"It's not easy to publish such a game in China, right? Moreover, with such a large investment in stand-alone games, if it is not good, China will definitely lose money. ”

Zhou Shuo frowned, although he didn't know much about the game industry, he was still half a gamer, and he still knew what the domestic game market was like. In fact, there are a few good games in China after 2000, such as "The Three Kingdoms", "Sword Sealing Demon Record", "Qin Yan", of course, there is no need to mention the works of Xishanju, quality assurance.

As for "Bloody Battle on the Beach" and "Mine Warfare", everyone has their own opinions......

But there are so many high-quality products, but there are not many that actually make money, why? And not because of piracy. The game is good, but it's not as good as piracy. As a result, piracy not only did not prevent the invasion of foreign game culture, but instead completely stillborn domestic single-player games.

Having said so much, the conclusion is that Zhou Shuo is not optimistic about making stand-alone games in China. If you really want to do it, he thinks that at least you have to do it with the mentality of making online games. For example, the relationship between Warcraft and World of Warcraft, otherwise, if you simply do a stand-alone game, you will lose nine times out of ten!

For example, the team of "Sword and Demon Record" just doesn't believe in evil, and it doesn't sell well after developing the first generation, and I think it's because the quality of the game is not good. As a result, the second generation of iron was smashed, and it was even thought that it was a game comparable to Diablo abroad, but only tens of thousands of copies were bought in China - they finally realized that it was not that we couldn't do it, but that piracy was too good! At this point, I changed my career to online games, and finally survived.

Therefore, the Chinese single-player game industry is really not just about dreams and enthusiasm.

"Mr. Zhou, I've thought about it. We can make this game a battle online game! Zhang Yida agitated and said: "For online games like this kind of battle, we can set up maps through the Guò server. Users can only use a limited number of maps if they are single-player. online to play more maps and equipment......"

"Hey, that's the way to go!" Zhou Shuo looked at Zhang Yida in surprise. Nodding his head, he said, "That's a good idea." ”

What Zhang Yida said is a bit like Blizzard's strategy in StarCraft 2 and Big Pineapple 3 in the later generations. To put it bluntly, it is to play stand-alone online. However, there is still a bit of difficulty here, that is, the payment habits of Chinese people. Playing single machine online is after Chinese have formed the consumption habit of playing games. Prior to this, there were both pure online games to open up the market, and Taobao to cultivate people's habit of spending money online, which led to the success of this strategy.

And masturbation, masturbation, DNF. Even games like Kart Bubble Hall may offer a potential help to this model. In short, Blizzard's two games can be successful in China, and there are too many factors in this combination, which may not be effective now.

"It's still an ill-fashioned idea, though." Zhou Shuo didn't wait for Zhang Yida to show a smiling face, so he made up for him: "Have you forgotten the current Internet speed in China?" A battle map costs at least a dozen or dozens of megabytes, and if you really set up a server through guò network battles, how much bandwidth does it take to call this map? As for putting the map locally, it would be even more stupid, someone would definitely crack the Internet program, and the LAN would be full of plug-ins. Don't underestimate domestic technology. and the 'conscience' of domestic programmers. ”

"Ah, this ......"

Zhang Yida is out of words, yes, the so-called magic is one foot high and one foot high. Who can guarantee that content placed locally won't be cracked? After a few years or more than ten years, maybe the network speed will be faster to do this mode, but in the era of an average download speed of several K. It's just a dream.

"Although it can't be profitable for the time being, I think this project can still be done." Zhou Shuo patted Zhang Yida on the shoulder. smiled: "The game is a thing, we have a gap with foreign countries for the time being." But you can't just give up. Direct production of games is the next policy, but there is a business that can be worked on, and that is the game engine you said. ”

The so-called game engine is the absolute core content of the game. It controls the game's rendering, physics, collisions, scripting, artificial intelligence, networking, and more, and is the brain and heart of the game. In the process of game production, it is impossible to write a game engine from scratch for most games, but to buy a mature engine from a game engine developer.

Whether it's the Stone Age or CS, it's actually an engine developed by another company. If you write it all over again, you have to increase the cost of making it tenfold.

"To make an excellent game engine, Mr. Wang's money can be customized to a mod specifically for troop training. And this engine can also be used to make other games, both to domestic companies and to foreign game studios, in the future, when the network speed is fast, everyone will have a sense of payment, and then it's not too late to make the online battle game you said. ”

Zhang Yida thought about it, game companies and game engine companies are peers, but the content produced is completely different. Does this team in your hands have the ability to make a game engine?

