Malchin, who remained where he was, was still a little embarrassed, and after Richard turned to leave, he showed a somewhat frustrated look.

After waiting for a while, I just made a face-to-face call, but the person slipped away with a "still phone call", and didn't seem to take him seriously.

Marchin nodded to Ye Shenxi stupidly and said hello, then made up his mind, turned his heart sideways, walked to the front desk and said to the secretary: "Cindy, you see, it's almost half an hour since the time I agreed with Richard, I have other arrangements later, can you inform Richard again, I'm really in a hurry?" ”

Even the secretary's name is known, it seems that this guy is really familiar with Richard, but it is limited, otherwise there is no need to wait in the front hall.

Ye Shenxi was not in a hurry to leave at this time, because he suddenly remembered a person, although there were many Poles named Marchin, there were few who did the game industry.

Miss Secretary said businessistly, "Mr. Marchin, Richard is on an important conference call right now, and our Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Moore, I can't interrupt him. ”

Malchin sighed, "Well, I can wait for a maximum of 15 minutes." ”

The secretary hesitated for a moment but stepped forward, lowered her voice and said, "From a personal point of view, I want to tell you that the call between Richard and Mr. Moore takes at least 30 minutes, and the longest can be up to two hours, which is a more important matter. ”

Malchin was stunned for a moment, but still said, "Okay, thank you, but I think I can wait another 15 minutes." Then he went back to the couch.

At this time, the oriental man just now had not left, he looked at himself quietly, and his expression that seemed to be smiling made Marchin's heart a little hairy.

"Hello? Have we met? ”

Ye Shenxi shook his head: "No, I'm from China and I'm a game producer, hello, my name is Ye Shenxi." ”

"My name is Malchin Evensky."

Sure enough, it was him.

And Malchin's first reaction was, a game company from China? Rich, huh......

Ye Shenxi continued: "I'm here today to talk to Mr. Richard about the licensing of our digital distribution platform games, as well as the global agency distribution of our games. “

"Wait a minute, you mean digital distribution platforms? Games? "It won't be movies or music or anything like that.

"Yes, the game."

“FG？ Fisoa Game？ "Malchin actually said the name directly, and there are some platforms now, but it may be that there are not many platforms that can be connected to EA headquarters now.

"Yes."

"Oh! Are you Pasca? ”

"You know me?" Ye Shenxi was a little surprised, he didn't have any popularity in Europe and the United States, he still wanted to introduce himself, and then describe to the other party that his company was rich and ambitious.

"I also have my own gaming platform, GOG, so I'm very focused on new digital distribution platforms, you know, like steem, and yes, I've also played your Survival, and I love it."

His sentence "you know" also winked at Ye Shenxi, which meant that everyone was imitating steem, the feeling of being on the same front......

"Thank you......" Ye Shenxi didn't know if he was simply complimenting or really playing, but he was quite surprised to be able to call the name of "Survival".

"I've really played, especially after the recent Innovation Works, there have been a lot of interesting mods, my favorite is the tower defense one, the player version has been updated very quickly, a lot of optimizations have been made, and it is getting better and better. I was thinking, if it weren't for the fact that we didn't bind the client, I would have wanted to make one myself. ”

It's not good to say it so blatantly......

The biggest feature of this brother's game is that it does not support the DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology that is widely used by other companies, and it is re-unified for Polish-style packaging, download and play, no GOG client, no need for networking, and you can change computer copies.

Well, they also like to give away extras after purchase, with the disc coming with a variety of goodies, wax-sealed parchment maps, Dungeons & Dragons rulebook translated into Polish, and a music CD. There's also a ton of free DLC, and even something that can be sold as a new game, or at least an expansion, is also available through DLC.

At this time, they were not so famous, and for the time being, they were not called Polish stupid donkeys.

"So you're here to talk to Richard about licensing the game? I know there aren't many games on FG right now, most of them are Chinese. "Malchin probably guessed Ye Shenxi's intention to come here.

"Do you want to sit down first?" Ye Shenxi pointed to the sofa.

In contrast, he was fully aware of the purpose of Marchin's appearance today.

The information of the two is completely unequal, okay.

"Ah, of course." Malchin nodded.

After the two sat down, Ye Shenxi diverted from the topic just now in a few words, and instead of dwelling too much on himself, he asked, "I see that you seem to be in some trouble now?" "Very straightforward.

Malchin was a little embarrassed, he was seen through at a glance, could it be that his anxiety was completely written on his face? The first time I met someone, I talked about my troubles just after chatting for two sentences, and I didn't have any friendship at all...... But it seems that this person's way of asking is not to see his own jokes, but to help him.

