When it came to domestic online games, Li Mu could only think of three that could be considered excellent works in the era when the game was born. They were Journey to the West, Fantasy Journey to the West, and Swordsman's Love Series.
Among them, Journey to the West was the earliest. It had just been released last year, at the end of 2001. Fantasy Journey to the West and Swordsman's Love Series were both released in the second half of 2003. Two of them were original games by NetEase. Swordsman's Love Series came from Jinshan's West Mountain Residence Studio, which was under Lei Jianguo.
All three games had caused a sensation, and their sales figures were very strong. However, Fantasy Journey to the West was the strongest. Until Li Mu was reborn, there were still many people playing this game. It could be said to be the one with the longest lifespan.
Speaking of "Fantasy Journey to the West," Old Xu had to be mentioned. He was one of the most famous people in China's domestic online games industry. He was definitely one of those people who came from a humble background. He joined NetEase during the era of "Fantasy Journey to the West" and gave many constructive suggestions to "Fantasy Journey to the West". As he gradually gained a foothold in NetEase, even Ding Lei did not think that "Fantasy Journey to the West" would do well, he managed to make "Fantasy Journey to the West" explode. In the end, the entire NetEase turned to "Fantasy Journey to the West". In terms of ability, understanding of the domestic online game market, and online game users, Old Xu should be a top talent.
Three years after Fantasy Journey to the West became popular, Old Xu resigned from NetEase. He had completely fallen out with Ding Lei to get investments and start anew. Although he had made a few more popular games, none of them could be compared to Fantasy Journey to the West.
Li Mu did not play much online. He could not even remember Old Xu's name. However, he had heard of the two words "Old Xu" a long time ago. He also knew a little about what had happened back then. To put it bluntly, the reason why Old Xu left was because of the uneven distribution of profits from Fantasy Journey to the West.
Li Mu had no intention of commenting on who was right and who was wrong. However, he had always taken such things very seriously.
There were two types of bosses in the business world. The first type was when a meritorious employee earned a hundred million yuan for the boss, the boss would immediately return a profit of a million yuan or even more to the employee. This would further solidify the relationship between the employee and the boss.
The other type of boss was when a meritorious employee earned a hundred million yuan for him. He would still pay the employee according to the initial contract and give the employee a bonus of ten thousand yuan at the end of the year. He would think that he was exceptionally generous and hoped that the employee would be deeply grateful to him.
Li Mu had seen many of the latter, so when he started his business, he was determined to be the former.
Thinking back to when Old Xu left NetEase, it must have been because of a similar situation. From Li Mu's perspective, Ding Lei had lost an excellent talent due to money problems in that era. This was especially so considering that NetEase's core business was games. If one paid attention to NetEase's financial report, games accounted for more than 90% of its revenue at its peak. From this, one could imagine how much Ding Lei had lost Old Xu.
Li Mu attached great importance to the game business. However, he did not have the energy to build his own game development team. His previous idea was more inclined to being an agent. For example, he was now the agent for Miracle MU. After accumulating his strength, he would take down World of Warcraft in 2004. In the future, he would be able to take down the popular Korean games one by one. By then, he would be able to support a huge plate with an annual income of several billion USD.
However, after reading Old Xu's resume, Li Mu suddenly had an idea.
Why not develop his own games?
In the future, Tempest Entertainment could specialize in all the major games. However, overall, Tempest Entertainment's game development would be far less suitable than YY. After all, YY was a huge ecosystem. Putting everything else aside, just the similarity of the users was unparalleled. One YY account could quickly log into all the products under YY. Who could compare to this convenience?
If he could set up a game research and development department in Muye Technology and poach people to make their own games, then there would definitely be a lot of room for development in the future. After all, the additional effects of the entire YY ecosystem were too powerful.
More importantly, the profit margin of developing their own games would be much higher than that of a game development agency!
Putting everything else aside, if Fantasy Westward Journey were to be operated in YY's ecosystem, it would definitely be more profitable than NetEase's operation.
The key character of Fantasy Westward Journey was Old Xu. As long as he poached him and built a team for him, wouldn't it be fine? The development cost of a game was not much to Makino Technology. It was not a problem at all. If that was the case, why not?
Thinking of this, Li Mu hurriedly looked at the note about Old Xu in the intranet. The note showed that Old Xu had actually gone for an interview three days ago.
The HR's detailed note for Old Xu stated, "This person is good at online game planning. He is applying for the position of game planning for YY games. He is eloquent and has a certain understanding of online games. I suggest that the game department take a second interview."
Following that, the person in charge of the YY game planning department also left a note. "This person has limited work experience, does not pass the education requirements, and is good at online games instead of chess and card games. We do not have any plans for online games at the moment, so we will not arrange for a second interview."
