You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 424

Shi Yuzhu had seen a lot of storms before, so he quickly regained his composure and said with a serious face, "Old Ji, can you tell me in detail what happened?"

"Our sales staff first found a lot of Warring States Online posters in Internet cafes in third-tier cities in Jiangsu Province, but we didn't pay much attention to them at first." Ji Xuewei reported seriously, "Internet cafes in third-tier cities usually follow the trend of the local provincial capitals, with a delay of one to half a month."

"The first salesperson who discovered the issue visited several Internet cafes and saw related posters and materials. He realized something was wrong and started chatting with the local Internet cafe owner."

"He was shocked when we started chatting. The sales staff of Warring States Online came here three months ago and asked the local Internet cafes to pre-download the client of Warring States Online."

"The salesperson even visited more than a dozen Internet cafes in the city and found the same situation everywhere. He also learned that similar situations existed not only in the city but also in the county, so he quickly reported it to his superiors."

At this point, there is no such thing as super first-tier cities. Third-tier cities are already very large cities.

"What about the specific situation? Have you figured out the situation in the entire Su Province?" Shi Yuzhu asked directly.

Ji Xuewei hesitated for a moment. "I have sent people to investigate. We only know the situation in three cities now. More information needs to be investigated by the local sales staff. I came here to report as soon as I got the news."

Shi Yuzhu also realized that he was a little anxious, and hurriedly urged: "Check the situation of the entire province as soon as possible, and it would be best to check the situation in the counties below as well. Don't just limit yourself to Jiangsu Province, check Zhejiang Province as well."

"I understand." Ji Xuewei nodded.

"Also." Shi Yuzhu paused, "Give a reward of 50,000 yuan to the salesperson who first discovered the situation. Thank him for me."

"Okay, I'll make the arrangements there." Ji Xuewei said in a deep voice, "He's a veteran of our company and has feelings for the company."

The field sales team under Shi Yuzhu are all those who used to work with him on Brain Gold. They are a field sales team that has been trained in actual combat and has rich experience.

Without such a field sales team, his “downstream market” marketing strategy would be nothing more than a thought.

"Old brothers are still reliable." Shi Yuzhu sighed, and then smiled, "I didn't expect that the campus network also thought the same as us. This is called great minds think alike."

"Didn't Qin Shaoyan want to fight with us? Then come on, let me see how capable this young man is."

Ji Xuewei also smiled. "Campus Network is just an Internet company. It has never done any offline marketing. It is foolish to try to compete with us for the market."

"That's not true. At least there are experts on the campus network, otherwise they wouldn't have come up with such a trick." Shi Yuzhu laughed, "But we're not afraid of him. Our old brothers are still here, just scattered all over the place."

"Yes, everyone can try." Ji Xuewei said excitedly, eager to try.

Shi Yuzhu spoke clearly, but he became alert in his heart.

He now realized that Qin Shaoyan, a young man who had risen to fame through the Internet, was not that simple. This could be seen from the fact that he had a local sales team set up in Internet cafes in third-tier cities in advance. There must be an expert guiding him.

However, this strategy of seizing the sinking market made Shi Yuzhu feel like there was something stuck in his throat.

It's like being played chess and someone has taken the first move, and the move used is one that I came up with, so it seems like I'm being targeted.

It looks like "Zhengtu" is going to have a serious fight with "Warring States OL".

However, I still have advantages, at least "Zhengtu" has the upper hand in terms of time.

Shi Yuzhu looked at Lin Haixiao and asked, "When do you think the game "Zhengtu" can be launched at the earliest?"

"This..." Lin Haixiao thought for a moment, "Our original plan was for early May..."

"Can it be brought forward?!" Shi Yuzhu interrupted him and continued to ask.

"It can be earlier." Lin Haixiao thought for a moment, "How about mid to late April?"

Shi Yuzhu frowned, feeling a little disappointed. He thought for a moment and said, "Call Ding Qiang over."

Lin Haixiao's heart sank, and without saying anything more, he nodded in agreement.

Ding Qiang is in charge of the project progress, so the purpose of calling him over is self-evident.

After leaving Shi Yuzhu's office, Lin Haixiao walked towards his own office with a heavy heart.

He felt that things were really going badly for him recently. When he first started at Shanda, he had conflicts with the management over project issues.

Later, his senior schoolmate Shi Yuzhu extended an olive branch to him, offered him a generous salary and promised to give him shares in the company. Only then did Lin Haixiao decisively jump to Giant with his core R&D staff.

After arriving here, Lin Haixiao found that his career was still not going well.

In the research and development of the game project, Shi Yuzhu had too many ideas of his own and interfered too much in the project, and he also realized that this old senior was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with him.

His role in the team was gradually marginalized. Shi Yuzhu intervened in the design direction and ideas, Ding Qiang gradually took over the project management, and Ji Xuewei was in charge of the core numerical system.

Thinking of this, Lin Haixiao's footsteps gradually became heavy, and he looked at the still busy R&D team with a frown.

