The 208th song ended

Faced with Bai Guo's surprise, Wei Dongsheng smiled and said: "Are there any media people with a conscience in the world? Absolutely. Are there any media people who have risked their lives to ask for their lives? There must be, and there are quite a few. However, more media people are also people, people have to eat, and companies have to make money. The so-called two taels of poor bones, in front of money, in front of capital, and in front of power, has always been a joke. ”

Bai Guo was depressed: "They want to blackmail the Spring and Autumn Network? ”

Wei Dongsheng shook his head: "It's not about blackmail. ”

Wei Dongsheng added: "If you watch the video again, you will notice that the media only said that "World of Warcraft" was bad, but did not name Spring and Autumn Network, and public opinion condemnation generally pointed to all online game companies. If Spring and Autumn Network sues the program team, the program team will definitely defend that the intention of this report is aimed at the entire online game market and the current situation of the entire online game market, rather than deliberately attacking Spring and Autumn Network. ”

Bai Guo didn't understand: "World of Warcraft is operated by the Spring and Autumn Network?" ”

Wei Dongsheng: "Not everyone knows. Three years ago, I participated in Ma Yun's West Lake Sword Debate, and I recited the pot of "Legend" for Shanda. In fact, most of the groups who are extremely resistant to online games do not know anything about the operation of online games, and cannot distinguish the difference between studios and companies, and which games are operated by which company. Therefore, it is still effective for the other party to criticize without naming names, and perhaps many groups who are extremely resistant to online games will subconsciously blame "World of Warcraft" on Shanda. ”

Bai Guo became more and more puzzled: "Why did they do this? ”

Wei Dongsheng said with a smile: "Because the Spring and Autumn Network did not renew the "World of Warcraft". ”

Bai Guo: "Huh? ”

Wei Dongsheng explained: "Whether it is a big country or a small company, it needs to have a sound and perfect financial budget system. The Wenchuan earthquake is not a sudden accident in the plan, in order to ensure that the materials are delivered to the disaster area as quickly as possible, a total of about 2.34 billion donations all come from the temporary realization of stocks, the temporary misappropriation of other project funds, _2 before the collection of smart phones, Spring and Autumn, Zhiyu, Zhuwei and other enterprises have encountered a cash crunch crisis. As a result, several companies negotiated and postponed the transfer of advertising fees from July 2008 to June 2009 to the third or fourth quarter of this year. ”

"Zhiyu Sapientia_2 continued the glory of the Sapientia_3G, with 1.7 million units sold in the first week of the world, and received a working capital in time. The other party may be worried that we will cut advertising costs, or they may want to get the money in their pockets as soon as possible, so they threaten us with a small warning from the program "Who Turned a Genius into a Warcraft". ”

Bai Guo: "I still don't understand why the other party is aiming at "World of Warcraft", is it because "World of Warcraft" is not the work of Spring and Autumn Software? ”

Wei Dongsheng: "Spring and Autumn Network only signed a four-year contract for World of Warcraft, and it operated from March 21, 2005 to March 21, 2009. Spring and Autumn Network has previously negotiated with Vivendi, Activision Blizzard (Activision_Blizzard), Blizzard Entertainment and others on the issue of contract renewal for many rounds, but has never reached an opinion. As a result, after March 21, 2009, World of Warcraft will be operated by another company. Spring and Autumn Network was unwilling to pay for the products that were about to be sold, so it stopped the protection fee for World of Warcraft one after another. Spring and Autumn Network no longer renews "World of Warcraft", and Blizzard Entertainment and other online game operators are unwilling to fill the vacancy in advance, "World of Warcraft" has naturally become the target of the other party. ”

Bai Guo was surprised and asked: "World of Warcraft is very profitable, why don't you renew the contract?" ”

Wei Dongsheng explained the historical background in detail: "World of Warcraft is indeed very profitable. Taking the performance of the second quarter of this year as an example, among the four games operated by Spring and Autumn Network, "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms" ranked first, with a quarterly revenue of 1.6 billion yuan; "Road to Survival" ranked second with a quarterly revenue of 780 million yuan, "World of Warcraft" ranked third with a quarterly revenue of 660 million yuan, and "Lich Clash" ranked fourth with a quarterly revenue of 290 million yuan. In any case, "World of Warcraft" is also a masterpiece with an average monthly sales of more than 200 million, and even if Blizzard takes a large share of the sales, the profit is very considerable. ”

"If possible, Spring and Autumn Network will definitely want to renew the contract. However, the copyright is in the hands of Blizzard Entertainment, the initiative is in the hands of Blizzard Entertainment, and whether Spring and Autumn Network is willing or unwilling has nothing to do with the overall situation. ”

"The disagreement stems from the issue of profit distribution."

