Chapter 119 IOI

Seeing Pei Qian's somewhat pale face, and the lack of any approving or gratified expression, Ma Yang suddenly felt a little uncertain.

"Brother Qian, you're not blaming me for spending too much money, are you?"

"Do you think investing this much in a small foreign company isn't worth it?"

Pei Qian: "..."

Looking at Ma Yang's sincere eyes, Pei Qian was momentarily at a loss for words.

How was he supposed to answer that...?

It was Pei Qian who told Ma Yang to act decisively and without hesitation when the time came.

It was also Pei Qian who told Ma Yang to invest in whatever he liked.

Playing *God of Revelation* in the dark was one of Ma Yang's few hobbies. Since Ma Yang couldn't invest in *God of Revelation*, he had to settle for the next best thing and randomly found a foreign company making similar games to invest in, immediately throwing all twenty million into it.

In every respect, Ma Yang had listened to Pei Qian's instructions.

Moreover, this seemed like a pretty unreliable deal, which perfectly aligned with Pei Qian's initial intentions.

But Pei Qian was suffering inwardly. This company felt way too familiar!

Could this IOI be a modified version of LoL?

What made this matter so unexpected for Pei Qian was that he had searched for similar information online last year!

According to his original memory, Riot Games should have been founded around 2006, raising $8 million in funding in 2008 with three investors.

As for Tencent acquiring them for over $200 million, that happened in 2011.

According to his memory, LoL was released in 2009.

The current time was already November 2010.

Logically speaking, that $8 million funding should have already been completed, right?

Pei Qian had searched for similar news online last year but couldn't find anything.

He didn't think too much about it then, assuming it was just another manifestation of the world changing. After all, even Bilibili had become Aili Island, so it was normal for other companies to undergo some changes.

Pei Qian didn't take it too seriously, since the company was overseas, and his information wasn't that accurate.

Now, Pei Qian finally understood why he couldn't find anything last year.

Because the company name and game name had both changed, from Riot Games to Finger Games, and from LoL to IOI. Of course, Pei Qian wouldn't find anything searching with the original names.

Moreover, the entire timeline had been pushed back by two years. Last year, the company was probably just starting up. How could a startup company have much information online?

Pei Qian had always been curious about what a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game would be like in this world.

He never expected that he would finally find out the answer today, but in such an absurd way...

However, Pei Qian glanced at the system panel and found that there were no obvious changes yet.

Shares worth more than $2 million should be like that villa, a special asset of the company and should be reflected in the system panel.

This was probably because the share acquisition was still in progress and not all the procedures had been completed, so it wasn't officially displayed on the system yet.

Many thoughts flashed through Pei Qian's mind.

Facing Ma Yang's sincere eyes, he didn't know what to say for a moment.

Criticize him? It didn't seem right. Ma Yang had completely followed his instructions without any deviation.

Investing 20 million in a small foreign company perfectly fit Dream Realization Ventures' style. It wouldn't be appropriate to put the blame on Ma Yang!

Praise him? Well, he really should be praised. This kind of investment was the kind of achievement you could brag about for a lifetime.

But... Pei Qian really couldn't bring himself to praise him.

Pei Qian took two deep breaths and reluctantly nodded: "It's okay, you did a good job."

"However, there might not be any extra funds available in the near future. Ma Yang, just have everyone work casually, play games every day, and wait for my next instructions."

Pei Qian stood up, ready to leave.

He couldn't stay in this heartbreaking place for even a second longer.

Ma Yang raised his hand: "Hey, Brother Qian, aren't you really going to experience a high-level game? I'm a 1900-point grandmaster!"

Pei Qian: "..."

Ma Yang added: "I've already contacted Manager Lin about the dinner on Saturday night, is that okay?"

Pei Qian: "..."

He still had the nerve to eat his food!

Unable to speak, he could only turn his back to Ma Yang, raise his hand in an "ok" gesture, and then leave without looking back.

...

...

Back at Tenda Games, Pei Qian sat down in his office.

He had already contemplated life; now he needed to think about how to handle this unexpected situation.

This kind of trouble so early in the cycle was completely beyond Pei Qian's expectations.

