Chapter 242 Perfect Closed Beta Completed! Doomsday Journey Appropriately Released!
In fact, Liao Feng knew very well how Wang Fengyou made money, and even knew the gray elements involved.
But... he didn't really care.
After all, he is the second generation of power, and he has seen a lot of shady money.
Besides, Teacher Zhao can earn this money, so why can’t I?
And when Wang Fengyou said this, he immediately understood what it meant.
So Liao Feng asked casually: "How much can you make in a year?"
Wang Fengyou: "Several billion."
Suddenly, Liao Feng's heart skipped a beat.
Billions? Holy shit!!!
I am of this status and position, but I can't make tens of billions a year. You are a farmer, but you make tens of billions a year? Are you robbing money? This number really made him excited.
He controls two large websites, Lingxi Island and Renren.
Valuations may be high.
But unless part of it can be cashed out after going public, the rest is just paper wealth.
Lingxi Island can maintain a small profit, but Renren is completely burning money and losing money.
Liao Feng: "You guys really made a fortune in silence."
Wang Fengyou: "He is incomparable to Mr. Liao. He is so young, but he owns two giant Internet companies. How glorious is that?"
Liao Feng didn't say anything.
It's glamorous, but who knows when you can make money.
"Can I think about it?" Liao Feng said.
Wang Fengyou: "Of course, of course."
……………………
After Liao Feng came back, after much hesitation, he still sought Wu Lingxi's opinion.
Wu Lingxi: "Why don't you ask for a bank loan?"
Liao Feng: "I have already borrowed a lot."
Wu Lingxi felt that this was not a reason, because with the political and business system that Liao Feng relied on, the easiest thing for him to get was a loan.
Why not lend?
Wu Lingxi: "There is a gray area when it comes to Wang Fengyou's money."
Liao Feng: "Actually, the beauty lies in this gray area."
Wu Lingxi: "What do you mean?"
Liao Feng: "On the surface, he has a lot of identities, and he is a member of the CPPCC, but it is useless. At the critical moment, if we use a little force, he will be in great trouble. At that time, he will not have to pay back the money."
Wu Lingxi was slightly stunned, and then said nothing more.
It turned out that this was Liao Feng’s idea.
Wang Fengyou makes money in the gray area, which makes him a lamb to be slaughtered for a second-generation rich man like Liao Feng.
He got 100 million before, and now he wants another 300 million.
In other words, Liao Feng had to cheat the other party out of at least 400 million yuan.
Even more than that! In Liao Feng's plan, the grayer Wang Fengyou's money is, the better. At the critical moment, as long as his system exerts huge pressure, Wang Fengyou will not only spit out all his shares, but also spend more money to buy peace.
On the other side, Wang Fengyou still wanted to pull Liao Feng into the game just like he had done to Teacher Zhao, to help him succeed in his money-making business, but he didn't expect that Liao Feng had already sharpened his knife.
……………………
Lightning Group.
“We have already repaid the first loan from the bank.”
"I have just calculated in great detail the possible expenses for next year, if we include the investment in Kung Fu Panda and the budget for the acquisition of Android."
"We still have a funding gap." Xia Xi raised her head.
Lin Xiao: “How much?”
Xia Xi: "A lot. We are actually living beyond our means right now. In order to win this decisive battle, we have to spend the money from the first half of next year."
No wonder most companies actually die during the expansion phase.
The Lightning Group has made a lot of money, but it still cannot support such crazy expansion.
"Uh..." Xia Xi suddenly said, "Go spend more time with Lian Yi these few days."
Lin Xiao: "You...are you looking for Mayor Lian again?"
Xia Xi nodded: "This time, I plan to borrow 200 million."
"Moreover, Semir Clothing helped us guarantee one hundred million of it."
Lin Xiao said: "Okay, okay..."
The third time he asked Mayor Lian for help with the loan, he didn't even go through Lin Xiao, but Xia Xi went directly to contact him.
Xia Xi: "Now we just have to wait for Jiayuan.com to be officially listed and raise tens of millions, nearly 100 million US dollars. Then Lightning Technology will borrow the money."
"This way, we will be much more comfortable."
"At least, the money to acquire Android is there."
At this time, the voice of Xia Xi's assistant was heard outside: "Mr. Gao."