When Li Mu saw this note, he instinctively felt a little annoyed. Was the person in charge of the YY game planning department an idiot? Old Xu was such an amazing person, yet he rejected him without even taking a second interview after looking at his resume?
However, when Li Mu calmed down a little, he felt that the person in charge of the planning department was not wrong.
YY games was currently a chess and card game hall. This kind of game was very different from traditional online games. Old Xu's resume really did not fit the needs of YY games. Moreover, Old Xu's resume was indeed not good. He lacked experience and education. This was also the biggest embarrassment of someone who came from a humble background. Before he succeeded, it was always difficult to get a chance to prove one's ability.
Putting aside the anger in his heart, Li Mu carefully thought about why Old Xu took the initiative to submit his resume to Makino Technology. He was a smart person. He should be able to see that the entire Makino Technology had not shown any signs of wanting to do an orthodox online game. Even if he was successful in the interview, it would be very difficult for him to adapt to the new environment and the situation would not be optimistic.
But after careful consideration, Li Mu came up with a bold theory. 'Old Xu must have noticed that YY had no intention of doing an online game at the moment, so he took the initiative to approach us.
Smart people were good at looking for opportunities. Just like at the beginning of the skit "Selling Crutches," when Gao Xiumin commented on her husband, the Great Hoodwinker, she had a classic line: "I heard that Accountant Wang's family sells car covers to people who buy horses. I heard that Si Lengzi buys motorcycles to people who sell safety helmets. I heard that Zhang Sansao sells sleeping pills to people who can't sleep."
These lines might seem like a very small scale, but the logic behind it was very clear. This was how smart people would take the initiative to get ahead of the market. It was very likely that Old Xu had seen the huge potential of YY in operating online games, as well as the gap in YY's online games. That was why he had the same idea as the "Great Hoodwinker" and came over to look for an opportunity. What was a desert in the eyes of others could become an oasis in his eyes.
On further thought, Old Xu had only joined NetEase not too long ago, so he definitely did not have any personal feelings for the company. NetEase would also not give him a chance to show off his skills right now. Therefore, under the current circumstances, it would definitely be easy to poach him over.
After that, Li Mu immediately left a message for Kong Lingyu on YY. "I'm preparing to set up a game development team. Do you have any good suggestions?"
Kong Lingyu went online in stealth mode and quickly sent a message to Li Mu. "Boss, I raise both hands in approval!"
"Tell me the reason."
"There's nothing else. The game is too profitable, and the cash flow is too good!"
"Nothing else?"
"The only thing our ecosystem lacks right now is online games. This is a big piece of the pie. I've always wanted to mention it to you, but I was afraid that you were thinking of putting the gaming business under Tempest Entertainment, so I didn't say anything."
Li Mu laughed at himself, his fingertips tapping on the keyboard. "I don't have to think about Tempest Entertainment anymore. I want to change my approach and set up a gaming division. It'll be completely separate from the 'YY Games' division. This gaming division will only focus on client-side online games."
Li Mu originally wanted to use Tempest Entertainment to make quick money. He wanted Miracle MU to be popular for two years and earn a huge sum of money. Then, he would have the capital to negotiate with Blizzard for World of Warcraft's distribution rights. If he took down World of Warcraft, he would earn another huge sum of money. Then, he would be the distributor of some other popular online games.
However, looking at it now, Tempest Entertainment could be put aside for the time being. He could let them use Miracle MU to make money first while he adjusted his strategy and set up the gaming business under YY. He was still thinking about going public in the United States. The gaming business could bring excellent revenue figures, and it would also have a great impact on the valuation.
Kong Lingyu saw Li Mu's message and quickly replied, "That's great, Boss! As long as you say the word, I can immediately devote myself to the gaming business! "
Li Mu replied, "How about this, let's work overtime tomorrow night. Let's all touch on the gaming business together."
"No problem!"
After chatting with Kong Lingyu, Li Mu left a message for Lin Ching-ah, asking her to instruct HR and the headhunting company to gather the contact information of the core team members of all the major online game development companies in the country. Then, she would come up with a plan to poach a group of people in one go.
Since the decision was made, one Old Xu was not enough. Li Mu also wanted to gather other talents, especially Golden Mountain Software's West Mountain Residence. While they were still working on the standalone version of Swordsman Love Story and had yet to taste the taste of making big money, he wanted to quickly get them all in one fell swoop. This way, he could further seal off Golden Mountain's future profit channels and cut off Lei Jianguo's next step.
If he could poach Old Xu and the team from Boastful Journey to the West to create Fantasy Journey to the West, and then get the team from Swordsman Love Story to create a similar Wuxia or Xianxia online game, the domestic game market in the next few years would be really interesting!
As for the fake product X Journey that Shi Yu helped create, if he got involved in this industry, how could he make money with this kind of product? That was just wishful thinking!
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