Meng Chang opened his laptop and typed rapidly on the keyboard, his thoughts flowing like a spring.

With his high efficiency, he quickly drafted the general plan.

But after carefully reviewing this plan, Meng Chang felt there were two loopholes that needed to be addressed.

This plan required cooperation from both the ESRO official platform and Tenda Games to package these classic Chinese games into a collection, then secretly slip “Mission and Choice” into it.

Additionally, Meng Chang also needed to get the “Mission and Choice” demo from Tenda Games, at least to play it a bit and understand it better.

As the saying goes, knowing both yourself and your enemy ensures victory in every battle. One of the important reasons for Meng Chang’s previous failures was that he hadn’t thoroughly understood the products he was promoting, instead considering them from an ordinary person’s habitual thinking.

As a result, a slight error at the beginning led to a huge mistake in the end.

Experience had proven that Mr. Pei’s thinking completely went against ordinary people’s logic. These projects contained many hidden pitfalls that one could easily step into if not careful.

So, although Meng Chang hadn’t played many games himself and could hardly judge the merits of gameplay, he at least needed to patiently play this game to ensure his plan was foolproof.

As for how to get the ESRO official platform and Tenda Games department to cooperate with his plan, that was easy.

His official position was now the head of the Advertising and Marketing Department, and promoting “Mission and Choice” was a task personally assigned by Mr. Pei.

As long as Meng Chang spoke up, the Tenda Games department would definitely cooperate fully.

Now, Meng Chang felt that his plan was just a little bit of persuasion away from success.

And persuasion had always been his forte.

So, he finalized this rough promotional plan, then got up and left, preparing to coordinate with Hu Xianbin, the person in charge at the Tenda Games department.

…

The Advertising and Marketing Department was also located in Shenhua Luxury View, just a few floors away from the Tenda Games department, so he arrived quickly.

Meng Chang went straight to Hu Xianbin and explained his purpose.

Hu Xianbin took it very seriously: “Promoting ‘Mission and Choice’? Of course, no problem! Since it’s Mr. Pei’s intention, Brother Meng, feel free to make any requests, and we’ll fully cooperate on our end.”

Meng Chang couldn’t help but smile slightly. The plan seemed to be going smoothly, completely according to his expectations.

“First, please provide a demo of the game. Although I’ve already thought of a promotional plan, I still need to play the actual game to finalize some details.”

“Second, we need to discuss with the ESRO official platform about holding a ‘Revisiting Classic Chinese Games’ event. The official platform would take the lead in packaging those classic Chinese games from over a decade ago into a collection and selling them at a discount on the official platform.”

“Of course, we don’t care about the money from selling other games, but since we’ve acquired the copyright for ‘Mission and Choice’, we’ll still sell this game at the original price, which is 158 yuan.”

“After our version of ‘Mission and Choice’ is fully developed, we’ll replace the previous game.”

Meng Chang had done his research. “Mission and Choice” was released after “Command and Conquer.” At that time, the official price for “Command and Conquer” in China was 160 yuan, while the official price for “Mission and Choice” was 158 yuan.

Of course, this was the original price. “Mission and Choice” had the intention of making a quick buck, so during its promotion and sales, it had various discount activities, with the lowest price being around 80 yuan.

But whether it was 80 yuan or 158 yuan, it was still a huge sum of money in the 90s.

As for why they set such a high price at that time, it had to be understood in the context of that era.

At that time, the domestic gaming industry was in violent turmoil. Online games were rapidly rising, piracy was becoming rampant, and legitimate domestic single-player games were forced into a price war with pirated copies, but no matter how much they lowered their prices, it was still of no use.

Although the development team of “Mission and Choice” made a terrible game, they understood marketing and the market very well.

They knew that the price of this game absolutely could not be set too low.

Because the development team was well aware of the quality of this game, they knew the reputation would definitely collapse after release. Since they were thinking of making a quick buck and running, the price definitely had to be set higher to earn more.

Moreover, since this game was selling nostalgia, a higher price could also suggest to players that it was a premium game and a major production on the same level as “Command and Conquer.” If the price was set too low, players would be suspicious.

