Chapter 61 A Glimmer of Hope

That night, late.

Zhao Xuming was at home, wearing loose pajamas, getting ready for bed.

After getting off work that afternoon, Zhao Xuming and Eric had secretly visited the outsourced gym and were much relieved to see that the smart fitness drying rack was still largely ignored.

Although the smart fitness drying rack itself wasn't directly related to the upcoming money-burning war between the two companies, intelligence suggested that the large inventory of these fitness equipment would put a heavy strain on Tengda Group's cash flow.

This also meant that Tengda would have to be more cautious when it came to burning money.

Zhao Xuming and Eric both guessed that Tengda Group's 515 Games Festival was likely to be all bark and no bite, focusing on hype rather than significantly outdoing Finger Corporation's series of events in terms of discounts.

Although games are different from other industries, as skins have no further cost after they are created, excessive fire sales would dampen players' enthusiasm for spending. If they spend crazily during this period, they would spend less in the future, which would ultimately reduce revenue in the long run.

Therefore, game companies generally never offer discounts when new games are first launched. They usually wait a few months until the hype has subsided before offering discounts to attract players who haven't tried the game yet.

And given Tengda Group's tight cash flow situation, the discount strategy for this 515 Games Festival couldn't be too aggressive, otherwise the risk would be too great.

Of course, President Pei's style was always erratic. Countless competitors who had tried to predict President Pei's actions had failed, and the consequences of their failures were extremely severe.

Therefore, Zhao Xuming didn't dare to be careless. He would have to wait until the specific discount strategy for the 515 Games Festival was announced before he could relax.

As for Eric, he was probably paying attention to it as well.

Zhao Xuming looked at the time. It was past midnight.

There was no need to deliberately search for the specific rules of the 515 Games Festival, because the official websites of all Tengda games, as well as the websites of most of its subsidiaries, had posted announcements about the new festival, as long as they were even slightly related to it!

The activity promotion page of the 515 Games Festival was also displayed in the most prominent position on the GOG game client, and the detailed rules could be found by clicking on it.

Zhao Xuming immediately clicked to view it.

Just five minutes later, his face turned ugly, and his previously calm expression became shocked.

But within the shock, there was also a hint of confusion, and even surprise.

The reason for his shock was that the detailed rules completely exceeded his expectations!

Zhao Xuming and Eric had originally speculated that Tengda Group, constrained by the pressure on its cash flow, could only do something similar to IOI's promotional activities for this 515 Games Festival.

In other words, in-game purchases would still be sold, just at a discount.

They could offer direct discounts or do events to offer discounts indirectly. In any case, they would have to collect at least some money to recover some funds.

But the 515 Games Festival wasn't about discounts at all! It was practically giving things away for free!

The scariest thing was that there wasn't a single rule directly related to discounts!

The only rule that was even remotely related to discounts was the "random free purchase of Tengda games," but this was only a very marginal rule in all the event rules.

All the other rules could basically be summarized as: players would randomly receive items as long as they logged in to play the game, which could be in-game items or even direct cash!

Zhao Xuming couldn't quite believe it, so he read through the rules again, word by word, from beginning to end.

He thought of some possible problems, such as what to do if unscrupulous people registered bot accounts to exploit the system.

But then he thought about it and realized that these should be minor problems that could be easily solved by Tengda, which had a wealth of experience.

President Pei had always been very professional in combating scalpers and those who tried to exploit the system.

A long time ago, President Pei had already had the foresight to integrate all of Tengda Group's accounts. Whether it was games, novels, live broadcasts, the Tengda Life App, or even the TPDB website, everything was logged in with a Tengda account.

And within the TPDB website, each Tengda account had a completely different weight.

In simple terms, accounts that were registered earlier, had more spending, and had been used for a longer time had a higher weight, while accounts that were newly registered, had not been used much, and had suspicious behavior had a very low weight.

Even if someone tried to raise accounts with ulterior motives, their behavior patterns and the characteristics of the accounts they raised would be very obvious because they were operated in batches by robots, making them very easy to identify.

In this way, although the promotion ostensibly claimed to be "random free purchases" and "random cash giveaways," the accounts with higher weights would actually receive better rewards, while those with lower weights might only receive a symbolic amount of one mao, or even nothing at all.

For Tengda, which held the final say in the interpretation of the event, these were all normal operations, and players wouldn't be annoyed, because they all had high-weight accounts with real money in them, and cracking down on those who tried to exploit the system would also be beneficial to them.

