May 17th, Thursday.

Long Yu Group.

Early this morning, several core members of Long Yu Group’s IOI Operations and Cooperation Department arrived punctually at the meeting room.

According to the original schedule, the IOI mobile game would launch precisely at 10 AM today, so these core members naturally needed to be present throughout to immediately address any unexpected situations.

Eric and Zhao Xuming had both arrived.

Launching at 10 AM on Thursday seemed somewhat awkward timing, but there was no alternative—they couldn’t delay any further.

The 515 Game Festival was already underway, and Mr. Pei’s various benefit activities had fully launched, generating enthusiastic responses online. Finger Games and Long Yu Group needed to take action.

If they delayed the launch until the weekend, Eric would find the loss of momentum over these two days difficult to accept, and it might affect other previously arranged activities.

At this moment, the employee responsible for coordinating with various gaming platforms was reporting on the completion status of preliminary preparations.

“We’ve already negotiated with all major distribution channels, and they’ve reserved promotional spots for our mobile game.”

“The promotional resources from different channels vary. Some were very straightforward and directly gave us the best promotional spots; others had more requirements, needing data to reach certain standards; and some said their best spots were already taken, but second-tier positions could be freely arranged.”

“Overall, we can rest assured about channel resources. After all, the IOI mobile game is of excellent quality and has a foundation in the PC version. These channels know our game can make money, so they’ll find ways to promote it without us having to say much.”

“Additionally, all channels have opened pre-registration for the IOI mobile game. Currently, pre-registrations have exceeded one million and continue to grow steadily. We believe that as our large-scale promotional activities unfold, the player count will significantly increase beyond this base!”

Eric and Zhao Xuming nodded slightly, relatively satisfied with the current situation.

Of course, this was all within their expectations.

Originally, the game in most direct competition with the IOI mobile game was “Eternal Hunter,” which also had pre-registrations reaching one million, essentially on the same level as the IOI mobile game.

But after “Eternal Hunter” decided to delay its launch, it seemed that few concurrent games could directly compete with the IOI mobile game.

For game distribution channels, although promotional resources could be negotiated through relationships, the most crucial factor was still tangible profit.

With the same promotional resources, a good game would earn more money, while a poor game’s earning potential would be greatly diminished.

Game channels also took a significant share of the revenue. For their own profit, they would allocate promotional resources to good games that could earn more money.

In Eric and Zhao Xuming’s view, the IOI mobile game was clearly the most profitable quality game in the near future.

As long as the IOI mobile game received sufficient exposure and promotional resources, how could it not soar to success with its quality?

Of course, it couldn’t compare to the GOG mobile game, since GOG had entered the mobile market much earlier and was the undisputed leader in China’s mobile game market.

But the IOI mobile game was a new release, and compared to other new games, it was still outstanding enough. In the short term, it was actually in differentiated competition with the GOG mobile game.

In short, the situation looked very promising.

After listening to the report on preliminary preparations, Eric nodded: “Good, everyone has worked hard and done well. Let’s proceed according to the original plan and launch precisely at 10 AM!”

Zhao Xuming added: “Thank you all for your hard work. Today we’ll need to work overtime a bit, closely monitoring the day’s data, our ranking on various charts, and paying attention to public opinion online to see how players are responding.”

“If there are any abnormal situations, report to me immediately. We absolutely cannot let our guard down!”

Compared to Eric, Zhao Xuming was clearly more familiar with the rules of China’s mobile game market.

Plus, he had a vague feeling of uneasiness.

Logically, Mr. Pei shouldn’t be this quiet.

After Finger Games and Long Yu Group held their joint press conference, Tenda Group launched the 515 Game Festival. The two sides had essentially declared war on each other—though neither mentioned the other directly, everyone, including the players, could see it.

Given Mr. Pei’s personality and previous business style, once a money-burning war began, he would absolutely never hold back.

But two days had passed since the 515 Game Festival started, and Mr. Pei seemingly hadn’t taken any actions targeting Long Yu Group, instead focusing on his own territory.

