A Returner’s Successful Investment Method - Chapter 626



Only Krnovel

Episode 626. UDT (1)

It has been 10 years since the official numbering of the Mephisto series was released.

There were many concerns before launch, but the response immediately after launch was truly amazing.

Even though there was no separate marketing, game streamers broadcasted games on platforms such as ATube and Two Witch.

This was the same for famous Korean game ATuber Baek Geum-ho.

He was amazed while playing as a druid character.

“I had high expectations, but I never thought it would be this good. I think the combination of Matt Cooper and Kang Seon-woo is truly fantastic. huh? Didn’t Kang Seon-woo do anything? Hey, that’s not it. Just like in Overclock 2, CEO Kang Seon-woo ran to Ice Storm and inspected it until the end. They said they continued to provide feedback during the development process. “If it weren’t for CEO Kang Seon-woo, the game wouldn’t have been chosen so well.”

Chats were popping up in the chat window.

[Kang Seon-woo, stop sucking, Plata hyung. These days, whenever I open my mouth, it’s Kang Seon-woo haha]

[Kang Seon-woo is truly amazing.]

[This is a god game if you just touch it~ God game manufacturing machine]

[Among foreign gamers, there is no one who doesn’t know Kang Seon-woo’s name.]

[Even the burger thugs who were angry when Ice Storm was announced to be acquired by a Korean game company are now praising it!]

[What kind of place is LD Studio that kicked out this developer?]

Korea can be considered a gaming powerhouse, both in terms of its gaming population and the size of its gaming industry.

The gamers’ skills were also excellent, sweeping various e-sports competitions, and there were several star professional gamers recognized around the world.

On the other hand, it was disappointing that there were no star developers whose names you would recognize.

However, the situation changed with the appearance of Kang Seon-woo.

Not only Fantasia Tales R released by SW Games, but also games released by Ice Storm after the acquisition were successively successful.

In addition to game development, he also spoke out strongly on the side of gamers regarding random boxes, P2E games, political game regulations, and the neo-Nazi situation, and carried out his arguments.

As a result, gamers not only in Korea but all over the world are now chanting Kang Seon-woo’s name.

While playing the game, Baek Geum-ho felt a strong feeling of gukbong (?) building up in him.

“Korea is a country that owns Kang Seon-woo! “Never ignore Korean games again!”

* * *

Celebrities also joined the box office hit of Mephisto 5.

Hollywood stars, rappers, singers, etc. They claimed to be Ice Storm fans and certified their play.

Of course, the one who is not left out here is Allen Everhart.

He posted the Mephisto 5 gameplay screen on Twitter.

[I’m in hell now. Catching the devil is really fun.]

I also looked at the reactions of the Internet community.

The gaming community, including Reddit, was all over the place with posts about Mephisto 5.

-This is a god game.

-I don’t think you can feel this kind of deep dark emotion anywhere else than the Mephisto series~

-I like that the battle tempo is fast and the movement is fast. These days, I’m tired of open world games forcing play times to increase.

-If I hadn’t fallen for Mephisto after being tricked by a friend during my school days, I would have studied harder and gotten a better job. However, I do not regret fighting the devil at the most important moment of my life.

-I think we just need to do a good job going forward. There have been more than a few times when Ice Storm made a good game but ran it poorly.

-When will the expansion pack come out?

Seeing gamers being so enthusiastic about it makes me think that Ice Storm is a gaming company loved by gamers.

However, before the box office fever for Mephisto 5 could cool down, shocking news shook the gaming industry.

* * *

Udity Technologies.

Founded in Oslo, Norway in the early 2000s, the company initially started out as a gaming company.

The three co-founders, from Norway, France, and Switzerland, respectively, joined forces to create a game, but it did not gain much popularity. However, during this process, I realized the importance of the game engine.

“It would be nice if there was software that would make developing games more convenient.”

“It will greatly reduce development time and costs.”

“Existing game engines are so messy.”

“How about making an engine that is lighter and easier to use?”

A game engine is game production software that includes various source codes such as graphics, audio, UI, play settings, and assets.

Using this, you can create games much faster and more easily.

After several years of development, they created a game engine called ‘UDT Engine’.

Until the UDT Engine was released, there were many game engines on the market, and you had to pay a lot of fees to use them.

However, UDT Engine attracted developers by diversifying its products into a free version, basic version, and pro version.

Thanks to this, UDT Engine was able to rise to the top game engine in the world.

As the company grew in size, it later moved its headquarters to Los Angeles, USA, and was even successfully listed on Nasdaq three years ago.

UDT’s stock price has quadrupled since listing due to the overwhelming market share that is close to a monopoly, the explosive growth of the gaming industry, and expectations for metaverse technology, and the current market capitalization has reached $40 billion.

However, unlike the soaring stock price, the profits were not that large.

UDT Technology’s flagship product is, of course, the UDT Engine.

