“The biggest highlight of ‘BE QUIET’ is that it’s a multiplayer horror game where people play together. Currently, there’s no similar game type on the market, so I think our initial promotion should emphasize this point as much as possible.”

“We’ll mainly use traditional promotion methods, such as buying video and web advertisements, having video creators help promote, and so on.”

“I’ve already talked with Qiao Laoshi, and he’ll play our game first thing and release a video to help promote it.”

“At the same time, we’ll edit a cool promotional video to build some hype in advance…”

Lin Wan explained her previously planned promotional strategy in detail.

After finishing, she looked at Pei Qian somewhat nervously.

Although these promotional strategies had taken her several days to finalize and were very safe and certainly effective approaches, she still felt uneasy presenting them to Mr. Pei.

After all, Mr. Pei’s skills in game promotion had reached the level of mastery, and such small-scale promotional methods might not even catch his eye.

After listening to Lin Wan’s promotion plan, Pei Qian silently sighed.

Especially when hearing the words “Qiao Laoshi,” his body involuntarily trembled, experiencing something similar to a PTSD stress response.

His employees seemed to be growing rapidly, and Mr. Pei was losing control over them…

Lin Wan had started as a newcomer, quietly assisting in the project team, but after some experience, she was increasingly taking on the role of a department leader.

Just looking at this promotional plan, it could be described in one word: solid!

Pei Qian was certain that if they truly promoted according to Lin Wan’s plan, many people would blindly purchase “BE QUIET” right from the start, and initial sales would not be low.

So they definitely couldn’t do this!

But what specifically should they do…

Pei Qian felt somewhat disheartened.

He knew clearly that Tenda now had too many successful games in hand, with a large number of fans nationwide, and they were also prioritized on the official platform.

Games like “Game Producer,” “Looking Back is the Shore,” and “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” were all making waves on the official platform. If “BE QUIET” went on the official platform, with just a little promotion, many people would buy it.

The good old days when you didn’t need to worry about becoming famous without promotion were gone.

Therefore, current promotion efforts couldn’t just be wasting money; they had to create a counter-effect!

This sounded difficult, but after careful consideration, Pei Qian had prepared for it.

The ultimate goal was to discourage players before they made a payment!

Previously, Pei Qian had mainly tried to discourage players through extending refund times and increasing game difficulty during gameplay.

But facts proved that this approach wasn’t very effective.

There was no help for it; modern players just had too strong a contrarian mentality. After buying a game, the more you encouraged them to get a refund, the more they refused.

Now, Pei Qian had a better idea—discourage players before they purchase the game!

You want to buy the game?

Sorry, I won’t even sell it to you!

Who said all games must be available for purchase by anyone?

Conventional practices weren’t necessarily reasonable!

The game “BE QUIET” would be designed so that only those who proved themselves worthy could purchase it.

Ordinary people didn’t deserve to play this game!

If anyone had objections, they’d get a six-word mantra in response.

Pei Qian decided to create many hurdles at the initial promotion level. Only after players passed numerous tests would they qualify to purchase the game!

This way, even if ordinary players had money, they couldn’t buy it without first earning the qualification.

And earning a qualification wouldn’t be simple; they’d have to pass test after test.

People are naturally lazy. If players discovered they had to go through eighty-one difficulties just to buy a game, most would probably give up.

Moreover, if the puzzles were complex enough that people needed a month to solve them, there would be no income in this accounting cycle.

In the worst case, delaying income to the next cycle was still better than making money in this cycle!

This was Tenda’s new promotional strategy: discouragement-style promotion!

Of course, he couldn’t tell Lin Wan this. He needed to present it more persuasively.

Pei Qian lightly tapped the desk and said in a deep voice, “Your promotion plan isn’t bad, but it’s too conservative.”

Lin Wan’s eyes lit up.

Sure enough, Mr. Pei had a better plan!

She quickly listened attentively.

Pei Qian continued, “I’ll personally handle this promotional campaign; none of you should interfere. We’ll still buy the same ads, but I’ll decide specifically what those ads will be.”

“We’ll play a simple ARG game with all ‘BE QUIET’ players.”

Lin Wan was stunned for a moment. “Huh?”

She had been ready to note down Mr. Pei’s suggestions and implement them diligently.

But now, Mr. Pei intended to take charge personally and didn’t seem to plan on telling her anything.

Looking on the bright side, though, this meant Mr. Pei’s promotion this time would surely be a major undertaking!

Lin Wan was pleased. “Alright, Mr. Pei, I’ll look forward to it!”

…

After sending Lin Wan away, Pei Qian saw there was still some time before getting off work and immediately started arranging the discouragement-style promotion for “BE QUIET.”

Pei Qian hadn’t disclosed any information to Lin Wan because this campaign was a puzzle-solving activity and needed to be kept as confidential as possible.

Pei Qian found the programmer responsible for Tenda’s spiritual compatibility test on the TPDb website and assigned him all the programming work.

The Tenda spiritual compatibility test hadn’t had any leaked questions so far, which proved this programmer was very reliable, so Pei Qian entrusted this task to him as well.

