First of all, the most reliable way to understand a game company is to ask an internal acquaintance. However, if there are no internal channels, we can have a basic judgment on the company's situation through the company's public industrial and commercial information, judicial litigation, intellectual property rights and other information - this article will use various examples to interpret the industrial and commercial information of the game industry.
Editor's note: This article is mainly based on the presenter**, and the relevant cases are for reference only and do not represent objective facts.
Table of Contents of this article:
Shareholders can focus on four points: who started it, who followed it, who gave money, and who quit.
1) Who founded it - the founder major shareholder
It mainly focuses on whether the legal person (legal representative) and the main shareholder have a background in the game industry, which company came out, and what games have been made.
It's best if the boss has a background in the gaming industry, whether it is R&D or issuance and operation, it is not just the role of a financial investor, or a capitalist who is bent on realizing his dream. The boss's ability, connections, experience, etc. have a great impact on the company's development. The boss (or company) of cross-border game making is likely to have insufficient awareness of investment and is prone to a crisis of trust with business personnel.
If it is a start-up team that comes out of the same company and has (successful) product experience, then the stability and run-in degree will generally be relatively high, the probability of product success is relatively large, and it is easy to get investment, such as Legou with the background of the tap4fun team, Deep Blue with the background of Baiao Ladder, and Lefu with the background of Youzu...
In addition, what category did the former company do, it is likely to do the same track when you come out to start a business, at least the first game is. There are certain differences in R&D models and player groups among various categories in the game industry, and the reusability of experience between different categories is not so high. Therefore, most entrepreneurial teams will choose to develop games of the same category out of prudent considerations, which is also conducive to financing.
tips-1: Some companies will directly introduce the background of the boss, if not, you can check it through the boss's "historical position";
tips-2: The legal person is not necessarily the boss, but the majority shareholder or actual controller of the company.
2) Who follows the action - option poolsOption pools are generally:Limited partnership shareholding platformForm, the founder and core employees form a limited partnership in partnership, with the partnership holding a certain amount of company equity (generally 10-20%), and the founder serving as the GP to ensure the control of the partnership. In this form, the employee indirectly holds the company's shares, and the withdrawal will not affect the company's shareholding structure.
Theoretically, the rank of the employee can be roughly inferred by the shareholding ratio, and the manager who holds more shares is the manager, director and producer, and the second level is the main planner and the main program (roughly, depending on the company's scale and organizational structure).
2017 miHoYo's shareholding structure, the same below.
In addition to the company's shareholding platform, there are:Project shareholding platform(co-investment mechanism), that is, each game project sets up an option pool, and the parent company and project employees (through the shareholding platform) jointly fund the establishment of a new company to develop new projects, and after the project is launched, dividends will be distributed according to equity.
The success or failure of the project is directly linked to personal income, and there is a clear long-term dividend expectation, which will undoubtedly give great incentives to project personnel. But if it really happens, the company also has to "play" (fulfill its promises) and earn 1 billion points and 200 million employees, not all bosses have this mind. So there are very few people who use this form of motivation, and the only one I know of in large companies is Lilith (Aladdin's plan).
3) who gave the money - investors
Generally speaking, being able to raise capital indicates that the company's products and team have certain strengths (no investors does not mean that there are no strengths).
If it is invested by a large game company (especially a company with strong R&D strength), it means that the company has great potential, it may be a good game under development, or a well-known core member of the game has come out to start a business;
If it isHead company, especially a number of leading companies at the same time or first shares, indicating that the company's team has a hard background and product research and development is progressing smoothly, which may be led by senior executives of large and medium-sized factories, heads of a studio, and core producers.
tips-1: For companies that have just been merged, the company's stability and ability to continue operations are not easy to say, and some of those who have signed a VAM may have undignified behaviors (such as 996 and layoffs without paying);
tips-2: Investment is a two-way choice, what kind of company to invest in what kind of team, what kind of team to take what kind of company's money, sympathy or "smell like".
tips-3: The subscribed capital contribution is generally only a small part of the investment amount, and most of the others are used as capital reserve for the operation of the enterprise. The specific investment amount needs to be disclosed by the company, otherwise it can only be roughly estimated based on the financing round.
4) Who withdrew - historical shareholders partnersHistorical shareholders may be investors, co-founders, core employees (partnerships).
The investor withdraws, either normally after the investment or withdraws;
The withdrawal of co-founders and core employees may be inconsistent with the concept of major shareholders or uneven distribution.
