game trailblazer

Chapter 334 The "Unity" of Sega and Sony

RB Tokyo, Sega headquarters building...

Isao Okawa was leaning on the sofa in the president's room, with an oxygen hose inserted into his nose, and one hand covering his chest, his face flushed slightly strangely.Not far in front of him is a large-screen TV, which is showing the AMSHOW (large-scale video game and entertainment machine exhibition) from the Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture. The person who appears in the camera is Sega A press conference was held.

Suzuki Yu, Nagai Akira, Suzuki Hisashi and other Sega executives stood on the podium with relaxed smiles on their faces.Xiang Shanzhe also smiled, took the microphone handed over by the host of the press conference, looked at the news media and guests under the stands, and announced happily: "I'm very glad that everyone can come to Sega's press conference this time. Now We will announce today's mysterious guest for everyone..."

Saying that, Xiang Shanzhe turned sideways, unobtrusively handed a signal to Suzuki Yu and others, and Suzuki Yu and others comprehended and pulled off the red silk covering the unknown object behind them, revealing There is a transparent glass cover below, and there is a substrate for arcade machines inside the glass cover.

"This is our star today, the new generation of arcade boards that will be launched by Sega - 'NAOMI2'. While being compatible with the original 'NAOMI' boards, the performance has been greatly improved, and the polygon processing capacity is as high as 1000 million. seconds, and supports multiple acceleration capabilities such as 6 independent light sources and hardware T&L... The performance of the new substrate 'NAOMI2' will be four times that of the 'NAOMI' substrate...In order to ensure that games on the new substrate can continue to be transplanted to the Dreamcast host In the near future, an expansion card dedicated to the Dreamcast host will be launched..."

While Xiang Shanzhe was introducing the new substrate "NAOMI2", a demo animation said to be "VR Warrior 4" was still playing on the large-screen TV. In a pavilion full of Chinese style, a Shaolin warrior The monk was performing fierce boxing, and the clear and realistic picture immediately attracted the attention of many people.

Xiang Shanzhe looked at the expectant eyes of everyone with satisfaction, and launched a new arcade board, which was a suggestion he made to President Isao Okawa. Although the arcade market has declined slightly, arcades are the foundation of Sega after all, and they have always supported them. An important pillar of Sega's growth, and at least half of the company's technical strength is invested in arcades. If it comes to arcade-related technologies, Sega will no longer be number one if it thinks it is second.In Xiangshan Zhe's view, the launch of the "NAOMI2" substrate can stimulate the recovery of the arcade market. Using the stronger performance of the "NAOMI2" substrate can develop better games, and the attraction to Sega's core players will also increase. The card is ported to the Dreamcast host, which may stimulate the sales of the Dreamcast host again.After all, since the era of MD consoles, arcade transplanted games have always been Sega's flagship product. Xiangshan Zhe believes that this strategy will definitely bring some opportunities for Dreamcast consoles.

Looking at the lively scene on the screen, Da Chuan Gong also became a little excited. If the doctor had not ordered him to pay attention to his emotions, he might have planned to stand up and have a little celebration. .During this period of time, the situation of Sega Corporation seems to have improved. After the division of departments, the internal atmosphere of the company seems to be much better, and the cooperation between various branches has also slightly increased. For example, today's "NAOMI2" substrate conference, in addition to The department in charge of the R&D of the arcade board, and several game departments that have been branched out and become independent also came to join in, which was unimaginable in the past.In the old Sega, arcade machines belonged to the arcade department, home consoles belonged to the home computer department, hardware belonged to the hardware department, and games belonged to the game development department. Everyone went their own way, and even when they encountered difficulties in other departments, they were unwilling to lend a helping hand. Sometimes a very simple question is delayed for such reasons.

Perhaps Sega has stood on the edge of a cliff, or perhaps Isao Okawa's feat of saving Sega has moved the employees. In short, the current internal atmosphere of Sega may be the best time in the past ten years.Isao Okawa is very pleased with this change. He has always felt that as long as the company's employees can work together in one direction, there will be no obstacles that Sega cannot overcome.

A satisfied smile appeared on Isao Okawa's face. Suddenly, he felt a little discomfort in his throat, and suddenly coughed violently. Miss Ayumi Kurosawa, the secretary, hurried over and rubbed his chest slowly with her hands. While asking with concern: "Mr. Okawa, are you okay?"

