Chapter 172 is still a loss, two games, two movies
Roland actually overlooked a problem.
When he was worth 300 million, the most valuable asset in his hand was Berkshire Hathaway stock.
When he was worth 800 million, the most valuable asset in his hand was Berkshire Hathaway stock.
In two and a half years, Berkshire Hathaway has risen from 15,400 per share to 31,300 per share, and he got more than 50 million from "Jurassic Park". The net proceeds from sharing accounts only turned into 140 million in cash.
He feels that this kind of income is already very considerable, but...
The speed of asset appreciation has never surpassed that of stocks that do not need to be taken care of!
After all, of the 140 million, there are more than 90 million is his own endorsement value and "The Lion King" share!
If you calculate carefully, the more than 50 million you got at the beginning, after two and a half years of operation, he played it into more than 40 million!
The operation is as fierce as a tiger, take a closer look at the stick in place!
loss!
Compared with the increase in stocks, it is still a blood loss!
What a sad story this is!
╮(╯▽╰)╭
Although "The Seven Deadly Sins" and "The Shawshank Redemption" can bring him a steady stream of income, as well as tickets to other circles, the book algorithm that playing film and television will result in long-term losses is still established.
The production cycle is too long, the return of funds is too slow, there are too many force majeure factors, and the risks cannot be controlled...
In this case, it would be silly to use your own money to make a movie!
Calm down, after reading the report that David brought, Roland decided that if he starts a project in the future, he must not give David Fincher 30 million real money from his own pocket like "Seven Deadly Sins"!
Must find a bank loan!
Or start a film production project fund!
Borrow other people's chickens to lay golden eggs for yourself!
And my own chickens are thrown into the Internet field to produce nuclear bombs!
"140 million will be put in the company account first. Recently, there seems to be nowhere to use the money."
"Keep up with Yahoo's financing progress and ensure that 20% of the shares will not be diluted. Then let the guy at the investment company pay more attention to Internet companies. If anyone seeks investment, just fax me the project report. "
"Other than that, there seems to be nothing else going on, right?"
"Oh, no!"
"Blizzard Entertainment, is the game ready?"
"Sony, is the game console released?"
Regardless of the past two months, Roland has spent most of his time at home.
But he wasn't just playing, but was concentrating on the announcement and release of the two films!
So much so that he ignored that PlayStation had logged in to America on September 9 this year, and he even forgot what Blizzard Entertainment's "Spider-Man" development looks like, and has "Warcraft 2: Dark Tide" already started production?
He doesn't know anything!
Looking at Roland who was slapping his forehead, David leaned back in the chair and yawned. After searching for a while, he pulled out a book and threw it in front of Roland, "PlayStation has been released, "Jurassic" "Ji Park" game discs have also sold a lot, as before, people who like Steven don't like this game, but they still bought it."
"From September to now, sales have exceeded one million sets."
"However, Sony has encountered a problem. The PlayStation is prone to overheating during the running of the game, resulting in disk reading errors, so that many players choose to turn the machine upside down to let it dissipate heat when playing games."
“Because of this problem, Sony had to adjust and modify the machine that has not yet left the factory.”
"The new version will be launched next year. In this way, even if the sales are good now, it will not be enough for them to celebrate the success."
"Because the problem of disk reading error cannot be solved, then this product will eventually die violently."
Oh...then I'm relieved...
Hearing what David said, Roland nodded.
Anyway, he was the one who encouraged Spielberg to sell the game copyright of "Jurassic Park" to Sony.
If the sales die suddenly, it will affect Spielberg's income, now...
Sony just got into the heat dissipation problem that Roland encountered in his previous life, so how to adjust and modify it has nothing to do with him!
"As for Blizzard Entertainment..."
After seeing Roland nodding his head and expressing his understanding, David continued: "The "Spider-Man" game has been finished, but Sony plans to launch it together with next year's movie, and "Warcraft 2: Dark Tide" will be released on the fifteenth day of next month." No., it will be listed for sale.”
