Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Meng Chang opened his laptop and quickly typed on the keyboard. Thoughts flooded his mind.

With his high efficiency, the general plan was quickly written out.

However, after scrutinizing this plan, Meng Chang felt that there were still two loopholes that had to be fixed.

This plan required ESRO's official platform and Tengda Games to work together. They would pack up these classic domestically-produced games and make a compilation. Then, they would secretly stuff 'Mission and Choice' into it.

In addition, Meng Chang had to go to Tengda Games to get the DEMO for Mission and Choice. At the very least, he had to play it a little and understand it.

As the saying went, know yourself and your enemy well and you can win a hundred battles. One of the important reasons why Meng Chang failed previously was that he did not understand the products he wanted to promote in depth. Instead, he thought about it according to the inertia of ordinary people.

In the end, a slight difference made a significant difference.

As it turned out, Boss Pei's way of thinking was completely different from ordinary people. There were many pitfalls hidden in these projects that one could step into if one was not careful.

Therefore, even though Meng Chang had not played many games himself and it was difficult to judge the game's quality, he had to at least play the game patiently to ensure that his plan was foolproof.

As for how to get ERSO's official platform and Tengda Games to cooperate with his plan, that was easy to handle.

His official identity was the person-in-charge of the advertising and marketing department after all. Boss Pei had personally arranged for him to publicize Mission and Choice.

As long as Meng Chang asked, Tengda Games would definitely cooperate fully.

Now, Meng Chang felt that his plan was just one step short of success.

Bluffing had always been his forte.

Thus, he finalized this rough publicity plan. Then, he stood up and left, preparing to head to Tengda Games to coordinate with the person-in-charge, Hu Xianbin.

…

The advertising and marketing department was also in Shenhua View. They were only a few floors away from the Tengda Games, so they arrived very quickly.

Meng Chang went straight to Hu Xianbin and explained his intentions.

Hu Xianbin took it very seriously. "Promote Mission and Choice? Of course, there's no problem! Since it's Boss Pei's idea, Brother Meng, feel free to ask for anything. We'll definitely fully cooperate."

Meng Chang could not help but smile slightly. It looked like the plan was going smoothly and was developing according to his expectations.

"First, please provide a DEMO for the game. Even though I have thought of a publicity plan, I can only finalize some details after playing the specific game."

"Secondly, we have to discuss with ESRO's official platform to organize an 'revisit the classic domestically-produced games' event. The official platform will come forward and pack all the classic domestically-produced games from more than ten years ago into a collection and sell them at a discount on the official platform."

"Of course, we have nothing to do with the sales of other games. However, we have already obtained the rights to 'Mission and Choice'. Therefore, we will still sell this game at the original price, which is 158 yuan."

"We'll replace the previous games after our 'Mission and Choice' is completed."

Meng Chang had done his homework. 'Mission and Choice' was released after 'Command and Conquest'. The original price of 'Mission and Conquest' was 160 yuan in China at the time, while the original price of 'Mission and Choice' was 158 yuan.

Of course, that was the original price. 'Mission and Choice' had the intention of making lousy money. Therefore, there were various discounts in the publicity and promotion process. The minimum price was a little more than 80 yuan.

However, whether it was 80 yuan or 158 yuan, it was a huge sum of money in the 90s.

As for why they had set a higher price back then, it had to be based on the background of the era.

At that time, the domestic games industry was in a violent turmoil. Online games were rapidly rising and piracy was gradually spreading. Domestic standalone games were forced to engage in a price war with piracy. However, no matter how much they lowered their prices, it was still useless.

On the other hand, the Development Team of Mission and Choice might have been lousy at games back then, but they knew about marketing and the market very well.

They knew that the price of this game could not be set too low.

That was because the Development Team knew the quality of this game. Once it was released, its reputation would definitely collapse. Since they wanted to make a quick buck, they had to set a higher price to earn more.

