Chapter 442: Am I Not the Boss?

Of course, the profit margin of "Hero Glory" definitely can't reach that high of 90%, since after all it is using someone else's engine.

In this aspect, fees have to be paid. If using their own engine, it would be better, and professional hero designers are also needed.

Some hero designers still have to be hired from abroad, for instance those who resigned from Dota or those who resigned from Riot Games.

Now Riot Games' games are having their market share almost squeezed out of existence.

Moreover, the profits of "Hero Glory" are not all handed over to the parent company — taking out 90% of the profits is fine, leaving a portion for Swan Castle.

For example, if 80% of the operating profit is 63.06 million dollars, then out of these 63.06 million dollars, 90% — 56.75 million dollars — is given to Chang'e Technology.

That means 6.31 million dollars is left for Swan Castle, just over forty million is enough, which adds up to over three hundred million a year.

Game development doesn't actually cost much. For example, the development cost of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" was only 6 million dollars, certainly not comparable to those super AAA titles.

What costs money is still publicity and marketing. This aspect can be handed over to the apps under Chang'e Technology, so there's no need to worry about it later.

So apart from "Fortnite," Swan Castle doesn't have any big money-burning projects. The only big project still burning money is engine development; the others don't burn money.

And the engine is still in the testing and refinement stage — whether it runs smoothly or not, and whether it can be replaced this year, is still unknown.

The "Honor of Kings" project also doesn't cost much. There's no entrepreneurial planning to speak of — it's nothing but copying, and the graphics aren't that refined either, basically just textures.

For a mobile game to run smoothly, the graphics can't be as high-end as those of a PC game.

Currently, "Hero Glory" has only just recovered its global publishing rights. Chang'e Technology can't completely relax in terms of funding — at most it can be said there's something to look forward to.

And the newly completed Data Center of ten thousand units has already been delivered and put into use. This thing is built very fast — just build the factory building, debug the air-conditioning system, finish assembling the servers, and that's it. It doesn't require too much effort.

The entire project cost one billion — extremely money-consuming.

Adding these ten thousand units, Chang'e Technology now has a Data Center of 11,000 units, theoretically supporting 50 million concurrent data streams.

That means in the same time period, tens of millions of users can simultaneously stream videos, watch movies, play games, and read novels, with a response delay of about 1 millisecond — completely invisible to the naked eye.

Of course, this is only the theoretical concurrent data; it still has to be calculated according to the complexity of the data. Watching movies definitely can't be compared to reading novels.

Movies are video, novels are text — they're simply not the same computational load.

Anyway, Chang'e Technology's infrastructure has been alleviated — at least watching videos is much smoother now.

And Chang'e Technology's funding this year will also be greatly relieved. Apart from games, there are also stocks, all of which will be loosened up.

It's just that some people think Chang'e Technology is short on money!

Liu Zhiping, president of Tencent's investment department, met with Fang Hong again to negotiate the investment in Chang'e Technology.

However, Fang Hong made excuses saying he had to attend a film work conference and had no time, so he had Zhang Yiming meet on his behalf.

This left Liu Zhiping quite disappointed. The kid who used to not even dare speak in front of him now actually wouldn't even see him.

For someone like him, this was somewhat disrespectful — it seemed the wings were getting harder and harder.

In the past, Fang Hong endured; now he dodges. Anyway, no matter what you all say or do, he just doesn't listen and doesn't engage, doing things his own way.

This is originally a critical period of development — he can't let people disrupt his rhythm. Keeping a clear head is most important.

Unable to meet Fang Hong, Liu Zhiping still met with Zhang Yiming, clinging to a sliver of hope.

What about Zhang Yiming? He wasn't interested in Tencent at all. He had asked Fang Hong before: "Our company won't accept Tencent's investment, right?" Fang Hong had clearly answered no.

So this person held a grudge against Tencent.

And in his previous life, Zhang Yiming had rejected Tencent many times, was resented by Tencent, and fought with them for many years.