Tips: If the data is very good after the project is launched, but many core companies run away, it may be that the money is not enough, the boss picks, or other companies are driving too high; If the game hasn't been launched yet, many cores will run away, maybe the game is not good.
5) Who has the final say - the shareholding structure
On the shareholder side, you can also take a look at the equity concentration as a whole, and most of the game industry isCentralized(more than 50% owned by major shareholders) orChecks and balances(Major shareholders are relatively controlled) equity structure, the former such as Stacked Paper, the latter MiHoYo, Lilith, very fewDispersed(There are no major shareholders), such as Eagle Point.
In general, the checks and balances type is relatively stable, the centralized type is prone to "tyrants" and one-word halls, and the decentralized type may lack strong decision-makers (not absolute).
It is common in start-up teams with resources, and the share ratio is only indicative.
The company has developed well, gone through several rounds of financing, and has reached a certain scale.
The companies we often talk about, such as "miHoYo", are an overall brand concept, but in industry and commerce, many companies often have more than one business entity.
If you want to get a complete picture of a company, you need to look at all the major affiliates, including:parent and subsidiary; Other companies under the names of major shareholders, directors, supervisors and senior executives
The uses of affiliates are generally as follows:
1) Business needs:Different products use different company entities, independent accounting, self-financing, and problems with one entity do not affect the parent company and other entities.
For example, miHoYo Destiny is the main business entity of "Genshin Impact", miHoYo Technology is "Honkai Impact 3", and Jiaozhai is "Book of Undetermined Events" and "Jeopardy Zero"...It is also possible to use a certain entity for financing alone, without affecting the equity structure of the parent company;
2) Compliance Arrangements:Companies registered overseas need to go through the VIE structure to carry out game publishing business in China, such as Shanghai Phantom, a compliant entity of Bilibili; 3) Foreign Investment Institutions:For example, Gigabit's Novi Investment, miHoYo's Argo; 4) Option Pools:As mentioned above; 5) Risk aversion:separation from the main company's business; Or you don't want people to know that they are doing a certain business, for example, some large companies want to make spinach and 18 plus games, but they can't pull their faces;
tips-1: If the company under your name is very chaotic, many of them have lawsuits, and some are still dishonest and executed, then you should pay attention to what business these companies are doing, it is likely that they have registered multiple vest companies for skin change and plagiarism;
tips-2: Companies that make sea games, especially casual games, are recommended to take a closer look at the affiliated companies.
3. Circumstances involved in litigation
Does the company (including affiliates) have a lawsuit, a defendant or a plaintiff, and the nature of the lawsuit (infringement?). Labour? ), the amount of the case, etc.
The company isPlaintiffDon't pay too much attention to the case, it may be that the company's products are too popular and are "overly borrowed" by peers. It is quite common for the game industry to be infringed.
1) Defendant - cause of action
The company isDefendantsof cases need to focus on the cause of action. If yesInfringement(Copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property rights).Unfair Competitionand other causes of action, which are generally plagiarism (comprehensive imitation of the rules, gameplay, interface logos, etc. of the game of the friend); Unauthorized use of art, sound effects and other elements of friendly games; Pretending to be a friend business game in the propaganda to induce**; crack games; Build a private server; Posting other people's games on the platform without authorization;
If yesLabor dispute lawsuits, which may be the illegal dismissal of the employee, and or the failure to provide compensation in accordance with the law, or the company suing the departing employee for failing to perform the non-compete agreement. There are also cases where the company is dissatisfied with labor arbitration and sues employees. If there are multiple labor disputes, it is generally layoffs;
There are also loan disputes, being sued by ** merchants (art outsourcing, advertisers, etc.), players (such as characters being weakened and asking for refunds), etc., and the specific cases are analyzed in detail.
TIPS-1: Small and medium-sized companies that are sued for infringement by large companies are likely to be sued for bankruptcy, especially if they change their legal person in the middle of the process;
tips-2: You can learn a lot of "gossip" from the judgment document, and you can even learn Xi game design knowledge.