There were only so many benefits to go around. If they were taken away by those who tried to exploit the system, the real players would get fewer benefits, right? Everyone definitely understood this principle.

So, there was nothing wrong with this rule.

The problem was that the event was simply too generous!

Even though there were many ways to prevent robots and those who tried to exploit the system, Tengda had such a huge user base that everyone would log in to receive benefits, and the cost would still be astronomical.

Moreover, completely different from what Zhao Xuming and Eric had predicted, the 515 Games Festival was not about "discounts," but about "giving things away for free"!

This also meant that the cost paid by Tengda Group would be significantly higher than that of Finger Corporation and Long Yu Group!

Zhao Xuming had originally thought that if Tengda Group used a "discount" method for the event, there would be a lot of room for maneuverability in the money-burning war between the two sides.

For example, I could offer a 40% discount and you could offer a 50% discount, but the value of the items in the two games would be different, and it would be difficult for players to tell which one was offering a bigger discount.

Moreover, this discount could also be adjusted depending on the situation, and increasing the discount amount a little would be completely within a controllable range.

But Tengda had gone directly to the end, making it a free giveaway!

In this way, although the value of the items in the two games was different, one was a "discount" and the other was a "free giveaway," and players could still see at a glance which one was more cost-effective.

Obviously, Tengda's direct free giveaway was more generous!

The price war hadn't even officially started, and the players' attention had all been drawn to Tengda's 515 Games Festival. Even the old players of IOI were envious and looked down on IOI's event. How could they compete?

They had been completely crushed by the other side in terms of the overall situation right from the start!

But amidst the confusion, Zhao Xuming felt that there was still a glimmer of hope in this matter, and even an opportunity.

President Pei's approach was indeed generous, but it would make Tengda's financial problems even more serious.

Originally, offering discounts could still recover some funds, but President Pei insisted on making it a free giveaway in order to overwhelm Finger Corporation and Long Yu Group.

The result of trying to look better than you are is often swallowing your teeth when they fall out.

But was President Pei just bluffing, or was he planning everything out and full of confidence?

No one could possibly guess.

As Zhao Xuming was thinking, the phone on the table rang.

Sure enough, it was Eric calling.

"President Zhao, you've seen the specific rules of the 515 Games Festival event, right?" Eric's voice was deep, and it was clear that this matter had also completely exceeded his expectations.

Zhao Xuming nodded. "I've seen it. What should we do?"

Although Eric's voice was a little serious, it was still relatively calm. "Don't worry, let's observe first."

"The one who can laugh last in the money-burning war depends on who can burn longer. The 515 Games Festival has indeed completely suppressed us in terms of the initial benefits, but how long can this benefit last? Even if it can last for a week and the entire Games Festival can be sustained, what about after that? Will Tengda still have the strength to deal with our new round of offensives?"

"This is a long-term war, and the one who laughs last laughs best!"

Zhao Xuming quickly said, "Understood!"

"President Pei's move can be said to be a desperate gamble, and although it can greatly boost morale in the short term, it lacks staying power."

"In other words, President Pei's approach doesn't leave himself much room for maneuver or retreat. The longer we persevere, the more beneficial it will be for us!"

"I will definitely keep an eye on Tengda's movements at all times and not let go of any clues!"

After hanging up the phone, Zhao Xuming felt much more at ease.

He had been a little intimidated by the benefits of the 515 Games Festival before. It was like being at a gambling table, where he had just tentatively added a few chips, and President Pei had immediately gone all-in, which had put Zhao Xuming under tremendous psychological pressure and made him deeply doubt the strategy he had prepared.

But now that he had calmed down a little, it seemed that there could be another way to interpret this matter.

Tengda Group's money couldn't have been generated out of thin air, right? It would always run out. The inventory of smart fitness drying racks was piling up like a mountain, and the movies and games of *Mission and Choice* were still within the payback period, plus Tengda's other developing industries… No matter how you looked at it, Tengda shouldn't have much money left.

So, was President Pei bluffing?

Was he trying to scare off Finger Corporation and Long Yu Group by appearing to have sufficient funds and not being afraid of a price war?

President Pei was cunning and deceitful, real and fake, and loved to play tricks.

As long as Finger Corporation and Long Yu Group's money-spreading activities could continue, they would see if Tengda could still come up with money to spread after the week-long 515 Games Festival!

The more Zhao Xuming thought about it, the more he felt that the situation was not as pessimistic as he had initially thought, but rather optimistic!

He felt reassured and went to sleep peacefully.