Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 1268: GOG’s Skin Increasing Price?

Pei Qian returned to Jingzhou on the afternoon of the 23rd.

Since it was still early and Pei Qian was in business class, he was not very tired. Thus, he decided to sit in the office for a while to see how the various departments were doing during this period.

Someone knocked on the door not long after he arrived.

Pei Qian looked up to see Assistant Xin.

“Eh? What’s the matter?” Pei Qian asked.

Assistant Xin’s role in the company was actually constantly changing as Tengda Corporation expanded.

At the beginning, Tengda was just a small company. Pei Qian handed over many trivial matters in daily operations to Assistant Xin. Thus, her job at that stage was mainly as an assistant.

However, as Tengda expanded, the HR department’s recruitment examinations were on the right track. Thus, they had formed a huge professional team in terms of manpower, administrative, finance, and so on. Naturally, Assistant Xin did not need to ask about these trivial matters.

Thus, her job naturally became the coordination, contact, and distribution of resources between the various departments. In fact, she was doing the job of Vice-President. The benefits were also akin to a Vice-President.

It was just that Pei Qian used the designation too often, so she was still an assistant in name. Of course, everyone in Tengda knew that she was definitely not just an assistant.

Generally speaking, everyone tacitly assumed that Boss Pei knew everything about Tengda Corporation. Thus, they would only report on more important matters.

This time, Assistant Xin had probably come because there were some more important things that needed Pei Qian’s approval.

Assistant Xin took out a document and handed it over. “Boss Pei, this is the event plan for 1024 Digital Day this year.”

“On the whole, the event is still in the same style as before. The benefits have been slightly upgraded.”

“However, GOG’s activities this year are different from before. I think you should confirm it.”

Pei Qian reached out and took the proposal. “Eh?”

1024 Digital Day was Tengda’s traditional retention program. It was held every year.

However, it was a promotional event after all. There were only so many ways to go about it. It was difficult to come up with new ideas every year.

For most people, tangible benefits were much more important than gaudy activities. It would not be good if the activities were too complicated.

Ever since the first year’s response was not bad, Pei Qian had treated this as a normal method of spending money. He wanted to maximize the benefits, which was even more impressive than last year.

It was a relatively stable event after all. Thus, Pei Qian had not paid attention to it for some time.

1024 Digital Day involved many departments in Tengda. According to the normal process, these departments would first formulate their own activities plan and then summarize it to Assistant Xin.

Now, Assistant Xin realized that GOG’s activity had changed significantly from last year. That was why she came to ask for instructions.

Pei Qian quickly flipped through the proposals and quickly found GOG’s location.

There were a lot of words in the entire plan, which gave Pei Qian a headache.

After all, 1024 Digital Day was held every year. There had to be more variations to the event than last year. Thus, the content of the event gradually became richer.

Pei Qian had already ordered time and time again that the event should not be so complicated and that gamers should not waste too much energy to distinguish how to make it more cost-effective and not discriminate against price. However, as the event accumulated, it was inevitable that there would be more content.

GOG’s activities were obviously longer and more complicated than other departments’.

“This Eric, what the hell?”

“The event is so complicated. Don’t you think your eyes are sore? I told the in-charge a long time ago that the event should be simple. How tiring would it be to write three pages at once?”

“Oh, he’s new and doesn’t understand the rules. That’s alright, then.”

Pei Qian felt a headache coming on when he saw the densely packed words and terms.

He even wanted to call Eric back and ask him to rewrite everything.

However, on further thought, he dismissed that idea.

Why did he want to poach Eric?

Wasn’t it because of his ability in this area!

What would be the point of poaching him if he poached him over but did not allow him to continue his working method and used Tengda’s things to modify him subconsciously?

If Eric really “deteriorated” like the others, wouldn’t that be a huge loss?

Thus, after some thought, Pei Qian realized that Eric looked out of place compared to the other people in charge. That was a good thing.

This meant that Eric was still living up to his previous failed tradition. He had not been assimilated by Tengda. It would only be meaningful to poach him because of that.

At that thought, Pei Qian did not say anything. He tried his best to force himself to continue reading.

“Eh? Double the price of the skins for the event?”

Among the many terms, numbers were the easiest to catch people’s attention. Thus, Pei Qian could see the change in the price of the skin at a glance.

