Game Development Giant

Yoichi Erikawa has been very depressed recently. He had just planned to discuss a game on FC with Nintendo, but unexpectedly Nintendo instituted a royalty system that gave him a toothache just thinking about it. They are a small company, and the smaller the company is, the less resistant it is to Nintendo's royalty system, because they are too small. What they are thinking about now is not how to get a lot of profits from it, but how they want to be. stay alive.

But the appearance of the royalty system is really ugly.

They have been making PC games for several years, but their early games were not very successful. Even "Kawazakajima Battle", which pioneered SLG games, not many people paid attention to it. It was not until last year's "Nobunaga's Ambition" that they had any success. Although it has gained a bit of fame, the sales of more than 100,000 copies on the PC are very impressive, but compared with Nintendo's "Mario Brothers" on the FC, which sold more than one million copies in one go, it is still a witch. See the great witch.

Although I really want to make FC games, Nintendo’s royalties are really abominable.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Erikawa Yoichi grabbed his hair hard, and then slammed his hands on the table. He had already contacted Nintendo before, and Nintendo was also very interested in them and proposed that they could make " "Nobunaga's Ambition" was proposed to be ported to the FC, but Nintendo still rejected the royalty system, leaving no room for negotiation. Nintendo said categorically that it is impossible for anyone who is not one of the six major software developers to enjoy this privilege.

At this time, his wife Egawa Keiko pushed the door open and walked in with a cup of coffee. She placed the steaming coffee in front of Egawa Yoichi, and then asked in a comforting tone: "Still working on Nintendo?" Are you worried about the royalties? In fact, we are a small company, so it is inevitable to make some sacrifices at the beginning."

Hearing his wife's comforting words, Erikawa Yoichi couldn't help but sigh. He felt a little uninterested when he thought that most of the profits from the games he had worked so hard to produce would be taken away by Nintendo. In his eyes, Nintendo was simply a robber. Can't be forgiven.

While Eikawa Yoichi was sighing listlessly, Eikawa Keiko, who had already walked to the door, suddenly stopped. She patted her head, showing an annoyed look, scolding herself, and said: " Look at my memory, I have forgotten the most important things. I just received a call from the Japan branch of Mars Entertainment. They told me that their president, Mr. Tamahide Yoshiro, will come to visit us today and say what We have important things to discuss.”

Hearing the name Mars Entertainment, Erikawa Yoichi had a look of confusion on his face. The confusion was not because he had never heard of this name before, because this name was too famous for their game development company. If it were said in the past The two most famous game companies of the year, one is undoubtedly Nintendo, which relied on FC to sell miraculous sales in Japan, and the other is far across the ocean. In almost a few months, relying on several games Mars Entertainment dominates the arcade world with its outstanding games. but……

Erikawa Yoichi thought about it carefully, and logically speaking, they are just a development company that makes PC games, and they should not have anything to do with Mars Entertainment.

But since the senior executives of large companies in the industry are visiting in person, it would be too rude not to make some preparations.

So when Tamahide Yoshiro arrived at the headquarters of Anei Company in Kanagawa, Erikawa Yoichi and Erikawa Keiko, the two founders of the company, plus a few employees, lined up outside the company. Welcome, which moved Tamahide Yoshiro.

In the reception room, actually called a reception room, it is actually a separate and isolated room.

Tamahide Yoshiro and Erikawa Yoichi sat opposite each other. Erikawa Yoichi's wife went out to make coffee, so she was not here. The Japanese are world-famous for drinking coffee. In fact, they did not have the tradition of drinking coffee before World War II. However, Japan was rebuilt after the war and took off in the golden decade thanks to the efforts of the Showa generation. In order to work hard, they squeezed out all their time to invest in At work, there are two things that quickly became popular in Japan and even formed a culture many years later.

One is coffee, which can keep people energetic and exhausted when they are tired, and the other is ramen, which can easily and quickly fill up the stomach and continue to devote to heavy work.

So after the golden decade, the Japanese developed the habit of drinking coffee, and the rise of Shangdao Coffee was precisely because of this. It was this small coffee shop that was not big at the time that developed the world's first coffee shop. Only a can of coffee that can be filled can develop and grow in a short period of time. Until now, almost all the Blue Mountain coffee fields in South America have been in their hands.

"What!" After hearing what Tamahideyoshiro said just now, Erikawa Yoichi opened his mouth in surprise. He really didn't expect that Mars Entertainment, which had been dedicated to the development of arcade games in the past, would also make a home console.

In fact, Jester has confirmed this news many times in the United States, but now that there is no network, there must be a lag in the transmission of information. Yoichi Erikawa did not know that Mars Entertainment had started the research and development of its own home console. , and he didn’t even know that Mars Entertainment had even developed a PC game.

After Eikawa Yang was surprised, he quickly calmed down. The other party came to find him who had nothing to do with them before. He would definitely not simply tell him such news. There must be other things, but Eikawa Yang After thinking about it, Chuanyang couldn't think of anything he could do to be plotted by the other party.

My company is really too small.

When Tamahideyoshiro revealed his purpose, Erikawa Yoichi frowned.

