Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Zhao Xuming was stunned. "Huh?"

Eric continued, "Are you scared out of your wits by Boss Pei? In your words, what is it? Once bitten, twice shy?"

"It's true that Boss Pei is called the 'God of Games', but if we delay our game for a month every time Boss Pei produces a game. Our game would never be released if Boss Pei produces twelve new games a year, isn't it?"

Zhao Xuming was speechless.

"Twelve new games a month" sounded unlikely, but nothing was ever certain when it came to Boss Pei.

That was because Boss Pei's Tengda Corporation did not only have one project team.

Apart from Tengda Games and Shang Yang Games, it was said that Boss Pei was planning for more gaming workshops through direct or indirect investment control.

Some time ago, there were rumors that Tengda Corporation and Shenhua Corporation had spent a huge sum of money to establish a 'Slow Movement Studio'. It was obvious that Boss Pei would be producing games at a faster pace in the future even though they did not know the exact situation.

If Boss Pei created six studios and produced two new games per year, wouldn't there be new games every month for the next twelve months?

Thus, Eric's words made sense. If he was so afraid that he had to hide every time Boss Pei made a new game, IOI's mobile games would never be released.

Eric continued, "Boss Pei might have designed 'Fitness Battle' but it is a casual game after all. What's more, it was developed by Shang Yang Games. There was not much publicity previously…"

He briefly explained his previous analysis and told Zhao Xuming that the collision with the Fitness Combat was completely within his own plan. He wanted to pinch this soft persimmon hard.

Otherwise, wouldn't he have to crash into GOG's mobile game instead of Fitness Battle?

"All in all, Fitness Battle is only a casual game even if Boss Pei designed it. I have confidence in IOI mobile games. GOG's mobile games are not mature yet, but it is a good opportunity to play casual games."

"As long as we succeed, we can make a big deal out of this."

"Right now, 'Fitness Battle' is ranked at the top of the new best-seller list because it has been released one day earlier than us. Our game has only been up for an hour and it has already reached second place. It won't be a problem to surpass it in a few hours."

After hearing Eric's words, Zhao Xuming was overjoyed.

Alright, I don't have to take the blame!

Of course, it was still too early to talk about the blame. After all, IOI's mobile game had just been released. Who knew what the data would be like in the future?

If he lost to the Fitness Battle, Eric would be the one to take the blame. If he won, most of the credit would go to Eric. Zhao Xuming would only get a fraction of the credit.

However, Zhao Xuming was already satisfied.

In his opinion, it was too risky to fight Boss Pei to the death. If something really happened, he would not be able to take the blame.

It would be best if Eric took the blame.

Zhao Xuming immediately raised his thumb. "You're too brilliant! Everything was within your calculations! I was too rash. Sorry for disturbing."

"I'll continue to look at the data now."

Zhao Xuming relaxed and turned to leave.

Eric smiled and shook his head. He knew very well what Zhao Xuming was thinking, but he did not want to point it out. After all, it was a good thing that Zhao Xuming did not have his own thoughts. That meant that there would not be too much conflict and disagreement between the two of them.

It was much more convenient to make decisions on his own.

…

An hour later.

There was another hurried knock on the door outside the conference room.

Eric looked up. It was Zhao Xuming again.

He could not help but feel unhappy. What was going on?

They could not possibly produce another Tengda Games out of nowhere, right?

'Mission and Choice' and 'Battle of the Fitness' were only released not long ago. Even an old sow from the production team would not be able to produce so quickly in Tengda's games department.

"What's the matter now? We can't possibly have discovered a new game, right?" Eric asked.

Zhao Xuming quickly shook his head. "Of course not. How can there be so many new games?"

"It's still the 'Fitness Battle'."

Eric was surprised. "What's wrong?"

Zhao Xuming hesitated for a moment before saying, "The ratings and reputation of this game on the internet seem ripe to surpass IOI mobile games…"

"What?!" Eric looked shocked and could not remain calm.

"What do you mean by 'ratings and reputation seem to be ripe to surpass IOI'?"

"Isn't this a casual game based on fitness?"

Eric was very confused.

Logically speaking, different types of games were incomparable.

Take FPS games for example. How could they compete with MOBA games if the gameplay was different?

Comparison between two games should be in the same genre and on similar standards.

On the other hand, IOI mobile games were MOBA games while Fitness Fighting was a casual game. These two games were completely unrelated.

