Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 436 The Game was Not Meant for Ordinary People

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“Be Quiet’s most outstanding point is that many people can connect to the same horror game at the same time.
At the moment, none of such horror games exist in the market.
Thus, I think that we should focus on marketing this point for publicity.

“We should use traditional methods of marketing, such as buying advertisement spaces on video sites and websites and asking content creators to market the game.

“I’ve already spoken to Teacher Qiao.
He’ll try our game out as soon as we release it and then create a video to market it.

“At the same time, we’ll select some of the more impressive footage to use in our advertisements.
That’ll hype people up…”

Lin Wan explained the publicity strategy she had thought of in detail.
Once she was done, she looked at Pei Qian nervously.

She had spent several days thinking about the publicity strategy before finally deciding on this, and she thought that this would be the most reliable and effective way of marketing the game.
However, presenting it in front of Boss Pei still made her feel apprehensive.

After all, Boss Pei was a legend at marketing his games.
Such simple and minor strategies might prove to be unimpressive to him.

After listening to Lin Wan’s proposal, Pei Qian let out a soft sigh.
His entire body stiffened when he had heard the words ‘Teacher Qiao’.
His reaction was so extreme that it was almost like he had PTSD.

Boss Pei’s subordinates seemed to be growing at rapid speed.
He was losing control over them…

When Lin Wan just started out, she had only been a newbie who quietly helped out with projects.
However, after undergoing some training, she was looking more and more like a leader of a department.

Take her advertising plan for instance.
There was only one word to describe it: reliable!

Pei Qian was very sure that if they followed Lin Wan’s proposal to advertise Be Quiet, people would mindlessly buy it upon its release.
Then, Pei Qian could expect incredible sales from the get-go.

That was why he had to avoid it at all costs!

Yet, what should he do instead…?

He was a little worried.

He knew full well that Tengda had released too many successful games.
It also had a significant number of fans from all around the country and was being closely observed by the official games platform.
Game Designer, Repent and be Saved, and Bloody Battle Song had all been given a lot of attention by the official games platform.
Once they released Be Quiet on the platform, they would only have to do a little marketing before a good number of people would purchase the game.

Pei Qian could no longer enjoy the good old days of advertising without having to worry about garnering attention.

Thus, it was no longer enough to make ducks and drakes of his advertising money.
He had to hope to achieve the opposite effect!

It sounded difficult to achieve, but Pei Qian had spent a lot of time and effort thinking about this.
He was now well-prepared.

His ultimate aim was to turn gamers away before they forked out a single cent!

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In the past, Pei Qian tried turning gamers away by extending the refund allowance period and increasing the game’s difficulty.

However, the facts had proven that the strategy was ineffective.

Pei Qian had no other choice.
He could only say that gamers were now too strong in terms of reverse psychology.
Attempting to persuade them to refund a game once they had made a purchase would only make them more adamant in keeping it.

Now, Pei Qian had a better plan: to turn gamers away before they even made the purchase!

Do you want to buy the game? I’m sorry, I won’t even sell it to you! Who says that games should be made available for anyone to purchase?

The fact that it was a common practice didn’t make it reasonable! He would only allow people to purchase Be Quiet once they had proven that they were worthy.

The game was not meant for ordinary people!

Pei Qian would cuss at anyone with objections.

Pei Qian decided to set multiple difficult questions during the marketing period.
Only gamers who passed the various tests would be allowed to purchase the game!

That way, ordinary gamers would not be able to buy the game even if they had money.
They had to earn the rights first.
It would not be that easy to obtain the rights.
They would have to pass various tests.

Everyone experienced laziness.
Once people discovered that they would have to pass several tests before they would be allowed to purchase the game, most would just give up.

What’s more, the riddles would be very complicated.
If everyone took at least a month to solve them, Pei Qian would not earn any revenue during this cycle.

The worst-case scenario would be that he would start generating more revenue during the next cycle.
However, that would still be better than earning money during this cycle! That would be Tengda’s advertising strategy for the new-age: repulsive advertising.

Of course, Pei Qian could not explain all of these things to Lin Wan.
He had to think of a way to bluff her.

Pei Qian gently tapped the table and said in a low voice, “There’s no big problem with your proposal, but it’s too conservative.”

Lin Wan’s eyes lit up at once.

Indeed, Boss Pei had a better plan!

She listened intently.

Pei Qian continued, “I’ll personally take charge of the marketing this time.
None of you can interfere.
We’ll still buy advertising spaces, but I’ll decide what kind of advertisements to display.

“I want to play a simple alternate reality game with all of Be Quiet’s players.”

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Lin Wan was stunned.
“Huh?”

She had been ready to take down Boss Pei’s suggestion, so that she could execute it later.

However, Boss Pei had ended up deciding to take over the advertising work himself.
What’s more, he was not planning to tell her about it.
Still, on the bright side, it meant that Boss Pei was going all out with the advertising this time!

Lin Wan was overjoyed.
“Alright, Boss Pei.
I’ll stay tuned!”

After sending Lin Wan off, Pei Qian checked how much time he had left before knocking off.
Then, he immediately started planning for Be Quiet’s repulsive advertising.

Pei Qian had not revealed anything to Lin Wan at all.
That was because his advertising strategy would be a riddle event.
He had to keep it under wraps.

Pei Qian found the programmer from TPDb, who had been in charge of the Tengda Spirit compatibility test, and put him in charge of creating the program for the riddle event.

