Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

October 3rd…

Three days had passed. Pei Qian had been observing Repent and be Saved's situation very closely. After all, he had high hopes for the game. He could not afford any more losses.

He looked at the netizens' comments first. All in all, they had gone just as Pei Qian had expected.

The game was being criticized through and through!

Players were saying all sorts of things, especially in the comments section of the official Weibo post. Many players on the official platform also gave the game a one-star rating and left negative comments.

There were heated arguments in the forums, and gamers seemed to be extremely polarized.

At the moment, there were many comments about the game on TPDb's website, including comments from paying customers and netizens in general.

Repent and be Saved had an overall rating of 7.2 on TPDb. Paying customers and netizens had obviously pulled its ratings down.

Only a short period had passed. Most games media would not have completed the game. Thus, the media's comments and ratings were not available yet. There was no way Pei Qian could analyze the game's overall reception.

Pei Qian did not feel particularly confident about this. After all, games media would not be too concerned about the game's difficulty. Instead, it would rate the game more holistically, based on the game's quality, content, design, and the like.

These games media might give the game quite a high rating for its quality alone. Then, its ratings on TPDb would increase.

Still, no matter what, the game's reputation was showing signs of tanking among ordinary players. One could say this was well within Pei Qian's expectations.

It did not matter whether TPDb gave the game high ratings. What mattered was that the game did not generate profits.

Pei Qian looked at the number of players who refunded the game—not even 30% did. He was quite disappointed.

What is the meaning of this? I clearly told you to refund it, and yet less than 30% of you did?

You could resist the combined impact of the little monsters in the mass grave, the elite monster with the chopper, the epitaph that appears every time you die, and the reminder at the last minute?

That's illogical!

In addition, this 30% included those who only tried the game due to advertising and marketing effects.

Many people tried Repent and be Saved on account of Tengda's golden reputation. Even gamers who hated being tortured mistakenly tried the game as well. Once they realized they were being tortured in the game, those gamers' first reaction would definitely have been to refund it.

Yet, even so, less than 30% of all players refunded the game. Pei Qian was extremely dissatisfied with this figure.

Of course, Pei Qian knew no good way to resolve the problem.

He had been as cruel as he could be. Those who chose not to refund the game probably really did not want to do so. Pei Qian could not possibly have pointed a gun to their heads, forcing them to refund it.

He could only continue observing the situation.

Although Pei Qian had expected more people to refund the game, an almost-30% refund rate was considered quite high compared to other games. In addition, countless people were criticizing Repent and Be Saved. The situation looked quite promising.

Pei Qian turned to browse Aili Island.

Some people had already published videos of Repent and be Saved on the video website. However, no complete walkthroughs had been uploaded so far. At the moment, most people were recording the game as they progressed. That was why there weren't many videos, and those that had been published were not popular.

Pei Qian had also expected this outcome.

As long as Teacher Qiao did not release a walkthrough yet, he could remain hopeful!

These newbies would probably need a week before they start to figure Repent and be Saved out. Teacher Qiao would only upload a video after a week.

By then, Pei Qian guessed that only hardcore, loyal fans would still be playing the game. It would not hurt to give them a walkthrough. The players who had already given up would probably not return.

"Hmm, this looks like a good start. May it continue this way!"

Pei Qian switched his computer off and left.

It was a Sunday. He had plans to bring Lin Chang to Ming Yun Private Kitchen for a meal.

Lin Yu was busy with work and had already left Jingzhou. Lin Chang had much more free time on his hands. What's more, both of them were in charge of different companies. Of course, they had different workloads as well.

…

At Ming Yun Private Kitchen…

Pei Qian happily chewed on the leg of a crab. He was in an extraordinary mood. Lin Chang was also enjoying his food and praising it non-stop.

As they ate, they began to talk about Lin Wan.

"Boss Pei, have you thought about what we mentioned the last time?

"You don't need to have a perfect plan. Just tell me what you have thought about so far; we can work on a plan together."

Lin Chang was giving this issue quite a lot of attention. It was obvious that his father was giving him considerable pressure. He had to get Lin Wan back as soon as possible—only then would he be able to relax.

Pei Qian pondered for a while and said, "I'm thinking of transferring her somewhere else in the name of expanding the business."

Lin Chang paused. "You're not allowing her to continue in the game industry?"

Pei Qian nodded. "Yes, I won't let her work on games anymore. The risks would be too high if I allow her to continue!

"She has just led the employees of Shang Yang Games to produce such a successful game. The employees' enthusiasm and performance, as well as outsiders' view of Shang Yang Games, are all at their peak. If I let her work on another game, the next game has a high chance of succeeding as well.

"If she produces another successful game, it might be hard to turn the situation around."

Lin Chang deeply agreed with this. "Yes, that sounds logical!"

Lin Wan had only produced one game so far, and yet she was already showing off to her family. If she managed to create another successful game, wouldn't she feel free to soar the skies?

They could not afford for this to happen!

