October 13th, Thursday.
Tenda Headquarters.
Assistant Xin led Qiu Hong to the reception room and prepared tea.
“Please have some tea first. Mr. Pei will be here shortly.”
Qiu Hong quickly nodded. “Yes, yes.”
After Assistant Xin left the reception room, Qiu Hong sipped his tea while yearning for Tenda Games.
After finishing his lecture for “Mr. Ma” some time ago, Qiu Hong had begun preparing to reconnect with his friends in the industry, wanting to start another company to develop new projects and rebuild his career.
But what exactly the new project would be had not yet been determined, so naturally, he couldn’t convince investors to fund him.
Qiu Hong he did have substantial experience in pay-to-win online games, but most of his resources had been depleted during his failed startup.
The cultural industry is highly subjective, and the gaming industry even more so.
When you succeed, you become full of confidence, thinking everything you do is right; but when you fail, you fall into deep self-doubt, feeling worthless.
Qiu Hong was currently struggling with these feelings. He wanted to start a new company, to develop another successful game, but felt unprepared and lost.
Just at this moment, “Mr. Ma” called again, inviting him to Jingzhou, saying there was a collaboration matter with Tenda that needed to be discussed in person.
The specifics weren’t mentioned over the phone.
If it had been any other company, Qiu Hong might not have considered it, because working for someone else after having your own business—going from being your boss to being managed by others—always gives a sense of dependence on others.
But after all, this was Tenda Group, and he had a connection with Mr. Ma, so Qiu Hong decided to make the trip.
Previously when visiting Jingzhou, he had always gone directly to the coffee shop near Handong University, but this time Qiu Hong finally entered Tenda Group’s premises.
Spacious workstations, enviable benefits, the employees’ vibrant spirit…
It all made Qiu Hong genuinely envious.
Having run his own company, he knew the hardships involved and how difficult it was to build such a massive conglomerate like Tenda.
To provide such generous working conditions and a relaxed atmosphere while ensuring the enthusiasm and fighting spirit of all employees seemed almost miraculous.
In short, after seeing Tenda’s interior, Qiu Hong felt his trip wasn’t wasted.
As for what specific collaboration they would discuss?
Qiu Hong really couldn’t imagine.
Because Qiu Hong was clear about his positioning. Although he had a small reputation in China’s gaming circle, it was limited to the pay-to-win online gaming field. He may have earned some money, but in no aspect could he compare with Tenda.
Tenda seemingly did not need him.
While pondering this, slight footsteps were heard outside the reception room. He faintly heard Assistant Xin saying, “Mr. Pei, Mr. Qiu is already waiting in the reception room.”
Qiu Hong instinctively sat up straight.
Mr. Pei was coming!
Regarding this legendary figure, Qiu Hong had always heard his name but never met him, and somehow felt a little expectation.
Hearing a knock at the door, Qiu Hong quickly said, “Come in.”
Assistant Xin opened the door, and “Mr. Ma” walked in.
“Mr. Pei, let me know if you need anything,” Assistant Xin said before closing the door and leaving.
Qiu Hong had already stood up, ready to shake hands with Mr. Pei, but seeing the current situation, he was momentarily stunned.
Question marks floated above his head.
???
Pei Qian looked at Qiu Hong, who had just stood up with a blank expression and confusion, and smiled slightly. “Mr. Qiu, long time no see.”
Qiu Hong didn’t immediately catch on.
Isn’t this Mr. Ma?
Then why did this assistant, who seemed to hold a high position in the company, call him “Mr. Pei”?
Qiu Hong vaguely realized something but found it hard to believe, as he couldn’t understand the reason and logic behind it.
Pei Qian sat down on the sofa. At this point, there was no need to let Qiu Hong keep guessing. He directly delivered his prepared explanation to quickly get to the main topic.
“Mr. Qiu, first let me apologize. My real identity is not Mr. Ma from Dream Realization Venture Capital; I am Pei Qian.”
“As for why I called myself Mr. Ma… mainly because I wanted to approach you with a different identity, to communicate, discuss, and get to know each other, to determine if there was any possibility of cooperation between us.”
The question marks above Qiu Hong’s head decreased, and his face showed a look of realization.
So, Mr. Pei wasn’t listening to my lecture but conducting an anonymous inspection and interview?
Like when a principal sits in on a teacher’s class to understand the teacher’s true level?
That explained why Mr. Pei approached him under the alias of “Mr. Ma.”
But Qiu Hong still had questions.
He was just an ordinary game producer, though somewhat known. But China’s gaming circle was filled with countless talents.
