Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

Page 497

"What a fucking piece of trash."

Ma Xiao cursed.

Then I remembered, oh yeah.

The reason for today's dialogue, and the reason for this crisis.

It's because Chen Zhou was recorded.

Thinking about this made his head feel like it was going to explode.

In fact, Ma Xiao already knew that Chen Zhou had played a role in promoting Red Alert Online before its launch, but he didn't think much of it at the time.

Getting closer to partners is nothing to be concerned about.

in contrast.

Based on his many years of investment experience, this is a good thing.

The art of interpersonal relationships is useful not only domestically but also internationally.

The problem is, interpersonal relationships are interpersonal relationships.

There are boundaries here; he didn't expect Chen Zhou to dare to accept money so directly.

And you think you can control the other party by just taking the money and not doing anything?

wrong.

Thinking about it carefully, if Xinghuo hadn't stirred things up, this matter might have really been over.

After all, Red Alert Online is still distributed by Tencent.

Unless it's a fight to the death, Hu Bing is unlikely to actually expose this matter.

After all, according to the recording, Hu Bing only gave Chen Zhou tens of thousands of yuan after soaking his feet, ostensibly as a travel expense.

If Chen Zhou hadn't been recorded, it wouldn't even be a problem.

However, some things can be done but not spoken of.

Once it's in the sunlight, it becomes a real headache.

An eerie silence fell over the office.

The public relations executives didn't dare to speak and just waited for his response.

About a few minutes later.

Ma Xiao seemed to have finally accepted reality and sighed.

"What are you going to do?"

A senior executive from Tencent's public relations department replied, "We are already preparing a public relations statement that will express that this is Chen Zhou's personal behavior and has nothing to do with Tencent. At the same time, we have contacted the legal team and the internal affairs department to prepare for an investigation into this matter."

Ma Xiao shook her head.

"No, we can't launch an investigation into Chen Zhou now."

Chapter Sixty-One: The Third Axe

Ma Xiao is still very clear-headed.

This audio clip is now circulating online.

But it's just spreading.

Players were skeptical of the recording.

If an investigation is launched against Chen Zhou now, it will undoubtedly confirm the existence of this audio recording, making the already embarrassing public opinion even worse.

"I will report to Mr. Ma. The investigation into Chen Zhou will be postponed until next month. It would be best to handle it internally."

“Send someone to find Hu Bing and tell him that we can get him to terminate his contract and cancel the agency rights for Red Alert Online, but he also has to come forward to clarify.”

"Once he issues a clarification announcement, you should mobilize your online army to explain the ins and outs of the Red Alert Online pay-to-win system. It was Hu Bing who created it, not Tencent."

"We are innocent. It was Hu Bing who ruined the game by messing around with pay-to-win mechanics. After ruining it, he turned around and betrayed Tencent by going to Spark."

"Penguins would never stoop to associating with such a despicable person."

Hear this.

The manager of the announcement department secretly gave a thumbs up, thinking, "As expected of Boss Xiao."

Take a step back first, let Hu Bing, who is eager to terminate the contract, come forward to deny the most important evidence in his hands, and then turn the guns of public opinion around.

At this point, it was too late for Hu Bing to defend himself.

You can't exactly say that your previous clarifications were just nonsense, can you?

"Go ahead, once this is over, immediately increase the budget and continue to steer public attention toward the Crazy Fun Festival."

Ma Xiao stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the busy street outside.

The matter is still unresolved.

