By the end of the press conference, it was close to noon. Reporters rushed to post the news. Zhang Ran, the top management of the Peak of the Century, and the management of EA came to the hotel to have lunch together. The scene was very happy, the atmosphere was quite harmonious, and everyone believed that EA could achieve better development after merging into the peak of the century.

After lunch, Zhang Ran had a deep conversation with EA's CEO, Andrew Wilson. He mainly talked about two things, one is EA's China business, and the other is the problem of VR games.

EA was one of the first gaming giants to enter the Chinese market, having set up an office in China since 1996. Since 2002, the explosive growth of online games in China has allowed EA to see a breakthrough point. In July 2004, EA executives announced that they would open a R&D studio in China to develop interactive games that would better cater to the tastes of Chinese gamers.

Many multinational companies entering China have a problem, that is, the Chinese branch likes to use Xiangjiang and Taiben people. It is not that there is a problem with the level of these people, but that the environment in Xiangjiang and Taiwan is different from that of the mainland, and these people do not understand the mainland market and do not know the preferences of the mainland audience; moreover, the headquarters often does not give the Chinese branch the decision-making power; either they have to approve everything done by the Chinese company, and a contract has to be signed for half a year; or when the Chinese company decides to do something, the headquarters is fooled by others and interferes indiscriminately; therefore, many multinational companies entering China are always beaten by local enterprises and lose their armor.

The same is true of EA China, the person in charge of the Chinese branch, who does not understand the game, let alone the Chinese market, has done seven or eight projects, and none of them have succeeded. In addition, domestic piracy is serious, and EA tossed for several years, not only did it not make money, but instead posted hundreds of millions of dollars into it. As a result, EA completely withdrew from China last year, leaving only three or four employees to do publishing.

After Century Peak acquires EA, it must not let EA do it as before. Zhang Ran's idea is that Summit Games will set up a branch of Summit Games, let Summit Games cooperate with EA, and EA's business in China will be handed over to Summit Games. Century Peak does not have the genes to make games, and no one in the company understands it. So, they targeted Jianyue Games, and recently they are talking about acquisitions. After the completion of the acquisition, Jianyue Games will be renamed Summit Games and will be responsible for the development of domestic games.

The three co-founders of Jianyue Games, Zhan Zhonghui, Chen Wei'an and Wu Yunyang, are all veterans of China's online gaming industry and have all been executives in NetEase's gaming division. However, due to conflicts with Ding Lei, the three left NetEase in 2011 and founded Jianyue Games. The company has been established for more than three years, and for them, joining Century Summit can achieve better development.

Andrew Wilson agrees with Zhang Ran's arrangement very much, EA definitely doesn't want to give up on such a big market in China, but they really don't understand the Chinese market. Leaving the business to a Chinese company should be the best solution. However, he has a different view on Zhang Ran's requirements for developing VR games.

"Mr. Zhang's intuition and judgment are not comparable to ordinary people, and I also believe that VR will have great prospects in the future, and VR games will have a great future. Andrew Wilson was smiling, and his tone was full of reverence for Zhang Ran.

But after saying this, he changed his words: "The situation of EA is not very good now. Last year, there were two quarters of serious losses, which dragged down the overall performance, and the annual profit was only 98 million. Now VR is just getting started, and the market is still very small. When a game is made, it may sell hundreds of thousands, or even tens of thousands. And we don't have experience in making VR games, so we need to explore. Now making VR games will definitely bring huge losses, the company's performance is already poor, and with the drag of VR, it will definitely suffer serious losses. Can we wait two or three years for the company's situation to improve before entering the VR field?"

Zhang Ran will definitely not agree, Century Peak's acquisition of EA is to provide content for VR. Wait three or four years to develop the game, and when the game comes out, it's four or five years, and the daylilies are cold. He said directly: "That's not going to work. Without good games and good content support, the VR outlet will soon pass. However, I also understand your concerns, VR has just started, and it is really unrealistic to directly produce a masterpiece of hundreds of millions of yuan. But in this way, it is possible to take out some scenes of the current game and make them into demonstration games, or make VR levels, which should not cost too much money. How about crafting one or two VR games on top of that?"

Hearing Zhang Ran say this, Andrew Wilson breathed a sigh of relief, Zhang Ran did not let EA release as many VR games as soon as it came up, but made a VR masterpiece on the basis of demonstrative games. In this way, EA can train through this demonstrative game, and develop VR masterpieces on the basis of mastering VR technology, and the success is much greater.

Andrew Wilson nodded, "If that's the case, that's fine." ”

Zhang Ran looked at Andrew Wilson and said: "Another point, the VR masterpiece you developed is best a competitive game that can be played online, like CS, which can be played against multiple people." Our thinking is this, because VR equipment is too expensive, and the average person is willing to buy it is still a minority. Originally, people wanted to play computer games, but computers were too expensive, which contributed to the difficulty of finding a street Internet café. Internet cafes have played a vital role in the popularization and promotion of computers. Nowadays, there are tens of thousands of VR equipment and expensive computers in the past, and Internet cafes are an important channel to promote the development of VR. And Internet café multiplayer battle games are particularly popular, just like CS. Last year's highest-grossing online game "Crossfire" was a CS-like game. If there is a well-made and highly playable battle game, it will definitely play a huge role in promoting the entire VR industry. ”

Andrew Wilson mused: "VR has been particularly popular in recent months, and we have discussed this issue as well, and we also think that multiplayer games will be popular in the VR space. The studios also have some ideas, and one of them I think is good. It is to take the copyright of "The Hunger Games", make a "Hunger Games" version of the game, put dozens of players on an island, and let them fight until only one person survives. ”

The copyright of "The Hunger Games" is in the hands of Summit Entertainment, and it is all its own people, and it is not a problem for EA to want the copyright of "The Hunger Games" at all. Zhang Ran chuckled: "I don't understand games, I'm a complete layman, I don't know what will happen when "The Hunger Games" is made, are you experts, or do you have ideas." You can use any resource at the pinnacle of the century, and my only request is to come up with a VR game that can be sought after by the market!"

