Back To 1995

   Chapter 221 It's good to enjoy the shade under the big tree

   In almost a day, ICQ has made several moves in a row and acquired a number of game companies such as Snow Mountain, Blizzard, V Club, and R Star in one fell swoop, attracting the attention of the entire Internet and the game industry!

   The purpose of Song Yang and ICQ to enter the game industry is already obvious and has not been concealed in the slightest.

However, among them, Xue Leshan has game sales channels, and Blizzard has game development capabilities, so it's okay to say, but there are two game studios, V Club and R Star, one has just been established, and the other is not famous at all. ICQ bought these two. A game company, it really makes other people can't figure out what to do with buying these two.

Not to mention other peers, even V can't think of it. Just like when Blizzard sold his body to Snow Leshan, the two founders of V, Gabe Newell and Harrington, did not do much when facing the olive branch thrown by ICQ. Thinking about it, just switch to ICQ directly, everyone understands the reason why it is good to enjoy the shade under the big tree.

Rockstar is dumbfounded. Under BMG, there is no mental burden for BMG to sell Rockstar. After all, Rockstar has done nothing, and now someone wants to buy it. BMG doesn't have much. Think about it and sell it directly!

   Affected by ICQ's heavy investment in the game industry, the valuation of companies in the game industry has generally soared, especially for game makers such as Activision, EA, 2K, and Ubisoft.

   As for ICQ's entry into the game industry, the outside world has also talked a lot. The current game industry structure is basically in the post-game console era. With the popularity of computers, the peak of game consoles has quietly passed.

However, because of the performance of computers and the reasons of game developers, computer games are far inferior to consoles in terms of game experience and number of games. The current consoles are still at the end of the peak, and the game industry is at the top of the food chain. , or Nintendo, Sony, Sega, and the rest of the game makers, to put it bluntly, all work for these three companies!

   Now that Song Yang has suddenly attacked the game industry in a big way, people can't help but think about it, and even conspiracy theories have begun to appear. This is a harbinger of Song Yang's entry into game consoles.

But such outrageous rumors are still believed by some people. The rumors that have been passed down, such as the acquisition of Blizzard, R Star, etc., are to develop games for the upcoming game consoles, so as to avoid being choked by the three major game console giants. Snow Mountain is for game console sales channels and so on.

Anyway, listening to the rumors of conspiracy theories, it seems to make sense. Even Microsoft has begun to pay attention to this matter. Inside Microsoft, they have always hoped to become "hard", but the computer manufacturers industry, all Seeing Microsoft as a beast, and strictly guarding against Microsoft's entry into the computer manufacturing industry, Microsoft made a little move, and major computer manufacturers joined forces to sue Microsoft for monopoly, and threatened to refuse to install the Microsoft system!

Microsoft has not given up the idea of ​​entering the hardware industry. In the past few years, Microsoft has been in contact with Sony, Nintendo, and Sega. It wants to cooperate with these companies, but there is no bird of Microsoft. Microsoft thinks The desired "living room strategy" cannot be implemented at all.

   Now seeing Song Yang and ICQ show their strength there, Microsoft couldn't help but feel a little moved again.

At the Microsoft headquarters in Seattle, since this year, Bill Gates, who is in a good mood, watched ICQ, a subsidiary of his ally, showing off his strength in the game industry, and couldn't help but asked Ballmer who was beside him, "Our friend from Houston, is he? Don't you really want to enter the mainframe industry?"

Bill Gates is quite satisfied with Song Yang as an ally. When the IE browser was at its most critical, he sold the Hotmail mailbox to Microsoft, so that the IE browser could gain a firm foothold in the Internet industry. , and then tore Netscape by hand, helping Microsoft to let out a bad breath.

Although there are some small actions, such as importing users of Hotmail mailboxes into ICQ, on Hotmail mailboxes, the price of cabbage is advertised for ICQ, America Telecom, Double-click, etc., and Microsoft's wool, but in general, Microsoft feels Song Yang as an ally. is quite good.

Now Microsoft has completely reversed the decline in competition with Netscape. In overseas markets, the market share of Microsoft's IE browser has reached an astonishing 85% or more. All new computer users are basically using the IE browser that comes with the computer. device.

Bill Gates realized that bundling is really useful, how frustrated Netscape is, and how happy Bill Gates is here, especially two days ago, I heard that the arch-enemies Anderson and Jim Clark humbly approached Wall Street. Pleading for investors and wanting Wall Street to continue to support Netscape. The two people who have always been proud can do such a thing, which shows how far Netscape has come.

