game trailblazer

Chapter 316 Fierce Competition in Summer Vacation ([-])
"...Yesterday, the three giants of home game consoles, Sega President Isao Okawa, Sony Computer Entertainment Nagakutaragi Takeru, and Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi appeared in a high-end club in Ginza at the same time. The following are the photos sent back by our special reporter on the spot And text reports..." [The front page of "Game World", a well-known newspaper in the game industry in Tokyo - "The gathering of the three giants, the industry structure is facing great changes"]

"...A few days ago, Sega President Isao Okawa, Sony Computer Entertainment Nagakutaragi Takeru, and Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi met in a certain clubhouse, talked about advanced game industry forms, and exchanged their views. The following is our Tokyo The detailed report sent back by the station reporter..." [Special issue of the famous magazine "F News" in the game industry in Kyoto - "New Trends in the Game Industry"]

"... Sega President Isao Okawa met with Sony Computer Entertainment Nagaku Taragi Takeru and Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi last weekend. The three exchanged views on the advanced game industry situation and discussed the possibility of in-depth cooperation..."【 "Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun" Third Edition - "Gathering of the Big Three Home Game Consoles"]

"...the world's largest game company, SSN, is about to be born. Last week, Sega, Sony Computer Entertainment, and Nintendo made new progress in the tripartite meeting. According to the leading sources, Isao Okawa, Ken Kutaragi, and Hiroshi Yamauchi were at the meeting. The possibility of a merger has been studied... If Sega, Sony Computer Entertainment and Nintendo merge, it means that a giant game company with a scale and sales of more than one trillion yen will be born, and it will have Nintendo's strong game development capabilities, Sega's strongest technical strength and Sony Computer Entertainment's strong financial backing will be unmatched by other game companies on this planet, and the unification of home game console formats that players have been looking forward to may also be realized... "[Tokyo tabloid "Sankei Express"'s speculative special issue - "The Birth of SSN"]

……

Contrary to Ken Kutaragi's expectations, he thought the meeting with Isao Okawa and Hiroshi Yamauchi was a secret, but he didn't expect to find related reports when he read the newspaper the next day. The "a certain high-end club in Ginza" mentioned in the report made people He thought of the man who walked into the wrong room that night, it seemed that the guy was not simple.

Subsequent reports were even more overwhelming. Since the three parties did not come out to clarify, did not issue a statement on this, and even declined the reporter's interview, all kinds of speculations were flying all over the sky. Men enjoy the nightlife. The most exaggerated report said that Isao Okawa can’t continue playing now. He plans to sell Sega to whoever bids higher for Sony Computer Entertainment and Nintendo. The meeting of the three parties in the club is to bid on the spot. .

However, Ken Kutaragi did not intend to explain himself. He believed that Isao Okawa and Hiroshi Yamauchi also had the same idea, otherwise a press conference would have been held long ago.In fact, different from what many people guessed, the three parties didn’t talk about too much substantive content that night, and they listened more to Isao Okawa’s complaints, such as Sega’s current predicament, such as the Dreamcast console, which now loses [-] days for every unit sold. Yuan, but the dilemma of having to sell, etc., and intentionally or unintentionally mentioned the technical strength of the nine professional game development companies owned by Sega.

Ken Kutaragi understood what Isao Okawa meant, and he believed that the old fox Yamauchi Hiroshi also understood that Sega was a little bit unable to support it, and planned to switch from a combination of software and hardware to pure game development. He still welcomes this point, anyway. Isn't it just another new game development company?Of course, Ken Kutaragi also knows that Isao Okawa will definitely not hang himself on the tree of Sony Computer Entertainment. If he really turns to game development, he must also engage in a multi-platform strategy.

In order not to add bricks and tiles to his competitors, Kutaragi Ken also tried his best. After talking that night, he later communicated with Isao Okawa in secret. The two parties temporarily reached an undisclosed agreement. The development will use PS, PS2 and PC as the preferred platform, and consider other platforms after one year.Although Isao Okawa has already nodded his head, he knows that this kind of agreement is not very binding. The key is the popularity of the game platform. If you can sell 5000 to 2000 million units, some people will cry and shout to give it to you. When developing games, if you can’t even reach the scale of 2 million units, it will be different. Maybe you ask someone to develop it with money, and no one will come.Therefore, what Sony Computer Entertainment urgently needs to do now is to sell as many PS[-] game consoles as possible, even if they lose a little money for this, Kutaragi Ken believes that with the support of PS game consoles, they will be able to survive Through this most difficult time.

