Chapter 292 Unbelievable

September 24th, Monday.

Long Yu Group headquarters.

Eric sipped his coffee while browsing online discussions about "Eternal Reincarnation."

Although it was just a DLC, the buzz it generated online was so high that Eric could no longer ignore it, and had learned a little about it.

Apart from the new GOG collaboration hero, "The Tormentor," this matter wasn't related to IOI, but Eric still instinctively felt a sense of unease and dread.

Because the more these things happened, the more they revealed the strength of President Pei!

The Finger Corporation and the Long Yu Group, so many people, were racking their brains to come up with strategies to defeat GOG for IOI, yet President Pei didn't need to spend too much effort to resolve all their offensives one by one. He even had the spare energy to launch a counterattack while doing other things – like designing a critically acclaimed DLC.

The more effortlessly President Pei handled things, the more Eric felt that his strength was unfathomable, so powerful that it was impossible to defeat him.

Of course, from another perspective, perhaps it was precisely President Pei's achievements in other games that gave GOG a powerful boost.

Initially, in the international market, GOG was in a state of complete suppression by IOI because its heroes were too heavily influenced by Chinese culture.

But soon, President Pei reversed the trend by acquiring Hurricane Comics and launching a series of new characters that appealed to foreign players.

At this stage, both GOG and IOI had huge user bases, and simply buying a few IPs was unlikely to have a decisive impact.

In this situation, original IPs were crucial!

Tengda Group leveraged the success of its other games to constantly collaborate GOG with other games, launching new heroes.

Whether it was the new hero "Yun Que," launched in collaboration with "Mission and Choice," or the new hero "The Tormentor," launched in collaboration with "Eternal Reincarnation," it was all the same.

They were not only using GOG's popularity to drive traffic to new games, but also using the popularity of new games to drive traffic to GOG, or rather, to consolidate GOG's player base.

This was difficult for IOI to do.

Although there were many game companies in the world that made AAA games, they all held their own ace IPs carefully in their hands and would never sell them.

Even if Finger Corporation wanted to buy them, they could only buy some very marginal copyrights. How could they be like GOG, where Tengda launched a new game and collaborated with a new hero?

Moreover, thanks to President Pei's meticulous design of different gameplays, these new heroes all had very unique mechanics.

For example, the skills of the new hero "The Tormentor" were compatible with the novel combat mechanism of "Eternal Reincarnation," which enriched the gameplay while creating a great deal of discussion.

What's more, President Pei's plan was not just a new hero and a new game, but also the related publicity plan and the linkage of various industries were all part of the plan.

This kind of fit cannot be achieved by simply buying IPs.

This is the influence of a commercial genius and a genius designer on the battle situation...

Although all these current situations were not enough to cause any extremely well-known blows to IOI, Eric could already vaguely feel that the situation was deteriorating little by little and uncontrollably.

Eric was deeply worried, but he was powerless.

Just then, there was a knock on the door, and it was Zhao Xuming.

Eric took a document from his desk and handed it over: "Regarding the cooperation proposal that President Pei made earlier, the headquarters has already given a reply, and these are the conditions they have proposed."

Zhao Xuming reached out to take it and read it carefully.

Then, a rather surprised expression appeared on his face.

"This... such harsh conditions!"

Although Zhao Xuming was on the side of IOI, he still felt that the conditions given by the senior management of the Dayak Group were simply too harsh.

It could be described as an unequal treaty!

In this document, the senior management of the Dayak Group made very detailed regulations on the cooperation plan.

Scope of cooperation: All servers worldwide.

Cooperation method: GOG and IOI will add a section in their respective game clients. After players log in, they can register for an account for the other game through this section and bind the two accounts.

The GOG side needs to comply with the following terms:

Expose and promote the event in a prominent position on the client and official website homepage, and include the eye-catching IOI logo;

For players who register and enter IOI, GOG needs to provide generous rewards in the game, including but not limited to rare skins, avatar frames, limited expressions, etc.;

These rewards are not distributed once, but must last for a long enough time, at least two weeks. In addition, individual rewards must be claimed by making a small amount of consumption in IOI.

The terms that IOI needs to follow are written quite vaguely.

It did not say that GOG would be promoted on the client and official website homepage, nor did it say what rewards would be given to players from IOI to GOG.

Obviously, the rewards would not be very good, or even dispensable.

To put it simply, this clause is: We will arrange for our players to play in each other's games, but GOG must use great rewards to lure players to IOI, and there is a time limit. They cannot just register and run away. They must really play for a while; On the IOI side, it's casual. If no players go to play GOG, then you can't blame me.

Zhao Xuming shook his head frequently after reading the document.

"President Pei is not stupid, how could he accept such conditions."

"Even a three-year-old can see that there is no sincerity in cooperation at all."

Eric nodded: "There was no sincerity in the first place, what did you think?"

"The headquarters is also very wary of Tengda. President Pei took the initiative to propose this kind of cooperation. To use your proverb, it's like a 'weasel greeting a chicken', it's definitely not a good thing."

"But if we refuse directly, it will make us seem too timid, and we won't even dare to propose conditions."

"So, we simply propose a condition that the other party will never agree to, to dissuade him."

Zhao Xuming nodded: "Yeah, that's right."

"And if President Pei really agrees, we shouldn't lose out."

This is like someone who has a very cherished heirloom, and someone comes to ask how much it costs. It seems a bit silly to say that it is not for sale. The best way is to directly quote a sky-high price that the other party can never afford.

For example, if this thing is only worth ten million, directly quote two hundred million.

If the other party gives up, then you can say that it's not that I don't want to sell it, it's that you can't afford the price. You can only blame your lack of sincerity; and if the other party really wants to buy it, you can also use this lion's mouth to get a very high premium.

Eric was stunned for a moment: "Do you think President Pei will agree?"

Zhao Xuming shook his head: "I don't know, but who can say for sure about this kind of thing? No one knows how President Pei's brain is wired."

Eric was silent for a moment, then nodded: "That's right."

"Although I have been emptied out now and have simply become a mouthpiece, this is not necessarily a bad thing, at least I don't have to rack my brains to fight wits with President Pei anymore."

"I will send the document to President Pei, whether he accepts it or not is his business."

Eric first sent an email to President Pei, waited for a while, and then made a call.

"Hello? President Pei, regarding the cooperation plan you mentioned last time, the headquarters has already given a reply, and the specific requirements have been sent to your email."

"Hehe, there are a few too many clauses, if you don't think it's appropriate, then there's nothing we can do. After all, I can't make the decision on this matter, it's all decided by the headquarters company."

Eric struck first, blocking the possibility of bargaining.

However, after two seconds, Eric's smile froze on his face.

"What? Completely agree?!"

Eric looked at Zhao Xuming, and Zhao Xuming also looked at him with the same confused eyes.

They did think of the possibility that President Pei would agree, but that was mostly based on some bargaining.

As a result, President Pei agreed directly without saying a word!

The time was too short, making people suspect whether he had carefully read the specific terms in the plan.

In the phone call, President Pei's voice seemed to have a sense of ease: "Yes, completely agree."

"When is the earliest time to start? Once the time is set, I will have them make arrangements."

President Pei actually agreed so readily, which made Eric a little flustered.

Something doesn't feel right!

He hurriedly emphasized: "President Pei, are you sure you have carefully read the terms? I suggest you take two minutes to take a closer look, so that we don't have any unpleasantness in our subsequent cooperation."