Whenever something new emerges, there are always those who praise it and those who doubt it. From the perspective of Vivendi's executives, they were the last people who wanted Blizzard Entertainment to rise again.
If that happened, they would become the laughingstock of the industry—mocked for their shortsightedness and lack of investment foresight.
After hearing the news, CEO Adrian sat silently in his chair. He had an uneasy feeling, though he couldn't quite put his finger on why.
However, neither he nor his colleagues noticed that when Blizzard Entertainment announced the Counter-Strike pre-order on its website, Google's search engine in the U.S. simultaneously began displaying the information to users.
This was a targeted display—anyone who had previously searched for games would see it, further increasing the pre-order's exposure.
Even Amazon's shopping platform featured Counter-Strike as a pre-order item. Users could purchase a CD key (CDK) directly through Amazon, bringing in even more traffic.
On top of that, his VTube video platform had a massive daily audience and an established user base. Mavi even spent money on advertisements, renting front-page space on several major gaming news websites...
No one understood internet marketing better than Mavi.
This multi-channel traffic strategy paid off—on the night of the pre-order launch, Counter-Strike sold 20,000 copies in just four hours! That's a staggering $560,000!
In the blink of an eye, he had already recouped the cost of the T-90 tank and C4 explosives!
More importantly, the 20,000 sales figure was still climbing! By 6 AM the next day, it had already surpassed 30,000 copies! The results were so astounding that even competitors and the media couldn't comprehend what was happening.
By 9 AM, inside the Vivendi headquarters' conference room in France, CEO Adrian sat silently, staring at the projection screen. It displayed Blizzard Entertainment's Counter-Strike pre-order sales figures. Each time a CDK was sold, the available inventory—initially set at 200,000—decreased by one.
At this point, the stock had dropped to 158,000 copies. This meant that between 8 PM the previous night and 9 AM that morning—a span of just 13 hours—Mavi's Blizzard Entertainment had sold 42,000 CDKs, raking in a total of $1.176 million!
Seated along the conference table, Vivendi's shareholders and executives were just as silent as Adrian, watching the decreasing numbers in disbelief.
After nearly a minute of silence, Adrian rubbed his temples, then asked the room, "Alright, someone explain this to me—what the hell is going on?"
The executives exchanged uneasy glances. No one could understand how Blizzard Entertainment, which they had written off as a lost cause, had suddenly become a goldmine in less than a month!
At this rate, all 200,000 CDKs—worth $5.6 million—would be sold out within a month. That was half of what they had sold Blizzard for in the first place!
And the worst part? This was just a pre-order—essentially making money out of thin air! It was even more aggressive than the tactics Vivendi had used!
Seeing no response from his executives, Adrian turned to Vice President Leon. He distinctly remembered Leon confidently declaring the day before, "No player would ever spend money on a game without knowing its quality first."
With a frown, Adrian demanded, "Tell me, Leon, what happened? How exactly did you evaluate Blizzard when you visited them?"
Leon, feeling like he was sitting on needles, broke into a cold sweat. He had never expected things to take such a drastic turn. When Blizzard was sold, the board had even praised him. Now, in the blink of an eye, he was the one under fire. How did things turn out like this?!
"Well… Chairman, I didn't expect this either. Maybe that guy, Mavi, just happened to have this game up his sleeve…" Leon stammered. His mind was filled with memories of his first meeting with Mavi. He had to admit—the young Russian businessman had a way of turning things around. A company that was on the brink of collapse had been revived in an instant, like a magic trick.
Legally, the company had already been transferred. Everything was finalized. Even if Vivendi wanted to back out now, it was too late. All they could do was watch as Mavi's Blizzard Entertainment made a fortune—before even officially launching the game.
And they had completely underestimated Counter-Strike's potential. Selling 200,000 CDKs was going to be a breeze—it wouldn't even take two weeks. Meanwhile, latecomers who failed to snag a copy flooded Blizzard's forums, demanding more.
"Damn it! I finally convinced my parents to let me use their credit card to buy a CDK, and now it's sold out!"
"My friends won't stop bragging about getting their copies, and I'm the only one left out! Blizzard, please release more!"
Due to the overwhelming enthusiasm, Blizzard's president, Mike, called Mavi to report the situation.
"Mr. Mavi, all 200,000 CDKs for Counter-Strike have officially sold out! Our customer service team is receiving a flood of requests from players asking us to release more. What do you think?"
By the time he received the call, Mavi had already landed at Washington D.C.'s airport in his private jet.
"Increase the stock by another 300,000 copies. Once they're sold out, we won't release any more—at least not until the game officially launches," Mavi instructed.
He was well-versed in the art of scarcity marketing. Just like a certain fruit-themed phone brand in China—despite having ample stock, they created artificial demand by limiting sales. The goal was to keep consumers on edge.
Of course, Counter-Strike's success wasn't just due to marketing—it had a compelling concept, stunning promotional materials, and a hype campaign that captured players' attention instantly.
"Understood! I'll have the tech team update the system right away!" Mike responded enthusiastically. He was in awe of Mavi's business acumen. In fact, it wasn't just him—every single one of Blizzard's 70 employees now held their new boss in the highest regard.
To put it bluntly, Mavi had single-handedly led Blizzard out of its darkest days. That alone made him a thousand times better than their former owner, Vivendi.
So now, any strategy Mavi proposed was executed without hesitation.
After ending the call with Blizzard's president, Mavi hopped into his convoy of Humvees and left the airport.
Just then, his phone buzzed with a message from Jennifer:
"Have you landed? I'm waiting for you at the Marriott Hotel."
Seeing the message, Mavi nearly misunderstood her intentions.
"I'll come pick you up."
"Okay, see you soon."
Jennifer had asked to meet at the Marriott Hotel because she was having afternoon tea with her girlfriends.
Mavi put his phone aside.
These old-school phones were so inconvenient compared to smartphones. No camera, no internet browsing, no entertainment…
If the timing were right, Mavi would've already invested in Google and pushed them to develop smartphones and the Android system!