game trailblazer

Chapter 266 Year-End Business War
On November 11th, the Dreamcast mainframe officially began to be sold in the RB market. Players who had been waiting all night for this in Akihabara Electronics Street in Tokyo finally got their long-awaited new dreamcast mainframe.The number of Sega's first distribution is about 27 units. The players who have been pre-booked and snapped up on the spot have only one point, and there are very few left. In a hurry, the premiere of Sega's new console can be said to be relatively successful.

However, before Shoichiro Shizuo had time to be happy, a new problem appeared again. The Dreamcast mainframe, which had a great sales momentum, was out of stock. Not only the sellers were out of stock, but even Sega's own inventory was running out.Shoichiro is in a hurry, even if he doesn't care about the hot sales right now, but next month will be the golden time for the year-end business war to grab money, how can the Dreamcast console be out of stock.

Izuko Shoichiro immediately picked up the phone and called Riki Nakagawa, who was in charge of the Dreamcast host project, and asked him repeatedly: "Mr. Nakagawa, why is the Dreamcast host out of stock, and why do we have so little stock?"

Unexpectedly, Nakagawa Li on the other end of the phone was also full of bitterness. After an explanation, Niejiao Shoichiro finally understood the crux of the problem.It turns out that the image processing chip of the Dreamcast mainframe uses the PowerVR2 specially designed by NEC, and the production of the PowerVR2 chip is mainly placed in a branch factory of NEC in the Philippines. The military rebelled, and the current production of the Philippine branch factory was basically stagnant. The previous inventory could not be sent out for the time being. So Sega, which was eagerly waiting to use the Dreamcast mainframe to open the market, came out with the first batch of products, and found itself in embarrassment. Faced with the dilemma of waiting for the rice to go into the pot, facing the urgent documents flying from all directions like snowflakes, he could only watch helplessly and anxiously.

After yelling at the phone, Shoichiro Niriko gradually calmed down. He knew that the key to solving the problem now lies with NEC. Only when their PowerVR2 chip supply resumed, could the Dreamcast mainframe be able to catch up with the critical moment of the business war at the end of the year.Thinking of this, Nieko Shoichiro picked up the phone again and called Akinobu Kansugi, vice president of NEC's PowerVR2 chip business.

"Kinsugi-kun, excuse me." Even though he knew that the other party couldn't see his expression, Niriko Shoichiro said to the phone with a smile on his face.

"Oh, it's President Ruzuo Zhao." Jinshan Mingxin heard the voice in the call, and he immediately understood the purpose of the caller.

"Yes, exactly. Mr. Jinshan, I'm sorry, I have something to trouble you."

"President Netsuko Akira, you should know that the problem of tight supply of PowerVR2 chips cannot be solved immediately. Even if the assembly lines of other factories are adjusted to produce, it will not be a short-term matter."

"Jin Shanjun, I understand this, but it's almost the end of the year, you have to solve some of it no matter what, or we won't even be able to get a Dreamcast host by then."

"President Niejiaozhao, I'm really sorry for causing you trouble. How about this, I'll help you find a way, and try to help you transfer a batch of PowerVR2 chips. Although the number is not too much, it can last for a while. In the Philippines, we will also find a way to resume production as soon as possible, and we will be able to solve the problems that plague us by then."

"Kinsugi-kun, thank you so much, let's go to the club in Ginza some other day, hehe..." Izuko Shoichiro glanced at the closed door of the president's office, and the smile on his face became lewd.

As expected, from the other end of the phone, there was also Jinshan Mingxin's knowing laughter, with a certain tacit understanding of a man.

……

"President Kutaragi, you are ready." The host of the press conference made a gesture of invitation, signaling Kutaragi Ken to come to the speaking seat.

Ken Kutaragi nodded slightly, and while greeting the media reporters in the audience with a smile, he slowly came to the speech seat.After standing still, he smiled and looked down the stands, and said, "First of all, thank you for your appreciation... If you have any questions, you can ask them now."

A beautiful woman sitting in a relatively front seat stood up and asked: "President Kutaragi, hello! I am Asami from Asahi Shimbun. Some time ago, RB Kogyo Shimbun and some online media broke the news that Sony and Toshiba will jointly develop New generation, is this true?"

"Miss Mami, we do have a plan with Toshiba in this regard. In the new generation of PLAYSTATION, we will introduce more advanced technologies, which will definitely bring consumers a better entertainment experience."

With a bang, the reporters in the audience immediately became excited and raised their hands to indicate that they had questions, and some impatient ones even wanted to rush to the stage to ask questions.

Seeing the excitement in the audience, the host hurried out to maintain order. When the reporters calmed down a bit, he held the microphone and pointed with his finger and said, "Mr. fifth from the left in the third row, please ask questions. .”

The reporter who was called immediately stood up, took the microphone from the staff next to him, and asked, "President Kutaragi, when will your new generation PLAYSTATION be launched?"

"When it's appropriate, but not now, let's move on to the next question." Ken Kutaragi replied with a smile as he stood behind the speaker's seat.

Under the signal of the host, another reporter stood up again: "President Kutaragi, I am Hiroi, a reporter from Kyodo News, what are the specifications of the new generation PLAYSTATION, what are the performance parameters, and what kind of storage media will be used? "

"I'm sorry, Mr. Hiroi, because this involves company secrets, it's not convenient to disclose it for the time being, but I can say responsibly that the performance of the new model will be more than 100 times that of the current PS game console."

