game trailblazer

Chapter 374 Nintendo Special Board of Directors
April in Kyoto is when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. If a few years ago, Yamauchi Hiroshi might have gone to Maruyama Park to enjoy the low-hanging "Gion Night Cherry Blossoms", or to linger in the Sanboin Garden on Mount Daigo. Or strolling with his family on the path of philosophy covered with cherry blossoms, but the recent successive defeats have made him no longer interested in going out for entertainment.

In the past two years, Hiroshi Yamauchi has always felt that Nintendo seems to be a bit unlucky.GameBoy, one of the gold mines used to make money, was given a large share of the pie due to the defection of Yokoi Junping and others, and it became like a chicken rib.The N64 game console used to support the scene collapsed too quickly. Coupled with the repeated raids of DreamBox128 and PS2, it withdrew from the market prematurely. Even more so for companies.However, the sales of NGC game consoles with high hopes have been sluggish. Not only has the target of hardware sales been delayed, but also the release of game software has been very bleak. It cannot have much impact on DreamBox128 and PS2, which are one step ahead.

In order to promote the NGC game console, Hiroshi Yamauchi spent a lot of money. Not only did the entire Nintendo resources fully lean towards the NGC project, but he also specially sent Satoshi Iwata, who he thought would be the next president, to take charge, even at the expense of changing the tradition. He put the first release of the game console in North America, but in the end his gamble failed. The dismal sales performance in the past few months has basically sentenced the NGC game console to death. Perhaps only a miracle can save it.

The bleak sales of NGC game consoles not only severely hit Hiroshi Yamauchi's confidence, but also affected his follow-up plans.Originally, according to Hiroshi Yamauchi’s idea, the NGC game console was released in North America, which has a larger market capacity, not only because he is optimistic about the potential of the North American market, but more importantly, he hopes to take this opportunity to give Satoru Iwata, who is in charge of this matter, a chance to perform. , This is related to the selection of Nintendo's next president, and it is also related to the future of Nintendo.

In the early years, Hiroshi Yamauchi wanted to train his son Katsuhito Yamauchi to succeed him, so he specially arranged for Katsuhito Yamauchi to train under Minoru Arakawa, who was in charge of the North American branch. He got involved with a few fringe Hollywood female stars, and the entertainment tabloids published the erotic photos of Katsuhito Yamauchi and the female stars, which almost made Hiroshi Yamauchi dizzy.Seeing that his son had become a douchebag who could not be supported, Hiroshi Yamauchi was disappointed and turned his attention to his son-in-law Arakawa Minoru. As expected, Arakawa Minoru did not disappoint him. There was a beautiful turnaround on the game console, pulling Nintendo back from the brink.

So Arakawa became Hiroshi Yamauchi's second favorite candidate. He thought that Arakawa was bold and pungent, with a very pioneering spirit, just like himself who had just taken over Nintendo back then.However, the development of things was not the same as Hiroshi Yamauchi expected. After Sony Computer Entertainment’s PS game console rose, the DreamBox128 suddenly appeared, followed by the PS2, and the undead Dreamcast console. Nintendo's living environment suddenly became dangerous.And Hiroshi Yamauchi's thoughts have also changed accordingly. He used to admire the spirit of innovation very much, so he promoted Junpei Yokoi, supported Shigeru Miyamoto, and sent Minoru Arakawa to take charge of the North American branch, but as he grew older , he began to slowly become conservative, especially after experiencing Junpei Yokoi's failure on VRBoy, his state of mind began to change.Hiroshi Yamauchi believes that in the current situation where strong enemies are all around, what Nintendo needs is not pioneering generals. If Arakawa is in charge, an overly risky policy is likely to bring Nintendo to an overturned situation.

In desperation, Hiroshi Yamauchi could only look outside his family. At one point, he wanted to choose between Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda. Unfortunately, these two had their own flaws. Genius, but not good at business management, and Xuanyang Takeda's influence in the industry has become very weak due to his long-term seclusion.In the end, the relatively young Satoru Iwata came into Hiroshi Yamauchi's sight. This young man who graduated from the Information Engineering Department of Tokyo Institute of Technology once single-handedly turned Nintendo's most important second-party developer HAL Research Institute from a loss to a profit, and A series of popular game brands have been created. According to Hiroshi Yamauchi, Satoru Iwata is a character with both ambition and reason, and is the best candidate to be the next president.

According to Hiroshi Yamauchi's plan, he intends to gradually promote Iwata Satoshi to the position of president in the next two years. Letting him preside over NGC's marketing plan this time is also a pavement for Iwata Satoshi to become the president. .However, the dismal sales of NGC game consoles made the prospect of this plan confusing. Hiroshi Yamauchi was worried that the future of Iwata Satoshi would be affected by this, so he planned to fight his old face at the special board meeting held today and use his influence to get Iwata Satoshi As for the responsibility for the failure of NGC sales, Hiroshi Yamauchi is ready to bear it himself. Anyway, he is also going to go down. It is better to pave the way for Iwata Satoshi. He believes that the future of Tiantian belongs to Iwata Satoshi. Satoru Iwata can lead Nintendo to rebuild its former glory.

