Although what Lu Yiming said was very rude, it was actually to the point and there was no falsehood. Jiang Rongfa wanted to refute, but he didn't know where to start and could only stare.

The so-called console games can be understood as stand-alone games.

Almost all console games in this era can be played casually on the computer without being connected to the Internet.

The way this kind of game makes money is by selling cards or discs. If users like your product, they will pay for it and then go home and use it.

Therefore, whether a console game is popular or not can be intuitively known by looking at the total number of copies sold.

For example, the Mario series, which dominated the entire gaming industry in the Famicom era, sold an astonishing 240 million copies. This number will probably never be surpassed by any latecomer.

But times have changed. The arrival of the Internet has announced that the industrial revolution of games is about to begin.

What's more, isn't it too long-lived to play console games in Xia, a place where piracy is rampant?

So Lu Yiming looked at Jiang Rongfa and teased him: "You claim to be an online game, but in the end you make money by selling CDs. This is not Internet at all."

Jiang Rongfa was a little impatient at the rebuke and asked, "What's wrong with me selling CDs? Isn't this how all my colleagues in the gaming industry make money now?"

"The problem is getting bigger."

Lu Yiming sighed silently in his heart. This is the so-called limitation of the times. Jiang Rongfa's thoughts are still in the past, but what Lu Yiming sees is the future.

"Let me ask you, are there more genuine or pirated CDs sold on the street? How much do you plan to sell a copy of your game? Can the price be lower than pirated CDs? Or do you have special anti-piracy skills?

?”

"Ah this..."

Jiang Rongfa was speechless.

There is no doubt that he has never thought about what Lu Yiming said.

He has always naively believed that as long as his game is made, players will flock to it due to its quality and playability, and then he will make a lot of money.

Seeing Jiang Rongfa being criticized to no avail, Ni Cong couldn't stand it anymore. After all, it was his cousin who was being criticized.

So I stood up and said a few words: "Lu Yiming, you may be right, but those investors may not pay attention to this, right?"

Lu Yiming chuckled softly, then turned to look at Ni Cong: "The angle of their attention must be much more sophisticated than mine. I didn't pay a penny, so I just talked about it. They really want to pay. You

What do you think they will think and say?”

Ni Cong hesitated to speak, and finally sighed helplessly, with a depressed expression: "That's right."

But they are cousins ​​after all. Ni Cong didn't want Jiang Rongfa to suddenly become a "millionaire", so he immediately asked: "Then when you talk so lively, doesn't it mean that my cousin's company is completely hopeless?"

Lu Yiming smiled and said: "That's not true. After all, the airs have been put up. If you find a knowledgeable person to help, you can still save it."

When he heard that there was still a chance to save his career, Jiang Rongfa's eyes suddenly lit up and he asked: "Help me, noble man? Who can save me?"

Lu Yiming pointed to himself: "Me."

"you?"

Jiang Rongfa thought Lu Yiming was talking about how he could convince investors to invest in the company, so he immediately said: "Even if you really have a good idea, if you can't convince investors, it's still useless. We only have a few dollars left in the company account now."

Well, water from afar cannot quench the thirst of the nearer."

"Money has never been an issue for me."

Facing everyone's surprised looks, Lu Yiming said this with a calm expression.

Then he said to Jiang Rongfa: "I can pay to acquire your company. Since you founded the company, I will leave you 5%. After that, you will make a game according to my requirements.

It ensures that the company can survive and earn well.”

Lu Yiming had never told his roommates that he was rich. Hearing his loud tone at this time, several of them were caught off guard.

Jiang Rongfa naturally thought that Lu Yiming was making fun of him, so he immediately said, "Okay, no problem, how much do you plan to pay?"

Lu Yiming thought about it silently in his mind, and finally gave Jiang Rongfa a valuation that he couldn't refuse: "The most valuable thing about your crappy company is a polished game production team, so get them back to me as soon as possible, and I'll give them to you

Giving you a valuation of five million, 95% of the shares would be 4.75 million. I believe no one can bid higher than me."

Jiang Rongfa, who had a smile on his face, was stunned after hearing this.

You know, when he first started his business, he only had 200,000 in cash, and he had to borrow money from relatives and friends to get the money.

Although the company is much larger now than when it first started, it is definitely not worth five million!

At this moment, in Jiang Rongfa's mind, Lu Yiming's image suddenly became taller.

He straightened his back, looked straight at Lu Yiming, and asked solemnly: "Are you serious? You're not kidding?"

Lu Yiming also said seriously: "Of course I am serious, as long as you nod, the money will be credited to your account immediately."

Jiang Rongfa hesitated for a moment, but finally had to bow to reality and ran to draft the contract without saying a word.

The ideal valuation of the investors he was looking for before was just over two million, but Lu Yiming more than doubled it. Only a fool would refuse!