Gao Changhe: "Are General Manager Lin and General Manager Xia here?"
“They’re all here!”
Gao Changhe: "Please inform them."
Xia Xi: "Lao Gao, come in."
A moment later, Gao Changhe came over angrily.
"Shameless, totally shameless!"
After he came in, he threw a newspaper hard on the table.
There's a huge title on this.
“Congratulations to House of Flying Daggers for breaking 200 million at the box office!”
Gao Changhe said angrily: "Boss Lin, do they still have any shame?"
"The first week's box office was 85 million, and the second week's box office was 35 million. The data released by Pacific Manager Liu has always been authoritative."
"According to this trend, the box office of House of Flying Daggers will be at most 170 million, which is about 10 million less than our Love Is Not Blind."
"As a result, they suddenly came out and said that their box office revenue had exceeded 200 million."
"You're trying to surpass us."
The box office data from Manager Liu of Pacific Cinemas are all converted according to the ratio. She is in charge of the box office of Pacific Cinemas, and then divides it by the market share of Pacific Cinemas in the country to basically get the overall box office data.
As a result, this time, the ratio changed dramatically.
Among them, the market share of two cinema chains soared.
"Box office inflated, shameless box office inflated..."
"In order to win, I don't care about my face."
Xia Xi: "Is he doing this for fame, or for the 100 million bet?"
Gao Changhe: "I know him. He doesn't care much about his reputation. It's because of the 100 million bet. If he loses, he will have to donate 50 million. This 100 million bet caused a lot of controversy before, and he couldn't get out of this situation, so he used this shady trick."
………………
As soon as the good news came out that the box office of "House of Flying Daggers" exceeded 200 million.
On Renren, many celebrities reposted the post and gave likes.
Many stars even wrote: Well-deserved, won with dignity.
Mr. Wang from Huayi even wrote that we finally don't have to watch that movie top the box office charts anymore. Director Zhang has delivered a perfect answer, and it's our turn next. A World Without Thieves and Kung Fu will be released at the end of the year.
The whole action was very neat.
Hundreds of celebrities reposted the message and acknowledged the box office achievement.
There is no doubt that the goal is to establish an established fact.
However, people in the industry know exactly what is going on here.
Manager Liu from Pacific couldn’t bear it any longer and posted a status on Facebook: Is this okay?
Then, the Pacific Cinemas’ box office data for each day of “House of Flying Daggers” and the box office curve were clearly posted.
Immediately afterwards, the manager of Shanghai United Cinemas also posted a message: Is this okay?
Then, they also clearly posted the daily box office data of "House of Flying Daggers" and the box office curve.
The meaning is very clear.
You have no shame! This has never happened in history. The box office of House of Flying Daggers was only about 150 million yuan at the time. Although it was not a success, they accepted it.
Then, everyone was waiting for Lightning Entertainment's response.
Because this involves a 100 million bet.
If you lose, you will have to donate 50 million.
result……
The Lightning Group didn't say anything, but just issued an announcement.
Lightning Group donated 50 million to help build nursing homes for the elderly and to subsidize poor children to go to school.
He didn't even point at the other person and curse at him.
After seeing this announcement, Master Zhang called Lin Xiao.
"Boss Lin, I'm sorry to have embarrassed you."
"I really didn't know about this matter at first. I had a big fight with him."
"Thank you, thank you for still protecting my reputation."
Lin Xiao said: "Director Zhang, he is not a good person, you should make a choice early."
"Our door is open to you."
Master Zhang: "Thank you, Mr. Lin. I will definitely consider it seriously."
………………
Go forward a period of time.
The last shot of "The Last Days" was completed.
Then, Director Ning Hao and Director Yeon Sang-ho hugged each other and cried with joy.
Finally...finally it’s finished.
During this period, both directors were going crazy.
The film was originally planned to be completed in more than three months, or at most four months, but it took more than two months longer than planned.
The filming took more than half a year.
Moreover, the original budget of 7 million US dollars has been overspent and overestimated.
During the process, the producer and director Ning Hao called Lin Xiao three times and reported to him tremblingly that the money might not be enough and they needed to add some more money.
On this side, Lin Xiao always said, no problem.
