After the meeting, Wang Sucheng returned to his office and encountered Xiao Xun.
"Mr. Wang."
Wang Sucheng looked at Xiao Xun and asked in a cold tone, "Oh, it's Mr. Xiao. Is there something you need?"
At this moment, an unfamiliar beautiful woman approached Wang Sucheng with documents. After signing, Wang Sucheng quietly instructed the woman on a few things.
Seeing how busy Wang Sucheng was, Xiao Xun didn't want to disturb him further. "No, I was just asking. Has Secretary Fan been in lately?"
Wang Sucheng said dismissively, "She resigned. Didn't she tell you?"
Xiao Xun's eye twitched slightly. "No, we're not that close. Why did she resign? Did she find a better opportunity?"
Wang Sucheng replied, "Perhaps! She's not getting any younger. It's time she went home to find an honest person to marry and raise a family. In the workplace, she's reached her limit."
Xiao Xun chuckled and left.
Wang Sucheng was an old fox. He must have known something, but he certainly wouldn't tell Xiao Xun.
Getting into the elevator back to his own company, as soon as he stepped out, he met Ike.
Ike grabbed Xiao Xun and pulled him towards the small conference room. Xiao Xun looked at Ike, bewildered. "Why the rush? What happened?"
Ike closed the door to the small conference room. "My boss Xiao, what kind of shenanigans are you pulling?"
Xiao Xun didn't understand. "What do you mean? What shenanigans?"
"I won't say anything about you starting two studios. That's your freedom. But you're making games of the same genre in both studios, with very similar styles. Isn't that a waste of resources? Wouldn't it be better to use that spare money to make a different game?"
Xiao Xun heard this. "I thought it was something serious. So it's just because of this. Don't worry. The industry's direction is unclear right now. If there's only one hottest game of a certain type, I want it to be our company's game. If there need to be two games competing, I want both of them to be our company's."
He patted Ike on the shoulder. "Don't worry, this isn't a waste of resources, but healthy competition. As the saying goes, don't put all your eggs in one basket. You're in risk control, you should understand this better than I do."
Ike was speechless, unable to refute Xiao Xun's logic.
However, without Ike's signature, the finance department of Saint Roman would not allocate funds to the mobile game company.
Before coming, he had been instructed from above that as long as it wasn't a matter of principle or a risk to the overall strategy, everything should be greenlit. He was told not to interfere with the company's operations or affect overall progress.
But if he just signed everything, wouldn't he seem to have no presence?
So he could only find fault with Xiao Xun on this matter. To him, it was about the higher-ups wanting to make things difficult for him. But if he withstood the pressure from above and approved everything, that would be different.
The main purpose of doing this was to gain favor with Xiao Xun. Everyone in the company knew that Xiao Xun had an unusual relationship with the president. If he were to rise in the future, he would surely soar to great heights.
He needed to cling to this tree now. If Xiao Xun moved up, he would naturally be brought along.
Even if he couldn't climb up, he could at least find shade under the tree and enjoy the cool breeze. Wouldn't that be pleasant?
Xiao Xun checked the game progress and tested it on the computer simulator. It was slightly laggy.
"Lower the resolution a bit. You can make the textures more refined, but make the character models rougher when entering the game. It would be best to have a settings option. At the lowest resolution, people look like pixel blocks, but the game runs smoothly and doesn't affect the gaming experience. At the highest, push the graphics to the maximum power of current flagship phones."
Several people nodded and made notes.
Xiao Xun convened a meeting with the marketing department in the small conference room. He looked at the five urban white-collar workers, who were around his age, crossed his arms, and said with a smile, "Logically, the game isn't launched yet, and there hasn't even been a closed beta. We shouldn't be considering profit points.
In business, we do games to make money. The company has already invested a large sum of money upfront. Do you have any good ways to recoup the money?"
The young people looked at each other. One female planner said, "Mr. Xiao, we can follow the model of PC games and sell skins. If we make the skins exquisite, it will definitely bring in a lot of money."
Xiao Xun shook his head. "This model is too basic. Since we're targeting the low-end market, there are many 'Leopard Head' players, and user stickiness is low."
The female planner continued, "We can link skins to game designers' bonuses. Whoever's skins sell well and sell a lot will get a higher bonus."
Several people nodded in agreement with the female planner's idea.
Xiao Xun shook his head again. "This has been tested on PC games. The primary reason players are willing to spend money on skins isn't just how good they look, but because their 'favorite hero' has that skin. What if a designer doesn't have many popular heroes in their hands? This will dampen their creative enthusiasm. Also, it might lead to a hero that no one plays, possibly going years without a single skin from the server's opening."
A male planner threw up his hands. "Then the only option is to sell game cards."
Xiao Xun slammed the table. "Selling game cards for mobile games is a dead end. Skip it."
The group started to chatter. Xiao Xun then said, "Is there a way to make people unable to resist the urge to top up?" Everyone, brainstorm. Let your thoughts run wild, don't be limited to one idea."
Everyone lowered their heads in thought. Suddenly, a male planner wearing glasses looked up sharply. "Mr. Xiao, I have a six-yuan plan."
All eyes turned to him. "What is the six-yuan plan?"
The male planner smiled smugly. "Six yuan. Anyone can afford it, right? What can six yuan buy in the game? It can't buy anything. Some games even have a minimum top-up of ten yuan. We don't do that. We allow top-ups from one yuan. Then, with the first cumulative top-up of six yuan, we'll give them a hero for free. And this hero can only be bought with money, not in-game currency."
The female planner who had mentioned exquisite skins said, "What if people don't like this hero?"
The male planner shrugged and said to the female planner, "That's a matter for the game design department. Just create a hero that everyone likes. If that doesn't work, then it's a choice between skins and heroes. Make this first top-up of six yuan seem extremely valuable. When people see that it's worth the money, they top up and get a free exquisite skin or a hero with cool skills, I believe that out of ten people, no, out of a hundred people, ninety-nine will choose to top up."
Xiao Xun slapped the table in admiration. "Your method is excellent. Unprecedented. What's your name?"
The male planner stood up. "Mr. Xiao, my name is Ma Bonan."
Xiao Xun praised, "You have excellently captured the psychology of game players and market trends. From today onwards, you are our company's lead planner."
Everyone applauded. They all felt that Ma Bonan's 'six-yuan plan' was outstanding and eye-catching, and it could bring the company profits in a short time.
After the meeting, Xiao Xun asked Ma Bonan to stay behind.
"Mr. Xiao, do you have any other instructions?"
Xiao Xun looked at the gentle Ma Bonan and curiously asked, "What kind of work did you do before?"
Ma Bonan didn't know Xiao Xun's intention for asking. "I used to be in real estate sales."
Xiao Xun crossed his arms, propped up his chin, and asked with interest, "Then why didn't you continue selling real estate and instead chose to come to a newly established game company?"