Suddenly, his eyes paused and he noticed that the game screen of "Plants vs. Zombies" was on the computer screen of a planner in the corner.

He has also played this tower defense game, which is Qin Shaoyan's famous work and also brought him the title of China's No. 1 game producer.

To be honest, this game is indeed excellent and suitable for all ages. It is truly popular all over the world thanks to its solid strength.

From this point of view, Qin Shaoyan's title of No. 1 in China is well deserved.

If you think he is not good enough, then you can also make a game that sells tens of millions of copies worldwide. Then everyone will recognize your ability.

However, this number one game producer stopped making stand-alone games and switched to online games. Although changing stand-alone games to online games is a common phenomenon in China's game industry, his name is so big that it naturally attracted more attention.

Lin Haixiao was overwhelmed by the "Warring States OL" produced by Qin Shaoyan. Now seeing his employees playing the game made by the opponent, he suddenly felt unhappy and walked over quickly.

This employee was discovered slacking off by his boss and immediately panicked, quickly closing the game and trying to quit.

But as soon as the game was closed, a web page popped up with two big golden words "Warring States Period" shining on it.

The planner who was caught became even more panicked and subconsciously pressed the restart button of the computer.

Lin Haixiao walked closer with a serious look in his eyes and said expressionlessly, "Open the game Plants vs. Zombies."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Lin." The planner apologized hurriedly, "I won't dare to do it again."

"I asked you to open it." Lin Haixiao urged impatiently, "Let me see the game."

"Ah." The planner was stunned, not knowing what this boss was going to do.

“Hurry up!” Seeing that the other party was still not moving, Lin Haixiao pushed him away and started to operate it himself, “Where’s Plants vs. Zombies?”

The planner came to his senses and carefully helped Lin Haixiao open the small game hidden in the D drive.

When Lin Haixiao opened it, he found that it was a pirated version of "Plants vs. Zombies", and it was different from the original version. It looked like a magical modification, with many plants that had never been seen before appearing in it.

"Where did you download this game from?" Lin Haixiao asked.

"In the mini-game forum on the campus network." The planner immediately replied, "Someone sent a link, saying it was the latest version, so I downloaded it to play."

"Campus network?" Lin Haixiao was shocked. "This kind of post has not been deleted?"

"No." The planner looked confused. "There are many posts like this. Why were they deleted?"

"Idiot!" Lin Haixiao felt helpless.

"Plants vs. Zombies" was made by the boss of the campus network. Isn't it a pure provocation to distribute someone else's boss's pirated game on someone else's territory?

After playing for a few times, Lin Haixiao decisively closed the game and then saw the pop-up web page again.

"Will this web page keep popping up?" Lin Haixiao asked, pointing at the screen.

“Yes, it will pop up every time you close it.” The planner replied.

"Don't you find it annoying?" Lin Haixiao asked back. "No, it's normal for pirated games like this to have ads." The planner answered calmly.

Lin Haixiao asked with a serious face, "Then do you know what this advertisement is?"

"After a quick glance, it turned out to be the official website of the Warring States..." The planner reacted at this moment and was stunned.

"What a complete idiot!" Lin Haixiao stood up cursing and walked quickly towards Shi Yuzhu's office.

This time he didn't knock on the door, but just barged in. "Mr. Shi, I want to show you something."

……

The official website promotional page of "Warring States OL" is very beautifully designed, and it is obvious that it was designed by a professional designer.

The warrior was wearing luxurious armor, carrying a heavy sword on his shoulder, and his face was full of murderous intent.

At the top was a line of big words, "Dragon Slaying Sword, free for everyone who logs in!"

Shi Yuzhu touched his chin with one hand and stared at these words for a long time without saying a word.

Several people standing around were also silent, and no one dared to speak the first word.

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After a while, Shi Yuzhu looked up at Lin Haixiao next to him and asked, "Have you checked the download post on the campus network?"

"I've seen it, but the post has been deleted." Lin Haixiao replied, "But I've seen similar posts on other forums. This kind of pirated game is very common."

Shi Yuzhu frowned, "How many people do you think downloaded this pirated version of Plants vs. Zombies?"

"It's hard to say. Plants vs. Zombies is very popular. Most people with computers have downloaded and played it." Lin Haixiao thought for a while. "But I saw the download rankings on a website that specializes in downloading pirated games. It ranks first, with more than two million downloads."

"More than two million!" Shi Yuzhu's facial muscles twitched. "That means, if you add the download numbers from other places, there might be five or six million?"

"It should be more than that." Ji Xuewei said, "It's not clear when this pirated version came out. If it's been more than half a year, it would be easy for the download volume to exceed 10 million."

Someone nearby interrupted, "Could this be something that Warring States Online did on purpose?"

Everyone was speechless. Is there any need to doubt this?

It could be considered a coincidence that any advertisement popped up in a pirated game, but the fact that it only popped up the official website page of "Warring States OL" is the biggest evidence.

But they were also confused as they had never seen this kind of advertising.

