In March, according to the practice of Japanese companies is the day to announce the annual financial statements, Nintendo also announced the financial situation of the previous year, with Super Nintendo and GameBoy two major money-making machines, the turnover rose to 785 billion yen, and the net profit of the year reached 162.7 billion yen, even overwhelming the scale much larger than Nintendo's home appliance giant Sony. This was a great humiliation for Sony, which stimulated it to increase its investment in the R&D team of game consoles, and the Hong Kong chip factory also gradually adjusted its production line to the production of CPUs with its support.

In mid-April, Oriental Electronic Entertainment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Oriental Holdings, completed the acquisition of EidosInteractives, a small company based in England that previously focused on the development and promotion of video compression technology. After the completion of the acquisition, under the instruction of Zhang Lexing, Eidos Interactive began to enter the game entertainment market.

In May, Nintendo, sensing that Sega's development had been brought under control, decided to abandon Sony, which had lost its usefulness, and a well-prepared press conference was held, at which a Nintendo spokesperson announced: "...... In the research and judgment of some time ago, we found that CD-ROM has the weakness of reading speed too slow, which will directly affect the user's experience of the company's games, and will also affect the user's perception of the quality of the company's games, so we are not optimistic about the application of the new storage media CD-ROM (read-only disc) on game consoles, and decided to abandon the plan to cooperate with Sony to develop a new console using CD-ROM, and the partnership with Sony will also officially end......

In response, Sony also held its own press conference, at which a spokesman for Sony denounced Nintendo's unilateral tearing up of the cooperation agreement, arguing that it did not have the most basic integrity as a company, and said that Sony would reserve the right to pursue Nintendo's relevant legal responsibilities. Nintendo, of course, will not care about this kind of false intimidation, which was prepared before signing the contract, and for Sony, this is just a smokescreen to confuse Nintendo's release, and the battle between the foxes quietly continues.

In early June, Oriental Electronic Entertainment Co., Ltd. acquired Mediagenic, which had entered the bankruptcy process, and hired the company's veteran Robert Kotick as CEO, and the company's name was restored to the original Activision, and the company's office was relocated to the metropolis of Los Angeles. After Robert Kotick's radical restructuring and personnel changes, the new Activision has been revitalized and returned to the familiar gaming and entertainment market.

At the end of June, the Chinese traditional Chinese version and Japanese version of "The Legend of the Three Kingdoms - Liu Bei" led by Zhan Jun's group were released in Japan, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan at the same time, and the quite innovative game method suddenly attracted many players, and many game magazines also rated this game as the most creative Three Kingdoms game.

……

Closing the folder, the recent events gradually moved away from Zhang Lexing, and the thought of returning to China gradually became active again. Zhang Lexing got up and paced back and forth in his office, the air filled with a faint aroma of coffee mixed with milk, Zhang Lexing thought about his future path as he walked.

"This year is the official start of the domestic computer game industry, Kinpan Electronics will be established in Beijing, and Zhiguan will also extend its tentacles to Guangzhou, am I ready? VisualSystem is so entrenched that I don't need to take the care I used to. The works produced by these people who went abroad for further study performed well, and it seems that they can be regarded as the first glimpse of game design. Well, the time is ripe to return to China to form a computer game development company and revitalize the domestic game industry.

Where to start? In the next few years, most of the domestic computer game development companies will gather in Beijing, and as a cultural product, games are deeply influenced by national policies, and Beijing, as the capital of the country, is a very well-informed place, and it is also the place where you can directly feel the national policies, and I think it should be very suitable as a place to take the first step.

It seems that it is time to bring everyone together for a good talk. ”

The people in the United States are easy to handle, and they are close anyway, and they can be found at any time, and the six people who stay in Japan are in trouble, after all, they can't just talk about it. However, since they have planned to go back to start a business, they are naturally indispensable. Zhang Lexing picked up the phone on the table, pressed the number button, and dialed the phone number of Nangong Yun, chairman of the board of directors of the company, in which Zhang Lexing explained that he had arranged for the six people to study in Japan to come to the United States as soon as possible, and that there were important things to study with them. Nangong Yun was very efficient, and soon arranged a flight, and the six-person training group will take the plane to the United States tomorrow morning. And the plenary meeting planned by Zhang Lexing is scheduled for the day after tomorrow.

After adjusting the schedule for the next three days, Zhang Lexing got up and left his office and came to Yang Xinxin's office room. Knocked lightly on the door in the middle of the office, then pushed the door and walked in, Yang Xinxin, who heard the sound, just raised her head.

"Is there something wrong?" Yang Xinxin looked at Zhang Lexing and asked.

