Qiu Hong sighed lightly and continued: "The closed and unique operating system that comes with home consoles is a strong protection for the copyright of stand-alone games. ”

"No matter how online games develop, overseas, the market share of stand-alone games is more than 60%, surpassing online games; In our domestic market around 2001, this proportion was about zero. ”

"The absence of home consoles has led to a rampant piracy, and the booming piracy has destroyed the single-player gaming market."

"People who didn't experience that era have no idea how miserable the single-player game market was at that time. To put it simply, the single machine is so tragic that even if the price is reduced to 15 yuan a piece, players will still choose the pirated version for 6 yuan. ”

"At that time, domestic games were just in their infancy, and because of cultural barriers, they basically couldn't be sold overseas, so they could only smash the domestic market."

"Before that, many domestic stand-alone games could be sold at a price of dozens of yuan, and the profits were good; But in just one or two years, genuine games had to fight a price war with pirated games, and in order to fight piracy, "Four Seas Storm Club" dropped the retail price to 18 yuan, and even gave away a batch with the magazine, but it still didn't help. ”

"The reduction of the price of the game has not achieved the effect of small profits and quick turnover, but has greatly reduced the revenue, the revenue has decreased, the production cost can only be reduced, and the quality of the game has also decreased."

"In addition, individual garbage companies have developed a lot of garbage games, which seriously overdraws the enthusiasm of a small number of genuine game supporters, and finally becomes a dead loop, and domestic stand-alone games are equated with inferior quality."

"When an 18-dollar genuine game still can't beat a 6-dollar pirated game, it's all doomed, and no matter how much you struggle, it won't help. The tide of online games has given game producers like me a way to live, allowing me to make online games and continue to stay in the game industry. Otherwise, I would probably go to an Internet company and become a product manager. ”

So, on the contrary, the stand-alone machine is not dying from online games, but from piracy. Online games, on the contrary, are a lifesaver for these manufacturers. ”

Pei Qian was silent for a long time and said, "However, if the product is good enough, someone will still pay, right?" I've heard that there are triple-A masterpieces abroad, but there are no anti-piracy measures. ”

Qiu Hong nodded: "Yes, Mr. Ma, what you said is right, that's right, it's completely correct." ”

"The only question is, what is the criterion of 'good enough'?"

"Do you want to achieve the same level of triple-A games as foreign manufacturers? Or is it one of the best among domestic manufacturers? ”

"That means that only by reaching the top 1% of the entire industry can you be considered good enough, and enough people can be impressed by you and pay for you."

"Some people say that piracy expands potential market share. First of all, this sentence is nonsense, and secondly, even if it is true, it will only have a small effect on the top 1% of the industry. ”

"If you can achieve a monopoly like a computer operating system, then maybe piracy can help you fight your competitors and maintain market share."

"But how many companies can make it to the top 1%? How many companies can achieve a monopoly? ”

"Is there any company that is born a big company, a monopoly?"

"The remaining 99%, just let them die?"

"It doesn't make sense to talk about the top 1% of an industry, how many people can make it to the top 1% in their field? If someone told you now that only the top 1% of your industry would be recognized and survive, and the remaining 99% would starve to death, would you stay in the industry? ”

"An industry tycoon like He An has made many successful stand-alone games, didn't he also switch careers to online games? When the tower base dies, the entire market will shrink across the board, and how can one or two companies on the spire change the entire market? ”

"So, a healthy industry should be like a pyramid, or an iceberg. The spire, or the part of the iceberg that rises to the surface, is the first 1% to enjoy the glory, and the base of the tower, or the iceberg under the water, they are the cornerstone of the existence of an industry. ”

"When the base of the tower does not exist, how can the spire exist?"

"So, whether the top 1% live well or not doesn't determine how the industry is. What really determines the life and death of this industry is whether the bottom and middle levels can survive. ”

"This is stuck in an endless loop:"

"Manufacturer: I need you to buy the genuine version so that I can better develop the game!"

"Player: Then you give us the best experience first! If you do the best, we will give up piracy and buy genuine copies! ”

"Manufacturer: But you have to refuse piracy and pay first before we can afford to provide a better experience!"

"Player: Then you have to give us the best experience first, and then we will refuse piracy!"

"So the manufacturers had to make online games."

"That's the market, it's the choice for players to vote with their feet. Players say that as long as we accept online games, we only accept pirated stand-alone machines, and do not accept genuine stand-alone games, so, as everyone wishes, the genuine stand-alone machine will die. ”

"The notion that players are only paying for what is good enough is inherently fine and should not be blamed, but only if it's a healthy, orderly market."