Buying over 20% of the shares and obtaining the exclusive agency rights for IOI in China was basically a done deal. It was impossible to terminate the investment, and it was also impossible to transfer these newly acquired shares.

Because there was no legitimate reason.

Sell them later? By then, Finger Games' valuation would definitely be soaring. Selling them would inevitably lead to a huge profit.

Moreover, Pei Qian pondered carefully, and decided that these shares couldn't be sold no matter what.

Selling them midway would be too stupid!

If Finger Games really developed to the scale that Pei Qian imagined, not to mention the shares, just the exclusive agency rights in China would be a money tree.

CEO Pei certainly regarded making money as dirt, but if there was too much dirt... he couldn't ignore it.

If IOI could earn a few billion dollars a year in the future, then even if the wealth conversion ratio was adjusted, the converted personal property would still be a large sum of money.

If it was just a small profit of a few million, it wouldn't really matter to Pei Qian. But if it was tens of billions, the situation would be completely different.

Moreover, if he imagined it, could he create heroes and exclusive skins named after himself in the future?

Thinking about it that way, it felt pretty cool!

If this situation really happened, then for Pei Qian, doing nothing and lying down to earn money might not be a bad strategy.

The large amount of system funds earned could be used to develop logistics and brick-and-mortar stores, giving back to society.

Earning money from foreigners to repay the motherland was truly a good, upright young man.

Of course, on the other hand, this wasn't so certain.

The whole world was different, and the company and game names were different from what Pei Qian remembered. Who could guarantee that IOI would be as successful as LoL?

Moreover, even if it was successful, that would be three or four years from now.

During that time, it would have to go through many rounds of promotion, and require the joint efforts of many people. Only when the timing, location, and people were all aligned could it achieve a dominant position in the global game market.

Who could say for sure what would happen in three or four years?

Distant water couldn't quench immediate thirst. Even if he could really lie down and earn money in three or four years, it wouldn't affect Pei Qian's current development strategy.

In short, from a long-term perspective, these shares and exclusive agency rights had to be kept.

If he was worried about making money in the near future, he could find a way to spend money quickly, developing logistics, warehousing, and public welfare projects... Spending money in various ways would be equivalent to benefiting society.

Thinking about it this way, the situation didn't seem so bad.

The hope of losing money hadn't been completely cut off.

Moreover, as Pei Qian thought about it, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and came up with a good idea.

"Perfect, I can use this opportunity to hedge against the risk!"

"Since this world already has IOI, doesn't that mean the future winner has already been decided?"

"If I make another MOBA game myself, wouldn't it be destined to fail?"

"Wouldn't that become a bottomless pit? I can invest as much money as I want!"

Pei Qian suddenly discovered a new continent, a new lease on life!

If IOI was destined to sweep the globe in the future, even a game with good quality like *God of Revelation* might be able to withstand it, but other PC MOBA games would probably soon suffer heavy casualties and become also-rans.

In that case, if Tenda also made a MOBA game, wouldn't it be guaranteed to fail?

First, invest 50 million. If the situation looked bad, invest another 50 million. In the end, the game would fail because it couldn't resist the tide of IOI, and all the research and development expenses would be wasted...

Wouldn't that be wonderful?

The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more reliable it seemed!

He had already reserved a budget of 50 million for Tenda's game department and was worried about how to spend it.

Now he didn't have to worry anymore, he had a goal!

Thinking of this, Pei Qian quickly called Li Yada over.

"We have a new game, write it down briefly."

Li Yada quickly took out a small notebook from her pocket: "Okay, CEO Pei, go ahead."

Pei Qian thought for a moment: "Have you played *God of Revelation*? Just copy that, make a game of the same type."

"As for the name... let's call it GOG, Glory of Gods."

Pei Qian felt that LoL, IOI, CoC, and WOW were already taken, and there weren't many usable letters left.

In that case, let's call it GOG. It didn't have any special meaning, just hoping that the game could strive to gg as soon as possible (a gaming term for giving up).

Li Yada was still waiting.

After waiting for a minute, she asked with some doubt: "That's it?"

Pei Qian nodded: "Yes."

Anyway, it was just to make something to burn money on, so they could mess around as they pleased.