The reason for the postponement is not because the two directors did not cooperate well enough, nor because the actors’ acting skills were poor.
I simply underestimated the difficulty of shooting.
Because computer special effects were not very good at that time, the most important thing was to catch up with the progress, so we tried not to use computer special effects in most scenes, so we relied entirely on makeup special effects.
Some of the scenes are huge.
There will be a wave of zombies.
Is it very difficult to shoot? It requires a strong control.
Moreover, at that time, the makeup and special effects teams in China and South Korea were average, so we really had to hire a large number of Hollywood teams.
Then, let the domestic special effects team learn and work together.
This cost a lot of money and a lot of time.
Director Ning Hao knew very well how important this movie was to the Lightning Group.
This is the first shot into the world.
Moreover, it must be released at the end of the year.
The cycle is very, very tight, but the quality must be of the highest quality.
He was really worried about becoming a sinner of the Lightning Group.
Now it's finally finished.
Of course, time will still be very, very tight.
Although this film was shot almost entirely on location and required very few computer effects in post-production, editing does take time.
There are less than three months left until the release.
Even the Korean and Japanese markets must be released in advance.
The Lightning Group still needs to rely on this movie to suppress the domestic market. Lin Xiao slammed the table and said in a private meeting that Huayi's movie must be suppressed during the Lunar New Year holiday and their movie must lose all the money they invested.
No matter how successful "Love Is Not Blind" is, it is just a small love movie and cannot suppress the entire film market.
But for a super production like "The Last Days", it is completely possible.
It can form box office dominance and crushing pressure.
Of course, if this movie was just released directly in China, it might do well at the box office, but it would not be able to dominate and create a box office myth.
It needs to be released in South Korea and Japan first to create a box office myth in these two markets.
And not even that is enough.
Sony and Columbia also need to make efforts to release it simultaneously in the North American market and get a good box office result.
Then, exports are converted into domestic sales, which in turn detonates the domestic box office.
Moreover, in the publicity, this will be a film completely dominated by China. Even the male lead is of overseas Chinese origin, and in the dubbing of the domestic version, most of the dialogues between the male lead and his daughter will be in Chinese.
This version of "The Last Days" will have three dubbed versions.
Chinese, Korean, and English. (Of course, apart from the English version, the rest are a mixture of Chinese and Korean. The Chinese version has more Chinese, and the Korean version has more Korean.) So the post-production was extremely tense.
First of all, editing takes time, and most importantly, the dubbing cycle is relatively long.
It costs a lot of money to hire the most professional voice actors to do the dubbing at the same time.
Moreover, movies nowadays are not like Hong Kong movies a dozen years ago. The production cycle is extremely fast, and a movie can be completed in a month.
So after the filming was completed, there wasn’t even a formal wrap party.
The two directors immediately took the original film and flew to Shanghai in the shortest possible time, and then edited it at Lightning Entertainment.
Moreover, this editing work also needs Lin Xiao to make the final decision and take the lead, so that it can be fast enough.
Because it’s too close to the release date.
Therefore, in addition to his daily work, Lin Xiao has to spend most of his time working in the editing room with the two directors.
Generally speaking, the editing cycle of a movie takes several months.
But Lin Xiao couldn't give that much time, he had to shorten it, shorten it, and shorten it again.
Edit a relatively complete version in the shortest time possible, and then immediately start comprehensive dubbing work.
……………………
On the other hand, the closed beta test of "Perfect World", which is crucial to Renren Group, is also in full swing.
After the announcement of the technical closed beta test on October 15, it immediately caused a craze.
Of course, if "Zhu Xian" were to be launched in closed beta at this time, the heat it would cause would only be greater.
After all, these two games are known as the first 3D masterpieces in China and are intended to carry the banner of national games.
At the beginning, Renren Group only opened one thousand places.
However, countless players posted messages, asking for more places.
Li Qing, the project leader of "Perfect World", insisted that the number of people should not exceed 3,000 at most and that the technical closed beta test should be as conservative as possible.
However, seeing the players' high enthusiasm, Liao Feng decided to increase the number of places.
The first time it increased to 3,000 people.
However, there are still countless players who expressed their dissatisfaction on the Renren community, saying that there are too few closed beta codes.
Therefore, Renren increased the number of closed beta testers to 5,000.
