Seeing the players’ boycott, Pei Qian almost laughed out loud.

Could there be anything better than this?

Indeed, he should trust the professionals. Eric really knew what he was doing!

Pei Qian had initially thought that this price increase would cause revenues to soar, but from the current situation, that might not necessarily be the case.

GOG players had become accustomed to the previous pricing, and even if prices were to increase, they couldn’t increase too much—a 30% increase would already be substantial.

The situation of players complaining while still buying could indeed happen, but only if the price increase wasn’t too outrageous.

With the current situation, even price-insensitive players felt uncomfortable, triggering widespread boycotts online. The price increase might not actually bring more profit at all.

In fact, this “Arrival of Light” activity included some other content, mainly in-game events.

For example, playing a certain number of matches with the skin and meeting specific conditions would unlock some new rewards.

These rewards weren’t directly displayed, but most players could guess what they were.

Such activities were common, many games had done them before, and the rewards might be some trivial items like avatar frames, profile pictures, or expressions—just as an additional promotional tool.

So players weren’t having any of it.

I spend money to buy a skin, and I still have to spend time grinding?

And after all that grinding, you give me avatar frames and expressions that should have been given to me in the first place as rewards?

Ridiculous!

Boycott! We must boycott!

For these event skins, whoever buys them is a public enemy!

Once in the game, if you see someone using a new skin, don’t be polite!

Because these people buying skins are essentially encouraging the game companies’ arrogance, making them more confident about raising prices in the future.

Even if it’s Tenda, we absolutely cannot indulge them. When criticism is due, we must criticize!

We must make Mr. Pei see the public opinion online and then quickly remove Eric, otherwise with this person around, GOG will definitely not end well!

Looking at the fierce public sentiment online, Pei Qian was delighted.

Eric, well done! Poaching you wasn’t in vain!

…

Early the next morning, Pei Qian went straight to the GOG project team after getting up.

He wasn’t going to question or reprimand them, nor was he going to commend them.

Reprimanding was definitely out of the question—Pei Qian was thrilled inside. Anyone who could help him earn less money was like family to him, a dear brother.

But commendation wasn’t appropriate either. After all, this activity had caused such a commotion online that it clearly appeared to be Eric’s work mistake. Commending him at this time would be too obvious.

Pei Qian’s purpose for this visit was to observe and reassure.

First, to observe how the entire GOG project team was reacting to this incident, whether they harbored resentment toward Eric that might affect his future work.

If there was indeed resentment, then he would reassure everyone, telling them not to complain when facing problems but to follow the arrangements of Eric as the person in charge.

In short, without supporting this specific incident, he would generally express his stance that he still very much supported Eric, helping to consolidate Eric’s position within the project team.

In the future, Eric would need to make bold moves to help Pei Qian lose a substantial amount of money—how could he be constrained?

After changing the person in charge, the entire GOG project team had moved out of Tenda’s game department to the 22nd floor of the building.

The 23rd floor had also been rented, facilitating future personnel expansion.

Currently, the relocation of the new workstations had been completed. Besides the original GOG project team members, the operations team and personnel responsible for communicating with the e-sports department were also there. The recruitment plan for personnel expansion had also been put on the agenda.

Pei Qian scanned the workstations and found nothing unusual.

Everyone was working normally, without expressions of deep resentment or desire to overthrow Eric.

But Pei Qian was still worried, as this might only be a surface appearance.

Even if they disliked the new leadership and were dissatisfied with this activity, who would wear such feelings on their face?

After some thought, Pei Qian decided to chat with Eric first and ask about the situation.

If Eric felt that everything was fine and everyone on the project team was listening to him, then no follow-up steps would be needed; if Eric felt it wasn’t working out and some people weren’t cooperating, then Pei Qian would step in to support him and reassure the employees.

Eric and Zhao Xuming had their own office, mainly to separate them from other employees and maintain their “purity.”

Pei Qian arrived at the office door and knocked gently.

…

Meanwhile, Eric and Zhao Xuming were reviewing the feedback from players on the forums.

“As expected, the criticism is quite harsh, even worse than we imagined,” Zhao Xuming was somewhat worried. “The situation is a bit serious. Will there be any problems?”

Compared to Eric, Zhao Xuming was clearly more cautious and more afraid of causing problems and taking the blame.

Eric shook his head: “The plan was already shown to Mr. Pei, and he didn’t ask for changes, which means he supports our plan.”

“Besides, if you want to lure your enemies into an ambush, you always have to pretend to retreat first, which inevitably leads to some casualties.”