Hiroshi Yamauchi flipped through the special issue of "F Communication" in his hand, smiled contemptuously, threw the magazine aside, picked up the progress reports of the two major projects of the "Dolphin" console and GameBoy Advanced, and read them carefully.Hiroshi Yamauchi didn't care at all about the "big three gatherings" that frequently appeared in newspapers recently. The reason why he went to the Ginza Luming Club that day was just to show that old guy Isao Okawa a little face.Hiroshi Yamauchi has always looked down on Sega as an old rival, that is, the Genesis (MD US version host) gave him a little "surprise". Afterwards, Sega can be said to be getting worse and worse, even in the N64. When I was timid, I couldn't seize the opportunity, but instead became Sony Computer Entertainment's PS.

As for the new Sony Computer Entertainment, Hiroshi Yamauchi also looked down on him. He felt that Ken Kutaragi was taking a crooked path, completely ignoring the true meaning of games. In his opinion, a good game should be "thin, short, interesting and High degree of completion", rather than increasing capacity, increasingly boring game process, and increasingly boring game experience.Therefore, Hiroshi Yamauchi didn't pay attention to what Okawa Kou said that night. He focused more on the wine in the cup and the beautiful woman beside him.Only in the end, Hiroshi Yamauchi felt that Ken Kutaragi and Isao Okawa seemed to have reached some kind of tacit understanding, but he was not worried at all. Based on Nintendo's background, he believed that sooner or later the previous glory would be restored.

Isao Okawa is in a good mood these two days, and he is not affected by the random reports in the newspapers at all, because he has found a way out for Sega's future.During this period of time, the situation of Sega Corporation was not good. Although Isao Okawa took out 500 billion yen of personal property, and although the branching action streamlined the company's organization, if we continue to go down the Dreamcast mainframe, only the network will be left. This only hope.Originally, the networking of the Dreamcast mainframe was still a monopoly, but Dongfang Industrial Group obviously also noticed this, and launched "DreamBoxLive" together with VisualSystem Group, and Sega's development was also affected accordingly, at least according to the current growth rate of users. It is impossible to reach their expected safe number of 2200 million units in the short term.

Judging from the current situation, the suggestion put forward by Shoichiro Atsushi at the time is actually very reasonable, so Isao Okawa specially invited Hiroshi Yamauchi and Ken Kutaragi to the Luming Club, expressing his intentions in a secretive way, Hiroshi Yamauchi may be too He focused on studying the "depth" of the person next to him, and just said a few words of nonsense, but Ken Kutaragi seemed to understand, and made a special appointment for a meeting, and then the two sides reached a certain kind of tacit understanding verbally , preparing to establish a joint venture company in the near future, gather game talents, and adopt a multi-platform development strategy, which can be regarded as a way out without affecting Sega's current policies.

……

"... RB game developer Jaleco Ltd. has accepted our offer. We will acquire 20% of Jaleco's shares at a price of 22 billion Hong Kong dollars at a 7% premium to the latest closing price through a purchase offer... ...According to the schedule, the two parties will complete the corresponding delivery within two weeks..."

"...The development team of "Heavy Armor" headed by Takashi Yamamoto has moved over and settled in Shanghai Zhangjiang High-tech Zone. A new game studio 'METAL' has been established. In the future, it will be responsible for the "Metal" purchased by DATAEAST. The development of the "Reloaded Robot" series, as well as the research and development of some original games..."

"...Sega President Isao Okawa, Sony Computer Entertainment's Nagakutaragi Takeru, and Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi met at the Rokuming Club in Ginza, Tokyo last weekend. The details of the discussion are unknown, but two days later, Kutaragi and Isao Okawa had another meeting. I have been in contact with it... At present, I suspect that there may be some kind of cooperation between Sony Computer Entertainment and Sega, and the specific situation is under investigation..."

"...According to today's latest statistics, global sales of PS game consoles have reached 7335 million units, the new PS-One game consoles have sold a total of 25 units, and PS2 game consoles have sold 492 million units... Today Sony Computer Entertainment announced that, The launch date of the European version of PS2 has been postponed from October 10 to November 26. According to the investigation, the main reason is that the production capacity of PS11 game consoles is insufficient to meet the needs of the North American market and the European market at the same time..."

"...After nearly a month of operation, the current number of registered users of "King of Kings" has reached 13, and the number of online users has reached 9560 at the same time, approaching the scale of [-] people..."

"...The launch date of "Three Kingdoms" has been postponed again, and it is expected to start operation in mid-September..."

"... Yuebai Studio's "Legend" has completed the beta test, and is making adjustments according to the problems found. It is expected to conduct an open test in 32 days..."

"...The preparations for WCG are ready, and the regional competition has also ended. There are 37 contestants from 430 countries in BJ's final... The WCG final will start on August 8 and end on August 20..."

Zhang Lexing clicked the mouse and closed the last work email.Maybe it’s because of the summer vacation, the game industry is very turbulent during this period, and things will happen from time to time, such as Sony Computer Entertainment’s release of the PS-One host, “King of Kings” is officially launched, and “Magic Gate” is ready to be developed. The online version, the film version of "Tomb Raider" plans to shoot a trilogy, "Diablo 2" sold over one million, "Final Fantasy 9" was launched, etc.

