Chapter 11 Monday, April 11

Shang Yang Games.

Lin Wan was in her office, worrying about her recent work assignments.

She found that the tasks assigned by President Pei were becoming increasingly challenging.

Previously, it was developing a rare online horror game while also overseeing the development of a mobile phone. Now, it was operating the domestic server of the successful foreign game project, ioi.

Directly competing with Tenda Games' GoG in the domestic market!

Logically, developing a new game and overseeing a mobile phone should be more difficult than licensing a game.

Licensing a game doesn't require doing any of the development work yourself; you only need to think about operations and promotional strategies, which seems easier.

But Lin Wan felt even more pressure now than before.

Because she thought this was a very difficult task!

Much more difficult than previous tasks!

The moment she received the assignment, she called Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin for a meeting to discuss the plan.

Some routine solutions were quickly decided upon, such as setting up an official domestic server website, domestic server translation and voice acting, renting cloud servers, outsourcing a customer service team, and domestic server launch and promotional activities, and so on.

These were the most basic; even without Lin Wan's involvement, Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin could complete them.

But the problem was, how could they compete with GoG with just these?

Lin Wan recalled that President Pei seemed to have high expectations for ioi's domestic server in his words when he assigned the task.

But Lin Wan herself didn't think ioi had a chance against GoG in the domestic server.

Because GoG's game quality was no worse than ioi's, and the most crucial issue was that GoG had already seized the market through PC-mobile interoperability and attracted a large number of players through annual cash rewards for four seasons.

Currently, whether they were originally *Shen Qi* and ioi players, or players who had never touched similar games before, all had a natural fondness for GoG.

Starting so far behind, how easy would it be to turn the situation around!

And what made Lin Wan feel most speechless was that she had advised Li Yada to release the mobile version first…

Of course, this idea was brought up by President Pei, but Lin Wan interpreted President Pei's intention.

Lin Wan was now experiencing the feeling of other companies competing with Tenda.

It was impossible to know where to start!

Tenda Games could be said to be full of hidden talents, and they could also get President Pei's guidance, making them an absolutely tricky enemy.

While she was worrying, there was a knock on the office door.

Lin Wan looked up and saw that it was Ye Zhizhou.

"How are the preparations for the domestic server launch going?" Lin Wan asked casually.

Ye Zhizhou was holding a document and sat down across from the desk: "Everything is going smoothly. Our department has experience in operating *Hot-Blooded Battle Song*. Although the difficulty of operating ioi is much higher, it's not to the point where we're in a panic."

Lin Wan was a little melancholy: "I don't know what President Pei is thinking this time."

"I really don't want to compete with Tenda's game department."

"But judging from President Pei's attitude, it seems that he is encouraging us to spend money on marketing and promotion, so that the domestic version of ioi can seize GoG's market."

"It feels weird to fight ourselves, especially since I'm so familiar with the people in Tenda's game department, which makes it even stranger."

"And, I really don't think there's much chance of winning."

Obviously, for Lin Wan, these two games were different in terms of closeness.

GoG was a game developed by Tenda itself, and there were even heroes based on President Pei; while ioi was also good, it wasn't as personal after all.

Moreover, Tenda only had the operating rights of ioi and couldn't interfere with the development, which also made Lin Wan feel very uncomfortable.

Ye Zhizhou was silent for a moment and said, "I think President Pei may be conducting a *gu* raising strategy." (*Gu* refers to a Chinese folklore practice where several venomous insects are sealed in a container, and the one that survives is believed to possess potent venom and magical powers.)

"GoG has developed too smoothly, and it's easy to become complacent and be overtaken by latecomers. And for similar game types, most players will only play one at a time, and the winner takes all."

Lin Wan thought for a while: "I've thought about that too, but... where's the evidence?"

Ye Zhizhou said, "The evidence is time."

"The first investment after the establishment of Dream Chasing Ventures was to invest 20 million in Finger Company and obtain the domestic server agency rights for ioi; immediately afterward, President Pei began to let Tenda's game department immediately start developing GoG. Is this just a coincidence?"

"Obviously, President Pei has foreseen the huge potential of this game type in the future."

"For most games, choosing either agency or self-development is enough, but President Pei obviously attaches extreme importance to this game model, so he will do both, agency on one hand and self-development on the other."

Lin Wan nodded, feeling that it made a lot of sense.

All along, President Pei had given the impression of being resourceful and having everything under control.

When making games, after a certain type of game succeeded, he would never remake a second game of the same type.

But GoG and ioi were obviously the same type of game, but they were laid out at the same time, whether it was betting on both sides, or allowing the two projects to spur each other on, it showed that President Pei attached great importance to this.

Lin Wan thought for a while: "So, our primary goal now is to complete President Pei's task and seriously grab GoG's users, right?"

Ye Zhizhou nodded: "I agree. Although we can't guess President Pei's thoughts 100%, it should be certain that President Pei wants us to grab GoG's users."

"But..." Lin Wan frowned slightly, "Maybe it's because I have a strong subjective bias when looking at GoG, but I really don't think ioi has any place to steadily win against GoG."

Ye Zhizhou handed the document in his hand to Lin Wan: "I think this may be one of the trump cards in our hands."

