After Tian Mo left, Pei Qian briefly considered the matter of the store.
The purpose of this store definitely needed to be differentiated from the functions of stores like Slackin’ Internet Café, so the specific layout inside would need careful planning.
The salespeople in the store were also crucial. They couldn’t go through Tenda’s unified recruitment process because those people’s abilities were all too high.
He had to find a way to screen out a batch of people with abilities similar to Tian Mo’s.
Recruitment wasn’t urgent for now, but store renovation would take some time, so that needed to be arranged quickly.
Pei Qian thought for a moment, then called Liang Qingfan and asked him to come to the office tomorrow afternoon to finalize the details of this store.
After arranging everything, Pei Qian let out a long sigh, then casually opened a webpage to check the current situation of “Mission and Choice.”
The outlook remained less than optimistic!
From the movie’s release and the game’s launch until now, overall ratings and word-of-mouth had been steadily improving, consistently occupying hot topics online.
The game and movie influenced each other—as game sales increased, movie screenings also increased.
Although less than a week had passed, the situation was already very bad. After this weekend ended, the data from one week could roughly be used to predict the entire lifecycle of game sales and movie box office.
Pei Qian looked at the flattering comments from various media, players, and viewers online, feeling very tired.
It was like being force-fed poison milk one gulp after another, unable to drink more yet still being forced to, until it flowed down the corners of his mouth…
Just as he was feeling distressed, Pei Qian’s eyes suddenly lit up.
Because he saw discussions about Rabbit Tail Live on the forum!
Pei Qian opened Rabbit Tail Live and indeed found that during the past two days while he was busy discovering Tian Mo as a hidden gem, Rabbit Tail Live’s “mandatory one hour” feature had already gone online.
This was Pei Qian’s first login to Rabbit Tail Live after the version update, so a dialog box popped up, briefly introducing the various rules after the update, with particular emphasis on detailed explanations of this “mandatory one hour” feature.
After formally entering Rabbit Tail Live’s website or app, a one-hour countdown would appear in the upper right corner of the interface. Before the countdown ended, users could only browse content in the learning section or use focus mode to idle.
Of course, there were loopholes that could be exploited. If someone left the Rabbit Tail Live webpage open on their computer for an hour, they could indeed get away with it.
The key wasn’t this one hour but rather “creating extra trouble for viewers.” Viewers could indeed solve the problem by idling on the webpage for an hour, but compared to streaming platforms that had no restrictions and allowed all content to be viewed freely, Rabbit Tail already had a natural disadvantage.
Pei Qian looked at the feedback online and finally smiled, his distress completely swept away.
“Has Rabbit Tail Live gone crazy? A perfectly good streaming platform that was thriving because of esports competitions, and now they’re deliberately doing this to annoy viewers?”
“I only have one or two hours of rest time a day, and if I want to watch a stream, I have to watch educational videos or idle for an hour? Isn’t that overreaching? It’s understandable to restrict minors, but adults too?”
“No problem, at worst I’ll just idle for an hour before watching matches and do something else in the meantime.”
“The key issue is having to remember to idle for an hour every day? Watching streams is just for fun, doing it this way—isn’t it tiring?”
“Goodbye, Rabbit Tail Live. There are so many platforms streaming matches; it’s not like I can only watch on yours.”
“What a shame. I always thought Rabbit Tail Live offered the best viewing experience for competitions, but now I have to switch platforms.”
“You can tell just by looking at the viewer count. Rabbit Tail Live always shows real data, and recently the number of viewers in major live rooms has dropped by at least two-thirds—fallen so much that even their own mothers wouldn’t recognize them.”
“I don’t believe Rabbit Tail Live is this stubborn. With data dropping more severely than halving, won’t they hurry up and cancel this restriction?”
“Even canceling it won’t help now; viewers who’ve left won’t come back. And judging by Rabbit Tail Live’s official stance, they seem prepared to stick with this decision all the way. There’s a flood of criticism online, but the official team hasn’t come out with an explanation.”