Until now, none of the questions or answers in the Tengda Spirit compatibility test had been leaked.
Obviously, the programmer was quite reliable.
That was why Pei Qian entrusted this task to him as well.

There wasn’t much work involved.
All he had to do was edit the website and minor details in the game.

“Er… it seems like this invitation letter lacks an inscription from the host.
I think it’s too late to find someone to design a logo now.

“I’ll use a ready-made one.”

Pei Qian searched his computer and found a logo that had been created for the Thriller Hostel.

Be Quiet was officially released on March 3rd, Thursday!

Teacher Qiao waited in front of his computer early in the morning, with snacks and drinks prepared.
He had been waiting to play the game the second it was released and then create a video on it immediately!

This time, he had not been invited to try the game in advance like he had been for Repent and be Saved.

Still, it did not matter.
Even if Boss Pei had not invited him, Boss Lin had; it was almost the same!

Before marketing began for the game, Lin Wan contacted Teacher Qiao, asking him to create a video to market the game once it was released.

As a close friend of Boss Pei’s, Teacher Qiao obviously obliged! Be Quiet was a product of Shang Yang Games, but it was clearly written on TPDb that Shang Yang Games was now a subsidiary company of Tengda Games.

What’s more, the mobile version of Bloody Battle Song had been a game with a conscience and had been recommended by the official games platform.
Teacher Qiao had reason to believe that Boss Pei had been overseeing research and development of all games released by Shang Yang Games.
Their quality and originality must be up to standard.

All in all, they would be worth Teacher Qiao’s time!

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Many gamers were on the same page as Teacher Qiao.
This as much was obvious from his fans’ responses.
Everyone had been discussing the game, waiting to purchase it the moment that it was released.

At 2 PM, the game was released for sale!

Qiao Liang reacted as quickly as his twenty-odd-year-old body could and clicked on the game!

However, the discount that he had expected did not appear.

Qiao Liang was stunned.

“What’s the matter? I’m experiencing a bug the moment the game was put up for sale?

“That can’t be.
How could Tengda make such a low-class mistake?”

Qiao Liang was puzzled.
He had realized that the ‘purchase’ button had turned gray once he entered the webpage.

Initially, there had been a terrifying concept art of the game on the game’s details page.
However, when Qiao Liang clicked on it, a line of words appeared below.

“The invitation letter was left on the previous journey.”

There was a bloody fingerprint behind it and a red logo.
The top half of the red logo was an obtuse, triangular steeple.
Underneath were the words ‘Thriller Hostel’.
It seemed to be the logo for a hotel.

However, the English words had a blood-dripping effect.
Anyone who looked at it would feel their hair stand.

Qiao Liang was confused.
What are you doing?

He looked closely at the concept art and guessed that this was a scene in Be Quiet.
Perhaps this was a hotel in the wilderness.

Under the pitch-black night sky, the rundown hotel looked hidden in the darkness.
It looked like a demon with its bloody mouth wide open, waiting to devour any prey that walked into its trap.

After studying it for a long while, Qiao Liang realized that there was no useful information contained in the concept art.

The real clue seemed to lie in the words ‘the invitation letter was left on the previous journey’.

Of course, Qiao Liang could not rule out the possibility that he would find a special, hidden message if he downloaded the image and reopened it in other formats.

Qiao Liang checked in on his own fans.
Obviously, he was no exception.
Others had all run into the same problem.

They could not buy a game that had already been released!

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After some time of being confused, Qiao Liang became excited.
They had to solve a riddle before they could purchase this game!

ss Pei, Boss Pei… how do you always think about such new gimmicks? It’s such a pleasant surprise!”

Although Qiao Liang did not get to play the new game that he had been looking forward to, he did not feel angry.
Instead, he felt quite intrigued.
Many people were already discussing this in the group.

“What does this mean? Is there a mysterious principle hidden in the picture?”

“I’m not sure.
I tried clicking it, but nothing happened!”

“I saw this picture in the online advertisement.
I think this is a riddle!”

“You can download the image from the website.
I tried opening it in various formats, but I couldn’t find any useful clues.”

“I think all of you are thinking too much.
The clue should be in the sentence.”

“Does ‘invitation letter’ refer to the rights to purchase the game? What does ‘the previous journey’ mean?” “Is it referring to a place that exists in real life? Does anyone in this group live in Jingzhou? Go and take a look!”

” ‘The Previous Journey’ is a unique game that’s available on the official platform.
Is this a combined event?”

“Stop messing around.
Have you seen Tengda run combined events with other games? This must be a coincidence!”

There were so many people in Qiao Liang’s fan group to begin with.
Now, everyone was giving their own updates.
Qiao Liang could not keep up with everything.
On top of that, Qiao Liang noticed that many people were discussing the riddle in other gaming groups as well.

After scanning those discussions, Qiao Liang felt that everyone obviously could not understand Boss Pei.

Only a close friend of Boss Pei, like me, would be able to solve the riddle!

Qiao Liang did not think the riddle was that complicated at all.
When a game designer talked about ‘the previous journey’, he was obviously referring to games that he had created before.

After some thought, Qiao Liang opened Repent and be Saved and searched for clues within.

After that, he would look through Ocean Stronghold.

This was what Qiao Liang thought: if Boss Pei wanted to collaborate with another game, he would definitely do so with his own games.
Repent and be Saved and Ocean Stronghold were the two most popular games released by Tengda at the moment.
Collaborating with both of those games would improve Tengda Games’ reputation and brand value.
At the same time, he would be able to increase sales of both of those games.
Why wouldn’t he do that?