"If the market itself is full of unfair competition, then 'only paying for something good enough' means that in addition to the top 1% of content producers, the remaining 99% of ordinary content producers will be killed by people who compete unfairly and break the rules of the market."

"Just like now, a lot of video writers work hard to make videos for three days, and some people copy and paste them directly, you need three days, he only needs one second, what do you use to compete with him? If the audience doesn't have this awareness, they all think that it's the same content anyway, and I watch it the same here from the person who stole the video, who cares about your original author. So how many video writers do you think can really stay, except for the top part of the people? ”

"So, thanks to the establishment of the ESRO official platform in 2006, without it, then until now, the domestic stand-alone game market will still be a desert, and there will be no grass."

"Even if there are one or two single seedlings, they are just a flash in the pan, and they will never grow into towering trees."

"Because no one really cares."

Qiu Hong took a sip of coffee with a stunned expression.

Pei Qian was silent for a moment and asked, "What about ...... Since the living environment of domestic stand-alone machines has improved again in 2006, why don't you stick to your dream and continue to come back to make stand-alone games? ”

Qiu Hong smiled a little self-deprecatingly: "Because I gave up my dream." ”

"Remember what I said at the beginning? Sticking to your dreams is the biggest failure factor. ”

"When I first started in the industry, I made a single-player game and held on for more than two months without pay, and in the end no one even knew its name."

"So I gave up my dream and made a Xianxia-themed kryptonite online game, which allowed me to get a project bonus of 1 million a year, which can be said to be a success."

"So, what are my dreams, does it matter? Does anyone care? Who am I holding on to this dream for? If I insist on my dream so that I can only drink cold water and eat instant noodles every day, and give up my dream so that I can live a worry-free life, and still get the attention of tens of thousands of players, why should I persevere? ”

"So from that moment on, I made up my mind that I would only do kryptonite games, and my goal was to make more money. As for what is the great mission of revitalizing single-player games? What does it have to do with me? Even the players themselves don't care, who am I holding on for? ”

"In fact, among all the game makers who entered the industry at the same time as me and at that start-up stage, who didn't have a dream?"

"But these people who are my contemporaries, those who insist on their dreams, have left this industry, and people like me who give up their dreams can survive."

"Mr. Ma, you may think that my experience is not applicable to this era."

"Because domestic stand-alone games have gotten better and better, there is no piracy now, and more and more people are paying for domestic stand-alone games."

But the truth remains the same, between dreams and reality, only a very small number of people can have both. And the vast majority of people can only make a cruel choice: either give up their dreams, or be taught to be human by reality. ”

"Mr. Ma, this is my last heartfelt words."

"It's not for everyone, maybe right, maybe not. Either way, I hope it gives you some inspiration. ”

Pei Qian took a sip of coffee and didn't speak for a long time.

Because of this topic, there is indeed some heaviness.

Pei Qian really didn't know the relationship between the ESRO official platform, the extinction of piracy and the normal development of single-player games in this world, and now he knows that it is because of the establishment of the ESRO official platform and the strict control of piracy that the domestic single-player game market has been saved, and the world is different from the world in his memory.

The difference is a world of difference.

Qiu Hong said that if there was no ESRO official platform, then until today, domestic games would be a desert.

Pei Qian knew very well that what he said was right.

Because all this has been played out in my own memory.

But it was precisely because of this that Pei Qian felt that he should say something.

The current environment can already be said to be heaven. And the reason why Qiu Hong feels like he is in hell is simply because he has never seen the real hell.

Pei Qian thought for a moment and said: "Mr. Qiu, I know that it is impossible for people to truly empathize with each other, and many people can see it, just because they don't experience that kind of pain. Therefore, many times persuading others to be generous is a matter that is easy to be struck by lightning. ”

"But I still want to say a few words to you, can I?"

Qiu Hong nodded: "Of course, Mr. Ma, the two of us are bosom friends, but it doesn't hurt for you to say it." ”

Pei Qian said seriously: "I know that it is painful to pay but not get the due return, everyone will feel angry when their efforts are plagiarized, this world is full of unfairness, sometimes you can't even distinguish who is right and who is wrong, not every disaster, you can find a person responsible." ”

"There is a life creed that not everyone can adhere to, but everyone knows that it is right, this sentence is called: but do good deeds, don't ask about the future."

"Mr. Qiu, don't let the tragedy of the times become your personal tragedy."

Qiu Hong read the last sentence repeatedly, silent.

After a long time, he raised his head: "Mr. Ma, it's really good that you can think like this." ”

"Thank you."