This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature

Chapter 328 - 210: The Most Successful Tianba Player Is..._2

Actually, there’s no need to run.

According to Hu Hui, there’s definitely some bubble in the company’s valuation, but Huiba Auto is not without merit, and holding shares long-term is surely not a loss.

The most important thing is...

Huiba Auto is about to go public!

Chen Ba, who holds 6% of the shares, will become the third-largest shareholder. The third-largest shareholder selling shares is not a good thing for the company.

It’s possible that right after going public, the stock price could fall below the offering price.

"Then I won’t run."

After listening to Hu Hui’s analysis, Chen Ba also felt that, as the third-largest shareholder of Huiba Auto, running away was not an easy task.

Since there’s no way to escape, and as Hu Hui said, the future of Huiba Auto is very bright, with room for the company’s valuation to continue rising after going public, then just hold onto it!

After all, Chen Ba isn’t short of money.

This 6% of shares, if liquidated now, is just three billion, but if Huiba Auto continues to develop well, then it will be more than three billion.

"Hey, now you’re talking!"

After persuading Ba for a long time, Hu Hui finally managed to dispel his idea of cashing out and running away, and he finally sighed in relief.

"By the way, Ba!"

"Your Tianba Studio has so much cash flow, besides developing games, isn’t there any other use for it?"

"There is another use!"

Chen Ba denied it.

Tianba Studio has so much money on its books, it’s obviously not just sitting there collecting interest, there are definitely other uses.

Besides reserving funds for new game development, Tianba Studio also makes a series of investments. However, Tianba Studio’s investments are more focused on the special field of "Divine Grace Animation."

That’s right, Divine Grace Animation!

Since the release of "Divine Grace Continent," which gave rise to the new category of "Divine Grace Animation," Tianba Studio has been investing widely in this field.

For example...

A recently aired Divine Grace Animation, although the production team was from abroad, the investor was Tianba Studio.

There are many similar examples.

Last year, about 7,240 Divine Grace Animations were broadcast worldwide. Among them, more than 80 Divine Grace Animations used a personalized custom version of "Divine Grace Continent" for production.

And of these 80 or so works, roughly half of them have Tianba Studio’s investment.

There’s no other way!

The personalized customization service is too expensive, and many animation companies and production teams are unwilling to spend. But the output of the personalized customization service is excellent, far surpassing the professional version.

So what to do?

Make Tianba Studio the investor, provide personalized custom software and funding, doesn’t that solve the problem?

Anyway, if someone has to invest, why not let Tianba Studio invest and get to use the personalized custom version of "Divine Grace Continent" for free—it’s a huge win!

For this reason, Tianba Studio spends a lot of money every year investing in multiple Divine Grace Animations.

These investments have both losses and gains.

Overall, it’s profitable. After all, compared to the investment returns, the production cost of Divine Grace Animation is really low.

Not to mention, the production software for Divine Grace Animation is Tianba Studio’s own, essentially free to use, with no software licensing fees, making the costs even cheaper.

The only regret is...

Divine Grace Animation is so fiercely competitive, unless it’s a blockbuster hit, even if it makes money, it won’t be much.

Collecting toll fees is more stable!

Thinking of this, Chen Ba also made a plan. Starting this year, the studio will no longer invest in Divine Grace Animation productions.

Honestly collecting toll fees is good, at least it’s steady income, immune to drought or flood! Investing in Divine Grace Animation doesn’t earn big money, so why bother?

"Ba..."

Upon hearing that Ba has money but seems unable to spend it, Hu Hui was a bit tempted: "Why not increase the shareholding a bit? 6% is still too little, how about increasing to 10%?"

"Don’t think about taking advantage of me!"

Chen Ba rolled his eyes: "I already feel 6% is too much. It’s hard enough to run, and now you want me to increase it? You want me tied down completely, right?"

What a joke!

Regarding Huiba Auto, his promise to Hu Hui not to run was already his bottom line. After all, his original plan was to cash out and run after the IPO.

Increasing the shareholding is out of the question.

These new forces in car manufacturing, no matter how lively they seem now, it’s still uncertain how many will survive in a couple of years.

Maybe none of them will survive.

Anyway, Chen Ba doesn’t believe in them. Rather than increase his shareholding in Huiba Auto, he’d rather continue investing in Divine Grace Animation. At least he can see a future with it—not like investing this year and folding the next.

"Alright, since you’re not willing, forget it."

Hu Hui didn’t seem surprised by this response. Perhaps he realized that Ba and he are not on the same page.

However, speaking of which...

With the company about to go public, whether or not they’re on the same page, at least on the day of the listing, Chen Ba has to be there to play along with Hu Hui.

"Can I not go?"

"No way! You are the third-largest shareholder and also a co-founder of Huiba Auto..."

There’s no way Chen Ba can skip it.

Such an important moment as the company’s listing, as the third-largest shareholder + co-founder, not being there would indeed be unjustifiable.

So he’ll go!

But the listing procedure isn’t complete yet. By the time the bell rings, it will probably already be April or May, so Chen Ba isn’t in a hurry.

Compared to that, Kadir, who still won’t give up, is a bigger headache for him. Having chased him from America to Asia, crossing the entire Pacific Ocean just to persuade him, he’s relentless.

This guy is too thick-skinned!

Even though Tianba Studio has clearly rejected him, he’s still clinging to Jiangning, refusing to leave, and calling Chen Ba regularly each day to pitch his grand vision.

"Mr. Kadir, I admit your ideas are very attractive, but is there a possibility that we could achieve all this without collaborating with you?"

"Then can I join you guys?"

Chen Ba: "..."

He had thought of a million responses, but he never expected that this old guy would be willing to bring his team to join Tianba Studio just to get what he wanted.

This is too crazy.

For a moment, Chen Ba admitted he was tempted. After all, Kadir’s team is indeed quite well-known in the industry.

If Tianba Studio could bring this team in, it would certainly greatly enhance the studio’s game development capabilities.

But then he thought again, Kadir was obviously coming for the Tianba Engine.

Frankly, his intention to join Tianba Studio was not pure, with a strong ulterior motive. Letting him bring his team to join Tianba might result in them all running away after a couple of days.

Of course!

Kadir’s team is something Tianba Studio can’t savor nor should it. But to make good use of the anti-cheating capability of the Tianba Engine and develop more interesting FPS games, Chen Ba does plan to merge with and acquire a game development team specialized in FPS games.

This isn’t hard to understand.

FPS is a genre teeming with fierce competition and intense internal strife.

Tianba Studio hasn’t done this type of game before, and lacks experience. Moreover, the tuning of many gun ballistics leaves much to be desired.

In this situation, merging with a team specialized in FPS games, using their accumulated data and experience, would undoubtedly save much effort.

There’s already a target.

A studio that might not be very well-known abroad but is somewhat famous domestically—the "Sniper" Studio.

This studio’s most famous work is the Sniper single-player game series, which still holds the record for sales of domestic FPS games, having sold over 1.8 million copies.

But that’s old news.

The Sniper series, like the Immortal Sword, has been declining with each sequel, and it’s now difficult even to break half a million in sales.

Thus, they’re in serious debt crisis and can be purchased by Chen Ba, merged into Tianba Studio to specifically develop FPS games.

Oh, by the way!

Although the Sniper Studio has quite a reputation and bears the "studio" title, it actually only has six core members.

With this scale, Chen Ba feels embarrassed to use terms like "merger" or "acquisition." Precisely speaking, he’s merely spending money to bring in six veteran FPS game developers.