Jiang Xun got into Lu Zhengping's car.

He doesn't play much with cars, so he doesn't know much about this brand, and judging from the appearance alone, it shouldn't be a brand-name luxury car.

After getting in the car.

Neither of them said anything.

Acquaintances who haven't seen each other for a long time should have a lot to say they want to confide, but the two of them were silent for a while.

There is a photo on the center console of the sedan.

As if noticing Jiang Xun's gaze, Lu Zhengping rotated the car keys, ready to start the vehicle, and he introduced: "This is my wife, I met in my hometown, and then we got married." ”

"The little ones are cute." Jiang Xun praised.

This photo is a group photo of three people, and there is a petite and delicate girl in the center of the photo.

A trace of love flashed in Lu Zhengping's eyes, and he said: "This is my daughter, who is now five years old, and it is almost the day of kindergarten." ”

"It costs a lot of money to go to kindergarten here, right?" Jiang Xun thought about the price of goods in Shanghai, if you want to study in a better kindergarten, the price should be quite expensive.

"Well, though, why don't you spend money now?" Lu Zhengping said with a smile.

After the two men finished talking about the topic, they fell silent again.

Jiang Xun didn't take the initiative to ask, and Lu Zhengping didn't take the initiative to say.

Halfway through.

Lu Zhengping took the initiative to ask, "You are also twenty-six this year, right?" ”

"Hmm." Jiang Xun said.

"Twenty-six, you're not too young, haven't you talked about friends yet?" Lu Zhengping paused and said, "Is it hot?" I turned on the air conditioner in the car. ”

He turned on the cold air conditioner in the car.

Jiang Xun said: "The work is too unstable, I don't dare to talk about it, and I can't find the person I like." ”

If a company stays for two or three years, he is not satisfied with the resignation and resigns for the next one, and then resigns if he is not satisfied, and then changes to the next one, where does he dare to talk about friends?

"Be down-to-earth." Lu Zhengping's eyes dimmed, "We have all passed an age where we can work hard for our dreams, now try to accumulate as much wealth as possible, you are twenty-six, you should always think about the future, right?" ”

The topic suddenly became heavy.

Jiang Xun thought for a while, and he said, "I still want to give it a try." ”

"Don't pay for a dream you can't see with your future." Lu Zhengping said expressionlessly, his hands gripping the steering wheel harder than before, "Seven years ago, the studio was disbanded, I went back to my hometown and opened a company with others to make stand-alone games, at first I also planned to look for you, but you were only nineteen years old at the time, and I can't get your contact information for the time being, and you have to study..."

"So I gave up my plan to come to you, and our fledgling company... It took nearly a year to plan and produce a single-player detective game, and the sales were not good. Lu Zhengping said with emotion: "Because we spend all the money on making games, we have no money to promote, and then a platform finds us and is willing to help us promote, but if we want to take a certain share, the final sales, our company will lose about 1 million yuan." ”

"Is it 'Third-Rate Detective'? I've heard that the single-player game is still pretty good. Jiang Xun's eyes seemed to be lit up, "I bought the genuine version in China, I also bought the follow-up expansion pack, and I have a full set of DLC, which was a rare quality production in China at that time, but I didn't expect it to be not very profitable." ”

"Earn?" Lu Zhengping shook his head and said: "The stand-alone game has long been dead, and the "Third-Rate Detective" cracked resource version has come out and circulated on the network disk, and our follow-up profit margins will be even less." ”

"Later, we made the transition on the grounds that there were too many pirate players."

Lu Zhengping said seriously: "Thirty years ago, the predecessors who made stand-alone games used this reason, and twenty years ago, the successors used the reasons of their predecessors as an excuse for their own shoddy production and failure to succeed, and ten years ago, in order to make money, we still used this excuse to escape reality." ”

Thirty years ago, there were many pirated users, and there were various factors, such as lack of money to buy genuine copies, lack of channels to buy genuine copies, or lack of desire to spend money on genuine copies.

Twenty years ago, there were still many pirated users.

Even every year, a lot of pirated users are turning positive.

However, the problem of piracy has been accumulating in China for a long time, and it is not something that can be changed in a day or two.

It's just that now, the poor sales of stand-alone games have long been not a problem of more or fewer pirated users.

Jiang Xun understands the situation and knows the deeper situation, but he has always been reluctant to admit this reality and wants to blame the problem on 'piracy', because this is an excellent reason whenever and wherever it is.

But the real reason... Very simple... It's just that the cost of stand-alone games is high and the income is small, not only domestic studios don't want to make stand-alone games, but even foreign studios are actually slowly giving up stand-alone games.

The most simple and straightforward reason for the low income is the real 'culprit' that kills today's single-player games.

The technology of this era is constantly increasing!

As home consoles and computers become more and more capable of processing graphics, the cost of "making game content" will become higher and higher.

The current state of single-player gaming is... The cost of game development has multiplied several times, and then what? And then the price of the game itself is still at that level, hundreds of dollars, dozens of dollars, and the most helpless thing is... The number of home console players has not increased much, and it is constantly being carved up by other platforms, such as handheld platforms and mobile platforms.

In the past, it was probably pirated players who killed single-player games.

What kills single-player games now is the fact that the cost of development is not proportional to the benefits.

Dreams, it's like a bubble, it looks beautiful, and once it bursts, what is left is the real problem to think about.

""Third-rate Detective", we used the cost of three million, the buyout made more than two million, two million to remove the cost, and then remove other expenses, at that time I lost a lot, and I was also in debt, sometimes I eat one meal a day, eating a super large bucket of instant noodles, the amount is full and cheap, pick the weekend supermarket discount to buy, buy a box and discount." Lu Zhengping said with a smile: "After that failed venture, we found the limitations of stand-alone games and immediately chose to transform... We finally decided to make a browser game. ”

"Page tours?" Jiang Xun was stunned.

There is a chain of discrimination in any industry, even if it is a game.

Those who do stand-alone games look down on those who do multiplayer online games, those who do online games look down on those who do mobile games, those who do mobile games look down on those who do web games... But in general, the ones who make browser games are at the lowest end.

"The cost is low, the profit is large, it's just to let go of dignity and reserve." Lu Zhengping glanced at it and said, "You look down on me for doing page tours?" ”

Jiang Xun shook his head.

"Actually... At that time, when I transitioned to making page games, I was also very helpless, I didn't even dare to tell my friends, I ran to do page games, I was worried that I would be ridiculed, but... If dreams can't even fill your stomach, what dreams do you talk about? Lu Zhengping said: "With the mentality of wanting to make money, I made a lot of money by doing page games, at that time I raised about 100,000 yuan, and put it on the bed, counting one by one, not afraid of your jokes, at that time I counted the money and counted and cried." ”

"It's just that after three years, I have a conflict of ideas with the company, and now... I'm older, I have a wife and children, and I'm not interested in touching this kind of risk anymore. Shenda Group found me, the salary is not as high as before, but it is stable, I don't know if you are interested in coming to Shenda Group to do game planning? Lu Zhengping said with a long sigh of relief.

"I know you have the dream you've always held onto." Lu Zhengping added: "But, it's time to think about yourself, right?" ”

"I'll get back to you in a while." Jiang Xun didn't know what to say.

"Okay, add a friend, if you plan to come to Shenda Group, just tell me." Lu Zhengping said in a nonchalant tone: "You don't have to care about my face, if you don't want to come, you won't come, you can come if you want, what you have to consider now is not others, what you have to consider is yourself!" ”

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