A small program has also been opened. All players who apply for closed beta testing must first download this small program to test their computer configuration. Only computers that are above the standard line, or preferably far above the standard line, will be eligible for the closed beta testing code.
In the end, Renren.com was pleasantly surprised that more than 100,000 people applied for the closed beta test.
And this is after screening those who meet the computer configuration requirements, a full 100,000 people.
This popularity gave Liao Feng more confidence.
There are already so many people interested in "Perfect World" even though there hasn't been any large-scale promotion yet.
Once the closed beta test is over, the game will be widely promoted. How popular will it be? On November 1st, the closed beta test of Perfect World officially began.
Lightning Games also grabbed dozens of closed beta codes.
Lin Xiao and the core members of Lightning Game also started to try out this game.
After entering the game, Zhang Chun was disappointed at first. (In fact, he had been disappointed once before)
Just... just this? Your visual expression is quite different from our "Zhu Xian".
Lin Xiao had played "Perfect World" in his previous life. He closed his eyes and tried hard to recall the past. It can be said that in this era, the graphics of "Perfect World" are expressive enough and can even surprise a large number of players.
However, there is still a little gap compared to the historical "Perfect World".
After all, the production cycle is much shorter than in history, and the work is rushed.
The game mechanism is similar to the historical "Perfect World", but there is also a slight difference.
After playing for about two hours, Lin Xiao logged off directly.
Zhang Chun is also offline.
Lin Xiao: “How is it?”
Zhang Chun: "I am ashamed and a little scared."
Lin Xiao: “How do you say that?”
Zhang Chun: "I initially belittled it as worthless, because I was playing Zhu Xian almost every day, so I couldn't stand the sudden decline in graphics and the extreme backwardness of the game."
"But now that I think about it carefully, the standard of this "Perfect World" is still very good."
"It's even better than our first version of Zhu Xian."
"I can't imagine what would have happened if you hadn't directly ordered Zhu Xian to be remade?"
What are the consequences? Waterloo, of course.
The reputation of Master Ergou has also collapsed.
At that time, Zhang Chun's team felt pretty good about the first version of "Zhu Xian", and it was also very good compared with the competitors at the time.
But nowadays, even "Perfect World" can't compare to it.
However, now, "Zhu Xian" has undergone at least two major upgrades, directly inviting the two top international teams to complete various upgrades.
Even because of this game, the Unreal Engine 2 was upgraded half a generation.
The funding for the entire project has increased again and again, almost doubling.
The production cycle has been extended again and again. The project started during the first Facebook Night, and now the third Facebook Night is about to begin, but the project has not yet been completed.
It was directly extended from a cycle of more than one year to more than two years.
All for the quality of the game.
So now the expressiveness and game completion of "Zhu Xian" are far superior to "Perfect World"? It can be said that in terms of pure graphic expressiveness, it is absolutely world-class.
But... most players don’t know this.
In fact, they had never played a 3D online game before, so they were very satisfied when they saw "Perfect World".
……………………
After the closed beta test began, almost all of Renren's senior executives sat in front of their computers, waiting for players' feedback.
Keep an eye on the Facebook community and Renren community.
Also keep an eye on various communities.
Even Renren has set up a special "Perfect World" community.
There are more and more posts above.
"Damn, this game is good!"
“The graphics of this game are very strong, beyond my imagination.”
“I don’t know how “Zhu Xian” is, but “Perfect World” is very good.”
"I've played The Elder Scrolls 3, and I clearly feel that the graphics of Perfect World are better than The Elder Scrolls 3. Renren is awesome!"
This is the core reason.
In recent years, games have been changing with each passing day, and the progress has been very fast. Although "The Elder Scrolls 3" was produced two years ago, it was actually developed in 2000. What were the hardware conditions at that time?
Moreover, "World of Warcraft" had not yet entered China at that time. Putting aside the Lord of Kings from a long time ago, the most recent 3D online game is probably "Lineage 2".
"I have played Lineage 2, which is currently the world's top 3D online game. I think there is not much difference between Perfect World and Lineage 2. I am proud of Chinese games."
This is a typical filter effect. According to the very professional evaluation of Lightning Games, there is still a certain gap between this version of "Perfect World" and "Lineage 2".
