Chapter 609 - The Third-Largest Comic Company (1/2)
“Even though we developed our own capabilities, we have never stopped buying character IPs. We have a huge place in the GOG creative area to showcase the character IPs we bought and to allow players to collect them,” Bao Xu continued.
“GOG world server is currently lacking in this area!”
“That’s right, we are indeed lacking in that!” Min Jingchao said in realization.
“The character IPs we have bought until now are characters with a little influence locally, but none at all when it comes to overseas. These character IPs are foreign to them.
“Comparing the current GOG hero storage to IOI, they might have the advantage locally, but the reverse is true overseas. Players overseas might be more tolerant towards the heroes of IOI.
“That is a very crucial point that we have to address!”
Ye Zhizhou gave it some thought. “Then, what if we are to create an online GOG creative site?”
Min Jingchao shook his head. “No, GOG creative sites can only make good things on the precondition that there are enough players and that a large number of them participate.
“However, GOG does not have many overseas players now. We’ll definitely not be able to gather good works if we are to make a creative site now. This money would either not be able to be spent or it would be spent meaninglessly.
“You should buy some international successful IPs!
“This way, it would have the same publicity effect as big-shot celebrities or even better because the target audience would be clearer. We can code these successful IPs into the game; it is much better than to get a celebrity to endorse it!”
Ye Zhizhou became excited. “Understood! As expected, this should be the answer that Boss Pei wants!”
Everyone discussed again and became even more convinced that ‘buy IPs’ was the best answer to Boss Pei’s puzzle. It should also be something that Boss Pei had considered.
This ‘buy IPs” direction was the original principle from when GOG developed. It was now pushed into the world server and required an IP widely accepted by overseas players.
“Everyone, don’t be too happy so fast. We have not fully deciphered Boss Pei’s problem,” Li Yada reminded everyone.
“We’ve decided to buy IPs, but how do we buy? Which one to buy?
“20 million US dollars will definitely not be enough if we were to buy those famous heroes since most overseas companies are eyeing them as well. The copyrights of those dramatized ones would be sky-high.
“Buying expensive big IPs will probably not be in line with Boss Pei’s original intentions since Boss Pei never buys expensive big IPs locally.
“It’s different from domestic markets. We have to get an IP that is influential enough for the publicity to have the effect.”
Everyone entered a state of argument.
Finally, Li Yada suggested, “Therefore, we have two ways now. The first way is to buy two internationally successful IP; the second is to buy a large number of not so well known IPs that international players can identify with.
“Since we are unsure, we can send both answers to Boss Pei and let him decide.”
Ye Zhizhou nodded and stood up. “Understood, thank you, everyone! I’ll go back to do a simple investigation before we let Boss Pei make the final decision!”
…
…
August 10th, Wednesday…
Pei Qian received Ye Zhizhou’s phone call not long after he woke up.
“Boss Pei, we have come up with GOG’s international server publicity proposal! We want to buy some international character IPs to put them into the game!
“However, we now have a problem. Should we buy one or two famous international character IPs, or should we buy a few more character IPs that are not so well-known but will match international players’ wants?”
Pei Qian thought about it for a while before replying. “The latter.”
Such international character IPs would be too painful. Pei Qian was afraid that IOI would not be able to rival them. Such a worry might be strange, but it was not at all unreasonable.
The GOG game itself was already much better than IOI: a client-side game with reasonable fees and a whole load of character heroes. The game machine was easier to get used to and to spread.
Moreover, GOG was now being promoted overseas. There were two main points: its inability to adapt and the chances of its name spreading.
Unable to adapt was mainly from the fear of the hero’s image not fitting overseas players’ tastes and being unable to be localized.
Buying IPs could indeed solve this problem. However, if it was to purchase international famous IPs, Pei Qian was afraid that it would be too high-handed and kill IOI instantly. Then, he would not be able to spend money overseas as happily.