“Sigh, self-destructive.”
“I bet the CEOs of other streaming platforms are sliding on their knees in their living rooms in celebration!”
“To be fair, Rabbit Tail Live has definitely made a massive blunder this time! Their previous decisions were quite wise, and it seemed like other streaming platforms were struggling to keep up. How could they suddenly give them such a big breather at this critical moment?”
“I say Rabbit Tail Live has become arrogant, thinking viewers can’t leave them, so they’ve started implementing these flashy things. It’s quite annoying.”
“Mr. Pei, do something! Don’t let those Rabbit Tail Live people mess around anymore! I just want to watch streams and have some entertainment, but they’re making me learn stuff. Is this something humans should do?”
“You think Mr. Pei doesn’t know? Mr. Pei is infallible; how could he not know about something this big? In my opinion, this is very likely his own decision!”
The opinions of netizens varied widely, but the overall tone was negative.
This was quite understandable, since most people watched streams just for fun. If they were already watching streams, did they care about wasting time?
Besides, speaking of wasting time, how many things in life aren’t a waste of time?
So Rabbit Tail Live’s behavior of imposing restrictions on users was bound to cause dissatisfaction among most people.
Moreover, other streaming platforms absolutely wouldn’t ignore this.
Rabbit Tail Live was self-destructing and had already alienated its own platform’s users to some extent. Other streaming platforms had suffered quite a bit when Rabbit Tail Live was first established, and with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, they were certainly going to hire some internet trolls to secretly criticize Rabbit Tail online.
Rabbit Tail Live’s viewer counts were all real data, so the sharp reduction in numbers was particularly obvious, which also corroborated the questioning voices online.
In short, from any perspective, Rabbit Tail Live’s current behavior could be described as “universally condemned” and “surrounded by hostility.”
But Pei Qian grew happier the more he read.
It meant he had achieved his goal!
Being able to suppress Rabbit Tail Live’s popularity in the early stages was good news. If Rabbit Tail Live truly developed and became an industry giant monopolizing half the industry’s streamers and resources, then when this measure was implemented, most users would have to accept it reluctantly, which wouldn’t be effective.
It needed to be nipped in the bud!
Pei Qian felt he was truly visionary and couldn’t help feeling a bit smug.
He would observe for a while longer, and once he confirmed Rabbit Tail Live’s popularity was under control, he could pour more money into it, turning it into a ruthless money-burning machine.
Pei Qian’s mood had initially been poor, but after seeing the comments from enthusiastic netizens, it improved greatly.
Indeed, enthusiastic netizens were truly like family!
Just as Pei Qian was engrossed in reading comments from netizens endlessly predicting Rabbit Tail Live’s downfall, his phone rang. It was Lin Chang calling.
“Mr. Pei, the preliminary preparations for the gaming department have been completed. I’m not sure how Lin Wan’s work handover is going? When can she come here to officially start work?”
Pei Qian was surprised: “Oh? So quickly?”
It had only been a few days; the efficiency was unusually high.
Lin Chang smiled: “Mainly because when I told the old man, he thought your idea was excellent, Mr. Pei, and was very supportive! So things went very smoothly.”
“Besides, there wasn’t much to the preliminary preparation work—just preparing the office space and handling the company’s funding and registration work. According to your earlier plan, Mr. Pei, the recruitment of the company’s core members should be personally handled by Lin Wan, and we can’t intervene in the later project initiation and development.”
Pei Qian was quite pleased: “That’s good. I’ve already arranged for her to handle the work handover, so it should be quite fast.”
“I also think we shouldn’t delay; the sooner, the better. Let’s meet tomorrow to finalize the project.”
Lin Chang was taken aback: “Huh? Finalize the project? Isn’t that a bit rushed?”
Pei Qian: “Not rushed at all; there’s no time to waste. The sooner we decide on the project, the more time we’ll have to prepare.”
