Chapter 571: World of Warcraft

April 8, 2004 is a very important day, because there is a stunning piece about to be unveiled in front of the world.

Speaking of this amazing work, we have to mention one company.

He's Blizzard Entertainment.

Blizzard Entertainment is a world-renowned video game production and publishing company headquartered in Irvine, California. It is a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, but in fact, the two have not had a deep cooperation with each other.

Blizzard has released a number of classic franchises: Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, World of Warcraft (both Warcraft and StarCraft are major events in many well-known esports competitions), and they are highly regarded in the video game world.

On July 9, 2008, Activision Blizzard was officially merged into Vivendi, the holding company that includes the Blizzard Entertainment brand name. In July 2013, Activision Blizzard bought back a majority stake from its parent company, Vivendi, to become an independent company.

Of course, the above statement is the premise that Lin Nan did not come to this world again, since Lin Nan was reborn, the history of this company has been changed.

At the beginning of 2003, after Minghe and Lin Nan discussed, they spent three billion dollars to acquire this Blizzard Entertainment acquisition. If it's 2007, you don't have 10 billion dollars, you don't have to think about it, it's not possible at all.

During this period, there are too many stories about the acquisition of Blizzard Entertainment, and if it weren't for the differences between the two founders, Minghe would not have been able to take advantage of it.

As we all know, Blizzard has two characteristics:

The first point is that it is produced by Blizzard, which must be a high-quality product. At the same time, it is also accompanied by the spirit of "ten years of sharpening a sword". Some players jokingly called Blizzard "not open for three years, open for ten years".

The second point is the ticket jump, Blizzard's ticket jump has left players devastated, although when the game actually comes to us, we will feel that the long wait is worth it, but you still hope that our long-awaited update of the epic game can meet players sooner.

Blizzard's bounce began in 1996. By 2003, it had been seven or eight years, and this concept was deeply rooted in the hearts of consumers.

Product "bounce" is not a problem with engineering control, but to ensure product quality, for which there must be enough "pressure" ability.

Blizzard was able to do this, which Minghe and Lin Nan admired very much.

As we all know, the setback suffered by the earliest version of StarCraft in 1996 taught Blizzard a profound lesson. But Blizzard has since gone to the other extreme, where the release of almost every game has been delayed (commonly known as bounce tickets). Some players even wittily said, "What's the biggest lie in the gaming world?" Blizzard doesn't bounce tickets! ”

It is enough to prove that Blizzard's ticket skipping has almost become a law that cannot be changed, and the world would rather believe that there are ghosts in this world than that Blizzard does not skip tickets.

At the beginning, Lin Nan was also competing with Blizzard, and he had been expecting Blizzard not to skip tickets, but it didn't become a reality when he came back from the crossing. It's only now that I know what the reason for this is after the acquisition of Blizzard.

When talking to the founder of Blizzard, the mystery of Blizzard's ticket skipping was solved in Lin Nan's heart.

"A lot of my thoughts pop into the shower." One of the founders of the original Blizzard North (which has been merged into headquarters), David Brown. Breivik admits that these ideas have pushed back the game's release date again and again. "When I walk into the office and say, 'I have another great idea in the shower today,' everyone in the company sighs helplessly. They knew that meant another three months of delay for the project. ”

However, Davy. Breivik insists that a lot of the bounces are justified. He gave the example of Diablo and said that the game was forced to delay its release due to the need to add features to Battle.net. The final results are illustrated. Battle.net played a key role in the success of Diablo. So, he believes that the timeline for game development must be flexible and that you should always try new things. That's why Blizzard has been so successful. The game wants to engage the player. What to have?

Creativity, indispensable creativity, with creativity there is attraction.

If you know why the game in China has been stagnant, while the game in South Korea has been surging forward. You'll understand why all of Blizzard's employees support the bounce.

Another reason why Blizzard keeps skipping tickets is that the pre-release polishing phase of a game takes a lot of time. "This iterative polishing phase is what makes our games unique." Mike. Moorheim explains, "The last 10 percent of the polishing phase. It's actually the difference between a good game and a bad game. ”

No one will argue against Mike. The problem, according to Moulheim, is that the average game developer must comply with the investor's release date requirements. Once the development of the game is delayed, the investor will put pressure on him. But Blizzard has managed to resist this pressure from investors.

However, since the acquisition of Blizzard, Lin Nan and Minghe have not interfered in the development of Blizzard, but only interfered in the operation, as for the content of the game, they did not interfere at all, as for the time of release, it can be determined by the situation, but they must come up with something that can convince the board of directors.

If the ticket is bounced and there is no result, then I'm sorry, don't blame us for not saving face.

On this note, Blizzard's founder, Davy. Breivik agreed, he was not stubborn, he knew that such a situation was benevolent enough, and if he asked for anything more, he would not be right.

In other words, if you were to be yourself, no one would even be able to do well with Minghe and Lin Nan.

And the most so much that this David. Breivik was interested in Minghe and David. Breivik fights in the ring. Ming River with his products and David. Breivik is better than anyone else.

There is a sentence that says that one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers, and at the same time, there is also a lonely artistic conception of a master in it.

For Minghe's war book, the hardcore person who played the game, David. Breivik naturally won't accept it, and to show him that the river is also an extremely strong opponent, why do you say that, mainly because "Zhu Xian" is too advanced, at least now it seems that everything is so superb that it can be said to be perfect.

Lin Nan is quite happy about the battle between the two, there is pressure when there is competition, there is motivation when there is pressure, and there is motivation to progress.

As for the way of the game, it is to see who has more revenue within two years, whether the game is good or not, you don't count, the game critic is not real and reliable, and the boss is not good, who can?! Only the player is the most reliable person.

In a word, "the market is the best proof".

Everything speaks in the market, and the market will not cheat, because no matter how good you are, you can't control the entire market

In 2003, Blizzard released the world-famous Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne.

Originally, Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne was released simultaneously worldwide on July 1.

In August, the sales volume of "Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne" exceeded 1 million.

For the first time, Blizzard of Heroes has made "Heroes" play such an important role in a real-time strategy game, and it has also brought real-time strategy games into a new era. A masterpiece that has attracted a lot of attention before it was made, even after being popular for many years, there is no sign of decline, but it is becoming more and more vibrant as the version is updated. 3C, TD, Panda, Blizzard's ability to control the game has been fully reflected, giving players the greatest possibility to the greatest extent, and fully mobilizing players' initiative and creativity. Maybe it has become a kind of law, only Blizzard's games can only be called "complete" if they release expansions, Warcraft 2, StarCraft, Diablo 2, etc., and Warcraft 3 is no exception. The launch of the "Frozen Throne" version was basically a long-awaited release.

But because of Lin Nan's appearance, the game time was released ahead of schedule, mainly because of a concept that Lin Nan kicked out, heroism.

At the beginning, when Lin Nan first proposed this heroism, it was replaced by Blizzard's founder Dave. Breivik was shocked. (To be continued......)