Back To 1995

  Chapter 1152 Fat water does not flow to outsiders' fields

From last year to this year, the stock price of ICQ has skyrocketed all the way through Twitter, far ahead of Yahoo, Microsoft and other peers. Just after Christmas this year, when it was reported that ICQ’s game department, Sierra, will soon launch “Warcraft After the world", ICQ's stock price started to skyrocket again!

   Not only ICQ, but also a group of game concept stock companies, game development companies, retailers such as game stations, game disc printing manufacturers and other companies in the entire game industry chain, the stock prices have begun to soar.

After all, from the beginning of "Diablo" to StarCraft, Half-Life, Grand Theft Auto, etc., every game is released, and Xueleshan games can easily sell millions of game sales in the first week of sale. , raking in hundreds of millions of dollars, proved who is the one who can attract the most money in the American entertainment industry!

Before Song Yang repurchased ICQ, he sold a large number of industries under ICQ, such as Universal Pictures, Universal Music, Seagram Wine, and Time Warner Pictures, to Saipan Music Store, Western Pictures, and RICK at a low price. Groups, etc., although they were also criticized for playing too rough, but after Song Yang completed the merger of ICQ and Xueleshan Games, they immediately blocked everyone's mouths, because of the super gold-absorbing ability of Xueleshan Games, Can directly increase ICQ revenue!

   "The first multiplayer online role-playing game in history is coming soon!"

   "IGN editors exclusively interview Blizzard "World of Warcraft" development team!"

   "World of Warcraft, Blizzard's first online game based on the Warcraft series of games, can it continue the glory of the Warcraft trilogy?!"

"Whether the Internet era has come, Blizzard's parent company, many game companies and studios under it are all developing online games. Actoz, a stick game company located in Asia under Xueleshan, has developed "Legend of Blood" which is currently the most popular game in Asia. The highest number of online users broke 600,000, setting a Guinness World Record, and Yanjing Shanda Company, which represents Legendary Games, has also applied for NASDAQ listing!"

When Cameron entered the IGN forum, which is daily watered, he saw World of Warcraft posts swiping the screen as soon as he went online. Cameron is no stranger to this kind of scene. Every time Xueleshan releases a new game, which one does not kill the version The major game forums, especially the extremely popular games such as Diablo and Grand Theft Auto, can even cause the forum servers to directly shut down.

   Cameron is a veteran Sierra game fan. Starting from "Diablo", he has never missed a game as long as it is developed by the studio of Sierra Games.

Not only Cameron, but also the 23 million monthly active users on the entire IGN forum. Cameron still remembers that when Diablo was launched, IGN at that time was just a new game forum that had just launched. That's it, the entire forum is only tens of thousands of people. After the release of Diablo, IGN relied on rating the editorial team "Diablo" to catch the popularity of the Diablo game and circled a large number of users.

After so many years, the IGN forum, which was a small site back then, has now become one of the three largest game forums in the world. It claims to have over 23 million monthly active users. One of the top 100 most visited websites!

   Even, Cameron also heard the inside information from the old buddies on the forum that IGN is applying to be listed on Nasdaq and become a listed company!

As for whether it can be listed, it is still unknown, but even if it cannot be listed, the founder and management team of IGN will definitely make a lot of money. Become the bridgehead of News Corporation in the field of online game entertainment.

  IGN has not accepted News Corp.’s offer, and is obviously hesitating whether to sprint to NASDAQ or be acquired by News Corp. But as long as News Corp. continues to offer, IGN is expected to be unable to hold on.

   As for the game sentiments and game fairness tests that IGN has touted in the past, can it be compared with News Corporation's 650 million US dollar offer? !

Many senior users on the IGN forum, as well as **** fans who have followed IGN all the way, of course do not want the IGN forum to be acquired. Everyone knows that once this kind of forum that is biased towards third parties is acquired, the fairness will be compromised. It’s hard to guarantee it anymore. IGN’s authority will be greatly reduced in the future. After being acquired, it is estimated that some garbage games will inevitably be touted in the future.

Once it fails to go public, IGN will definitely be acquired, because after so many years of establishment, IGN has not been able to make a profit, and it lost tens of millions of dollars last year. Instead of looking for a big financial backer, relying on feelings, the staff of IGN gave to the forum hungry Maintain the website and pay the server fee based on feelings? !

Many elder brothers in the IGN game forum are clamoring that once the IGN forum is acquired, they will withdraw from the forum. Cameron doesn't know if he will leave at that time, but he is not the one who bought "Diablo" back then. "God" game CD, can play all day and night, and returned to the boy who poured water on the forum.

