After reaching a cooperation intention with George Martin here, Qing Zhiyuan handed over the rest of the things to Iwata Satoshi to arrange, and then Qing Zhiyuan continued to go to Microsoft non-stop.

……

At the beginning of the Internet era, Microsoft was a hurdle that could not be bypassed.

Bill Gates, the current president of Microsoft, is sitting on assets of $90 billion, making him the richest man in the world.

Compared to Microsoft, whether it's Renten, or Pokeni, or even Sony, it's not enough to see.

When Qing Zhiyuan went to Microsoft, the most important task was to convince Bill Gates not to participate in the console war.

……

Before visiting Microsoft, Qingzhiyuan had already made an appointment.

After Microsoft's front desk made a report, the front desk lady first asked Qing Zhiyuan, Iwata Satoshi and Sega Mikoku President Peter Moore to wait in the reception room for a while, and after a while, she led Qing Zhiyuan and them to the elevator together.

I came to the conference room on the top floor, and there were already several people seated inside.

In addition to Bill Gates, the president of Microsoft, there is also Ed Fryce, the head of Microsoft's gaming division.

In the conference room, Bill Gates was wearing a white shirt, and when they saw Qing Zhiyuan and the others, they immediately stood up and shook hands happily with each other.

Although it was the first time he had met Bill Gates himself, Qing Zhiyuan seemed to be very familiar with this middle-aged man, and he had seen many photos and videos of him in his previous life.

Bill Gates wears a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, and it seems that Sven also reveals a hint of cunning, and in general, it can be described as unsightly.

If you don't know his true identity, you'll think that this guy should be teaching at a university or doing scientific research or something, and it's hard to associate him with a shrewd businessman.

What's more, he is still the richest man in the world.

Bill Gates personally likes to play games, and in the earliest days when there was no visual game interface, Bill Gates often played a naval battle game with his friends.

In the early days of computers, information and codes were read through punching machines, for example, on a perforated note, the perforated one represented 1, and the non-perforated one represented 0.

Naval Combat Punch type games have a table-shaped naval battle map with each other, and you can place your fleet in certain locations on this map.

For example, aircraft carriers occupy the largest number of slots, and at the same time the range of fire that can be covered by attacks is also the largest, and then cruisers, battleships, etc., have their own slots and fire ranges.

They attack each other's lattice to see if they can hit each other's deployed ships.

Then I made a strategy and put this punch form into the computer to read and verify, although the device looked quite old, but Bill Gates played this game with pleasure.

There is a strong game, and at the same time, it is also a huge test of wisdom and strategic deployment.

In addition to playing this kind of punching naval battle game, Bill Gates actually likes chess and card games.

But I don't know how big it is, Qing Zhiyuan.

……

Compared to Bill Gates, Ed Fryss has a more typical Western appearance, with curly blond hair, a high nose, and thin lips, which looks like a warrior in ancient Rome.

……

At today's meeting, it can be seen from the people on the scene that Bill Gates still attaches great importance to the game company Pokeni.

Today, Pokeni is not only the world's largest game developer, but also a strong competitor in the console market with the acquisition of Sega.

Microsoft played a very important role in the development of Sega DC, helping Sega develop and design the windows ce operating system.

So they are actually not strangers to each other, and there is even some close cooperation, which used to be led by President Hayao Nakayama, and now Seizhiyuan has inherited this.

Bill Gates is actually quite happy to see Sega DC achieve results, and Microsoft also has a lot of profits in it.

Age of Empires 2, a real-time strategy game published by Microsoft Game Studios, will be available on PC and Sega DC in the second half of this year.

It is precisely because of the good results achieved by Sega DC that Microsoft is still hesitant to develop its own new console.

At this time, there are actually disagreements within Microsoft about the future game strategy.

Bill Gates believes that the company now has abundant cash flow, and can probably spend more than $30 billion to carry out large-scale mergers and acquisitions, and directly occupy the market through purchases, such as directly buying Renten, or directly buying EA, and even he had the idea of buying pokeni directly.