Li Yada thought for a moment: "But, if we copy *God of Revelation*, wouldn't that be... a bit inappropriate?"

"Although the law doesn't protect gameplay, we'll definitely be criticized if we make it too similar."

Pei Qian nodded: "Well, that makes sense."

After all, CEO Pei's goal was just to lose money, not to ruin his own and the company's reputation. There was no need to attract such criticism.

"In that case, you can just change it a bit."

"Anyway, change it beyond recognition, so that players won't think we're copying."

"The first version should have more than twenty heroes to play with, with a development cycle of four months."

"The budget is 50 million, mess around as much as you want. If it's not enough, we can add more later."

Li Yada was stunned: "Ah? That much? ... I'm afraid we can't spend it all."

Can't spend it all?

Pei Qian was a little unhappy that his employees didn't know how to exert their subjective initiative.

Pei Qian said with some disappointment: "Do I have to teach you how to spend money?"

"Invest more in art resources, models, actions, story background, details..."

Li Yada lowered her head a little embarrassed, looking at her small notebook: "But... CEO Pei, if it's just a map and more than twenty heroes, the art money really can't be spent that much..."

Pei Qian: "..."

Thinking about it carefully, that was really the case.

Because of the existence of the RSRO official resource station, the cost of developing games in this world had been reduced a lot.

Wanting to spend the budget of 50 million in four months just with a map and more than twenty heroes was indeed a bit difficult.

Then what should he do?

Pei Qian thought, were there any other MOBA game experiences that he could learn from?

There were quite a few failed MOBA games, but was the failure of many games due to the gameplay, too many program bugs, or inadequate promotion?

It was really hard to say.

Pei Qian thought back and forth and thought of a good direction.

A certain game that had been in testing after development, never daring to officially operate.

Because once it officially operated, it would instantly be sued into bankruptcy.

Pei Qian felt that he should also learn from this advanced experience!

Of course, he definitely couldn't freeload on the copyright.

If he freeloaded on the copyright and couldn't officially operate, and neither cycle could be settled, the system would cut CEO Pei off.

But what if he bought all those copyrights?

How much would that cost!

He wouldn't have to worry about not being able to spend the money at all!

As long as he kept buying copyrights, no matter how much money he invested, it wouldn't be enough.

Pei Qian felt that this was a good idea: "Then buy IPs!"

"Whether it's domestic or foreign, buy some of whatever character IPs you like, no matter how expensive or cheap, and put them all in the game."

"Oh, forget about those super-popular IPs that cost millions of dollars to buy, just buy more cheap IPs."

Buying the characters of big IPs and putting them into the game would cost a lot of money, and some particularly big IPs might not even be available even if you had money.

But buying these big IPs had particularly big hidden dangers, such as... what if it attracted a large number of fans and gave the game ultra-high popularity?

Moreover, the bigger the IP, the more problems the parent company had. Pei Qian didn't want to spend his days arguing about contract details with some foreign big companies just to buy an IP. It wasn't worth the effort.

Therefore, Pei Qian's idea was to desperately pick up trash.

Whether it was domestic or foreign, he would find those IPs with characters that had already gone out of fashion or were ignored, buy them all with the mentality of picking up trash, put them in the game, and then design skills based on the characteristics of the characters.

Some that didn't fit the style of the game, he would tell the copyright owner in advance that his side would invite art masters for a second creation, which could spend another wave of money.

In this way, wouldn't the money be spent quickly?

Moreover, these garbage IPs were almost the same as not buying them, and wouldn't have much of an obvious effect on traffic. The cost performance ratio was explosively low.

Li Yada still had questions. After all, this was the first project she really led after becoming the main planner.

However, Pei Qian waved his hand: "Okay, let's just do that for now, think about it casually first. Don't ask me about everything, I'm afraid it will affect your own ideas."

Li Yada pinched her fingers: "Okay, okay, CEO Pei."

Turning around and leaving CEO Pei's office, Li Yada thought to herself that this task was a bit too heavy, especially since she herself wasn't good at games like *God of Revelation*.

Thinking about it, it should be impossible to improve her *God of Revelation* game level in the short term.

It seemed that she could only secretly ask Bao Xu for help.