"Stop, stop, stop----"
The three listened to Lin Lixin's words with blank expressions, completely bewildered.
"Uh—just to confirm, you mean—the three of us should establish a formal subsidiary? Under GAMENOVA?!"
When he got to the second half of the sentence, Mike's voice completely cracked.
"Yes, the content is well done, but it's limited by the established gameplay framework of Civilization itself. I feel it would be even better if it could be developed into a standalone title."
Lin Lixin had considered whether to simply affiliate the newly formed Blizzard directly with Activision.
However, he always felt that doing so might trigger his PTSD and make him easily recall some bad memories, so he gave up on it.
Once upon a time, Blizzard was an invincible company.
"Blizzard's products are always top-notch" is more than just a slogan.
Diablo, World of Warcraft, Warcraft, StarCraft, Overwatch
Heroes of the Storm Hearthstone
Which one isn't a big name? Oh, Heroes of the Storm isn't one either.
Ahem, aside from Heroes of the Storm, which is sure to be a hit this year, which of them isn't a great work that dominated an era!
The long-simmering volcano finally ignited when Blizzard Carnival asked at BlizzCon 2018, "Don't you guys have cell phones?"
The entire founding team left, and IP projects were successively canceled.
Kotick succeeded. He solved a major problem for Activision Blizzard, completely consolidated his power base, and also took down a brand that had once stood at the top.
Which hater wasn't a blatant troll before?
Ten years of chronic poisoning culminated in that one acute attack 18 years later.
Lin Lixin let out a breath, suddenly feeling a bit sentimental.
With him by my side this time, I won't repeat the same mistake.
"What do you say? Are you in or not? If not, I can provide you with start-up capital as a shareholder."
"Of course I'll do it! Of course I'll do it, bro!"
Seeing that Lin Lixin was about to change his mind, the three quickly expressed their agreement.
Just kidding, if we let this opportunity slip away, we'll be waking up in the middle of the night 80 years from now and slapping our thighs in frustration.
"Well, GAMENOVA's business focus has been on arcades lately, so let's make your first project an arcade platform. Don't worry about the specs, just go all out."
Lin Lixin bought a small studio near Los Angeles. It wasn't large, but it was more than enough for his small team of three.
It would be more appropriate for them to wait until their project makes money before buying new offices in Blizzard's own name.
Sometimes, overfeeding can actually weaken a person's willpower.
"I am indeed very interested in ' Orcs and Humans,' but it is more suitable for console and PC platforms. The current hardware conditions are still somewhat limited, so we can slowly refine its world-building first."
"Well—" Mike Mohan exchanged a glance with the other two before speaking, "How about the racing game?"
How so?
Lin Lixin raised an eyebrow, recalling some of Blizzard's early, somewhat unconventional titles.
In the realm of arcade racing, Sega has always been the undisputed leader.
It's not just the smooth, 3D visuals achieved through sophisticated pseudo-3D technology, but also the large, realistic arcade motorcycles.
These amazing innovations made their work shine in the arcade world.
To be honest, now is not a good time to get into racing games.
3D technology is not yet mature, making it too difficult to achieve the smoothness required for racing games.
Honestly, a true 3D racing game with severe lag and choppy graphics is not as good as a smooth 2D racing game.
"Is it a racing game with a 'rock' vibe?"
Mike thought for a moment and gave an extremely abstract answer.
Upon hearing this, Alan and Frank nodded as if they were in complete agreement.
They truly understood what Mike was saying.
The idea for this project was something they had mentioned in casual conversation before.
Although Mike's description was very vague, Lin Lixin still understood what they meant.
Because Blizzard really did have two such amazing works.
Back when Blizzard was just a small company founded by Mike with $10,000 borrowed from his grandmother and two other people, they tried to develop quite a few works that seem very awkward now.
It's very immature, but the ideas are very advanced.
RPM Racing and Rock N' Roll Racing.
This amazing work completely integrates combat into racing, even more so than later works like Road Rash.
"You mean the main gameplay revolves around combat?"
Lin Lixin asked tentatively.
"Yes! In a race, as long as you eliminate all the opponents who are faster than you, you'll be the fastest one, right?"
He chuckled.
This idea actually came to them when they were researching the victory mechanics in Civilization.
Because Frank always liked playing Babylon, he was already close to achieving technological victory while others were still farming.
Later, Mike, a war fanatic, came up with a good idea.
Why not just mass produce units and push them down?
Your cultural value and tourism performance are higher than mine? Then just mass produce troops and overwhelm them!
Their religion has spread more widely than mine? Then just mass-produce troops and overwhelm them!
Ultimately, Mike developed a bizarre gameplay system that allowed him to "conquer everything."
Once all those stronger than myself have been wiped out, I can choose whichever path to victory I want.
The three of them discussed it at that time.
Wow, could this thing even work in racing?
And so this idea was born.
However, before the three could further refine this concept, GAMENOVA released another phenomenal new work.
Temple Run
Logically speaking, this thing should have absolutely nothing to do with their ideas.
But Mike and his team grasped a core innovation of the game—outside-player growth.
After each game, players can try to unlock some items.
So the three of them discussed it.
Wow! Is it possible that this design could be applied to their racing game?
For example, enhancing the performance of vehicles or the strength of weapons?
But before this new concept could be successfully integrated, GAMENOVA released another new work that subverted the world's understanding.
Rocksmith
So the three of them discussed it again.
Holy crap, this is so punk! Our racing games have to be like this too!
"My idea is to add full commentary and heavy metal rock to the game! Then the world-building will be as metal-heavy as possible, with things like alien hell, laser cannons, cluster bombs, landmines, and everything else!"
An abstract work that completely deviates from the conventions of racing games.
but----
It'll be surprisingly fun.