136: Focus on the big and let go of the small

Inside the Lithography Machine research lab, which housed the most advanced Lithography Machines, engineers like Dulos and lithography researchers quickly began their work.

Reverse engineering followed by technical improvements was a long process. Even with Dulos and his team, catching up in industrial capability required time; basic industry first needed to be elevated to a higher level.

This was destined to be a long-term investment that would not see returns in a short period.

This lab was under Panda Core and was not announced to the public, as it required secret research over a long duration.

Li Xiuwu stayed here for a month before leaving Xian.

At the Beijing airport, Liu Xiaoli drove to pick up Li Xiuwu and the others.

"Little Lin is back too." Liu Xiaoli saw Lin Qian following beside Li Xiuwu.

"Hello, Ms. Liu," Lin Qian greeted Liu Xiaoli.

"Lin Qian, you've worked hard during this time. Take a good rest for a while," Li Xiuwu said to Lin Qian once they returned to the Courtyard House.

"Alright, Boss. Call me if anything comes up," Lin Qian did not refuse.

"Keep an eye on Golden Culture for me. Wang Cheng went to Hong Kong, and I haven't found a suitable general manager yet."

"Understood," Lin Qian replied decisively.

Li Xiuwu continued attending classes, while Lin Qian went to Golden Culture to temporarily handle management and deal with Liu Yifei's management contract.

One day, Li Xiuwu received a call from Chi Yufeng regarding the release of Perfect World, seeking Li Xiuwu's opinion.

Pan Lei drove and dropped Li Xiuwu off at Dream Time.

As he entered the company, an employee spotted him: "Boss."

"Mm." Li Xiuwu nodded. "Where is President Chi?"

"He's in a meeting in the conference room. Boss, I'll take you there." The employee led Li Xiuwu to the conference room.

The employee knocked on the conference room door.

"Boss." Chi Yufeng immediately stood up, and everyone else in the room followed suit.

"Carry on, I'll just listen in." Li Xiuwu walked in, his gaze sweeping over the crowd, and sat down at the very end of the table.

The crowd looked at Li Xiuwu, then all turned their eyes toward Chi Yufeng.

"Let's continue." Chi Yufeng sat down, instinctively straightening his back.

Everyone sat upright and still; the atmosphere was noticeably more solemn than before.

"Hu Wu, continue speaking." Seeing Hu Wu sitting there motionless, Chi Yufeng spoke up to remind him.

"Alright." Hu Wu stood up, instinctively glancing at Li Xiuwu.

"No need to be nervous. I only know how to hand out bonuses; I don't understand anything else," Li Xiuwu joked, seeing their tension.

This remark made everyone chuckle, and they inexplicably felt much more relaxed.

Hu Wu also let out a breath, walked to the whiteboard at the front, and said loudly, "The background of world of warcraft is Western fantasy, while our Perfect World is Eastern immortal heroes genre. This is the most fundamental difference between the two games."

He drew two circles on the whiteboard to represent the two games, and with the pen in his hand, he continuously wrote down the differences, advantages, and disadvantages of both sides.

"Warcraft's advantage lies in Blizzard's brand accumulation and global distribution channels, but our advantage lies in the uniqueness of the theme. Eastern culture has always had a certain market overseas, from movies to literature."

Zhou Wei, the head of the marketing department, raised her hand to add: "Looking at past sales of Chinese-language single-player games, the South Korean and Southeast Asian markets have a very high acceptance of wuxia and immortal heroes genre themes."

"Although the Japanese market prefers local products, it's not without opportunity; they are also within our cultural sphere."

"The European and American markets are the hardest to conquer, but we can first focus on differentiation—they play with knights and magic in dark tones, while we provide flying swords and beautiful aesthetics."

This meeting was discussing the overseas development plan for Perfect World International.

According to speculations, the two games would likely enter open beta at the same time. If nothing went wrong with world of warcraft, it might be imported domestically next year, at which point the two games would compete.

Dream Time had no chance of being the agent for that game, so they had to consider the competition issue in advance and prepare to compete overseas first.

"Therefore, localization is the key." Hu Wu took back the topic and said solemnly, "world of warcraft's advantage is that they have a global English-speaking region; after the open beta, it will be quickly imported by English-speaking areas."

"I believe our main competitive markets are these non-English speaking regions. These countries also need localization, which is our primary window of time and competitive market."

Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but nod, feeling that what Hu Wu said made a lot of sense.

world of warcraft's English had a natural advantage; countries with English as their primary language could launch it directly.

Chi Yufeng's fingers tapped lightly on the table: "How much budget is needed? How much time?"

"If it's just basic localization and recruiting agents in various countries, it would take about three months and five million per country."

"If we do it all ourselves, it might take about a year and require a massive technical team and translators. The funding would need at least twenty million."

There was a slight sound of gasping from the crowd; one should know that the R&D for this game was only slightly more than that.

"That's too long." Chi Yufeng shook his head. He considered it, his gaze instinctively shifting toward Li Xiuwu.

The other employees also followed Chi Yufeng's gaze to look at Li Xiuwu. Li Xiuwu had a smile on his face, listening intently without giving any indication.

Chi Yufeng understood that he had to make the decision himself.

"Grasp the big, let go of the small." After considering for a while, Chi Yufeng made a decision.

"We will mainly conquer the language versions of developed countries like Japan, South Korea, Germany, France, and Russia. For other developing countries, we'll use secondary-level cooperation."

"Does anyone have any opinions?"

Everyone looked at each other; this method seemed feasible, as long as they competed in these developed countries first.

"In that case, it's decided."

Chi Yufeng tapped the table, drawing everyone's attention.

"For the localization project teams of various languages, recruit people with overseas game experience from the outside. From major universities, recruit foreign language talents and technical talents to set up separate project teams. Localization for major languages will proceed simultaneously."

Everyone looked on; they all understood that this was a massive gamble. With such a huge investment, if they couldn't achieve results, the investment might be a total loss.

The people present were speechless for a moment, not knowing whether they should support this decision.

*Clap, clap, clap.* Li Xiuwu clapped his hands, drawing everyone's gaze.

"I strongly support President Chi's opinion regarding the overseas project teams. However, there's no need to be in such a hurry. We can wait for the Perfect World open beta, see the domestic feedback first, and then set up the project teams for each language," Li Xiuwu suggested.

"The Boss is right to remind me. I was too hasty and didn't consider things thoroughly," Chi Yufeng immediately admitted his mistake.