Zeng Qing slept the best sleep of his life. The next day, after going to work, his mood improved even further. His subordinates informed him that the number of players was still on the rise, and the number of paying players had reached sixty thousand, bringing in a solid 1.2 million game time cards.
This was all within the first 14 hours of the server launch, which brought a wide smile to Zeng Qing's face.
The oo game platform did not force its partnered games to charge fees, but at the time, all online games were on a pay-for-time model. Zeng Qing naturally wouldn't go against this trend and leave money on the table.
According to Kai Xuan's rules, players were free until level 10. No game time cards were charged until then. After reaching level 10, players needed game time cards to continue playing.
This was the setting for almost all online games, similar to how novels on Qidian would offer several free chapters to hook readers. Once hooked, they would start charging for VIP chapters.
Games worked similarly: first, get players invested with free access, then continuously charge them for a profit.
Of course, this was arguably the most reasonable charging model for online games. For most players, the game time card fees were affordable. This meant that both wealthy and ordinary players started on the same footing. It was unlike future free-to-play games where starting with a ten-thousand-yuan top-up could grant immediate server dominance.
As the online gaming industry matured, with the emergence of various studios, these studios would utilize numerous accounts to gather resources and sell them to wealthy players, allowing them to win through sheer financial power.
However, subscription-based online games generally imposed strict limits on the power disparity between players. Even a wealthy player with god-tier equipment would, at best, only be able to defeat dozens of players if their skill was average.
Of course, as games continuously updated and new gameplay systems were introduced, the attribute gaps between players would widen. It was only a matter of time before players could stand still and withstand attacks from hundreds of others without being defeated.
To get back on topic, any game logging into the oo game platform was strictly prohibited from having any game time card purchase channels other than the platform itself.
This meant that even the Tengda Company was not allowed to sell Kai Xuan game time cards usable on the oo game platform. Players could only purchase game time cards sold by the oo game platform.
These game time cards would then be converted into the oo game platform's o-coins, and all games would uniformly consume o-coin points.
According to the oo game platform's exchange rate, one yuan could purchase ten o-coins. The minimum consumption unit for each game was one o-coin. The oo game platform allowed games to set a maximum price of five o-coins for twenty minutes of play. However, this price was too exorbitant, costing 1.5 yuan per hour of gameplay, more expensive than internet cafe fees. Clearly, no one would pay such a price. Tengda didn't deliberate for long and directly set the price at one o-coin for twenty minutes, meaning one hour of gameplay would cost thirty fen.
After all, Legend, a game nearby, had similar game time card fees. Kai Xuan was still in its early stages, and Zeng Qing felt it was better to set a lower price.
What Zeng Qing felt fortunate about was that due to the prior agreement with Jiangnan Group, Kai Xuan was exempt from revenue sharing. All game time card revenue could be directly collected by the Tengda Group. Otherwise, according to the oo game platform's rules, the platform would take a thirty percent share of game time card revenue.
And there was no room for refusal, as the platform controlled the funds. How much money you received depended entirely on their mood.
However, Jiangnan Group did an excellent job in this regard. Tengda had a company backend on the oo game platform where they could directly see their profit share and choose to withdraw it at any time. Within three days, the money would be transferred to Tengda's account.
But each company was limited to three profit withdrawal opportunities per month. Otherwise, the bank transfers alone would drive the oo game platform's finance department insane.
Currently, Zeng Qing's backend showed that Kai Xuan had earned 1.2 million o-coins from players, with a distributable profit of 1.08 million yuan.
"A pity, we still had to pay a 10% game time card agency fee!" Zeng Qing sighed.
Theoretically, because Tengda had a game eligible for revenue sharing exemption, 1.2 million o-coins could have been exchanged for 1.2 million yuan. However, they only received 1.08 million yuan.
The reason was the 10% game time card agency fee.
The game time card agency fee was separate from the platform revenue share. According to the oo game platform's explanation, the 10% fee covered the intermediate costs incurred during the issuance and sale of game time cards.
The logic was simple: players couldn't possibly go to every Jiangnan store or stall to buy oo game time cards. The most convenient place to buy them would always be the internet cafe cashier.
But internet cafes wouldn't buy your game time cards for 30 yuan and then sell them to players for 30 yuan. They naturally needed to make a profit. For a 30 yuan game time card, the wholesale price for an internet cafe would be around 28 yuan, as they needed to earn two yuan.
Coupled with costs like game time card manufacturing, distribution, and logistics, the 10% game time card agency fee was actually quite reasonable. Therefore, when Zeng Qing saw this fee, he agreed without hesitation and had no complaints.
