Chapter 4: Just Sit Back And Prepare To Shower Me With Cash!

You Were Told to Lose Money By Making Games, and You Actually Did It? 

Chapter 4: Just Sit Back And Prepare To Shower Me With Cash!

One week later

After the headhunting agency completed its search, Chen Xu finally received the information on the acquisition target.

It was a private game company called Target Games, with a total of 73 employees.

The company had three main titles under its belt:

Proud Three Kingdoms, an RTS (real-time strategy) game. Qin Empire, a historical sci-fi TPS (third-person shooter). And a strategy mobile game developed on contract for a relatively unknown company in the industry.

Among these, the first two games had received fairly positive reviews from their player communities, and their overall quality was considered decent.

However, neither possessed enough competitive strength.

The RTS market had already passed its golden age, while shooters remained a major genre but were flooded with powerful competitors.

As a result, both games ended up operating at a loss. It wasn't until more than half a year after release that they barely managed to recover their development costs through long-term sales revenue.

Meanwhile, employee salaries and office rent continued to drain the company's finances.

That was why they eventually resorted to contract development work for other publishers.

But even that was merely delaying the inevitable.

In the end, the company's remaining funds were completely exhausted, leaving them without even the resources for one last desperate gamble.

According to the documents in hand, Target Games' monthly expenses included 150,000 yuan in office rent and approximately 810,000 yuan in employee salaries.

Because of this, they had eventually sold the copyrights to both Proud Three Kingdoms and Qin Empire.

"This company really had it rough," Xiu Fu sighed after hearing the headhunting's introduction. "I actually played Qin Empire before."

Chen Xu and Xiao Dao nodded in agreement.

No kidding. This was beyond miserable.

"While the situation is indeed unfortunate, the company has no debt and no unrecoverable assets. Employee salaries are fully paid up, there are no wage arrears, and ownership isn't fragmented among multiple shareholders. Since the owner is also eager to sell, we can probably negotiate the price down a bit. The entire company should be obtainable for around two million yuan."

The headhunting hurriedly explained, worried that Chen Xu might lose interest.

"Two million!?"

Xiao Dao and Xiu Fu widened their eyes.

That's expensive!

"Two million?"

Chen Xu was equally stunned.

That's cheap!

"The company has accumulated considerable experience over the years, and its internal database also carries significant value," the headhunting quickly clarified, assuming Chen Xu felt the price was too high.

He then briefly covered the results of the due diligence:

Shareholder change records.Financial statements and cash flow.Employee labor contracts.Insurance and housing fund contributions.Payroll records.

They had even hired third-party bank-certified auditors to verify the documents.

Of course, Chen Xu didn't need to worry about any of that.

As long as he paid the investigation fee, the headhunting agency would handle everything.

The only thing left was to discuss the acquisition directly with Target Games' owner.

. . .

The Next Day

Chen Xu brought Xiu Fu and Xiao Dao to Target Games' office building.

As soon as they entered, a man in his thirties wearing black-rimmed glasses and a plaid shirt approached them.

"Mr. Chen? Hello. I'm Du Qian, the owner of Target Games."

Du Qian enthusiastically shook Chen Xu's hand.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Du."

Chen Xu returned the greeting politely.

Following Du Qian into the building, they took the elevator to the third floor where Target Games was located.

As they passed through the office area, Chen Xu glanced inside.

It wasn't packed with densely arranged cubicles as he had expected. The workspace was actually fairly spacious.

But there wasn't a single employee in sight.

"Mr. Chen already knows about our situation," Du Qian said, looking somewhat dejected as he gazed at the empty office. "Since the copyrights to our previous two games have been sold, there's no need for maintenance or updates anymore. And we don't have any new projects underway, so I gave everyone the day off."

He's being this honest?

Normally, shouldn't you have employees sitting around pretending to work?

Chen Xu nodded while secretly becoming more vigilant.

Gotta be careful of Brother System's traps!

Entering the office, Du Qian went to make tea for everyone.

Judging from the layout, the company didn't even have an administrative receptionist.

At most, there was probably an HR department.

But that was normal.

This was the reality for most small companies, especially game studios.

One employee wearing multiple hats, cutting costs wherever possible—that was standard practice.

"Mr. Chen, I won't waste your time with empty talk," Du Qian said after serving the tea. "I'm sure the headhunting has already given you a thorough understanding of the company's situation."