This negotiation, as one could imagine, ended without result, and Liu Zhiping returned defeated.

Anyway, Fang Hong had already prepared himself mentally — if they have to fight in the future, then so be it; it's unavoidable. It's just that right now Tencent can't spare the energy, because they're currently being targeted by Cat Factory.

And Cat Factory has already announced the launch of its United States IPO.

The world's largest IPO, with financing scale expected to exceed 15 billion US dollars — terrifyingly so.

So much money has made Jack Ma extremely elated.

And Fang Hong, as promised, went to attend the National Film Work Conference. This conference was unlike any before — many top leaders attended.

So this conference was very grand and very solemn!

Celebrities from all walks of the cultural world, familiar faces from the entertainment world like Chen Daoming and Chen Daren, and even Lao Mouzi, who hadn't been seen for a long time, made an appearance.

He had previously vanished due to the excessive-childbirth scandal!

The bosses of various film and television companies all showed up: China Film Group, Shanghai Film Group, Huayi, Bona, Enlight, Forbidden City Sanlian, Xiaoma Pentium, Stellar, Shengshi Huarui, Dadi, Perfect World, dmg, Huanle, Dongyang Qingyu, and others.

Even Zeng Maojun of Wanda and Tencent's representative Sun Zhonghuai — Tencent Pictures hasn't been established yet, but they intend to enter the film industry, so they need to hear the intentions from above.

In addition, Fan Luyuan of Alibaba Pictures also came.

Apart from these, including personnel from the cultural Propaganda Departments and cultural broadcasting offices of various provinces and municipalities directly under the central government, as well as provincial cultural federations and film and television associations, leaders of supervisory departments like Zhang Hongsen also made appearances.

The hall was spacious and bright, packed with people — at a glance, everywhere was full of people.

They were in suits and leather shoes with red ties, gathered in groups of three or five, some chatting, some silently moving about, waiting for the conference to begin.

The conference hasn't started yet — probably they're setting out tea cups inside, the standard format, just like what's seen in pictures.

In the crowd, Fang Hong, wearing a suit with a red name badge on his chest, hands clasped behind him, stood properly facing an interview with an official media reporter.

The reporter asked: "What do you think of the current film market?"

"It's flourishing everywhere, advancing to a new level every year. This is a good phenomenon, proving that our country's film market is moving toward greater prosperity." Fang Hong's subtext was that it had always been flourishing. In this kind of occasion, just blow and be done with it!

"We've noticed that last year the film market was flooded with a lot of bad films, complained about by many audiences. Do you think the phenomenon of 'bad money driving out good money' will appear in the future?" the reporter asked.

"It's undeniable that such phenomena exist, so I've been calling on the vast number of film workers to definitely make good films — films with artistry that can also take commerciality into account. This way, it can both enrich the spiritual needs of the people and have box office appeal. Making films requires grasping with both hands, and both hands must be strong." Fang Hong rattled off.

Chen Daoming, passing by, heard this and couldn't stand listening anymore — the biggest bad-film boss is you, Principal. Grasping both commercial and artistic? Go ahead and try grasping one.

But if Fang Hong didn't say it this way, what could he say? What kind of place is this? He can't talk nonsense.

"What do you think Chinese films need to do to go global?" the reporter asked.

"I've always said that for Chinese films to go global, they must rely on high-quality development. Only high quality can let audiences around the world see what our values look like, let the world understand China, let the world understand the Chinese people." Fang Hong said.

No one knew when he had ever said that before.

"Alright, thank you." The reporter stopped interviewing him and went to interview others.

Actually, it doesn't matter who you ask here—no one tells the truth; they all say what sounds good.

"Principal, you truly are a hero emerging from youth," said Fan Luyuan, wearing black-rimmed glasses.

He had watched the competition between Youku and Chang'e Technology, and could be said to have participated, since Alibaba's large-scale entertainment division was entrusted to him.

