Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 502: The Counterattack of Tengda Group's Games
Wednesday, April 27
Shangyang Games
Today, Pei Qian made a special trip to Shangyang Games to get a sense of how the promotion of the domestic server for IOI was progressing.
Ever since he had handed this "easy win" assignment over to Lin Wan at the beginning of the month, he had been completely at ease and hadn't asked about it again.
After all, IOI's momentum overseas had been growing at an astonishing rate. If things continued according to the current script, it was only a matter of time before the domestic server and the international server successfully united in victory.
Moreover, Pei Qian had secretly been helping Lin Wan.
After learning about IOI's aggressive update schedule, Hu Xianbin had anxiously approached President Pei, hoping to recruit more staff. His request had been politely rejected.
"With Shangyang Games' capabilities and Lin Wan's abilities, giving them even a little assistance should be enough, right?"
Pei Qian understood very well the principle that "among all martial arts, speed is supreme."
In his memory, Riot Games had rapidly expanded its market share through an incredibly fast update cycle while maintaining quality at the same time, which was why it had achieved such enormous success.
Now Fingertip Games has embarked on the same path.
The results would undoubtedly be immediate.
Pei Qian couldn't exactly say he felt pleased about it. After all, whether GOG or IOI became popular, he would still end up making money.
He simply felt that the world had finally returned to normal and was developing in the direction he had originally expected.
That alone gave him a small sense of satisfaction.
As soon as Pei Qian entered the office area, the employees noticed him.
"President Pei!"
"President Pei, what brings you here?"
"Please, have a seat."
"Sorry, we're busy preparing a new hero release."
The office looked extremely busy.
Ye Zhizhou, Wang Xiaobin, and the others were all occupied with their own tasks. After greeting Pei Qian, they immediately returned their attention to their monitors and keyboards.
Pei Qian didn't mind.
"Go ahead and focus on your work. I'm just looking around."
Lin Wan emerged from her office carrying a document, moving briskly as if she were in the middle of several urgent tasks.
"Rewrite the patch notes. I've marked several sections that don't read smoothly."
"And make sure to emphasize that this is the first synchronized update between the domestic and global servers. We're no longer playing an outdated version behind the international server. That's very important!"
Then she noticed Pei Qian.
"President Pei? What brings you here?"
Her expression showed a hint of surprise.
After all, President Pei rarely visited Shangyang Games in person.
Although he frequently provided guidance, it usually happened only when they encountered major difficulties and sought his advice. Even then, President Pei would offer only a few cryptic remarks, leaving them to figure out the deeper meaning themselves.
Visits like today's were uncommon.
Seeing Lin Wan's current demeanor, Pei Qian couldn't help smiling with satisfaction.
Good.
She's already grown from a complete novice into a department head capable of standing on her own, and an excellent game designer as well.
Watching Lin Wan work so diligently to promote the domestic server of IOI, Pei Qian felt that once IOI eventually exploded in popularity worldwide, she would have more than proven her abilities and could finally return to Shenhua Group to inherit the family business.
Granted, the process had deviated dramatically from the script he had originally envisioned.
But the outcome would be the same.
Thinking about it that way, Lin Wan was probably one of the very few employees whose hard work didn't make President Pei uncomfortable.
"It's nothing," Pei Qian said. "I just came by to take a look and learn about the current state of the domestic IOI server."
Lin Wan nodded.
"In that case, President Pei, let's go to the meeting room. I'll give you a brief report."
Pei Qian waved his hand.
"Finish your work first."
Lin Wan smiled.
"It's fine. Everything has already been assigned."
"Besides, the report will only take a few minutes."
Pei Qian nodded and followed her into the meeting room.
"President Pei," Lin Wan began, "shortly after we were assigned responsibility for operating the domestic IOI server, we identified IOI's greatest advantage over GOG."
"That advantage is update speed."
"Therefore, our promotional campaigns have mainly focused on coordinating with Fingertip Games and integrating the promotion of new heroes with the promotion of the game itself."
"Take this promotional campaign as an example. The new hero provided by Fingertip Games is 'Bloodthirsty Lone Shadow · Shaleg', a werewolf hero with two different forms."
