In Li Mu's eyes, Lao Xu is one of the very few people in China who really understands games.

The leaders of the world's game industry are the United States and Japan, although South Korea's overall strength is much worse than these two countries, but the quality standards of employees are not low, there are often some small Korean game companies with no more than twenty or thirty people, but they can develop some popular games, compared to these three countries, although the scale of the Chinese game industry is very large, but the difference in comprehensive level, often makes people unable to complain.

Huaxia's domestic game industry is very similar to domestic animation, with huge output, very few high-quality products, and only a handful of really awesome practitioners.

If Li Mu is asked to find three really awesome people from the Chinese game industry, then Lao Xu must be among them.

This is also why Li Mu will dig Lao Xu into Muye Technology and let him lead the development project of Journey to the West online games.

And Lao Xu's suggestion to "Plants vs. Zombies Online" at the meeting also made Li Mu feel bright, as if he had opened up an unprecedented new world.

In the last life, the popularity of "Plants vs. Zombies" is indeed phenomenal, but the continuity did not last too long, although the game itself is very fun, but the depth of excavation is insufficient, which leads to the fact that users can easily play this game thoroughly, and then lose interest, and the subsequent revisions and upgrades of this game are all changes in soup without changing medicines, and do not bring users an amazing feeling, so it gradually fell silent.

With the same fate as "Plants vs. Zombies", there is also "Angry Birds", a small game that is popular on smartphone platforms, has won at least hundreds of millions of players around the world, and its derivative operation is also very successful, and even the famous movie has received a global box office of 300 million US dollars, but this game has not been popular for too long, and the single gameplay still makes this game disappear in a short period of time.

Because of this, Li Mucai particularly agrees with Lao Xu's point of view that if "Plants vs. Zombies Online" wants to have a longer life and influence, it must be deeply upgraded on the existing gameplay.

Lao Xu's suggestion,Has touched the pulse of turret defense games,There are two key points in this type of game,One is the "turret",The other is the "map",All kinds of plants in Plants vs. Zombies are "turrets",There are many varieties、Many functions、Large combination space,But the "map" is too single,If more new maps can be developed,It will certainly be able to greatly enhance the fun of players。

When Li Mu used to play Red Alert, the biggest dissatisfaction was basically about the map, first of all, the official basically rarely added new maps, and the overall level of the player's self-made map was poor, ordinary players naturally lost interest in this game after playing all the maps, I am afraid that in the near future, players of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" will also be bored with the single map of this game.

So, Li Mu made a decision on the spot: "Immediately start the development of version 2.0 of "Plants vs. Zombies Online", with Lao Xu as the chief architect, and all updates must be confirmed by Lao Xu's nod. ”

After that, Li Mu instructed Lao Xu: "Lao Xu, "Plants vs. Zombies Online" is of great strategic significance to the company, and you are an expert in games, so you must take on greater responsibilities in the development of the next iteration of the version." ”

Lao Xu nodded immediately: "Don't worry, Mr. Li, I will go all out." ”

Li Mu smiled slightly: "It's enough to have your four words." ”

After determining the game upgrade, Ding Jian, the commercial director, said: "Mr. Li, let me talk about our derivative cooperation, KFC and McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Pepsi These four companies have been communicated, informed the overall mode of cooperation, these four companies are very interested, I will introduce the cooperation intentions of the four companies in detail." ”

"KFC replied to us with great interest and looked forward to working with us, hoping that we could inform us of a clear royalty, and they would study and discuss it after receiving the offer, and then engage in contact negotiations with us. ”

"Compared with KFC, McDonald's is more attentive, they learned of our cooperation intentions, contacted us in the form of email, and gave a cooperation plan they expected, the specific plan is: I hope we can take out all the game images to cooperate with them, and they will designate manufacturers to produce derivatives based on all game images, and then they will launch the 'Plants vs. Zombies' theme package in McDonald's global stores simultaneously, the packaging of the theme package, In addition, they will also open the purchase of derivatives in the store, that is, they can buy derivatives by purchasing any package and a certain amount of cash, for which they are willing to pay us the copyright royalty of the brand image, as well as a 30% share of the sales proceeds. ”

When Li Mu heard this, he smiled slightly: "It seems that McDonald's is indeed more attentive than KFC." ”

"Yes. Ding Jian nodded and said: "McDonald's has a lot of experience in cooperating with well-known cartoon characters, so it is easy to operate, compared to KFC, KFC's experience in this area is slightly weaker, and the depth of thinking is slightly inferior." ”