"Hi Mr. Yamauchi!"

"Good morning, President!"

"President Yamauchi, good morning!"

From the moment when Hiroshi Yamauchi got off the car, until he walked into the elevator dedicated to the company's high-level executives, the staff along the way greeted him with a bit of awe, and Hiroshi Yamauchi nodded calmly to everyone as usual, All of this was not much different from usual, but perhaps because of his different mood, he always felt that there was a little strangeness hidden under the awe of everyone.

For the vast majority of Nintendo employees, Hiroshi Yamauchi is an existence that makes them feel in awe, and was even very close to God in the hearts of many people. Although Nintendo has been going downhill in recent years, it has also experienced VRBoy, The ups and downs of N64 and NGC still failed to shake Hiroshi Yamauchi's position in the minds of many employees, but today many people found that Hiroshi Yamauchi, who was calm and relaxed in the past, was a little different.

As soon as he got out of the elevator, Hiroshi Yamauchi looked at his watch habitually. The time displayed on the dial was still very early. If it was in the past, he could go to his office to take a rest and read the information, but not today.Exhaling lightly, Hiroshi Yamauchi looked up and saw his secretary Mami Mayu waiting in the corridor.

Asami Mayu bowed deeply, and greeted with a smile: "President Yamauchi, good morning!"

"Yeah." Hiroshi Yamauchi nodded casually, and his eyes swept over Asami Mayu. At this time, he was no longer interested in caring about how low his secretary's neckline was and how bright the spring was, but He asked in a complicated mood, "Is anyone in the meeting room?"

"President Yamauchi, they're all here." Asami Mayu was also in a complicated mood, and even worried about her future, but of course she wouldn't show it on her face.

Hiroshi Yamauchi frowned slightly, he knew exactly what kind of virtues the guys on the board of directors had, they had never been so active before, today these people came so early, he couldn't help but make him a little more worried.However, Hiroshi Yamauchi also knew that he had no way out and could only continue to move forward. Thinking of this, his steps became firm again.

Accompanied by Mayu Asami, Hiroshi Yamauchi came to the door of the conference room, reached out and held the doorknob and turned it lightly, then pushed forward, a whisper came out from the crack of the opened door, and before he could wait He could clearly hear what it was, and the whisper disappeared with the opening of the meeting room door.

A layer of haze quietly floated in Yamauchi Hiroshi's heart, but years of experience in shopping malls allowed him to still maintain a warm smile. He walked into the conference room, greeted everyone in the conference room, and then came to the empty main room. sat down.After taking the document handed over by Asami Mayu, Hiroshi Yamauchi glanced at the people in the meeting room, and found that although they were all paying attention to him, there were always people who glanced at the door of the meeting room from time to time, as if expecting wearing something.

Hiroshi Yamauchi felt a little strange. It stands to reason that all the members who participated in today's special board of directors should be present, but what are these people still looking at?But now is obviously not a good time to discuss these things, Hiroshi Yamauchi temporarily put aside his doubts, opened the document in his hand, and said to everyone with a smile: "This meeting is held today, I believe everyone knows the reason, and I will stop rambling. Now let’s discuss the first topic of today, the selection of Nintendo’s new president.”

As soon as Yamauchi Hiroshi finished speaking, the door of the conference room opened again, and a person he knew very well but didn't want to see appeared at the door. He couldn't help but stood up and exclaimed: "Arakawa, why did you come here."

Arakawa didn't answer Hiroshi Yamauchi's question, bowed to everyone, then came to a corner of the conference room, found a chair and sat down quietly.Hiroshi Yamauchi's pupils shrank suddenly. As soon as Minoru Arakawa came in, he noticed the relaxed expressions on the faces of several people attending the meeting. As a veteran who has been in the shopping mall for many years, he knew that there must be something tricky in it.

"Arakawa, you go out, today's meeting is not for you..." Hiroshi Yamauchi didn't want to understand what was wrong with it for a while, but he knew that Arakawa must be the key, so he planned to remove this obstacle first, and then slowly deal with it.

Before Hiroshi Yamauchi finished speaking, a director named Hiroshin Nomura stood up and interjected: "President Yamauchi, Mr. Arakawa was invited by us. Aren't we going to discuss the selection of the new president today? nominees."

Hiroshi Yamauchi turned to Nomura Hiroshin with a solemn expression. The other party did not flinch from his gaze, but puffed up his chest and looked at him. This had never happened before, and the haze in Hiroshi Yamauchi's heart deepened. ...

(End of this chapter)