Chapter 250 - 171: The Three Moves of the Rival Company

"Magic Animation" has big ambitions.

It can be said that the launch of this software indicates that major companies are eyeing the "Divine Grace Animation" market piece and plan to replace it.

But unfortunately...

This market isn’t as simple as other fields; mindlessly throwing money won’t produce results, and overwhelming promotion can’t hide the fact that this software is unworthy of even carrying the shoes for "Divine Grace Continent".

Netizens’ comments are spot on.

"The NPCs of Divine Grace Continent give everyone a lifelike illusion, but the characters generated by Magic Animation are just pure idiots!"

"Does this even dare to try to meddle with Divine Grace Continent?"

"I still remember when I first saw Jen’s Adventure, how fascinated I was with that colorful Otherworld. As for Tencent, it’s hard to comment!"

"It’s just a poor imitation!"

Tencent bought a lot of promotions trying to hype up the Magic Animation software, but after experiencing it, everyone gave a candid review calling it "a load of shit".

The AI is too dumb.

Ultimately, the characters generated by this software can never achieve the intelligence and agility of Divine Grace Continent’s NPCs.

Their actions and dialogue mainly feature abstract madness!

Someone showed off their creation.

They imported parts of the script and dialogue from the classic disaster film Titanic, trying to run the animation with AI to see what the software is truly capable of.

As a result, everyone saw Jack pushing Lucy off the front of the ship and then turning around nonchalantly to flirt with another lady.

A more bizarre scene appeared!

Lucy was clearly pushed off the ship by Jack, but instead of drowning, she learned to swim and swam back aboard.

She was very grateful to Jack; if it weren’t for Jack pushing her, she might never have learned to swim, so the two stuck together again...

It’s truly mind-boggling!

You can tell without thinking that this phenomenon is due to AI being too stupid and its inability to simulate the storyline effectively.

"It’s not the software’s fault!"

The online controversy was noticed by Tencent, which then released a statement clarifying: "AI animation simulation and generation require significant computing power, and ordinary users’ computers simply cannot meet the demand..."

Blame the computer, not the software!

Tencent’s response amused everyone.

Honestly, the explanation is reasonable; AI calculation and simulation work indeed demand a lot of computing power. Without enough computing power, various issues can arise.

But everyone remembers that Tencent initially compared their product to Divine Grace Continent.

So the question is...

Why, with the same computer configuration, does Divine Grace Continent have few issues, its storylines smoothly simulated, while Magic Animation encounters frequent problems?

...

"Yeah! Why is that?"

The mockery and jokes from netizens are actually a point that Tencent’s programmers find perplexing.

As a competitor, they’ve certainly studied Divine Grace Continent, but the more they research, the less they understand.

This animation software, which relies on code to generate characters and simulate subsequent storylines, should demand high configurations and computing power!

Yet, Divine Grace Continent, this animation-making software disguised as an RPG Game, runs smoothly even on old computers from five or six years ago, with no visible glitches in storyline simulations.

Damn!

Are they cheating?

Trying to figure out why Divine Grace Continent, with such a small size and low configuration threshold, can render and simulate excellent Otherworld animations with ease, Tencent has invested great efforts.

Of course!

They know that isolating themselves won’t work, so besides secretly researching, they also try to indirectly probe into Tianba Studio’s secrets.

"Are you talking about... commercial espionage?"

"Something like that!"

Yang Dong nodded and said, "Anyway, better safe than sorry; there’s a risk of leaks in our confidential files and some source code information."

Better safe than sorry!

In the absence of understanding what tactics competitors might employ, it’s always right to prepare defenses. Although Yang Dong doesn’t believe the studio has a mole, better safe than sorry.

"Besides mole concerns, what worries me most is being poached! Chen Ba, you probably don’t know; both Lu and I have received inquiry emails from headhunting companies..."

Poaching?

Upon hearing this for the first time, Chen Ba was a bit surprised: "Are you saying that many in our studio have received invitations from competitors, except me?"

"Yes, you are the exception!"

The headhunters aren’t foolish; they wouldn’t consider poaching Ba. After all, when Ba changes companies, it’s called an acquisition, not a job change!

So, Chen Ba knows nothing about this matter, and no one approached him.

"Wow!"

Chen Ba remarked in wonder: "I didn’t expect such attention for our inconspicuous little workshop."

There’s nothing surprising about it.

Tianba Studio’s sudden rise, with several influential games under its belt, is sure to attract the attention of major companies.

The first choice is copying!

Only when they can’t copy or replicate the game do they opt for the second plan, which is poaching.

If they can poach the core team and game creators, isn’t it enough to create the same game?

If they can’t poach, they move to the third option: negotiating shares or acquisitions. Many potential game studios and teams fall at this stage.