Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 673: The Shame of the Domestic Game Industry: ‘Mission and Choice’

The next step would be to name the game after the theme was set.

Pei Qian did not consider it for too long.

“Mission and Choice”!

That was a reason for this specific name.

Pei Qian had been learning about games some time ago. He had also learned a lot about the past of the domestic game industry from He An and Qiu Hong.

In 1995, the U.S. Eastwood Company released a series of games called ‘Command and Conquer’. This was the best-selling real-time strategy game in history. It established a model of RTS games and pioneered the creation of the structure of ‘resource collection + production and construction + army combat’. It also defined the concept of ‘fog of war’.

In short, it was popular all over the world just like Starcraft and Fantasy Battle; they were all regarded as classics of RTS games.

In 1997, the local scene had a game called ‘Mission and Choice’.

When he first heard of this name, Pei Qian thought it was a parallel of ‘Freedom and Glory’. He had a good impression at first but found himself to be wrong in no time.

The game was parallel to ‘Blood Lion’.

As Qiu Hong once said, during this period, the domestic game industry was already in violent turmoil. Online games were rapidly emerging, piracy was gradually getting rampant, and domestic standalone games were forced to start a price war against piracy. It did not help no matter how much the price was reduced.

At this juncture, ‘Mission and Choice’ appeared.

The major game media began to publish colored advertisements for ‘Mission and Choice’ overwhelmingly. The cover was a Chinese soldier in a spacesuit. The background was a huge sandworm and a technologically-rich interstellar battleship. There are a few more below. The sentence contained inflammatory slogans.

“Your hometown, Blue Star, just suffered a devastating attack from the Zerg, and the interstellar fleet suffered heavy losses. The red sky was stained with blood, the flames tore the night, and the sky full of insects flooded the human fleet like a tide. I know your choice when faced with insects. It would be bleak, but we have no retreat.

“Destroy the swarm and save Blue Star with your comrades!”

“Millions of investment, dedicated production, grand screen, a domestic classic!”

“High-level avant-garde rock musicians produce music, a strong software creation group, and heavy artistic creativity. Everyone is looking forward to the ‘Mission and Choice’ debut!”

This publicity might look somewhat inexplicable now, but they were extremely exciting by then.

As a result, the enthusiasm of all standalone game players had been instigated. Players automatically ignored the ubiquitous copycat feeling in the game ‘Mission and Choice’ from the name to their publicity picture. They regarded it as a game that could surpass the masterpiece of Command and Conquer. They look forward to it being in the palace of RTS games forever.

However, the word ‘disappointment’ was inadequate to describe their feelings when they got the game.

Simple and crude graphics, program bugs everywhere, weird game mechanics...

In short, it was lousy as f*ck.

The players realized that this was just crazy!

The name was ‘Command and Conquer’, the background story was Starcraft, and a little fake patriotism was deliberately added in. It was huge deceit of the feelings of domestic players.

Many regarded the ‘Mission and Choice’ as the shame of domestically-produced games. It was the last straw that crushed the domestically-produced games. To this day, most players still only have two types of emotions when they hear the name ‘Mission and Choice’: mocking or angry.

Pei Qian had named his game ‘Ocean Stronghold’ to give it a good omen, but the people in this world did not understand it!

Only Pei Qian himself knew the butt of the joke; therefore, it did not trigger any resistance.

Similarly, people would have no idea if it was named the ‘Blood Lion’.

However, naming it ‘Mission and Choice’ would ignite the anger of all domestic players in an instant!

Therefore, Pei Qian decided immediately to name it that way!

Come, players, swallow me with your anger!

Of course, there would be some copyright issues, but it was okay since the company that made this game had been bankrupt for several years. The copyrights of ‘Mission and Choice’ should belong with the creditors, but no one would want this stuff that was losing money. They might even be able to come directly when they found ESRO official games platform.

The background of the story should be used since the name was used.

At the same time, Pei Qian thought of a few other ways to greatly increase the probability of failure to ensure that nothing would go wrong. He was preparing to explain to Hu Xianbin for a while.

Pei Qian called for a meeting in the conference room with Hu Xianbin, Huang Sibo, and Zhu Xiaoce after he considered everything.

As to why he called for Huang Sibo...

Of course, it was because of the CG. It had to be done by Fei Huang Workspace.

Pei Qian was afraid that it would not be completed within the settlement period if it was left to others. That would be troublesome.

...

Everyone came to the conference room in no time.

Hu Xianbin was very clear that Boss Pei should be developing the next game soon after the huge success of Struggle.

Hu Xianbin and Huang Sibo were a little puzzled after seeing each other in the conference room.

Why did Boss Pei get us to come together?

Were they going to make a game or movie?

Time was precious so Pei Qian went straight to the point to distribute the tasks.