Andrew Wilson nodded: "I see." ”

Sending Andrew Wilson away, Zhang Ran's life returned to the state of half a day with children and half a day for test shooting. He is constantly experimenting with the use of various film languages in VR, and at the same time constantly looking for new VR film languages.

The story that Zhang Ran wants to shoot is called "No Way Back", and there are two main characters, Xia Xuejiao and her black cat Akxia. In Zhang Ran's original conception, the film was shot from Xia Xuejiao's point of view, and it was a first-person film, shot by Jing Tian carrying a camera. During the test shoot, Zhang Ran tried to shoot from the perspective of Axia.

After many test shoots, Zhang Ran suddenly had a new idea, why can't he use both perspectives? Before the movie officially starts, let Xia Xuejiao and Aksha appear in front of the audience, and let the audience choose. If you choose Xia Xuejiao, you will see the whole movie from Xia Xuejiao's point of view, and if you choose Aksha, you will see the whole movie from the perspective of a cat.

Ordinary movies are watched by dozens or even hundreds of people on a screen, and it is impossible to choose the perspective freely, but VR movies are watched through VR glasses, which is equivalent to one screen for each person, and it is completely feasible to choose the perspective freely.

This idea made Zhang Ran particularly excited, although VR movies have been greatly limited in terms of film language, but at the same time, they also bring various possibilities, and can make completely different movies.

On this afternoon, Zhang Ran tested the shooting in the studio of the Century Film Capital, and the camera was composed of many cameras, which was very cumbersome. It is really difficult to let a delicate little girl like Jing Tian perform dozens of pounds of machines on her head, as well as action scenes. So, Zhang Ran asked Tiangong to design a lightweight VR camera that could be worn on the head of the actor.

After receiving Zhang Ran's request, Tiangong Chongcai quickly developed a light VR camera, which has more than 30 pounds. Zhang Ran felt that it was still too heavy, so he asked Tiangong to develop a lighter VR camera. This time, the R&D personnel came with the latest VR camera.

After a few words of greeting, Zhang Ran no longer wasted time and went straight to the topic: "Where is the machine?"

Responsible for the research and development of the VR camera is a young man named Zhou Qing, he opened the box, took out a plastic model head, and then put the latest VR camera on the plastic model's head, introduced: "This latest VR camera, the whole camera is composed of 12 modified Gopro cameras, weighing 11 pounds, can complete 360-degree panoramic shooting, can shoot 6K pictures. The image quality is not as good as the RED Red Dragon, and the depth of field is shallow, and if you don't pay attention to it, it will cause the picture to be in focus. When shooting, you need to pay special attention to the aperture must be opened to the minimum, and try to shoot a full solid picture with a large depth of field. ”

Zhang Ran was satisfied when he heard that it weighed only 11 pounds: "The picture is a little worse than if it hasn't been turned off, the key is to be light enough." 11 pounds is still a bit heavy, can it be lighter. ”

Zhou Qing smiled bitterly and said: "That can only reduce the lens, and subtracting one lens can reduce a few taels." However, according to the tests, we need at least 12 lenses to achieve the desired effect with this design. ”

Zhang Ran said: "Since 12 lenses have the best effect, it is still 12 lenses." He walked over to the camera and took a closer look, and found that the hood tied to the camera was not iron, but leather. When he looked closer, his eyes widened, "What's the matter with this hood?"

Zhou Qing scratched his head and said embarrassedly: "This, the all-iron bracket for the camera is too heavy." We tried everything we could, and finally found this SM bondage mask at an adult product store. ”

The corners of Zhang Ran's mouth twitched, SM restrained the mask, and I didn't know that I thought we were filming a hairy film, and said speechlessly: "This camera is for my apprentice, and she is a girl." She then asked, Master, why is the mask on this camera weird? What do you want me to tell her. Of course, my apprentice is a little heartless and probably won't care. But if it gets out, Da Tiantian wears an SM mask, do you think it sounds good? ”

Zhou Qing nodded again and again: "We will design it as soon as possible!"

Zhang Ran felt that the camera had been developed, and it was still time to shoot to see the effect, so he waved to the actors who were trying to shoot: "Come here and put this camera on, let's test shoot a section and see how the effect is." ”

The actor in the trial shooting is called Wang Fan, a student of the Asian Film Directing Department, and recently interned with Zhang Ran. Zhang Ran didn't bother to find an actor, so he asked him to be an actor and carry a camera for test shooting. Wang Fan looked at Zhang Ran, and then at the mask on the camera, with a painful expression.

Zhang Ran scolded with a smile: "What's the hair, hurry up and put it on, we'll test shoot it right away." ”