Chapter 5 Friday, May 4th

In Shanghai, at the Longyu Corporation headquarters.

Inside the conference room, Eric was diligently reading a report, while Zhao Xuming sat patiently, occasionally stealing glances at Eric's expression.

After a long while, Eric put down the report and nodded, saying, "Well, this report is decent. While it's not perfect, it's still quite valuable."

Zhao Xuming breathed a sigh of relief and quickly said, "Of course! To complete this report, all my colleagues paid close attention, consulted a lot of data, and distributed a large number of questionnaires."

"If we can be of assistance, it's our honor."

Eric put the report aside, "Let's put the report aside for now. We can't relax yet; there's still a lot of work to be done."

"In terms of overseas leagues, we're at a disadvantage everywhere except in Europe and America; the development of the mobile version isn't going smoothly either. The previous version didn't have data synchronization, and I've already given feedback to headquarters. They said they'll modify it and try to achieve data synchronization, but the consequence of this is that the mobile game will be delayed for some time."

"The popularity of *Mission and Choice* has made GOG's new hero, 'Yun Que' popular again, which is also bad news for us..."

During this period, the conflict between GOG and IOI was mainly focused on four different areas.

The first area was overseas leagues.

So far, the overseas leagues for both games have basically been established, mainly concentrated in relatively economically developed regions.

After all, you must first have a player base before you can have players and viewers, and only then will the league have heat.

The holding of overseas leagues is also accompanied by the promotion of overseas servers.

Finger Games and Tenda Games adopted two different promotion plans: Finger Games took on everything, with all league promotion in various regions being handled uniformly by itself, opening branches in various regions for unified operation; while Tenda cooperated with large local companies, giving them complete freedom.

Facts have proved that Tenda Games' method is obviously better in the initial stages.

These large companies are familiar with the local situation, and it is profitable for them to cooperate with Tenda, so they naturally promote it very vigorously. Finger Games has a stronger influence in Europe and America, so the two sides are in a balanced tug-of-war, but in regions such as South America, Eastern Europe, East Asia, and Southeast Asia, GOG clearly has a comprehensive advantage.

The second area is the mobile version.

Finger Games has been developing the mobile version of IOI, and the efficiency is not bad. Originally, they had already released the first test version and were preparing to start testing it.

However, after Eric got the test version, he immediately called the higher-ups and asked them to cancel the test and continue development.

Because Eric found that this test version of the IOI mobile game did not achieve complete data synchronization!

Obviously, the person in charge of IOI's mobile game development at Finger Games didn't think so much about it. They just transplanted some of the heroes from IOI that were suitable for mobile games, changed the controls to use virtual joysticks and skill wheels, and symbolically transplanted a few skins.

In terms of monetization, they originally planned to charge for heroes and skins again.

At first glance, this seems reasonable. The porting of an PC game to a mobile game also requires development and a lot of manpower costs. If you buy a skin in the PC game and can use it in the mobile game, where will the money to develop the mobile game come from?

But Eric's transatlantic phone call made the higher-ups realize the seriousness of the problem.

This is not just a mobile game, it is part of the price war with GOG!

You need to know that GOG has complete data synchronization. If players find that the data between the IOI PC game and the mobile game is not synchronized, and they have to buy skins again on the mobile game, then there will be another uproar.

Finger Games had already been scolded by players once before for the price of heroes and skins, and they definitely couldn't make the same mistake again.

Eric couldn't help but sigh, fighting against Boss Pei is like this, you can't relax for a moment!

Because Boss Pei is always one step ahead, and if you slack off even a little, you will definitely fall into the trap he has dug.

But with this delay, the launch time of the IOI mobile game will have to be postponed again.

The third area is the ICL and GPL leagues.

There's nothing to say about this. The ICL league is still being completely crushed by the GPL league.

It is worth mentioning that the three main sources of high popularity in the ICL league are FV Club, Tutailive's unofficial streamer commentary, and the BP (Ban/Pick) meme competition, and all three sources of popularity are related to Tenda...

The fourth area is the current domestic market operation of IOI and GOG.

