In the morning, Wu Ming, Zhang Dexin, and Shangguan Xiaobao discussed the direction of the future Phoenix Society.

In the afternoon, Wu Ming came to Xingchen Entertainment Game Company.

In the past month or so, the development of Star Entertainment has entered the fast lane, and good news has been coming from all sides.

More than three million Pokemon pet machines have been sold, more than 10,000 arcade machines in Great Wall Cubes, and more than 3,000 units in Snake. "Tank Wars", which has just been released, has sold more than "Snake" by virtue of its playability, selling more than 5,000 units. Total sales exceeded $100 million, and net profit reached more than $35 million

In order to produce these products, Huo Jianning had to expand the scale of the Aihua Electronics Factory, and the number of foundries was also increased by several times. Now almost half of the electronics factories in Xiangjiang rely on the OEM orders of Xingchen Entertainment to support themselves.

It is no exaggeration to say that if something goes wrong with Xingchen Entertainment, the game will not sell. It was not Xingchen Entertainment itself that was anxious at the beginning, but the bosses of those foundries.

After all, the profits they get from helping Xingchen Entertainment OEM far exceed the products they produce themselves. So now they hope that Xingchen Entertainment is developing better and better, and it is best to directly become the leader of the global game market.

Wu Ming is more happy to see this situation, although he will go to the mainland to set up a foundry in a few days. But the foundries in the mainland alone could not meet his needs.

After all, in this era, there are many parts in the mainland that cannot be produced and must be imported. Wu Ming's plan is to transform these electronics factories in Xiangjiang from foundries to parts factories. Then it became a downstream supplier enterprise attached to his big tree.

After all, he can't fight the world alone, although he can also cover all the links from beginning to end. But that would be too time-consuming and effort-consuming, and it would be more costly.

It is better to license the technical specifications and pass on all kinds of unnecessary costs to downstream suppliers. Woo a group of younger brothers and give them some soup. Then he hid behind himself and commanded them to charge for him.

In the office, after chatting about the performance of Xingchen Entertainment for more than a month, as well as Wu Ming's trip to the island country. The two began to talk about Huo Jianning's trip to the United States.

Wu Ming smiled and said, "Uncle Jianning, this time you went to the United States, the results are not bad!"

Huo Jianning smiled and said, "Not bad." This time I went to the United States, not only bought the patent and production line of TN screens. The patent for the home machine was also bought, but the money was really unjustly spent. If it weren't for your reminder, I really didn't know that there was a patent for this kind of thing. ”

Many people may not know that the concept of "using video games over a TV connection" is also patentable. That is to say, as long as you want to develop a home machine, you have to pay royalties.

By 1974, Atari was coveted by Magnavox because of the popularity of their arcade game Ping Pong.

Magnavox took Atari to court with a piece of paper, and Atari had to pay $700,000 to license the video game.

In the following decade, Magnavox sued more than a dozen game companies, including Activision, the world's largest third-party video game developer and publisher, and Blizzard, a subsidiary of China's most famous company.

In the end, the case was won or settled, and a total of about $100 million in damages was awarded. Home console manufacturers were required to pay Magnavox a royalty until the expiration of the patent in the early 1990s.

Wu Ming also smiled bitterly and said: "I also know this because I am very concerned about the video game industry, otherwise I would have thought that this kind of thing still has a patent." As long as we wanted to sell Phantasy Star to the United States, we had to spend this money. ”

Huo Jianning spread his hands and sighed: "Yes, if you want to go to the United States to make money, you have to follow their rules." ”

Wu Ming smiled coldly and said: "Anyway, the wool is out of the sheep, and in the future, when our household machines are on the market, we can get them back from the Americans." ”

Huo Jianning nodded and agreed.

In order not to encounter the same situation as Atari in the future, Wu Ming naturally wanted to take the patent authorization as soon as possible. When the time comes, the "Phantasy Star" will be listed, and Magnavox will raise the licensing fee upward. Although no matter how high it is, it won't go anywhere, but Wu Ming doesn't want to spend more unjust money.

Wu Ming asked again: "Uncle Jianning, how is the establishment of the American branch of Xingchen Entertainment, there should be no big problem." In the future, the biggest market of Star Entertainment is the United States, and those dealers can't be fully trusted after all, so we still have our own sales channels. ”

Huo Jianning smiled and said, "This is very smooth, Duole Toys developed earlier than our Xingchen Entertainment, and established a branch in the United States a few months ago. With the help of their person in charge, I quickly found a qualified president. It won't be long before we can set up a sales channel that is completely ours. ”

Wu Ming nodded and said, "That's good." The United States is the center of the global game market, and Hong Kong is too small to have so many talented people. In the future, it will be too much to compete with other game companies, and it will be too much to rely on the talent pool of Xiangjiang alone.

They develop the hardware well and can complete the task perfectly. However, in terms of game software development, it is much worse than that of the United States and island countries, and there are no genius game designers like them.

So far, I have seen a few innovative people, and others can only complete tasks rigidly. It's fine to let them do what I planned, but it's not okay to let them develop the game themselves. ”

Hearing Wu Ming say this, Huo Jianning was also a little worried.

He frowned and asked, "Then what are you going to do?" ”

Wu Ming shook his head and said with a smile: "That's not necessary, it's just that in the future, the main work of the Xingchen Entertainment Headquarters in Xiangjiang will be biased towards hardware development."

The American branch and later the island country branch were responsible for the development of game software for arcades, home consoles, handheld consoles, and computer platforms. ”

Huo Jianning asked, "What about the game software development department?"

Wu Ming replied: "Naturally, it is reserved, after all, the game development cannot completely rely on those foreigners in the branch." Fortunately, games are also popular in Xiangjiang now, and after a few years of edification, we can naturally recruit more people with game design talents. ”

After all, the population of Xiangjiang is hard, even if you add Wanwan, it will be more than 20 million. Moreover, the proportion of literate people is also relatively low, not as good as that of the United States and island countries.

Nowadays, intellectuals in the mainland are also relatively old-fashioned, and it is impossible for them to engage in the development of games that they think are playful.

Fortunately, he is open, even if the two branches can't recruit talents, with the games of his previous life in his mind, he can also stand alone.