In just a single day, discussions had spread like wildfire across the internet.
On one hand, this was because “Safe and Civilized Driving” was an incredibly popular game that had broken through to mainstream attention, so a new version naturally generated high levels of discussion. On the other hand, many car manufacturers were fanning the flames, deliberately stoking the controversy.
Many players initially didn’t think much of it—after all, it was just a game. Updating with a car model that didn’t match reality wasn’t a big deal. The developers could explain, apologize if necessary, or at worst, just remove the car’s self-driving feature. Not a major issue.
But as online discussions grew more numerous and intense, many players became restless.
The development team needed to come out and explain!
Was this car a paid custom job by the manufacturer? Or did the development team want to add a self-driving feature to the game and just happened to choose this Stefer model?
Whatever the case, they should at least clarify something rather than continuing to play dead.
After waiting anxiously, everyone discovered that Shangyang Games showed absolutely no response.
Then rumors spread online: The entire Tengda Group had already started their holiday!
Many netizens were shocked. Tomorrow was only New Year’s Eve! The Spring Festival holiday officially started tomorrow! How could they have started their vacation a day early?
Then someone came out to correct this, saying they had actually been on holiday since February 7th, and the new version had been scheduled to update automatically.
Upon hearing this, netizens were collectively speechless.
Well, well, their gossip feast had turned sour like a lemon!
Just thinking about how they were still slaving away at their companies, worrying whether tomorrow’s train home for New Year’s Eve would be unbearably crowded, while Tengda had started their vacation two days early—not only avoiding the Spring Festival travel rush but also gaining two extra days off—how could they not feel sour?
Since they were on holiday, there was no point expecting Tengda to come out with any clarification.
Because when Tengda took a holiday, they truly took a holiday. Except for a few departments that needed to maintain regular operations during holidays with rotating shifts, all other departments strictly followed the holiday policy. Even if employees wanted to work, they couldn’t!
Even if Tengda were to respond directly to this issue, it would be after the Spring Festival holiday ended, which meant February 16th at the earliest.
Many people seemed to understand why this controversy had grown so large.
Clearly, these manufacturers had chosen the perfect time to strike for maximum benefit!
On one hand, Tengda’s new version had indeed provided an opportunity and given competitors grounds for attack. On the other hand, many people knew Tengda’s character: long holidays, and once on holiday, they absolutely wouldn’t work even if the sky was falling!
So even if Tengda clarified this issue after the Spring Festival holiday, these manufacturers could spread rumors, exaggerate, incite, and attack without restraint during the holiday period.
During Spring Festival, most people stayed at home with not much to do, which meant online hot topics would ferment faster and gain more traction.
After the Spring Festival holiday, everyone would quickly become busy with other matters, significantly reducing the efficiency of online information spread.
Moreover, as the saying goes, “It takes a moment to spread a rumor, but a lifetime to refute it.” Negative information always spreads much faster than positive.
These car companies launching a storm of manipulative content against “Safe and Civilized Driving” during Spring Festival meant that even if Tengda issued a clarification statement immediately after the holiday, it would be of no use—the damage to “Safe and Civilized Driving” would already be done and difficult to reverse!
This was clearly an attitude of “hitting regardless of whether there’s a prize”—even if Tengda responded promptly with quick clarifications and the hot topic quickly dissipated, the car companies would lose nothing by quietly stirring the pot!
After this analysis, many die-hard Tengda fans became restless again.
“This won’t do! A Tengda department head just needs to post an announcement. Is it really necessary to be so strict about the no-overtime rule?”
“Exactly! Just pay some extra overtime. This is an emergency situation—they can’t be this slow to respond!”
“Sigh, could it be that as Tengda grows larger, their fighting spirit is weakening? If they end up dragged down by their own high welfare policies, that would be really stupid!”
Netizens watched as the topic’s popularity increased day by day, becoming increasingly anxious. They wished they could call Mr. Pei directly and urge him to have his staff make an announcement.
But their anxiety was useless—Tengda still showed no reaction, as if nothing had happened.
Netizens had no choice but to give up. Fine, let it be!
It wasn’t their place to be more anxious than the emperor himself.
…
Meanwhile, at Tianhou Studio.
Min Jingchao stretched lazily: “Alright, we’re completely finished and done!”
After nearly five months of intense development, “Bullet Hole 2” was finally completed on schedule. It had undergone highly confidential small-scale internal testing and was now a quite stable version.
When Tianhou Studio previously developed “Bullet Hole,” they invited many domestic FPS game players to test it, and they did the same this time. To prevent leaks, everyone who participated in internal testing signed non-disclosure agreements, all to prevent information leakage as much as possible.
The outside world didn’t even know the game was called “Bullet Hole 2.”
The reason Zhou Muyan was being so cautious was mainly due to the special nature of “Bullet Hole 2.”
Everyone knew that Tengda, Tianhou Studio, and Longyu Group were jointly developing a new game based on Mr. Pei’s idea, so it naturally received a lot of attention.