2) The person subject to enforcement, the old lai, and the height limit
If the company loses the case, it may receive the following not-so-good debuffs in more severe cases:
Judgment debtorIt refers to the fact that after the court has ruled in favor of the plaintiff in a civil lawsuit, the defendant has not completed the amount of compensation specified in the judgment within the statutory time limit on the issue of compensationCompensation is enforced by the court。(15 days after the issuance of the final judgment, an application may be made to the court for compulsory enforcement); Judgment defaultersrefers to the six categories of persons who have the ability to perform but do not perform the obligations set forth in the effective legal documents, that is:LaiRestrict the judgment debtor's high consumption(Height limit) refers to the measures taken by the people's courts to restrict the judgment debtor's high consumption and related consumption that is not necessary for life or business. The height limit object can be a natural person or a unit. Companies (shareholders) with these debuffs should be cautious.
4. Intellectual property rights
Intellectual property rights generally include copyrights, trademarks, patents, domain names, etc
Copyright includes software copyright and work copyright.
Software CopyrightThat is, soft works, game shelves, application for version numbers, handling double soft, heavy soft, rights protection lawsuits, etc., all need soft works. The soft titles registered by game companies generally include games that are online and in development, as well as other company (in-house) products.
Generally, large companies will have more soft games, and small and medium-sized companies will have fewer soft games (excluding the situation of different soft games of the same game).
The game is soft. Other products are soft.
Copyright of the workGenerally, it includes the game's character scene art, sound effects, plot stories, promotional CG, comics, etc.
PatentsIncluding invention patents, utility patents, etc. The gold content of the former is higher than that of the latter. Domain nameIncluding the company's official website, game official website, company intranet, etc.
tips-1: If the company'sCopyright of the workThere are many trademarks and patents, which generally shows that the company attaches great importance to the investment of original IP and brand, and the company has sufficient funds; tips-2: During the game development period, a large number of applications are madeCopyright of the workGenerally, they are very confident in their own products, and applying for copyright is to prepare for prosecution if they are plagiarized and changed their skins later;
tips-3: Skin-changing games will not apply for copyright of works. However, not applying for the copyright of the work does not mean that the product will not work, after all, it costs money and energy;
tips-4: If a small and medium-sized company has a bunch of messy soft books under its name (the threshold is very low, seven or eight hundred, and the volume is five or six hundred), and the name looks like a copycat, such as Jiangnan Wanjingtu, Yuanshen, Taiwu Picture Scroll (nonsense), this company may be doing a skin-changing game;
tips-5: If a company has been in operation for several years, but there are few soft titles under its name, it may be outsourced and developed for other companies. Or the game is mainly overseas, as well as small distribution companies.
The number of game companies is generally not too large. According to the direction of synthesis, R&D and distribution, it can be divided into several files:
More than 5,000 people
Tencent, NetEase, miHoYo.
1000-5000 people
1.There are a number of long-term operation projects, several projects under research of the head of the factory, such as Perfect, Sanqi;
2.(Rising period) mobile game large (medium) factory. Such as Lilith, Fun Plus, Paperfold, Eagle Horn, IgG, etc.;
3.In the transition period or in a stable state, old manufacturers, such as Changyou, Giant, Xishanju, NetDragon, Shengqu, Youzu and so on.
500-1000 people
Medium-sized companies with larger scales generally have head or sub-head products, such as Really Interesting, Weipai, Longchuang Yuedong, etc.
200-500 people
1.R&D companies with high-quality profitable products and distribution departments;
2.Large-scale pure-play companies. Such as Extreme, Game Craft Beer, efun, Youxing, etc.
100-200 people
1.R&D companies with profitable products, but not outstanding in quality commercialization;
2.A R&D company specializing in a niche track;
3.Most of the issuing companies;
4.An independent game company that is transforming into a commercial company.
20-100 people
1.Most light casual game companies;
2.entrepreneurial teams of former executives of large and medium-sized companies;
3.Indie game team with investment.
Less than 20 people
1.start-up teams;
2.Most indie game teams.
Generally speaking, the strength of the company and the size of the staff are positively correlated, the stronger the company, the more people, but the number of people does not necessarily mean that the company is weak, some R & D companies specializing in a certain category, the number of people for a long time is one or two hundred, or even dozens of people, such as Suzhou Lezhi.
The number of people in the company can cooperate with 10:Number of insured peopleCheck).
The game industry has a high turnover of personnel, and a very small number of companies rely on the system to leave some knowledge achievements that can be reused, and most companies are taken away with the core personnel, and the companies that have been established for a long time may not have accumulated more.
For companies that have been established for one or two years, it is recommended to learn about the background of the boss, financing, games under development, etc., for the sake of stability.