However, the actual royalties from UDT Engine are only 30 percent, and most of the actual revenue came from mobile advertising.

This is because royalties are so cheap.

First, companies with sales and capital of less than $100,000 can use it completely free of charge.

Beyond that, each developer receives a monthly license. This license varies depending on sales and capital, but an unlimited license costs about $150 per month.

Ultimately, in order to generate more profits, it is necessary to increase the usage fee of the UDT engine.

Owen Raphael, who became the new CEO, began revamping UDT’s rate plan to increase profits.

“Mobile game companies are making astronomical amounts of money using our engines. However, we are not making a proper profit. “This problem must be improved for sustainable growth.”

There was no disagreement about revising the rate system itself.

However, there were mixed opinions on how it should be reorganized.

The directors were perplexed when they saw the new rate plan submitted by Owen Raffaello.

Because it was much stronger than they thought.

The board of directors held a meeting and summoned the CEO to ask questions.

“Is this reform plan really okay?”

Owen Raphael nodded.

“We have to be bold when raising rates. “It is better to raise it all at once rather than gradually raising it several times.”

Some board members expressed concern.

“This may be the first time we’ve tried something like this.”

“The backlash from game companies will be significant.”

“What do you plan to do if criticism pours in?”

Owen Raphael smiled.

“If you ask them to pay more, of course they won’t like it. “The important thing here is whether you can avoid writing something you don’t like.”

The UDT engine is already an essential material for game production.

Is it really easy to change the rate plan if you don’t like it?

Oren Rapiello spoke confidently.

“In the end, game companies and developers will have no choice but to accept UDT’s policies.”

* * *

[(Breaking News) UDT Technology announces new rate plan!]

[UDT Engine! Complete overhaul of the usage fee system!]

[UDT’s loyalty policy! The entire gaming industry is shocked… … .]

The gaming industry was turned upside down by UDT’s announcement of a rate plan overhaul made overnight.

Ice Storm was also in a confused mood due to the sudden announcement.

The employees all said something one by one.

“I can’t believe UDT suddenly changed its rate plan.”

“You want to apply this not only to games currently in development, but also to games already on sale?”

“Nonsense! “Does it really make sense to change it like that?”

“So what happens next?”

This is an issue with such great ramifications that it cannot even be compared to the Mad Men incident.

That’s because the Mad Men incident only affected game companies involved, but this is a problem that virtually affects all game companies.

This is the same for us too.

Among the studios under SW Games, there are several that use the UDT engine to create games, and among the Ice Storm games, Heath Storm used the UDT engine.

In addition, Continue Capital is also the majority shareholder of Legend Games, which can be considered a competitor of UDT.

Currently, the game engine market is divided between Legend Games’ Surrill Engine and UDT Technology’s UDT Engine.

The Cerrill engine is more suitable for large-scale games produced by many people, while the UDT engine is suitable for small-scale games or indie games.

Since the UDT Engine is an engine with such versatility that any game developer can handle it, the market share of the Cerrill Engine is 13%, while the UDT Engine’s market share is 48%.

In particular, the mobile game market share is overwhelming, with 70% of the top 1,000 mobile games made using the UDT engine.

Moreover, in the case of indie games, except for their own engine, they are virtually the sole stage of the UDT engine.

The reason UDT Engine was able to dominate the market in the first place was because the usage fee was low.

For games with low sales and indie games, it was virtually free, and even if the game was a huge hit, you only had to pay a subscription fee per developer.

But now they have declared that they will begin collecting money in earnest!

Seonwoo said as if he was shocked.

“These guys end up like this.”

“That’s right.”

Rather than being surprised, Seonwoo’s reaction was ‘I knew it would be like this.’

I know because I saw it in the first episode, but how on earth did he know?

“Did you know it would end up like this?”

“I had a guess.”

“No, how did you know this?”

After all, this bastard, didn’t he regress with me back then?

I think so, Seonwoo said as if it was obvious.

“About a year ago, the CEO of UDT was changed to Owen Raphael.”

“Why is that?”

Then Sunwoo looked at me and asked.

“Do you not know who Owen Raphael is?”

“who?”

“Former CEO of AE.”

“ah… … .”

Sunwoo gave a brief explanation about AE.

AE is a gaming company headquartered in Redwood City, California, USA.

It is a very large game company with numerous franchise series and ranks 6th in the world in terms of sales and market capitalization.

However, despite its size and reputation, gamers’ reviews are not very good.

“In the past, AE was evaluated as a game company that made great and outstanding games.”

“now?”

“It’s just evaluated as a gambling place for money-crazed con artists.”

“I think I’ve heard a similar evaluation somewhere.”

Sunwoo nodded at my words.

“huh. You can think of it as the American version of LD Studio. “If there is LD Studio in Korea, then there is AE in the United States?”

“… … .”