“I will need the two of you to cooperate for the next game.

“The development cycle is set to be about nine months. We will spend 200 million yuan making a sci-fi RTS game and then spend another 300 million yuan for its CG. I’m giving this mission to both of your departments.”

The other three were stunned.

Spending 200 million yuan for the game and 300 million yuan for the CG?

The money for CG was even more than the money for the game?

Huang Sibo’s expression became excited instantly. “Boss Pei is determined to make a boutique RTS game at the same level of Starcraft 2? If you use 300 million yuan to burn through more than 10 minutes of CG for the game, it would definitely not lose to the giant foreign companies!”

Hu Xianbin was a little hesitant. “Burning 300 million yuan for CG, can we really recoup it?”

Huang Sibo smiled. “Why not? Starcraft 2’s development cost was not even 100 million US dollars. If you calculate the price of every game as 50 US dollars, you will be able to recoup it if you sold more than two million copies. 1.5 million copies were sold on the first day it hit the shelves. The entire life cycle sold four to five million copies easily. Wasn’t it very profitable?

“Our game would not even reach this number. We are investing 60 million US dollars; it will still be profitable even if we sell more than Starcraft 2.

“The game CG is the business card of the game. It would definitely be spread like crazy across the internet if it was done well. Moreover, it would be better to open up overseas markets. Investing 300 million yuan in game CG for the brand value, to expand overseas, and to establish the makings of a brand factory!”

Pei Qian fell silent.

There was still such a huge chance of making profits on theory?

It was really possible, thinking about it. Put the entire 300 million yuan to make 10 minutes of CG. How good would that be?

Any part of it could make it popular.

Teacher He felt that it could not make any profits because he did not understand just how good Pei Qian was.

Pei Qian knew that what Huang Sibo said was very possible to happen!

My good brother Huang Sibo...

Pei Qian coughed lightly. “Not 10 minutes, we’re going to make an hour long.”

The quality of this CG would definitely not be so high if he were to extend it to an hour and would not be too outstanding, right?

Moreover, everyone should watch until they feel irked with such a long plot and would just press ESC to skip it, right?

Huang Sibo was shocked; he hesitated for a short while before saying: “Boss Pei, we can’t do that!

“Quality is secondary when it comes to a half-hour CG, but there is no way to guarantee the development period can be within nine months.

“Our first choice is definitely to find a foreign company to do it, but that also means that we have to communicate across countries, languages, and time differences. It is okay for something around 10 minutes, but the cost of communication would be very unbearable for something about an hour long.

“If you are looking for domestic companies, then most of the reliable special effects teams are all in the movie sector. There are very few special effect companies that purely make game CGs, and their levels are not very promising.”

“Could real-time calculation in time count towards it?” Hu Xianbin asked after some thought.

Huang Sibo nodded. “Yes, but the effect would not be good and would not be able to spend so much money.”

The cinematic game of Struggle was equivalent to real-time calculation. It really did not cost 300 million yuan,

Huang Sibo continued. “If it had to be completed within the development period, then I feel... we can do it like a movie with real people.

“This way, we will not need to spend time on character movements, expressions, pores, hair, etc. Some props and scenery could also be shot in real life, which could save a lot of time and ensure quality and duration.

“The only problem is... it seemed like I have never heard of game companies doing this.”

Pei Qian fell silent.

He did not think so much but realized that there were really huge problems listening to Huang Sibo!

He had three choices now:

The first was like ‘Fantasy World’, burn money to make a very short CG, make all the characters’ movements, expressions, hairs, etc. highly realistic. However, the effect of it would definitely be very sensational. Starcraft 2 had proven there was room for profit.

Making this an extremely detailed long CG meant that the development period could not be guaranteed.

The second would be to make CG with real-time calculations in games, but that would not even cost 10 million yuan, let alone 300 million yuan.

There would be no difference between the first one if it was a mixture of real-time calculation and CG. It would still be a relatively safe approach.

The third was to use the method of filming so that there would be no need to do fine-tuning. Many special effects could be replaced with props and scenery so the development period could basically be guaranteed.

Pei Qian thought for a while. What should I do if I make a short CG and replicate the success of Starcraft 2? That was not without possibility.

Delayed settlement would be unacceptable if they were to take the risk to make a pure lengthy game CG.

Then, the third option—real shooting + movie CG—seemed to be a good way. Not only could it spend more money, but it could also guarantee the development period while lengthening the CG period.

Here’s the problem:

What if it became a blockbuster again if Fei Huang Workspace were to bring this movie to the cinema?

Wouldn’t Boss Pei have a heart attack if the game made a profit and the movie made another profit?

However, Pei Qian changed his mind since he had never heard of game companies doing it. It indicated that there must be big problems with this model.

Movies and game CGs were not the same things in essence after all.