Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 158: Gift from the Soviet Union

After making a few casual moves in the entertainment industry, Masato Takeshita turned his attention back to Xinghai Games.

because,

Ryo Asuka from a Tokyo law firm has returned from the Soviet Union.

"How about it?"

"Fortunately, I did not disgrace my life."

Asuka Ryo had a smile on his face, as if everything was under control.

The Soviet copyright agency simply did not realize the greatness of Tetris.

She spent a mere $45 to acquire the greatest game of the 20th century.

But this is normal. Even Sega and Nintendo didn’t know about the relevant officials of the Soviet copyright agency, so they naturally couldn’t realize the value of Tetris.

In the previous life, I sold the computer copyright of "Tetris" for tens of thousands of dollars, and the same is true in this life.

Maybe the relevant officials are still laughing at Asuka Ryo in their hearts, thinking that he was stupid enough to spend so much money to buy a small game.

"Very good. Thank you for your hard work, Asuka-san."

Although he had already learned the result from his subordinates, Masato Takeshita was still ecstatic when he took the contract from Asuka Ryo.

That’s right, this trip to the Soviet Union included not only members of the Tokyo law firm such as Asuka Ryo, but also several important employees of the former Xinghai Semiconductor and current Xinghai Games.

The value of "Tetris" is so great that Masato Takeshita doesn't trust anyone, so he naturally has to arrange for people to supervise each other.

If he wasn't worried about safety, he would definitely go there in person.

"No, this is what we should do."

"That's great, that's great."

Masato Takeshita carefully checked the relevant terms in the contract, and after confirming that all the copyrights were owned, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

He would not make the same mistake as Stein in his previous life and only get the computer copyright.

There are too few computers now, and piracy is rampant. Even if you can make money, it won't be much.

Unlike consoles and handhelds, each platform can easily sell tens of millions of copies.

"Now, the wonderful Tetris war no longer exists."

Speaking of which, the reason why the battle for "Tetris" broke out in the previous life was entirely due to Stein's greed.

He had a sharp eye and discovered the prospects of Tetris at the first opportunity.

As a result, this guy was too greedy. Before obtaining the copyright, he first obtained the mirror software and spectral holographic bytes controlled by the Maxwell family.

Although the computer copyright was finally obtained, many twists and turns occurred.

What’s even more speechless is that after signing the contract with the Soviet Union, this guy actually did not fulfill it.

That's right, Stein chose to get something for free.

He did not pay the Soviet government at all, which angered the Soviet copyright holder Elorg and caused him to lose the opportunity to fully control Tetris.

He has some cleverness but no wisdom.

Rogers, the person in charge that Masato Takeshita found for Star Ocean Games, is different.

When he found out that no one had the rights to the handheld game console, he immediately went to the Soviet Union to buy it.

During this process, he also learned that the Soviet government had never sold the copyrights of consoles and arcade machines.

Rogers realized that this was a great opportunity, so he immediately presented Elorg with a US dollar check to show his sincerity, and then quickly contacted Nintendo.

Soon, Nintendo spent money to obtain all the rights to "Tetris" except the computer copyright.

At the same time, Nintendo is keeping this secret.

Because Nintendo's competitor, Atari, is working hard to produce Tetris-related game cartridges.

As for why Atari produced the game without copyright, it can only be said that everything started with a lie. After Stein obtained the computer copyright of the game, he continued to talk nonsense, saying that he would soon get the arcade copyright.

Then his partner, Mirror Software, is not a reliable person either.

Without signing a contract, the arcade copyright was directly sold to Sega and other companies.

The same thing happened with the console rights, which were sold to Atari.

In the 80s, information communication was very underdeveloped.

Atari thought that the mirroring software had been copyrighted, so without much thought, it directly produced millions of cartridges and spent millions of dollars on advertising.

But this is normal, Mirror Software is Kevin Maxwell's industry. And Kevin Maxwell's father is a guest of presidents and chairmen of various countries.

Who would have thought that such a company would do such an unreliable thing.

In the end, Nintendo completely defeated its old enemy Atari with this ruthless decision.

In fact, although Sega was Nintendo's stronger competitor, Nintendo definitely hated Atari more at this time.

Because Atari used a trick to bypass Nintendo's authorization and sell cartridges on the FC game console on its own.

This is digging at Nintendo's foundation.

How did Atari fall?
Because it's selling junk cassettes at will.

Now that Atari can bypass Nintendo's FC game console, it means that other game companies can also bypass it.

If this continues, the FC will be flooded with absolutely garbage games.

This is also the main reason why Nintendo knew that Atari had fallen into a pit but still did not say anything.

If Atari and Nintendo had a better relationship, Nintendo would not only tell it early, but also directly acquire the games and cartridges.

Although Atari won't make a lot of money at that time, it will still be able to earn some hard work.

"I have already arranged a seat in Ginza. Let's go and have a celebration party."

Masato Takeshita could not hide his excitement and prepared to take Asuka Ryo out for a big meal to ease his boiling mood.

"Okay, I'll follow President Takeshita's arrangements."

Asuka Ryo shook his head, not understanding why the usually steady young man would suddenly become so restless.

Tetris is fun, but it will only sell a million or two copies at best.

After deducting related expenses, a profit of several million dollars would be considered good.

Except for Masato Takeshita, no one in the world can realize the true value of Tetris.

Based on the calculations of Go, Mahjong and other small games on the current FC game consoles, Asuka Ryo believes that the sales of "Tetris" will not exceed 200 million copies at most.

This is also the biggest reason why she did not become greedy and spend money to buy Tetris for herself.

Rather than taking a chance to earn tens of millions of dollars, she prefers to make a steady income of a few million.

This is also an important factor why young people spend millions of dollars instead of hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire them.

With a higher price, the expectation of defection is lowered.

You have to know that the sales of "Tetris" are not in the millions, but in the hundreds of millions.

And even if we only count the sales of FC games, there are more than 3000 million.

The sales of handheld game consoles are even more exaggerated, with sales exceeding 100 million.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that Nintendo directly built "Tetris" into the handheld console.

But even if it is not built-in, given the popularity of Tetris, the most conservative estimate is that it can sell more than 5000 million copies.

This is the power of the number one game of the 20th century.

Whoever masters Tetris owns the future of handheld game consoles.

(End of this chapter)