The workload wasn’t large, just modifying some small details on the website and in the game.

“Hmm… it seems this invitation letter still needs a signature from the inviter.”

“It’s probably too late to arrange for someone to draw a new logo now.”

“Let’s use an existing one.”

Pei Qian searched through his computer and found the previously created Palpitation Hotel logo.

…

…

March 3rd, Thursday, “BE QUIET” was officially released!

Qiao Liang had been waiting at his computer since early morning. He had even prepared snacks and drinks, just waiting for the game’s release to start grinding, then release a video as soon as possible!

This time, he hadn’t received an invitation from Mr. Pei like he had for “Looking Back is the Shore.”

But that was okay; an invitation from Director Lin was just as good!

Before the game had even started, Lin Wan had already found Qiao Laoshi and asked him to help make a promotional video after the new game launched.

As Mr. Pei’s confidant, Qiao Liang naturally couldn’t refuse!

Although “BE QUIET” was produced by Shangyang Games, the TPDb website clearly stated that Shangyang Games was now a subsidiary of Tenda Games.

Considering that the mobile version of “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” was also a conscientious mobile game that had been recommended by the official platform, Qiao Liang had reason to believe that games released by Shangyang Games should also be completed under Mr. Pei’s supervision, with quality and creativity that wouldn’t disappoint.

In summary, it was worth playing!

Players who shared the same thoughts as Qiao Laoshi were not few, as evidenced by the situation in his fan group.

Everyone was discussing this game, waiting to purchase it first thing.

At 2 PM, the game was officially available for purchase!

Qiao Liang clicked with the speed of someone who had been single for over twenty years!

However, the expected payment interface didn’t appear.

Qiao Liang was stunned.

“What’s going on? The game just launched and already has a bug?”

“That can’t be right. How could Tenda make such a basic mistake?”

Qiao Liang was very confused. He found that after he clicked, the purchase button simply turned gray.

On the game’s details page, which originally showed a somewhat eerie game artwork, a line of small text appeared below the button after clicking.

“The invitation letter is lost in the journey of the past.”

Behind it was a bloody handprint and a red logo.

The upper part of the red logo was an obtuse triangle point, and below were two English words: PalpitationHotel, which seemed to be a hotel logo.

Except that the lower half of these words had a dripping blood effect, making it look somewhat creepy.

Qiao Liang was confused.

What was this all about?

He carefully observed this original artwork and felt it should be a scene from “BE QUIET,” seemingly a rural hotel.

Under the pitch-black night, the dilapidated hotel was completely hidden in darkness, like a monster with a bloody gaping mouth, eagerly waiting for prey to fall into its trap.

After scrutiny for a long time, he found that there didn’t seem to be much useful information in this artwork.

That line of text, “The invitation letter is lost in the journey of the past,” looked more like a real clue.

Of course, he didn’t rule out the possibility of downloading the image and opening it with a text editor or other format to find hidden special information.

Qiao Liang glanced at his fan group and saw that his situation wasn’t unique; others had also encountered this problem.

A game that had been released, yet couldn’t be purchased!

After a brief moment of confusion, Qiao Liang became excited.

This game required solving a puzzle before purchase!

“Mr. Pei, Mr. Pei, why can you always come up with so many new ideas? It’s really surprising!”

Although he was disappointed that he couldn’t play the new game he’d been eagerly awaiting, Qiao Liang wasn’t angry; he found it interesting.

And the group was already discussing what was going on.

“What does this mean? Is there something hidden in this image?”

“Not sure, nothing happens when I click it!”

“I saw this image in web ads too, it must be a puzzle!”

“The image on the webpage can be downloaded. I’ve tried many formats but couldn’t find any useful clues.”

“I think you’re all overthinking it. The clue should just be this sentence.”

“Does ‘invitation letter’ refer to the qualification to purchase the game? And what is ‘the journey of the past’?”

“Is it referring to some real place? Is anyone in the group from Jingzhou? Go out and look!”

“‘Journey of the Past’ is an independent game on the official platform. Could it be a collaboration?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. When have you ever seen Tenda games collaborating with other games? This must be a coincidence!”

Qiao Liang’s fan group was already large, and now messages were scrolling by so rapidly that it was impossible to keep up.

Not only that, but when Qiao Liang checked several other player groups, many people seemed to be discussing this issue as well.

Just browsing through these discussions, Qiao Liang felt they clearly didn’t understand Mr. Pei at all.

To solve this puzzle, one had to be a confidant of Mr. Pei like himself!

Qiao Liang felt this puzzle wasn’t that complicated. For a game developer, “journey of the past” should refer to games you’ve previously developed.

Qiao Liang thought for a moment and first opened “Looking Back is the Shore” to search for clues.

After finishing with that one, he would check “Sea Fortress” next.

In his view, if Mr. Pei wanted to create a game crossover, he would choose his games, and “Looking Back is the Shore” and “Sea Fortress” were currently two relatively successful games.

Collaborating with these two games would further enhance Tenda Games’ brand value while also boosting the sales of these two games. What was not to like?