"I'll be completely honest with you today," Du Qian said. "If you're willing to take over, two million yuan and the company is yours."

"Also, the employees we've had since the company's founding are all highly capable people. I wasn't able to keep the company running, but I'd still like to find them a good home. If you're willing to keep them on, I can accept 1.5 million yuan, and all the office equipment and assets can be included in the deal," Du Qian spoke with complete sincerity.

When he had entered the gaming industry, it had been to pursue his dream.

He also had some personal assets and had long accepted the possibility of failure when he chose that path, so he never expected to sell the company for a huge amount of money. 

What he wanted was simply for his dream to continue in some form.

As for the employees, he no longer had the ability to take responsibility for them, but at the very least he wanted to help them find a stable future.

Hearing these heartfelt words, Xiu Fu and Xiao Dao couldn't help but feel moved.

As game developers—and as people with dreams of their own—they could deeply relate.

Chen Xu could also feel Du Qian's sincerity.

But he sensed a trap.

Not one set by Du Qian.

A trap that might allow Brother System to take advantage of him.

If this were a traditional "lose money to profit" strategy, most people would probably choose the full acquisition package for two million yuan.

A more cautious person might even worry that deliberately raising the purchase price would look suspicious.

After all, if a company could be bought for hundreds of thousands less, insisting on paying over a million more would be far too obvious.

So they might compromise and simply agree to the 1.5 million yuan package, taking over everything.

But Chen Xu was certain that if he chose that option, he would fall right into Brother System's trap.

When he had passed through the office area earlier, he had noticed that the equipment wasn't cutting-edge, but it was still mainstream by current standards.

In that case, if he later wanted to replace all the equipment and spend a large amount of money, would Brother System approve it?

Obviously not.

After all, the existing equipment wasn't outdated.

So if he accepted either of Du Qian's proposed options, he'd end up throwing away a watermelon to pick up a sesame seed—gaining a small advantage while losing a much bigger opportunity.

With that thought in mind, Chen Xu looked at the sincere Du Qian and nodded gently.

As though he had been moved by the man's words, he sighed.

"Mr. Du, there's no need to say any more. The reason I'm acquiring your company is that I also want to create a truly great game."

"But business is business. Whether I keep the employees or not depends on their actual abilities. I'll need to evaluate them first."

"I don't need the equipment. Let's discount it by 300,000 yuan. What do you think, Mr. Du?"

With a few simple sentences, he perfectly blocked off any opportunity for Brother System to interfere.

Whether the employees stay depends on their skills.

I don't want the equipment because I'm trying to reduce acquisition costs.

Seeing that the System had not flagged this as non-compliant, Chen Xu laughed inwardly.

Sorry, Brother System.

I won this round by a mile!

Now just sit back and prepare to shower me with cash!

"No problem, Mr. Chen. That's very generous of you!" Du Qian said gratefully.

Chen Xu smiled slightly.

Seeing Chen Xu's smile, Du Qian also relaxed and smiled in relief.

He had complete confidence in his employees' abilities.

As for the equipment, while it had technically been discounted by only 300,000 yuan, all of it was still current-generation hardware.

Even on the second-hand market, it would easily be worth 500,000 to 600,000 yuan.

Selling it separately would simply take more time.

Du Qian didn't believe for a second that Chen Xu was unaware of this.

The most likely explanation was that Chen Xu was deliberately helping him recover some losses while giving him room to liquidate the equipment himself.

Mr. Chen is truly a man of integrity.

Du Qian sighed inwardly.

He then led Chen Xu into the office, powered up a computer, and opened the company's asset library as well as several of their previously released games.

Just as Du Qian had claimed, the quality of the accumulated assets clearly demonstrated that the company's employees—especially those in art, 3D modeling, and programming—possessed genuine talent.

"No problem. Let's proceed with the paperwork," Chen Xu said after taking a look.

"I'll have someone handle the handover process with you, Mr. Du."

Although they had reached an agreement, there were still plenty of legal and administrative procedures remaining.

Fortunately, since the headhunting agency provided related acquisition services as well, Chen Xu didn't need to worry about any of that.

All he needed to do was review the important details and sign the final documents.

"No problem. Then I'll let the staff remain on leave for now," Du Qian said with a smile.

"Once the transfer is complete, just let me know the date, and I'll notify everyone to return to work."

"Sounds good. We'll stay in touch by phone," Chen Xu replied with a smile.