Grand Slam

Chapter 85 Grand Slam

In April, the British Academy Film Awards.

There are five universally recognized awards in the gaming industry, and this is one of them.

Despite its impressive reputation, it has never really gained much recognition among Chinese gamers.

The judging criteria are derived from the film evaluation system, and the selected games always have an academic and unconventional flavor, being niche and unpopular.

Not to mention domestic players, even European and American players don't pay much attention to this award.

In previous years, the British Academy Film Awards couldn't even generate enough discussion threads in China.

This year is different.

Chinese players were all focused on this prize, and Shark even sent someone to the scene to broadcast it live. The barrage of comments caused the live streaming platform to lag twice.

It's all because of one thing—Overwatch is just one game away from achieving a grand slam.

There is no official definition for the term "Grand Slam" in the gaming industry.

Winning the Golden Joystick Award, The Game Awards, DICE, GDCA, and the British Academy Film Awards—winning all five awards is considered a grand slam in the gaming industry, a feat never before achieved by a game.

too difficult.

The Golden Joystick is determined by player votes, a contest of popularity. This is something the game has no shortage of, making Overwatch's victory a foregone conclusion.

The Game Awards (TGA) is a media and gamer event, with judges comprised of veteran single-player gamers. For many years, it has never given a proper consideration to online games as its Game of the Year, but this year was an exception. The award citation mentioned that it "redefined the accessible boundaries of competitive shooting."

DICE and GDCA are peer reviews, voted on by academics and developers, emphasizing design innovation and completion.

For an online game to impress these discerning peers with its system depth is no less difficult than an ordinary person participating in a Red Bull-sponsored challenge. Yet, Overwatch has managed to do just that.

Three groups of judges, each with their own tastes, were all convinced by the same game.

Now only one remains.

The awards ceremony was in London. Yang Yi did not attend; Victor attended in his place, and he and his company staff watched the live broadcast in the lounge.

Even Yang Yi wasn't confident about winning this award.

If he remembered correctly, Overwatch had failed because of this award in his previous life.

The winner is Uncharted 4.

As things stand, Overwatch has no rivals in this generation, but it's not entirely without them either, as "Engraved Evil" was also nominated.

Given the judges' peculiar thought processes, it's entirely possible they'd award "Evil Engraving."

It's worth noting that even The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild lost to What Remains of Edith Finch at this awards ceremony.

Yang Yi could clearly feel the stiffness in the two beautiful women on his left and right.

On the screen, the elderly British man on stage opened the envelope with an incredibly slow pace. First, he adjusted his glasses, then arranged the cards, and finally cleared his throat into the microphone.

The comments section was filled with insults.

"This old man did it on purpose, didn't he?" Shen Xiao said, having bitten several marks on the straw.

At this point, even Yang Yi, who had always maintained an indifferent attitude, felt a little nervous.

The old man finally read it aloud.

"Game of the Year - Overwatch"

Shen Xiao spat out a mouthful of milk tea, slammed her hand on the table, and screamed, "It's done! Brother Yang, we did it!"

Although Xia He didn't say a word, her tense shoulders instantly relaxed, and she could no longer hide the smile on her face.

Several planners were piled up next to the sofa, yelling and shouting, a chaotic scene of all sorts of things.

Yang Yi leaned back on the sofa, her face calm, but the excitement in her eyes was hard to hide.

These judges actually acted like human beings this time?

With Overwatch achieving a grand slam, Yang Yi's invincibility in the gaming world has been firmly established.

My phone vibrated.

They sent their congratulations from afar.

"Congratulations!"

Yang Yi stared at the message and laughed. Although their relationship was one of cooperation, Yu Dazui's attitude towards Yang Yi was far more than that of a typical business partner.

Games and mobile phones are completely different worlds, and Yu Dazui wouldn't pay attention to the world of an ordinary partner just for the sake of that partner.

Yang Yi wondered to herself: Does this mean they think highly of me?

Just as he was about to reply, another message came in.

"When will you be able to supply those batteries? Don't get too cocky after winning the award."

Yang Yi replied with a voice message: "President Yu, can't you let me be happy for five minutes?"

6

"You've been happy for five minutes now."

66

Yang Yi checked the time—it really was.

It's been exactly five minutes since the awards ceremony ended, and this person posted it right on time, as if they had planned it all along.

"Don't worry, production will definitely start before May. Currently, you are our only partner, so it won't delay Huawei's leading position in mobile phones."

He turned his phone upside down on the table, stood up, and clapped his hands.

The people in the conference room were still making a ruckus. Shen Xiao was talking to Xia He, and both of them had an expression that said they wanted to laugh but didn't.

The moment he clapped his hands, all eyes turned to him.

Seeing that everyone's attention was focused on him, Yang Yi gave Xia He instructions.

"I'm treating everyone to dinner tonight. Tell the restaurant to buy plenty of abalone, lobster, king crab, and other seafood—no limit tonight!"

Xia He paused for a moment, her fingers already reflexively opening the notes app on her phone. "Per capita standard?"

"unlimited!"

He then addressed the supervisors and planners present.

"As you all know, the company will be holding a Swarm Games Direct in June. Our progress is still not fast enough. Let's all work harder. After the Direct, the company will arrange seven days of paid leave for everyone."

"Also, we're expediting the production of a 'Grand Slam' skin to give to players."

With Yang Yi's work arrangements in place, the employees quickly went about their own business.