After all, Tengda initially managed Kai Xuan themselves. They had to sell their own game time cards. To expand the sales channels for game time cards, the actual cost of a 30 yuan game time card could be as high as 10 yuan. Tengda could only actually earn 20 yuan, which was equivalent to a 33% game time card agency fee.
The oo game platform, relying on Jiangnan Group's employees, had sales channels for game time cards that easily covered all of China, bringing the cost of the game time card agency fee down to 10%.
When calculated this way, even with the same number of players, handing Kai Xuan over to the oo game platform for distribution was more profitable than distributing it independently. This made Zeng Qing resent his own past foolishness even more.
Of course, Zeng Qing had heard rumors that cash from Jiangnan Wallet could also be directly used to purchase o-coins on the oo game platform. Since Jiangnan Wallet either allowed direct cash top-ups or bank transfers for charging, there was no 10% game time card agency fee involved. A 30 yuan game time card earned 30 yuan.
Well, Zeng Qing told himself not to dwell on these thoughts. After all, Tengda no longer had QQ, and there was no possibility of a QQ Wallet emerging in the future.
Just as Zeng Qing was envisioning how much money Tengda could earn from players each year, he suddenly heard a commotion outside. Soon, his secretary, somewhat flustered, rushed in and said, "President, some people calling themselves the No. 1 Operations Team of the oo game platform are here. They say they wish to see you and apologize in person."
"They're here this quickly?" Zeng Qing was surprised. He had expected them to arrive in the afternoon, or perhaps not at all.
It was only 11 AM, and they had already arrived.
"Should I make them wait at the entrance for three days?" Zeng Qing pondered with some distress. If possible, Zeng Qing wished he could meet them immediately, not to receive their apology, but to offer them words of comfort and then send them back to Wenzhou with courtesy.
After all, his future games were still in the hands of these people, and making them wait at the entrance for three days would also damage Tengda's and his own reputation.
However, thinking about Huang He's uncompromising tone on the phone yesterday, Zeng Qing could only shake his head and say, "Tell them I am not in the company today and ask them to return. I will be back in three days!"
"Ah!" The secretary was stunned. She hadn't expected the usually amiable Zeng Qing to adopt such an attitude.
Well, Huang He's phone call was highly confidential, and Zeng Qing had not told anyone.
"Didn't you hear what I said? Hurry up and go!" Zeng Qing scolded. The secretary then rushed off to inform the front desk.
Zeng Qing had a trick up his sleeve here. He didn't tell them to wait at the entrance for three days, but merely asked them to return and said he would meet them in three days. As for whether these people would wait at the entrance, Zeng Qing didn't care. Zeng Qing hoped they would go stay at a hotel.
However, through the window, Zeng Qing saw about fifteen people, their faces filled with pain and helplessness. But they didn't leave. After a moment of hesitation, several of them took out a banner from their backpacks and unfurled it. It had a line of text written on it.
Zeng Qing couldn't see clearly until his secretary reported back. The banner read: "The oo Game Platform Operations and Planning Team One sincerely apologizes to our partner, Tengda Games. We are sorry, we were wrong, and we shouldn't have looked down on people!"
The length of the text indicated that the banner was quite long, enough for fifteen people to hold it together.
Then they stood at the entrance of the company building and refused to leave.
Soon, this peculiar scene attracted a lot of attention. Countless passersby looked at the fifteen people with curiosity, pointing and whispering with strange, condescending smiles.
Some of these fifteen people lowered their heads, some trembled, some clenched their fists tightly, and some even shed tears.
"This is too harsh!" Zeng Qing muttered as he witnessed this scene. Although he knew about this incident, he hadn't expected Huang He to be even more ruthless, even preparing such a banner. This was truly meant to cause these fifteen people complete social ruin.
About ten minutes later, one person abruptly threw his hands aside and left the line of penitents without looking back, shouting, "Damn Huang He, I quit!"
"Brother-in-law, let's just forget it. This is too torturous!" Leng Zhimeng said from a nearby business van, feeling sympathetic.
"We need to make an example of someone to scare the rest. If we don't truly punish the chicken, how will the monkeys be afraid? How will others know that our oo game platform is genuinely dedicated to serving our partner businesses?" Huang He said with a calm expression. Hu Jing, standing beside him, added, "Send two people to keep an eye on him for at least a week. He can do whatever he wants, but if he shows any signs of self-harm, stop him immediately and call the police. Don't let them get hurt any further."
"Yes!" Hu Jing nodded.