It's just that I found a professional to evaluate it, after the completion of the acquisition of Sega, pokeni's current market value may have exceeded more than 60 billion US dollars, and P seems to have a net profit of less than Ren Tian every year, but it has a wide range of businesses, and it can basically be the top in the industry, and the market feedback is quite good, so the valuation of Pokeni by investment institutions is quite high.

Especially since it's still 1999, and it's the time when the Internet is hot.

A big Internet company like P Club wears an invisible halo on its head.

So although Bill Gates has this mind, it seems a little too reluctant to swallow Pokeni.

……

WHILE MICROSOFT'S PC GAME BUSINESS IS GROWING SMOOTHLY UNDER FREES' DIRECTION, IT IS NOWHERE NEAR THE SAME AS GIANTS LIKE SONY, POKENI, EA, AND NON-TENDON.

Before the advent of Sega DC, Microsoft's developers preferred PS,

Microsoft also considered joining the PS camp and expanding its gaming division to consoles, but gave up because the contract details were not negotiated.

At this time, Microsoft and Sony were not allies, but they were not rivals.

In fact, before Qing Zhiyuan's visit, Bill Gates had already asked Sony President Nobuyuki Idei several times.

Bill Gates wanted the PS2 to adopt Microsoft's game development tools, but Sony President Nobuyuki Idei rejected it, and this is not the first time Nobuyuki Idei has rejected Gates.

Then at this year's E3 electronics show, the PS2 was officially unveiled, and Sony talked about the PS2's non-game features at the press conference, and even said that the PS2 could replace the PC, which made Gates very annoyed.

Ed Frys, the head of Microsoft's gaming division, disagrees with Gates' idea of beating Sony through "money power", and he prefers to take the path of self-development, that is, to develop a more advanced game console to compete with Sony head-on.

Instead of joining the game market as a third party, it is better to be the first party directly.

And in addition to Ed Frys's consideration of the company's grand strategy, he actually has a little selfishness in it-

If Microsoft does succeed in acquiring a major game manufacturer, then his place will likely be replaced.

He himself is not a particularly famous game producer or the owner of a game company, but he has been with Microsoft for a long time, and he has a love for games, and he made games in college, so he was appointed as the head of the game department.

When Microsoft set up the game department, it didn't really care too much, and Frys's superiors felt that Microsoft's game department was a corner that had no future and no one cared about.

However, this is what Fryce likes, he can plan the future according to his own ideas without the dictates of his superiors.

The early members of Microsoft's gaming division had similar ideas, preferring to demote themselves in favor of lower-paying games in order to pursue a career in the gaming industry they loved.

Microsoft's gaming department started with just 20 people and was responsible for mini-games like Minesweeper and Solitaire, which are built into Windows.

It was only after the release of "Age of Empires" two years ago that Microsoft's game division made some improvements, and the global game market continued to expand, gradually becoming a star industry with broad prospects, which attracted Gates's attention.

is such a work experience, Frys's biggest advantage is actually that he is relatively old at Microsoft, and he is the first veteran to enter the game studio.

But compared to other major game manufacturers, Fleiss is really too inconspicuous.

If Microsoft does acquire big companies such as EA, then Frys's position as a director is likely to be taken away by EA executives.

Therefore, even from Frys's personal point of view, he also hopes to take the route of independent research and development, rather than the route of money ability.

……

So today's arrival of Qing Zhiyuan made Fryce and the others feel like they were facing a great enemy.

He himself didn't expect that the boss of Pokeni would visit in person, and he seemed to want to talk about something very important.

Obviously, Fryce didn't have much of a good impression of Qing Zhiyuan.

The most important thing is that Pokeni can become the world's largest game manufacturer, and the quality of the games it develops is really obvious to all, one milestone after another.

In contrast, Fryce is really inconspicuous, like the contrast between an ant and an elephant.

Qing Zhiyuan also sensed this.

In fact, one of his important historical missions this time is to convince Microsoft.

