Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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After searching for ages, I could only find one game with a decent IP: DNF (Dungeon Fighter Online). Then inspiration struck: DNF + open-world + action game! A perfect closed loop, guaranteed to make money!!!

As for Dragon Nest New Era, it was a product of Shanda Games' envy of Spark, and the logic is actually similar.

However, compared to Tencent, Dragon Nest New Era is in a worse situation because Shanda Games, while envious of the open world, is unwilling to invest in it, or rather, doesn't have the money to invest in developing a truly open world.

So they decided to use the existing material library to create a "big world" and make money from it.

As for the world of Jade Dynasty... well, the development team for the entire Jade Dynasty world is still in a mess. This time, they were just tricked into coming out by Tencent and want to get some free attention.

As for Project Dawn from Boston Studios? Well, there's only one promotional video.

Of the several projects, the one that seems to be somewhat reliable is CrossFire X. At least in terms of its presentation, this game can at least release a gameplay video.

So why would Ma Xiao use all of this as his trump card?

The reason is actually very simple: these things are all empty promises, and players don't know the real details of them.

Moreover, it's not just Spark that's good at making grand promises; Tencent is also very experienced in this area.

Whether it's a penguin in its past life or in its present life.

They often make grand promises, especially when they need internal support or want to adjust their reputation in a short period of time.

With careful observation, one can actually discover the pattern behind the penguins' empty promises.

Penguin first tasted the sweetness of a pie in the sky a few years ago during the Monster Hunter Online era, when the main Monster Hunter games had not yet been truly remastered in HD.

The Monster Hunter Online game, created by Tencent using Unreal Engine 3, not only attracted domestic game media and players, but also garnered a considerable number of views on YouTube and Nico Nico Douga.

That was also the first time that videos of overseas players' reactions to domestic manufacturers' promotional videos were widely shared in China.

Thanks to these promotional efforts, activation codes for the first closed beta test of Monster Hunter Online were worth as much as a thousand yuan, and they were in short supply. Even after the distribution efforts were increased, the price remained at a few hundred yuan.

In the end, the official release was almost complete, and activation codes could still be sold for tens of yuan.

Although most of this money went to scalpers and people within the official organization, it also demonstrates the popularity of Monster Hunter Online.

When the servers first opened, you had to queue for a dozen or even dozens of hours to get into any one of them. Tencent even created a VIP queue.

Even with VIP membership, you still have to wait in line for one or two hours.

Although this popularity quickly faded after the server opened and players actually experienced the game, it also made Tencent realize the benefits of making empty promises.

For Ma Xiao at present, the biggest advantage of making empty promises is that there is zero risk.

Making empty promises is arguably the safest form of publicity. Whether your promises are good or not is a completely different matter from whether the actual product tastes good.

If the promotional video is well-made, it's almost impossible for it to be criticized or argued with by players.

Ma Xiao had already thought it through. Although neither "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" nor "Tomorrow" had achieved the desired effect, on the other hand, he had a relatively sufficient budget.

Even if it costs a fortune, this time we'll have to spend money to boost the viewership of all the new games we promote on YouTube, NCNC, and domestic video websites.

After all, this was practically their last shred of hope for this year's Penguin Games Festival.

In fact, if we disregard the fact that "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" and "Tomorrow" were outmaneuvered, Penguin's Penguin Promotion Festival this time was actually quite good.

The discounts are also quite substantial.

The only problem is that in terms of sales volume, it can't beat the domestic manufacturers' special sales that Xinghuo has.

But this wasn't a big problem for Ma Xiao, since the other party was a special sale by domestic manufacturers, which involved dozens of manufacturers and was an event open to the whole world.

Since Tencent is primarily an internal player, the difference in revenue is not a problem at all.

Although Ma Xiao felt this wasn't a big problem, it was still embarrassing for Tencent because it hadn't even competed with Liushui, let alone Xinghuo, but rather with Xinghuo's underlings.

That's why Ma Xiao put all his eggs in one basket; he had a good plan when he played that card.