These situations were all expected, and there were relevant personnel to deal with them. It was fine for Zhang Lexing to have seen it, but today he saw a new situation. Isao Okawa would take the initiative to invite Yamauchi Hiroshi and Kutaragi Ken, which made him feel a little bit disturbed.In Zhang Lexing's impression, Sega, Nintendo, and Sony Computer Entertainment did not merge, but Sega seems to have developed games for the other two after turning to professional game development.Logically speaking, Zhang Lexing should not have to worry. The big deal is that there will be an additional multi-platform game developer. However, due to the influence of his own variables, he is also worried about some unexpected situation. If you play a merge or something, the result will not be wonderful.

Judging from the current situation, Nintendo seems to have no movement among the three, but there seems to be some ambiguity between Sega and Sony Computer Entertainment, and something is likely to happen.Zhang Lexing felt that it was necessary to send someone to investigate in detail, and only after he had a clear understanding of the situation could he respond.

Thinking of this, Zhang Lexing clicked on the mail system, selected the main persons in charge of the game department from the address book as recipients, and sent his opinion "...be sure to arrange manpower to investigate clearly the relationship between Nintendo, Sega and Sony Computer Entertainment. Trends, especially the latter two, if there is an intention to merge, we must find a way to destroy it..." wrote in the text of the email, and then clicked the transfer button to arrange the work.

After exiting the corporate office system, Zhang Lexing thought for a while, took out his Palm IIIe handheld terminal, flipped through the address book, found a desired number, and then dialed it with the phone on the desk. The phone rang for five minutes. After the sound, the call was connected.

"Mr. Arakawa, I haven't contacted you for a long time, how are you doing?" Zhang Lexing said with a smile while holding the phone handle.

"Mr. Zhang!" Mino Arakawa's surprised voice came from the phone. It was said that since the two met at the wedding in February last year, there were two or three phone calls in the middle, and they hadn't contacted each other for a long time. When he got the call, he was really surprised and happy.

"Mr. Arakawa, I heard that you have been honored as the president of Nintendo North America some time ago, and now you can flex your muscles according to your own ideas. Congratulations." Zhang Lexing said with a slight apology on purpose: "It's because I got the news late. Otherwise, I would have called you by now."

"President?" Mino Arakawa smiled bitterly. Although he was already the president of Nintendo North America in name, he had lost the more important position of director, so that now he had no place to speak in the board of directors. I think it's not as good as when his old friend Howard Lincoln was there. Although he was not the president at that time, he could do as much as the president, but now he is almost like a god.

"Mr. Arakawa, it seems that you are not feeling very comfortable recently. Are you interested in going out for a walk? There will be a worldwide e-sports competition WCG at the end of next month. Why don't you come over and relax." Zhang Lexing issued an invitation, in fact He wanted to do it sooner, but Chen Zishan's current situation made him unwilling to go far. Although her body was always normal, it would take at least three months before he could go about his own affairs with confidence.

Hearing Zhang Lexing's invitation, Arakawa was silent for a while. He knew that the other party was definitely not just going to watch some e-sports competition together, there must be other reasons, and he could vaguely feel it.If it was before, Arakawa would not even consider it. After all, Nintendo North America was like his child at that time, but many things are different now. His old friend Howard Lincoln is gone, and he was given by his father-in-law. It's empty, and many things that were in charge of are gradually taken over by a guy from Kyoto. It won't take long, and it may even be the end of this year. The situation really gave him a very ironic feeling.

If he was really kicked out of Nintendo, even though Arakawa was unwilling, there was nothing he could do. After all, it was his father-in-law, the most powerful person in Nintendo, who made the move. Even if he wanted to resist, he was powerless.In fact, it's not that he didn't work hard, but it's a pity that the painstaking arrangement was dismissed by the old man lightly. It was at that time that he thoroughly recognized who was the boss of Nintendo.

Now Arakawa Minoru's heart is silent, he no longer thinks about fighting for anything, because he knows that he can't fight for anything, but Zhang Lexing's invitation gave him a glimmer of hope, relying on his own strength Well, he definitely can't beat his father-in-law, but with the help of outsiders, the ending may be a little different, at least it won't be worse than it is now.

Thinking of this, Arakawa immediately said on the phone in a very pleasant tone: "I was quite busy at work a while ago, and it's good to relax now, just in time to watch that worldwide e-sports competition. Mr. Zhang, thank you Alright, let's meet at BJ then."

Zhang Lexing was also very happy: "Okay, WCG will be held from August 8th to 20th, Mr. Arakawa, don't miss the time."

"Mr. Zhang, don't worry, I will definitely be on time." Arakawa Minoru's tone on the phone became more relaxed.

Putting down the phone, Zhang Lexing breathed a sigh of relief. The next thing is to see the situation of the meeting next month, but before that, we need to make some preparations...

(End of this chapter)