With the help of the secretary Ayumi Kurosawa, Isao Okawa felt that his throat seemed to be more comfortable, and his cough gradually stopped. He raised his head and forced a smile to Ayumi Kurosawa.The smiling face is close at hand, gently sniffing a long and light fragrance, which makes Okawa Gong's mood throbbing. If he was in good health before, he would definitely stretch out his hand, and It is very possible for Ms. Kurosawa to come to "reciprocity", and even a deeper contact, but now he has the heart but not the strength, so he can only sigh in his heart: "Time is not forgiving! "

Sega's internal worries have temporarily subsided, but the external environment has not improved much.Relying on the substantial price reduction of Dreamcast hosts, they even launched a free hosting strategy based on SegaNet (a dedicated network service for Dreamcast hosts, that is, to provide Internet access services exclusively for Dreamcast hosts), that is, to pay the Internet fee and get a set of Dreamcast hosts for free. In North America The sales of Dreamcast consoles in the region can be described as booming. It has surpassed Nintendo’s N64 console and climbed to the second place. The gap from the top-ranked DreamBox128 is only a few thousand units. As long as we work harder, we will become the North American region The sales champion is not out of the question.

However, this does not alleviate Sega's plight, and even the popularity of the Dreamcast host will bring more losses. Because of the relationship between the production volume, the production cost of the Dreamcast host has been high, and now every sold one is at least It will cost 10000 yen.Speaking of which, Sega’s current loss is so high. One is the development cost of “Shenmue”, which is as high as 70 billion yen. It's the past tense, but the Dreamcast mainframe is still in the ongoing tense, but Isao Okawa just can't let go.Because he knew that once the Dreamcast mainframe was put down, Sega would not have the strength to do it again, at least for quite a long time, there would be no such opportunity.

During this period of time, Isao Okawa has been trying to save the Dreamcast console, including agreeing with Xiangshan Zhe’s plan, promoting the free console strategy in North America again, and even spending his own money to fill in the hole for Sega, in order to make the Dreamcast console more. live for a while.

A while ago, Isao Okawa made an exception and invited Yamauchi Hiroshi and Kutaragi Ken to find a way out for the Dreamcast console. He hoped that when Sega gave up the Dreamcast console, the Dreamcast console could survive in another way.At the Luming Club in Ginza that day, Isao Okawa suggested to his two former rivals that he hoped that Nintendo’s “Dolphin” console or Sony’s PS2 would be compatible with the Dreamcast console. Host users can migrate to the "Dolphin" host or PS2, but Yamauchi Hiroshi and Kutaragi Ken are not interested in this.

Isao Okawa himself actually hoped that Nintendo's "Dolphin" host would be compatible with the Dreamcast host. After all, only the "Dolphin" host is still in the research process, and the PS2 has already been put on the market. " (Dreamcast console compatible with PS game emulator) is not completely impossible, but unfortunately Kutaragi Ken is not interested, and I hope that the older Hiroshi Yamauchi is also not interested.

Sitting in the Luming Club, Hiroshi Yamauchi's eyes stayed on the woman next to him for a longer time. Isao Okawa was a little doubtful at the time if Hiroshi Yamauchi heard what he said, but Ken Kutaragi made a new suggestion, hoping Cooperate with Sega in game development, and even willing to contribute money to help Sega tide over the difficulties.In desperation, Isao Okawa had no choice but to agree, but he also kept an eye out for it. He did not agree to let Sega directly develop games for Sony Computer Entertainment, nor accepted Ken Kutaragi's proposal to invest. Instead, the two parties established a joint venture company. do this.

Isao Okawa didn’t know what Ken Kutaragi was thinking. Judging from the other party’s initial proposal, it seemed that he still had the idea of ​​annexing Sega. If it was in the past, Isao Okawa would have slapped this annoying guy out. , but the current situation is very unfavorable to Sega. He also knows that his body is running out, so he tries to pave the way for Sega's future. His future is gone, but he doesn't want Sega to have no the future.He agreed to Ken Kutaragi’s proposal, but it doesn’t mean that Isao Okawa would like others to swallow his Sega. In his opinion, the relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment can only be regarded as an alliance, a kind of alliance against the vigorous latecomer DreamBox128 temporary alliance.According to Isao Okawa's idea, he originally wanted to recruit Hiroshi Yamauchi into the gang, but unfortunately, Hiroshi Yamauchi's arrogance is still there. He can only use Sony Computer Entertainment as a shield against DreamBox128 for the time being. During this period, Sega can work hard to accumulate strength , waiting for better opportunities in the future.

While receiving Ms. Kurosawa's gentle service, Isao Okawa looked at the bright smiles of Xiangshan Tetsu and others on the TV screen, and secretly sighed: "Whether the Dreamcast host will be successful or not depends on this last one..."

RB Tokyo, inside the Sony Computer Entertainment office building...