What's more, since this game was meant to sell emotions, a higher pricing could also hint to gamers that this game was on the same level as Command and Conquest. It was a high-end game, and if the pricing was low, gamers would become suspicious.

Thus, the official game of Command and Conquest was sold at 160 yuan in China. Mission and Choice had priced the original price at 158 yuan, which was symbolically cheaper by 2 yuan.

Everyone knew what happened after that. More than 40,000 sets were sold in the game. In the end, more than 30,000 sets were asked to be refunded, and the remaining 10,000 sets were angrily discarded by players.

Therefore, Meng Chang also planned to make Mission and Choice sell at the original price of 158 yuan. That would also be consistent with the historical price.

Of course, the exact price would depend on Boss Pei and Tengda Games' intentions. Meng Chang could not make the decision himself.

Hu Xianbin could not help but nod. "That's a good idea!"

"The price of 158 yuan is considered moderate. Due to the huge initial investment in Mission and Choice, I'm afraid we won't be able to recover the cost if we sell it cheaply. However, it would be too expensive to sell it for about 200 yuan. 158 yuan is a suitable price."

"However… What's the point of being tied together with the classic domestically-produced game from more than ten years ago? Why would we replace the original game after the game is released?"

"Isn't that a little superfluous? Wouldn't the gamers misunderstand?"

Meng Chang smiled slightly and was not flustered at all. It was time for his glib tongue to take effect.

"The publicity method I'm using is called setting up the stage!"

"First, we'll create this 'revisit the classic domestically-produced game'. Then, we'll publicize it and let the players reminisce about that era many years ago. That would cause a certain amount of discussion."

"Once we reach a certain level of discussion, we will cooperate with the official platform to promote the game and increase the popularity of the classic games."

"At that time, many players would definitely curse 'Mission and Choice', the 'shame of the local game', and recall the deception that the game had done to gamers. At the same time, everyone would feel sorry for other outstanding domestically-produced games."

"Lastly, we secretly replaced the new 'Mission and Choice'. Players would definitely not notice it at first, but they would definitely be very surprised when they discover it. The previous' shame of the local game 'had been washed away, and a rubbish game had been remade into the true' light of the local game '…"

"This will definitely cause a wave of excitement!"

"Compared to directly announcing that we have remade 'Mission and Choice', this would definitely surprise the players more!"

"Of course, the only problem is that the entire publicity process might take a long time. However, I don't think this problem is serious. Good food is not afraid of being late."

Meng Chang's words were half-truths. The fake part was that he wanted the entire publicity process to be delayed until after the game was released. That way, he could get at least two months of commission.

As for what would happen after the game was released, he did not care. At most, he would not want the commission for that month.

Meng Chang's words completely convinced Hu Xianbin.

"It sounded like a very good publicity plan!"

"I'll contact the official platform now and tell them about this publicity plan so that they can cooperate!"

There was no need to talk about Tengda Games' relationship with ESRO's official platform. They were treated like biological sons.

'Mission and Choice' was a huge production this time, and the official platform attached great importance to it. As long as Tengda's publicity requests were not too excessive, the official platform should be satisfied.

Meng Chang was very happy. As long as he convinced Hu Xianbin, his plan should be halfway to success.

"That's right, the game's DEMO…"

Meng Chang did not dare to forget this.

Hu Xianbin said, "Alright, alright. I'll find a portable hard drive and copy it for you. However, this game is still in the development stage. Try not to spread it or use the content inside as publicity material."

"If you have any requests for the publicity material, just let me know. I'll cooperate with the preparations."

Meng Chang nodded. "Of course. I just want to experience the gameplay a little."

After getting the game DEMO, Meng Chang immediately rushed back to the marketing department and installed it on his computer.

In the next few days, he was prepared to fight to the death with this game.

In fact, the publicity plan this time had little to do with the content of the game. However, Meng Chang's previous failure was too painful, so he had to play it safe.