"Because you are relatively busy, Blizzard Entertainment directly connects with Sony and EA."
"Not only that, they are also eyeing a game studio. Do you remember the bonus you gave them at the beginning of the year?"
"You gave them 30% of the company's profits as a bonus, and let them handle the remaining 70% by themselves. They can develop any game, so they asked for half a million dollars from the financial department to pay for it. The name of the company has invested in another game project called Condor Studio, according to the report given to me by the general manager of the company, what is the name of that game project..."
"Diablo?"
"Mike wants to swallow that studio. Although you told them that they don't need to call you for project establishment and acquisition, and they can make decisions on their own, they didn't do it right away, but wanted to tell you when you were done. One sound, anyway, the project has already been taken down, so there is no rush to buy it sooner or later..."
I'll be good!
Isn’t Condor studio Blizzard North?
Roland, who was cosplaying Sunflower with his hands on his cheeks, just laughed.
This is what a qualified employee should do!
The company is my family, and development depends on everyone!
After learning that the group of guys 'made their own decisions', Roland planned to go to the company.
Regardless of how "Spider-Man" is doing, whether "Warcraft 2" can be released or not, he will not change the decision of professionals, and what he wants to do is actually to find some fun in a boring life.
For example, play a game you just made.
So, after instructing David to call Scarlett's mother when Double Star's new season-changing products are launched, and inform the other party to bring her daughter to take pictures, Roland throws a lot of things to David's feet again. .
Picked up the phone and asked the driver to drive to Blizzard Entertainment headquarters in Irvine.
With Roland's arrival, the Big Three of Blizzard, who hadn't seen him for a year, extended a warm welcome to him. When the project went on sale, and when the new project was launched depending on the sales situation, Roland was not stingy, and paid for it out of his own pocket, and set up an internal competition within the company.
The competition items, of course, are "Spider-Man" and "Warcraft 2"!
Employees can choose their own projects to participate in. All registered contestants can get a participation award of 1,000 US dollars, and the individual champion can get a huge reward of 100,000 US dollars. million bonuses.
Of course, the prize money for the championship and Asian season does not overlap with the participation award.
To put it bluntly, Roland was annoyed by those flattering phone calls, and paid employees to play games with him.
But for those staff members in Blizzard, this is simply a way for the boss to give benefits in a different way!
Programmers from game companies are indeed very popular these days, but that is compared to fresh graduates from other industries.
After all, video games these days are not a money-absorbing weapon in the future, and the salary of programmers is high, but it is unimaginable to spend 100,000 dollars a year. In addition, many guys are self-employed, so...
Everyone is fighting for their dreams, as for money?
Under Roland's decentralization of money, Blizzard's treatment is already in the first echelon of the industry.
Roland knows better than anyone else that the boss sings well rather than doing well.
Under the circumstances that the game company is not expected to make a profit at all, giving benefits to these guys is actually helpful to the development of the company's products, and what he wants is actually fun games and IPs!
So, when Roland asked his assistant to take out the cash and pile it into the company, more than forty people had already signed up.
As the bonus sponsor, Luo Lanna certainly has the right to compete with everyone.
Although he has played "Warcraft 2" before, but he touches the keyboard again after many years. If he wants to beat the developers in the battle, it is simply a dream, and the gap between the third generation and the second generation is actually very big. Big one, so what kind of armaments cooperate, in fact, they can’t fight, but the introduction of the fog of war for the first time allows him to stage various tactics, but unfortunately, the game is played in a public place, he just played Twice, the next player has already watched the meeting.
"Wow, can you stop peeping at the screen!" Roland was a little 'crashed'.
"Boss, of course we can avoid spying on the screen, but your tactics are indeed something we didn't think of when developing the game before. We are just learning now, er... yes, learning, in order to better develop the next version."
With such 'shameless' employees, even if Roland has three heads and six arms, he can't beat them!
Because as long as you headshot your opponent with one shot, you can win!
Of course, "Warcraft 2" can't beat the developers, it doesn't matter, "Spider-Man" is a side-scrolling fighting game, it's purely about operation and understanding; Roland could clearly feel that the game in front of him was really similar to the "King of Fighters" with cool skills!