After all, "the show can't afford to have any more unexpected problems..."

Chapter 475 Transnational Conference

at the same time

What is Lin Li doing at this moment?

The answer is that they are preparing for a mega-international conference.

So why is it said that this multinational conference should be preceded by "super"?

The reason is simple: there are a lot of people attending today's meeting.

Moreover, it wasn't just internal employees of Spark, but also a large number of external personnel, including representatives from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Ubisoft, EA, and even Rockstar Games.

The meeting was held in parallel sessions, with Spark currently having four global branches.

A simultaneous video conference was held in four conference rooms in China, Japan, Europe, and North America.

At the Huaxia venue, many representatives from domestic manufacturers had already arrived.

Behind the stage in the conference room is a large video wall with four screens, each displaying live feeds from several conference rooms.

Through this video wall, you can see that in addition to the main conference room, there are also many people in the other conference rooms, especially from Japan. In addition to a large number of representatives from Japanese game companies, there are also many representatives from Japanese animation companies.

"Xueyan, go check if there are any problems with President Lin's speech, and also the soda water... Oh no!! Where's the whole case of soda water I left here?!"

"Brother Yue, the soda water has been moved over..."

"Oh, that's good. The programming team isn't here yet. Also, contact the front desk to see if any vendors haven't arrived yet, and if so, call them to confirm their schedules..."

To ensure the smooth running of this global conference, Spark's employees started working very early on.

Qin Xueyan, as a management trainee at Xinghuo, was also recruited as a labor force.

The meeting was scheduled for 8 a.m., which was a bit awkward, but it was the only option to cover the four main divisions.

8 AM in China is 9 AM in Japan, 1 PM in France, and 9 PM in the United States.

Considering the entire meeting lasts two hours, this timeframe might be awkward for some participants from different regions, but for a multinational real-time conference, it is the optimal choice.

After confirming the meeting agenda, the Spark platform's operations department was on high alert.

This was the first time Xinghuo had held such a meeting, which naturally placed new demands on those who prepared for it.

After all, Lin Li's meeting schedule was very tight. If any problems arose during the meeting or in the early stages of preparation, the resulting chain reaction would bring a very bad experience to all the participants.

Therefore, although this meeting was just a one-time event, the Spark operations department treated it as a major battle, making thorough preparations and even calling on people from the Bonfire Studio to help.

Qin Xueyan, as a management trainee in the operations department, didn't feel nervous at all. She was just doing odd jobs and going wherever she was needed.

However, as one after another, the bosses of domestic game companies arrived at the company half an hour early and entered the conference room.

As the large screen displayed the arrival of guests, other meeting rooms gradually filled in.

Qin Xueyan inexplicably felt a little nervous as well.

She first checked the various items on the podium and tested the equipment again before standing aside and looking at the people in the conference room and the nameplates on their seats.

I looked at the big screen again, and there was a large group of foreigners gathered together by Xinghuo for a meeting.

Although Qin Xueyan had no idea what the meeting was about, she inexplicably felt a sense of pride. This feeling was strange, even though she had only been with Xinghuo for a month and hadn't even joined the game development department, but the operations department.

But they already had a sense of belonging to the company.

"Xueyan, what are you standing there for? There are seats here, come here, come here..."

Following the greeting of his immediate supervisor.

Qin Xueyan responded and then sat down next to the conference room. There was a row of tables and chairs with tea on them. Since it was morning, there were also some snacks, small cakes, and even a carton of milk on the table.

However, the people sitting here are not guests; most of them are Qin Xueyan's colleagues, that is, Xinghuo's own employees.

Would you like some water?

"Thank you."

After taking the bottled water, Qin Xueyan glanced at the conference room again. In that instant, she suddenly understood why she had felt a sense of belonging to Xinghuo after only one month on the job.

Simply because Xinghuo is a company that genuinely treats its employees like friends.

This is not a single clause or rule, but rather a process that is passed down from top to bottom.