Kutaragi Ken slammed the phone back to its original position with a "snap". He was very angry now, very angry, and wanted to kill someone if he was so angry. If that idiot Fukai Ichiro didn't report the situation by phone just now, he can guarantee Ichiro Fukai is definitely lying down now.

During this period, Fukai Ichiro was entrusted by Kutaragi Ken to communicate with PS2 game developers. Of course, the main purpose was to grasp the progress of each developer so as to arrange suitable market promotion activities, including Oddworld Inhabitants of the United States. .

The game being developed by Aldward Company is called "Munch Oddysee". At the E5 exhibition in the United States in June, it made a big splash and attracted the attention of many people in the industry.In order to speed up the development progress of the game, Ken Kutaragi also specially arranged for people to provide technical support for Aldward, and asked Ichiro Fukai to pay attention to the development progress of Aldward.

Since then, the situation has been quite smooth. The only regret is that Aldward Company does not seem to be short of money and has not accepted financial assistance from Sony Computer Entertainment. At the beginning of this month, "Abby's Adventure" was exhibited at the ECTS exhibition in the UK. The game was well received, so Ken Kutaragi specifically told Ichiro Fukai to go to Aldward Company in the near future to sign a game exclusive agreement with them, that is, to officially finalize "Abby's Breakthrough".

At that time, I spoke well on the phone, and Ichiro Fukai agreed very happily. Who would have thought that he would bring back some bad news. "Abby's Breakthrough" has become an exclusive game on DreamBox128.When he first heard the news, Ken Kutaragi didn't recover for a moment, thinking that there was something wrong with his ears and he heard it wrong.

"President, "Abby's Breakthrough" has already been signed by someone else!" Ichiro Fukai repeated with a shy face.

"I didn't ask you to sign the agreement, how could it be signed by someone else!" Ken Kutaragi roared on the phone.

"This...President, when I arrived, Aldward Company had already signed a contract with someone else, and I..." Ichiro Fukai said awkwardly: "President, I need to manage more projects, Oldward Company There are a little less people going here, that..."

"You bastard!" Ken Kutaragi was furious, obviously he had explained the matter long ago, and obviously Ichiro Fukai had been staring at the previous development progress, this idiot actually had the nerve to say why.

Kutaragi Ken dropped the phone angrily, he was afraid that if he continued to listen, he would not be able to help but make some irrational actions.During this time, Sony Computer Entertainment had a very ordinary life. When it first started cooperating with Sega, it attracted a lot of media attention. Now other people’s attention is focused on DreamBox128. When sales will exceed 128 million units is on the lips, and Sony Computer Entertainment seems to have become a loser.

Ken Kutaragi is helpless in this situation, currently PS2 is limited by the ban and can only be sold in the RB market, while his opponent DreamBox128 is much calmer, on the one hand and Sony Computer Entertainment in the RB market, on the other hand he can Easy to occupy overseas markets, but PS2 can only wait until the license expires in October.

In fact, Ken Kutaragi understands the current situation very well. His side is equivalent to being kept in captivity, and he can only compete with others in a small pool for drinking water, while others dominate part of the small pool, while they can still be in the big pond outside. pumping.It's not that Ken Kutaragi doesn't want PS2 to be sold in overseas markets earlier, after all, no matter how big the RB market is, there is a limit.

However, RB's traditional habit is to pay attention to the process, and it is a very lengthy process. Ken Kutaragi very much wanted to appeal directly to the Prime Minister, so he even looked down and asked the headquarters for help.It's a pity that the process that should go is still unavoidable, because the prime minister needs to arrange people to investigate, analyze, demonstrate, and discuss, and it is estimated that it will take at least four months when all these things are completed. It's already June, that is to say, after the prime minister arranges people to finish the tossing and agrees to Kutaragi Ken's appeal, the PS2 can already be sold overseas by then.So the final result is that Ken Kutaragi gave up the appeal, and while his heart was bleeding, he waited for the day when the license expired with "peace of mind".

It is impossible for the sales of PS2 hosts to make a big leap for the time being. Kutaragi Ken had no choice but to focus on the game software. For this reason, he also focused his attention on Sega who was in trouble. Unfortunately, that old fox Isao Okawa is not easy to deal with. Only a painless joint venture company came out, and the so-called multi-platform (PS, PS2, PC) is actually mainly PC, which makes Kutaragi Ken feel like he is using money for nothing.Now Ichiro Fukai made such a move again, "Abby's Breakthrough", which was almost put into the bag, was robbed and killed halfway.

"That idiot of Shenjing..." Ken Kutaragi gritted his teeth and muttered, stretched out his hand and tore an unlucky document on the desktop into powder, crumpled it into a ball of paper, and threw it into the wastebasket full of anger...

(End of this chapter)