The final split was: Mahjong Association 50%, Earth Games 25%, WeChat Games 25%.
With the new profit split, Earth Games would now get 25% of all profits from Happy Mahjong, instead of just the Happy Coins revenue like before.
The new contract would take effect on the first of next month, and the overseas version of Happy Mahjong would launch worldwide at the same time.
"What a pity. I wanted to take you around Southport."
After getting on the plane and going through an unpleasant round of talks, William and Cynthia had no mood to stay in Southport any longer.
"There'll be other chances."
It didn't feel good to be at someone else's mercy. If Earth Games could break the limits of cultural circles, they wouldn't have to work with the Mahjong Association at all. Even if they couldn't avoid them, they wouldn't need to give up half the profits.
On the way back, the system notified William that Happy Mahjong's recharge income had reached one million yuan. The message came a little late—mainly because WeChat Games had set limits to prevent players from spending too much at once.
By the time the plane landed, it was almost the end of the workday. Cynthia arranged to meet Angela at the studio in an hour, the same timing as last time, so she probably had free time.
There wasn't much to ask in the interview. They were just a small studio—if the skills were good enough, the rest was just about pay and benefits.
Since the next day was the weekend, Angela could only quit on Monday and start work on Tuesday.
That delay also gave Marcus two more days for testing. He had cleared all 100 levels, so William decided to release Happy Match Mania tonight at midnight.
Villa.
"Do you have any plans?" Cynthia was curled up on the sofa hugging a pillow, eyes still on the TV.
William tilted his head. "Plans?"
Cynthia met his gaze. "Yeah. You're not just going to make a game and release it, right?"
"Uh…"
To be honest, that's exactly what he was thinking. After all, he was confident that any game he made would be fun, since they had already been proven in the market.
"We need a long-term plan. For example, a goal to reach within a year? And besides making games, expanding into other industries is important too. Running a company isn't that simple. I know you're capable, but if you have no plan, a captain without direction will make everyone feel unsafe."
"Do you have any good ideas?"
"It's simple. Set goals." Cynthia straightened her back. "First, let's decide on an ultimate goal. For example, making it into the world's top 500 companies in ten years, and competing for number one in twenty years. These can be our goals."
William clicked his tongue. "Isn't that a bit too much?"
"A goal doesn't have to be reached, but it has to show people our ambition. Most importantly, it gives employees faith, so they know the company isn't just moving step by step without a plan, making them feel there's no stable future here."
"I get it."
Talking with Cynthia had helped William a lot. Before, he had never thought about how to run a company. To him, starting a studio was just a way to make game development easier and more efficient. He hadn't thought about the fact that the talent he trained might one day leave.
Sure, people always seek better opportunities, but if you have to keep training new people over and over, it's a huge hassle. In the end, instead of increasing efficiency by starting a studio, it might actually hurt efficiency because of the constant need to train newcomers.
"Alright, let's do it your way. We'll aim to become a top 500 company in five years."
Cynthia rolled her eyes. "I never said five years. Even ten years might not be enough, and you want five."
"Heh heh."
William didn't argue. To him, even five years felt long. The game market was completely empty right now, and as the top player in this market, if they couldn't get into the top 500 companies even after taking 80% of the market, that would just mean the game industry in this world was hopeless.
Eighty percent market share became another goal.
"You sure have a big appetite."
"No matter what, we're the first to try this. Besides, we've got over 95% market share right now. Keeping at least 80% for five years shouldn't be a problem."
Cynthia shook her head. "Other companies are only just starting to push forward. In a tech industry, five years is enough for a revolution. By then, we might even face being replaced."
William didn't care much. "Maybe."
They stayed up until midnight.
William had started promoting "Happy Match Mania" from the moment the project was born, so now that it was officially launching, a huge wave of ads was a must. The budget alone was 696k dollar.
696k dollar wasn't huge, especially since they weren't advertising in physical spaces. The focus was on app stores, short video platforms, shopping apps, and other online platforms.
On short video apps especially, William made a fake gameplay clip where all the blocks exploded and disappeared at once. It looked extremely satisfying.
As for whether that could actually happen in the game—it wasn't impossible.
In just one minute, downloads had passed five million, and active users had gone over ten million.
Since the milestone was based on downloads, the rewards were given according to the download numbers.
["Happy Match Mania" downloads pass 100,000! Milestone unlocked!]
[Milestone reward: Basic Bug Removal]
["Happy Match Mania" downloads pass 1,000,000! Milestone unlocked!]
[Milestone reward: Advanced Bug Removal]
["Happy Match Mania" downloads pass 5,000,000! Milestone unlocked!]
[Milestone reward: Expert Bug Removal]
[Bug Removal] wasn't a skill book—it was an ability.
The difference was that anyone could learn from a skill book, but an ability could only be used by William himself.
[Bug Removal] worked in a way similar to "Happy Match Mania." For example, if the game had three bugs of the same difficulty, William could make them all disappear at once without affecting the game's normal functions.
The bug difficulty also matched the ability's level. If the bugs were of different difficulty levels, they couldn't be cleared together.
Unfortunately, none of the games William had made so far had any bugs. Bugs usually came from the code, but with his personal space boosting him, he had never made a mistake in his code, and there had never been any conflicts.
While "Happy Match Mania" was breaking records, William, after taking Cynthia's advice, also started assigning work to Claire—developing the later levels for "Happy Match Mania."
A few days wasn't enough for her to fully master the cocos2dx engine and use it to make a game from scratch. But making extra levels was different from making a whole new game. First, no new code was needed unless they added new gameplay. Second, all the assets were already there. Claire just needed to use her imagination to design the difficulty.
Since she was being positioned as a producer, William didn't insist on her making everything herself. She was allowed to recruit someone, which also gave her a chance to build her own team. Later on, that team could be spun off to start a second studio.