Ni Cong was stunned for a while, and it took him a long time to come back to his senses: "Lu Yiming, are you sure you're not joking? Do you really want to buy my cousin's company?"

Lu Yiming's expression was relaxed, as if he just bought a piece of pancake fruit: "It doesn't cost much anyway, just buy it for fun. I just want to make a game, so I'm too lazy to start a company myself."

Wang Dazhuang was speechless after hearing this: "How much does it cost? That's five million, not five hundred yuan."

Ni Cong glanced at him sideways and said in a sour tone: "That's right, we big guys don't even have 500 yuan!"

Wang Dazhuang's face turned dark immediately.

His living expenses are paid by his parents on a monthly basis, which is only 300 or 500 yuan a month. He really doesn't have such a "huge sum" of money!

Then, he turned the conversation to Lu Yiming, with a particularly complicated mood: "You are so low-key, we were so stunned that we didn't realize that you are actually a rich second generation!"

Lu Yiming didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said: "I am not a rich second generation. I was forced to do this. If I don't work harder, I will become a negative second generation, a liability."

Before his rebirth, Dingyuan Mold Factory suffered heavy losses and continued struggles. Lu Yiming never enjoyed the life of a wealthy man for a few days. Instead, he spent most of his short life living in pain and despair.

"I believe you, you are such a bad old man."

After a while, Jiang Rongfa came back after drafting the contract.

"This is the contract. Take a look at it and sign it if there is nothing wrong with it."

Regarding the contract, Lu Yiming was very serious. He said: "I need to fax this contract to my lawyer for a look."

"Can."

Lu Yiming called Li Qiu and sent the contract to Li Qiu via fax machine. After Li Qiu confirmed that there was no problem, Lu Yiming decisively signed the contract, then called Li Yiwen and asked Li Yiwen to type.

money.

After Li Yiwen received the call from Lu Yiming, his mind was buzzing: "Five million? Buy a game company? Even if your money comes from strong winds, you can't make it like this."

The current game market in Xia Kingdom cannot be said to be a desert, but it can definitely be called a desert.

Among them, the most successful one is Xishanju, a gaming company under Kingsoft and Mr. Lei’s own son.

But even Xishanju basically depends on Mr. Lei from Jinshan to pay for its survival, and it is still far from making money.

This can be clearly seen from the game sales alone. With works such as "Zhongguancun Revelation", "Swordsman Love", "Decisive Battle of Korea" and other works, Xishanju has successfully become popular in the domestic game circle this year. By the time 2000

In 2000, with the sales of 200,000 units of "Swordsman Love II", it set a sales miracle for domestic games at that time.

And what about the island nation’s console game “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” from the same period?

1.45 million copies were sold in the island nation alone!

Overseas sales reached an astronomical figure of 6.2 million copies!

The sales volume of domestic games is not even a fraction of others.

This is the cruel reality. The water in the pond is too shallow to raise a real dragon.

Lu Yiming smiled and explained to his cousin: "Am I that stupid? I know better than you that making console games in China is a dead end, but making games is really profitable, so you have to plan ahead."

Li Yiwen frowned: "You said I was confused. You said that console games are not profitable, and you said that making games is very profitable. Are you going to be schizophrenic with me?"

In desperation, Lu Yiming had no choice but to further analyze the ecology of the game industry to Li Yiwen: "Domestic games are not easy to sell. The main problem is piracy. We can't change this environment, so it's better not to make stand-alone games."

Li Yiwen has never played games, so he has no idea what Lu Yiming said.

"What's the meaning?"

Having personally experienced an era when online games and mobile games were extremely popular in later generations, Lu Yiming is naturally very optimistic about the prospects of the game industry: "If we make Internet games, users will have to pay by time if they want to play our games.

We don’t sell the game itself, we sell the cards.”

Li Yiwen became even more confused after hearing this: "Selling card?"

The online game that truly launched the time-based charging model in China is "Stone Age", which is familiar to many players born in the 1980s.

In January 2001, Jingcheng Huayi acted as the agent for the island nation's online game "Stone Age" and adopted a brand-new game billing method, the WGS system, which is the so-called point charging system.

This system became the card-based charging model that many players later became familiar with.

Lu Yiming now plans to enable this system in advance on the game "Legend of Hot Blood".

The reason why console games are easy to be pirated is that the cost and technical content of making pirated copies are so low that they can be ignored. Just buy a genuine copy and copy it. Anyone who can copy and paste can do it.

But for online games, they can't copy them. Everything is stored in the game server. The user gets an installation file - which can be understood as a desktop shortcut to access the game server.

Selling pirated copies of this kind of game is equivalent to a source of water for the game company, helping the company promote the game.
To be continued...