N-M Chapter 294 Paying Salaries with Q Coins?
Chapter 294 Paying Salaries with Q Coins?
What reassured the film and television department was that, just after the Spring Festival, their big-budget Lunar New Year film, "The Mermaid," which they had bet on half a year earlier, was a box office hit that was almost frenzied across the country!
The terrifying speed at which it raked in over 200 million yuan in a single day and easily over 1 billion yuan in the first week not only gave the film and television department, which had just experienced budget cuts, a powerful boost, but also demonstrated that Enlight Media, a long-established film and television giant in China, has almost completely aligned itself with the Haofeng Group!
It's worth noting that "The Mermaid" was not only controlled and promoted by Haofeng, but the male lead was also Deng Chao, who has been the most promoted actor by Enlight Media in the past two years.
Interpersonal relationships in the film and television industry are always very pragmatic.
In the past six months, Tencent has been aggressively poaching talent from the film and entertainment industries.
However, the box office success of "The Mermaid" proves that in the domestic film industry, established film giants still have confidence in Haofeng Group's distribution and marketing ecosystem and Wanda's cinema scheduling.
At least in this battle for the big screen, there are still plenty of traditional, established companies betting that Haofeng will win in the end!
……
Just as good news was pouring in from the film and television industry, a few days later, the global game publisher revenue ranking for early 2016, jointly released by several top overseas venture capital firms and authoritative industry media, was officially announced online.
On the list, Haofeng Games stands out thanks to the massive revenue generated by League of Legends in global tournaments, as well as the global money-making matrix of three dark horse mobile games: Honor of Kings, Rise of Kingdoms, and the recently popular Clash Royale...
It has surpassed its old rival, the penguin, to become number one in the world!
On this list representing the world's top gaming influence, Blizzard Entertainment, once a Western giant, only ranks fifth. Its annual net profit is even less than that of NetEase, the third largest online game company in China!
In stark contrast to the rise of the gaming industry in the great Eastern power, the American gaming market is gradually weakening.
According to the latest data disclosed by foreign media, the total sales of physical games and hardware in the United States in February were only $3.09 million, a year-on-year decrease of 11%!
These cold, hard statistics all confirm one fact—times have truly changed.
Western giants that once dominated the world with consoles and single-player games are being ruthlessly left behind by Dongda's new ecosystem centered on mobile games and esports.
However, in this all-round e-sports and mobile game battle between the two domestic giants, Tencent and Haofeng.
The one that suffers the most is not the person directly involved, but the third largest player in the domestic game industry – NetEase!
In this tug-of-war of burning money, which resembled the twilight of the gods, in order to build the strongest development barrier on mobile devices to counter Haofeng, Tencent Games' IEG department launched a crazy poaching plan.
They not only offered an exorbitant base salary, which was considered astronomical in the industry, but also used Tencent's interactive entertainment stock options as leverage to wield the sickle of greed towards NetEase's R&D center!
The loss of team members within NetEase has reached a very serious level.
The betrayal that Ding Lei found most heartbreaking happened last week!
The core producer of NetEase's highly anticipated 2D Japanese-style card game, Onmyoji, which is currently in the confidential stage and nearing completion, has suddenly led his entire core R&D team to jump ship to Tencent overnight!
Not only did they leave, they even took all the unfinished source code and artwork of "Onmyoji" from their computers to the Fiyta Building in Shenzhen!
As expected, the pig farm and the goose farm immediately went to court, engaging in a fierce war of words.
Having tasted success, the penguins became quite indifferent in their territory in Nanshan District.
So what if you lose the lawsuit?
At worst, I'll fight you through two or three years of drawn-out legal battles and pay you some paltry breach of contract penalties!
We already have the people in our hands, and we've thoroughly understood the source code. At worst, we can just reskin the game, change its name to "Ghost Catcher," and still rake in billions on mobile!
Moreover, who has Tencent's legal team been afraid of in the Nanshan District of Shenzhen?
Do you, NetEase, really think you're some kind of powerful force in Nanjing?! In Nanshan, my rules are the rules!
……
Just as the pig and goose families were tearing each other apart over the source code of "Onmyoji"...
Jinling, CEO's office.
Li Feng looked thoughtfully at the headlines on Weibo where the two sides were exchanging insults.
Since the pig farm had suffered such a great injustice, he naturally had to stand up at this crucial moment and seek justice for his ally.
That evening.
Inside a clubhouse in Jinling.
Li Feng hosted a dinner and specially invited Ding Lei, the head of the pig farm, to Nanjing.
Seeing Ding Lei's exhausted face across from him, Li Feng personally poured him a glass of wine.
"Old Ding, this glass of wine is for you, as a way to calm your nerves."
"Pony has gone too far this time! He has no regard for rules or boundaries whatsoever!"
"This street robbery has come right to your pig farm's doorstep, taking everyone and everything, including the source code. The way they're doing this is shameful! Looking across the entire Dongda Internet community, I'm embarrassed for them!"
Upon hearing Li Feng's words, Ding Lei, who was already feeling aggrieved, immediately had tears welling up in his eyes as the alcohol took effect!
"That's right! Brother Li! This Pony is a fucking freak!"
Ding Lei took a big gulp of wine and gritted his teeth as he angrily denounced:
"This guy has absolutely no morals! Does he think he can just poop and pee on my turf because he has QQ and WeChat?!"
"This time, I'm not going to fight for nothing! Even if this lawsuit goes all the way to Beijing, I'll sue them to death! I won't let these robbers shit on my pig farm!"
Looking at Ding Lei's trembling expression, he was furious.
Li Feng was secretly overjoyed, but on the surface he wore an expression of righteous indignation.
He patted Ding Lei on the shoulder, his tone firm and resolute:
"Brotherhood is in our hearts! Don't worry, Lao Ding, what I, Li Feng, despise most in this life is this kind of utterly immoral and banditry!"
"Just fight them to the death in court! As for the media and public relations battles..."
Li Feng sneered and pointed out the window: "Leave it to me! Tomorrow morning I'll have Weibo's operations department send our Little Ma a New Year's gift package!"
……
as predicted.
The sixth day of the Lunar New Year is the last day of the Spring Festival holiday.
A long-form popular science article, heavily promoted by Haofeng on Weibo and even featured on the opening screens of iQiyi and Bilibili, went viral online in the early morning!
Unveiling the Rise of Tencent: The Startups Ruined by Plagiarism and Predatory Practices!
This viral article, polished by Haofeng PR Department, not only details how Tencent has used its channel advantages to drive Lianzhong to its demise over the years, but also exposes its pixel-perfect plagiarism of Audition Online.
Furthermore, someone in the comments section released a wave of truly damaging "old dirt"!
"Let's not even talk about business competition anymore. Pony Ma has been a miser at heart since the 90s, not even sparing his employees!"
"Pictures don't lie! Back when Tencent was just starting out, Pony Ma, in an effort to save money, actually used the company's QQ coins to pay the salaries of the IT and PR department employees!!"
"Using QQ coins as wages?! Holy crap! This is like paying wages with ghost money! No wonder it's a rogue company that squeezes every last drop of blood from its employees! [crying][crying]"
This mix of true and false old news quickly put enormous public relations pressure on Tencent!
On this day, netizens and fans across the internet once again launched a massive boycott of the penguin.
Even though Tencent's PR department was frantic in Shenzhen, their explanations were quickly drowned out by the barrage of criticism from millions of netizens in Haofeng's dominant media sphere.