The registered address of the company is not necessarily the actual business address, or even the city where it is located, such as Wuhu Paper, which is actually in Shanghai; Wuhu Enjoy Tour (Station B), actually in Shanghai; Tianjin Zilong, actually in Shanghai and Beijing; Hainan Gaotu, actually in Guangzhou...
tips: The head office is in Shanghai, the branch is in Guangzhou, and the main business entity is the Guangzhou branch, most of which are legendary Xianxia companies (legendary Xianxia is very old, but it is also very mature, depending on personal choice).
The registered company at this stage is:Subscription systemThe enterprise can set a time limit for the recognized registered capital to be paid in stages, and it is not necessary to pay it in full at the beginning. There is no threshold limit on the registered capital of a game development company, and it is common for small and medium-sized companies.
10. Millions, companies with domestic issuance business generally need more than 10 million registered capital.
The amount of registered capital or paid-in capital cannot be used as the basis for judging the strength and stability of the company. Taking the registered capital of 1 million as an example, even if it is paid in full at one time, it may not be enough for a company of 20 people to last for a few months, and the paid-in capital is in the past, and the money may have been used up.
Taking the developer of "Awakening of the Kingdoms" Legou as an example, Legou's registered capital was only 100,000 at the beginning, and after the introduction of Lilith's investment, it increased by tens of thousands, and now it is only 1780,000 in total. However, Hainan Legou, a subsidiary of Legou, has a registered capital of 15.3 million, which may be for its own issuance in the later stage.
Tips: An increase in registered capital often means financing.
Shareholders pledge their (partial) equity holdings to a third party for financing (or cashing out). Equity pledge financing is a relatively common financing method, whether it is a listed or non-listed company. However, too high a staking ratio may pose a stability risk. If the loan cannot be repaid on time, the equity may be frozen, or even the company may change ownership (if the shareholding ratio is high).
If the company has only one entity, then the number of insured persons under the entity is generally the number of all employees of the company (the number of insured persons in the industrial and commercial information is updated in the annual report in the middle of each year, and there will be a lag);
If there are multiple entities (e.g., sub-branches), the company may register the employee's social security under different entities. Therefore, the number of insured people under a single entity may not be the total number of the company, and if there is a discrepancy between the number of insured people and the total number of people introduced by the company, it does not necessarily mean that the company does not pay social security to employees or pays less social security (the base and proportion of social security and provident fund paid by the company cannot be obtained through public channels).
To give a few examples, NetEase Guangzhou's social security registration entities are mainlyGuangzhou Boguan, Stacked Paper is mainly Shanghai Warm Stack, miHoYo is mainly Shanghai MiHoYo Destiny, in addition to miHoYo Shadow Iron, miHoYo Technology, etc.
Tips: In order to reduce the cost of layoffs, some companies may frequently change the social security subject of employees.
The common reason for changing the name is to transfer to a joint-stock company, such as "miHoYo Co., Ltd." is changed to "miHoYo Co., Ltd.", which generally does not require too much attention.
If the trademark name is changed, such as "Tencent" changed to "NetEase" (nonsense), it is recommended to search for the original name evaluation, whether there is too much black history. Of course, it is also possible that the company has been transformed or the business has been adjusted, and the original name is not enough to carry the new business needs.
It refers to being included in the list of enterprises with abnormal operations, which may be the failure to register the annual report on time, the address is abnormal, etc., and generally does not affect the operation, and it can be removed. However, if the annual report is not registered on time (and has not been removed from the list for a long time), it may be that the company is about to be deregistered.
Don't look at bankruptcy, reorganization or liquidation.
At this stage, the qualification of game companies is mainly ICP, and if independent publishing also requires a publishing license (small companies generally can't get it), there was a literary network article before, which has been out of operation for several years.
Recognition and honors include high-tech enterprises, software enterprises, software products, innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises, specialized and special new small and medium-sized enterprises, etc.
These determinations will reduce or exempt certain taxes for enterprises, so the enterprise declaration is very active, and the local industrial and commercial departments will also come to encourage enterprises to declare, and there are many industrial and commercial agents, and some of the determinations have threshold requirements for the company's revenue and intellectual property rights, so they have a certain reference value.
14. Conclusion
The above is the interpretation of Yousha's information on the industry and commerce, intellectual property rights and other information of game companies. In addition, we will share some tools and channels commonly used by sharks to understand the information of game companies for reference.
There is foresight and judgment. Submission and cooperation: hi@youxiputaocom