Looking at Zhang Lexing's somewhat hesitant expression, Yang Xinxin sighed: "You still want to leave?" ”

"Yes." Zhang Lexing nodded.

"When are you going to go?"

"It's not finalized yet, maybe next week."

"Well, is there anything else? If not, I'm going to be busy, and there's still a lot going on today. Yang Xinxin flipped through the information all over the table, lowered her head and didn't look at Zhang Lexing anymore.

Zhang Lexing felt her unpleasantness and wanted to say something to remedy it, but he opened his mouth but didn't make a sound, this step will go out one day, sighed, Zhang Lexing turned around and left. In the next few days, Yang Xinxin rarely spoke every time she saw Zhang Lexing, and even when the two were eating together, she was silent, even if Zhang Lexing took the initiative to speak, Yang Xinxin coped with it at most twice and then stopped talking.

Time passed quickly, and in a blink of an eye, the six-person training group from Japan had already arrived in the United States for a day, and the meeting planned by Zhang Lexing was also held in the conference room of the borrowed Blue Dragon Company.

"Guys, I'm sure some of you may have already guessed what I'm looking for." Zhang Lexing saw that everyone was here, and began to introduce his thoughts, "That's right, we are about to return to China to create a new world of domestic games." ”

The expressions of the people were different, some of them did not change much, they seemed to have known before, and some people seemed a little surprised, maybe they were used to staying abroad, and they didn't expect to go back.

Zhang Lexing continued: "Maybe some people will feel that it is necessary to return to China? It's good to stay outside, and you can also make games, even if it's a Chinese game, anyway, there is a publishing company in charge. There are many opportunities for technical exchanges abroad, and it may not be so convenient to go back. ”

Many people gestured with their foreheads, and it seemed that what Zhang Lexing said was exactly the question swirling in their hearts.

"I think you should have been exposed to a lot of games made in the United States and Japan over the years, and there should be a lot of impressive ones, and except for the two Chinese games you made, I am afraid that the others are difficult for you to look up to." This shows that the current level of Chinese game production is still relatively low, but this represents a lot of development potential. If you just want to make a good game, you can do it in the United States or Japan. However, if you want to make a truly meaningful Chinese game, you need to immerse yourself in Chinese culture, which is difficult to experience abroad. So I want to go back while domestic computer games are still in their infancy, open a computer game production company, and look forward to one day making the best Chinese games. The Chinese games I am talking about here are not just Chinese games, but games that include Chinese culture, and I hope that one day even foreigners will be able to enjoy Chinese games. Guys, would you like to work with me on this goal? ”

Zhang Lexing's words aroused everyone's ambition, and they all applauded, and some of them shouted anxiously: "Yes!" ”

"Now it's time to get down to business, if someone doesn't want to go back, you can bring it up now, and I'll recommend him to a game development company here." Zhang Lexing glanced at everyone, no one answered this time, it seems that everyone should have made their own choices.

"Since I don't have any opinions, then I will talk about the future development direction of our company and the future development team model......

In fact, Zhang Lexing has already had an idea of the company's development direction in the future, but he can't say it directly, because at this time, the Blizzard company he admires has not yet appeared, and the founder of Blizzard still doesn't know where to squat. Zhang Lexing appreciates Blizzard's concept of focusing on the quality of games, and he also hopes that his company can also pay attention to the quality of games in the future, even if it loses money, it can't just get some inferior works to make up the numbers. Although he can't preach under the banner of Blizzard, after referring to Blizzard's experience and lessons, Zhang Lexing can still determine several development directions for the company:

First, you need to have one of the top publishing companies in the world. There was a slave from Larry. With the experience learned from Probert, Zhang Lexing knows that game publishers are the real bosses in the game industry, after all, the power of capital is very powerful, and the publishing company with strong capital will naturally become the real overlord of the game industry in the future. If a game production company does not have the ability to control the distribution channels and has sufficient development funds, it will inevitably become a vassal of the publishing company, and even become a victim in the acquisition process. Zhang Lexing didn't want his company to suffer such torture one day, so he had already started to lay out in advance in this regard.

Second, we need to be a development company that makes high-quality games. Blizzard is such a company in the future, although the number of games developed is not large, although it often jumps tickets, but Blizzard's games can be said to be high-quality, and Blizzard's brand has become a golden sign of game quality. This is also the goal set by Zhang Lexing for his own company, and I believe that it will be achieved under his own supervision.