What qualifications did he have that made Mr. Pei go to such lengths to explore the possibility of cooperation? Mr. Pei had even paid tuition fees at the time!
And what exactly was this cooperation?
Pei Qian didn’t plan to dwell on this topic for too long. He needed to move forward quickly.
“Mr. Qiu, let me first tell you about our cooperation proposal, then you can consider it.”
“The project I want to do is called the ‘Desperate Path Plan.'”
“This is a support plan targeting domestic single-player games and independent game developers. It’s dedicated to finding those Chinese single-player and indie game development teams that need help, providing them with necessary development funds.”
“I’d like to invite you to be the head of this ‘Desperate Path Plan,’ becoming a senior executive of Tenda Group. All salary and benefits will be on par with other department heads, but one point needs to be emphasized: your bonus income will not be linked to the profits of the ‘Desperate Path Plan.'”
“Your bonus will depend on the ratio of profitable projects to total projects. The lower this ratio, the higher your bonus.”
“As for the specific amount, I cannot disclose it yet, but I can guarantee it won’t be lower than your bonus income when you were a lead designer on successful projects. Of course, I must be honest and say it won’t reach the level of a successful entrepreneur’s income.”
“Naturally, if later on you feel dissatisfied and want to leave, or request a salary adjustment, all these can be discussed.”
“That’s it. If Mr. Qiu has any questions, feel free to ask.”
Pei Qian took a sip of tea and smiled at Qiu Hong.
As for why it was called the “Desperate Path Plan” rather than something like the “Angel Plan” or “Savior Plan,” it was obviously because Pei Qian hoped this plan would quickly reach a desperate end—it needed to start with a good omen.
Qiu Hong fell silent.
It wasn’t that he had no questions; rather, he had too many and didn’t know where to start!
Many companies in China were doing similar things.
The two most common types were companies specifically focused on investment in the gaming industry or so-called “incubators,” and gaming channels and platforms.
Although the official ESRO platform was the largest and most authoritative, that didn’t mean other gaming platforms didn’t exist. For instance, Shenhua Mobile’s app market was also a type of gaming channel and platform.
These two types of companies launched similar support plans, obviously because there was profit to be made.
The gaming industry had many overnight success stories, especially in the past two years, which had been a boom period for mobile internet. The myth of mobile game companies becoming rich overnight had played out repeatedly. If one invested in a successful mobile game company, the return on investment would make any investor envious.
Although there were many investment companies, investment itself had thresholds. Some investment companies didn’t understand the gaming industry and naturally wouldn’t blindly invest in these small gaming companies.
Thus, investment companies specifically targeting the gaming industry emerged.
Platforms supporting startup game companies were basically doing it for similar purposes: diplomatically speaking, it was to secure more and better games for their platforms, but ultimately it was about making money.
So, these companies all had one characteristic: they did invest in and support many companies, but the vast majority were online game companies and mobile game companies.
The reason was simple—that’s where the money was!
Investing in such companies was high risk, high return.
Investing in single-player games and indie games was high risk, with no return.
Investment companies had a natural tendency to seek profit and avoid harm. Investing in online games but not single-player games, investing in mobile games but not indie games—this was a normal phenomenon.
But Mr. Pei’s “Desperate Path Plan” was specifically targeting single-player games and indie games?
And as the person in charge, the bonus and performance weren’t linked to the projects’ income?
Instead, were they inversely proportional to the “number of profitable projects / total number of projects” ratio?
Didn’t that mean the more total projects invested in and the fewer profitable projects, the higher the bonus?
This reverse incentive was quite something!
Wasn’t this encouraging him to invest indiscriminately in more garbage projects without selection?
This left Qiu Hong confused.
As for income, the sincerity was already at its maximum.
Before starting his own business, Qiu Hong had been a lead designer on a project with monthly revenue exceeding 100 million. That was the highest-earning stage of his career, but his monthly bonus was just over 100,000 yuan.
Because the company’s bonus rule was that the entire development team could only get 3% of the project’s net income, and these so-called “projects with monthly revenue exceeding 100 million” actually contained a lot of exaggeration and weren’t generating pure income of over 100 million.
Deductions included revenue sharing with channels and platforms (channels took the lion’s share), marketing expenses (a large part of this data was the company’s inflation), and at that time, the development team was relatively large, so these bonuses were shared across the entire project, with everyone getting a portion. As the lead designer, although his share proportion was higher, it was still limited.
After all the calculations, the money he received compared to what the project earned was minimal, not even enough to be considered scraps.
That’s why Qiu Hong was so eager to break away and start his own business.