With the joint press conference of Tianxing mobile phones and Atari concluding, the entire mobile phone industry's hostility towards Jiangnan Group completely disappeared, replaced by close cooperation.
Although many companies were dissatisfied with the revenue-sharing ratio, twenty mobile phone companies eventually signed contracts with Jiangnan Group one after another. Of course, Jiangnan Group did not engage in the unpleasant and offending practice of electronic contracts.
All companies that clicked to confirm soon received invitations from Jiangnan Group. Both parties officially signed cooperation agreements at the headquarters of 00 Games' US branch. The person responsible for this signing was none other than Leng Zhimeng, the president of 00 Network.
Indeed, Leng Zhiwen and Leng Zhiruo did not accompany her to the United States this time. Instead, Leng Zhimeng happily tagged along, with a very valid reason: her two older sisters had visited several times, so there was no reason why she shouldn't have the opportunity.
Moreover, Leng Zhimeng was directly responsible for the gaming business, making her even more qualified to come. She came on her own, and Huang He did not stop her, as Leng Zhimeng wouldn't cause any significant trouble.
While the 00 mobile phone game center was launched with great fanfare, and these mobile phone companies were busy signing contracts, on the other side, discussions were also underway with major global game companies, with invitations being sent to these enterprises.
For example, Namco, located in Fusang, received an invitation from 00 Games to join the 00 mobile phone game platform.
"What do you all think of this invitation from 00 Games?" Namco attached great importance to this matter and proactively convened a senior management meeting for discussion.
"I believe we can try to join!" a senior executive stated. "I think joining the 00 Game Center is beneficial, as the mobile game market is a brand new market and a new platform. The revenue obtained from this platform will be additional income, and there's no reason for us to refuse this income."
"Moreover, this matter has no cost. Namco accumulated a large number of pixel games during the FC era. These games only need minor adaptations to be launched on the mobile platform, with very low costs."
"But the number of mobile users is very large. I checked the mobile platforms that the 00 Game platform currently cooperates with, including Samsung, LG, and over twenty other mobile phone companies, with a total global user base exceeding 20 million. Even if only 1% of them are willing to pay for games, that would be 200,000 paying players, potentially bringing in over 2 million US dollars in profit. Isn't that a good thing?"
"Absurd, I think it's absolutely not!" Immediately, another senior executive stood up to object. "Games can only be played on consoles. Games on PC are not considered real games, let alone mobile games. This is an insult to games, the biggest joke in the world, and Namco absolutely cannot be such a joke!"
Well, this reason sounds quite ridiculous, but it is the reality, and it still holds true even in 2022.
For example, League of Legends players feel that Honor of Kings is not worthy of being called a Dota game, while Dota 2 players believe that League of Legends is not worthy of being called Dota. Then Dota players believe that those are just trash after commercialization, and only the map made by IceFrog and released on the Warcraft 3 platform is the true Dota, and everything else is a scam.
And Warcraft 3 players feel that those who don't play competitive matches and go to play bird maps are not worthy of being called players.
This set of logic also applies to game companies. For instance, Blizzard players look down on Steam players, Steam players look down on NetEase players, NetEase players look down on Tencent players, and Tencent players look down on... look down on players of games other than League of Legends within Tencent.
Therefore, the hierarchy of disdain is still very serious on game platforms. For example, console players feel that games on other platforms are not worthy of being called games, except for those on their own bundled handheld consoles.
Handheld console players look down on PC players, thinking that games that don't require controller operation are trash.
PC players look down on mobile players, thinking they are just wiping phone screens.
Mobile players are compared to those who spend more on mobile games, and then the first-charge players despise the monthly card players, who despise the casual spenders, who despise...
In short, it's an endless cycle.
Ahem, back to the point. In summary, at this time, within game companies, although most game companies have PC games, console games, and handheld games, this is already the limit for these companies. They absolutely cannot tolerate their degeneration to the point of developing games for mobile phones.
Therefore, after this senior executive spoke, nearly half of the senior executives nodded vigorously, expressing their full agreement and appreciation for this opinion.
"Ahem!" The chairman of Namco coughed and said, "Everyone, don't consider these issues. As you all know, our company's recent financial situation is not good, and we urgently need fresh profits to support the company's operations. Therefore, we should only discuss whether joining the mobile game platform can bring sufficient benefits to the company!"
