On April 29, at the regular board meeting of the British Pearson Publishing Group at the end of the month, a middle-level manager in charge of the computer department reported that a small overseas studio under Pearson Computer Application Management Company SSI filed an application, and TSR, a company that SSI cooperated with, intends to jointly file a lawsuit with them to accuse China Longteng Entertainment Game Company of infringement.

Pearson is the largest publishing group in the world, with dozens of publishing and related subsidiaries, publications covering economics, finance, mathematics, physiology, biology, biochemistry, physics, astronomy, education, psychology, society, human justice, history, religion, philosophy, politics and other fields, the most well-known by Chinese is Longman Longman Publishing House, which popularizes pure English to all parts of the world, and is composed of the world's top printing companies and book distribution companies.

However, its computer application management company is a new company that has just been established for a few years, and its status in the group is not high, and SSI is a small game studio with total assets of less than 2 million US dollars.

After a brief discussion, Pearson's board of directors gave a final guidance order to abandon the lawsuit against Longteng Entertainment Games, and if TSR, which controls the orthodox DND rules, makes more excessive demands, Pearson would rather let SSI abandon cooperation with TSR, or even let Pearson Computer Application Management sell SSI Studios.

In 1996, the relationship between China and the UK was very special, and the Queen and the Prime Minister visited China. China also sent its deputy prime minister to visit the UK on May 10 this year. British Deputy Prime Minister Hesseltin will lead a delegation to visit China, and will discuss bilateral economic and trade relations. We will continue to maintain in-depth contacts in science, technology, culture, education, and military exchanges, and will continue to maintain in-depth contacts on the issue of Hong Kong's return to the motherland.

Pearson is also a member of this delegation, and its board of directors attaches more importance to scientific and cultural cooperation with Chinese mainland, so it is very unwise to offend the leader of China's game and animation industry for the sake of a mere game, and to go to court against the leading entertainment game company in China's IT industry.

SSI's request to file a lawsuit against the group's head office was returned, and the news disappointed many people.

At SSI's headquarters in Australia, Chuck Hawkins put down the phone. Walking out of his office, he came to the small meeting room next door, shrugged his shoulders to the two people sitting inside waiting for news, and said regretfully: "I'm sorry gentlemen, the group rejected this proposal, I think, SSI may not be able to make any statement, TSR can only fight alone." ”

These two people are none other than Davy, the marketing manager of TSR (Tactical-Studies-Rule) paper game design company. The other is Robert, the president of EA, and the two of them flew in from the United States together, intending to personally persuade SSI to join the team of the crusade against Dragon Games.

"No, Chuck! The Chinese have already copied our DND rules many times. Many of their arcade games were on sale, but they didn't give us a penny of royalties, and we couldn't easily let go of Longteng! Now they're about to launch Diablo. This is a game that has not been licensed by our company and is caught by us in the current situation. This is the best chance to turn the tables! David was agitated and grabbed Chuck's arm and shook it.

Robert also lobbied on the sidelines: "Chuck. Apply to your supervisor one more time, tell him what's at stake, and we'll win this time from the legal high ground! With the financial support of our EA, coupled with the copyright owner TSR, and your direct victim SSI, our joint lawyer team can definitely make Longteng pay a tenfold and hundredfold tragic price! ”

Are you guys fools when SSI? Chuck sneered, and the head of the Pearson Group conveyed the opinion of the headquarters on the phone, and informed Chuck of some of the information they had gathered, and finally concluded that it was not wise to confront Chinese companies, and Pearson could not be used as a gunman.

Chuck was a little impatient: "David, we are also old friends who have worked together for several years, can you tell me the real situation clearly?" Are we at SSI participating in the lawsuit just to get a pitiful amount of tort damages? ”

David was stunned: "Isn't that so?" He infringed our game and the rules, and of course we have to sue to get the compensation we deserve......"

