Chapter 1426 Why Are They Still Stocking Up?

"We'll know in a couple of days after seeing the players' feedback."

Pei Qian didn't care too much about this matter. As long as Meng Chang was still working hard to pursue his commission, he was trustworthy.

Whether this promotional plan was feasible or not, it was still too early to tell.

Although the news about *Ghost General 2* had come out, along with a gameplay demo video, and had caused some reaction among the *Ghost General* player base, the heat hadn't spread yet.

Most of those who were expressing excitement for *Ghost General 2* were old *Ghost General* players and fighting game enthusiasts. This group only accounted for a small portion of the player base, and their attitude was not representative of anything.

The investment in *Ghost General 2* was huge. Whether it could recoup its costs depended on the extent to which it could break through its genre and how many non-fighting game players were willing to pay for it.

If only fighting game players liked it, the best-case scenario would be breaking even.

So, Pei Qian was not in a hurry and planned to observe further.

At this stage, he still had many more important things to be busy with.

"Let me see how *Safe and Civilized Driving* is doing."

"Hmm..."

"The game has a lot of buzz, but the sales are still decent, even a little better than I expected."

Pei Qian first looked at the sales of *Safe and Civilized Driving* and found that it wasn't as popular as many other Tenda Games.

*Safe and Civilized Driving* itself had a huge investment, and with these sales, it certainly wouldn't be able to recoup its costs in the short term.

As for why the sales seemed relatively optimistic, Pei Qian had a rough guess.

It was mainly due to the game mode!

Most racing games on the market were quite similar, and the initial difficulty was very low. Keyboards and gamepads could be used relatively well.

Even some particularly hardcore driving simulation games would add driving assistance systems so that players could smoothly complete the entire initial process after entering the game.

However, *Safe and Civilized Driving* was not only a very hardcore driving simulation game, but it also innovatively added a driver's license test!

This step was the ultimate deterrent for gamepad and keyboard players.

Of course, some keyboard and gamepad experts could pass the driver's license test with their superb micro-control, but these experts were a minority, and they had to put in a lot of time and effort.

Therefore, this driver's license test deterred many people.

They took the driver's license test several times, but couldn't pass it no matter what. Then, they looked at the time and realized that it was still within the refund period.

So, what was there to hesitate about? Refund it!

This time, there was no official mockery like in *Turn Back is the Shore*, and the players refunded it very decisively.

After buying a steering wheel and passing the driver's license test, the game experience would indeed rise sharply, but most players couldn't hold on until that point.

To spend thousands of yuan specifically to buy a steering wheel for playing a game? Are you telling me to wrap dumplings just because you gave me a plate of vinegar?

Many people had this mentality, so they preferred to be armchair players, watching streamers fail the driver's test again and again, rather than suffering in the game themselves.

So, the current situation emerged: many keyboard and gamepad players were deterred, and many players were hesitating whether to buy a steering wheel and were waiting to see.

Although *Safe and Civilized Driving* had sparked heated discussions online, it had only brought the heat to the live streaming circle and the hardcore driving simulation player circle for the time being. It had not truly broken through its genre to reach the level of a "national game" like some racing games.

After reading this, Pei Qian couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness!

After the crash test results of the Passat came out, Pei Qian was worried for a long time, fearing that the game's collision function would trigger some terrible chain reaction, leading to the game becoming a hit.

But now it seemed that the situation wasn't so bad?

Although the heat had indeed risen, it didn't seem to have affected the game's sales for the time being.

Although many people online were using the Passat incident as a meme, causing a heavy blow to the sales of the new Passat in China, most people wouldn't choose to buy it just because a certain game revealed the Passat's quality problems, right?

Pei Qian couldn't help but feel more at ease.

"Let me see how the sales of the Safe and Civilized Driving Simulator are."

"Hmm... not bad either."

Judging from the sales data, there wasn't the sales frenzy like with the Fully Automatic Arguing Machine and the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack back then. There was no out-of-stock situation on the product details page, so it seemed pretty good.

"Very perfect!"

Pei Qian couldn't help but be a little surprised. The current situation was already beyond his expectations.

The game hadn't become a hit, and the simulation equipment hadn't become a hit either. Wouldn't that be a great success?

The current Pei Qian had long stopped expecting good things like the game flopping completely. He didn't ask for the game to be ignored, as long as it always stayed within a very niche range. No matter how high the reputation, it couldn't break through its genre, so it couldn't possibly recoup the huge investment.

With Tenda's current size, every new project was a full-scale investment, so the definition of "success" was also getting higher and higher. Simply achieving what a general small company could achieve was no longer considered a success at all.

"Since that's the case, can I rent or buy a few more large warehouses?"

"I have to go see the situation at the warehouse!"

Pei Qian had a whim and decided to check the inventory situation.

Tenda had several large warehouses and many storerooms in Jingzhou. The warehousing system was laid out like a network: there were large warehouses in the suburbs of Jingzhou in different directions, and then there were smaller storerooms near the Tenda physical industry complex centered on Maoyou Internet Cafe, and finally there were some goods stored in Upwind Logistics stations.

Other cities were much the same, planned according to this plan.

This three-tier storage layout was like a series of dams in the upper reaches of a river, ensuring that Upwind Logistics could deliver products to customers as quickly as possible, while also ensuring that there were no shortages as much as possible.