“This won’t last long either. According to my previous estimate, it will only be for a day or two. That’s why our activity’s final reward unlock is also set for two days.”

Zhao Xuming asked, “How confident are you about this activity?”

Eric chuckled: “Seventy percent.”

“Actually, Dayak Group’s upper management has been trying to increase ioi’s skin prices for a while but hasn’t found a good opportunity.”

“Although they’ve basically given up on direct confrontation with GOG, that doesn’t mean they don’t pay attention to GOG’s activities. On the contrary, they’re paying more attention than before.”

“Precisely because they want to raise prices, they need to closely monitor GOG’s movements, being cautious about many things, and choosing the right time to regain some reputation.”

“If they raise prices just when Tenda is having a major discount promotion, wouldn’t that be like putting their head on the chopping block?”

“So they must be watching the 1024 Digital Festival and have prepared corresponding activities. They can’t do nothing and let their market share be taken too much.”

“Even though they’ve prepared activities, they won’t launch them immediately. They’ll most likely observe first, check the specific content of GOG’s activities, and make some adjustments to their own activities.”

“If GOG’s activities are exceptionally generous, they’ll have to lower their skin discounts a bit, at least making a show of it on the surface.”

“But what if GOG raises prices?”

“They probably won’t miss this opportunity.”

“Of course, these are just my guesses. The other side might not take the bait, or due to slow efficiency, they might not be able to respond so quickly.”

“But even if they don’t take the bait, it doesn’t matter. This activity has no harm to us and can still continue to grab ioi’s market share.”

Zhao Xuming nodded.

He knew clearly that ioi would likely not miss this opportunity.

For Dayak Group, after realizing they couldn’t defeat GOG in the short term, and that ioi’s own market share was continuously declining, they were very eager to quickly gain more profit.

But raising skin prices would get criticized each time it happened, so they couldn’t act rashly.

However, what if GOG took the initiative to raise prices, and by a large margin?

That would provide ioi with an opportunity to raise their prices too!

Many things are all about comparison. If GOG’s skin prices increased significantly, and ioi’s skins also increased but not by as much, they might achieve both more profit and better reputation.

For Dayak Group, this was obviously a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, one they couldn’t afford to miss.

Moreover, activities were prepared in advance, and they only needed to change a few numbers before going online. It would be hard for most people to resist the temptation of such a low-cost, high-return operation.

And as Eric said, even if the other side didn’t take the bait, this activity itself wouldn’t have much downside and could still serve as a normal marketing activity to gain market share.

Zhao Xuming felt that the only problem with the whole thing was Mr. Pei’s attitude.

After all, they were newcomers who had just taken over the GOG project for less than a week. They had already changed Min Jingchao’s original activity plan quite drastically, even making GOG receive a wave of criticism before the activity began—it was certainly somewhat against protocol.

In other companies, this would definitely not be allowed.

But Tenda was clearly not an ordinary company, so they felt that doing this wasn’t problematic, but rather more reasonable.

Just as Zhao Xuming was pondering this, there was a knock on the door from outside.

Right after saying “Come in,” they saw Mr. Pei open the door.

Zhao Xuming and Eric quickly stood up: “Mr. Pei!”

Mr. Pei walked in with a smile: “Sit down, there’s nothing special, I just came to check in.”

“The changes to the new activity are quite bold. It seems you’ve already adapted to Tenda’s work style.”

“But let me ask you one more thing: have you encountered any situations where veteran employees aren’t cooperating? If so, you must tell me, and I’ll help you resolve it.”

For others, this might be a difficult problem to solve. When conflicts arise between superiors and subordinates, one should support the superior, but it’s hard to ensure that subordinates won’t harbor resentment.

But for Pei Qian, this problem didn’t exist because all employees trusted him so much. With just a word from Pei Qian, all employees would genuinely support Eric’s work.

Eric quickly shook his head: “Thank you, Mr. Pei, but we haven’t encountered such situations.”

“The professional capabilities of Tenda’s employees are the strongest I’ve ever seen. They are exceptionally efficient, never ask too many questions, and are much more efficient than those we worked with before. We haven’t even encountered any delays, let alone deliberate non-cooperation.”

Pei Qian nodded slightly.

It seemed that Tenda employees’ “don’t ask too many questions” style had its advantages.

At the very least, parachuting in a leader who could lose money would ensure that these employees diligently executed his money-losing policies, saving a lot of trouble.

Feeling more reassured, Pei Qian asked: “I see the activity seems to be getting quite a lot of criticism.”

“But that’s okay. Being in charge means taking responsibility. Many times, you need to withstand pressure and do what you believe is right.”