However, there is a certain gap between the graphics of "Lineage 2" and "Zhu Xian".
However, "Lineage 2" is a typical Western fantasy style, while "Perfect World" is a typical Chinese style, which is more intimate.
Therefore, most domestic players feel that there is not much difference between the two.
"I don't know how good Zhu Xian is, but I think Perfect World is worthy of the title of China's No. 1 3D online game."
"Master Ergou, your "Zhu Xian" has been two years old. If you don't publish it soon, it will be forgotten."
When Liao Feng saw these posts, he felt very intoxicated and his confidence was redoubled.
He even left Renren and moved to Facebook's gaming community.
Because of the influence of their upbringing, most of Ergou's fans are relatively realistic, and Facebook does not delete posts or control comments, so even in the Facebook gaming community, most of the comments on "Perfect World" are positive.
"Damn, guys, this is a bit dangerous. The quality of Perfect World is pretty good."
"Why hasn't Zhu Xian been released yet? Is it having difficulties in development? Why did Perfect World come out first? Zhu Xian was obviously developed earlier."
"If this continues, the title of the top domestic 3D online game will really be taken away by Perfect World."
"Call for Zhu Xian, call for Zhu Xian!"
After seeing these comments, Renren executives felt more at ease.
Liao Feng felt even happier and walked out of the office directly, symbolically inspecting each post.
This is more like a demonstration.
Many of you opposed my decision to start the closed beta test a few months in advance, but now it is proven that everything I did was right.
What if "Zhu Xian" came out first, how could "Perfect World" be so popular?
…………………………
Lightning Game secretly reported to Lin Xiao.
"Boss Lin, based on our careful analysis."
“The content of Perfect World was good at the beginning, but the roughness appeared in the middle and late stages, and many bugs also appeared in the middle and late stages.”
"Currently, the closed beta of Perfect World only covers the first 40 levels." (This is also different from the history.) "And some of the most vicious bugs will not appear until after level 50."
"In addition, we have almost completed the work of targeting the malicious cheats for this game, and we can secretly deploy them at any time!"
Lin Xiao: "In other words, if Renren.com had followed the normal process and conducted a second and third small-scale closed beta test, it would have been very likely to have escaped the disaster?"
Zhang Chun: "At least the malicious bugs can be reflected in the extreme closed beta test. But they should be unable to avoid malicious plug-ins."
Lin Xiao: "That is to say, it would be best to force Liao Feng to shorten the cycle as quickly as possible and enter large-scale internal testing as soon as possible?"
Zhang Chun: “That’s right.”
Lin Xiao picked up a phone and dialed a number, which was Mr. Cai from Alibaba.
"Boss Lin, you actually called me? What advice do you have?"
Lin Xiao: "Mr. Cai, congratulations! Alibaba's momentum is so strong, and Taobao's users have reached new highs."
President Cai: "President Lin, you don't have to say such things to me. You should understand our pain best, but you don't have the pain that I do."
Capital chain.
Everything at Alibaba has been developing by leaps and bounds this year, especially after Taobao went online, it has been skyrocketing.
In August, Taobao's monthly transaction volume exceeded 120 million yuan, and in September, the daily sales exceeded 7 million, and the annual turnover increased several times.
Alibaba has also continued to increase its investment in Taobao, initially investing 100 million yuan and then increasing its investment by another 350 million yuan in July.
The key point is that this crazy growth rate is not only continuing, but also getting faster and faster.
So, Alibaba is going to run out of money.
The capital chain is even tighter than that of Lightning Group and Renren Group.
Lin Xiao: "Our businesses are not in conflict, but complementary, so I have a suggestion."
Mr. Cai: “You say.”
Lin Xiao: "Yahoo Group, CEO Yang is increasingly dissatisfied with the Yahoo China team, and is in urgent need of transformation. I think it is far better to invest in you than in Renren."
Mr. Cai: "A gentleman should not take away what belongs to others. Isn't Yahoo Group in contact with Renren Group?"
What a joke, Lingxi Island and you are the most direct competitors, and the idea I proposed is probably exactly the same as yours.
"Boss Lin, but I totally understand what you mean."
"The friendship of the Lightning Group is precious."
Lin Xiao: "It's the same for me."
…………………………
A few days later!