So, if the legitimate version of “Command and Conquer” sold for 160 yuan in China, “Mission and Choice” set its original price at 158 yuan, symbolically reducing it by 2 yuan.

The result afterward is known to everyone: the game sold more than 40,000 copies in total, over 30,000 of which demanded refunds, while the remaining nearly 10,000 copies were angrily discarded by players.

So Meng Chang also planned to sell “Mission and Choice” at its original price of 158 yuan, which would be consistent with its historical selling price.

Of course, the specific pricing would still depend on Mr. Pei and Tenda Games department’s intentions; Meng Chang couldn’t decide this himself.

Hu Xianbin nodded: “That’s a good idea!”

“158 yuan is a relatively moderate price. Because the initial investment in ‘Mission and Choice’ is huge, selling it too cheaply might not recoup the costs. But selling it for around 200 yuan would be a bit too expensive. 158 is a relatively appropriate price.”

“But… what’s the point of bundling it with classic Chinese games from over a decade ago? And why replace the original old game after our game comes out?”

“It seems a bit unnecessary, doesn’t it? And wouldn’t this cause misunderstandings among players?”

Meng Chang smiled slightly, completely unruffled. Now was the time for his silver tongue to work its magic.

“The promotional technique I’m using is called ‘suppression before promotion’!”

“First, we organize this ‘Revisiting Classic Chinese Games’ event, promote it extensively, and let players reminisce about that era from many years ago, generating a certain amount of discussion.”

“After forming a certain level of discussion, we’ll coordinate with the official platform for promotion, raising the popularity of these classic games.”

“At this point, many players will definitely curse ‘Mission and Choice’, this ‘national gaming disgrace’, recalling how this game deceived players at that time. Meanwhile, people will also express regret for other excellent domestic games.”

“Finally, we’ll secretly replace it with the new ‘Mission and Choice’. Players won’t notice at first, but when they do, they’ll definitely feel especially delighted. The former ‘national gaming disgrace’ has been redeemed, a garbage game has been remade into a true ‘pride of Chinese gaming’…”

“This will definitely trigger a wave of enthusiasm!”

“Compared to directly announcing that we’ve remade ‘Mission and Choice’, this approach will definitely make players feel more surprised and delighted!”

“Of course, the only issue is that the entire promotional process might drag on a bit longer, but I don’t think this is a serious problem. Good food is worth the wait, after all.”

Meng Chang’s words were half-true and half-false. The false part was that he wanted to drag out the entire promotional process until after the game’s release, so he could at least get two months’ worth of commission.

As for what would happen after the game’s release, that was beyond his concern. At worst, he would just give up the commission for that month.

Meng Chang’s speech completely convinced Hu Xianbin.

“Sounds like an excellent promotional plan!”

“I’ll contact the official platform right away, explain this promotional plan to them, and get them to cooperate!”

The relationship between Tenda Games and the ESRO official platform was undoubtedly that of a favored child.

This version of “Mission and Choice” was a super-production, and the official platform also attached great importance to it. If Tenda made promotional requests, as long as they weren’t too excessive, the official platform would likely accommodate them.

Meng Chang was very pleased. As long as he had convinced Hu Xianbin, his plan should be half successful.

“Oh right, the game demo…”

Meng Chang hadn’t forgotten about this matter.

Hu Xianbin said, “Alright, alright, I’ll find a portable hard drive to copy it for you. However, this game is still in the development stage, so try not to spread it around, and don’t use its content for promotional materials.”

“If you have any requirements regarding promotional materials, just tell me directly, and I’ll help prepare them.”

Meng Chang nodded: “Of course, I just want to experience the gameplay a bit.”

After getting the game demo, Meng Chang immediately hurried back to the Advertising and Marketing Department, then installed it on his computer.

For the next few days, he prepared to thoroughly engage with this game.

Actually, this promotional plan didn’t have much to do with the game’s content, but Meng Chang’s previous failures had been too painful, so he was still taking a cautious approach.