"Won't you participate in Nintendo's royalty plan?" Although Erikawa Yoichi had not decided to join before, it was impossible to say that he would not be tempted by FC's huge share. If he could produce a blockbuster game on FC , then even if there is only 40% profit to be gained, it will be much more promising than just making PC games all the time.

But Tamahide Yoshiro asked them not to join Nintendo's royalties, and also assured them that Mars Entertainment was developing a game console that surpassed Nintendo's FC in every aspect, and based on the game development that Mars Entertainment had previously shown Ability can also be expected.

But the problem is...

It's not that easy to make a game console, and good arcade games don't mean that you can also make good console games. Isn't Sega a living example? Their previous arcade business has been in full swing in the United States, but now it is not even Have all the U.S. branches been sold independently?

Moreover, Sega's new console also failed miserably in front of Nintendo's FC, and the improved version released this summer was not very popular. If it hadn't been like this, which made Nintendo feel invincible, then how could it be possible for that old fox Yamauchi to be so domineering? Sega's royalty policy is the same, but how much better can the console that Mars Entertainment said can surpass FC be?

These are the questions in Yoichi Eikawa's mind now.

Just when Erikawa Yoichi hesitated, Tamahideyoshiro told him the conditions that Jester had told him before that he could agree to the other party, although in Tamahideyoshiro's eyes, such conditions were too generous.

"Mr. Erikawa Yoichi, we really value you. If you, Anrong, agree to become our console game developer for Mars Entertainment, then we can pay a generous price to acquire 30% of your shares. , and every game you make in the future, as long as it passes our company's internal review, we will guarantee at least 100,000 units. In other words, even if you fail to sell 100,000 units in the end, we, Mars Entertainment, will We will also make up for the insufficient amount for you.”…

After Tamahideyoshiro said this condition that surprised Eikawa Yoichi, before the other party could say anything, he continued: "Furthermore, the guaranteed quantity is uncertain, the minimum is one hundred thousand sets, and the maximum , our boss said in an internal meeting before that it was one million sets."

One million sets!

When Yang Eikawa heard this number, he immediately became extremely excited.

Although he knows that if Mars Entertainment dares to launch this plan, it will definitely have very high requirements for game quality. If it is not a very, very outstanding game, it is impossible to get this guarantee, but he does not ask for a guarantee of one million units, even if It's 500,000, or even just 300,000, or a guarantee of 200,000 sets. For him, the stakes are also very big. After all, he himself doesn't know if his next set of games can be sold again. Sales volume similar to "Nobunaga's Ambition".

However, Erikawa Yoichi still dared not make a decision, but Mars Entertainment was willing to acquire one-third of the shares of their small company, which obviously showed their trust in themselves, and they could also obtain the currently scarce R\u0026D funds. And one-third of the shares will not affect his control of the company, but what if Mars Entertainment fails in the development of consoles?

I heard that Arakawa was unhappy with the purchase of "America Cube" that he had discussed with Mars Entertainment in the United States, and that Mars Entertainment turned away after discussing with Minoru Arakawa and handed over the arcade agency rights of "America Cube" to Sega, and Sega Nintendo is a rival, and Mars Entertainment’s actions undoubtedly undermine Nintendo’s reputation.

For a man as proud as Mr. Yamauchi, this is almost unforgivable. And now they are about to officially launch the console again, and Nintendo has long announced that they will enter the European and American markets. This time, for Nintendo, they are almost becoming a mortal enemy like Sega.

Although he was very tempted by Tamahideyoshiro's conditions, and he did have strong opinions on Nintendo's royalty plan, Erikawa Yoichi still couldn't make such a rash decision. He pondered for a long time, and then sighed. He bent down solemnly and said humbly: "President Yuxiu, I really can't make a decision in a short time. Can you give me some time? I need to discuss it with my wife. If there is a result, , we will definitely inform you as soon as possible.”

Tamahide Yoshiro also knew that haste makes waste, and he could also see the other party's heartbeat towards his conditions, so he was not in a hurry, but he still urged him. He first asked Eikawa Yoichi He helped him up, and then said with some embarrassment.

"Mr. Erikawa, I understand your difficulties, but the research and development of our Mars Entertainment console has entered the final debugging stage, and the launch date is also set for early next year, and our chairman Mr. Jester Li will We are taking our host to participate in the CES exhibition in Las Vegas early next year, so our time is also very tight. Before, Mr. Chairman, before asking me to come, had told me that he hoped that your The game can be the launch product for our new console."

This was the first time for Erikawa Yoichi to know from Tamahideyoshiro that his small company was so valued by the big boss of Mars Entertainment. He couldn't help but be a little excited. After all, compared with a behemoth in the industry like Mars Entertainment , they are nothing more than ants.

Therefore, he nodded seriously and said sincerely: "Thank you so much, President Li, for your attention."

After leaving Anei, Tamahide Yoshiro rushed to Yokohama non-stop. Originally, according to Tamahide Yoshiro's idea, for a small electrical appliance company like Denyousha, there was really no need for him to go there by himself. He just needed to do it casually. Just send someone.