It's not that you have to stop the birth of Xbox, it's just that you want to use the power of Microsoft to seek your own development and take the road of win-win cooperation.

The current game console market itself is fierce enough, and if Microsoft wants to play it itself, the competition for game consoles in the future will become even more intense.

Therefore, at the meeting, Qingzhiyuan elaborated as much as possible about the future development of Sega DC and Microsoft, hoping that Microsoft will use Sega DC as an extension of their game field, rather than developing a new game console from scratch, which will become more fragmented at that time.

"We are using an operating system developed by Microsoft now, and we will continue to use it in the future, so that Microsoft's self-developed games can be seamlessly integrated, whether it is released on PC or Sega DC, in fact, it can play a good channel effect.

And the continuous expansion of Sega DC, which is equivalent to extending the windows platform, as long as Microsoft can make the PC and Sega DC series game consoles compatible with each other in the design of the operating system, then with the continuous expansion of the sales of game consoles, Microsoft is also equivalent to expanding its own territory.

It's a win-win process for all of us. ”

After Qing Zhiyuan finished speaking, Fleith and the others glanced at each other, and neither of them made a clear statement.

However, in Qing Zhiyuan's sight, Fryce was whispering to Bill Gates:

"But even if that's the case, we're just a third party, and how much benefit can we bring to Microsoft with a little royalty share plus our game sales?"

Fryce doesn't quite agree with Qing Zhiyuan's opinion, but in fact, the intention is very obvious, "Instead of being a third party, we should directly develop game consoles, and we can talk to pokeni about compatibility, so that our Microsoft game consoles are compatible with DC, which is equivalent to introducing DC games into the Microsoft market." ”

After all, the operating systems are all designed by Microsoft, and they can do it themselves if they are compatible, and they don't even need the participation of pokeni.

However, for the sake of cooperation agreements, it is still necessary to obtain the consent of Qingzhiyuan in advance.

……

The whole meeting lasted for an hour or two, and everyone at Microsoft whispered while listening to Qing Zhiyuan's explanation, and the whole meeting was dull and aggrieved.

Qing Zhiyuan seemed to have guessed something, so he asked to rest.

Looking at the time, it was indeed almost time for lunch.

Bill Gates agreed.

So Gates and the group went to the restaurant that had already been booked.

During the break, Qing Zhiyuan pulled Bill Gates aside alone.

"Mr. Gates, do you really agree with independent research and development of new game consoles?"

Bill Gates hesitated for a moment and laughed, although he didn't explicitly say that he would do it, but the expression on his face could actually show that he was skeptical.

"It costs a lot of money to develop a new console, and the later you enter, the more expensive it is, and we spent more than $500 million on the development of the Sega DC console alone.

If Microsoft does it itself, there should be more. ”

Qing Zhiyuan snapped his fingers to calculate the account for Gates, "And this is only the cost of research and development, the future promotion expenses, the amount of money to be used to enter the market is even larger, I estimate that it will have to be at least more than 2 billion US dollars to improve a little."

More importantly, Mr. Gates, console wars are never just about console performance, but about how many games are worth buying, especially exclusive games.

Cooperate with the third party of the game and propose concessions...... The time and money spent on this subsequent process is astronomical. ”

Listening to Qing Zhiyuan's statement, Bill Gates's brows slowly furrowed.

"However, there is a ready-made gaming platform right now, and that is Sega DC. It's also based on Microsoft's operating system, so why not follow that path and extend it outward? ”

"In the future, our consoles will be based on the Windows operating system, and the Sega DC can provide more non-gaming features.

For example, DC can surf the Internet, send emails, and make work reports, but the focus is on gameplay. ”

In a way, this is equivalent to computerizing a game console, so that not only can you play games through game consoles, but also use the Internet and various software through game consoles, and if you are equipped with an external keyboard, Sega DC2 will be a complete body.

Small box computers, but they are unified standards, and they are more focused on gaming performance and performance.