So he hesitated for a moment and asked Ye Shenxi: "Excuse me, do you have any money?" ”

……

……

After a short negotiation with EA, Ye Shenxi went to Santa Monica, west of Los Angeles, a coastal city on the Pacific coast, the next day. Crossing California Highway 1 and passing by San Simon, he also took the time to visit Hearst Fort to appreciate the splendor and spaciousness of California's wilderness period.

When I made a video call with Xia Qingyu in the middle, I also let her see the famous swimming pool of the castle, the poolside made of pure gold, the pure white marble sculpture, and the blue pool water.

Xia Qingyu sneered at it.

After all, Ye Shenxi didn't come for sightseeing, and soon, in Santa Monica, he went to Activision, the second largest game publisher in the United States.

Now called Activision Glass Slag, at the end of last year, Activision and Glass Slag merged into one to form this brand new company, and by August this year, the transaction had been completed with a total amount of $18.8 billion, and now Vivendi and Activision are the first and second largest shareholders of the new company, respectively.

However, Activision and glass slag are still operating independently, without interfering with each other, as can be seen from their company logos, the original logos of the two companies are stiff up and down, and there is no sense of design at all, at most a PS cutout.

Compared with Moon EA, the communication with Activision is much more pleasant.

The FG platform has successfully won the authorization of more than 30 games under Activision, launched on the platform, and will provide relevant support, and the sales income is still 30% of the herring network, which is acceptable to Activision like steem.

These include Activision's most famous "Call of the Year" series, "Quake", "Transformers" and other masterpieces, as well as the "Home" series that has been incorporated into Activision's long-established game Shangxue Le Mountain, and so on.

The quantity is not very large, as soon as it is a game that is a little old and of worrying quality, Ye Shenxi skipped it directly; There are also some games that don't have a PC version at all, such as Crash Bandicoot.

There are also some Activision that do not have global distribution rights themselves, and only in separate regions such as North America or Europe, such game herring platforms also need to lock up regions and restrict players' IPs to ensure the interests of publishers in various regions of a game.

In fact, whether it is the licensing fee or the matter of locking the area because of the issuance right, Ye Shenxi feels quite nonsense. It is also because the digital distribution of games is still being explored, and a set of corresponding industry standards has not yet been formed.

And ...... The current herring network and FG platform are not confident enough after all...... There are no reciprocal bargaining chips.

Otherwise the authorization fee? Take your things and sell them, our platform has such a large amount of traffic to help you promote, so many users and players, it's not bad if you don't ask for money.

And the lock zone? The lock area is also locked because the price is different in different regions, and the pricing is negotiated slowly, not because of the publisher. Physical distribution and digital distribution are two completely different roads, and the distinction between physical and digital versions in the distribution contract signed now is very vague.

In the office of Activision Operations Director Dawson Smith, Ye Shenxi's laptop finally had a chance to be opened.

He showed Smith and Donald, another Activision operations officer, the already highly finished Origin of Everything.

The first thing to usher in is the complaint about the name of the game.

"When I first heard the name I thought it was going to be a 3D simulation game, like Spore," Donald said. ”

Spore is one of EA's biggest games this year, winning numerous awards, and in the just-announced selection of the VGA2008 PC Game of the Year, which is known as the "Game Oscar" (how is it another Oscar, the previous Golden Feather Award was also called so), "Spore" unsurprisingly received a nomination for "Best PC Game".

Sales are also going all the way up, and it is obvious that it will become a new cash cow series for EA, from the release in September to now, sales have surpassed platinum in two months, reaching 1.4 million units.

Although it will be difficult to compete with games such as "Aftermath 3", "Grand Theft Auto 4", "Metal Gear Solid 4" and "Gears of War 2" for the best game of the year this year, the title of best PC game should be a sure thing in the eyes of many industry insiders. This is also a game that Ye Shenxi originally wanted to get a license from EA, but unfortunately......

"No, Mr. Donald, the origin of the name is not biological evolution, but the gameplay that players can achieve in most other games in this game." Ye Shenxi explained.

Smith looked at the block-made world and asked, "The vast majority?" “

"Yes, fighting games, simulation games, adventure games, and even real strategy games, it's okay."

"RTS is okay too?"

"Of course, with special mods, you can produce followers, and then let them automatically build buildings, make functional units, and complete different tasks. While it's impossible to compete with real RTS games in terms of gameplay and strategy, it's just a way for players to try it out, and no one really wants to use it for eSports. ”

Smith experienced it for a moment, and then understood what it would look like.

"Sounds interesting, but how do you do it? With so many ways to play, that's a lot of work, and with the current number of employees in your company, it should be a bit reluctant, right? Smith wondered.

"We didn't want to make these mods ourselves, Mr. Smith."