Lin Wan reached out and took it, quickly flipping through it, and found that it was a development plan for ioi's new heroes.

This year, ioi is expected to update 24 new heroes, averaging two new heroes per month.

"So fast?!" Lin Wan was stunned.

Because she roughly knew the complex process required to create a new hero: hero concept, appearance design, original painting, modeling, action, special effects, numerical balance...

These tasks were very tedious.

This update speed was simply worthy of being called a model worker.

As the saying goes, in the world of martial arts, speed is the only skill that matters; the same is true for games. Even if a game manufacturer's game is not so perfect, as long as it continues to update, improve, and provide new content, it can maintain sufficient player stickiness.

On the contrary, even if a company's game is very well-made, but the update is too slow and cannot meet the players' needs to play new content in a timely manner, the popularity of the game will quickly decline.

Finger Company's ioi itself is a well-made game. If it can be matched with this super-fast update speed...

It would definitely be very competitive!

Lin Wan thought for a while: "GoG... doesn't seem to be able to maintain this update speed. It would be good if they could make a new hero in more than a month."

Ye Zhizhou nodded: "Yes, we all know the situation of Tenda Games."

Now Tenda's game department is divided into two groups. Hu Xianbin himself is leading a group of people to be responsible for the development of *Struggle*, while Min Jingchao and Zhang Nan are leading another group of people to be responsible for GoG's version updates, new hero design, and skin design.

Obviously, the number of people is much different from Finger Company, and the speed of developing new heroes will naturally be much different.

If ioi's hero update speed is much faster than GoG's, it means that ioi can provide players with more game content, which is a huge advantage, enough to smooth out the gap in early popularity.

Lin Wan considered for a long time and said, "Okay, then we'll make a fuss about this."

"Since President Pei wants us to spur each other on and make progress together, there's no reason to talk about personal relationships anymore. Let's rely on our own abilities!"

……

At the same time, Pei Qian was in his office, checking the data of Lazy Cat Takeaway.

And Rui Yuchen, the person in charge of Lazy Cat Takeaway, was standing aside with a very uneasy expression.

Since its inception, Lazy Cat Takeaway has been an affiliated industry of Lazy Cat Internet Cafe. The person in charge of Lazy Cat Internet Cafe changed from Ma Yang to Zhang Yuan, and then from Zhang Yuan to Xiao Peng, who has always been Rui Yuchen's direct superior.

Lazy Cat Takeaway was originally in charge of Lin Canrong, but because of Lin Canrong's outstanding loss performance during his time in charge of Lazy Cat Takeaway, Pei Qian transferred him to be in charge of Ming Yun Private Kitchen.

So Rui Yuchen took over this vacancy and has been in charge of Lazy Cat Takeaway ever since.

Pei Qian had never met Rui Yuchen before, because the business of Lazy Cat Takeaway belonged to Lazy Cat Internet Cafe, and any needs could be directly raised with the person in charge of Lazy Cat Internet Cafe.

The reason why Pei Qian called Rui Yuchen here today, of course, was...

To promote him.

It's just that Rui Yuchen doesn't know President Pei's real intention yet, and is very worried that President Pei is going to question him this time, so he is very nervous and uneasy.

So far, Lazy Cat Takeaway has been losing money and has not made a profit, while other related businesses: Lazy Cat Internet Cafe, RoF Assembly, Ming Yun Private Kitchen... have all turned losses into profits, and have even opened branches in Lincheng.

The only one that can compete with the continuously loss-making Lazy Cat Takeaway is the Upwind Logistics.

But the person in charge of Upwind Logistics is President Pei's iron buddy. Lu Mingliang made great contributions to President Pei in the game department back then. How can he compare?

Rui Yuchen felt that if President Pei wanted to find a loss-making department to start with, then Lazy Cat Takeaway seemed to be the most reasonable choice.

Thinking of this, he became even more nervous.

Pei Qian finished reading the various data of Lazy Cat Takeaway and was very satisfied.

It's not difficult for a business to lose money temporarily, but the difficult thing is to keep losing money, and no matter how other businesses turn losses into profits, no matter whether the person in charge is changed or not, it's still the same loss!

Lin Canrong has made Ming Yun Private Kitchen popular, which is enough to prove his ability.

But even Lin Canrong failed to turn Lazy Cat Takeaway from losses to profits.

This is enough to show that Lazy Cat Takeaway is a good department that can withstand the test!

Thinking of this, Pei Qian tapped the table lightly: "What do you think... the main reason why Lazy Cat Takeaway has not been profitable so far?"

Rui Yuchen's heart "thumped", and he secretly thought it was bad.

President Pei is really going to question him!

Rui Yuchen had an answer in his mind. He felt that Lazy Cat Takeaway could not make a profit, mainly because of the operating model.

But he couldn't say it!

The operating model was set by President Pei. To say that there was a problem with this model would be like slapping President Pei in the face on the spot, wouldn't it?

Rui Yuchen pretended to think hard, and finally shook his head: "I don't know."

Although this answer would make him seem incompetent, it was at least much better than slapping President Pei in the face in person, right...

Pei Qian was stunned for a moment, somewhat surprised by this young man's straightforwardness.

But he soon showed a smile, because he was very satisfied with this answer!

He looked like a promising talent.

In that case, he could take on more responsibilities!