Although many conservative media in America criticize gamers like Cameron for being playful, depraved and ruined by games, but... those few years were also the happiest and least stressful few years for Cameron. Cameron doesn't know if he will miss those years, but he will definitely not regret it!

Now Cameron, who has graduated and worked, has also dated a girlfriend. He came to New York from Chicago. He does not need to repay his student loan. His parents have paid for his tuition, but if Cameron wants to live in New York with his girlfriend To establish a home, he needs to consider the mortgage in New York. His family is in a good position, but he can't spend millions of dollars in cash to buy New York real estate for him...

   Shaking his head, putting those distracting thoughts behind him, Cameron looked at the "World of Warcraft" posts that swiped the screen, and there were endless debates about this game on the IGN forum.

There is a post questioning that Xueleshan and Blizzard Studios are just frying cold rice and taking advantage of the popularity of the Warcraft trilogy, just to collect money and increase the performance of the parent company ICQ, because it is rumored that Xueleshan’s parent company ICQ wants to increase Revenue and profit, to increase the stock price.

But more posts are supporting Blizzard, thinking that Xueleshan and Blizzard will not bow down for petty profits. For so many years, Xueleshan President Ken Williams and his wife have never killed chickens and eggs for quick success. On the contrary, it is rumored that ICQ was the founder of People Bruno Song and Ken Williams gave enough support to Blizzard and other major game studios, never directly intervened in the development of these game studios, and gave them enough freedom, resources, and development funds for game development Otherwise, how could there be so many game studios and game masters wanting to take refuge in Xuele Mountain!

  In addition to these debates, there are many other posts that speculate on the gameplay of "World of Warcraft", how related it is to the Warcraft trilogy, and so on.

Looking at these posts, Cameron couldn't help but think back to the time when he first played "Diablo" and forgot to eat and sleep. Cameron couldn't help but smile. He doesn't know, after World of Warcraft is online, can the entire IGN forum still be there? Crazy about the scene, those players who were online PK with him, will they rush in to form a team or PK again.

And later, there were "well-informed" people who posted that Xueleshan will hold a global press conference for "World of Warcraft", following the follow-up Xueleshan Game Carnival, to create a carnival in the game industry, see the conference and the venue of the carnival , when it was held at the e-sports base of the TGA professional e-sports league, Cameron became a little moved. If it was held in another place, Cameron might not be able to go, but in New York, he still wants to go to the scene. trip.

The headquarters of the TGA professional e-sports league is located in Brooklyn, New York. New York is the place with the strongest spending power in America. There are many giant clubs in the sports industry such as basketball, rugby, ice hockey, and baseball. They are all located in New York, and the New York Knicks of the NBA. The record is so good, the tickets are still full, and the price is also the most expensive in all major stadiums in the NBA. The value of the NBA New York Knicks team is also the highest in the NBA. This is due to the geographical location.

  TGA puts the professional e-sports league here, which is also a new product of e-sports. Big cities such as New York and Los Angeles have the highest acceptance, and they are willing to spend money to watch the game live.

The area of ​​the TGA professional e-sports headquarters is not small. When the TGA e-sports headquarters settled here, although it was not desolate, it was by no means good. Now it has slowly begun to become a place in New York City. One of the new entertainment center areas, hotels, shopping malls, cinemas, restaurants, etc. have been built one after another. Most of these supporting facilities were invested and built by Western Film, RICK, Oswald Construction Company and other companies in the early stage. As for The land below belongs to the land that Song Yang has circled over the years, and the emphasis is on a field that does not flow to outsiders.

In the TGA professional e-sports headquarters, you can not only watch e-sports games, but also the largest game video game city in America, which is under renovation. You can experience the latest developed somatosensory games, etc. In addition, there is also a game retail flagship store officially opened by Xuele Mountain, where you can buy various game peripheral products.

Next to the TGA e-sports headquarters, there is also a Universal Studios park, which is also jointly invested and built by Universal Pictures and its parent company Western Films. It is currently the largest and most advanced park in America. The purpose is to benchmark against Disney. paradise.

In Universal Studios Park, in addition to various theme parks of Universal Studios and Time Warner Pictures, there is also a theme park of Xueleshan games, such as Diablo, Warcraft, Live CS, etc. It was placed in the Universal Studios Park, and it was announced that the total cost of the Universal Studios Park in New York exceeded 6 billion US dollars!

But in fact, the entire project is divided into three phases. First, complete the first phase to see how the effect is. If the effect is good, then continue to build. If the effect is not good...Let’s wait for more than ten years, but even the first phase of the project, the total investment is more than $2 billion!

  (end of this chapter)