The point is, the operation is simple!
Let’s take the key position of ‘→+X’ as an example.
Use Spider-Man to rub out this sequence, that is, the wrist spits spider silk;
Use the Green Goblin to rub out this sequence, that is, throw the pumpkin bomb;
Using Dr. Octopus to create this sequence, that is, the arm behind the back is suddenly extended for a long-distance extended strike;
Use Professor Lizard to rub out this sequence, that is, take out a brick or trash can or stone from the ground out of thin air, and smash it forward.
To put it bluntly, during the development, Mike Mohamy and the others made the final refinement of each character.
What long-range attack, melee attack, and control skills, these operations are all fixed by the same key position, so that players can become familiar with all characters in the shortest time after purchasing the game.
Doing this can help players get started quickly, as for the degree of playability...
That of course follows the decline in the difficulty of getting started, and there is a certain reduction.
However, in their words, "The selling point of the whole game is actually the name Spider-Man and the skill maps made according to the comic book prototype. As for the operability, it can only be explored by the players themselves."
"We don't know what kind of combos they can play."
"It's like when you play "Warcraft 2" these days, you can play different tactics."
“A lot of things we couldn’t think of at the time of development.”
Roland can understand the explanation of the Blizzard Big Three.
After all, the Big Three of Blizzard are just coders, they know a **** game!
DOTA was born in the map editor of "Warcraft", but it was acquired by Fatty G.
The behavior of throwing away the money that others stuffed into your hands, isn’t it enough to prove that the Big Three of Blizzard don’t understand the game at all?
The guy who doesn't understand the game speaks the words to let the player explore the game by himself, Roland naturally understands it!
Of course, as far as he is concerned, he is already very satisfied with the current level of "Spider-Man".
Easy to learn and quick to fight, this is the core mystery of the game, there is no need to make it the same as "Street Fighter", rub skills and build energy, "King of Fighters 97" is Roland's favorite difficulty.
After all, the threshold is low, and the audience is wider, so the guys who are willing to spend money to try will increase accordingly.
Different from traditional fighting, "Spider-Man" is sold as a derivative product developed by IP, not a pure fighting game.
After spending a week holding the first Blizzard internal game competition, the dizzy Roland was annoyed by the phone call, and finally left Irvine refreshed. Before leaving, he also told Mike and others, He felt that the game plan of "Diablo" was well written, and he could try to win the opponent's studio.
Roland spoke up, and the others had no objections. Just when they were about to invite the four founders of Condor Studio to discuss acquisition matters, Roland returned home and finally found a peaceful life.
He has been out and hiding for a week, if other people are still chasing him, it will be really unreasonable.
After returning home, as Christmas was approaching and the awards season hype was in full swing, Roland actually didn't have much work.
Together with the three Olsen sisters and James, I went to the theater to watch Pixar's first step on the road to greatness - "Toy Story"; then I supported the Olsen sisters and participated in " Jumanji premiere.
At the premiere, Robin Williams, who had helped Roland once, asked him if he was interested in participating in his new project.
"New project?" Roland blinked his eyes, feeling that there was something wrong with Robin Williams' inquiry.
A-list like him, how can there be new projects that cannot attract investment?
"Yes, a new project, from Miramax, the Weinstein Brothers." Robin Williams nodded, not feeling that there was any problem with Roland's surprise, "You know, the two brothers like to save money. money."
"They searched for a book in 1995. It was about a cleaner with mathematical talent who solved the math problems of the MIT mathematics professor, but because he was rebellious and uninhibited, he often caused trouble."
"The mathematics professor appreciated his talent, released the cleaner on bail, and found a psychiatrist to help him find the meaning of life."
Hearing what Robin Williams said, Roland immediately understood that this is "Good Will Hunting"!
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's famous work, and Robin Williams won the Oscar for Best Actor!
This kind of movie drew him into the game, of course he was interested, maybe after he asked about the entry conditions, he just waved his hand and refused.