The saying goes, "What the boss does, the subordinates will follow." The boss is the kind of person who will influence the senior executives, and the senior executives are the kind of people who will influence the subordinates.

Over the years, Spark has been constantly evolving and has experienced a significant turnover of employees, but it has been able to maintain a positive atmosphere within the company, thanks in part to Spark's strong profitability.

Lin Li's role is obviously very significant.

Although Qin Xueyan had never met Lin Li, she had heard legends about him everywhere during the month she had been working there.

Even though the spark was already quite large at this time, it was said that President Lin would still come to the front line.

Therefore, Qin Xueyan was also very curious and asked many of the questions that Xinghuo newcomers had asked.

"What kind of person is President Lin?"

And the answer she gave was something many long-time employees often said.

"You'll know when you see it."

While she was thinking about something, Qin Xueyan's phone suddenly vibrated.

"Yanbao~~ Have you seen President Lin yet? Why hasn't the photo been sent yet?!"

Qin Xueyan knew who it was as soon as she saw the pop-up message, without even clicking on it. It was her friend who joined the company at the same time as her, named Ma Jiayi.

The two got along well because they entered Starfire together.

However, Ma Jiayi's department was the game department, and she was in the operations department. Perhaps it was precisely because Ma Jiayi came from the R&D department that Qin Xueyan couldn't quite understand her crazy worship of Lin Li.

"You don't understand. Our professor has been promoting Xinghuo since my sophomore year. Most of the cases we use in class are Xinghuo cases. Mr. Lin is like a mentor to me."

Although Qin Xueyan wasn't quite sure how her friend's logic worked, she still agreed to help her secretly take a few photos of Lin Li.

"President Lin hasn't arrived yet."

The software Qin Xueyan is holding is Xinghuo's internal communication software. It is said to have been jointly developed by ByteDance and Xinghuo. It doesn't have a name and is just called internal communication. Currently, more than a dozen companies are using it.

The two largest are Spark and ByteDance, while the others are mainly Spark's partners.

Chapter 476 What kind of person is President Lin?

Given that both Spark and ByteDance are global mega-corporations, this software is used frequently and has a wide range of functions, in addition to common office software.

Its built-in chat, friends, and even a work circle similar to social media have almost all the functions of communication software.

This software also has some features that are not found in other common communication software.

For example, a real-time translation system.

This system is mainly for global collaboration among employees, but Qin Xueyan also got to know some colleagues from other countries through it, and they would chat occasionally.

It's quite amazing how a list of friends you can add at once all have their nationalities listed before them.

In addition, this software has a feature called Spark AI Chat Assistant. Although it is called AI, it is actually quite stupid. However, it is quite fun to tease it when you are bored.

It also includes features such as an emoji store, fast game loading, and a built-in function for friends to watch TikTok videos together, which is very fun when you're slacking off.

She often watches Douyin (TikTok) with another good friend from the office while having meals.

The logic behind its operation is that two people can browse Douyin (TikTok) together, and a chat box is provided below. If both people scroll down, they can skip a video.

If you don't scroll down, the next video will automatically start playing after the previous one finishes.

At first, Qin Xueyan didn't think this thing was interesting, but after she and her friend started using it, they found themselves inexplicably hooked, and the two of them would sometimes secretly use it at work.

They came across an interesting video where two people looked up at the same time and saw each other's eyes from a distance.

He was trying so hard to suppress his laughter that he almost choked.

Moreover, Qin Xueyan felt that this thing would definitely be very attractive to couples and students.

The only thing the girl didn't quite understand was why these functions had to be included in an internal communication tool, and why she could receive surveys every now and then.

Moreover, the update speed is very frequent, especially recently, some interesting little features have been added.

However, this software is always internal software.

So most of the time, people use it during work hours. After get off work, when they chat, they mainly use some supplementary functions, such as playing Douyin (TikTok) with good friends online.

Another feature of this software is a message function. By message, you can set a time to send a message, such as when you suddenly think of something at night, but you've already left work.

You can leave a message, and by default, the message will be sent during the next working day.