Ballmer glanced at Bill Gates, and he wanted to tell Bill Gates that Netscape has been driven crazy by Microsoft, and is suing Microsoft all over the world, but Netscape's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft really Accepted by the federal court, the judiciary, the trade commission and other departments, it is a big trouble for Microsoft.

But looking at Bill Gates who wanted to kill Netscape, Ballmer knew that it was useless to say these things, and could only say, "I don't know yet, that guy Bruno Song is not a person who plays cards according to common sense. !"

   "However, now is not the time for Microsoft to compete with Nintendo and Sony in the game console market. It is impossible before Netscape is solved!"

  Ballmer persuaded Bill Gates that even if Microsoft has deep pockets, it is impossible to fight in both the Internet and the game console industry at the same time.

  Bill Gates nodded regretfully. He also knew that the most important opponent now was Netscape. By killing Netscape, Microsoft would control the access to the Internet. The Internet is the most important one to Microsoft.

Shaking his head, Bill Gates said with unwillingness, "Keeping an eye on ICQ and the game console industry, the living room is something Microsoft must get. If Nintendo and their three game consoles are unwilling to cooperate with Microsoft, other PC manufacturers will not. If you are an OEM for Microsoft, then Microsoft will launch its own game console!"

Ballmer had no choice but to nod. Bill Gates is now at the peak of a man. Last year, although Microsoft bowed to Sun, AOL and other companies, it was to kill Netscape. Once Netscape was killed, then Bill Gates is about to take a backhand shot at SUN and other companies. Bill Gates and Microsoft, who are at their peak, are really unstoppable now, whether it is Netscape or Nintendo and other game console manufacturers!

  The three founders of Blizzard, Mike Morwaime, Alan Adhan, Frank Pierce, and some executives from Snow Mountain came to San Jose to meet their new owners.

Mike Moraimy and the others were apprehensive. They really felt like they were waiting for trial. ICQ suddenly acquired several game studios, which made the three of them feel a sense of crisis. I wonder if ICQ would be the same as those other big companies. Splitting up Blizzard, Valve, and R Star and then reorganizing them would be a disaster for Blizzard.

After arriving at the ICQ headquarters, Mike Moraimi and the others entered the office and saw several people sitting inside. One of them was a tall, thin man with glasses. When they saw the three of them, they immediately stood up. Come over, "Are you from Blizzard?"

   Hearing that Mike Moraimy, who was the founder of Blizzard, was not fat at all, but a little thin man, he immediately said enthusiastically, "I'm Gabe Newell!"

   "That's Harrington, my partner at Valve, and Warcraft is one of my favorite games!" Gabe Newell said as soon as he saw a few people from Blizzard.

Now Blizzard and Valve are naturally not competing. Valve is still just an unknown person. Gabe Newell even plays the game of Warcraft. Like countless game fans in America, Blizzard still has It's a bit sought after, but I don't know if Gabe Newell will move bricks in World of Warcraft...

Mike Moraimi and a few others were surprised when they heard that Gabe Newell was from Microsoft, or one of Microsoft's veterans, clerk No. 271. They didn't know how Gabe Newell left Microsoft. Build V.

   What made Mike Morhaime, who has never believed in evil, felt a little metaphysical that he and Gabe Newell, who were four years apart, had the same birthday!

The Blizzard trio met with the two founders of Valve for the first time, and they talked quite well. Blizzard is already well-known, and V has just entered the industry. Several people are now enthusiastic about games before entering this industry. Naturally There is something to talk about.

But the other two sitting in the conference room were a little bored. Sam Hauser and Dan Hauser were sitting in the conference room with a little confused in their eyes. To be honest, they were very concerned about coming here. I was also a little confused, it was quite abrupt, they were still in BMG, and they were suddenly sold to ICQ.

Sam Hauser has long hair, and at first glance he knows that he is a rock player, but Dan Hauser on the side is bald and doesn't look like a good person, but in fact Dan Hauser is a literary youth who likes to read When it comes to writing, the two brothers' styles are completely different.

   But looking at the conference room, discussing the game, the Blizzard trio, the golden partner of V agency, and the R star brothers, they were all a little bored, and they still didn't understand the current situation.

   In the office next to the ICQ conference room, Song Yang, Irene, Wesley and other executives also met with two other people from afar.

   "Ken Williams, Roberta, glad you could come!"

The two founders of Xue Leshan were invited over today, Ken Williams also looked at Song Yang in surprise, "To be honest, I can't believe that I was able to receive an invitation from ICQ! "

In the past, CUC International wanted to kick Xue Leshan and the two founders far away, but ICQ invited the two of them to come here, which is definitely beyond Ken Williams and Roberta. It is expected that the moment they received the invitation call from Irene, the two of them were a little suspicious for a while, whether they heard it wrong.

   (end of this chapter)