If Pei Qian didn’t change anything about it, this game might still have a chance of making a comeback; this chance was not small at that.
As long as Ye Zhizhou did a little promotion here and there to bring back old players, this game might actually return to its previous profitable state; Pei Qian would no longer be able to incur losses from it.
Hence, Pei Qian had decided to remove the purchase options in the game.
Bloody Battle Song had no other selling point when it came to graphics or gameplay in comparison to other games; it was a pipe dream to think of attracting new players.
Even if the game became fair and its reputation became good, so what? As long as it didn’t earn money, Pei Qian was fine with that.
Of course, what if this game started to attract many new players because of its improved reputation and the player base became so big that profits actually grew? This was not entirely impossible; the possibility was rather small, however.
Pei Qian thought about this for a while, and it seemed that only Shang Yang Games still had a certain risk factor to it. He decided to pay special attention to them.
He was going to head to Bloody Battle Song’s official site to take a look.
Indeed, it seemed as if its popularity had risen a little. After its reputation had changed for the better, a portion of old players had returned to this game. However, Pei Qian wasn’t flustered. He immediately sent a message to Ye Zhizhou: “Send me some backend statistics regarding top-ups for Bloody Battle Song.”
A few minutes later, Ye Zhizhou sent over a screenshot.
This was the top-up platform figures for Bloody Battle Song. Pei Qian took a casual look and saw that on average, the per capita spending was indeed rising-not insignificantly either. However, the total top-up amount had actually fallen by seventy to eighty percent!
Based on a situation like this, Bloody Battle Song’s monthly revenue might not be able to hit one hundred thousand.
En, no need to panic; this is part of the plan!
Whether a game could survive depended mainly on profits. Hence, all game companies would push for top-up gaming activities despite the objections and curses from players; they all wanted to become profitable.
If a game kept on losing money, so what if its reputation was good?
The revamped Bloody Battle Song was indeed now rather wallet-friendly; the crux was who it was compared to now! Compared to games with paywalls—as ballers no longer found satisfaction in this game, income from ballers would fall drastically.
Compared to other wallet-friendly games such as Fantasy World, Bloody Battle Song’s graphics were trashy; and its gameplay was ordinary. It could not compete with those.
This meant that the new Bloody Battle Song would not be able to compete against these two types of games and their targeted gamer profiles.
“Not bad, let’s maintain this.”
After replying to Ye Zhizhou, Pei Qian relaxed as he laid his blanket well and went to sleep soundly.
In another two days, the two new branches were going to be open for business. He had to go and take a look then in order to have peace of mind.
At Shang Yang Games…
Ye Zhizhou saw Boss Pei’s message as he suddenly felt warmth in his heart. Although Boss Pei had so many things to attend to and was busy with his work, he was still concerned about Shang Yang Games!
Although our games’ income has fallen drastically now, this is evidently part of Boss Pei’s plan; hence, he wants us to maintain this!
This meant that our trajectory is right!
Ye Zhizhou instantly was filled with vigor. Indeed, this was the effect a good boss had on a company, right?
May 20th…
The two Fish-Catching Internet Cafe branches officially opened for business! Pei Qian, Ma Yang, and Zhang Yuan, the three management level personnel of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe naturally had to be present for the grand openings.
However, the situation at the venue was a little awkward. It was so deserted!
It was even worse than when Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s flagship store had first opened.
These two branches’ location was even worse than the flagship store’s. Pei Qian had also repeatedly emphasized that they couldn’t pull any stunts during the opening, couldn’t let off fireworks, and couldn’t give out flyers; the more low-key, the better.
To open a business without any promotion or publicity in such a deserted place, it was naturally going to be so cold and empty.
Pei Qian was actually rather satisfied. He sat in the empty coffee area as he looked outside, enjoying the pleasantly warm sunlight very much.
The two branch managers looked a little awkward. However, they had after all been redeployed from the flagship store; and they were used to such sights. They knew that Boss Pei would not blame them, and so the duo wasn’t flustered at all.
On the other hand, the newly-recruited servers have never seen such a strange sight before as they all felt as if they didn’t know where best to stand or put their hands at; they all seemed to feel that this place was a little eerie.
In the internet cafe section, Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan muttered to themselves softly.
“Why are you stopping me? Ma Yang asked, looking confused.
Just now, Ma Yang had thought that the place was too empty. As morale seemed low, he had wanted to go over and share with Pei Qian the latest good news of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. With Chen Lei’s star appearances, the internet cafe’s drinks sales had been increasing daily; the customer flow was also evidently increasing!
Ma Yang felt that this method could be replicated at all Fish-Catching Internet Cafes. However, he had not managed to say anything when Zhang Yuan stopped him.
Zhang Yuan seemed to know what Ma Yang wanted to say. Zhang Yuan said, “Brother Ma, it’s not that I’m stopping you from saying. It is not the right time now; it’s a little rash.”
Ma Yang was confused. “En? Why?”
“Brother Ma, we only have an improvement in sales for our drinks; we would only make an additional twenty to thirty thousand a month. Compared to the monthly losses of three hundred thousand, that isn’t much!
