Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Late at night that day.

Zhao Xuming was in his own home, wearing loose pajamas, preparing to rest.

After work that afternoon, Zhao Xuming and Eric secretly visited the Deposit Fitness. They were relieved to see that no one was interested in the smart fitness drying rack.

The smart fitness drying rack itself did not have much to do with the money-burning war between the two companies. However, according to intel, the large amount of stock that the fitness equipment had accumulated would bring heavy pressure to Tengda Corporation's capital chain.

This also meant that Tengda had to be more cautious when it came to burning money.

Zhao Xuming and Eric both guessed that the 515 Games Festival that Tengda Corporation was organizing this time was likely to just all talk with no action. It was mainly to brag and would not widen the gap between it and Finger Games.

The game was different from other industries. The skins would no longer have any cost after it was completed. However, excessive selling would also stimulate players' passion for consumption. If they were to spend crazily during this period of time, they would spend less in the future. In the long term, they would still reduce their income.

That was why most games companies would not offer discounts when new games were released. They would wait a few months until the popularity subsided before offering discounts to attract players who had not experienced it.

On the other hand, Tengda Corporation's capital chain was already a little tight. The preferential strategy for the 515 Games Day could not be so radical. Otherwise, the risk would be too high.

Of course, Boss Pei's style had always been erratic. Many competitors who had tried to predict Boss Pei's actions had all failed, and the consequences of failure were extremely serious.

Thus, Zhao Xuming did not dare to let his guard down. He could only relax after the specific preferential strategy for the 515 Game Festival was announced.

Eric was probably paying attention as well.

Zhao Xuming looked at the time. It was already past midnight.

There was no need to deliberately look for the specific rules of the 515 Games Festival. That was because the official website of all Tengda Games and most of the websites in the industries under them had released announcements for this new festival as long as they were slightly related to it!

GOG's game client also displayed the publicity page for the 515 Games Day event at the most eye-catching location. The details were written on it.

Zhao Xuming immediately clicked on it.

In just five minutes, his expression turned ugly and his originally calm expression became shocked.

However, there was a hint of confusion and even surprise in his shock.

The reason why he was shocked was because the details had completely exceeded his expectations!

Zhao Xuming and Eric had originally speculated that Tengda Corporation was under the pressure of the capital chain. Even if they wanted to organize the 515 Game Festival, it could only be a preferential activity similar to IOI.

In other words, if he were to sell the products in the game, he would only get a discount.

It could be a direct discount, or it could be a disguised discount for the event. In short, they had to collect at least a portion of the money that they could use to recover some money.

However, how was this 515 Games Day event a discount? It was obviously a free gift!

The most frightening thing was that there are no rules directly related to discounts!

The only thing that was slightly related to the discount was that the 'purchase of Tengda Games' would be given for free randomly. However, this was only one of the marginalized rules of the event.

All the other rules could basically be summarized as: as long as players went online to play games, they would randomly be gifted things. It could be a prop in the game, or they could directly give cash!

Zhao Xuming could not believe it. He read the rules again from beginning to end.

He thought of some problems that he might encounter, such as what if someone with ulterior motives registered a robot account and took advantage of it.

However, on further thought, the very experienced Tengda should be able to solve these problems easily.

Boss Pei had always been very professional in dealing with scalpers.

Boss Pei had the foresight since a long time ago to give access to all of Tengda Corporation's accounts. Be it games, novels, live-streams, Tengda Life App, or even TPDb websites, they all used Tengda accounts to log in.

Each Tengda account had different weightage on TPDb.

Simply put, accounts that were registered early, consumed a lot of money, and used for a long time would have higher weightage. On the other hand, new accounts that were not used much and had suspicious behavior would have lower weightage.

Even if there were people with ulterior motives who kept accounts, their behavior patterns and the characteristics of the accounts were very obvious because they were all controlled by robots. It would be very easy to check.

This way, even though it looked like a "random free order" and "random free money", the higher the weight, the better the reward. Those accounts with lower weight might be given something symbolically or nothing at all.

To Tengda, who held the final explanation rights for the event, these were all very normal operations. Gamers would not be disgusted. After all, gamers had high authority accounts with real money in their hands. It was beneficial to them to deal with the scalpers.