There's also nothing to say about this; IOI is still being completely crushed by GOG.

What's even more terrifying is that the market share of the two games was not at the same level to begin with, and recently, with the release of the *Mission and Choice* movie and game, GOG's market share is still rising, squeezing IOI's living space!

This is because GOG and *Mission and Choice* collaborated to launch the new hero, "Yun Que."

Originally, GOG was helping *Mission and Choice* deliver popularity, but after *Mission and Choice* became popular, it in turn helped GOG deliver popularity!

Therefore, Eric has not been easy recently, and various things have kept him busy.

In order to defeat Boss Pei, he must take the time to study Boss Pei's way of thinking and strive to know himself and his enemy.

Of course, as early as half a year ago, Eric had already studied Boss Pei's way of thinking and made the judgment that Boss Pei was a "gambler."

Now he asked Zhao Xuming to bring people from Longyu Corporation to produce this report, in order to further confirm his ideas.

Facts have proved that everyone's views are indeed consistent, which makes Eric even more confident.

How to use Boss Pei's "gambler" mentality is the key to breaking his undefeated myth!

After dismissing Zhao Xuming, Eric was alone in the conference room, sorting out all the information he had recently obtained from beginning to end.

"There is a very key factor in Boss Pei's every success."

"That is, Boss Pei always seems to be able to 'break the circle', which is very magical."

"Take *Mission and Choice* as an example. Almost everyone who knew about the investment in this game and movie believed that it was impossible to recover its costs."

"Because the market for games and movies is only so big, and the loyal user base is only so large, according to conventional data estimates, it is impossible to recover its costs."

"But judging from the game's sales and the movie's box office performance, it obviously cannot be measured by conventional data. That is to say, *Mission and Choice* has attracted many people who don't watch science fiction movies very often, or even don't watch movies very often, and has also made many people who don't often play RTS games willingly pay for it."

"And movies and games can also enter overseas markets, which will be an extra income."

"It is precisely by relying on these extra groups and extra income that *Mission and Choice* not only did not lose money, but was able to become popular and make a lot of money."

"This is Tenda Games' strength, and it may also become its fatal weakness."

"Because Boss Pei often does things with extremely high risks and equally high rewards, so once he 'breaks the circle', he can always create miracles. But if he fails, it will inevitably hurt the entire Tenda Games."

"This is also consistent with my previous speculation: The secret to Boss Pei's rapid promotion of GOG actually lies in burning money. Boss Pei is a gambler, and he and Tenda Games are in a state of dancing on the tip of a knife, and the company's ability to resist risks is not strong."

"So, if you want to win against Boss Pei, you must focus on this point."

"Now should be the time when the entire Tenda Games' capital chain is the most fragile, and it is also an excellent time to take action!"

When Eric and Boss Pei asked each other three questions, Eric once said a number: one hundred million dollars. He said that this was his estimate of the upper limit of the amount of money that Dayak Corporation could afford to burn.

Eric believes that this remark has mostly established an anchor point in Boss Pei's mind, playing a certain suggestive role.

In other words, Boss Pei will probably also reserve a similar amount of funds to deal with Finger Games' burning money war. Even if he leaves some surplus, it won't be much.

The burning money war has been going on, from the IOI national server to the domestic league, and then to the overseas league and the mobile version...

But Eric did not directly put all his chips on the table, but carefully burned money while observing.

Now, Eric believes that the time has come.

For Tenda Games, the recent *Mission and Choice* consumed a huge amount of funds, and although movies and games can make money, it will take a long time to get the funds back.

In addition, Tenda Games has recently started many new projects at the same time, and mobile phones also need a lot of stock, so the cash flow must be very tight.

Suddenly burning a lot of money at this time is obviously an excellent opportunity!

If Boss Pei doesn't follow, then such a large sum of money can achieve very good results, and the offensive and defensive situation between IOI and GOG will be reversed instantly; if Boss Pei does follow, then Tenda Games' already fragile capital chain will become even more precarious.

Eric couldn't help but show a smug smile. After lurking for so long, he finally caught an excellent opportunity to turn the tables!