"If that's the case, I also believe this mobile platform cannot bring much benefit!" The executive who previously expressed his disdain immediately stood up and continued, "Following up on what Yamada-kun said, he mentioned that over twenty mobile phone companies have joined this platform. However, I have carefully reviewed the list of these twenty companies, and among them, only Samsung and LG, whom you just mentioned, are among the top ten global companies. The rest are some insignificant small companies."
"You say these companies have a combined user base of 20 million."
"But the remaining companies have a combined global user base of over 200 million. However, these companies have not reached cooperation with the Atari platform, and instead, there has been no response, which indicates that these companies are not interested in developing any mobile game platforms."
"If we rashly cooperate with Atari at this time, will we lose the opportunity to cooperate with more mobile phone companies?"
"Therefore, I believe this matter requires careful consideration and cannot be concluded lightly!" this executive spoke eloquently.
"Indeed, and I have also discovered another very serious matter!" As soon as this executive finished speaking, another executive immediately stood up and said, "Did everyone notice that the file provided by Jiangnan Group indicates our revenue-sharing ratio is 50%."
"Gentlemen, do you know how terrible this is? Our revenue-sharing ratio with all other game platforms has always been 70%, but now it has dropped to 50%. Once we agree to this agreement and it sets an industry precedent, then the revenue-sharing ratio for mobile platforms in the future will be 50%. This will cause huge damage to the company's interests, and we will lose a large amount of profit that originally belonged to us."
"Therefore, we absolutely cannot be blinded by small, immediate gains. Although mobile games may indeed have business opportunities in the future, we should all the more fight hard for our revenue-sharing ratio and absolutely not fall below the 70% standard line, otherwise, we will be sinners of the entire game industry!"
As this executive finished speaking, everyone present wore a solemn expression. Indeed, the 50% precedent should not be set, as it would lead to endless consequences.
"Gentlemen, I actually think this is a matter that doesn't need discussion, because mobile phones are not excellent game carriers!" another person said. As this person spoke, many in the audience showed admiration and respect.
Because this was the legendary game producer of Namco, the creator of Pac-Man, and also the company's president, Takuya Nakamura. He said, "As you all know, I was once a loyal Atari fan, and it was the games from Atari that attracted me to this industry."
"I have a collection of all Atari games at home. Yesterday, I let my grandson experience them, but he played for less than five minutes before completely discarding my collection of ancient relics, saying they were the worst games in history and that no one would be interested in such games!"
"Later, I tried letting him experience FC games, and it was a bit better, but he still played for less than 20 minutes before going back to his PS."
"So, gentlemen, mobile games might have a certain convenience, but due to functional differences, they are destined to be swept into the dustbin of history! I don't believe anyone would be willing to pay a lot for such games."
"Not to mention that within this 00 Game platform, there are over 1,000 free Atari games. These free games are enough for people on buses to pass the time, and they have no need to pay for mobile games."
"I estimate that within the next ten years, the market size will not exceed 10 million US dollars, and what Namco can get from it will be less than 200,000 US dollars. And for the sake of earning 200,000 US dollars, are you willing to give up the glory of Namco?" With Takuya Nakamura's words, everyone immediately shook their heads, and at the same time, they understood that there was no need for the meeting to continue, as their company had already made its decision.
The same scenario was playing out in almost all well-known game companies. After their meetings, these game companies reached a remarkably consistent conclusion: there was no necessity to participate in this mobile game platform.
Firstly, the 50% revenue-sharing ratio broke the established profit-sharing rules of game companies, and they could not accept such a change in rules. Secondly, they instinctively believed that mobile games were a market that would never grow.
The statement "less than 10 million US dollars in five years" somehow spread throughout the industry. Although the founder of Pac-Man originally said that the annual market size would not exceed 10 million US dollars within five years.
However, in the mouths of others, it became that the entire market would not earn 10 million US dollars in five years combined.
Such a prevailing argument naturally severed the path for game companies to cooperate. Not to mention, at this very moment, those mobile phone companies that did not choose to join the 00 Game platform were also holding meetings themselves.