In Li Mu's eyes, Old Xu was one of the very few people in Hua Xia who truly understood games.
The leaders of the gaming industry in the world were America and Japan. Although Korea was much weaker than these two countries, the quality of its employees wasn't low. There were often small Korean gaming companies with no more than twenty or thirty employees that could develop some extremely popular games. Compared to these three countries, although Hua Xia's gaming industry was much larger, its overall quality was so low that it often left people speechless.
Hua Xia's domestic gaming industry was very similar to domestic animation. It had a huge amount of production, but very few quality products, and the number of truly amazing employees could be counted on one hand.
If Li Mu had to pick out three truly amazing people in Hua Xia's gaming industry, Old Xu would definitely be one of them.
This was also why Li Mu was able to poach Old Xu to Makino Technology, and let him lead the development of Journey to the West type of MMORPG.
Old Xu's suggestion for Plants vs Zombies Online made Li Mu's eyes light up, as if he had opened up a whole new world.
In his previous life, the popularity of Plants vs Zombies was phenomenal, but it didn't last too long. Although the game itself was fun, it wasn't deep enough, which caused the users to easily get tired of the game and lose interest. The game was updated a few times, but it didn't give the users a sense of wonder, so it slowly died down.
Similar to Plants vs Zombies, Angry Birds had the same fate. This game was popular on the smartphone platform, garnering at least a few hundred million players around the world. It was also very successful, and even the movie of the same name earned three hundred million US dollars at the box office. However, the game didn't stay popular for too long, as the gameplay was too simple, causing the game to disappear in a very short amount of time.
Because of this, Li Mu agreed with Old Xu's point of view. If Plants vs Zombies Online wanted to have a longer lifespan and influence, it had to improve its gameplay.
Old Xu's suggestion had touched on the pulse of turret defense games. There were two key points to this type of game. One was the 'turret', and the other was the 'map'. The plants in Plants vs Zombies were all 'turrets'. There were many types, many functions, and there was a lot of room for combinations. However, the 'map' was too simple. If they could develop new maps, it would greatly increase the fun for the players.
When Li Mu played Red Alert, his biggest dissatisfaction had to do with the maps. First of all, the officials rarely added new maps, and the quality of the maps made by the players was pretty low. Once the normal players were familiar with the maps, they would naturally lose interest in the game. In the near future, the players of Plants vs Zombies Online would also get bored of the single map in the game.
Therefore, Li Mu made the decision on the spot, "Immediately start working on Plants vs Zombies 2.0. Old Xu will be the chief architect, and all updates must be approved by Old Xu."
After saying that, Li Mu told Old Xu, "Old Xu, Plants vs Zombies Online is very important to the company. You are an expert in the game, so in the next iteration, you will have to take on a bigger responsibility."
Old Xu immediately nodded, "Don't worry Li Zong, I'll do my best."
Li Mu smiled, "That's enough."
After confirming the matter of upgrading the game, Business Director Ding Jian said, "Li Zong, let me talk about our partnership. We've already talked to KFC, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi about the overall model of our partnership. All four companies are very interested, so I'll go over the details of the partnership.
"KFC's reply to us is that they're very interested, and are looking forward to working with us. They hope that we can give them a clear copyright fee, and that they'll discuss it after receiving the price, then contact us for a negotiation.
"Compared to KFC, McDonald's is a bit more thoughtful. After learning of our intention to work together, they contacted us via email, and gave us a proposal that they're looking forward to. The specific proposal is: they hope that we can use all of our in-game images to work with them, and they'll appoint manufacturers to produce products based on our in-game images. Then, they'll release Plants vs Zombies themed meals in McDonald's stores around the world. The packaging, advertising, and related materials of the themed meals will use our brand image, and they'll also give us products based on our brand image. Apart from that, they'll also allow the purchase of products in their stores, which means that any meal and a certain amount of cash can be exchanged for the products. For this, they're willing to pay us a copyright fee for our brand image, as well as a thirty percent share of the sales."
Hearing this, Li Mu smiled, "Looks like McDonald's is a bit more thoughtful than KFC."
"That's right." Ding Jian nodded, "McDonald's has a lot of experience working with famous cartoon characters, so it's a piece of cake for them. Compared to them, KFC's experience in this area is a bit weaker, and the depth of their thinking is also a bit weaker."