GOG’s skin was always sold at the same price: brave skins would be given to the heroes for free after the heroes reached top-level proficiency. Epic skins would be sold for 18 yuan, and legendary skins would be sold for 45 yuan. In addition, there were some limited skins that could be obtained in various ways.

Subsequently, Min Jingchao created a creative community. Any hero that the official platform created based on gamers’ creativity would have a ten percent discount for the first skin, fifty percent for the second skin, and twenty percent discount for the third skin. It would be effective for a month from the day the skin was released.

From then on, GOG’s skin became extremely cheap.

What’s more, every time they organized an event, the skins would be sold at a 50% discount. Sometimes, they would even be sold at a 30% discount. Many players felt that the skins were so cheap that it would be inhumane not to buy them.

Under such a pricing strategy, the bulk of Tengda’s profits were actually in the legendary skins and limited skins of some heroes.

The brave skins were all free. They could not recover the production cost of the skins. They were completely spent on advertising. However, under Pei Qian’s request, the brave skins were made a lot. They would not only produce one or two blanks just because they did not make money.

Epic skins did not make much money. It was basically still a loss if he used it to subsidize the cost of the brave skin.

The profits were basically concentrated on the cool legendary skins of some popular heroes and the limited skins during the event.

Tengda’s activities were very frequent and intense, but it did not affect players’ enthusiasm for the first purchase.

That was because the interval between these activities was relatively clear. For example, 1024 Digital Day was a traditional retention project. Gamers knew that there would definitely be an event on this day. They would wait until this day to buy skins.

Tengda’s strategy was to refund the price of the skin if it was discounted within the short term. Of course, they would not refund the skin if it was longer.

Therefore, to gamers, on one hand, they could buy at various event points. On the other hand, it was also because they had to buy earlier to enjoy it. Even if the price was higher, they could either refund the difference in price or buy earlier to enjoy it.

This was especially so for the limited skins for the event. They were all released during various events. There would not be any new activities in the short term, and there would not be any discounts. The time to make up for the difference would basically be over by the next event. Thus, they would basically sell them for 45 yuan. The profits were not bad.

To put it bluntly, these skins were specially prepared for gamers who did not care about the price but liked to get new skins immediately.

They did not care about the discounts. They only cared about the latest skin and how comfortable it looked.

The theme skin for 1024 Digital Day had been completed when Min Jingchao was still around. It had not been announced until now. They were just waiting for 1024 Digital Day’s event.

The skin theme was ‘light and darkness’. On one side was the angel theme that looked bright and righteous, and on the other was the dark and evil demon theme.

The theme itself was more practical. It was easy to make color combinations with specific heroes, so the quality of the skin was definitely not a problem.

The problem was this price.

Pei Qian realized that the price of the skin had increased. It had gone from the original 45 yuan to 68 yuan!

What’s more, normally, Tengda would give a discount for the first week when new skins were released. It might not be very high, but it was basically a 20% discount, which was 36 yuan.

Based on this calculation, the price of skins on 1024 Digital Day this year had almost doubled!

Pei Qian’s first reaction was dissatisfaction.

Wasn’t this fooling around!

Selling the skins would generate profits. Once the price was raised, how much more money would he earn?!

The scale of the event this time was huge, and GOG’s event was happening at the same time globally. I can’t eat and sleep well while earning money like this…

Pei Qian was just about to tell Assistant Xin to send the plan back for Eric to redo, but on further thought, he realized the previous problem.

Eric and Zhao Xuming were the best partners in failure.

He had to respect the professional opinions of professionals!

It would be easy to cut the price back now, but GOG’s situation would not change that way. What was the point of poaching Eric and Zhao Xuming?

Perhaps this hack would affect Eric’s original work thinking and make him completely change to Tengda’s working method…

No, no, no. He could not do that.

Pei Qian felt that he had to support and encourage Eric’s thinking.

There might be some pressure to make money in the short term but perhaps Eric could really make GOG fail slowly?

Of course, it would be too optimistic if it failed. It was unlikely. However, wouldn’t it be good to be scolded a little to make room for IOI to survive?

At that thought, Pei Qian decided to spoil Eric this time.