This made Zhao Xuming feel somewhat strange, so he instructed his subordinates to constantly monitor game data and player feedback, reporting any abnormalities immediately.

Otherwise, they might not realize what was happening until Mr. Pei’s knife was already at their throat.

Everyone nodded: “Understood, Director Zhao! You can rest assured!”

These were all department elites with rich work experience. Even without Zhao Xuming’s reminder, they would handle everything to the best of their abilities.

…

At 10 AM, the IOI mobile game launched on schedule!

Eric had a pile of other matters to handle, so he wasn’t monitoring the game’s data and online discussions throughout. These tasks were delegated to Zhao Xuming and others.

Eric was contemplating countermeasures for after the “515 Game Festival.”

In his view, after a week of spectacular spending during the “515 Game Festival,” Tenda Group would inevitably enter a period of weakness.

He had been following the movie box office situation but didn’t let it affect his plans.

Movie revenue could only begin processing after the final box office figures were confirmed. While extending the encryption key for “Mission and Choice” could indeed earn more money, it also meant that the film’s revenue would only be processed after it finished its theatrical run.

Distant water couldn’t quench present thirst.

The money-burning war was already underway. Funds that would only reach Tenda’s accounts two or three months later or even longer would have little impact on the current spending battle between both sides.

Eric actually thought this was a very poor decision by Mr. Pei.

“Mission and Choice” had strong momentum, and the benefits of extending the encryption key would certainly be much higher than ordinary blockbusters. It seemed unreasonable to pass up tens of millions or even over a hundred million in box office revenue.

But extending the encryption key also meant slower returns, making Tenda’s available funds even more stretched.

Which was more important—getting returns two or three months earlier, or earning tens of millions or over a hundred million more in box office revenue?

Eric felt that at this critical moment in the money-burning war, the former was clearly more important.

Mr. Pei surely understood this principle, yet still chose to extend the encryption key, obviously confident in Tenda, believing they could win this money-burning war even without these returns.

“Once a person becomes inflated with pride, failure isn’t far behind.”

Eric was determined to further increase spending after the “515 Game Festival,” leaving Mr. Pei in a dilemma!

As he was considering this, there came a somewhat urgent knock at the door, followed by Zhao Xuming entering.

“Not good! There’s a situation I need to report!” Zhao Xuming’s expression looked somewhat anxious.

“Hmm? What is it?” Eric asked.

Zhao Xuming looked a bit guilty as he handed over his phone: “I just checked the top-grossing charts for new games on several platforms and suddenly discovered that a game called ‘Fitness Battle’ seems to have strong momentum. It has already reached the top position on the new game revenue charts!”

“Our game has just launched, and although the data looks good, we’re only at the second position on the new game revenue charts.”

“That’s not the key issue. The key is that when I looked at the data for ‘Fitness Battle,’ I discovered it was developed by Shangyang Games…”

“Actually, I had seen this game before, but because I wasn’t interested in this type of game and hadn’t heard anything about it online, I didn’t look into it carefully…”

“Thinking about it now, ‘Eternal Hunter’ delaying its launch wasn’t just about avoiding us—it’s very possible they also heard news through certain channels and were similarly avoiding Mr. Pei’s new game…”

Zhao Xuming was a bit panicked.

“Fitness Battle” had launched yesterday, and he had seen it, but perhaps because he was busy with work, he hadn’t carefully checked which company developed the game.

When he saw it was Shangyang Games, Zhao Xuming was stunned.

Mr. Pei was revered as the “God of Gaming” with a widespread reputation. Now the IOI mobile game’s launch window had directly collided with Mr. Pei’s new game. If any problems arose and someone was held accountable, wouldn’t he inevitably take the blame?

Eric smiled slightly, not taking the phone from Zhao Xuming’s hand: “I thought it was something serious.”

“I’ve known about the ‘Fitness Battle’ situation for a long time. I deliberately didn’t let you change the launch date.”