Game Development Giant

When the news that he had reached a verbal cooperation agreement with Takado Yoshihiko came back to the United States, Jester was also a little excited.

No matter what happens to New Japan's plans in the future, at least for now, they are a game development company that is even more uncompromising than Capcom. Looking at the whole of Japan, except for Nintendo's own branch, that is, K Club can compete with these two companies. The development potential that game development companies have is comparable.

The game "Athena" is the most important key to New Japan Project's resurrection and eventual rise.

This is an action-adventure game, which is also the most popular type nowadays. The protagonist of the game is called Asamiya Athena. Does it sound familiar to you? Yes, this is one of the popular characters in the game called "The King of Fighters" that brought SHK to the pinnacle of fighting games in later generations. It was also from this game that New Japan Project began their legendary journey. .

However, as of now, no one knows how successful and great this small company, which is already on the verge of bankruptcy, will be in the future.

Jester also received news from Tamahide Yoshiro that the copyright of the home console game "Rage", which they had previously succeeded in the arcade, was still in their hands. Originally, it was in their plan. The plan to port this game to f this year may be because the previous games failed and the funds were not recovered immediately, so this plan can only be delayed. After Jester learned the news, he immediately asked Tamahide Yoshihiro to contact Takado Yoshihiko. They even wanted to win the transplant copyright of "Wrath".

This game also appeared in the later "King of Fighters". The two mercenary characters Clark and Ralph appeared for the first time in this game called "Rage".

As for the current New Japan Project, as long as the requirements are not too harsh for Mars Entertainment, which has opened the door to them, there is basically no difference. Tamahide Yoshiro just said this, and Takado Yoshihiko agreed.

In fact, the conditions that Jester asked Tamahideyoshiro to offer to New Japan Project were not too harsh, and could even be said to be a timely help. But there must be something requested, in the verbal agreement reached by both parties. Mars Entertainment can provide all the R\u0026D funds for "Athena", and the share will only be 30% after deducting the royalties. Of course, with such a large profit, there will naturally be compensation, and that is "Athena" The copyright belongs to Mars Entertainment, and in the next three years, New Japan Project will not be released unless it obtains the consent of Mars Entertainment. Otherwise, it is prohibited to produce games for other manufacturers with independent game platforms.

For Jester, it is very benevolent for him to make such an agreement. In Takado Yoshihiko's view, although this can be called an alliance under the city, if he did not do this, the New Japan Project might not exist. For The company he created was in urgent need of survival, so he agreed after much consideration. However, such cooperation can only be carried out once, for a very narrow-minded person like Takado Yoshihiko. It may be very difficult for Jester to plan with New Japan after that.

But then again, Jester has no intention of continuing to cooperate with Takado Yoshihiko for a long time.

this person. Too dangerous.

In his memory, he knew about the great changes that took place in SNK in the 1990s. With such people, he could use each other and get what he got when he was weak, but he wanted to form a partnership with them. That is absolutely impossible.

Moreover, Takado Yoshihiko has never been willing to be someone else's younger brother. Be a third party, otherwise. He would not resolutely enter the already divided home game console market when the New Japan project was just starting to gain momentum. The question is, are home game consoles so accessible?

Although one home game console after another came out at that time, in addition to Sega's MD and Nintendo's SF, there were also Nippon Electric's P-E, and there was also an alliance initiated by Tripp Hawkins, the head of EA, who joined forces with Panasonic , att, 3do developed and sold by giants such as Universal Pictures, and of course, indispensable, PS, which created an entire era of glory and legend in the following years.

However, there were only a handful of home games that could survive the storm, not to mention the luxury product SNK originally sold that sold for 50,000 yen. You know, at that time, Nintendo's SF was only 25,000 yen. Yuan.

“‘Phantasy Star’ sets off another sales spree!”

Surprises often come very suddenly. After the "Yomiuri Shimbun" reported the fourth day of the release of "Phantasy Star" with the above title, during the grand events in Ginza, Akihabara and other places in Japan, Jester's phone number also We have already called the Japanese branch headquarters in Osaka.

Unexpected is the most appropriate word to describe Jester's mood at this time.

