Pei Qian didn’t give the three men a chance to hesitate, directly assigning tasks.
“So, Chef Lin, you’ll be responsible for researching this matter and setting up a pilot program at this internet café.”
“Specific menu items, delivery range, how to create the ordering website or application, initial promotion strategies…”
“Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan, you two figure these things out. Bring me a plan in a while—ideally with a general direction by this week, and officially launching next week.”
Ma Yang patted his chest: “Don’t worry, Qian-ge, leave it to me!”
Similar delivery services already existed, since Slackin’ Internet Café was currently responsible for providing meals to all Tenda employees, which already involved delivery.
Now they just needed to refine some details and hire a few more delivery staff to handle food delivery for the surrounding area.
Of course, Slackin’ Delivery’s business would definitely center around Slackin’ Internet Café, radiating outward to the surrounding areas.
They would only deliver within a 2-kilometer radius of Slackin’ Internet Café. Later, as more Slackin’ Internet Cafés opened, they would naturally achieve the goal of covering the entire city.
Strictly speaking, this hodgepodge approach was very uneconomical and unscientific.
But that’s exactly what Pei Qian wanted—uneconomical and unscientific—after all, he was still counting on Slackin’ Internet Café to lose money!
If a physical store focused on just one thing, like only running an internet café, restaurant, bar, or delivery service, with Pei Qian’s massive investment, it might gradually break even.
After all, the system imposed many restrictions on Pei Qian, preventing him from passing off inferior products as good ones. So no matter how much money he spent, services and goods would fluctuate within a reasonable range, and regardless of whether prices were high or low, there would be a corresponding target audience.
By turning Slackin’ Internet Café into a hodgepodge, different sections could naturally drag each other down, better fulfilling Pei Qian’s goal of making losses.
Pei Qian was very satisfied with Slackin’ Internet Café’s current state.
Among all aspects, he was most satisfied with the food service, so it naturally deserved further development.
Keeping a few more chefs wouldn’t cost much money, but what about hiring more delivery staff, dishwashers for cleaning and sterilizing tableware, and developers for the website and app?
With multiple Slackin’ Internet Cafés, losses would multiply accordingly. Where else could you find such a good deal?
By entrusting this important task to Old Ma, Pei Qian was placing high hopes on him.
It would also give Old Ma something to do, preventing him from binge eating every day because Chen Lei had left. It wouldn’t be good if he got fat.
Having arranged tasks for the coming period, Pei Qian finally felt relieved. The tiny spark at Slackin’ Internet Café had been discovered by Mr. Pei in time and decisively extinguished, preventing it from becoming a raging fire. Perfect!
…
June 10.
Tenda Network Technology Co., Ltd.
Pei Qian checked on the development progress of several game updates.
Just over a week remained until the originally scheduled development deadline, with a few more days needed for testing. By now, most of the functional development work was nearly complete.
The art resources weren’t all finished yet, as all the original artwork for “Ghost General” had been assigned to Ruan Guangjian. This was a matter of quality work taking time, something that couldn’t be rushed.
As long as all the art resources were in place by June 18, when the new version updated, everything would be fine.
After all, art resources were different from program functions—they wouldn’t have bugs or affect players’ gaming experience.
Pei Qian roughly went through all the new features of the updated version and looked at the new items for sale.
Since he already knew these game updates would generally be profitable, with earnings within the expected range, he wasn’t too concerned.
There was plenty of updated content, but it was mainly in terms of art resources.
“Lonely Desert Highway” added ten new map scenes and an endless mode. In Pei Qian’s view, this was the least likely to be profitable. Although the 1 yuan DLC price was very generous, Pei Qian thought that not many people would buy a DLC just to change the scenery and drive through it again.
“Ghost General” updated fifty generals included in the DLC, selling for 5 yuan. Pei Qian considered this to have a medium-high probability of making money, but considering the cost of creating fifty generals—a full 250,000 yuan—they would need to sell 100,000 sets just to break even.
Pei Qian estimated they would probably break even, but the possibility of making a substantial profit wasn’t high.
The DLC for “Game Producer” sold for 5 yuan, basically fluctuating between profit and loss.
The biggest problem was “Sea Fortress.”
“Sea Fortress” added new storylines, scenes, characters, and guns—all free. The only paid item was a new epic weapon, which was limited in quantity.
An 888 yuan item limited to 500 units per month meant that, after deducting platform commissions and taxes, Pei Qian would make at most 200,000 yuan this month.
“Sea Fortress” main revenue came from the rapid expansion of the user base and the resulting Fire Qilin sales. Each month brought tens of thousands of new players, with a small portion buying Fire Qilins, generating substantial income.
By this calculation, the money earned from the new epic weapon was just a drop in the bucket.
Looking at just one month, this 200,000 yuan in revenue would hardly recover the development cost of the new version. But the system didn’t judge it as a violation, mainly because this was a long-term business.
Once the new content was released, they would earn this much every month for the next several months, while the development cost for the new version wouldn’t increase. Considering the promotional effect of the new version on the game, the continued enthusiasm of current players, the return of old players, and other factors, this wasn’t considered malicious loss-making from a long-term perspective.
So, the new epic weapon in “Sea Fortress” would 100% sell out, but no matter how frantically players bought it, they would only be competing against each other. Tenda wouldn’t earn a penny more, and Pei Qian wasn’t worried at all.
After launching Fire Qilin previously, this time, “Sea Fortress” introduced a new epic weapon: Barrett-Destruction.
Seeing this flamboyant sniper rifle, Pei Qian couldn’t help but smile knowingly.
He could almost see Lü Mingliang’s deep resentment in this gun.
Previously, Lü Mingliang had reported that the news of “Sea Fortress” limiting the new epic weapon to 500 units had sparked fierce protests from players, asking if it could be increased to 5,000 units. Pei Qian had rejected this request.
Lü Mingliang had put considerable effort into this gun, determined to earn money for Pei Qian.
As a sniper rifle, Barrett-Destruction surpassed Fire Qilin in both design and utility, but so what?
Pei Qian didn’t care about this at all. Five hundred units meant five hundred units—I lose if we sell even one more!
With a limit in place, there was no way it could make more money, right?
After inspecting all the new version updates, Pei Qian expressed satisfaction. At least the Tenda side was still under control.
At Shangyang Games, the old games had experienced a revival in reputation, but with so many profit points cut, it would still be difficult to break even for now. Pei Qian estimated there shouldn’t be any unexpected issues before this settlement.
In the future, by continuing to maintain strict vigilance and monitoring game profit data, there shouldn’t be any problems.
Huang Sibo was making a documentary, and even if it made money, Pei Qian could offset all the profits with the steady losses from five Slackin’ Internet Cafés, with plenty to spare.
Adding daily expenses, employee benefits, and a final spending spree…
Pei Qian felt that losing one or two million this time shouldn’t be a problem!
Of course, he couldn’t let his guard down.
Previously, whenever Pei Qian thought he would lose money, his employees would always give him surprises, making his poor heart unable to handle the excitement.
This time, Pei Qian was treading on thin ice. He absolutely couldn’t relax his vigilance until the final moment of settlement!