There were only so many benefits. Wouldn't the real gamers get fewer benefits if they were taken away by the scalpers? Everyone must understand this.

Thus, there was no problem with this rule.

The problem was that this event was too extravagant!

Even if there were many ways to defend against the robots and scalpers, Tengda had such a huge number of users. Everyone would be online to receive benefits. The expenses would still be astronomical.

What's more, it was completely different from what Zhao Xuming and Eric had predicted. This 515 Game Festival was not a 'discount' but a free gift!

This meant that the price Tengda Corporation was paying was obviously higher than Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation!

Initially, Zhao Xuming had thought that if Tengda Corporation used 'discounts' to organize events, there would be a lot of room for both parties to burn money.

For example, if I give a 60% discount, you give a 50% discount. However, the value of the props in the two games were different. It was difficult for gamers to distinguish which game had a higher discount.

What's more, this discount could also be adjusted according to the situation. Increasing the discount limit was completely within control.

However, Tengda had managed to get everything done in one go. They were giving out for free!

That way, players would be able to tell at a glance which would be more cost-effective, even though the value of the goods in the two games were different.

Obviously, Tengda would be more generous if they gave it away for free!

The price war had not officially started yet, but gamers' attention had already been attracted by Tengda's 515 Game Festival. Even IOI's veteran gamers were coveting it and looking down on IOI's activities. What else could they do?

They were completely crushed by the other party the moment the game started!

However, Zhao Xuming felt that there was still a chance to turn things around even in this confusion.

Boss Pei was indeed being generous by doing this. However, Tengda's financial problems would become even more serious.

Initially, they could still recover from the discount. However, in order to surpass Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation, Boss Pei insisted on giving them nothing.

The result of trying to bite off more than one could chew was often swallowing one's teeth.

However, was Boss Pei bluffing or was he strategizing and full of confidence?

No one could guess.

Zhao Xuming was thinking when his cell phone rang.

Indeed, it was from Eric.

"Boss Zhao, you've seen the specific rules of the 515 Games Festival, right?" Eric's voice was low. Obviously, this matter had completely exceeded his expectations.

Zhao Xuming nodded. "I saw it. What should we do?"

Eric sounded serious, but he was still calm. "There's no need to rush. Let's observe first."

"The last person to laugh in the money-burning war depends on who can burn longer. The benefits of the 515 Games Day at the beginning have completely suppressed us, but how long can this benefit last? Let's say that it can last for a week and the entire game festival, what about after that? Does Tengda still have the strength to deal with our new attack?"

"This is a long-term war. Only those who can smile till the end were the best!"

Zhao Xuming quickly said, "Understood!"

"Boss Pei's move can be said to be cutting off all means of retreat and fighting with one's back to the river. Even though it can greatly motivate morale in the short term, it is lacking in momentum."

"In other words, Boss Pei did not give himself much room to retreat. The longer we persevere, the more advantageous it would be for us!"

"I will definitely observe Tengda's movements at all times and not miss any clues!"

Zhao Xuming felt much more at ease after hanging up.

Previously, he had been a little shocked by the benefits of the 515 Game Festival. It was like when he had tried to add a few more chips at the gambling table, but Boss Pei directly went all in. This had caused a huge psychological pressure on Zhao Xuming. He also had deep doubts about the strategy that he had prepared.

However, now that he had calmed down and thought about it, there seemed to be another way to interpret this matter.

Tengda Corporation's money could not be generated out of thin air, right? There would be a time when it would be spent. The inventory of the smart fitness drying rack was piled up like a mountain. The movies and games of Mission and Choice were still in the remuneration cycle. Coupled with Tengda's other industries in development… Tengda should not have much money left.

Was Boss Pei bluffing?

He wanted to scare Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation away by making it seem like he had sufficient funds and was not afraid of the price war?

Boss Pei was very crafty. He loved playing mind games.

He wanted to see if Tengda would be able to fork out more money after the 515-game festival as long as Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation's money-splitting activities could continue!

The more Zhao Xuming thought about it, the more he felt that the situation was not as pessimistic as he had initially thought. Instead, he became more optimistic!

He calmed down and went to sleep.