Making a game engine is no easy task. For example, the world-renowned game engine company Yingpei Games is famous for its unique Unreal Engine. The company, which has only 140 employees, generates hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue by making "software that makes games". Just this team of 140 people is equivalent to Oracle's position in the entire PC software industry.

Is it that Yingpei Games doesn't want to expand its own team? I'm afraid not. But even with Ying Pei's strength, he can only make up a team of 140 people.

Of course, this Unreal Engine is on Xbox, and there is also the source engine of PC games, and there is EA's Frost Engine and IW's Infinity Engine behind......

These American game masterpieces are almost built on huge and wonderful engines.

But if it is replaced by China, how many such talents can be found?

"Mr. Zhou, this ......" Zhang Yida hesitated, he really didn't have the confidence to do this project. The game engine is different from the game engine, and the engine of the Legend of Sword and Fairy is definitely more complex than the engine of Lianliankan, which has nothing to do with the era, but is determined by the type of game.

If you make an engine comparable to the Delta Force - of course, there is no Delta Force game yet, but this does not prevent Zhang Yida from realizing the difficulties involved.

Just the thought of how difficult it was made him feel a little drumming in his heart. It's not that he's afraid of smashing his signboard, but he cares too much about this hard-won opportunity. Think about developing a game engine that would cost you $10 million, to say the least. If this investment fails, can China have another investor as big as Zhou Shuo?

Zhang Yida felt a lot of pressure on his shoulders, and he could hardly afford to fail.

"Okay, let's do our best!" Zhang Yida thought about it and thought about it, hesitated and hesitated, and finally gritted his teeth and nodded: "It's just that we need a talent in the operating system, who is an all-round talent in the field of software technology!" To be honest, the previous game works of Panhan Interactive Entertainment are actually average in terms of technical content. If you want to be a game engine, you can't just have game production talents, you need higher-level technical talents. ”

As soon as Zhang Yida said this, a name suddenly popped up in Zhou Shuo's mind - Chen Feizhou. Because he dug Qiu Jun and Lei Jun into the name of Fanhan Group early, the famous Kingsoft Software in the previous life has now disappeared. And the famous Xishanju in the famous Kingsoft Software has now become "Fanhan Interactive Entertainment".

So when Zhang Yida talked about talents, the former vice president of Jinshan and CTO of Xishanju naturally entered his sight. Not only is he a great gamer, but he's also a master of system architecture. He is not only responsible for Kingsoft's anti-virus engine, but also the designer of Kingsoft's anti-virus interface.

Do you still remember the little lion cub of Jinshan Poison Bully? It's from him. Every time he thought that someone in the future would specially extract this little lion and make it a desktop pet, but leave the Jinshan drug bully aside, Zhou Shuo couldn't help but laugh.

It's just that I don't know where this Chen Feizhou is now.

"Well, I'll give you a name. Huaqiao University, Chen Feizhou. ”

Zhou Shuo wrote the two names on a piece of paper and pushed them in front of Zhang Yida: "If you can find this person, you can see if he meets your requirements." ”

There are too many precedents to follow for the talents that can be noticed by Zhou Shuo, and Zhang Yida cherished this note and put it away.

Wang Erlei next to him glanced at it, and nodded equally cautiously: "I'm good at finding people, Mr. Zhou, rest assured, even if this kid is a wanted criminal, I will definitely find him!" ”

"Hehe, okay, that's it for today." Zhou Shuo waved his hand and stood up.

His main job today is to accompany his girlfriend to go shopping, and the game is the best with results, and it's not too big a thing if there is no result. It's only a matter of time before China's economy rises and prosper in a cultural industry like this -- if, well, no one is going to make all the game characters big.

When Zhou Shuo walked out of the server room, he suddenly heard a sound of footsteps. Wang Qinian, the security captain who was supposed to follow in the distance, was followed by Dongfang Ke who was hurrying over behind him at this time.

When Dongfang Ke saw Zhou Shuo, he first said hello, and then panted and handed him a piece of paper. Although it seemed that he should be tired, his eyes were bright, and he couldn't take care of his breath, and said excitedly: "Mr. Zhou, Telfort has started the bidding process!" (To be continued......)