"General Manager Fan, you're too kind; I'll need your continued support in the future," Fang Hong replied casually.

"Since you say so, we do have the intention to lend you a hand," said Fan Luyuan, placing his hand on Fang Hong's shoulder and pulling him aside.

Fang Hong had only spoken in politeness—who needed his help? But he stayed silent, waiting to hear what the man had to say.

"Will your Yutu be going public? We at Alibaba can help you manage it," said Fan Luyuan, looking at him.

Although there had been conflicts and competition before, in this market there are only eternal interests, no eternal enemies.

As long as Yutu is willing to join, it becomes Alibaba's good partner, good comrade.

"I'm sorry, but we have no such intention for now," said Fang Hong politely—he had no plans to go public.

Previously, Jack Ma had helped Huayi go public, so he knew the ropes well; instead of properly running e-commerce, he went into finance, got all highfalutin.

Maybe that's why Pinduoduo rose to prominence.

"That's a pity. You should know going public would greatly benefit Yutu—at least it would accelerate your growth and significantly boost your strength. With our help, becoming the top player in the film industry would be a snap," Fan Luyuan tempted.

Probably Jack Ma had tricked Huayi the same way back then—but Huayi really did become the top.

But now Jack Ma looked down on those two brothers, thinking they were too stupid; the Principal was smarter.

"Aren't I already the top?" Fang Hong asked, puzzled.

This left Fan Luyuan speechless—there were people this arrogant and confident.

But the man truly had grounds for his arrogance; he had virtually no rivals, unless those few guys teamed up.

"You know Alibaba and Tencent are both entering this industry, along with all kinds of capital—no one can say yet who will be the top."

Fan Luyuan pointed to Yu Pangzi and Sun Zhonghuai from Tencent, who were also plotting together: "See those two? Colluding."

He himself spoke without any restraint about others colluding.

But Fang Hong liked hearing this, and added smoothly: "Just a bunch of rabble."

"Hahaha."

Fan Luyuan patted his shoulder and walked away, knowing full well that the man looked down on that pair's conspiracy and would never accept his offer to take Yutu public.

Because the man didn't see them as rivals—there was no question of colluding with Alibaba.

Though the offer was tempting, Yutu wasn't short on money now; still, expansion was somewhat difficult—there just wasn't enough capital.

Fang Hong knew the capital era of the film industry was coming; the film world would be consolidated by capital in the future. He simply intended to remain above it all, absolutely refusing to collude.

If he colluded, then his founding of Chang'e Technology would lose all meaning.

"Teacher Tian, Teacher Gu, hello," said Fang Hong, walking up to the group from Beijing Film Academy.

These two had taught him before, but he felt little attachment to such teacher-student bonds and never visited or paid respects—but he still greeted them when he met them.

Besides the veteran artists and expert professors from Beijing Film Academy, Zhang Fengyi, Tang Guoqiang, Jiang Wenli, and Xu Qing were all present.

They all looked at the Principal curiously.

"Little Fang, good, good," said Tian Zhuangzhuang, genuinely pleased that a student who hadn't been a good learner still remembered him.

A poor student turned out the most successful—where could you find logic like that?

He added: "Thank you for your donation to Beijing Film Academy."

"It's only right—I'm part of Beijing Film Academy too," said Fang Hong politely.

"But you still need to make good films—don't mess around with all that nonsense and make people have opinions about you," said Gu Zhangwei, assuming the posture of a senior teacher.

He had a good relationship with Huayi; his film Micro Love was currently collaborating with Huayi.

It starred Da Baobei and Chen He—purely a Huayi production—so his remarks to Fang Hong were perfectly normal.

"If you're unfamiliar with the situation, I can explain," said Fang Hong politely, though his expression changed—meaning, don't yap if you don't know what's going on.

Call him "Teacher," and he actually thinks he's a teacher!

(End of Chapter)