Chapter 10

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The closed beta test was still ongoing. Xu Zhi had maintained his normal routine during the three days of the closed beta test, and was not affected in the slightest.

However, the gossip within the company was getting fiercer and fiercer by the day.

Sometimes, Xu Zhi could hear all kinds of discussions during dinner, but Xu Zhi remained silent about it. Regarding this, many people in the company were saying that President Xu had completely given up on Jumping the Line of Fire. They were saying that he was disheartened, that he had met his Waterloo. They also said that President Xu was powerless to save the situation, that he was going home soon, and so on.

Perhaps others would think so when they saw that Xu Zhi did not care about the data. However, if they could see Xu Zhi’s thoughts, no one would say that he did not care about Jumping the Line of Fire’s closed beta test.

However, compared to other people’s concerns about the data, he had concerns from another perspective.

For example, Xu Zhi had been reading the Jumping the Line of Fire forum for the past two days. And the more he read, the more confident he became.

Although many players had left negative comments, and some even called the game lousy, trash, and so on, there were also many players who expressed their praise for it. For example, many people liked the Biochemical game mode and kept praising it on the forums.

In a short three days, the game had created a polar contrast among the closed beta players. Those who loved it loved it, and those who hated it hated it.

These things could not be seen by the players who were randomly discussing them on the forums, but Xu Zhi could.

Actually, from Xu Zhi’s point of view, whether it was the game, or anything else, there would be people who liked it, and people who do not like it. That applied even to money. There would always be different opinions.

In this world, something that everybody unanimously loved had yet to appear. There was no such thing.

As long as this Jumping the Line of Fire could be liked by a portion of the people, it would be a success.

In other words, as long as they could grab hold of the right audience for Jumping the Line of Fire, the discussions of the others would not matter.

Today was the third day of the closed beta, and it was already 5:10 pm. The closed beta server had been shut down at 5:00 pm, on the dot. Xu Zhi tidied up his clothes and prepared for a meeting.

This meeting was not only to summarize the closed beta, but also to discuss the open beta tomorrow. This was a meeting that had been confirmed a week ago.

When Xu Zhi arrived at the meeting room, the leaders of the various departments and some employees who were in charge of the closed beta were already seated and waiting for him.

“President Xu.”

Seeing Xu Zhi enter, the employees who were seated all stood up. Xu Zhi waved his hand and let everyone sit down.

“Since everyone is here, good. I won’t say anything else and will go straight to the topic of the meeting. I wonder what everyone thinks about this closed beta. Who wants to speak first?”

After Xu Zhi finished speaking, the employees who were sitting below all lowered their heads and looked at the notebooks in their hands. As for the Directors, they were shifting their gazes at each other, but none of them had any intention of speaking.

“What? Do you want me to do the same thing as when I was in school? Do you want me to a roll call? Alright, Little Sister Ding, you go first.”

When she heard Xu Zhi call her directly, Ding Xiaomei did not panic. She took a notebook that she had written beforehand and stood up.

“Director Xu, the data for this closed beta is not very good. Up until today, there were a total of 8,500 downloads, and 8,100 people entered the game. Within three days, the highest number of people in the game was 1,930, and the retention rate was also not very good. Most of them entered the game to complete quests and get rewards. There were less than 1,000 players who had logged in for more than half an hour in the game, and the number of people who logged in continuously for three days was only 600 people. Since it’s closed beta, there only invited players were allowed to join.”

“Okay, you take a seat first.”

After listening to Ding Xiaomei’s data, Xu Zhi did not say anything. Instead, he pointed on the Director of research and development, Wang Kewen.

“Wang Kewen, what do you think about this closed beta?”

“President Xu,” Wang Kewen stood up and said a little embarrassedly, “President Xu, I personally don’t think it’s very ideal. Why don’t we suspend the open beta and then polish the game? Give me another month to further improve the quality of the game’s graphics. At that time, another closed beta might be better.”

“Suspend the open beta test? Why do you say that?” Xu Zhi looked straight at Wang Kewen and said.

“President Xu, isn’t it obvious? If this was a open beta test, the results would definitely not be good. In fact, it would be better to polish the game further,” Wang Kewen said in an angry tone.

“Oh, that’s your opinion. Sit down.”

Xu Zhi asked Wang Kewen to sit down, and looked at the Directors in front of him. He was too lazy to call for names. Instead, he said directly, “Okay, since we started with Wang Kewen, the rest of you, take turns to state your opinions.”

He Wei, who was next to Director Wang, stood up at this time.

“Chief Xu, I don’t think it’s the game’s problem. In my opinion, this game shouldn’t have performed so badly. Perhaps there are other reasons. President Xu, don’t think of it as delaying the open beta, think of it as finding out the reason for the poor performance before the open beta.”

“What other reasons do you mean?” Xu Zhi asked curiously.

“President Xu, I don’t know at the moment.”

He Wei shook his head. He only knew that there was a problem, but he did not know what the problem was.

“Alright, you sit down too.” Xu Zhi nodded. He had a higher opinion of He Wei now that He Wei was able to say that it was not the game’s fault.

The next person was the Director of finance, Huang Meng. She was a woman in her thirties and had been bought by Qin Zishu for a large sum of money.

He Wei had just sat down when she stood up. She started talking.

“President Xu, from the looks of it, I think it’s a good idea to stop the loss in time and stop the open beta testing. After all, this is also the reason why President Xu wanted to stop the research and development of Real Battlefield 2.”

Huang Meng’s sarcastic words gave the Directors beside her goosebumps.

Looking Straight at Xu Zhi, Huang Meng continued, “President Xu, after listening to the other Directors just now, in my opinion, this game is unlikely to become popular. President Xu, we previously invested 30 million in advertising fees for this. This is a huge blow to the finances of the company. Including the research and development fees, a total investment of 40 million have been expended. This is not a small amount.”

“Also, this does not include the other expenses we have to incur after the open beta. It’s not a good business case to invest so much in a game that’s hard to sell.”

“President Xu, we closed beta to test if there are problems, and now that there’s a problem, I think it’s time to turn back. If we turn back now, we can at least get back half of the advertising money we invested, we won’t lose too much.”

“Moreover, President Xu, don’t feel embarrassed. There are plenty of games in the market that have been in closed beta for four to five years. Although it’s called closed beta, it’s actually just a matter of delaying. Who knows, the game might just die in the closed beta stage one day.”

“We’ve been developing for a month, but closed beta is only for three days. We didn’t invest too much at this point. Just treat it as a mistake.”

“President Xu, what do you think?”

Huang Meng pursed her bright red lips and looked at Xu Zhi with a smile..