Li Mu nodded and said, "In this way, we will cooperate with McDonald's, and I can reduce the copyright fee to a symbolic $1, but McDonald's must promise me a cooperation condition." ”

Ding Jian hurriedly said: "Please say, I will remember it, and contact the interface person of McDonald's after the meeting." ”

Li Mudao: "First of all, McDonald's Global Restaurants must replace the advertising posters outside the store and in the store with advertising materials containing elements of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" within one month of signing the contract, and each store must ensure that there are at least three posters, and each one is not less than 0.4 square meters in size, and the hanging period is one year;"

"Secondly, within one month of the signing of the contract, the global McDonald's restaurant plate paper, hamburger boxes and French fries packaging, take-out paper bags and plastic bag packaging, must be replaced with new packaging printed with elements of "Plants vs. Zombies Online", and the use cycle is also one year, if McDonald's can agree to these two points, the copyright fee of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" will only charge McDonald's $1 a year, and at the same time, we are willing to give up all derivative shares. ”

Ding Jian said in surprise: "Mr. Li, the profit margin of derivatives sharing is very large, if we give up this part of the income, then the copyright royalty of the entire game, in the end, we can only get this dollar......

"It doesn't matter. Li Mu smiled indifferently: "We must have a clear positioning, some things are done to make money, and some are for other purposes, using the copyright of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" to cooperate with offline companies, what I want is not to make money, but to increase offline exposure, Expanding our influence, not to mention not making money, even if it costs money, we still have to spend what we should spend, and now we give up this part of the benefit in exchange for McDonald's to bring us more and more lasting exposure, which is very worthwhile for us. ”

Ding Jian nodded: "I know Mr. Li, I will convey your conditions to the other party after the meeting." ”

"Hmm. Li Mu said: "Continue to talk about Coca-Cola and Pepsi." ”

"Okay, Mr. Li. Ding Jian hurriedly said: "Pepsi is more interested in our cooperation, but they reject your cooperation model of 'commitment to exposure', they prefer to take the initiative in their own hands, so their idea is that we will make a quotation, we will negotiate the price, and after reaching a consensus, Pepsi will pay us the copyright royalty, and we have no right to interfere with Pepsi's subsequent specific plans and programs." ”

Li Mu frowned and said with a smile: "No wonder it is an alliance with KFC, and it really responds to that sentence, it's not that a family doesn't enter the door." ”

After that, Li Mu asked again: "What about Coca-Cola?"

Ding Jian said: "Coca-Cola has had in-depth cooperation with us, and the effect of the cooperation is very good, and we have tasted the sweetness of the cooperation and promotion of offline enterprises and online enterprises, so they are still very interested in the cooperation of "Plants vs. Zombies Online", and they are also very interested in the cooperation model of "Promised Exposure" proposed by you. The image covers 60% of their product packaging, which means that with the annual sales of tens of billions of Coca-Cola, once they reach a cooperation with us, they will print our cartoon image of "Plants vs. Zombies Online" to the outer packaging of tens of billions of bottles of Coca-Cola and other beverages under the brand within a year. ”

When Li Mu heard this, he slapped the table without hesitation and said: "It's decided, we will cooperate with Coca-Cola, as long as they promise to print our cartoon image on the outer packaging of more than 60% of the products, then we will also only charge a copyright fee of one dollar a year!"

In this day and age, Coca-Cola is much more popular than the Internet, and at least half of the world's population knows and consumes Coca-Cola, but the number of Internet users in the world is less than 10% of the total population.

Coca-Cola itself is very focused on brand marketing, so the annual promotion budget in the global market is surprisingly high, and the more this happens, the more they need to cooperate with some strong non-competing brands to exchange resources and complement each other's advantages.

For fast-moving consumer goods companies like Coca-Cola, competitors in reality are very cruel, Pepsi invests huge amounts of marketing funds every year, inviting a series of big-name stars and football stars to erect their own brand image, and everyone's competition has entered the white-hot from brand promotion, packaging design, offline distribution, container display, and so on.

In this case, Coca-Cola has long realized that it needs a unique element that it has but its opponents cannot have, and through this unique element to improve consumer recognition and even increase consumers' willingness to buy.

At this juncture, Makino Technology came to the door, the image of Plants vs. Zombies is now popular in the Internet field, for Coca-Cola, if you can get the cartoon image of Plants vs. Zombies, for your own product packaging and publicity, you can achieve a clear distinction from competitors, and it will be a huge promotion for offline sales!