"Fingertip Games supplied promotional animations for the hero. We've already integrated them into the domestic server's login client, and we've also purchased video and web advertisements to promote the new hero."
"There will be a new-hero marketing push every two weeks, which should ensure that IOI consistently maintains a high level of visibility and player interest."
"At the same time, we argued strongly with Fingertip Games and pushed them to seriously consider the situation of the Chinese server. We managed to get them to wait until the domestic server's approval process was complete before releasing updates, allowing the domestic and international servers to update simultaneously and stay on the same version."
"As a result, one of IOI's biggest weaknesses has been eliminated!"
"If nothing unexpected happens, GOG probably won't be able to release a new hero within the next month. Compared side by side, quite a few players will definitely switch to IOI because of the update situation."
"President Pei, you told us to give it our all. We absolutely haven't shown GOG even the slightest bit of mercy!"
After hearing the report, Pei Qian nodded repeatedly.
Excellent.
Reliable!
Especially Lin Wan—when the people at Shangyang Games redirected the same energy they usually used to sabotage him toward sabotaging GOG instead, the results were incredibly effective!
Previously, Pei Qian hadn't paid much attention to the details of the domestic IOI server. Only after hearing Lin Wan's report did he realize just how much work Shangyang Games had accomplished in less than a month.
They hadn't merely completed the basic tasks of launching, maintaining, and updating the server.
They had also synchronized the domestic and international versions and identified GOG's slow hero-release schedule as a weakness, relentlessly exploiting it.
Perfect!
Pei Qian nodded approvingly.
"You've done a very good job. But don't let your guard down. Stay humble and stay cautious, understand?"
He wasn't saying this because he had thought of some way for GOG to turn things around.
It was simply based on experience.
Things never seemed to be that straightforward.
After all, he had fought against these people for far too long.
He knew better than anyone that they excelled at miraculous comebacks, always finding a way to completely reverse the situation at the exact moment President Pei thought, "This is finally secure."
Lin Wan nodded.
"Of course! President Pei, I think our battle with GOG will be a long-term struggle. At the moment, I think I only have about a fifty-percent chance of winning."
Pei Qian was speechless.
"Fifty percent?"
Being cautious was one thing, but wasn't that estimate a little too low?
Surely it should be at least seventy percent.
Lin Wan froze for a moment.
"What? President Pei, did I overestimate our chances?"
"Don't tell me you think we have less than a fifty-percent chance?"
"Uh..."
Pei Qian felt utterly helpless.
Once again, the two of them weren't even operating on the same wavelength.
How was it that his employees never seemed to have any tacit understanding with him whatsoever?
Just as Pei Qian was about to explain, hurried knocking suddenly sounded from outside the meeting room.
Lin Wan looked toward him.
Pei Qian nodded, signaling that she could answer the door.
Lin Wan quickly walked over and opened it.
The person outside was Ye Zhizhou.
"This is bad! GOG updated its official website!"
Ye Zhizhou's expression was grave, as though he were facing a powerful enemy.
A question mark practically appeared above Pei Qian's head.
?
They updated the website?
Not the game itself—just the website.
What was there to panic about?
Surely updating a website couldn't possibly overshadow the hype surrounding IOI's new hero release, could it?
Lin Wan and Pei Qian exchanged puzzled looks before following Ye Zhizhou back into the office area and looking at his screen.
On the front page of GOG's official website, displayed prominently in huge stylized lettering, was the title of a new event:
"GOG Creative Community Launches — Every Player Can Be a Hero Designer!"
Below it was a smaller line of text:
"If your idea is adopted, you'll receive 5% of all skin revenue generated by that hero as a permanent cash reward!"
The event rules were extensive.
Several special sections had been added to the website. Players could submit hero concepts, other participants could vote on them, and the developers would periodically review and select promising entries.
Ye Zhizhou had clearly only just discovered the announcement himself. His face remained serious.
"Min Jingchao really knows what he's doing!"
"I never imagined he'd use a method like this to tap into the creativity of the player base!"