Bill Gates smiled bitterly and did not respond to Qing Zhiyuan immediately.

In fact, it's all a matter of earning more and earning less.

Now the profits that DC offers to Microsoft are not satisfying to them, and that's probably it.

That's why Microsoft Games wants to be the first party itself.

The idea is very good, but just like Qing Zhiyuan's analysis, in fact, everyone has no confidence in whether the new console can occupy the market, after all, these people have never made a game console before, and even if they make games, they are not particularly successful.

Qing Zhiyuan said that it seems interesting to use the DC game console and the subsequent series as an extension of Microsoft's platform.

At least Gates himself agrees with the strategic vision.

But how much does Microsoft benefit from this?

In fact, he doesn't know very well that Microsoft develops operating systems for game consoles, although it can enjoy a part of the share, but this also depends on the sales of game consoles, and Microsoft can't get a lot.

However, it seems that there will be a lot of investment in the early stage of developing the host, but the later return may be good.

"Mr. Qing, let me be honest with you," Bill Gates laughed, "I would rather buy a big game company directly, and our dream is to beat Sony in the game field."

If you say that you will sell Sega to me directly, or even sell Pokeni to us, then I will be very interested. ”

Ah......h

Qing Zhiyuan was stunned.

Good guy, it turns out that you have such a big appetite, and you want other people's bodies directly?

Between the lightning and flint, Qing Zhiyuan's brain was thinking rapidly.

After some calculations, after a short trade-off, Qing Zhiyuan made a bold decision:

"Why don't you do that, Mr. Gates," Ching said with a smile, "My proposal is to sell a portion of Sega's equity to Microsoft, which would be equivalent to Sega being half of Microsoft's gaming division."

We will cooperate more closely with Microsoft in the future.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel, which is equivalent to Pokeni and Microsoft doing a division of labor together, and the benefits will be maximized. ”

This is Qingzhiyuan's proposal.

It is equivalent to using Son's way to win over Microsoft to join the gang.

Bill Gates laughed all over.

Qing Zhiyuan, this young man, is really on the road.

"If that's the case, it's better to exchange equity." Bill Gates said with a smile, "Swap part of Pokeni's equity with Microsoft." ”

"Huh?" Qing Zhiyuan was suddenly stunned.

Equity swap is a very common means of corporate mergers and acquisitions, for example, in 2006, after Disney acquired Pixar, he directly gave 7.3% of Disney's shares to Steve Jobs, and he became Disney's largest individual shareholder.

The relationship was mutually beneficial, with Jobs helping to strengthen Disney's retail business, and Disney becoming the first company to sell its TV and movie assets on Apple's iTunes store.

Since Qingzhiyuan proposed to sell Sega's equity to Microsoft, Bill Gates simply proposed to pull Qingzhiyuan to join Microsoft and replace part of Microsoft's equity with Pokeni.

It is equivalent to Microsoft owning a part of Pokeni's equity, and Pokeni also owns a part of Microsoft's.

The plan that Bill Gates is talking about does not involve a change of controlling stake or board seats, which is pure bundling of interests.

The purpose of equity swap is usually to introduce strategic investors or partners to achieve cross-shareholding between the company's controlling shareholder and strategic partners to establish interest associations.

In a sense, Microsoft and Pokeni complement each other.

Microsoft has strong operating system design and R&D capabilities, while Pokeni has game console hardware and game R&D capabilities.

Qing Zhiyuan only thought for a moment and couldn't help laughing.

"If that's the case, I believe Pokeni and Microsoft can be the best strategic partners in the world."

The two men laughed meaningfully at each other and shook each other's hands, which was considered to be an agreement.

In this way, Gates can rest assured that he doesn't need to engage in the research and development of any new consoles, as long as he goes all out to promote the Sega DC and windows operating systems.

If the intention of cooperation is reached, the rest to talk about is actually very simple -

Replace how much with how much.

……

……

————————————————————————————

There is no update tonight

Thank you

See you tomorrow (end of chapter)