Smith and Donald were both staring at the computer screen, but at this time, they raised their heads and looked at Ye Shenxi, who was smiling, for some reason.

"These are the things that players will dig into on their own, and we ourselves are at most a leading role."

"But how can you be sure that players will do something like this? Mr. Ye, we know that you have been developing games for many years and are an experienced game designer, so you should know that player preferences and behaviors are the most difficult to predict, let alone control. Smith shook his head.

"I'm not 100 percent sure, Mr. Smith, but I'm willing to believe it. We built a framework for the players, left the tools to be inspired by them, and then guided them to create the most likely environment, which is all I could do for the FG platform itself. ”

Ye Shenxi said: "From the launch of the game "Survival" to the present, in the official innovation workshop of the FG platform, players have uploaded more than 70 mods with various functions, Mr. Smith, "Survival" has only been on the market for three months, and our innovation factory has only been born for only one month. These are all visible on the platform, and there are many scattered in major forums around the world, and we can't get accurate statistics that are not uploaded to our server, but they will not add up to less than two hundred. ”

Smith was silent for a moment, admitting, "The enthusiasm of the players was beyond our expectations. ”

Ye Shenxi said: "And the game "The Origin of Everything", it is more natural than "Survival", and even the game itself has a lot of content designed to facilitate players' secondary creation, and the number of its various mods, innovation, and complexity are not comparable to "Survival". ”

Donald thought of something: "Mr. Ye, but Survival is a PC exclusive, and Origin of Everything is a cross-platform game, what should players do if it's XBOX360 or PS3?" ”

"That's a very good question, Mr. Donald. Yes, this is also where we are going to talk to Soni and Giant Hard, the console platform is a lot of closed environment, and we hope that they will allow players to download the mod and install it through the home console section of our official website. Of course, mods that can be uploaded to the space by us will definitely pass our review. ”

"They don't necessarily agree." Smith Road.

"In that case, it would only be a lot less fun for players on the home console platform, but even without those mods, Origin of Everything itself is a game with enough replayability, especially in online mode, to keep players addicted for a long time." Ye Shenxi looked confident.

"Can I try it out?" Smith pointed to Ye Shenxi's computer.

"Of course." Ye Shenxi handed him the computer and mouse together.

Then Smith began to dig up the soil and cut down the trees, just like Xia Qingyu did when he first tried the game.

At first, this art style, under the optimization of the herring network, the native single-sided 32X32 material map will still have a mosaic feeling, although it is not so obvious, it still makes Smith a little unaccustomed.

At this time, the pixel art did not become popular, and only a few works were trying, and it became a trend further.

In the early years, the pixel screen of the eight-bit computer was due to the limitation of hardware functions, but with the continuous upgrading of hardware and the improvement of graphics rendering technology, more and more games 3D modeling became more and more refined, and there were more and more polygons; The textures are also getting more detailed and the resolution is getting higher. Today's manufacturers are pursuing the ultimate in realistic graphics, and invest a lot of energy and money in game graphics.

The best way to compliment a game is with the headline in the press: "This isn't CG, it's a game that's rendered instantly!" ”

The most typical is Crytek and their Cry Engine family of engines, Far Cry, which was released at the end of last year, shocked the world with its unparalleled graphics, becoming the benchmark for all games today, and probably for years to come.

And then every new 3A masterpiece will inevitably be compared with "Crysis".

Although the extremely high hardware configuration requirements have also made it a real "graphics crisis", leading countless flagship graphics cards to bend their waists, each new graphics card is launched, and the frame rate of running this game will be used as an important evaluation link, and the driving effect on graphics card hardware is far more thorough than the Korean media's own propaganda when "Eternal Tower" was launched.

But without a doubt, that's the best game graphics of this era.

Manufacturers are envious and jealous, and players are obsessed with it.

And now, the game in front of him is presented in front of Dawson Smith in such an art style, in a back-to-basics attitude.

The question he wanted to ask when he saw the screenshot of the game in the herring network email before, and now he finally threw it out: "Mr. Ye, we know that the blue fish network is a very successful company in China, and "Eternal War" is your most popular work, which also shows your research and development strength, even the 2D picture of "Survival" after that is very fine, but why would the new project choose such a kind now, it seems a little ...... Rough art style? ”

In Smith's opinion, this art style is a bit narrower for the player base, after all, most people are still looking for sophisticated 3D expression.

"Mr. Smith, you could call it a pixel style."

"The biggest effect of this art style is to tell the player that we don't win with graphics at all, we rely on gameplay." Ye Shenxi said indifferently.

"Huh?" Smith and Donald froze, then laughed in unison.

Then Smith clapped his hands and said, "This reason is indeed very convincing, really." ”