"With this approach, they can save an enormous amount of creative effort. Instead of coming up with concepts themselves, they can simply select ideas that players already like. The design team only needs to handle implementation, which saves a tremendous amount of time!"
"And that's not all."
"This event seems to have already caused a huge sensation among GOG players."
"The rewards are just too generous!"
"Anyone who participates in the forum receives rewards—not just those whose ideas are selected. Even enthusiastic spectators who simply upvote submissions can earn something!"
"Although GOG hasn't released a single new hero yet, this event has already completely captured the players' attention!"
"Our new hero, Shaleg, has just gone live, but under these circumstances it's probably impossible for us to draw the players' attention back to IOI..."
Lin Wan's expression also grew serious.
"I see... What a brilliant counterattack."
"As expected, the most troublesome opponents are your own people."
"With this move, they can fully leverage the collective wisdom of the player base and dramatically accelerate the production of new heroes."
"At the same time, by sharing a portion of the profits, they can tie players directly to GOG's chariot and prevent them from defecting."
"And most importantly, this strategy can only work when you already have a massive player base—and GOG just happens to hold that advantage after the previous rounds of competition."
"They didn't even release a new hero. They simply created an event page and posted an announcement on the mobile client, PC client, and official website, and immediately managed to completely mobilize the players' enthusiasm..."
Ye Zhizhou was unwilling to concede.
"Then couldn't we do the same thing?"
Lin Wan shook her head.
"We can't."
"We have no control over Fingertip Games' development process. Even if we gathered player suggestions, Fingertip Games probably wouldn't adopt them."
"Besides, we're only the publisher. Our pricing strategy has to stay roughly consistent with the international server."
"It would be very difficult for us to offer rewards as generous as theirs, which means we couldn't fully motivate the players even if we tried."
"We thought we had discovered GOG's fatal weakness."
"But it turns out they've discovered IOI's fatal weakness instead..."
"I'd heard that Li Yada had stepped aside and that Hu Xianbin was busy working on a new game. I assumed Min Jingchao wouldn't be such a difficult opponent."
"Looks like I underestimated him."
"Every member of Tengda Group's game division is capable of standing on their own. Any newcomer promoted to lead executive designer is someone who absolutely cannot be underestimated..."
Lin Wan turned toward Pei Qian and sighed.
"President Pei, no wonder you thought my chances of winning were below fifty percent."
"Now that GOG has played this card, our chances are probably only forty percent."
"As expected, when masters compete, one misstep leads to countless others. We started one step behind, and catching up afterward is almost impossibly difficult."
President Pei merely blinked.
Other than that, his face remained completely expressionless.
A look of realization suddenly appeared on Lin Wan's face.
"President Pei, could it be that you anticipated they might use a strategy like this, so you were mentally prepared all along?"
Pei Qian: "..."
A few seconds passed before a question mark slowly floated into his mind.
???
What on earth are you talking about?!
It was true that Pei Qian hadn't shown any expression.
But it wasn't because he was calm.
It was because the whole thing had happened so suddenly that his brain hadn't yet managed to catch up.
So...
Because he refused to let Tengda's game division hire more people...
They came up with a plan to crowdsource hero designs from players and freeload off the community's creativity?
Shameless!
As a game designer, instead of using your own brain to create heroes, you're just going to steal ideas from players?
Where's the justice in that?
Where's the law?
Fingertip Games was out there seriously designing heroes the proper way.
Meanwhile these people had skipped straight to copying someone else's homework!
Absolutely shameless!
Pei Qian was so angry he nearly started trembling.
The feeling was like preparing for a marathon, finishing your warm-up, and then suddenly seeing the competitor next to you wheel out a motorcycle, rev the engine, and disappear into the distance.
Sure, they were sharing a large portion of the profits with players.
But those payouts came from revenue sharing, which meant they did absolutely nothing to help him lose money!
Wait.
Sharing a large portion of the profits with players?
Suddenly, Pei Qian realized he might have overlooked a very important detail.
"Hold on."
"You just said that after an idea is selected, the maximum reward is...?"