“If we raise this up now, it would not be very significant!
“If you keep on bragging about this and Boss Pei finally asks ‘Not bad, how much money did you make?’ and you say ‘We are still making a loss’, what would be the point of telling Boss Pei this?!
“If we say nothing now, no one would be wiser. If we do so now and raise Boss Pei’s expectations, wouldn’t he be even more disappointed when he found out the truth?
“I think that we should wait till we turned our losses into a profit before telling Boss Pei, to give him a surprise. This way, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and our position in Boss Pei’s heart would be elevated; this would be more impactful!
“Brother Ma, don’t you agree with this?”
Ma Yang contemplated for a while; this seemed to make sense.
They were still far away from making a profit. If they informed Pei Qian of the good news now, it actually wouldn’t amount to much. It would also make Ma Yang seem as if he was eager to take credit for something, that he wanted to come and boast after just achieving minimal success.
This was indeed not the way to do things.
Ma Yang nodded. “En, you make a lot of sense. Let’s raise this matter another time. When Fish-Catching Internet Cafe finally turns its losses into a profit, we can then give Brother Qian a surprise!”
Chapter 156 - What an Embarrassment to Tengda!
May 21st…
Pei Qian received the report that Ye Zhizhou sent to him. Shang Yang Games was still incurring losses; it was not showing signs of looking up
In the report, Ye Zhizhou tallied how the number of active players in the game was increasing, along with the number of purchases being made, in detail. It was obvious he was taking these as indications of his success. That was why he was reporting the numbers to Boss Pei.<
br />
Of course, all of these results were achieved thanks to Boss Pei’s instructions. Pei Qian did not even pay attention to these. Instead, he focused on total top-up values.
En, there’s still no improvement!
Pei Qian already guessed what was going to happen. He replied, “Not bad, maintain it this way.”
Ye Zhizhou excitedly went back to work.
Pei Qian was quite satisfied with Shang Yang Games’ current situation. It did not matter whether its reputation was good or bad. As long as the top-up values did not increase, everything would be fine.
Ye Zhizhou thought that everything was in Boss Pei’s hands.
Of course, this was true. It was just that what Boss Pei was controlling and what Ye Zhizhou thought Boss Pei was controlling were two completely different things.
Knock, knock! There was knocking on the door. Pei Qian looked up and saw that it was Huang Sibo.
“En? A rare guest.”
They had not met in a long time. The frustration that Pei Qian felt towards Huang Sibo had already dissipated by now. Actually, on second thought, Fei Huang Workspace had not done much to let him down!
Although they made two million yuan-after Pei Qian distributed the profits, the real amount that was added to Tengda was only over four hundred thousand yuan. What’s more, the amount of money Director Zhu Xiaoce gave to Pei Qian as remuneration ended up contributing significantly to Pei Qian’s purchase of new home appliances.
Thus, Pei Qian’s anger dissipated a long time ago.
Huang Sibo carried a bag of fruits into the office. “I passed by the office so I decided to come up and say farewell to you, Boss Pei.”
“Oh? Say farewell?” Pei Qian was stunned. “Where are you going?”
Huang Sibo smiled. “Didn’t we confirm a while ago that Fei Huang Workspace was going to start filming a documentary? Director Zhu Xiaoce and I, as well as a few workers, have to make a trip down to Shanghai. All the filming will take place there. I might have to stay there until next month. So I decided to come down here before leaving to say farewell.”
To Shanghai?”
Pei Qian nodded. “En, Shanghai is a good place.”
He knew in his heart that going to Shanghai would cost a lot of money!
Excluding those who would be involved in editing later on, Fei Huang Workspace had about five or six employees. If this group of people all went to Shanghai, the costs of train tickets there and back coupled with accommodation would not be cheap.
Pei Qian did not give Fei Huang Workspace any funds for the post-filming stage. This time, all of their expenses were being paid for by profits earned from Boss Pei’s Daily Life. In total, that was only about a million yuan. A portion of that money still had to be used for new filming equipment.
They could use a DSLR to film Boss Pei’s Daily Life in portrait mode. It was alright for them to improvise here and there. However, filming a documentary would be different. They would surely have to use all sorts of filming equipment to produce the documentary; otherwise, it would not look professional at all.
At that thought, Pei Qian did not feel any more disdain. In fact, he was mildly interested. Although he was prepared for Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce’s new project to reap in profits, Pei Qian could not help but ask questions.
Whether big or small, profits were profits; however, there was still going to be a big difference. If they earned less profit, Boss Pei could make up for this using other projects. If they earned huge profits, Boss Pei would be at a loss.
“En, you have to be careful on the road.” Pei Qian acted nonchalant as he asked, “You have to go to Shanghai specifically to film this documentary?”
Huang Sibo looked embarrassed as he smiled. “Boss Pei, let me tell you the truth. Don’t be offended. Our project this time might lose all of our hard-earned money.”
Huh?
Lose all the hard-earned money?
Boss Pei sat upright at once.
Talking to me about this would cure me of my boredom!