“Don’t doubt yourself just because of criticism. Many times, you should stick to your own thoughts.”

Pei Qian was worried that after Eric and Zhao Xuming came to Tenda, they might have become thin-skinned, changing activities as soon as players criticized them—that wouldn’t do!

But Pei Qian couldn’t speak too directly; he couldn’t just say “keep messing things up.” He could only hint indirectly, encouraging the two to “stay true to themselves.”

Eric immediately nodded: “Yes, Mr. Pei, I understand.”

Zhao Xuming’s previous concerns also completely vanished, and he felt ashamed of his own shallow thinking.

What storms hadn’t Mr. Pei weathered?

Back when developing “Game Producer,” Mr. Pei had already pulled off “performance art-style promotion,” paying content creators to collectively “dig lotus roots.”

When had it not first been criticized harshly, only to turn around later?

The little tricks he and Eric had come up with probably seemed like insignificant skills to Mr. Pei, not even worth mentioning.

“Well, since everything’s fine, I’ll be going now.”

“Don’t work too hard, and remember to balance work and rest.”

Pei Qian was very satisfied with the current state of the GOG project team. Feeling that he had made the right hire, he gave a few more brief reminders and left.

After Mr. Pei left, Eric said: “See, I told you that Mr. Pei would fully support this matter!”

“Although Tenda hasn’t yet reached the level of a super giant, Mr. Pei as a leader has vision and decisiveness at the highest level, far beyond comparison with those mediocre executives in large companies.”

Zhao Xuming deeply agreed.

Eric refreshed the webpage again: “For the next day, let’s see if ioi takes the bait.”

…

At noon, Pei Qian went to the nearby Slackin’ Internet Café for lunch and checked player comments again.

Sure enough, the heat seemed to have increased.

After all, the activity started at midnight, and some players who went to bed early for various reasons only found out about it this morning.

Although the heat had increased, most players were still following the same pattern—either criticizing Eric on the forums or calling for boycotts, with no new approaches.

This left Pei Qian somewhat disappointed.

No energy even for criticism, and you call yourself a keyboard warrior?

Put some effort into it! Come up with more creative approaches!

Speaking of this, Pei Qian particularly missed the paid commenters he had once hired either at his own expense or with company funds. These professionals truly lived up to their reputation, finding the most cunning angles.

If he could fully expense hiring paid commenters, Pei Qian would definitely arrange them 24 hours a day, maximizing the show effect for everyone.

While scrolling, he suddenly came across a new post.

“Neighboring ioi has launched activities too! Never thought there’d be a day when ioi’s activities would be more generous than GOG’s…”

“Generous my ass, ioi raised prices too!”

“But they raised them less than GOG!”

Pei Qian was stunned.

Hmm?

They launched activities and released new skins too?

The timing was impeccable!

He quickly opened ioi’s official website and found that they had indeed just launched activities. Of course, they didn’t call it the 1024 Digital Festival but used another name, though the intention was obvious—to counter GOG.

This activity also released new skins with price increases.

Compared to the original skins, these new skins added some special effects and exclusive actions, with prices increased by 30%.

Normally, players would have harshly criticized this, but with GOG taking the brunt of the criticism first, ioi’s reputation actually improved somewhat!

Of course, looking at these uniform positive comments, Pei Qian sensed the familiar traces of paid commenters.

Clearly, ioi had secretly hired commenters to push this narrative, wanting to use this opportunity to both raise skin prices and set up a facade, attracting some players from GOG!

“The timing is perfect, but don’t try to have it both ways!”

“If they hadn’t raised prices or even offered discounts, wouldn’t it have been a perfect counterattack?”

“Oh well, it’s slightly flawed, but not a big problem.”

Pei Qian’s first reaction was disappointment.

If ioi hadn’t raised skin prices and instead offered discounts during this opportunity, couldn’t they have achieved a full-dimensional attack against GOG, forming a perfect collaboration with their former colleagues Eric and Zhao Xuming?

But then ioi also seized the opportunity to raise prices, which seemed a bit like trying to have it both ways.

On second thought, Dayak Group needed to make money after all. They had been planning to raise prices for a long time and were almost bursting with impatience.

If they didn’t take advantage of this perfect price-raising opportunity, future attempts would be as difficult as climbing to heaven.

After all, this time they could say Tenda lost its mind, but what about next time?

They had to seize this opportunity to establish the price increase and get players accustomed to the new prices.

All in all, the coordination wasn’t perfect, but it was still quite good.

Pei Qian’s expectations weren’t high; he just felt that this time, ioi should be able to gain some breathing room.