"However, there seems to be a problem, Boss Pei." Lin Chang looked hesitant. "It has always been Ah Wan's dream to produce games. If you transfer her somewhere else in the name of expanding the business, would she be happy?"

Pei Qian looked confident as he answered, "Of course, we cannot make things too obvious. Also, Lin Wan would not agree to stop working on games.

"Since that's the case, I will put her in charge of another business while she remains in charge of Shang Yang Games. Wouldn't that resolve the problem?

"There would be a lot of work on both ends, and she would be distracted. This would increase the chances of her failing."

Lin Chang's eyes lit up. "Hmm, that's a good idea!

"But what business are you looking at? What kind of reason would you give her? I think we should sort out the details. Ah Wan is very intelligent. We cannot allow her to become suspicious."

Pei Qian nodded. "That's right. I have a few considerations, but I've not made up my mind."

Lin Chang seemed very interested. "Let me hear them."

Pei Qian picked up a piece of sushi and said, "This is what I'm thinking. First, we have to allow Lin Wan to remain as the director of Shang Yang Games. She has to be put in charge of another game, at least in name.

"If we don't allow her to take responsibility for anything game-related, it would be too obvious. She would become suspicious and feel conflicted.

"With that foundation, I'll assign her another task.

"This new task has to be related to games as well. Then, I can directly explain to her my plans for business expansion. We can say that we intend to expand into so-and-so territory because this territory is good for our development of games."

"The territories that I'm thinking of venturing into are livestreaming and cell phone manufacturing."

Lin Chang could not help but sigh. "Amazing."

Pei Qian had a clear plan: he was going to tell Lin Wan that venturing into livestreaming or cell phone manufacturing would help them better advertise their games. He would then put her in charge of these ventures.

This way, Lin Wan would be responsible for two businesses. She would not have enough energy to tend to either the livestreaming or the game. That would greatly increase the chances of failure.

Lin Chang also knew that Lin Wan was a very proud person. If Boss Pei gave her a task, she would take it even if she thought it would be difficult to achieve anything. She would not turn these additional responsibilities down.

Wouldn't that guarantee success?

Lin Chang was elated. "Boss Pei, which business do you find more suitable, then? Livestream or cell phone manufacturing?"

Pei Qian pondered for a moment. "Cell phone manufacturing might be better."

Pei Qian had not thought about other businesses.

Take car-sharing for example—it was sure to incur losses.

However, he could not put Lin Wan in charge of such a business because it was completely unrelated to games. Pei Qian would not be able to come up with a suitable excuse.

On the other hand, he could say he was expanding the pie by venturing into cell phone manufacturing and livestreaming.

Both of these industries also had relatively high barriers to entry.

The bandwidth for livestreams needed to be able to accommodate about two million people at any one time. That meant he would have to spend up to forty million yuan a month on bandwidth alone.

After all, livestreaming was different from games. One could not spend that much money on bandwidth for web-based games because they did not require transmission of huge amounts of data. Naturally, the two belonged to completely different tiers.

Major livestream platforms would later accommodate anywhere from six million to tens of millions of people at any one time. They easily paid hundreds of millions of yuan for bandwidth alone.

Of course, Pei Qian could employ a cheaper method and spend less money on bandwidth. However, no matter how much he tried to cut costs, he would need to prepare at least thirty to forty million for the initial investment.

If he prepared any less than that, he might fail to produce anything and even delay settlement. That would be a major loss.

As for cell phone manufacturing, he could invest ten to twenty million yuan. Cell phone brands like Xiaomi only cost about ten million yuan to set up as well.

What's more, livestream had not become popular in the current market—it was considered a sunrise industry. The cell phone market was also developing much faster than before; it was considered a sunset industry.

Shenhua, Pineapple, MSC, and other huge manufacturers were beginning to push competitors out of the market. The next few years will become more and more difficult for small cell phone manufacturers. Failure was almost certain.

Also, Lin Yu was in charge of Shenhua's cell phone business. For every new phone that Lin Wan produced, Shenhua could produce an even better one.

A beautiful war would ensue, wouldn't it?

Lin Chang understood this as well. He happily clapped and said, "Boss Pei, your plan is perfect and seamless! Once again, I owe you a huge favor.

"Don't worry, Boss Pei. If you meet with any difficulties along the way, we will do our best to cooperate!

"That's right, I noticed that your new game's reputation isn't ideal. How's the situation? Have you thought about how to control the comments? It seems to be a hot topic on Weibo as well. Do you want me to help you?"

"Don't worry, I'm very familiar with the staff there. Just say the word, and I'll be able to get something in order."

Lin Chang was in charge of Shenhua's entertainment business. Naturally, this was familiar territory for him.

Perhaps he wanted to make it up to Pei Qian for all the help that the latter had provided.

However, Pei Qian immediately raised his hand. "No, don't do anything! This is all part of the plan."

A realization dawned on Lin Chang. "Oh, I understand. I won't get involved, then. If Boss Pei needs anything in the future, please let me know. Your problems are my problems. I will not hesitate to help!"