Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

April 11th, Monday…

At Shang Yang Games…

Lin Wan was in her own office, worrying about all the work that she had been tasked to do.

She realized that Boss Pei had been handing her increasingly challenging tasks.

Before this, she had been tasked to develop an online horror game, which was extremely rare in the market. At the same time, she had had to research and develop a cell phone. Now, she was being tasked to manage a local server for IOI, a successful overseas game.

It would be in direct competition with Tengda Games' GOG in the local market!

Logically, developing a new game and being in charge of a new cell phone model at the same time should have been much more difficult than acting as a local agent for one game.

That was because local agents were not required to manage research and development. Instead, they only had to think about operating and publicity strategies. On the surface, it looked easier.

However, Lin Wan was under much more pressure now than she had been before.

This was an extremely difficult task! It was much more arduous than her previous tasks!

The moment she received the task, she had gathered Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin for a meeting to discuss their future plans.

They had already finalized the details of a few standard plans such as establishing an official website for the local server; doing translations and voice-overs for the local server; renting a cloud server; outsourcing a customer service team; opening, operating, and publicizing the local server; and the like.

Those were the basics. Even if Lin Wan did not instruct them to, Ye Zhizhou, Wang Xiaobin, and the others would have gotten those things done.

However, the question was how IOI's local server could compete with GOG based on those things alone.

Lin Wan recalled Boss Pei's tone when he had been briefing her about the task. He had sounded extremely hopeful about IOI's local server.

Yet, Lin Wan herself did not think that IOI stood a chance against GOG in the local market at all.

GOG's quality was as good as IOI's. What's more, GOG had already dominated the market by integrating the mobile and client-side games and attracted hoards of gamers by setting up competition seasons four times a year with cash prizes to be won.

At the moment, GOG already had the upper hand, both to Gods Rising and IOI's original players and to gamers who had never tried this genre of games before.

The two games were already worlds apart at the beginning. How difficult would it be to try and turn the situation around?!

What made Lin Wan even more speechless was that she had been the one to advise Li Yada to create a mobile game first.

Of course, Boss Pei had suggested this direction, but Lin Wan had analyzed Boss Pei's intentions.

Now, Lin Wan could understand how Tengda's competitors felt.

They were completely helpless!

Tengda Games had many talented individuals in hiding. What's more, they could also get guidance from Boss Pei. They were formidable enemies to Shang Yang Games for sure.

Just as she was worrying, Lin Wan heard a knock on her office door. She looked up and saw Ye Zhizhou.

"How's the preparation for the local server coming alone?" Lin Wan casually asked.

With a folder in hand, Ye Zhizhou sat down across from Lin Wan. "Everything's going smoothly. Our department has experience in managing Bloody Battle Song. Managing operations for IOI is more difficult, but it's not throwing us into a panic."

Lin Wan felt melancholic. "I wonder what Boss Pei is thinking this time.

"I don't want to compete with Tengda Games at all.

"However, Boss Pei seemed to be encouraging us to spend as much money as possible on sales and marketing, so that IOI's local server can fight GOG in the local market.

"I find it weird to be fighting our own family members. What's more, I'm very close to the people in Tengda Games. That makes everything even more strange.

"On top of all that, I don't think we stand a chance of winning."

Obviously, Lin Wan thought that both games were close but distant relatives.

GOG had been developed by Tengda, and it even contained a hero modeled after Boss Pei. Although IOI was not bad, it was not that close to home.

Moreover, Tengda only had operational rights for IOI. It could not interfere with the research and development of the game. This made Lin Wan very uncomfortable.

Ye Zhizhou remained silent for a moment and then said, "I think that Boss Pei might be trying to create dog-eat-dog competition.

"GOG has been developing very well, but that means Tengda Games could easily become complacent. Competitors could overtake it very quickly. For games of this genre, most players only focus on what game at a time. The winner takes all."

Lin Wan gave it some thought. "I think so as well, but… where's the proof?"

Ye Zhizhou answered, "Timing is the proof.

"The first thing that Dream Realization Ventures did once it was established was to invest twenty million yuan in Finger Games and obtain agency rights for IOI's local server. Soon after that, Boss Pei tasked Tengda Games with developing GOG. Could that have been a coincidence?

"Obviously, Boss Pei can foresee that such games hold huge potential.

"Most game developers would choose either agency rights or developing their own version of the game. Yet, Boss Pei did both—he obtained agency rights and developed his own version of the game. Clearly, he's placing a lot of importance on this game genre."

Lin Wan nodded. That made sense.

All along, she had seen Boss Pei as a strategic and meticulous person.

After achieving success with one game of a particular genre, he would not create another game of the same genre.

However, he chose to work on both GOG and IOI, which were of the same genre. Whether he hoped that one would surpass the other or that both games would spur each other on, it showed that Boss Pei was paying particular attention to this genre of games.

After some thought, Lin Wan said, "Our first goal should be to fulfill Boss Pei's mission and fight GOG for gamers, right?"

Ye Zhizhou nodded. "I agree. Although we can't be a hundred percent sure of what Boss Pei's intentions are, we can be absolutely sure that Boss Pei told us to fight GOG for gamers."

"But…" Lin Wan frowned. "Maybe I'm being biased as I analyze GOG, but I really don't think that IOI can surpass GOG in any way."

Ye Zhizhou handed the folder in his hands to Lin Wan. "I think that this is one of our trump cards."