But he was already thinking about how to resolve the situation afterward.

~~~

Ma Xiao's plan is quite good.

It's a standard textbook example of Tencent's public relations.

But this time.

He got stuck on the very first step.

Ma Huateng rejected Ma Xiao's proposal.

He not only rejected the proposal, but also did not conceal Chen Zhou's corruption issues.

Instead, they immediately signaled to the internal audit department to launch a full investigation.

This comprehensive investigation is a very large-scale operation.

This is Tencent's biggest anti-corruption campaign in recent years, and Chen Zhou is just a catalyst who happened to run into the line of fire.

Many leads that internal audit departments had been investigating for almost a year were also brought to a head in the past few days.

That same evening, an announcement was issued.

According to Tencent's anti-corruption bulletin, a total of 60 people were dismissed for crossing the "red line," and 10 of them were transferred to the public security authorities for handling due to the seriousness of their offenses.

After the announcement was released, Ma Huateng casually gestured to Ma Xiao, instructing Tencent Games' public relations department to steer the Red Alert Online incident toward Tencent's anti-corruption efforts.

to be frank.

Ma Huateng reacted to the Xinghuo attack in a better way than Ma Xiao.

Because his method actually transcends the existing battlefield.

They launched a counterattack from a higher level of information.

For ordinary players and casual players alike.

The Chinese people strongly support the fight against corruption.

Now that Tencent is raising the banner of anti-corruption and cracking down hard, people are paying less attention to Tencent's problems with Red Alert Online.

Furthermore, it was observed that Chen Zhou, who was heavily promoting Red Alert Online on WEGAME, was also under investigation.

That makes it even clearer.

The argument that it's good for the "emperor" above, but not for the people below, is very popular everywhere.

In addition, there's the public relations team spreading the word.

Penguin's reputation, which was negatively impacted by Red Alert Online, is surprisingly showing signs of reversal.

It gives off a feeling of "a prodigal son returning home is more precious than gold".

Tencent also terminated its agency rights for Red Alert Online and sent a congratulatory telegram to Xinghuo. Ma Xiao also called Hu Bing in his personal capacity, asking him to pass on a message to Xinghuo that both sides should compromise and let the matter rest.

However, the penguin wanted to stop there.

Lin Li, however, thought differently.

What, you think you can just start a war whenever you want and then stop whenever you want?

three days later.

EA publicly called Tencent, demanding that Tencent remove the online version of Red Alert from WEGAME, citing copyright infringement by Tencent.

This call came in.

Ma Xiaoren, who was still busy dealing with Chen Zhou's mess, was completely exhausted.

Ignoring everything else, they called Chen Zhou back, who was being investigated by the internal audit department.

Ask about the situation in person.

After learning a little about the situation...

He started cursing right away.

"You idiot! Why did you plant so many landmines?!"

Chen Zhou remained expressionless.

His career was over the moment he was placed under investigation by the internal audit department.

He didn't care about any of that at the moment.

He answered Ma Xiao's questions like a walking corpse.

In fact, EA did not authorize Tencent to release the Red Alert multiplayer version.

The only project authorized to Hu Bing at the time was an adaptation of an online game.

There is no copyright to the original work.

Chen Zhou knew about this, but he didn't pay much attention to it at the time.

The plan to use the online version of Red Alert to attract users was still approved.

To put it bluntly, this is in China.

Ask around and find out who the older brother is.

Besides, doesn't Red Alert Online also give you EA a share of the copyright revenue?

Since I'm going to share the profits with you, why can't I use your resources?

In fact, EA initially ignored the matter and did not respond at all.

If Red Alert Online runs smoothly, EA, which receives a share of the copyright revenue, probably won't say anything.

pity.

One step wrong, step by step wrong.

With Hu Bing's defection, Tencent was essentially forced to abandon the continued operation of Red Alert Online.

The connection between Tencent and EA regarding the Red Alert IP was severed.

What's even more infuriating is that, due to the wrangling between Hu Bing and Chen Zhou, EA has yet to receive the first phase of copyright revenue sharing.

In addition, Spark bought the remake rights to the Red Alert series a few days ago and is now coming to demand an explanation.

EA naturally went with the flow.

An announcement was issued.

This announcement may not be very damaging, but it is extremely insulting.

Some Red Alert multiplayer platforms immediately responded.

So, you don't have the copyright?

Then why did you ask us to shut down the platform in the first place?!

Even ordinary players were surprised.

Huh?! This is Tencent? The biggest company in China? They dare to release content without copyright?