"What, how is this possible?" Many reporters in the audience couldn't believe what Ken Kutaragi said. If the PS game console is more than 100 times, isn't it also 10 times the Dreamcast console? Wouldn't Sega want to use it again? It's a cup.But then the reporters became happy again. At least they don’t have to worry about running out of content to write when they go back today. Whether it’s “Sony’s new console = 100 PS game consoles” or “PlayStation2, Dreamcast’s nightmare”, I believe they will all attract readers’ attention. .

The questions continued, and so did the answers, until the last question "I heard that Sony's portable handheld PocketStation will be delayed. Is it true?" and the last answer "Due to the delay in the manufacturing cycle, the PocketStation will be delayed. It will be listed next spring," and the press conference is drawing to a close.

In the next few days, many newspapers and online media reported on this press conference, especially Ken Kutaragi himself confirmed the news that Sony and Toshiba jointly developed the next-generation PlayStation. "RB Industry News" is also very proud of this.This news is another blow to Sega, which is still stuck in the supply of PowerVR2. Many players who hold money and wait for the Dreamcast console are also a little hesitant. For a game console whose performance may be 10 times that of the Dreamcast console, and With the performance of excellent games in the past, it would be hypocritical to say that you don't expect it. For this reason, Shoichiro Nieko broke two telephones, and even his white hair suddenly increased.

……

Hiroshi Yamauchi, who also heard the news, smiled disdainfully. How could Ken Kutaragi’s tricks deceive him, who is so old and sophisticated? I have already guessed Kutaragi Ken's intention, but he just wanted to use an unwarranted new console to contain the Dreamcast console that was launched first. This kind of gimmick is left over from Nintendo's back then, but Sega is quite fond of it. sets.

Hiroshi Yamauchi doesn't care who lives and who dies between Sony and Sega. He even hopes that both companies will lose out, so that Nintendo can profit from it and rebuild its former glory.But now Hiroshi Yamauchi's eyes have crossed the ocean and landed on the land of America on the other side of the ocean, where there is a tough Christmas battle to be fought.

Arakawa looked at the mountains of N64 cassettes in the aisle, and sighed slightly in his heart. The lack of games has always been the biggest shackle in the development of N64. On top of a few masterpieces, fortunately, these masterpieces are still relatively competitive. At least in North America, the N64 has always been ahead of the PS game console, and sometimes even slightly better.

But I didn't expect that after so long, this situation still hasn't improved much. Now that we are facing the golden period of Christmas, Arakawa only has "Mario Party", "The Legend of Zelda-Ocarina of Time" and other three, Four games supported the scene, and the only one developed by a third party was "The Legend of Zelda-Ocarina of Time". Compared with the huge lineup of PS games, it seemed very shabby.

But who caused all this. Every time when he dreams back at midnight, Arakawa can't help but ask himself, the answer is actually obvious. If it wasn't for that stubborn old man in Yamauchi who insisted on using some damn cassette, if he could Listen to your own persuasion and use more popular CDs to store games. I believe that Heaven will never be reduced to today's situation.

It's a pity that Arakawa can only lose his temper every time in his villa, because he is the son-in-law of the old man in Yamauchi, so he knows that even though he has opened up such a vast world in North America, within Nintendo, the real The old man Yamauchi is the only one who keeps his word. Don't look at Shigeru Miyamoto and Jun Yokoi's ebb and flow. nothing.The only thing Arakawa can do now is to exercise well and persevere. Only by persevering can there be hope.

……

In Baofeng Electronics Factory, Shekou Industrial Zone, Shenzhen, in the heavily guarded factory area, the factory director, Duan Yongping, was not here. At this time, he was accompanying Tu Wen, the vice director of the Electronic Entertainment Division, to Wuxi, Zhejiang Province, to inspect the production of game machines that were about to be built. Base, there will be the main production place of the domestic game console DreamBox128, which is inherited from the Moon Goddess No. [-] machine. It is related to the future domestic game industry. Sometimes, there is a situation where the chain is dropped.

Duan Yongping and Tu Wen couldn't be idle, and Xu Yeming, the director of the electronic entertainment business department, couldn't even take care of the upcoming Christmas and New Year. He took his team and flew to RB from the sky. Accompanied by manager Tian Ye and administrative assistant Ren Gu, they paid a low-key visit to many relatively powerful game development companies, such as CHUNSOFT, which once helped Square produce the "Dragon Quest" series, and SNK, which is famous for its action games. company.Xu Yeming recommended the DreamBox128 console to these companies one by one, and showed them the convenient game development system and exquisite game demo, in order to win over as many game companies as possible before the start of **S next spring Join the development camp of DreamBox128 host.

The same thing is happening in North America and Europe, except that the protagonist of the story is replaced by the capable officers sent by Yang Xinxin and the game publishing companies in charge of cooperation in the region, such as Activision in the United States and Eidos in the United Kingdom, as well as their partner Ubisoft in France .They are also doing the same thing as Xu Yeming, but they have a little more time, because their main battlefield is the E3 exhibition in May next year.

……

After the business war kicked off at the end of December, facing the counterattack driven by Nintendo's N12 main software "The Legend of Zelda-Ocarina of Time", Sony's PS game console with a solid foundation still won the victory with a slight advantage, while the unlucky However, Sega still failed to solve the supply problem of PowerVR64 chips. As a result, the Dreamcast console was seriously out of stock and had to give up the full distribution. Coupled with the expected delay of many games, Sega had no choice but to watch the business opportunities from itself. slipped away in vain.

At the end of December, Sony Computer Entertainment's president Takeshi Taragi proudly announced at a press conference: "PS global shipments have exceeded 12 million units..."

With the end of 1998, the battle for the new generation of game consoles led by Sega's Dreamcast host started off with the squib of the Dreamcast host. On the surface, Sony has become a big winner. In fact, under the table, the turbulent undercurrent is still surging...

(End of this chapter)