Chapter 679

Stepping into the small building of the Silicon Valley branch, Wu Tao was even mentally prepared to face a group of "sad soldiers".

After all, there is a strong opponent like Blizzard Entertainment to spoil the situation. As a novice employee of Tianxing Game Company, it is almost inevitable that the morale will be destroyed.

However, at the next moment, a bustling and thriving work scene unfolded in front of him.

Everyone is busy with the work at hand with enthusiasm, and they don't seem to be affected in the slightest.

Puzzled, Wu Tao asked Shi Qianxue and Qiu Xiaotian, who took the initiative to greet them, and said, "It seems that everyone's morale is good. How did you two boost the morale of these foreigners?"

Shi Qianxue wondered: "Boss, are you worried that everyone will be affected by Blizzard Entertainment's release plan, which will lead to low morale?"

Only then did Qiu Xiaotian understand, he waved his hands indifferently and said: "Boss, these foreign devils are different from us Chinese people. They don't think too much in their minds. To put it nicely, they are not afraid of powerful enemies. Saying no It sounds good, that's heartless."

"...Anyway, after everyone heard about Blizzard Entertainment's plan, everyone's enthusiasm increased a lot. I feel honored to be able to release game works with such an established game company."

Shi Qianxue immediately added: "Director Qiu and I were also worried to death before, but in such an atmosphere, once infected by everyone's positive emotions, we immediately felt that it was no big deal, it was just a fight to the death."

"Well said!" Wu Tao praised.

The three of them passed by the office and walked into a conference room.

Wu Tao sat down first and said: "However, Alan chose to release a new game at this juncture, probably out of good intentions. We can underestimate them strategically, but we still need to pay attention to them tactically."

Shi Qianxue nodded, "At least our investment in Internet advertising should exceed that of Blizzard Entertainment..."

At this moment, Qiu Xiaotian was puzzled and said, "I remember that when I was an intern at Blizzard, they planned to release the game StarCraft in September 1998. Now I don't know what happened, but it was earlier than that." so much?"

Wu Tao narrowed his eyes, "If Allen deliberately releases it in advance for our company, then there will definitely be a lot of loopholes in game testing. In this regard, we may also have an advantage."

Shi Qianxue disagreed, "This is impossible. According to Allen's style, he usually strives for perfection to an outrageous degree, and he will never sacrifice the characteristics or stability of the game for the sake of rushing to meet deadlines or other purposes." of."

Seeing that the two of them had different opinions, Qiu Xiaotian waved his hand and said, "It's easy to confirm. I'll find out after I inquire with Blizzard people later."

The three discussed some details about the press conference three days later, and then separated.

Then Qiu Xiaotian got Wu Tao a 586 high-end computer with a 19-inch exquisite tube display screen. Although it is very bulky, the display effect is not to mention.

The operating system is the English version of win98, but fortunately, this is not a problem for Wu Tao.

It didn't take long for Wu Tao to use this computer to surf the Internet smoothly.

Compared with the backward situation of dial-up Internet access in China, Silicon Valley has long used broadband.

The speed of surfing the Internet can be said to be very comfortable.

At least Wu Tao wandered around several well-known international game player forums, and his fluency seems to have returned to the new century.

On the major player forums, posts about Counter-Strike still occupy the largest proportion, but as the release date approaches, the proportion of StarCraft posts is also increasing.

And in terms of click-through rate alone, it even tends to exceed Counter-Strike-related posts.

The last and the last.

Gold cups and silver cups are not as good as word-of-mouth among gamers.

And with word of mouth, you can win the unreserved trust of game players and fans.

This is the case with Blizzard Entertainment at the moment. They have an advantage in terms of word of mouth, and they have firmly taken the lead in this new game release PK.

This will undoubtedly be a tough battle that will not be easy.

Thinking of this, Wu Tao seemed to be able to understand Molly's attitude of watching a movie as if she was waiting.

On March 31st, Los Angeles, the weather was fine.

Tianxing Game Company held a new game conference at the five-star Hilton Hotel.

This specification can be said to be quite high.

In contrast, Blizzard Entertainment held a small press conference at their company headquarters, which seemed much more low-key.

The press conference of Blizzard Entertainment was given by Allen, while the press conference of Tianxing Game Company was given by Li Ming, the main developer of Counter-Strike.

At the press conference, the BGM of Counter-Strike and some effect films were shown, which looked quite exciting.

In the subsequent Q&A with reporters, the exchanges between the two sides were also very active.

But Wu Tao is clear that these are too many to count. The ultimate victory or defeat lies in one point, that is, the performance of game sales.

Both games currently offer two sales models.

One is a game disc, generally worth between 19 and 79 US dollars. As a result, StarCraft, like Counter-Strike, chose the price of $59.

The other is to register an account on Battle.net by selling keys. This is relatively cheaper, but each key is also as high as $39!

As for the pricing in the European region, there are some differences, but the overall value difference is not much.

In the Asian region, the sales of StarCraft have not yet been covered. However, the Counter-Strike game is all installed in the Internet cafes in mainland China, and the registration of the Battle.net account is completely free.

So there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two.

At the same time as the press conference was held, Vivendi, as a veteran game publishing company, had distributed well-made game discs to various sales terminals.

It's just that this distribution model that relies on sales terminals has to wait until the next day to accurately count the sales data of the previous day.

On the contrary, the number of registrations on Battle.net Online is particularly intuitive and easy to count.

Perhaps it was a tacit agreement that the two companies broadcast the sales data of the new game in real time on the world's largest game player forum.

It is the first time to refresh the data. By the end of the press conference, StarCraft's Battle.net account number has exceeded 10,000, while Counter-Strike's account number has just exceeded 1,000.

The difference can be said to be quite obvious.

Shi Qianxue, who had been tense all the time, looked at the data, and immediately shouted: "It's over, it's over, it's really gorgeous to be on the street."

Qiu Xiaotian also frowned, but clenched his fists so tightly that even the veins on his hands burst out.

It is really the prospect of the game company, which places too many expectations and hopes.

Bad start.

The situation can be said to be quite pessimistic. Wu Tao thought silently, and suddenly asked: "By the way, how is the new registration of the domestic Battle.net account?"

Qiu Xiaotian immediately said: "I'll go check it out."

Not long after, Qiu Xiaotian took it back and returned with a wry smile on his face: "As of just now, the number of newly added accounts on the mainland's Counter-Strike Battle.net has exceeded 20,000, and it is still rising rapidly..."

Shi Qianxue said weakly, "What's the use of that? All registered accounts in China are free."

Wu Tao's eyes lit up and said: "That may not be useless, why don't we just wait and see..."