Chapter 1229: Blizzard

Zhao Fusheng never expected that Dong Guoxiang would call him on Christmas Eve.

"A plan?"

He asked casually, surprised. "From your internet company?"

He truly hadn't expected Dong Guoxiang to have any plans. Ever since the sale of Kaixin.com, Future Network had few projects left. Zhao Fusheng was even considering having Dong Guoxiang lead a team to develop antivirus software or something. After all, Future Network employed a group of programmers, and making a video site wasn't cost-effective now. If they could create something, it might offset the losses.

But Zhao Fusheng never imagined that before he could bring this up to Dong Guoxiang, the latter would propose an unexpected suggestion.

"Well, after discussion, we think we can secure the agency rights for a game," Dong Guoxiang said bluntly, not hiding his thoughts from Zhao Fusheng's confusion.

Game agency rights?

Zhao Fusheng looked baffled. He knew little about this. As far as he remembered, only Shengda Technology had built its fortune on games. As for other companies, although Zhu Yushi's "Zheng Tu" had made him a lot of money, Zhu's main business was selling health products, which left a deep impression on Zhao Fusheng. He hadn't heard of any other company, especially in the internet sector, soaring to success through game agency rights.

Tencent didn't count; its user base was massive. Whether it was WeChat, social games, or later games like Honor of Kings, the huge foundation ensured even a mediocre game could be popular for a few days.

But Dong Guoxiang's proposal truly caught Zhao Fusheng off guard.

"What game?" Zhao Fusheng frowned and asked Dong Guoxiang. Based on his understanding of Dong Guoxiang, he wouldn't call unless the project was promising or had good prospects.

After all, Dong Guoxiang's ability was limited; his strength was loyalty, not exceptional talent. Both he and Zhao Fusheng were well aware of this.

"It's Blizzard's World of Warcraft." Dong Guoxiang didn't beat around the bush. "I've sent the proposal to your email. You can read it now. I've heard that other domestic companies are also eyeing this project, so if we want to get involved, the sooner the better."

Clearly, he had made thorough preparations before bringing this to Zhao Fusheng.

Blizzard?

Zhao Fusheng frowned. In his previous life, he had heard of World of Warcraft, but honestly, he wasn't familiar with the name Blizzard.

Different trades are separated as by mountains. He was in advertising, not gaming, so naturally he didn't know Blizzard's reputation.

After Zhao Fusheng finished reading the proposal Dong Guoxiang had sent him, his expression suddenly became interesting.

Looking at Blizzard's development history, in the early 1990s, three University of California, Los Angeles graduates—Mike Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce—met through a coincidental computer password and became friends. After graduation, they founded Silicon & Synapse.

In the company's first year, Silicon & Synapse used $40,000 in development funds and four months to develop a racing game for Super Nintendo, which made a huge profit.

The following year, in 1992, Silicon & Synapse released their first major title for the Super Nintendo platform: The Lost Vikings.

In 1994, the game Superman: The Man of Steel for the SFC platform was the first game released under the Blizzard name. Later, they ported StarCraft to Nintendo's N64 console. In 2002, Blizzard announced the cross-platform game StarCraft: Ghost for NGC, PS2, and Xbox.

At that time, developing a game didn't require huge costs, but the returns were substantial. Thus, Warcraft alone earned Blizzard enough capital for reproduction. In 1995, Blizzard struck while the iron was hot and released Warcraft II, achieving even greater success with sales exceeding one million copies.

In 1996, Blizzard's second series masterpiece, Diablo, hit the market, selling one million copies in eighteen days. The next year, Diablo: Hellfire soon sold nearly three million copies after its release.

By 1998, Blizzard was a large and wealthy company, having amassed substantial resources for the launch of StarCraft. Before its release, Blizzard prepared one million copies, but as soon as it appeared, eager players worldwide snapped them up, selling out within three months, making it the best-selling game globally that year. The following year, StarCraft took South Korea by storm, selling one million copies there, making South Korea its largest user base and even giving rise to the e-sports industry.

In the global gaming industry, competition was fierce to the point of life and death. Amid such brutal competition, why did Blizzard's games always sell so well?

Simply put, Blizzard's development principle can be summed up in one word: "fun."

In players' words, Blizzard's games have deep replayability; months of play can't grasp their essence. Playing StarCraft for three months usually only scratches the surface, leaving vast room for exploration. Over ten years, Blizzard released only thirteen games (excluding expansion packs), with the Warcraft series accounting for the majority. Strictly speaking, counting only Blizzard's three most successful series, they averaged three years per game. Blizzard's history is that simple.

According to Dong Guoxiang's proposal, Warcraft was already hugely popular in China, beloved by many young people.

And World of Warcraft, an online game adapted from the single-player Warcraft, was undoubtedly very promising, potentially even replacing Legend as the dominant computer game.

Even if Zhao Fusheng was ignorant, he recalled that, as Dong Guoxiang's plan predicted, after Legend, World of Warcraft indeed took over.

"For the Alliance!"

"For the Horde!"

"Orcs are never slaves!"

Though he hadn't played much of this game, Zhao Fusheng remembered clearly that over a decade later, someone even invested in a World of Warcraft movie to peddle nostalgia worldwide. Although its North American box office wasn't high, in China, it excited many people. This showed that World of Warcraft indeed had strong appeal in China.

As for later games like League of Legends, many were largely derived from Warcraft.

With that thought, Zhao Fusheng grabbed the phone and dialed Dong Guoxiang's number.

"How did you come up with this?" Zhao Fusheng asked Dong Guoxiang directly.

In his view, given Dong Guoxiang's level, he couldn't have thought of this. Dong Guoxiang's consistent style was to follow orders, rarely showing innovation.

Dong Guoxiang didn't hide it from Zhao Fusheng: "It was a department manager below. He loves gaming and follows this stuff. Recently, World of Warcraft launched in North America and is reportedly very popular. He thought, if we could get the agency rights for this game, might we have a chance to become the next Shengda Technology?"

He paused and continued, "He told me the plan. I led some investigations. Chairman, I think we should consider competing for this game's agency rights. If we can secure it, I'm confident we can turn Future Network into the second Shengda Technology."

For someone of his character, saying something like this was truly rare.

Zhao Fusheng was silent for a long time. After a while, he suddenly laughed...