Only Shen Xiao and Yang Yi remained in the lounge to watch the live stream. Yang Yi looked at the lively chat and the ever-increasing number of viewers in the live stream and sighed with emotion.

Such high popularity!

Yang Yi doesn't believe that winning this award so smoothly was without the strong support of domestic players.

Yang Yi can't let this popularity go to waste. She'll be hosting a live stream tonight to capitalize on it and use insider tips to draw some of the attention to Minecraft.

While Yang Yi was trying to attract traffic, her peers were drooling over the buzz.

Judging from the support the domestic gaming industry has for the "first PhD student," it's practically a certainty that Overwatch will surpass 5000 million in sales.

I'm so angry and cold. Why wasn't I the one who developed Overwatch?

心理委员，我不得劲！

At XunTeng headquarters, Pony Ma watched the live stream intently.

That's outrageous, Yang Yi is really outrageous.

We're all in the online gaming industry, but BeeHound's online games and XunTeng's online games seem to be different.

One is winning awards overseas like crazy, while the other is acquiring various IPs to fleece investors.

Li Xiaoguang, standing next to him, stared at the screen showing the number of online users updating in real time, his eyes practically overflowing with envy.

"Mr. Ma," Li Xiaoguang swallowed hard, "Should we also learn from the Beehive and make high-quality games?"

Little Ma rubbed his head, his tone not very pleasant: "Isn't that just 'Tactical Special Forces'? What's the use?"

He opened his palm towards Li Xiaoguang: "It's been two months since the sale started, and we've only sold 50 copies. Our selling price is only 98 yuan, which doesn't even cover a fraction of our costs."

Li Xiaoguang opened his mouth, but Brother Ma didn't give him a chance to interrupt.

"Come on, tell me, what's the average number of people online each day right now?"

The fervor in Li Xiaoguang's eyes froze.

He lowered his head, his voice muffled: "A little over nine thousand."

"More than nine thousand."

Pony Ma repeated the number, a slight smirk playing on his lips: "Great, really great. Two hundred million was poured in, and we got nine thousand people online in return."

"But Mr. Ma," Li Xiaoguang looked up, his tone carrying the urgency of a drowning woman trying to grab a man to save her, "Tactical Squad has received very high praise from hardcore gamers in Europe and America, really very high. The media scores are also good, and I think it's worth continuing to develop."

Little Ma gets annoyed whenever this is mentioned.

"What good are high ratings? No matter how much development you do, you won't recoup even half the costs."

"Look at Overwatch! It's already sold 4000 million copies. With this grand slam, it'll easily reach 5000 million in sales."

"Our sales volume differs by 100 times, but our costs are about the same."

Pony Ma adjusted his glasses and began to speak: "We need to differentiate ourselves from the competition, using free-to-play games to guarantee revenue while developing games that the 'swarm' strategy doesn't cover."

Little Ma picked up a proposal from the table and handed it to Li Xiaoguang.

"Recently, our investment department invested in a Japanese game company that is developing a handheld console. I am very optimistic about this project."

We could collaborate with them to develop handheld games similar to mobile games; our technology in this area is far superior to that of Hive.

Moreover, they currently have no competitors; there haven't been any major manufacturers developing handheld game consoles in the world since. With nostalgia marketing and solid technology, they can definitely carve out a niche for themselves in the console market.

Li Xiaoguang took the proposal, turned to the first page, and was startled by the dense list of IP games.

Dungeon Fighter Online (Handheld Version)

[Crossfire Mobile Game]

[Bubble Karting Handheld Version]

[League of Legends Grand Gathering]

[Thunder Fighter]

Too much.

Li Xiaoguang dared not accept the offer.

He flipped through a few pages, closed the proposal, and swallowed hard.

"Mr. Ma, this will cost a lot of money."

"You really think highly of that game console?"

Little Ma leaned back in his chair, his tone calm, but a hint of certainty lurked in his eyes.

"Of course. The company president has a technical background and his own understanding of handheld hardware."

Furthermore, I personally inspected their technical capabilities and the games they are currently developing, and I can say with certainty—they are exceptionally good!

"What we need to do is use our IP to attract domestic players and raise awareness of the game console."

"As the largest partner, we can take advantage of this opportunity to quickly promote the IP to the world."

At this point, Little Ma's tone suddenly turned somber, tinged with displeasure.

"Unfortunately, the company president refused to sell too many shares."

Even after I personally went there, I only managed to negotiate a 30% settlement.

Seeing Xiao Ma's gloomy expression, Li Xiaoguang didn't know how to comfort him and could only change the subject.

"Mr. Ma, over here with the bee swarm."

Little Ma waved his hand. "Let's ignore them for now, we can't control them anyway. We'll do our homework and protect the market we need to protect."

No matter how well the swarm is built, the market is only so big. We'll do our free game, they'll do their paid game, and we'll keep to ourselves.

"Our most popular mobile game right now, Honor of Kings, generates tens of billions in revenue annually, which is comparable to Overwatch."

"No, wouldn't it be better to just quietly make a fortune?"

"We might even collaborate with them when the console is released; those pixel games are perfect for handhelds."

Li Xiaoguang nodded, indicating that he understood.

"Mr. Ma, what's the name of that Japanese game company? I'd like to visit them to help with future game development."

"Reverse Paradise, the company that previously developed Japanese RPG games."

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