“Bullet Hole 2” was precisely the type of gameplay-oriented FPS game where its mode could be copied to a certain extent.
Patents didn’t protect game mechanics, so it was entirely within legal boundaries for other companies to copy this mode.
If they revealed this gameplay too early, other game companies might work overtime to rush development—what if they released before “Bullet Hole 2”?
Even if they released after “Bullet Hole 2,” it would still divert players.
So Zhou Muyan wanted to maintain secrecy as much as possible. This way, when “Bullet Hole 2” went online, they could quickly seize the market, establish a first-mover advantage, and build a strong enough moat.
After two or three months, when copycat games emerged, “Bullet Hole 2” would have already thoroughly captured those players, which would be very comfortable.
Of course, all of this was predicated on “Bullet Hole 2” successfully becoming popular. If the game didn’t take off, there wouldn’t be any copycats, and they wouldn’t make any money.
Now “Bullet Hole 2” had been handed over to Longyu Group, where a dedicated operations team would handle promotion and distribution during the Spring Festival. For Min Jingchao and the “Bullet Hole 2” development team, their task was complete, and they could enjoy the entire Spring Festival holiday.
Seeing Min Jingchao looking completely liberated, Sun Xi was clearly uncomfortable with the current situation.
“Jingchao… are we really taking a complete break? Not worrying about anything?”
Min Jingchao nodded: “Yes, what else do you want to worry about?”
Sun Xi asked: “What if the game has some issues? What if there’s a serious bug? What if players are unsatisfied with some gameplay mechanics?”
Min Jingchao asked puzzledly: “Haven’t we already fixed countless bugs and tested many times with both people and AI programs? There shouldn’t be any major critical bugs. As for players being unsatisfied with the gameplay, we can gradually adjust that after the Spring Festival. There’s no need to rush.”
“You should trust that as long as the game quality is solid, small bugs aren’t a big problem.”
“Even if there are major issues, could they be resolved in these few days during the Spring Festival holiday? It’s better to rest properly.”
“Remember how many people worried that without overtime we couldn’t complete the project on schedule? But now what? Didn’t we still finish the development smoothly?”
Sun Xi opened his mouth wanting to say something but found himself unable to refute.
Damn, it actually sounded very reasonable!
But this completely contradicted Sun Xi’s habitual thinking formed over many years.
Logically, for at least the first week or two after a game launches, the development team should be on standby at all times, ready to fix any bugs or issues immediately.
And during game development, working 996 to meet deadlines had become an unspoken rule in the industry. It wasn’t just companies—employees generally complied voluntarily.
But under Min Jingchao’s strict requirements, the project team didn’t work a single day of overtime and still developed the game successfully!
Of course, they did encounter some setbacks at the beginning. Everyone felt the development progress was clearly lagging, and the project team thought overtime was inevitable. However, Min Jingchao withstood the pressure, insisting on either hiring more people or extending the deadline—overtime was absolutely not an option.
These people had no choice. With the deadline approaching, they had to race to catch up.
As a result, they gradually caught up with the schedule!
Although it was still a bit slower compared to Min Jingchao’s initial plan, game development always encounters various unexpected problems, and delays were very normal. Besides, Min Jingchao had built in some buffer time when making plans.
So, completing development before the Spring Festival already demonstrated the team’s high efficiency, and many team members were surprised by this efficiency.
Now that Min Jingchao had said there was no need to worry during the Spring Festival and all promotional work had been handed over to Longyu Group… so be it.
Although everyone was concerned about how “Bullet Hole 2” would perform after launch, as it affected their bonuses, who wouldn’t want to spend a peaceful New Year at home?
Sun Xi nodded, wrapped up his work, and prepared to head home.
Suddenly, he thought of something.
“By the way, I’ve seen a lot of controversy about ‘Safe and Civilized Driving’ online recently. Some people say Tengda is already on holiday and doesn’t plan to clarify? Is that true?”
Sun Xi was very curious.
If they could relax during the holiday because “Bullet Hole 2” hadn’t encountered any problems yet, what about “Safe and Civilized Driving,” which was already facing issues?
Min Jingchao wasn’t concerned at all: “Oh? Don’t worry about that.”
Sun Xi asked puzzledly: “Why not worry? Even if Mr. Pei is clear-headed and doesn’t make mistakes, he can’t possibly monitor every department at all times to prevent errors, can he?”
Min Jingchao smiled: “Tengda might make mistakes, but not on issues like this. Many people say this is taking dirty money from Stefer to advertise. I can definitely say that’s impossible. Because from top to bottom at Tengda, from Mr. Pei to department heads to all employees, no one would do such a thing.”
“Because apart from Mr. Pei, no one else would benefit from this, and Mr. Pei has the final say.”
“In my view, this is likely just a very ordinary routine strategy. Tengda people are used to it and don’t need to worry about it.”