But Jester still asked him to come in person if he could, because the president of a branch came to visit in person as a lobbyist. Especially in the eyes of these producers who were not even famous at all, the feeling was completely The difference was that Jester took the initiative to tell him the story of Liu Bei's three visits to the thatched cottage, fearing that Tamahideyoshiro would not understand.

Unexpectedly, it was just a mockery from Tamahide Yoshiro: "When I watched "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", I guess you were just learning how to walk."

However, it was precisely because he knew this story that he was even more surprised. There was no way he could compare the person named Hironobu Sakaguchi in the small game development department of Denyou Club with the character in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". It is related to Zhuge Kongming, whose wisdom is almost demonic.

Today's Denyou Club only has a very small game development department, which is not even a formal department. The core members of this department include Masashi Miyamoto, who inherited the Denyou Club from his father at a young age. In addition, there is Hironobu Sakaguchi, who works part-time as a college student, and Nao Suzuki, who previously worked as a handyman at the record rental store opened by Yoichi Eikawa before he started making games.

Miyamoto Masashi thought of establishing a game R\u0026D department under Denyusha because he saw the huge profits contained in video games. Although in 1983, the Yomiuri Shimbun also published an article about the future of video games after the Atari impact. It will become an article of history, but Masashi Miyamoto still believes that video games, which rely purely on technology and brains to make a living, definitely have the potential to make huge profits.

Especially in this era when the video game Hongmeng was first launched, he saw that various game companies could rise in an instant and earn money that he had never dared to think of before, relying on a hot-selling game. Dream Palace built a dozens-story office building with the help of "Iron Plate Array". Or was it the Kudo brothers of Hudson who led all employees to charter a plane to Hawaii for a month-long luxury vacation, or was it Kobe's Xiaobo In the first year after joining FC, the performance increased dozens of times.

These reports made Miyamoto Masashi's brain congested, and his idea of ​​​​doing a good job in his game development department became stronger and stronger.

But the reality is cruel. Although Hironobu Sakaguchi is a young man with unparalleled gaming talent in his eyes, the first few games they made always failed miserably. They spent all their efforts to carefully create "Death Trap", a game running on Nippon Electric's PC88, performed very poorly in every aspect. Both sales and reputation were very mediocre, almost not worth mentioning. This time, even the confident Hironobu Sakaguchi lost his confidence in making games.

The failure of several subsequent games hit Hironobu Sakaguchi even more seriously.

Jester asked Tamahide Yoshiro to first find Sakaguchi Hironobu, who was still in school in Yokohama, instead of going to Miyamoto Masashi, because Jester knew that the game R\u0026D department of Denyousha would be established independently from the parent company Denyousha in the future. Square, and Square's development into an industry giant in the video game industry, is completely inseparable from the talent of Hironobu Sakaguchi.

As for Miyamoto Masashi, he was just a company boss who never interfered with how Hironobu Sakaguchi made games, but continued to provide research and development funds.

As long as Hironobu Sakaguchi can be persuaded to join his Mars Entertainment branch, the future of Denyusha's game development department is not what Jester needs to care about, because Square, which has lost its soul, can only rely on It is impossible for Miyamoto Masashi, an outsider in the industry, to survive and create miracles again.

To be honest, I am quite confident in persuading Hironobu Sakaguchi Jester, because like Mark Cerny, he is the kind of person who really wants to make the best games, rather than just making money from games. He can make a game that moves him, and then make money after the game sells well, but he can never make a game that only sells well, but cannot even move him.

But it may be that the members of the newly established game development department of Denyou Club lack the necessary game development experience, so the efficiency of research and development has always been very low. Compared with other game companies, it only takes one to two months. In terms of the speed at which a game can be completed, it now takes eight to nine months for them to make a game. It’s just that time is slow. The problem is that the game that took eight or nine months to make is not as good as others. Months of making great games.

When Jester thought of letting Tamahide Yoshiro personally persuade Sakaguchi Hironobu to join Mars Entertainment, he recalled Square's experience in the early stages of its founding. Nian Da Niu? Cong Porro Zhong Su Xing? Lu Gu Swing Crab 5??? Bu Shao Yue Piao? Huan??p\u003e At that time, Square Enix’s own-produced games were not selling well, and they were often even listed on the market within a short time after their release. Sales were stopped due to poor sales, so they often did some outsourcing work. They once developed the FC version of "Dragon Slayer" for FA, and one of FA's game producers rushed directly to the business department after the trial. He pointed at the nose of the colleague responsible for signing the contract and shouted angrily.

"How did you find such a shabby company?!"

This shows how confused Hironobu Sakaguchi is now about how to make an excellent game.

In this case, Tamahide Yoshiro took the instructions given to him by Jester and met Hironobu Sakaguchi who had just returned from the outside in the student apartment of Yokohama National University.

To Tamahideyoshiro's surprise, Hironobu Sakaguchi, who had just returned from outside, actually held an English version in his hand. It was only released in the United States not long ago, the second issue of "Game" magazine, and even the one outside The plastic bag to protect the magazine has not been opened.

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