Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 453: President Pei Is Really Strict
Tuesday, March 15th.
3 p.m.
Pei Qian had slept well the previous night and didn't wake up until noon.
After lunch, he arrived at the company and first checked the sales figures for BE QUIET.
The game was still in a lukewarm state. There were indeed some people online discussing the gameplay itself, but the level of attention wasn't particularly high. Most players were still busy arguing about the prerequisite challenges.
As for the game's rating, it currently held an 8.5 score on TPDb—not low, but not exceptionally high either.
Because the gameplay itself was fairly complex and the player base remained relatively small, no one had truly figured out all the mechanics of the game yet. Naturally, its reputation hadn't had enough time to fully spread and ferment.
Meanwhile, there was still no news from the Top Student, Come Quickly project.
Everything seemed peaceful for the moment.
Pei Qian glanced at the calendar. This week was absolutely critical.
Because most projects would finally be producing results this week. Whether he profited or lost money would all be decided now!
As Pei Qian mentally reviewed all the projects, he suddenly realized he seemed to have overlooked something recently.
How was GOG's development going?
Come to think of it, GOG's development time had become surprisingly long, which greatly exceeded Pei Qian's expectations.
Originally, he had only intended to create a game that would try to compete with IOI, then naturally get crushed by it, turning all development funds into wasted money and accomplishing his goal.
Yet GOG's development efficiency had been so low that even now it still didn't seem to have officially launched.
Still, Pei Qian didn't think too deeply about it, because the development environment at Tengda Group Games really was rather difficult…
On one hand, the project's lead designer Li Yada and key core member Bao Xu had both been sent off on trips, leaving the project without its backbone.
On the other hand, with Tang Yishu overseeing things, the project was guaranteed to be riddled with bugs. Just fixing those bugs alone would be enough to drive everyone crazy.
Thinking about this, Pei Qian couldn't help feeling a trace of sympathy for Tengda Games' situation.
"Maybe I should go upstairs and offer some encouragement?"
"After all, the gaming department's recent performance has been pretty good. They've completely broken their bad overtime habits, performed excellently in several consecutive Zero Overtime Competitions, and their development progress has dragged on so slowly that it truly warms my heart."
Pei Qian stood up and left his office, preparing to walk upstairs.
For Pei Qian, the ideal scenario was always for projects to release during the week before settlement. That way, the products would only have one week to earn money, minimizing profits.
The problem, however, was that development schedules were extremely difficult to control that precisely.
Whether developing games or handling other projects, delays caused by unexpected issues were completely normal. Finishing exactly on schedule was actually the rarer outcome.
Therefore, Pei Qian always had to build extra buffer time into every project, setting deadlines two or three weeks before settlement—or even earlier—to avoid situations where unfinished projects delayed settlement entirely.
But doing that created another problem: what if a project finished on time—or even ahead of schedule?
In that case, Pei Qian had no choice but to reluctantly let them release early. After all, once a project was finished, there was no particularly good excuse to keep delaying it.
BE QUIET was one such example of a project completed too quickly, which was why Pei Qian had created the prerequisite activities as a form of damage control.
So far, the damage control appeared to have worked quite well.
Meanwhile, the GOG project clearly belonged to the category of projects progressing more slowly, which fit Pei Qian's original expectations much better.
Soon, Pei Qian arrived at Tengda Games upstairs.
After entering, he found himself momentarily confused.
There were barely any familiar faces left in the entire Tengda Games department!
It couldn't be helped. The gaming division had been too successful. Every game they made became a hit. Those old employees who had performed especially well and left strong impressions on Pei Qian had basically all been transferred away already. Even important positions like lead executive designer had gone through several generations of replacements.
Huang Sibo was now at Feihuang Studio, Lu Mingliang had gone to Against the Wind Logistics, and now Li Yada and Bao Xu were off traveling as well. For a moment, Pei Qian genuinely didn't know who he should talk to.
There were still a few veteran employees who looked vaguely familiar, but Pei Qian couldn't remember any of their names…
Which made things rather awkward.
Fortunately, everyone recognized President Pei.
The moment they saw him enter, three employees who had been gathered together immediately hurried over to greet him.
These three were Hu Xianbin, Min Jingchao, and Zhang Nan. They were currently serving respectively as Tengda Games' acting lead executive designer, balance planner, and cosmetics/features designer—the three people Li Yada had handed her work over to before leaving.
"President Pei! What brings you here?"
"My name is Hu Xianbin. I'm currently the acting lead executive designer for the gaming department. Feel free to ask me anything."
The three of them introduced themselves one by one.
Pei Qian tried hard to memorize their names and appearances while casually searching through his memories.
Hmm… these really did seem like completely fresh faces.
Li Yada had chosen three total newcomers to take over her responsibilities? No wonder GOG's development progress had become so slow.
But from President Pei's perspective, that was obviously a good thing!
If this Hu Xianbin's performance continued to align with President Pei's wishes, then Pei Qian wouldn't mind letting Li Yada retire early.
Though… could the system even approve retirement at age twenty-five?
Smiling, Pei Qian said, "Nothing important, I'm just casually taking a look around. How's the GOG project progressing? Everything going smoothly? Will people be able to play it together at Moyu Internet Café before next week?"
Hu Xianbin hurriedly replied, "As for the PC version of GOG, our original plan is for it to officially launch next Monday. Since the game seems to have quite a lot of bugs, we've been continuously fixing them, so progress has slowed down a little."
