Chapter 2142: Backward Japanese Enterprises

"Pro Evolution Soccer" has a greater advantage than "FIFA Soccer", that is, it has richer sales channels, the most important of which is handheld game consoles.

Because this field is mainly dominated by Sony and Nintendo, two Japanese technology companies, they have a natural advantage and can exclusively support "Pro Evolution Soccer".

This is almost a monopoly resource.

With this channel, the sales of "Pro Evolution Soccer" can crush "FIFA Soccer" all year round. However, even with such a unique advantage, "Pro Evolution Soccer" was surpassed by "FIFA Soccer".

It can be seen how unfavorable the current situation is for "Pro Evolution Soccer".

Once "FIFA Football" gains an advantage, it will be almost impossible for "Pro Evolution Football" to overtake it.

Don't look at Zhou Buqi's disdain for EA's level. There are problems like this, but EA is an American company after all, and its business strategy is much better than that of Japanese companies.

With the advantage, we can firmly control it, relying on the method Americans are best at, which is to play money and capital games.

"FIFA Football" is number one in the industry. It has sales, revenue, and more money. Next, it will move closer to becoming a "monopoly." The more monopoly there is, the more profitable it is.

How to monopolize?

Rely on intellectual property!

Various football cups, teams, and players have their own brands and trademark rights.

For example, if you want to use World Cup elements, you need to negotiate with FIFA to obtain FIFA's authorization.

For example, if you want to have a Premier League, you must obtain authorization from the Premier League.

This is not enough. Most of the relevant copyrights of European clubs are in their own hands, so EA has to negotiate with the Premier League to first obtain the copyright of the "Premier League", and then negotiate with the 20 teams under the Premier League to win these 20 clubs. Team name, logo, club related information and most player licenses.

The reason why it is most of them is because the image rights of some players are in their own hands and the clubs have no control over them. Therefore, EA has to specifically talk to the players.

However, there are many shady things in football, and the protection of players' rights is simply incomparable to that of American professional sports. The so-called players' union, in name, protects the interests of players, but in fact it is an accomplice in squeezing players' interests and is the culprit.

Many times you can just bite the bullet.

For example, the World Football Federation has an organization called the Professional Footballers' Federation, which is the players' union and owns the image rights of the vast majority of players around the world.

Therefore, as long as EA reaches an agreement with FIFA, it can obtain most of the player image rights.

Many players were shocked when they found out.

They have no idea that their relevant copyrights are in the hands of some shitty organization like FIFA. I want to sue, but there is no way.

Sue FIFA?

Do you still want to hang out?

Whether it is FIFA or UEFA, they are public welfare organizations in name, but in fact they are organizations with absolute monopoly that integrate all football rights and interests.

And this not only involves FIFA, but also the evil practices of various national football associations.

Players are alone and unable to resist.

It has completely become a money-making tool for the big shots.

The logic behind this is that football players have almost no choice and have to play for two systems at the same time - club and national team.

Playing for the club is mainly professional and a job that makes money; playing for the national team is, to some extent, a pursuit of obligation and honor.

The problem lies with the national football associations behind the national teams.

Players playing for the club is a market behavior. They can safeguard their own rights and interests with peace of mind and negotiate with the club about personal copyrights and income dividends.

The same cannot be said for the national team. This is not market behavior.

National football associations and players have a series of overlord clauses that allow them to obtain the copyrights of all national team players for free. Maradona, Ronaldo, and Zidane are not immune.

The national football associations are all football organizations affiliated with FIFA, and the copyrights of these players naturally flow into the Professional Football Players Association under FIFA for "protection" in accordance with regulations.

It is said to be protection, but in fact it is being abused just to make money.

They don't care about the players' own rights at all.

The various systemic chaos in world football and the various powerful internal back-room operations are a form of oppression for players and open the door to convenience for capitalists.

As long as the terms are negotiated with FIFA, you can get the relevant copyrights of almost all players in the world. If for insurance, you can also sign a separate agreement with players of Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney, and Henry to ensure that they do not cause trouble, and the matter will be settled.

As for the other ordinary players, they don't have the courage or strength to resist.

To put it bluntly, top players have certain privileges and are considered privileged people.

The vast majority of ordinary players have to obey and let all parties harm their own rights and interests. On the surface, it seems that the capitalists are using their image to make money and bully them. In fact, what really oppresses them is the corrupt power structure in world football.

It is the authorization from the power agencies in football that leads to the fact that many players' portraits are used to promote junk food, fake and shoddy products, and even pornography, gambling, and drug products.