Indeed, he previously thought that "Final Fantasy" and "Phantasy Star" would be the key to his counterattack on the Japanese market this time, but it may be a preconceived notion. He was more optimistic about "Final Fantasy", but it made him Unexpectedly, "Final Fantasy" fell behind in the head-on confrontation with "Dragon Quest" and did not achieve the effect he originally wanted.

And "Metal Gear" is not a mainstream game that can be widely accepted by Japanese players in this era. This kind of gameplay is destined to be a niche in the D era.

As for "Phantasy Star", in this period when Nintendo did not have an equally heavyweight game, when "Dragon Quest" entered a slow immersion stage after several months of hot sales, it had long been Players who were tempted by RPG games and became addicted to such games encountered a game that was not inferior to "Dragon Quest" or "Final Fantasy", and even far exceeded it in many aspects. when.

It is impossible not to explode into astonishing sales.

In the past four days, this game can only be said to be uneventful. The success of "Final Fantasy" back then was closely related to Jester's name. But this time, no matter whether it is in the United States , and Yuji Naka’s name is still unknown in Japan. Of course, it is impossible to have enough appeal to attract players to buy this new game.

Whether in the United States or Japan.

The first four days were uneventful, but it was just like the word-of-mouth publicity effect mentioned by Hiroshi Yamauchi. This kind of publicity effect, especially in the minds of gamers, through their friends and classmates, Word of mouth among one's relatives is much more useful than those overwhelming advertisements.

Sure enough, this time "Phantasy Star" Mars Entertainment did not deliberately suppress it like Nintendo did with "Dragon Quest", and had to wait until the day of the release of "Final Fantasy" to explode the buying craze. Therefore, in After the game accumulated word-of-mouth for four days, there was an overall explosion on the fifth day, and the sales on this day reached the total of the previous sales.

Especially in the Japanese market, "Phantasy Star" shows that the picture technology is almost completely ahead of this era, with dynamic scenes that can be seen everywhere, and monster images that are no longer pixels. More importantly, how old is it? The cutscenes in the game were all done by a Japanese designer and a team of Japanese people.

In the minds of many Japanese, this game is comparable to "The Legend of Zelda", "Dragon Quest", and "Final Fantasy".

Then, this buying craze broke out without any suspense.

Even many players who have never bought a Dreambox took the initiative to buy a game console from Mars Entertainment in order to play this game. By the way, they also bought several classic games on the Dreambox.

In just one month, Dreambox shipped as many as 400,000 units.

Not only did this make Jester excited to fly to Japan once again to celebrate Yuji Naka's "Phantasy Star" development team, but it also made Nintendo feel like it was walking on thin ice.

Since the victory of "Dragon Quest" once again suppressed the platform share of Mars Entertainment's Dreambox in the Japanese market to less than 1%, Hiroshi Yamauchi is extremely satisfied. In the market, he has no way to compete with Mars Entertainment, but in his home field of the Japanese market, Mars Entertainment can't even talk.

Although "Metal Gear" had some impact, it was not big. The fluctuation in share did not even exceed 0.5%. However, when "Phantasy Star" seemed to be selling like crazy, it continued to rise crazily. Sales volume increased, and Dreambox's shipment volume was even several times that of F in the same period. Even people who least understood the market knew that Nintendo was in trouble.

However, to make a top-notch game that can be compared with "Phantasy Star", it must at least be a game of the level of "Dragon Quest" and "The Legend of Zelda". And for Nintendo, such a game is It's not too difficult to make, but it's definitely not enough time. Because for a game of this caliber, it takes at least half a year from preparation to completion.

Time waits for no one now.

"Miyamoto, how is the project under your control?" At the meeting, Hiroshi Yamauchi also asked Shigeru Miyamoto, the pillar of game development in the company.

Miyamoto Shigeru did not make any major productions during this period. After he and Yokoi Gunpei completed "Metroid", he felt that his inspiration was somewhat exhausted, so he did not continue to make those large-scale productions with huge investments, but instead produced several movies. Very innovative little games to relax yourself.

Now, Nintendo has reached an extremely critical moment, and Hiroshi Yamauchi has to think of Shigeru Miyamoto again.