Li Mu nodded, "How about this, we'll work together with McDonald's. I can lower the copyright fee to a symbolic one USD, but McDonald's has to agree to one of our conditions."
Ding Jian quickly said, "Please tell me, I'll write it down and contact McDonald's later."
Li Mu said, "First of all, McDonald's restaurants around the world must, within a month of signing the contract, change the advertising posters inside and outside of their restaurants to advertising materials that contain elements of Plants vs Zombies Online. Each restaurant must have at least three posters, and each poster must be no smaller than 0.4 square meters, and they must be up for a year."
"Second, within a month of signing the contract, McDonald's restaurants around the world must change their paper plates, hamburger boxes, fries packaging, and paper and plastic packaging with elements of Plants vs Zombies Online printed on them, and they must also be used for a year. If McDonald's can agree to these two conditions, the copyright fee for Plants vs Zombies Online will only be one USD per year. At the same time, we're willing to give up on all the profits from derivatives."
Ding Jian said in shock, "Li Zong, the profits from derivatives are quite big. If we give up on this, then the copyright fee for the entire game will only be this one USD …"
"Don't worry about it." Li Mu smiled faintly, "We need to know where we stand. Some things are done to make money, while others are done for other reasons. Using the copyright for Plants vs Zombies Online to work with offline companies isn't to make money, but to increase our offline exposure and influence. Even if we have to spend money, we still have to spend it. For now, we're giving up on this profit in exchange for McDonald's to give us more exposure, which is worth it for us."
Ding Jian nodded, "I understand, Li Zong. I'll pass on your conditions to them after the meeting."
"Ok," Li Mu said, "Let's continue talking about Pepsi and Coca-Cola."
"Alright, Li Zong," Ding Jian quickly said. "Pepsi is quite interested in working with us, but they rejected your 'guaranteed exposure' model. They want to have the initiative in their own hands, so their idea is that we'll be the one to quote the price, and everyone will discuss the price. After reaching an agreement, Pepsi will pay us the copyright fee, and we have no right to interfere with Pepsi's future plans and plans."
Li Mu furrowed his eyebrows, then laughed, "No wonder they're allied with KFC. They really do live up to the saying, 'if you're not from the same family, you don't go through the same door.'"
After saying that, Li Mu asked, "What about Coca-Cola?"
Ding Jian said, "Coca-Cola has worked closely with us in the past, and the results of our collaboration have been very good. They've tasted the sweetness of an offline company working with an online company, so they're very interested in this collaboration with Plants vs Zombies Online. They're also very interested in the 'guaranteed exposure' model that you suggested. Their current feedback to us is that if both parties come to an agreement, they promise to put the image of Plants vs Zombies Online on sixty percent of their packaging within a year. That is to say, with Coca-Cola's annual sales of tens of billions of bottles, once they come to an agreement with us, they'll put the cartoon image of Plants vs Zombies Online on the packaging of tens of billions of bottles of Coca-Cola, as well as other beverages under their brand."
When Li Mu heard this, he slapped the table without hesitation, saying, "That's settled, we'll work with Coca-Cola. As long as they promise to put our cartoon image on 60% of their product packaging, we'll also only charge one US dollar a year for the copyright fee!"
In this day and age, Coca-Cola's popularity was much higher than the internet. At least half of the world's population knew of Coca-Cola and had consumed Coca-Cola, but the number of internet users was less than ten percent of the world's population.
Coca-Cola placed a lot of emphasis on brand marketing, so they spent a lot of money on marketing throughout the world every year. Because of this, they needed to work with strong non-competitive brands to exchange resources and make up for each other's strengths.
For a consumer goods company like Coca-Cola, the competition in real life was very cruel. Pepsi invested a lot of money into marketing every year, hiring a bunch of famous celebrities and soccer stars to build up their brand image. Everyone's competition in terms of brand promotion, packaging design, offline distribution, container display, etc., had already reached a climax.
Under these circumstances, Coca-Cola had long since realized that they needed a unique element that their competitors couldn't have. Through this unique element, they could increase the consumer's recognition, and even increase the consumer's willingness to buy.
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