Chapter 62: A Hesitant Choice
However, it is not an easy thing to buy Bullfrog Studios, especially if there are competitors.
Everyone is not short of money, but it is not enough to promise that after you join us, you will not be short of money to make games.
As a game developer, as a game studio, in fact, from a relatively independent state to a state that is no longer independent, the most feared is actually the loss of autonomy.
Whoever provides the money is the boss.
Whoever has the financial power has the personnel power.
There are not many game studios that have merged into Electronic Arts, but there are very few that have a good death.
This is because they have no financial power, and when they don't have an entrance, they can naturally get all kinds of promises, but when they really change from the meat in their mouths to the meat in their mouths, don't they still have the money to say.
Just like Atari at the beginning, didn't the founder of Atari know that making garbage games would definitely be eaten back?
Of course I do.
But they've been bought, they've been bought by Universal Pictures.
Although before the acquisition, Universal Pictures promised to provide only capital input, so that Atari, which had gone from $500 to $5 million a year, would have more money to complete the expansion.
But where can capital be philanthropic?
They are invested in Atari, but they are eager to see the benefits.
It was not surprising that a group of arrogant people who didn't understand video games would have problems manipulating the world's largest video game manufacturers at the time.
And, it's all the more interesting that the issue almost bankrupted Atari's parent company, Universal Pictures, as well.
Magic Niu, the head of Bullfrog Studios, like Atari at the beginning, was faced with several companies and institutions that had extended olive branches, and he had to make a choice.
Whether it is Electronic Arts or Wanhu, it has a certain reputation in the UK.
Britain was the first country in the world to transform from an industrial country to a financial country.
Although London, a financial center, is not as good as New York in the United States, as the second largest financial center in the whole world and the largest financial center in Europe, a large amount of capital has been remitted to London, and various capital operations have been completed here.
Such a relatively low amount of work and high returns will naturally be vigorously developed.
However, the financial industry has a problem with the fact that there are too few people who can support employment.
However, the cost of industry in the UK is too high, and it has gradually moved to other countries and regions with lower costs.
As a result, there are many people in the UK who simply live on subsistence allowances and welfare.
For them, the meaning of everyday existence is to spend money, that is, to consume.
It is precisely because of their consumption that taverns can continue to open, shops can continue to open, and all kinds of service establishments can continue to exist.
What the?
You say work hard?
Inexistent.
A worker who has worked in a steel mill for thirty years, is accompanied by dangerous molten iron every day. In order to stir the steel, he even stood on a small platform in the middle of the molten iron crucible with a stick tied to the iron chain.
Can such a worker say that he is not brave?
But in this financial Britain, there is no place for it at all.
There is no room for his skills to be used anymore, and his daily life is accompanied by beer and football.
The producers and publishers of the world's two major football video games are Electronic Arts and Wanhu.
The two football games have their own merits, and they are even stronger in the UK.
Because the naming rights of the Champions League and the first division matches of various European countries have been bought by 10,000 households.
Compared to players in other parts of the world, the World Cup is more appealing. Fans in Europe such as the United Kingdom feel that the European Cup or the league on their doorstep is the most attractive.
Players from all over the world have performed far more in each football club than in the World Cup.
After all, the national teams in the World Cup are all improvised teams.
It's okay in a country like Brazil, with a lot of star players.
For example, in some countries, only one or two players are excellent, and the others are fishing, so how can this national team be strong.
Although Europe is no longer the most advanced region in the world in the eyes of outsiders, it is still the most advanced region in the world in the eyes of Europeans themselves.
Wanhu's H and EA in Electronic Arts are more famous after all, with the title of the European Cup.
In this way, it seems that Wanhu has a better chance of being selected by the bullfrog.
However, all the games of Bullfrog Studios are published and distributed by EA.
Game producers generally don't do publishing and distribution because publishing and distribution work is tiring, time-consuming, and costly.
If you only release your own games, and you only use the channels you find once a year or two, the revenue will not cover the cost at all.
Therefore, except for a few iron-headed babies who choose to publish the game themselves.
Most game manufacturers will choose some more powerful publishers to release their games.
Although the British look down on the Americans, they still trust the Americans more than the Chinese.
Electronic Arts has an inherently advantageous advantage over Wanhu in Europe.
It was also normal for Bullfrog to choose Electronic Arts at that time.
But now, as the head of Bullfrog, he is a little hesitant to really let him choose to merge into the electronic arts industry.
Why hesitate?
Because in the years of cooperation with Electronic Arts, he found that Electronic Arts is not a very good company.
It is true that any company will have problems.
But although the electronic arts industry is very famous, it makes him feel a little unworthy of the name.
Even, he sometimes feels that his game shouldn't be selling like this at all.
It's either that Electronic Arts is hiding sales, or they don't want their games to sell at all.
As for the reason, there will always be, maybe they want to buy themselves?
Isn't that the way to lower the price?
However, having said that, it seems that it is enough to choose 10,000 households.
However, in addition to the magic cow who has never dealt with Wanhu at all after playing the game, there are some doubts that Wanhu will be worse than Electronic Arts.
This also had to make him suspicious.
I first heard that Wanhu is a company, but recently I heard that they are a Chinese company.
If it's okay, it's okay, and I look very polite.
But what about China?
Most often heard in the news are either illegal immigrants from China or questions about Hong Kong and a plateau bordering India.
In hesitation, he couldn't even do the game anymore.
In the end, he decided that it would be better to visit the headquarters of the two game companies in person.