"The publicity campaign wasn't very effective," Peng Leyun said softly, adjusting his glasses.

Chen Lu's expression didn't change much. "How is it not ideal?"

"The feedback from players who participated in the closed beta was excellent, but we just couldn't raise its profile no matter what we did."

Peng Leyun breathed a sigh of relief. Since she had originally planned to report to Chen Lu today anyway, she decided to just leave it all behind.

“Our current investment in advertising and promotion is basically all negative returns... After all, ‘The Gate of the End’ is currently the only mobile game on the market with this kind of gameplay. It’s pioneering, and some players may not be motivated to try it out.”

Seeing Chen Lu's gloomy expression, he paused for a moment, then quickly comforted him, "Actually, it's not too bad. The hype surrounding this pre-launch event is much stronger than our previous two games."

That means it's critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful.

Chen Lu muttered to himself, then couldn't help but smile at Peng Leyun.

Peng Leyun's words would be barely enough to comfort Jiang Chao, yet he actually wanted to comfort him. No one in the entire Polaris organization knew better than him, the founder, just how dire the situation was.

They didn't have any money for marketing before, and the first two games were already low in popularity. They only became popular by doing some fancy tricks when the games were officially launched.

Putting aside the difference in marketing costs, how much did the first two games cost in total to develop?

When they were making "Kill Tower", Polaris was just a small studio, and it only cost them a little over 200,000 yuan from start to finish.

Regenerating Cell had funding from Tencent, so it had a relatively large budget, but it only used two or three million dollars.

However, the initial budget for "The Gate of the End" was 60 million, and with the subsequent investments, it has already exceeded 80 million.

The development cycle alone is longer than the previous two games combined.

Therefore, this game has never followed a conventional path since its inception; if its popularity drops even slightly, it will definitely not be able to break even.

Although the feedback from the publicity campaign was poor, this kind of thing couldn't be kept from these investors, so Peng Leyun still gave a detailed report at the meeting.

"Mr. Chen is so young, yet he dares to throw away nearly 100 million yuan. He is so much better than his peers."

"Back then, Mr. Chen spoke with such confidence that I thought this game would be incredibly popular in the future. Haha, it turned out to be a dud that didn't generate much buzz despite spending so much money on advertising."

At that moment, several of the investors suddenly spoke up.

These people who follow the trend are being kind by saying they only have a superficial understanding of the industry; they don't have the patience of those who chose to invest from the beginning.

Realizing that he might not be able to get his investment back, he couldn't help but start being sarcastic and sarcastic.

“That’s how young people are these days, all talk and no action. I saw that coming a long time ago, so I didn’t invest much at all.” A middle-aged man with a round face chimed in, then looked up at Yu Chunlan sitting not far away. “President Yu, we’ve known each other for so many years, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen you misjudge someone.”

Yu Chunlan clasped her hands together, returned a polite smile, and then turned her head to continue observing the current situation with a smile.

Looking sideways again, Chen Lu's expression remained calm. He sat quietly in the main seat, his head slightly lowered, as if nothing had happened.

She was very satisfied.

Chen Lu was unaware that Yu Chunlan was observing so much; his eyes were glued to his phone under the table the entire time.

Chen Lu: What are we having for dinner?

Liang Zhirou: It's only morning...

Chen Lu: I'm a bit bored, I'd like to chat with you for a bit.

Liang Zhirou: scratching her head in confusion.jpg

Liang Zhirou: Oh right, I was halfway through drawing when I suddenly saw Muxue stand up, holding onto the bed railing...

Chen Lu: Didn't you take any photos?

Liang Zhirou: I forgot in my excitement.

"I can only say that President Chen is truly no ordinary person."

The left side of the conference table remained noisy.

Several veterans of Polaris looked up as if they wanted to say something, but given the results of their expensive marketing campaign during the closed beta, they lacked confidence.

If things continue at the current pace, The Gate of the End will only become unprofitable, and Polaris will be dragged down to bankruptcy.

All the hard work of a group of people over the past few years has gone down the drain.

At first, they were even a little worried that Chen Lu might do something drastic.

Bang!

The conference room table was suddenly slammed down, the dull thud echoing throughout the room. Everyone froze for a moment, and then the room fell silent.

Chen Lu looked up and realized that the voice was coming from Lin Miaomiao.

Holy crap, this guy actually came to the meeting.

That was his first reaction.

Lin Miaomiao hissed in pain, secretly shaking the hand she had used to slam the table under the table, and continued angrily, "For a project worth 80 million, if I were to invest only 2 million like you, I would be too embarrassed to even attend the meeting. Yet President Li can still talk on and on. When it comes to whether someone is an ordinary person or not, you are definitely not inferior!"

The man was caught off guard and instinctively glared at her.

Unexpectedly, Lin Miaomiao was not intimidated at all and looked back at him with a cold face.

She thought to herself, "I'm not even afraid of Chen Lu, why would I be afraid of you?"

She's the only one who can stand up to the two dog-like bosses at Polaris!

Chen Lu, who hadn't said a word the whole time, tapped the table twice, drawing everyone's attention.

Seeing that the meeting room had quieted down again, he finally spoke: "Although the contract stated that the investment could not be withdrawn, we can draft a new contract so that you can withdraw the money."

"Of course, when it comes to future dividends, you won't get any of it."

Seeing that Chen Lu's expression remained calm and composed, the round-faced man was suddenly startled, and for a moment he wondered if he had misunderstood the situation, or if Chen Lu really had some other solution.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!