Chapter 287: Then Let’s Make It Ten Billion Dollars Per Hero
In the studio, Chen Mo was pondering the early promotion strategy for *League of Legends*.
Although *League of Legends* itself had strong viral potential, the early promotion strategy was still very important, because Thunder Game Platform’s current channel capabilities were far behind those of the Penguin from his past life.
Moreover, *League of Legends* had an even weaker player base in this world.
In his past life, *Dota* had paved the way. When *League of Legends* launched, it happened to hit a critical gap period. *Dota* was very popular among young people, especially students, but its development was limited by factors like the engine, ranking system, difficulty curve, cheating, and so on.
*League of Legends* lowered the barrier to entry, and combined with the Penguin’s powerful operational and promotional capabilities, it gradually became a hit.
Setting aside the complex history and rivalries, it was an indisputable fact that *League of Legends* rode on *Dota*’s coattails, since *Dota* was the pioneer of this market.
But what about this world?
MOBA games had already appeared.
So, how to promote *League of Legends* still required careful consideration.
Just as he was thinking, the phone on his desk rang.
Chen Mo picked it up and saw it was an unfamiliar number from Magic City.
Chen Mo answered, “Hello?”
A male voice came from the other end, very polite: “Hello, may I ask if this is Mr. Chen Mo from Thunder Interactive Entertainment?”
Chen Mo said, “This is him.”
The male voice continued, “Hello, let me introduce myself first. I am the head of GA’s Magic City branch. You can call me Peter.”
Chen Mo frowned. Peter?
Although it was an English name, his Chinese was very good, so he probably wasn’t a foreigner. Chen Mo thought for a moment—after all, it was common for executives at foreign companies to use English names.
GA did have a branch in Magic City, which matched the location of the phone number.
Chen Mo asked, “Hello, is there something you need?”
Peter said, “It’s like this. GA headquarters is currently developing a new game called *COG*. I’m not sure if you’re aware of it. Since this game was originally a map from your game *Warcraft* and used many of its resources, we wanted to ask if you would be willing to sell us the related art copyrights. Of course, the price is negotiable.”
Chen Mo replied without hesitation, “Not selling.”
“Ahem.” Peter coughed awkwardly, then said, “Mr. Chen Mo, it’s just some art copyrights. In fact, with GA’s development strength and artistic level, making a game that completely surpasses *Warcraft* would be no challenge at all. The reason we want to buy your art copyrights is mainly to maintain players’ familiarity with the original *COG* map and ensure the game’s consistency to the greatest extent possible…”
Chen Mo: “Not selling. If there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up.”
“Please wait a moment!” Peter was surprised by Chen Mo’s firm attitude, not even asking about the price. “You should know that GA is a very financially strong company. For these copyrights…”
Chen Mo: “Oh, how about ten billion dollars per hero?”
Peter: “Huh?”
This time, Peter was completely baffled. Ten billion?
Was his hero made of gold? And even if it were, it couldn’t be worth that much!
Peter tentatively asked, “Do you mean in RMB?”
Chen Mo: “No, in US dollars.”
Peter: “…”
Ten billion US dollars per hero? Why not just rob a bank? If there were thirty heroes, that would be three hundred billion US dollars?
That was already the entire valuation of GA!
Peter was a bit annoyed. Chen Mo’s attitude clearly showed no sincerity: “Mr. Chen Mo, I don’t know what reason you have, but it feels like you might have some misunderstanding about this matter…”
Chen Mo said, “No misunderstanding. I already told you, I’m not selling anything from *Warcraft*.”
“Also, please pass this on to Raman Clive: although *COG* is a decent map, in my opinion, it’s still far from good enough. A bookish Chinese person will make a game that completely crushes *COG*.”
Peter: “Mr. Chen Mo…”
Before he could finish, Chen Mo had already hung up.
In truth, buying and selling copyrights wasn’t uncommon, and it wasn’t a big deal. For most game companies, as long as the money was enough, anything was negotiable.
So why was Chen Mo so firm?
First, the IP value of *Warcraft* was hard to measure in money, and *COG* was a competitor. Chen Mo wouldn’t shoot himself in the foot for short-term gains. Second, Chen Mo was very dissatisfied with their somewhat condescending attitude.
Clearly, Raman Clive and GA were underestimating him.
Raman Clive didn’t believe Chen Mo could handle the *COG* game model well, and GA thought, “It’s just the art copyrights for a few heroes, right? A small company from a developing country—just throw some money at them and buy the rights.”
Moreover, Chen Mo had no goodwill toward GA. They would eventually become rivals, so there was no need to consider their feelings now.
However, Chen Mo also knew that swapping out a set of art resources would be no challenge for GA, and it would have minimal impact on *COG*.
After all, *COG* didn’t have many players yet. They could change the hero names, change the models, and release a few new heroes, and players would gradually accept it.
But at least they’d have to go through a bit more trouble.
…
The next period of time was relatively calm.
Although Imperial Dynasty Interactive Entertainment and Divine Fantasy Game Platform had formed the largest domestic channel alliance, many independent game designers still chose to release their games on Chen Mo’s platform.
Ultimately, this was because this new major channel lacked a decisive work to prove its strength.
It was like the live-streaming platform wars: poaching popular streamers through price wars was just one tactic. What truly highlighted a platform’s depth and hard power was creating a star.
You could poach my popular streamer? No problem. I’ll make another one popular in a month or two, even more popular than the one you took.
The same went for channels. Bragging about how many players you had was meaningless. If you could launch a blockbuster PC or VR game that swept the market, that would prove your strength.
So, until such a game appeared, all players and designers were still on the sidelines, watching. Although Chen Mo’s Thunder Game Platform was in a very unfavorable position, it was still too early to declare victory for Imperial Dynasty and Divine Fantasy.
The key was to see how the games Imperial Dynasty and Divine Fantasy would perform next.