This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature

Chapter 469 - 288: Mirage Electronics’ New Business

Sure, here is the translation:

Developing a new game isn’t really an all-out effort for Tianba Studio anymore.

In fact, since the release of "Global Evolution," the situation at Tianba Studio hasn’t been quite what many people imagined.

"The studio has over 320 employees, and that’s not even counting the total number of employees from subsidiaries like Mirage Electronics and Xianyu Digital."

Tianba Game CEO Huang Qing explained, "And among these 320 employees, the proportion of the core game development team is about 15%, which is roughly 50 people!"

"From this proportion, you can tell that Tianba Studio today is completely different from before; the business focus and revenue composition have undergone significant changes..."

Nowadays, Tianba Studio’s business focus mainly lies in "the operation and maintenance of old games," and developing new games is more of a side business.

In other words...

Among the two to three hundred people in the whole studio, over 80% are in game operation planning positions, and the employees truly following Chen Ba to develop new games are still the original group.

"The revenue proportion is the same; the operation and maintenance of several old games are the real money makers, while the revenue from new games accounts for only a small portion."

"Of course, I don’t mean that new games aren’t important or that their success or failure doesn’t matter."

Worried about being misunderstood by Chen Ba, Huang Qing turned and said, "What I mean is, whether ’Abab’s True Story’ makes money or loses money, it ultimately won’t have a big impact on the company’s business."

Huang Qing knows Ba is under a lot of psychological pressure with the "Abab’s True Story" project.

After all, there are too many people opposing it internally, including Yang Dong, Lu Jing, Zhong Shengwei, Luo Ji, and many of the founding veterans, who indeed have some opposition to the project in their hearts.

But Huang Qing, as an outsider CEO, is extremely supportive of Chen Ba in this project.

His reasons for support are simple.

On one hand, Tianba Studio isn’t a company with dispersed equity that requires a board meeting to make important decisions; Ba’s decisions are basically like an imperial edict, and opposition is useless.

On the other hand, he, as CEO, knows better than anyone how solid Tianba Studio’s foundation truly is. To not exaggerate, with this foundation, even if there were four or five more similar projects like "Abab’s True Story," Tianba Studio could still handle it.

"You’re exaggerating too much!"

Chen Ba said speechlessly, "I admit the studio does make a lot of money, but compared to big companies like Pig Goose, there’s still quite a gap; the risk tolerance isn’t that strong."

"You can’t compare it like that..."

"How many years has Tianba Studio been founded? If you insist on comparing it to a big company like Pig Goose, there’s indeed a big difference, and gaps exist in many aspects."

Huang Qing said with a smile, "But if you change the comparison object, say, to a company like Rice Factory, you’ll find that our Tianba Studio is actually quite okay and really not bad."

"What do you mean?"

Chen Ba was a bit puzzled, wondering why they suddenly started comparing to Rice Factory. That’s not the same level, right?

After all, Tianba Studio hasn’t reached that scale; there’s still a considerable gap in business revenue.

"But the gap is really not that far!"

Huang Qing seemed surprised, apparently not expecting Ba to underestimate Tianba Studio so much. Isn’t it the company he founded himself? Why would he think it’s so lacking?

"Do you know what the latest valuation offer from the venture capital institutions is for us?"

"How much?"

Chen Ba really hadn’t paid attention to this aspect, since he hasn’t considered financing since the founding of Tianba Studio, so he hasn’t really focused on this aspect of information.

About three years ago, a rich second generation in Jiangning approached him, hoping to acquire 20% of Tianba Studio shares for 50 million, but Chen Ba didn’t agree.

Calculating based on the rich second generation’s offer, he valued Tianba Studio at 250 million at the time.

Three years ago, 250 million—it was too low, and he didn’t lack money at the time, so he didn’t even bother with that rich second generation.

Three years have passed, Tianba Studio’s overall business is thriving, expanding continually, and has undergone earth-shaking changes; the valuation should have increased by many times, right?

"250 million?"

This attempt by the rich second generation to buy shares, Huang Qing really didn’t know, as he hadn’t joined Tianba Studio at that time.

So, suddenly learning this, Huang Qing was a bit stunned, then smiled and said, "Luckily you didn’t agree, otherwise you’d regret it now!"

"Why?"

"Valuations can fluctuate, and they might change in a short period of time; different investors have differing views on the business potential, so quotations can be high or low—you can understand this, right?"

"I understand, so what’s the highest offer, the latest valuation?"

"This number..."

Huang Qing spread out the five fingers of his right hand, nodded in Chen Ba’s shocked gaze and said, "You didn’t read it wrong, it’s 50 billion!"

"Holy moly!"

Chen Ba was greatly shocked; although he hadn’t planned for financing, hence rarely understanding valuations, as the company’s leader, he somewhat knew.

In his mind, Tianba Studio was probably worth a hundred, or two hundred billion RMB at most, converting to US Dollars it’d be 1.5 to 2.5 billion tops, not too high.

After all, he wasn’t a professional, estimating company valuations basically by guesswork, and estimating one’s own company somewhat lacks confidence.