Liao Feng received the news that Mr. Cai from Alibaba Group was going to the United States to visit Yang Zhiyuan from Yahoo Group.
Suddenly, Liao Feng felt a huge sense of crisis, and immediately called Yang Zhiyuan to find out the situation.
Then get a positive answer.
Alibaba is also seeking cooperation with Yahoo Group, and Yang Zhiyuan has also expressed a certain interest. More importantly, Alibaba is also an investment target of SoftBank's Masayoshi Son.
"Mr. Yang, our game Perfect World has already been closed for testing and has received a huge amount of positive reviews."
"The popularity is very high. I am now fully confident that the number of online players will exceed 200,000 in the shortest possible time."
"Plus, we are actively striving for the exclusive agency rights for World of Warcraft in China, which will provide us with a double insurance policy. In the second half of next year, our Renren Group will be able to make huge profits."
Yang Zhiyuan: “I’ll wait and see.”
"But I have to say that Alibaba Group has shown unprecedented prospects."
Liao Feng: "Lingxi Island here is also a leading e-commerce website, and we have achieved profitability early on."
"In the current Chinese market, online games will be the largest source of cash flow in the next few years."
Yang Zhiyuan: "Sina has just become the agent for Lineage 2, and its current commercial performance is only fair."
Liao Feng: "We are different from Lineage 2. We are the first domestic 3D online game and the first national game. You should have some understanding of the national sentiment of the people of this country, and these national sentiments can be transformed into huge commercial value."
Yang Zhiyuan: “I’ll wait and see.”
"But don't worry, as long as you produce strong enough results, my determination remains unchanged."
"Even if I cooperate with Alibaba to some extent in the future, it will not hinder our cooperation."
But Liao Feng felt that he could only listen to this. Yahoo Group had limited money. After all, this might involve hundreds of millions of dollars. Once it was really given to Alibaba, how much would be left for Renren Group?
After hanging up the phone, Liao Feng immediately convened a meeting.
"Our closed beta test was very successful."
“So, I suggest that everything be advanced.”
"In December, we immediately entered internal testing, and it was a large-scale internal testing."
All of a sudden, the senior management of the production team of "Perfect World" expressed strong opposition. Even if the third closed beta test was not conducted, the second closed beta test was still necessary.
Will it enter internal testing in December?
This is really too risky.
But in Liao Feng's opinion, this was completely unavoidable and the progress had to be caught up.
Just like Lightning Entertainment is frantically rushing to meet the deadline, not only the editing but even the dubbing is also being rushed.
We must ensure that the movie can be released in December.
For Lin Xiao, "The Journey to Doomsday" has a corresponding mission.
"Perfect World" also has a more important mission for Renren Group, and it is completely related to the success or failure of the upcoming decisive battle.
…………………………
November 21! The first technical closed beta test of Perfect World was successfully completed.
It was almost a great success.
Immediately afterwards, Renren announced that "Perfect World" will conduct its second large-scale closed beta test in mid-December.
This leaves some room for maneuver.
It is clearly an internal test, but in order to be able to attack or defend, it is called a large-scale closed beta test.
It wasn't even made clear whether the files would be deleted or not.
November 26! Lightning Entertainment’s most important movie, “The Last Days”, was finally completed and made into a complete film.
Next, Lin Xiao invited the president of Columbia, the big boss of South Korea's CJ Entertainment, the former Samsung princess Lee Mi-kyung who is worth billions of dollars, and the head of Sony Classics to come to Shanghai to attend the preview of "The Last Days".
This screening is also very important.
Because Lin Xiao wanted to rely on the quality of this movie to convince Lee Mi-kyung and Sony Classics to invest the largest-scale publicity and the largest theater resources in South Korea and Japan.
We also have to convince Columbia Pictures to release the film in North America, and strive to open it in as many theaters and screens as possible.
Only by gaining the support of the three giants, Sony Classics, CJ Entertainment, and Columbia, can we ensure maximum box office in Japan, South Korea, and the United States.
November 28! The global internal preview of "The Last Days" officially begins.
Giants gather together!
…………………………
Note: It's more than ten minutes later than the target, but the plot rhythm is really much faster. Benefactors, can you still give me your monthly tickets? Thank you very much! (End of this chapter)
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