They pirate their own games, put them online for people to download for free, and then secretly put advertisements for their own games in them.

Shi Yuzhu rubbed his forehead and sneered, "This Qin Shaoyan is really a talent! I've been in this business for so many years, and this is the first time I've seen someone advertise himself like this."

This time he really couldn't do it.

Soon Ji Xuewei received a call. After listening for a few minutes, he hung up the phone and said with a strange look, "Mr. Shi, the sales people went to the Internet cafe and saw that all the machines in the Internet cafe were installed with this new version of "Plants vs. Zombies."

"Is it every Internet cafe?" Shi Yuzhu asked.

"This is the case in the city they investigated. It's unclear about other places." Ji Xuewei hesitated, "I'll ask other cities to check as well."

"No need to look." Shi Yuzhu waved his hand, "The others are probably about the same."

He looked around and laughed, "This Qin Shaoyan is quite interesting. Marketing hype, portal website ads, local promotion, and this pirated game. This advertisement is quite comprehensive. It's a bit like my style."

"Good! Good! Good!" Shi Yuzhu said three good words in a row, "It seems that we really need to have a good fight with "Warring States"."

Shi Yuzhu looked at Lin Haixiao and asked, "Is there any problem with the launch of Journey after the New Year?"

Lin Haixiao was stunned for a moment, "Didn't you say mid-April?"

"It's better to do it earlier." Shi Yuzhu added, "What do you think?"

Lin Haixiao frowned and thought for a moment. "According to the original plan, the test will last for three months, and the modification will take one month in between. It will be ready in early April. Now..."

Shi Yuzhu was a little unhappy. He felt that Lin Haixiao was expressing his dissatisfaction with the postponement of the original test time. "Do you think there is anything we can learn from "Warring States OL"?"

"We've only played for a few hours, so we haven't figured out the situation yet." Lin Haixiao hesitated. "I think it would be a bit tricky to learn from them, because I haven't figured out their overall design ideas yet."

"Then we should find out as soon as possible." Shi Yuzhu said firmly, "Bring forward the testing time of 'Zhengtu' and launch the public beta test online by early April next year at the latest."

"This is a bit inappropriate..." Lin Haixiao was a little surprised.

"First test to find the problem, and then think about modifying the plan while testing." Shi Yuzhu finally said, "This is an order!"

You postpone it one moment and advance it the next. Is there a standard pattern?
Lin Haixiao couldn't help but complain in his heart, but he didn't dare to say anything more and just agreed reluctantly.

……

Qin Shaoyan held a cup of hot tea with a smile on his face, watching Fan Xiaoqian lecturing the programmers.

"What do you guys do for a living? You can make such a low-level mistake."

"Chen Zheng, you are the team leader, what do you say?"

A man wearing glasses and a knitted vest stood up and said, "It was my negligence."

"Okay, do you have any objections to deducting this year's year-end bonus?" Fan Xiaoqian asked sternly.

"No." Chen Zheng replied immediately, "I accept the punishment."

"The person directly responsible will have one month's salary plus year-end bonus deducted." Fan Xiaoqian issued the decision, and shouted angrily, "Fortunately, it was discovered early, otherwise it would not be a matter of deducting money if it really went online."

Qin Shaoyan stepped forward to act as a peacemaker, "Teacher Fan, don't be angry. This isn't a big loss."

"We shut down for maintenance three times today!" Fan Xiaoqian gestured, "Three times!"

"Just give the players more compensation." Qin Shaoyan said with a smile, "The players are still very reasonable. As long as the compensation is in place, they will not complain."

"Alright, alright, all of you go back to work. I'll treat you to a big dinner later."

After the programmers dispersed, Qin Shaoyan began to comfort Teacher Fan, "Your punishment is a bit too severe."

"Is it serious?" Fan Xiaoqian said unhappily, "I think it's just right. If we don't teach them a lesson, I don't know how big a mess they'll make in the future."

"It was a very low-level mistake. The server crashed immediately."

"It's a good thing to find the error. It's better than having a problem online." Qin Shaoyan still had a smile on his face. "Don't deduct it so harshly. How about deducting half of it?"

"You are the boss, you have the final say." Fan Xiaoqian let out a long sigh, "Just wait and see, I feel like there are still bugs waiting for the cross-server event."

"It's okay. The more bugs we expose, the better!" Qin Shaoyan didn't care at all. "I believe in your programming team."

Fan Xiaoqian rolled her eyes and said, "I don't even trust myself."

"You're just being modest." Qin Shaoyan said with a smile, "Do you think we can go online after the New Year?"

Fan Xiaoqian thought about it seriously and said, "If there are no major bugs in the last month of testing, launching the product won't be a problem."

"Okay then." Qin Shaoyan was relieved and said solemnly, "Then our official public beta launch will be scheduled for late March or early April."

"Isn't it a bit early?" Fan Xiaoqian asked after a moment of hesitation.

"Not too early. I want to give my opponent a surprise."

(End of this chapter)