Pei Qian was extremely satisfied with this timeline and smiled.
"No, no, not slow at all. This timing is absolutely perfect!"
"As the saying goes, slow work produces fine craftsmanship. The more bugs you fix during development, the fewer bugs you'll have after launch."
"Wait. You just said… the PC version of GOG?"
Pei Qian sharply noticed something odd in Hu Xianbin's wording.
GOG was already a PC game to begin with. Why specifically emphasize that?
Hu Xianbin smiled.
"Yes, President Pei. Because the mobile version already launched today."
Three question marks slowly floated above Pei Qian's head.
???
"Mobile version? What mobile version?"
Hu Xianbin froze for a moment too.
"GOG's mobile version, of course."
Pei Qian: "…"
What was going on?
Was history repeating itself??
Instantly, Pei Qian recalled the scene when the mobile version of Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition had launched. Back then, he had been having dinner together with everyone from Shangyang Games at Mingyun Private Kitchen, when the news struck him like a bolt from the blue and turned him completely to stone.
This situation felt almost exactly the same. For a moment, Pei Qian's brain simply failed to process it.
A few seconds later, he finally reacted and hurriedly asked,
"So… how are things going now?"
Hu Xianbin replied proudly, "President Pei, just take a look yourself!"
The computer the three of them had been gathered around displayed GOG's real-time statistics. In short, downloads, active users, paying users—every single metric was skyrocketing!
Pei Qian suddenly felt his legs go weak and collapsed into a chair.
He quickly pulled the chair closer and examined the detailed numbers.
There was no mistake. Every single metric was exploding upward!
And what shocked Pei Qian even more was that GOG's mobile version hadn't only launched on the official platform—it had also been released through other channels, such as Shenhua phones' app marketplace and several other mobile platforms.
Pei Qian asked, "Negotiating partnerships with all these platforms must've taken a long time, right?"
Hu Xianbin shook his head.
"Not at all. They approached us themselves."
Pei Qian: "???"
Hu Xianbin briefly explained things, and Pei Qian instantly understood.
Tengda Group had an excellent reputation, and the GOG mobile version itself was extremely high quality. As a result, they didn't need to go begging platforms to carry their game—instead, the platforms themselves came begging Tengda Group!
Tengda Group had both single-player games and online games, and every single one had been hugely successful. In the online gaming sector alone, they already had proven hits like Ocean Fortress and Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition. Naturally, when GOG went to negotiate partnerships with various platforms, everything proceeded smoothly.
In fact, many platforms even proactively offered better terms and increased Tengda Group's revenue split just to secure GOG's release on their stores.
And GOG itself was an incredibly desirable title!
At the moment, Divine Revelation, IOI, and GOG each had their own strengths and weaknesses in the PC gaming market. IOI still lacked a domestic Chinese server, forcing players to use VPN acceleration tools to connect overseas, while GOG had not yet officially launched and was still only in open beta. As a result, the PC-side competition remained unclear, and it was impossible to say who would ultimately win.
But neither Divine Revelation nor IOI showed any intention of entering the mobile gaming market.
That meant GOG had effectively become the sole candidate in this space—a precious gem everyone wanted.
Of course, nobody could guarantee that adapting this gameplay model to mobile would definitely succeed. But from the perspective of various gaming platforms and distribution channels, it was obviously a very promising direction and well worth investing major resources into.
Because if it succeeded, the rewards would be beyond imagination!
For these two reasons, Hu Xianbin and the others hadn't even needed to put effort into searching for distribution channels or marketing. They merely leaked a tiny bit of information, and the gaming platforms immediately came knocking themselves, offering all kinds of favorable conditions.
There was absolutely no need to worry about promotion anymore. They could simply lie back and relax!
Hu Xianbin said excitedly, "When Sister Li left, she didn't tell me how to negotiate with the platforms. I was actually pretty worried and was planning to ask her online in the next couple of days."
"But it turns out I was overthinking everything!"
"President Pei, all I can say is that the foundation you built for Tengda Group is simply too strong. Now all these gaming channels are fighting each other just to host our games. That's the power of reputation!"
Pei Qian was momentarily speechless.
What does that have to do with me?!
He stared at the backend statistics and, for a moment, didn't know what to say.
A major crisis had appeared. He needed to think of a countermeasure immediately!
Pei Qian could no longer sit still. He silently stood up, intending to return to his office and browse the internet to see what players thought about the GOG mobile version.
If players were cursing it everywhere, then perhaps there was still hope!
Seeing President Pei stand up to leave, Hu Xianbin quickly asked,
"President Pei, do you have any further instructions?"
Pei Qian replied helplessly, "No."
Watching President Pei's departing figure, Hu Xianbin felt somewhat disappointed.
The data was obviously excellent, yet they still couldn't earn a single word of praise from President Pei?
Ah, President Pei's standards truly were strict!
It seemed they absolutely couldn't grow complacent from this success. They needed to keep working harder and strive to earn President Pei's approval as soon as possible!
Hu Xianbin, who had originally been feeling rather smug due to the GOG mobile version's strong launch performance, immediately calmed himself down and continued focusing on development work for the PC version of GOG.
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Tn: I updated the story once a day, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 536: Still Going with the "Bare Walls" Style[1]
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[1] https://www.patreon.com/HannibalNotBarca/posts/losing-money-to-164800513?collection=1399284
[2] https://www.patreon.com/HannibalNotBarca/posts/losing-money-to-164800513?collection=1399284