Lin Chang thought for a moment: “Alright then, shall we schedule for tomorrow morning? How about 10 AM?”
Pei Qian: “Uh… where’s the address? If it’s at Shenhua Group headquarters, I’m afraid I won’t be able to make it.”
Lin Chang: “It’s in Jingzhou, about a fifteen-minute drive from Shangyang Games!”
Pei Qian was surprised: “What?”
“That doesn’t seem right. Since it’s Shenhua’s gaming department, shouldn’t it be located near Shenhua Group headquarters? That way, it would be closer to the old man, and Lin Wan could go home more often to visit?”
Pei Qian had originally thought he would be sending Lin Wan far away, but instead, she was only being sent to a place fifteen minutes away from Shangyang Games, which was somewhat deflating.
Lin Chang said: “The old man certainly hopes Lin Wan will return, but we can’t rush this. If Lin Wan hears she has to leave Jingzhou, she’ll definitely resist strongly.”
“Besides, after this company is established, it will need to communicate frequently with Shangyang Games and get some help from them. If it’s too far away, communication would be inconvenient.”
“Fortunately, Shenhua Real Estate has several office buildings in Jingzhou besides Shenhua Haojing, so finding a suitable office space is quite convenient.”
Pei Qian thought about it and agreed it made sense. If they rushed too much and Lin Wan suddenly became suspicious and refused to leave, that would be counterproductive.
“Alright, tomorrow at 10 AM. See you then.”
…
After hanging up the phone, Pei Qian rubbed his chin and began preparing for tomorrow’s meeting.
The reason for his urgency was fear that delays might lead to changes.
Recruitment wasn’t a major concern. Neither Shenhua Group nor Tenda Group lacked money. If the new company wanted talent, they could directly poach people or recruit, with quite a bit of flexibility in timing. Continuous recruitment during the project development process wouldn’t be a problem.
But the project initiation was a big issue, and money alone couldn’t solve it.
Pei Qian was worried that Lin Wan wouldn’t be able to make up her mind about what project to pursue and would become hesitant, eventually backing out.
So Pei Qian felt he needed to help boost Lin Wan’s confidence, help her finalize the project, and make her feel secure about leaving Shangyang Games.
But what kind of game should they make?
Pei Qian hadn’t thought it through yet, but he still had a few hours to consider, which should be enough.
“On one hand, the game should barely break even or even lose money; otherwise, making another huge profit would really be too much to handle.”
“On the other hand, it can’t be too outlandish, can’t arouse Lin Wan’s suspicions and scare her away.”
“The second point is relatively easy to address. The key is the first point—how to ensure this game doesn’t succeed… that’s quite challenging…”
“Of course, the best outcome would be critical acclaim without commercial success—good reviews but only breaking even or making a small loss. That would be perfect.”
Pei Qian thought about it and could roughly guess the attitudes of Lin Chang and Lin Wan tomorrow.
These two would definitely hope that the new gaming department would continue Shangyang Games’ successful experience, with the first game prioritizing stability.
In other words, they would want to initiate a game type that Tenda Games or Shangyang Games had done before, with successful projects as templates, increasing the chances of success.
But Pei Qian certainly couldn’t allow this to happen.
Shenhua Group was a behemoth with too many resources at its disposal. Just their mobile phone department alone could easily promote a mobile game by giving it a featured spot in the phone market.
Moreover, Lin Wan was no novice. She had already led the development of several successful games. Even if she changed companies and recruited new people, making another successful game would likely just be a matter of time.
Pei Qian was too busy to constantly monitor her and promptly nip any signs of success in the bud.
Therefore, Pei Qian had to be strict at the project initiation stage and arrange for Lin Wan a game project with an extremely low chance of success, where none of Tenda’s current successful game experiences could be utilized, yet one that everyone still thought had potential.
“So what kind of project should we do…”
Pei Qian leaned back in his executive chair, deep in thought.