"Enterprises are all looking to maximize profits, and after the big sale of "World of Warcraft", Vivendi and Blizzard Entertainment wanted to get more revenue, and came to China to negotiate with Spring and Autumn Network one after another. In general, Blizzard wants to register a new company to operate World of Warcraft, on the condition that Blizzard Entertainment will be responsible for the game development costs and the Battle.net system, and Spring and Autumn Network will be responsible for the rest of the promotional expenses and server and other operating expenses, and the profits from World of Warcraft will be divided in half. ”

"The conditions are quite harsh. In particular, if the Spring and Autumn Network accepts the battle network system outside the existing independent system, it will be equivalent to giving up the only initiative. Although the conditions are harsh, the World of Warcraft project can continue to make money after all, and it is nothing more than a little less. ”

"How do you think that Spring and Autumn Network is preparing to sign a new contract with Wei Wandi and Blizzard Entertainment, and halfway through the killing, Electronic Arts (Electronic_Arts). Electronic Arts came up with an enticing partnership that promised to help Spring & Autumn build an international team to bring "Survival Path" and "Lich Clash" to the world market. Compared with Vivendi and Blizzard Entertainment, the cooperation plan of Electronic Arts is obviously more worth looking forward to. ”

"However, EA also has the black spots of EA. Electronic Arts acquires studios, often giving them greater interference, such as the Command & Conquer series; Electronic Arts' hostile takeover of Take_To at the beginning of the year attracted unanimous criticism; During the negotiations between Electronic Arts and Spring and Autumn Network, it also arrogantly and hostilely acquired Spring and Autumn Network. It wasn't until it was hit by the Rose Fund at the beginning of the year that Electronic Arts obediently gave up the hostile takeover and sat down to continue negotiations with Spring and Autumn Network. In general, Electronic Arts is not credible. ”

"From the beginning of 2007 to the present, Spring and Autumn Network has been hovering between Electronic Arts and Vivendi, hesitating about who to work with."

"But the world is worse than bad."

"At the end of 2007, Activision and Vivendi Games merged, now Activision Blizzard. Weiwandi, Activision Blizzard, and Blizzard Entertainment each have their own opinions and interests, like giants with three heads. In January 2008, NetEase established an affiliated company, NetEase; In April 2008, Blizzard injected money into NetEasy and started licensing negotiations for StarCraft 2 to put pressure on Spring and Autumn Network. ”

At the same time, perhaps fearful of the criticism of the hostile takeover Take_To, Electronic Arts management has recently expressed introspection and promised to adjust the acquisition and partnership strategy. Electronic Arts has significantly reduced its requirements and given more autonomy to the joint venture. Vivendi, Activision Blizzard, and Blizzard Entertainment each have their own interests, and the only consistent purpose is to share the profits of "World of Warcraft", and Spring and Autumn cannot establish a more long-term cooperative relationship with it, while EA is willing to exchange resources with Spring and Autumn Network, Spring and Autumn Network helps Electronic Arts' games enter the Chinese market, and Electronic Arts helps Spring and Autumn Network's games enter the world market. ”

"Compared with the two, Spring and Autumn Network definitely prefers the latter."

"The threat of Blizzard's investment network and the goodwill signal released by Electronic Arts became the last straw that broke the camel's back. Spring and Autumn Networks has agreed in principle to Electronic Arts to acquire a 20% stake in Spring Networks for $3.9 billion and jointly invest in the formation of a North American joint venture. Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts are a pair of old enemies, and Spring and Autumn Network and Electronic Arts will definitely offend Activision Blizzard, and it will be difficult to renew the contract with "World of Warcraft". ”

Bai Guo suddenly realized: "I see." ”

Staring at the 660 million yuan revenue of "World of Warcraft" in the second quarter of this year, thinking that it will no longer belong to the Spring and Autumn Network next year, Bai Guo couldn't help but sigh again: "It's a pity." ”

Wei Dongsheng smiled: "It's not a pity. World of Warcraft is a good game, but it doesn't fit the philosophy of Spring and Autumn. After all, Spring and Autumn is a search engine company, and I hope that the online games launched by Spring and Autumn Network will also be like "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms", "The Road to Survival" and "Clash of the Lichs". "World of Warcraft" is excellent for good, but it is like a duck egg in a pile of eggs, a little unsociable, a little nondescript. ”

When Wei Dongsheng said this, he sighed: "I signed a contract to act as an agent for World of Warcraft a few years ago, more to pave the way for Spring and Autumn Network to go public in the United States. In this respect, World of Warcraft has fulfilled its mission. The future of Spring and Autumn Network is artificial intelligence, which is increasingly out of harmony with World of Warcraft. The transfer of World of Warcraft to other online game operators is not the best outcome for each other. ”

Bai Guo does not reject online games, nor is she keen on online games, she supports "World of Warcraft" because "World of Warcraft" is operated by Spring and Autumn Network. confirmed that the Spring and Autumn Network was about to lose "World of Warcraft", Bai Guo immediately thought from the position of the Spring and Autumn Network: "Does the Spring and Autumn Network have any countermeasures?" ”

Wei Dongsheng: "Of course. Spring and Autumn Network learned that Blizzard was about to inject money into the network and speed up the progress to release "Lich Clash" in March, which is a statement. "Clash of the Lich" has a strong sales of 290 million yuan in March after its launch, almost half of the quarterly revenue of "World of Warcraft", and it can completely supplement the deficit of "World of Warcraft" in the future. Moreover, considering the uncertainty of "World of Warcraft", Spring and Autumn Software also established a role-playing game tentatively named "Xianxia World" in early 2007, hoping that it can fill the gap in the field of hourly payment. ”