Chapter 327 - Let’s Create GOG! (1/2)
Seeing Pei Qian’s face drained of all colorwithout any sign of approval or satisfaction, Ma Yang suddenly felt lost.
“Brother Qian, you’re not mad at me for spending too much money, are you? Do you think that it’s not worth investing so much in such a small company overseas?”
Pei Qian was speechless. “…”
Looking into Old Ma’s sincere eyes, Pei Qian felt speechless.
How should I put this…?
Pei Qian had been the one who told Old Ma to act when he saw the chance to and not to hesitate.
Pei Qian had also been the one who told Old Ma to invest in whatever he liked.
Playing Gods Rising with friends was one of Old Ma’s few hobbies. Since Old Ma failed to invest in Gods Rising, he had no choice but to back off and look for similar games companies overseas to invest in. What’s more, he threw all twenty million yuan into that one company.
In more ways than one, Old Ma had just been doing what Pei Qian had told him to do.
What’s more, this transaction looked quite unpromising on the surface. It fit perfectly with what Pei Qian wanted at first.
Yet, Pei Qian felt pained inside. He had a strong sense of deja vu with this company!
Was IOI in fact League of Legends (LOL) post-changes?
The main reason that Pei Qian felt so shocked by the turn of events was that he had found similar news online last year!
Based on what he remembered, Riot Games was founded in 2006. In 2008, they tried to raise eight million US dollars. Three investors provided them with funds. After that, Tencent bought it over for more than two hundred million US dollars. That happened in 2011.
According to his memory, LOL was released in 2009.
Now, they were in November 2010. In other words, the company should already have raised eight million US dollars by now.
Pei Qian tried to look online for news about this last year, but he could not find any.
At the time, he did not think much of it. He had thought that this was just another change in the world. After all, even the B-Site had become Aili Island. It would be natural if other companies underwent similar changes.
Pei Qian did not dwell on it either. The company was overseas, and he did not have a network that expanded throughout the world.
Now, Pei Qian finally understood why he could not find any news about this.
The company and game’s names were different now. Riot Games was now Finger Games, and LOL was now IOI. Thus, Pei Qian could not find anything to do with the original names!
Moreover, the entire timeline had been shifted back by two years. Finger Games was probably established just last year. Naturally, there would not be much news about a newly-established company online.
In fact, Pei Qian had wondered how Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games would look like in this world.
He just never thought that he would find out the answer today and in such a ridiculous manner at that…
However, after scanning the System’s screen, Pei Qian realized that everything was still the same.
The shares worth over two million US dollars should have been considered similar in nature to the villa. As special assets of the company, they should have been displayed on the System’s screen.
Perhaps this was because the purchase was not complete—not all the paperwork was done. Thus, the System could not formally list the shares as the company’s assets.
Many thoughts were flashing across Pei Qian’s mind. He stared into Old Ma’s sincere eyes, not knowing exactly how to respond at that moment.
Should he criticize Old Ma? Yet, that did not seem right. Old Ma had done exactly as Pei Qian had instructed him to, without missing anything out.
He invested all twenty million yuan into a small company overseas. This was exactly what Dream Realization Ventures was created for. Pei Qian could not possibly turn around and blame Ma Yang for that now!
Could he praise Ma Yang? Hmm, he should. This kind of investment had the potential to give Ma Yang lifetime bragging rights.
Yet… Pei Qian could not bring himself to praise Ma Yang.
Pei Qian took two deep breaths and forced himself to nod. “It’s nothing. You did quite well.
“But I don’t think we have any more spare cash for now. Old Ma, give everyone some work to do for now. Play some games if you want to. Wait for me to update you on the next step.”
Pei Qian stood up and prepared to leave. He could not spend a minute more in this heart-breaking place.
Suddenly, Ma Yang raised his hand. “Ai, Brother Qian, are you really not going to try playing a game with the professionals? They’re all gods with about 1800 points on the platform!”
IL
Pei Qian was speechless. “…”
Ma Yang spoke again. “I’m going to call Branch Manager Lin directly to arrange for the dinner on Saturday. Is that alright?”
Pei Qian was speechless.”…”
You still have the cheek to accept a treat from me!
Unable to speak, Pei Qian had no choice but to gesture an ‘okay’ with his back towards Ma Yang. Then, without turning back, he left.
When he arrived back at Tengda Games, Pei Qian sat down in his own office. He had already spent some time thinking back on his life. Now, he had to think about how to deal with what just happened.
The cycle had just begun, and yet someone had already pulled such a stunt. This came as a complete shock to Pei Qian.
They bought 20% shares and obtained the right to be IOI’s exclusive local agent. The nail had already been hit into the coffin. Pei Qian could not undo this investment or transfer the newly-bought shares to someone else.
That was because he had no good reason to do so.
What if he sold the shares later on? The shares in Finger Games would surely appreciate in value. If he sold them, he would definitely earn a huge sum of money.
The more Pei Qian thought about it, the surer he was that he could not sell the shares.
He would be stupid to sell them midway through!
If Finger Games could really become what Pei Qian imagined, the exclusive agency rightsin addition to the shares-would earn Tengda a lot of money.
Earning money was indeed akin to feces in Boss Pei’s eyes. Yet… Boss Pei could not ignore too many feces.
If IOI earned billions of yuan every year-no matter how the System adjusted the Profit Conversion Ratios, Pei Qian would still gain a lot of Personal Wealth. If it were merely millions of yuan, the sum would be insignificant to Pei Qian. However, billions of yuan would be a totally different story.
Moreover, if Pei Qian allowed his imagination to run wild, he might even be able to create unique skins and heroes named after himself!
All of that sounded pretty enchanting!
If this really happened, Pei Qian would just have to lie back and earn money without doing anything. That sounded like nothing short of a good plan, too. He could earn a lot of System Funds and spend it on logistics and physical industries to give back to society.
He could also earn foreigners’ money to give back to his own country. He would be the epitome of a rooted, patriotic, and young man.
Of course, none of these were guaranteed as well.
The entire world was different now. What’s more, the company and game were different from what Pei Qian remembered. Who could promise that IOI would achieve the same level of success as LOL?
Even if they did, that would only happen in two or three more years.
Until then, a lot of advertising and hard work still had to be down. The game could only conquer the global games market at the right time and in the right place.
Who could tell what would happen in three or four years?
While the grass grew, the horse starved. Even if Pei Qian could really lie back and generate profits in three or four years, Pei Qian’s current strategy would remain unaffected.
At the end of the day-for the sake of his long-term goals, Pei Qian had to keep the shares and exclusive agency rights.
If it generated profit for him in the short-term, he could think of other ways to spend the additional money. He could spend it on logistics, warehouses, or charity. In any case, he would just have to think of different avenues to spend money in order to do his part for society.
When he thought about things from this angle, the situation did not seem so bad.
He still had hopes of incurring losses.