Since Zhou Buqi acquired Manchester United and truly entered the circle of world football, he has finally understood what kind of small society this is.

Of course he didn't like this.

The clearer and more transparent the rules in football are, the greater the benefits will be for Manchester United. At least when Manchester United players play for the national team, they can receive sufficient financial subsidies to protect the club's interests.

The club spends money to support players and let them go to the national team to play... If a player gets injured while playing for the national team, the club has to bear the consequences and continue to pay the player's salary.

How can this make sense?

However, Zhou Buqi speaks softly. The more he learns about football, the more he feels that it is too difficult to change this deep-rooted system.

If you make a football game, you can turn this disadvantage into an advantage.

Because football is full of chaos and power is highly centralized, as long as an agreement is reached with FIFA, many differences based on players' intellectual property rights can be suppressed.

This can be done with the least amount of money.

Based on his understanding of football, Zhou Buqi also has a clearer idea of ​​the future operating strategy of football games.

This is one of his great strengths.

Much better than Konami and EA!

The relationship between power and capital in China is almost the same as that in world football. He is an entrepreneur who grew up in this environment.

He knew it all too well.

He knows best how to maximize his own interests in this kind of gap without compromising his reputation.

This is why he thinks that if he makes a football game, it will be better than EA.

Industry specializing in surgery.

This is Boss Zhou’s “specialty”.

However, Konami must first be persuaded. It would be best if Changyou could buy the game "Pro Evolution Soccer" from Konami.

This can save a lot of trouble.

Ren Yuxin has no confidence in this.

Konami is now quite strong, with a market value of US$2.2 billion, making it the second-largest gaming company in Japan, second only to Scarlett, which has a market value of US$5.8 billion. There is currently no operating crisis, so it may be difficult to choose to sell core assets.

Ren Yuxin said: "I have done some simple understanding before. Last year, Scarlett's revenue was 4 billion U.S. dollars, and its net profit was 450 million U.S. dollars..."

"How many?"

Zhou Buqi was stunned.

Ren Yuxin knew what shocked him and said with a smile: "That's true. This is a common problem among Japanese companies. Sales are quite high but profit margins are too low."

Zhou Buqi said: "I was at NetEase that day and I heard that the gross profit margin of NetEase games can reach 90%. The data of Scarlett is too ugly, the net profit is just over 10%."

Ren Yuxin said: "It depends on the category of the game. NetEase is a PC-side online game, which has the highest gross profit margin. Changyou's "Tian Long Ba Bu" is almost the same. But Japanese game companies are still too poor in terms of revenue structure. It’s traditional, whether it’s Scarlett, Konami or Capcom, almost 50% of revenue comes from home games.”

"Well……"

Zhou Buqi has seen the backwardness and obsolescence of these old Japanese game companies, and they are completely out of touch with the times.

The so-called home game is to buy a game console, plug in the game disc, then connect it to the TV, and play the game through the TV screen with the controller.

It's basically the game model from the 1980s.

Surprisingly, 50% of the revenue comes from this most traditional direction. This shows how backward these traditional well-known Japanese companies are. They once led the world's gaming trend, but were later surpassed by Europe, the United States, and South Korea.

Now, it’s time for Changyou to take the lead.

The domestic game industry will also completely crush Japan.

Ren Yuxin said with a smile: "Scarlett's net profit is US$450 million, and its current market value is only US$5.8 billion, with a PE of only 13 times. It is worse than EA, which has a PE of 18 times. Changyou's current PE is 26 times. ."

Zhou Buqi asked: "Where's Konami? Have you checked?"

Ren Yuxin nodded, "Konami is worse than Scarlett. Last year's sales were US$2.56 billion and net profit was only US$220 million. Its current market value is US$2.2 billion, and its PE is only 10 times."

"What about family games?" Zhou Buqi vaguely found a good way to attack "Pro Evolution Soccer", "How many are there?"

Ren Yuxin did a good job and blurted out a lot of data, "Last year, Konami's home game sales declined, but it still had sales of 1.31 billion US dollars."

"Are there any mobile games?"

"No."

"not a single one?"

Zhou Buqi was a little unbelievable.

Ren Yuxin said: "Old game companies such as Scarlett, SE, Konami, and Capcom do not have any mobile games. Not only do they not have mobile phones, but the development of PC games will also be restricted. What they mainly do It’s TV games and handheld games. Basically 80%-90% of the revenue comes from these two directions.”

Zhou Buqi's eyes were blazing, "Okay! Great!"