Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 160 It’s hard to change
“What a great game!”

After playing "Soviet Square" for more than half an hour with great fascination, Gunpei Yokoi turned his head with emotion and looked at Shigeru Miyamoto who was also fascinated.

"Yeah, a game as good as Pac-Man."

"Pac-Man", a game that influenced Shigeru Miyamoto's game design philosophy.

He now compares "Soviet Square" and "Pac-Man" on the same level, which shows how much importance he attaches to it.

"Oh, you all think this game is pretty good?"

Interestingly, Hiroshi Yamauchi, known as the godfather of the gaming industry, doesn’t like games at all and doesn’t play them, but he ended up building the most influential company in the gaming industry.

His future arch-rival, Sony President Norio Ohga, was in a similar situation.

He doesn’t like pop music and doesn’t listen to it, but he founded one of the top three record companies in the world.

It can be seen that success or failure has little to do with likes and dislikes.

Gunpei Yokoi simply expressed his feelings.

“Yes, this is a very good work. But I feel that this game is more suitable for playing on a handheld console.”

Yamauchi Hiroshi showed some interest and asked again to confirm: "Is it more suitable for handheld games?"

"Well, the game is very casual, and it's very attractive to put on a handheld."

Gunpei Yokoi really wants Nintendo to take over Soviet Cube.

This way, whether it is the currently best-selling Game & Watch or the Game Boy that is currently being conceived, both will have an ace game.

"That's it."

Yamauchi Hiroshi nodded thoughtfully, indicating that he understood, and hinted that the two could leave.

……

"I'm sorry, President. I failed."

Rogers stood in front of Masato Takeshita in shame, with helplessness written all over his face.

"It's OK, this is normal. Let's just release Soviet Triangle on the FC as normal."

"The first batch of pre-orders is 300 million boxes, 150 million boxes each for the Japanese and American versions."

Masato Takeshita had already prepared for failure.

Nintendo is now at the peak of its popularity, and game manufacturers can only curry favor with it and have no capital to negotiate terms.

Rogers has not yet gotten out of the small business model of Bulletproof Software, and subconsciously refuted it.

"300 million boxes, is that too much?"

To produce 300 million boxes at one time, Nintendo needs to pay 60 billion yen in production fees. For the current Star Ocean game, the burden is indeed a bit heavy.

"Only big investments can bring high returns. Don't worry, even if we can't sell a single copy, Xinghai Games has no shortage of available funds."

Masato Takeshita has infinite confidence in "Soviet Cube", and even if there is a temporary backlog, it doesn't matter at all.

"Understood, President."

Rogers felt a little heavy.

He suddenly realized that he had to change his business philosophy as soon as possible to adapt to the president's requirements.

If the current state of development continues, it will probably be eliminated soon.

After watching Rogers leave, Masato Takeshita sighed helplessly.

"Hey, I guess I've been implicated by Namco."

Nintendo's royalty system has also become stricter little by little.

In the initial stage, the conditions offered by game companies such as Nintendo, Namco, and Hudson were very relaxed.

There is no requirement for a certain number of games to be produced, nor is Nintendo required to produce game cartridges, and the commission from the games is only a few hundred yen.

Later, as more companies produced games for FC, Nintendo began to further standardize its distribution plan.

Hence the current royalty system. Game companies can only produce 3 to 5 games per year and need to pay 1000 yen for platform usage and 1000 yen for cartridge production.

However, the royalty system is currently mainly aimed at newly joined companies and small game companies.

The six game companies that started the cooperation the earliest, as well as game companies such as Enix that produced hit games, still enjoy privileges of varying sizes.

The conditions for game companies like Namco are good, while the conditions for new game companies are poor.

There is a gap in the middle.

Many new game companies have turned to Namco to be their agents.

By giving Namco some benefits, Namco will help distribute the game.

Nintendo was furious when it found out about this, but it had already signed a five-year contract with Namco and couldn't turn against them immediately.

However, Nintendo has already made the decision internally to no longer sign franchise agreements with any game company and will treat all game companies equally.

Masato Takeshita's Star Ocean game can be regarded as a fire in the city that affects everyone in the pond.

If it weren't for the Namco incident, with Rogers's reputation and "Soviet Tribe", they would probably have been able to obtain the rights to produce game cartridges on their own.

Now, StarCraft Games can only wait for "Soviet Tribe" to sell well and the Game Boy handheld game console to be born before it has a chance to change Nintendo's decision.

"Soviet Cube" mainly won by its creativity, so a model that met Masato Takeshita's requirements was quickly produced, and then brought to Nintendo by Rogers again.

"Have you decided to produce 300 million copies?"

Hiroshi Yamauchi looked at his old friend with a little surprise, feeling that this was not his style.

"Well, this is President Takeshita's decision, and I think it's a good one."

Rogers frankly admitted that it was Masato Takeshita who played the leading role.

"I see. No wonder."

Yamauchi Hiroshi nodded in understanding, then calmly put the check away.

"Come on, let's go have a couple of drinks together. There have been a lot of new people coming to the old place recently, and they are of good quality."

"Really? Then I have to go."

Hiroshi Yamauchi is a famous playboy in Japan. He frequented nightclubs during school and became even more addicted after he officially took over Nintendo.

He even used his own experience to set up a very advanced love hotel.

Unfortunately, Japan was still very conservative at that time.

Not to mention love hotels, even adult product stores are very rare.

Hiroshi Yamauchi's attempt failed miserably and he was ridiculed by the media, as his biggest client was himself.

However, the reason why Nintendo was able to develop is that Hiroshi Yamauchi likes to tinker.

If he hadn't tried various things, he wouldn't have discovered the business opportunities in the video game industry.

Rogers also likes going to nightclubs, and he shares the same hobby with Yamauchi Hiroshi, which is why the two of them are so close.

The same hobbies are always the most convenient factor in becoming friends.

But speaking of it, Yamauchi Hiroshi's friendships also brought him many benefits.

Shigeru Miyamoto, the future god of gaming, was originally a Nintendo contact and the son of his friend.

Nintendo’s success is inseparable from Gunpei Yokoi’s superb hardware R&D team and Shigeru Miyamoto’s game software development.

Of course, Gunpei Yokoi himself is a genius in both hardware and software.

The game "Fire Brigade" he developed is one of the top 20 masterpieces of the th century.

The same is true for Rogers.

If Rogers had a good relationship with Sega in his previous life, he would have introduced the situation of Tetris to Sega.

Perhaps Sega will occupy a large part of the handheld game console market.

(End of this chapter)