Third, we need to be a company that promotes Chinese culture to the world. Zhang Lexing remembers that in later life, there was a game called "Shogun" developed by an American company, and many American dramas also had a background about Japan, which made people look like that. But when it comes to China, it is often seen with ugly pig tails. Zhang Lexing hopes that through the games he developed, foreigners can understand China's long history and profound culture, and no longer keep their memories in the era of pig's tail and red treasure book.

The ideal is ambitious, but the reality has to come step by step, and the current goal is to build the company first, so that there will be a chance to start their own brand in the future. If you want to set up a game development company, then forming a team responsible for game development is the first priority, as a game development company, there are many ways to form a development team, according to Zhang Lexing's experience over the years, the common ones are: CEO + working group model, the CEO directly manages one or several game development groups, the CEO's rights can be unlimited, in addition to serving as a producer and sometimes even serving as a project manager, the main planner, Once the CEO fails to put himself in the right position, it often leads to confusion in the entire development process and direction; Professional manager (project manager) + working group model, professional managers generally manage specific game development projects on behalf of investors, with great rights and responsibilities, as long as professional managers have good project management experience, they can usually complete the project well.

However, Zhang personally prefers a flattened model, which is mainly adopted by large companies and is not limited to the game development industry. To put it simply, it is professional segmentation, order operation, collaborative work, and assembly operation. The various disciplines in game development (planning, art, programming, QA, etc.) are independent into corresponding departments or production centers, and the project manager accepts the project order to form a temporary department, dispatches planners to complete the project design, and then places orders to the art, program and other departments, and the project manager completes the overall planning of the entire project, and after the project is completed, the department is disbanded, and all personnel return to the original department or production center. This model is suitable for the same company, multiple projects at the same time, and has a very good ability to scale, and even outsource part of the work to a professional production company when there is a shortage of manpower.

Now the manpower is still very limited, if according to this division, some departments may only have two or three people, but for the long-term development, Zhang Lexing still determined the staffing of the three main departments (planning, art, program), as for QA (game testing) after returning to China to recruit more people before considering the establishment, now can only temporarily other people make a temporary cameo, as Zhan Jun and Zhao Yuanhuan (who have developed "Three Kingdoms 2") with a certain team management experience, they naturally become the first choice of project managers.

……

After the development plan is discussed, all that remains is the question of when and how to go back. Considering that I haven't returned to China for a few years, and whether there is a suitable place to stay, the team of people and horses rushed back, and if they don't do it, they can only do nothing all day, so it is better to let everyone stay here and gain more experience. Of course, Zhang Lexing doesn't need to go back directly to explore the way, after all, there are still a lot of personnel in Beijing from Rising Sun Software and Le Yiyang, just find a few reliable people, at least they can help find an office, at least let Zhang Lexing's company have a temporary site after opening, the production staff have a place to start, and the equipment can also have a place to stack.

Dialing Wan Lin's phone (at this time, she had been transferred to the head of the Administration Department, and the original position was taken over by a returnee named Gong Dingyu), Zhang Lexing said: "Wan Lin, I will return to China after a while, you hurry up and help me find an office of at least 400 square meters first, the place should not be too remote, and it will be useful when I come back." There is also a community to find out if there are rental houses for sale, and if you want to come back more than 20 people, you have to have a place to live. ”

"Boss, don't worry, you promise to complete the task." Wan Linle's voice came from the phone, it seems that life has been good in the past few years.

With Wan Lin's guarantee, Zhang Lexing can rest assured that he can arrange his itinerary. This time, in addition to the eighteen people who went abroad for further study, there were three Americans who were very interested in China, one was Ken Silverman, who was engaged in 3D game engine research, the other was Mike Ronald, the planner of D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) role-playing games, and the other was John Silverard, a designer who liked to study simulation games. Fermax. In the past few years, they have often heard Zhang Lexing talk about China, those mysterious terracotta warriors, the magnificent Great Wall, the long history, the magnificent mountains and rivers, let them be fascinated for a long time, this time I heard that Zhang Lexing was going back, one by one couldn't help but want to follow. With such a good opportunity, Zhang Lexing will naturally not be polite, and in a flicker, the three Americans who are full of yearning for China have signed a "deed of sale", and then they will go to China with these developers who have come to study together.

Before Wan Lin found a suitable office and residence, the team would definitely not be able to dispatch, but in order to make the company's preparations smoother, Zhang Lexing selected the most stable Xiao Donghai (there is a more important reason that Xiao Donghai's family is in Beijing) to go to Beijing to meet Wan Lin first, and by the way, he also brought 10,000 US dollars as the company's preparatory expenses. Zhang Lexing, on the other hand, booked a plane ticket to Hong Kong, ready to find some shortcuts for his future game development company to open up the situation faster.

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