I will earn this money with tears in my eyes. I hope you won’t disappoint me in the future!

“There’s no big problem with the plan. Let’s do it this way.” Pei Qian handed the plan back.

Assistant Xin nodded and did not ask further. “Alright, Boss Pei.”

It was already the 23rd today. The event content would be revealed in front of players at midnight on the 24th.

Pei Qian decided to sleep a little late tonight to see how the players were reacting and whether they were scolding him or not.

Of course, even if they were scolded, Eric and Zhao Xuming would probably be the scapegoats.

That was because some rumors had spread since Eric and Zhao Xuming joined the company. However, some players were not willing to believe that Boss Pei would poach two active players.

What was there to poach a defeated opponent? It sounded a little nonsensical.

However, the rumors were all true…

On the other hand, Pei Qian was quite happy. If Eric and Zhao Xuming’s bad reputation in IOI could help GOG, he could not ask for more!

…

…

October 24th, midnight.

Pei Qian immediately clicked on the event on GOG’s official website.

The name of the event was slightly different from what he had seen on the plan previously. The theme on the plan was “Light and Darkness”, but the name of the event on the web page for players was “Descent of Light”.

Perhaps it was because the name ‘light and darkness’ was a little too straightforward and was not suitable as a name for the event, but ‘light descending’ sounded more imposing.

The specific description of the event was similar to the plan that Pei Qian had seen previously, but there was a huge difference in the description.

That was normal. After all, writing a plan for the internal department was different from writing an explanation for players. The former would definitely be relatively simple and straightforward. The latter would require some modification of the words to bring players a more polite and respectful feeling.

Apart from the skins, there were also other activities. However, these activities were more conventional. Thus, Pei Qian went down directly and found the relevant content regarding the new limited skins.

Price: 68 yuan!

He looked at the gamers’ comments and feedback. Indeed, most people were focused on the price of the skin.

What’s more, the response was rather intense!

“What’s with the pricing of this skin? 68 yuan? It’s twice as expensive as the previous event’s skin!”

“Could it be that the skin this time is a little cooler? Oh, it seems like these skins have some exclusive activities in the game, but these activities are not considered rewards! Did I spend money to buy an opportunity for a liver event? Crazy!”

“It really doesn’t make sense. Isn’t GOG’s skin at 45 yuan? I’ve never heard of there being more advanced skins on the skin.”

“Now you’ve seen it.”

“If the quality of the skin is very good, just make it more expensive.”

“That’s not how you put it! If we sell the skins at double the price with some special effects, wouldn’t it be the same as IOI? Previously, IOI’s skin price had already been boycotted. Wasn’t it scolded badly enough? Why did GOG start playing this trick?”

“That’s right. Doubling the price with some special effects? It would look ugly if it’s true!”

“You’re right. Are you familiar with it? This is IOI’s operation! Rumor has it that GOG’s project team has poached the original person-in-charge of IOI, Eric. Isn’t it normal to do IOI now?”

“F*ck! Isn’t that a fake? GOG’s project team was doing well in the beginning. Why did they poach the useless Eric? If not for him, would IOI have died so quickly?”

“It’s really not fake. Many channels have verified that Eric has indeed been poached by Tengda!”

“He’s courting death!”

Many players could not remain calm anymore. They were even a little angry.

The increase in skin prices was only one of the reasons. More importantly, they did not trust Eric at all.

There had been rumors online about Eric taking over as the person-in-charge of GOG. However, most players did not believe it and did not even pay much attention to it.

They subconsciously felt that this was nonsense.

Poach this person, was he afraid that his company would not die quickly?

Boss Pei definitely knew about poaching people of this level.

Boss Pei was wise. How could he do something that even gamers thought was unreliable?

However, gamers began discussing this matter again after the 1024 Digital Day event was released.

After discussing it, they realized that it seemed to be true!

Many channels could verify with each other that the person-in-charge of GOG had indeed been changed!

Considering the series of stunts IOI had done before, Eric’s reputation among the players was not good. Coupled with the fuse for the skin price this time, this conflict was stimulated all of a sudden.

Many gamers even protested on the forum while urging everyone not to buy skins and to boycott them with their actions.

As long as the official platform saw that the sales of the skins did not meet expectations after players boycotted, the skins would naturally return to normal prices!