“Here, have some tea.” Pei Qian immediately poured a cup of tea and handed it to Huang Sibo. The way he treated the latter was immediately different.
Huang Sibo did not seem to notice this change in Boss Pei’s attitude. Instead, he sipped the tea and began giving a brief explanation of Fei Huang Workspace’s most recent arrangements for the project.
“Boss Pei, Director Zhu Xiaoce and I were very moved by your words. We decided to move out of the realm of short videos and produce something meaningful instead. We thought of different ideas but still felt like they were missing something.
“Some topics we thought of were ones that we were good at; some were ones that we thought would be profitable. However, none of them were urgent or necessary to embark on. Subsequently, we finally found a topic that would be necessary for us to embark on. That’s a documentary on eSports players!”
Pei Qian was very interested now. “A documentary on eSports players?”
Huang Sibo was not lying to him. A topic like this could really lose all of their hard-earned money!
What year was this? 2010!
The eSports players at that time were still homeless men sleeping on streets, drinking water from the springs, and eating cup noodles.
It was not like what it would be ten years later, where they would be sipping red wine, holding models on their arms, and driving Ferraris. They were not yet earning tens of millions of yuan a year.
The hot capital had not yet been injected into the industry. Games were still regarded as extremely dangerous to society. Whether one was playing games professionally or purely for entertainment made no difference to the bulk of the population. Anyone who spent time on games could be described as not engaging in honest work.
It was possible to film a documentary on eSports players now. One would be able to find suitable material, but how would such a documentary produce cash?
Boss Pei’s Daily Life could earn money because Aili Island was coincidentally looking for premium video content. That was why they managed to sign such a special agreement to split the profits.
Short videos could be updated and renewed and draw steady traffic to a site. Furthermore, they could be broadcasted all over the internet. The IP value they generated from three seasons, as well as the reputation they earned, was all bargaining chips they could use with video websites.
However, documentaries were different.
Firstly, people would not keep an eye out for them.
Secondly, they could not be updated, and so they would not be able to draw steady traffic to the video websites. Naturally, video websites would not be interested in signing for exclusive broadcasting rights. The most they would do is offer a basic incentive plan —the kind that offered about twenty to thirty yuan for every ten thousand views.
Thirdly, they could not accept advertisements. That meant they would not be able to find sponsors.
Documentaries were very serious. They were real and therefore meaningful. They could not possibly show interviews of eSports players and then broadcast an advertisement -“Want to win? Take Aofeng.”-halfway through the interview.
One could say that most documentaries are not profitable. Only a few documentaries were exceptions to this rule.
Take A Bite of China[1], for example.
When Pei Qian first heard that Huang Sibo was interested in doing documentaries, he was worried that they would produce something like A Bite of China. However, he could now be sure that that was not the case.
That was reasonable. Zhu Xiaoce was talented, but he was not a transmigrator. To create something wildly popular once was talent. To consecutively create wildly popular films was cheating.
At this point, Pei Qian was very relieved.
It was not important to discuss exactly how they were planning to film this documentary now. As long as Pei Qian could invest a huge amount and reap little in return, he would consider this a good project.
Pei Qian’s expression
immediately became very warm. “Lose all our hard-earned money? That’s not a problem. With me funding Fei Huang Workspace, relax and do what you want to!
“Money does not matter. We cannot live so cautiously!”
Huang Sibo sipped his tea, and a grin spread across his face. “Indeed. I knew that Boss Pei would support us!
“Boss Pei, don’t worry. We are very clear about the risks involved this time. That’s why we decided to take the green-skin train[2] to Shanghai. We will also save as much as possible in terms of accommodation and food
Before Huang Sibo could finish, Pei Qian’s face fell.
“What’s the meaning of this?”
Huang Sibo paused. He rarely saw Boss Pei get angry. Stuttering, he answered, “No, nothing. We’re just controlling our expenses
–
Pei Qian looked as if he expected better from Huang Sibo. “Controlling your expenses? Huang Sibo, be clear of your own identity!”
Huang Sibo was shocked. The teacup in his hands vibrated.
Boss Pei rarely blows up in this manner. Did I say something wrong?
Pei Qian said in a serious tone, “Fei Huang Workspace is a subsidiary of Tengda. You, and all the employees in Fei Huang Workspace, are employees of Tengda! You’re making them take the green-skin train and making them save on accommodation and food. What if they eat something wrong?
“Even if they’re healthy and their stomachs can take it, this trip would be tiring on their bodies. If they don’t eat and sleep well and this affects their work productivity, the filming will not go well. If the project does not go smoothly and the film is ruined as a result, who will take responsibility?”
Huang Sibo felt his own hands trembling. “It’ll… it’ll be mine.
“Oh, no, no, no, no…” Huang Sibo understood what Boss Pei was getting at. “Boss Pei, don’t worry. I’m only trying to minimize our costs. I’m not going to be a ruthless slave-driver. I will take care of the workers’ health for sure…”
Pei Qian still seemed to expect more of Huang Sibo. “You are an embarrassment to Tengda! What have I taught you all this time?”
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