Chuck sneered, "Could it be that you TSR only see the money?" To put it mildly, although your TSR company's products cover games, cards, novels, and peripheral dolls, how big is it? Have a market capitalization of more than $1 billion? I don't think so, don't you know what the market value of the dragon entertainment game company is? $50 to $10 billion! David, you're definitely not saying this to your friends! ”

Squinting at the two of them, Chuck showed a strange expression: "David, maybe there is something that you are hiding from me?" SSI doesn't have autonomy, but I'm still in charge, and I want to know what you really think! ”

Davy looked shocked and was silent for a long time, he had nothing to say.

Robert was no longer noisy, his face was a little embarrassed, and the scene suddenly fell silent.

Chuck took two steps back, pulled over a swivel chair, leaned back at the conference table and sat down, smiling, "David, Robert, if it's as sure as you say, the TSR family will be enough." EA has nothing to do with this matter, so why should I intervene? Is there anything that we SSI don't care about, why do you want to pull us into Pearson? It's true that SSI is a licensee of DND rules, but when faced with a competitor like Longteng, I would rather give up this exclusive licensing contract! ”

"What!"

David couldn't believe his ears, if he was going to go tough against the dragons, SSI would rather give up the exclusive licensing contract?

The deepest part of his heart was touched, and his mind was spinning rapidly.

TSR signed a 3-year DND rule PC game adaptation rights with SSI, which is an exclusive license, and half of the revenue from any DND game by SSI will belong to TSR, and the price paid is not small, of course, an exclusive is worth so much money.

In the past few years, TSR companies are declining, their business is shrinking, losing a lot of market, and under the attack of Dragon Table Games, more and more people like the Three Kingdoms, Magic, Pokemon card collection and battles, and their market share of table games has dropped dramatically.

DND rules are the core content of their TSR, which has registered patents, even some monster images have been registered, and they have a large number of die-hard players in European and American countries, which is also one of the few main businesses they are struggling to support that is still profitable.

This year, TSR has reached a critical moment of life and death, and their new president proposed to restructure the business, and in the case of the shrinking board game market, he intends to enter the collectible card game market, that is, the CCG game market, which is a new game market that has just opened up, and the only truly well-known games are Magic and Pokemon of Dragon Corporation, and TSR wants to take the opportunity to change.

Looking at the dilemma faced by the former high-ranking TSR company, the other game predators who are staring at them in the world are eyeing and salivating.

The strongest person is, of course, EA company, they are a pure European and American game production company, very interested in Western magic, Dungeons & Dragons and other content, their West Wood company has developed a DND game like "Demon Eye Killing", with rich design experience, to say that EA wants to acquire TSR, this will not feel abrupt.

Robert invited David to Australia at his own expense, instead of going to the TSR branch in the UK to find the head of the Pearson Group directly, and he also had his own secret secrets.

Robert knows very well that any company that intends to fight with Longteng must first weigh whether it has the strength, TSR and SSI jointly sue Longteng, of course, the winning side is small and small, Robert is actually not optimistic about this lawsuit in his heart, because he believes that with Yang Yun's shrewdness, there will definitely be no such a big flaw, and Yang Yun cannot let other companies easily bring down Longteng!

EA digs a hole for TSR and SSI for the sole purpose of acquiring the bankrupt TSR.

If TSR fails, they will be retaliated by the dragon storm, directly accelerating death, just in time to be bought by EA DND rules and handed over to Ximu Studio for development.

If TSR wins, EA will only pay a small amount of money, and EA will be very happy to watch the enemy they hate to the bone with a large sum of money.

David's mind is the same, they lose, they won't get worse, but if they win, they can use this hype to come back to life, not only to get a large amount of compensation, but also to suppress the dragon board game and card market, so that TSR can be reborn.

This is the real reason why David and Robert came together, and this is also a secret that the two of them can't tell, and it's not a secret, Chuck has already guessed seven or eight points, but he didn't expose it to his face.

David sighed, there were some things that he couldn't hide, he had to say, "Okay Chuck, since you've said all these things, then I'm not going around the bush anymore." If SSI doesn't dare to deal with Longteng and is willing to settle the DND rules exclusive licensing contract peacefully, I am willing to go to court alone with Longteng! ”

Chuck sneered, "Peacefully terminate the contract with us, and then grant the DND game adaptation rights to EA?" David, maybe after I tell you two other things, you'll definitely dispel this stupid idea! (To be continued......)