"For a project with a total investment of 10 million yuan, they want to give up 8 million investment shares?"
"The point is, the income that matches the 8 million share is only overseas distribution rights and copyrights other than America?"
"I can't accept this kind of condition at all, Robin, if the copyright of the script is not in the hands of the Weinstein Brothers, then you can ask Matt and Ben to come to me directly, but if it is, I can't get involved .”
That's right, just when Roland made up his mind to borrow chickens to lay eggs, the Weinstein brothers had already used this trick with great proficiency.
80% of the investment share is sold overseas copyright?
The guy with a broken brain agrees to be slaughtered!
Seeing that Roland didn't even have the mind to negotiate, Robin Williams, who knew the cooperation offer was a scam, stopped there.
After the premiere, Roland, who was debt-free and young, booked the show and dragged James to watch two movies with him.
One is "007: Golden Eye" and the other is "Twelve Monkeys".
To be honest, when Roland took James to the cinema at first, James refused because he didn't like the "007" series. It has been disintegrated, that kind of old-fashioned routine, he is even more lazy to waste time watching it.
As for "Twelve Monkeys", he felt that there was a problem with this movie just by hearing the name.
What's wrong with seeing it?
Must see twelve monkeys?
With this free time, is it really not good to go to the zoo to see it by yourself?
The money including the movie theater is enough to buy hundreds of monkeys!
But after watching the R-rated movie, James, who couldn't resist Roland, realized that there was a reason why Roland didn't pull himself here!
"Who is the heroine in that movie just now? She's so beautiful!"
As soon as he finished watching "Twelve Monkeys", James directly abandoned the plot of traveling through time and space, and asked about the information of the heroine Roland.
"Do you know how old she is?" Roland did not reply directly.
"How much?" James was very curious.
"My name is Madeleine Stowe. She was born in 1958 and is now thirty-seven years old."
"What? You can't see it at all!"
"It's right if you can't see it! If you could see it, would you still be surprised now?"
That's right, since "Twelve Monkeys" avoids a bunch of theories such as parallel universe, quantum theory, grandfather paradox, butterfly effect, etc., then Roland really regarded this movie as a romance movie.
And what is the essence of romance movies?
Of course the heroine is beautiful!
When he was watching "Twelve Monkeys", he thought the heroine was pretty, and later he chased "Revenge" because of her beauty.
Now, after reading it again, he thinks it’s okay.
As for "007: GoldenEye"...
What I saw was actually the heroine.
There is no other reason. It is purely that the new version of Phoenix Girl Sophie Turner is really not as good-looking as the old version of Bond Girl Famke Jansen!
When "X-Men: Apocalypse" came out, he couldn't get the appearance of Sansha, and the appearance in "X-Men: Dark Phoenix" was even more earthy, plus Aunt Johnson played Phoenix When I was a girl, my appearance was already at a low point, so now I have the opportunity to see the Phoenix Girl when I was young, why would I refuse?
After "007: GoldenEye" was finished, Roland turned to look at James and said, "How do you feel?"
"I think it's OK." James pursed his lips and nodded, "It's on par with Madeleine Stowe."
"Hey, by the way, why did you suddenly remember to watch these two movies?" James, who came back to his senses, felt something was wrong.
"Choosing an actor." Roland shrugged and prevaricated with legitimate reasons, "I have a lot of copyrights in my hand."
"Choose an actor?" Hearing what Roland said, James' voice suddenly raised a lot, "What movie are you going to make?"
"My dad told me before that you have no intention of starting a new project recently!"
Note: ①PlayStation did encounter overheating when it was first launched, and when it overheated, it read the disk incorrectly, so that Sony urgently repaired it. It was launched in North America less than three months ago, and a repaired version was released in 1996. ②The copyright of "Good Will Hunting" was taken away by the Weinstein Brothers in 1995. They are also known to use other people's money to do their own things when they make independent films. Even if they have money, they will not pay the full amount Invest in projects, and the benefits that are distributed are a beep.
(end of this chapter)