netizens to play games.

In the case of Legends, the peak online period used to be between 8 and 11 p.m., and now it is at its peak from 6 p.m. onwards.

"Legend" also took the opportunity to launch the "SARS Prevention and Control Publicity Campaign", inviting medical experts to help produce game Q&A content. Each city in the game has a new NPC, and players can go to the NPC every day to participate in the quiz, which is full of SARS prevention and control knowledge. As long as the player answers all the questions correctly, they will be able to draw a piece of equipment as a reward, and the correct answer will be given if they answer incorrectly.

"Boss, I want to take a leave of absence to go home and have a look. Shen Si said suddenly.

Song Weiyang asked, "What's wrong?"

Shen Si said worriedly: "Didn't I buy a house for my parents? Some time ago, as soon as they moved in, there were suspected SARS cases in the community, and now the whole community has been quarantined. I shouldn't have bought them a house, and if I wanted to buy it, I should have renovated it later, I hurt them!"

"Did you call them?" asked Song Weiyang.

Shen Si said: "I have beaten it, and they said that it is okay for the time being. But now there is only one way in and not out of the community, and it is not even convenient to buy vegetables, so the government has sent people to transport the vegetables into the community. I'll have to go back and see, or I'll be reassured. ”

Song Weiyang comforted: "Don't worry. Have you read the SARS prevention and control pamphlet? Generally, such suspected cases are first observed and treated for a few days, and the isolation will be lifted after the SARS epidemic is ruled out. You wait in Shenghai for a few days, keep in touch with your family at any time, and wait for the news to be confirmed. And it's useless for you to go back, you're not a doctor, so you can only take risks with them. ”

"I know what you said, but I just can't rest assured!" Shen Si has no master, and even his eyes are red, SARS is too scary.

Song Weiyang patted her on the shoulder, pulled her to sit down and said, "Be good, listen to me, I'll talk with you for a while." You're in a bad state right now, you need to calm down first, and you can tell me anything. ”