Lin Wan took the folder and speed-read its contents. It was a plan to develop new heroes for IOI.

IOI had plans to add 24 new heroes to the game throughout the entire year. On average, two heroes would be added to the game each month.

"So fast?!" Lin Wan was stunned.

She understood the complicated process of developing new heroes quite well. One had to come up with the idea, design the appearance, draw concept art, design models, design animations, design special effects… balance the statistics…

There was a lot of work to be done.

At the rate that IOI was going, it could be viewed as a model worker.

As the saying went, speed defined the winner in the world of martial arts. It was the same for games. A game developer could create an imperfect game, but as long as it kept updating and improving the game and providing new content, gamers would continue to play it.

On the other hand, a game developer could create an amazing game but fail to satisfy players' hunger for new content by updating the game too slowly. Eventually, the game would become less popular.

Finger Games's IOI was an exquisitely-made game. If it could update the game very quickly as well…

It would be very competitive!

Lin Wan thought about it. "GOG… can't keep up with this updating pace. It'll be good enough if they can release a new hero every month or so."

Ye Zhizhou nodded. "That's right. We know Tengda Games' situation very well."

Tengda Games had been split into two sections. Hu Xianbin was leading a team of people to work on researching and developing Struggle. Min Jingchao and Zhang Nan were leading another team of people to update GOG's content by designing new heroes, designing new skins, and the like.

Obviously, they had much fewer people working on GOG than Finger Games did. Of course, they would be much slower in developing new heroes for the game.

If IOI could add heroes quicker than GOG, then IOI could provide its gamers with more game content. That would be a huge advantage. It would possibly be enough to close the initial popularity gap between the two games.

Lin Wan chewed on it for a long time, and then said, "Alright, we'll start working from there.

"Since Boss Pei wants the two projects to spur each other on and improve together, there's no reason for us to hold back and show mercy. We'll compete based on skills!"

…

At the same time, Pei Qian was in his office, checking Fish-Catching Take-Out's figures.

The head of Fish-Catching Take-Out, Rui Yuchen, was standing by the side, looking apprehensive.

Ever since Fish-Catching Take-Out was established, it had been an ancillary business to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. The head of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe used to be Ma Yang, and then Zhang Yuan, and now Xiao Peng. All along, they had been Rui Yuchen's direct superiors.

Lin Canrong had been in charge of Fish-Catching Take-Out when it was first established. However, given Lin Canrong's outstanding performance in incurring losses for Fish-Catching Take-Out, Pei Qian had transferred him to Ming Yun Private Kitchen.

Thus, Rui Yuchen filled that gap and took charge of Fish-Catching Take-Out to this day.

Pei Qian had never met Rui Yuchen before because Fish-Catching Take-Out's business belonged to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. He could just approach the person in charge of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe if he had any requests to make.

Today, Pei Qian had obviously called Rui Yuchen in to…

Promote him.

However, Rui Yuchen did not know what Boss Pei's true intention was. He worried that Boss Pei was going to hold him to account. Thus, he felt nervous and apprehensive.

Until now, Fish-Catching Take-Out was still incurring losses and not generating profits. On the other hand, its related businesses—such as Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, ROF Computer-Installation, and Ming Yun Private Kitchen—had all turned their losses into profits. In fact, some of them had even expanded to Lincheng.

The only other business that was still incurring losses like Fish-Catching Take-Out was Upwind Logistics.

However, the man in charge of Upwind Logistics was one of Boss Pei's right-hand men. Lu Mingliang had worked hard for Boss Pei in Tengda Games back then. How could Rui Yuchen compare to him?

Rui Yuchen felt that if Boss Pei wanted to close down a loss-incurring business, Fish-Catching Take-Out would be the best option.

At that thought, he became even more nervous.

After looking at all of Fish-Catching Take-Out's figures, Boss Pei felt extremely satisfied.

It wasn't difficult for one business to incur losses for a while. However, it was extremely difficult for one business to incur losses consistently. On top of that, Fish-Catching Take-Out was continuing to incur losses no matter how well the other businesses did and no matter who was put in charge!

Lin Canrong had made Ming Yun Private Kitchen popular. That was enough to prove his capabilities.

However, even Lin Canrong could not make Fish-Catching Take-Out generate profits.

That showed that Fish-Catching Take-Out was a good business that had withstood the test of fire!

At that thought, Pei Qian tapped his table gently. "What do you think… is the main reason that Fish-Catching Take-Out is still incurring losses to this day?"

Rui Yuchen's heart thudded. He had a bad feeling about this.

Boss Pei was going to hold him to account!

Rui Yuchen knew the answer in his heart. Fish-Catching Take-Out was still incurring losses because of its business model.

However, he could not say that out loud!

Boss Pei had been the one who set the business model. If Rui Yuchen said that something was wrong with the business model, wouldn't he be indirectly slapping Boss Pei in the face?

Thus, Rui Yuchen pretended to ponder hard and then shake his head. "I don't know."

Although this answer made him look useless, Rui Yuchen decided that it would be far better than indirectly slapping Boss Pei in the face.

Pei Qian was stunned. He was shocked at this young man's honesty.

However, the shocked expression soon turned into a grin. He was very happy with this answer!

Rui Yuchen looked like a talent worth nurturing.

Since that was the case, Pei Qian could entrust him with bigger responsibilities!