Chapter 168: The Revenue Share Changed!
June 20.
Starting mid-July, schools would be entering summer break, and this period was gradually moving into exam week. Pei Qian still had to spend some time brushing up on his coursework.
Though the exams weren't particularly difficult, some closed-book courses still required him to pull a few all-nighters.
On this front, Pei Qian had to hand it to Ma Yang.
Despite managing both the Moyu Internet Café and Moyu Delivery, Ma Yang still managed to attend classes and listen attentively. His grades might not be top-tier, but he consistently passed without issue.
Sometimes, coasting through life was a skill in itself.
Up to now, Pei Qian's true identity hadn't been exposed. Though he rarely showed up in the dorms and was barely seen around campus, students like that weren't exactly rare in college. No one really questioned it.
Ma Yang, the only one at school who knew the truth, kept a tight lid on it, and their classmates never pressed for details.
Every time Pei Qian came to campus, he'd first change into his regular student clothes at his rented apartment, so he never drew any suspicion.
In contrast, Ma Yang's wardrobe was looking increasingly expensive, and his electronics were getting more high-end. Some classmates were starting to suspect his family had recently come into money—maybe their home got demolished and they received a compensation windfall?
With Ma Yang attracting all the attention, Pei Qian was more than happy to remain a regular student in the background.
Of course, Pei Qian also knew this was just like hiding things from your parents—it couldn't last forever. But there was no need to reveal himself just yet. Living a normal life among ordinary people was kind of nice.
That said, with final exams approaching, Pei Qian had to juggle both studying and keeping an eye on the company's affairs. It was a miserable time.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the self-study room.
Pei Qian was forcing himself to memorize borrowed, photocopied notes, occasionally checking his phone.
Though he couldn't monitor online developments constantly, he had arranged for Lu Mingliang to summarize and forward any important updates to him.
"President Pei, Playtime Weekly released an article about our new DLCs, praising us as the conscience of Chinese gaming. The response is really positive!"
Pei Qian glanced at his phone and put it back down.
Playtime Weekly was the first media outlet to ever report on Tengda's games. This kind of news-chasing piece was to be expected. It wouldn't cause much impact.
"President Pei, our DLC updates are trending on Weibo, and a lot of players are talking about it!"
Still not a big issue. Weibo hot topics come and go fast, and you can even pay to get something trending. Nothing to panic about.
"President Pei, apparently Barrett · Destruction accounts are being sold on the black market for over 2,000 yuan."
What the hell? It's already the end of the month, and next month's batch of 500 is about to drop. Why the rush?
…Then again, makes sense. People probably want to enjoy the gun for the next ten days while they can.
Fine, buy it if you want. We set the limit at 500, and that's all there is. Not a single gun more.
"President Pei, Aili Island created a dedicated zone for our games!"
"President Pei, a game dev on Weibo accused us of disrupting the market. He got flamed by players!"
"President Pei, the official ESRO platform created a special feature page for several of our games, placing it right on the homepage. Looks like we're about to see a noticeable spike in base game and DLC sales in the coming days!"
That last message made Pei Qian's hand tremble.
The official platform is at it again!
Last time, they gave Game Producer a front-page feature, and he had barely managed to survive it.
And now? They'd bundled all of Tengda's games into one big feature and put it on the homepage?
Stay calm. Stay calm…
Pei Qian took a few deep breaths to calm himself.
From experience, he knew that while homepage recommendations were effective, the sales spike was still within tolerable limits.
He still had time to splurge and burn money. And with the recommendation coming this week, the real revenue spike wouldn't hit until next week. If everything wrapped up before the income surge the week after, he should be fine.
"President Pei, also—the official platform now sees our company as a benchmark in the gaming industry. They've decided to offer us strong support and assistance!"
Pei Qian froze.
Strong support and assistance?
They were already giving Tengda homepage recommendations every other day, totally for free—that was generous enough. How else could they possibly offer "stronger" support?
"President Pei, the official platform has upgraded our company's tier. To encourage us to have more funding for future game development, they've decided to change our revenue share with them from 50-50 to 70-30. We get 70%!"
"This kind of special treatment is usually reserved for top-tier companies with strong influence, or ones with stellar reputations—companies considered exemplary in the industry. This shows just how much the platform recognizes our games!"
"I've heard the best case scenario is a 90-10 split, President Pei! We'll keep working hard to earn it!"
Pei Qian's hand trembled, and his phone smacked onto the desk.
It's over. Totally over!
From 50-50 to 70-30… doesn't that mean that even if they did nothing, all the games would suddenly generate 20% more income every month, for free?
Take Ocean Fortress for example, which pulls in around 3.5 million a month. With an extra 20%, that's an extra 700,000!
In other words, even without counting the DLC sales, just the platform revenue adjustment alone would mean at least 600,000 to 700,000 yuan more in this coming week before the financial settlement!
And once you add in all the DLC income...
Pei Qian was completely stunned.
He had already anticipated that the games would make money. He had a rough estimate for the DLC sales too. Originally, all of this profit was within his expectations.
But this sudden move by the official platform totally wrecked his plan!
Any other company hearing this news would be popping champagne and throwing a party.
But Pei Qian felt like an ant on a hot stove.
One careless move, and he might not even be able to spend all the money in time!
After all, during the final week before a financial settlement, he couldn't invest in developing new projects anymore. He could only burn money through bonuses and employee benefits, which wasn't fast enough.
If he ended the quarter with a surplus of 1–2 million, that only converted to just over 10,000 points. That could be offset by one or two bad projects. And if there was a loss, the system would cover it fully.
This was way too nerve-wracking—a fine line between heaven and hell!
Pei Qian couldn't sit still anymore. He slammed his notebook shut and left the study room immediately.
At a time like this, who cares about studying?!
The emergency money-burning plan had to start early!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Back at the company, Pei Qian rushed in and called Assistant Xin to his office.
When Lu Mingliang, Ma Yiqun, and the others saw President Pei's serious expression, they couldn't help but admire him.
They had just received a public commendation from the official platform and even got a better revenue share—this was something most game companies could only dream of. A single post about it would make countless people jealous.
And yet President Pei looked completely calm, as if none of it had happened.
On the contrary, he looked even more anxious and rushed, as if he was still deeply worried about other company matters.
What a leader's mindset! This is what greatness looks like.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the office.
Pei Qian opened a spreadsheet and seriously reviewed the company's various expenses.
At this point, Tengda's finances had become incredibly complex—from basic rent and utilities, to all kinds of R&D investments, to employee benefits and more. The spreadsheet was huge, and just looking at it gave Pei Qian a headache.
He could only skim it roughly.
After a quick browse, Pei Qian thought of a good entry point.
"Our company's business performance is improving rapidly—it's probably time to expand."
"Tell all departments to draft a hiring plan. Starting next month, we're going to recruit across the board—including your teams in admin, HR, and finance. Expand them too."
"No limits on headcount. Tell them to overreport if necessary."
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