Of course, the inventory of goods accumulated by these stockpiles was also very terrifying. Once the price fluctuated and had to be reduced for sale, so much inventory was enough to kill some weak small companies several times over.

But that was exactly what Pei Qian wanted.

From now on, as long as no one bought the stockpiled goods at their price, it was a win-win situation: Pei Qian won twice!

Whether he was forced to sell them at a reduced price and lose money, or he stubbornly refused to lower the price and let these stocks continue to depreciate in the warehouse, Pei Qian would win big.

Of course, the worst-case scenario was that all these goods were sold smoothly, and no amount of stocking up could stop the bleeding. That would be too terrible.

But that shouldn't happen at the moment.

Of course, these warehouses weren't all filled with driving simulators. They were filled with various Tenda products, whether new products, old products, digital products developed by Ouhou Technology, or furniture and home appliances products in cooperation with other manufacturers. All of them were in stock.

Upwind Logistics was striving to do its best in delivering goods to customers "in the shortest possible time."

Pei Qian was thinking that if all the driving simulators in the warehouse hadn't been sold, could he justifiably rent a new warehouse?

There could never be too many warehouses!

Thinking of this, Pei Qian called Ye Zhizhou and said that he wanted to go to the warehouse in the suburbs to take a look.

After seeing the situation in the warehouse, he could also talk to Ye Zhizhou about the game's recent situation.

...

An hour later, Pei Qian arrived outside Tenda's largest warehouse in the suburbs of Jingzhou.

Ye Zhizhou should already be waiting in the warehouse.

Actually, Pei Qian originally wanted to call Chang You as well, but Chang You was still suffering on the island and wouldn't be back until the end of the month, so he didn't call anyone else from Ouhou Technology.

But as soon as Pei Qian got out of the car, he felt that something was wrong.

Because there were two large trucks parked at the door, one was unloading, and the other was loading!

The truck that was unloading was filled with Safe and Civilized Driving simulator equipment. There were package versions that were all packed together in large boxes, and there were also small parts such as steering wheels and gear levers that were packed separately.

Several forklifts and workers were busy unloading the goods, while the drivers of the two large trucks looked quite young. They casually found a place to sit and watched the loading and unloading of the goods while smoking and chatting.

"Have you played *Safe and Civilized Driving*?"

"What's that? Never heard of it."

"Never heard of it? It's the stuff we're hauling. All of this in the back is simulator steering wheel equipment!"

"Is it a game? Why does the name sound a bit weird?"

"It's a game about driving a big truck. It's so much fun."

"Ah? You drive a truck every day to haul goods, isn't that enough? You want to continue driving a big truck in the game? Have you fried your brain?"

"Hey, why are you talking like that? It's really different. You'll know once you try it."

The two were chatting enthusiastically and didn't notice Pei Qian, just treating him as an ordinary passerby.

But Pei Qian instantly lost his composure when he heard their conversation.

What was going on?

Even the truck drivers who were hauling the goods were playing this game?

That was outrageous!

But on second thought, these were, after all, the drivers who were hauling goods for Tenda. Understanding the use of this simulator and buying it out of curiosity to practice their driving skills when they had nothing to do at home seemed justifiable.

It wasn't a big deal for truck drivers to play *Safe and Civilized Driving*, but the key was, why were there still large trucks loading and unloading goods now?

That was the real reason why Pei Qian was highly vigilant.

Logically speaking, Tenda's stocking up had already been underway before the official release of the Safe and Civilized Driving Simulator. After receiving the goods from the OEM factory, they would first be transported to Tenda's several large warehouses, and then gradually spread to other cities, including some small inventories and Upwind Logistics stations.

In other words, the inventory should have already been spread out, filling all the warehouses.

What was the situation with such a large-scale stocking up and shipping out? There shouldn't be so many sales, right?

Continuing to walk inside, Pei Qian noticed that the inside of the large warehouse was also busy.

As Tenda's scale grew larger and larger, the warehouse became more and more standardized.

When Tenda first started its own warehousing, it only had a very small warehouse, filled with some digital products, memory, graphics cards, and other things from other manufacturers. It was quite makeshift.

But now, not only had the number of warehouses greatly increased, but the inside of the warehouse had also undergone a major change, becoming uniform and tall shelves, classifying and arranging various products, and using small forklifts to load and retrieve goods.

Several small forklifts were busy arranging various goods.

Ye Zhizhou had already arrived and hurried to greet Pei Qian when he saw him.

"President Pei!"

Pei Qian looked at the situation in the warehouse, as if facing a formidable enemy: "Recently... has the sales of the Safe and Civilized Driving Simulator increased significantly?"

Ye Zhizhou nodded: "Yes, President Pei. Did you already know?"

Pei Qian was stunned and didn't know how to respond for a moment.

What do you mean I already knew?

I knew a hammer!

I completely deduced it from the usual pattern and the abnormal movement in the warehouse!

Seeing President Pei's expression, Ye Zhizhou suddenly realized: "Oh! President Pei, you didn't know, you predicted it, right?"

Pei Qian: "..."

While feeling outrageous, Pei Qian was also very puzzled. The game sales didn't seem to have exploded either.

Logically speaking, the number of people buying the Safe and Civilized Driving Simulator should have a certain positive correlation with the number of people buying the game. The proportion of players using a steering wheel to play racing games should be roughly stable.

Now, the game sales hadn't exploded yet, but the number of people buying the simulator had exploded. What was going on?