On the other hand, there was a natural advantage for IOI mobile games. MOBA games had deeper gameplay and could be more fun. The overall graphics and details should be better than casual games.

That was also the key reason why Eric allowed IOI's mobile game to be released at almost the same time as Fitness Battle. He felt that IOI's mobile game would be better even if they were to compete forcefully.

However, IOI's mobile game had only been released for a little more than an hour, and its reviews and reputation on the internet had already been shaken off by 'Fitness Battle'?

How could they?

What Zhao Xuming was reporting now was obviously subverting Eric's worldview. He could not believe it.

Zhao Xuming looked like his balls were hurting as well. "I can't explain it in a few words. You should look at the comments online. The problem lies with the promise we made during the news conference…"

Eric's heart dropped. He quickly checked the reactions of the gamers on his computer.

It was exactly as Zhao Xuming had said. The players seemed to have a lot of opinions!

"Something's not right. This IOI mobile game is obviously fake publicity! Didn't the news conference say that the data of the client-side game is interconnected? Why are there more spending points that the client-side game doesn't have?"

"Er… I watched the replay of the news conference again and realized that Finger Games did not promote it falsely. They said at the news conference that all the property of the client-side game could be brought to the mobile game. They did not say that the entire shopping mall system of the mobile game was exactly the same as the client-side game."

"What's wrong with that? The data is interconnected. Wouldn't it be more convenient to make the same thing?"

"You can't wake up early if there's no profit. Do you think that the programmers worked overtime to make functions for nothing? Think about it. How many users would IOI mobile games have in the world? How much revenue would it generate by adding some consumables that the client-side game did not have? If you were Finger Games, would you be willing to give up such a chance to make money?"

"Alright, looks like it's not fake publicity. It's just a wordplay. However, it's still disgusting!"

"I think it's alright. Didn't they give a lot of freebies anyway."

"Hehe, they did, but it only made you feel good when the mobile version was released. In the future, they will definitely produce new products to earn back the money. They are just trying to trick you into a trap now."

"Holy sh*t! There are so many tricks…"

"Speaking of which, I'm totally convinced by Tengda. As long as it's a dual-terminal game, the data on both sides would definitely be the same. There would be no difference. On one hand, there would be new props or gameplay, and on the other hand, there would be real-time updates. They would definitely not play such tricks."

Eric's expression was a little ugly, but he felt that it was not to the point where he could not clean up.

If it was just this level of discussion, it would not cause the gamers' evaluation of the two games to be too different.

As if reading Eric's thoughts, Zhao Xuming handed his cell phone over with a pained expression. "Look at this post…"

Eric took the cell phone and his expression changed.

Obviously, the gamers' discussion did not stop at the surface. Some gamers dug deeper into the 'essence' of the matter!

"They are both new games. You can tell the difference between the two companies from the comparison between IOI mobile games and Fitness Battle."

"Before IOI's mobile game was released, Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation were bragging at the news conference. It was almost to the sky. Especially when they played word games, saying that 'both ends are interconnected' and 'all property of the client-side game can be brought to the mobile game', they made a very generous gesture."

"In the end, what happened after the game was released? They actually cleverly added some consumables that the client-side game did not have. Obviously, they felt that it was not easy for them to create a mobile game so they still wanted to make a profit!"

"To put it bluntly, this is what it means to do bad things and still want to get a good reputation! They want to make a dual-terminal game so that gamers would think well of them. However, at the same time, they feel that this is too much of a loss and want to earn some money back."

"Is it interesting?"

"Let's see how Tengda does it."

"Actually, everyone knows now that 'Fitness Battle' is a game that is created with a smart fitness drying rack. What's more, these two projects were developed at the same time. However, the progress of the game was slower than the equipment."

"Logically speaking, Boss Chang should have been able to brag about 'Fitness Battle' at the news conference to increase the reputation and sales of the smart fitness drying rack. However, Boss Chang only mentioned it once and did not say a word. Why?"

"That's because Boss Chang said that the game has not been finalized. If he were to introduce it in advance, it might subconsciously beautify the game and mislead the players. Second, he was afraid that the game would change and let the players down."

"The difference is obvious! Which company values the rights of players more? Which company is more responsible?"

"They are both investing money to organize events. Which company is sincerely giving benefits to players? Which company is actually thinking about how to earn money even though they say they are thinking for the players?"

"Did Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation organize this event to give back to the players? Or to burn money to snatch the market and then double it back?