Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 149 How to Save the Country in a Curved Way
After lunch break, Masato Takeshita called his assistant into the office again.

"Go to the consulting company this afternoon and buy some information. I want to understand the overall situation of the gaming industry."

"Okay, President."

Lin Qingqian smiled and nodded, her manners elegant and capable.

Society is the best way to train people. After just half a month of training, the girl already has the demeanor of an urban elite.

Masato Takeshita was a little dazed for a moment, but he quickly forced himself to wake up.

"Well, let's go."

"Yes!"

Many consulting companies make a living by buying and selling information. Lin Qingqian quickly bought a detailed analysis report on the latest quarterly gaming industry.

The first report mainly talks about Nintendo.

In 1987, it was still the Nintendo era.

Relying on the FC game console, Nintendo monopolized the console game market.

Whether it was Namco or Hudson, or even EA and Atari far away in the United States, they could only tremble in fear under the tyranny of Nintendo.

Only Sega, the second largest company in the gaming industry, dared to resist Nintendo’s tyranny.

In addition to Nintendo and Sega, the information also focuses on gaming industry giants such as Namco, Hudson, Capcom, and Enix.

However, these are not what Masato Takeshita cares about. He pays more attention to those small and medium-sized companies that have not yet started their business.

"Hey, Square's grades are so bad."

When Masato Takeshita saw the words "on the verge of bankruptcy" written on the document, he immediately became excited.

This was in the mid-to-late 90s, when a third-party gaming giant could, to a certain extent, decide the fate of a console.

If we can acquire it, we will be able to better develop our own gaming industry in the future.

"Unfortunately, it seems that the best I can do is to buy shares."

When Masato Takeshita saw the information of the president and his team, he knew that there was definitely no opportunity for acquisition.

Square's president, Masashi Miyamoto, also graduated from Waseda University.

However, unlike Masato Takeshita, an ordinary citizen, Masashi Miyamoto is the heir to Denyosa, a Japanese listed company.

This second-generation rich man thought inheriting the family business was boring, so he first set up a computer department in his own company.

The main business is to buy a bunch of computers and give them to nearby college students for free.

This is even more arrogant than Brother Ma back then.

At most, Xiao Ma Ge would buy a few computers and open a small BBS website.

This guy is really generous.

Later, Masashi Miyamoto felt that the gaming industry was very interesting, so he simply separated the computer division and established a gaming company.

This game company is now Square Enix.

After Square was founded, it first started out in the PC gaming field.

Unfortunately, no results were achieved.

However, Gunpei Yokoi of Nintendo's First Development Department is the one who developed the handheld game console and the cross key.

He saw that the company had great potential and helped Square to stabilize its position for the time being.

Of course, this help is limited, and the company is still on the brink of bankruptcy.

Now Square has invested all its assets in developing new games, and is ready to fail if it fails.

As for the name of this upcoming new game, many console users and LSPs in the 3D area should be relatively clear about it.

It is Final Fantasy, the brilliant creator of Square Enix.

With such a wealthy boss, there is naturally no hope for Masato Takeshita to acquire the company in full.

But there is no problem in investing in shares.

Square Enix is only spending money but not making any money, and even the rich second-generation Masashi Miyamoto has a bit of trouble with this.

This senior who graduated from Waseda University would definitely not mind if there was someone to spend time with him.

The premise is that it does not affect his control over the company. "This one is not bad either."

The second target that Masato Takeshita set his sights on was the bulletproof software created by Dutchman Rogers.

If targeting Square Enix means valuing its R&D capabilities, then targeting Bulletproof Software means valuing the boss of this company.

Rogers has a very good relationship with Nintendo's senior management.

If StarCraft Games acquires Bulletproof Software, then appoint Rogers as the company's president.

Then Star Ocean Games is likely to get better signing conditions from Nintendo.

Nintendo now dominates the console industry and has established a relatively stringent royalty system.

A distribution fee of 1000 yen must be paid to Nintendo for each game, and the game cartridges must also be produced by Nintendo, also costing 1000 yen each.

The latter is more deadly than the former.

Because Nintendo's cartridge production system is highly mechanized, you must confirm with Nintendo in advance the number of cartridges that need to be produced.

If there is too much, it cannot be cancelled; if there is too little, it is difficult to replenish.

This degree is very difficult to determine, and game manufacturers often suffer huge losses.

Here are two simple examples:

You pre-order 100 million game cartridges from Nintendo at one time, but only 10 of them are sold during pre-launch sales.

In other words, you will have to bear the consequences of the loss of 90 cartridges alone.

Or maybe you pre-order 10 game cartridges from Nintendo, and the game turns out to be so popular that they all sell out in just a few days.

At this time, you naturally want to add an order.

Unfortunately, Nintendo doesn't give you this opportunity at all.

They will just tell you to wait in line.

Your turn will come only after the production in front of you is finished.

But a lot of the time, the game is just a gust of wind.

It may be popular now, but may be out of fashion in a few months.

It’s not the same whether you order it or not.

It can be said that this system has caused great harm to third-party game manufacturers.

It would be different if the game company produced the cartridges itself, as it could flexibly adjust according to the sales of the game.

If the game is popular, produce more; if the game is unpopular, cancel production.

There will be no huge losses due to reasons not related to the company, nor will there be the tragedy of being unable to produce game cartridges in a timely manner even though the game sales are good.

Other than that,

Because Nintendo holds the production and sales rights for cartridges, it can easily decide the life or death of a game.

Later, Square Enix became the biggest victim.

The company's latest masterpiece, which it had put all its efforts into producing, was maliciously dumped by Nintendo on game cartridges, causing the price of the game to plummet and sales to drop sharply.

After Square was tricked by Nintendo, its direct economic losses amounted to 17 billion yen, and it almost went bankrupt again.

Masato Takeshita didn't care about the distribution fee and was even willing to pay a few hundred more.

As long as he can get the right to produce game cartridges independently, he is willing to make concessions in many areas.

This is the last chance.

If we wait until 1988, Nintendo will announce that all companies will be treated equally.

It will be more difficult for Star Ocean Games to fight for the right to independently produce game cartridges.

But even so, Masato Takeshita is not worried.

He also has a trump card, which is the Tetris project currently under negotiation.

With this world's number one game, even Nintendo has to give in.

Because "Tetris" can determine the life or death of a handheld game console.

(End of this chapter)