Game Development Giant

Should we choose Gunpei Yokoi's suggestion and go all out to develop handheld computers and open up new markets, or should we return to the main force and develop sixteen-bit computers?

This is really a difficult question for Pu Yamauchi to decide.

At this time, Masayuki Uemura, who had been watching from the side, spoke up. He is Yokoi Gunpei's deputy and the chief designer of FC. In the hardware development department, his prestige is no less than that of Yokoi Gunpei, so his Opinions are also very important.

"President, I think Director Yokoi is right. We should not cut off a project that is already promising and rush into a project that we have no experience in. And with all due respect..." Masayuki Uemura said. Very sincerely, "Mr. President, the development of 16-bit computers is completely different from the development of 8-bit computers. Even if we develop it immediately, it will take at least more than a year."

Hearing what Masayuki Uemura said, Yamauchi Hiroshi frowned even more. He did not expect that developing a 16-bit home computer would take so much longer than developing an 8-bit home computer, and he had experienced eight-bit computers. He knew what Masayuki Uemura meant. It would take a year just to carry out the development, so the time needed for finishing and testing would be at least half of the development time. "What do you mean, do you mean that Sega started the development of 16-bit game consoles a year ago?" Hiroshi Yamauchi asked aloud.

Based on his experience in hardware development, Masayuki Uemura said without any secret: "I think it's probably true, after the cooking game Mars Entertainment produced for them failed to save their MS console, or even earlier. Time, I think they have already started the development of new consoles, but what I am most worried about is Mars Entertainment. If they had already started the development of 16-bit home consoles, then for us. It would be almost It’s a disaster.”

"So Uemura, do you think we should focus our efforts on the development of sixteen-bit home consoles now? Or should we continue to focus on handheld phones?" Hiroshi Yamauchi closed his eyes slightly and thought for a while before finally speaking.

Masayuki Uemura glanced at Yokoi Gunpei. Although he had a good relationship with Yokoi Gunpei, he also very much agreed with Yokoi Gunpei's statement that the only way to regain the disadvantage in the current situation with Mars Entertainment was to find another way, and still The palm phone in a virgin land is their best opportunity. At this time, Gunpei Yokoi also looked at Masayuki Uemura. There was a clear look of request in his eyes. It did not mean that he felt that home computers were not important, but that in his eyes, the two were equally important. What they needed to do now Yes, it’s not about choosing one of the two, but choosing both. Otherwise, if you don't have such courage, the best result is to continue to maintain this situation, above your own head. There will always be a mountain called Mars Entertainment.

Moreover, a disruptor called Sega will be added.

If this continues, maybe in three or four years, Nintendo won't even be qualified to compete with Mars Entertainment. We can only play house with some people who are jealous of the huge profits of the video game industry and want to get a piece of the pie.

Mars Entertainment, on the other hand, has long been on top of its game.

This was Yokoi Gunpei's insistence. He looked at Masayuki Uemura with pleading eyes. At this time, the only chance to get Hiroshi Yamauchi to agree was that only by uniting the cores of the two hardware departments could the chairman, who had always been consistent since he took over the reins of Nintendo, and no one dare to disobey him, submit.

Moreover, he really has Nintendo's best interests at heart.

However, Masayuki Uemura faced Yokoi Gunpei's eyes and closed them slightly. After a second, he opened them again, and then calmly shook his head.

Obviously, he rejected what Yokoi Gunpei said in his eyes.

Seeing Uemura Masayuki like this, Yokoi Gunpei suddenly felt like a loose ball and lost all his energy. He really couldn't understand why he just decided to enter the United States and open up new markets two years ago. At that time, President Yamauchi, whom I respected most, was so brave and enterprising. In high-level meetings, he would slap the table on the table. No matter what difficulties he encountered, he would never give up. He must build Nintendo into the best game company in the world. .

How long has it been?

Could it be that Mars Entertainment is really too powerful and has caused President Yamauchi to lose this great courage?

"President, although I really want to say that we should do both at the same time, unless our hardware development department is doubled, we will not be able to do it. Both of these are very important in my eyes. If If I have to choose one of them, then I would choose the development of a new 16-bit home game console, because temporarily shrinking the handheld console, for us, it is just a loss in the forecast, and we are not sure whether it will be available. Income, if our sixteen-bit home machine is too late compared to others, it may be related to our survival."

Masayuki Uemura replied to Hiroshi Yamauchi.

Although he knew that the hope was very slim, Gunpei Yokoi still looked up at Hiroshi Yamauchi, hoping that he would reconsider his opinion before he really made a decision. It is not that Nintendo has started two projects at the same time. The capabilities of a large hardware development team, but such an investment will be very huge, and software funds will inevitably be diverted.

In the eyes of Hiroshi Yamauchi, software is the soul of a game company, and hardware only needs to keep up with the times.

This also made Gunpei Yokoi extremely disappointed. At the beginning, Hiroshi Yamauchi was not like this. At the FC development project meeting, President Yamauchi once gave the development team a death order. What he wanted was a Other game companies couldn't replicate the console within a year.

Hiroshi Yamauchi is indeed quite conflicted now. It’s not that he doesn’t pay attention to hardware, but he thinks that a game company should focus on software, because players will buy your game console to play with your console. Games, not because of how powerful your console is. A game console platform without excellent games, no matter how powerful it is, is meaningless.

However, Hiroshi Yamauchi unknowingly overlooked one thing. In other words, this is still in the early stages of electronic games. The era of eight-bit computers has not yet passed. Even current game practitioners know that the next generation of consoles Compared with the old host, there will be a great performance advantage, but to what extent can this advantage be great?

, no one can tell clearly, because no one has truly experienced the so-called next era in the true sense.

From Atari to Nintendo and Mars Entertainment, it is just an evolution at the eight-bit computer level. Such an evolution is far from being called the next generation.

What Hiroshi Yamauchi ignored is that when the performance of game consoles is improved to the next-generation level, the quality of the games will also be improved to the next-generation level. The result is that no matter how good the games you make in this era are, When comparing games of the same level running with next-generation capabilities, the gap is simply worlds apart.

For example, GTA5 on PS3 and GTA5 on PS4 are completely different games.

Facing Yokoi Gunpei's almost begging look, the hard-hearted Hiroshi Yamauchi also felt a little soft-hearted. He knew that Yokoi Gunpei was sincerely doing it for Nintendo's good. However, as a decision-making decision of a huge game company, Or, he needs to consider everything, and his decision cannot be supported by everyone. He has his own considerations.

"Yokoi, when you go back, prepare to transfer 60% of the humans who were previously deployed to Uemura, and let him be fully responsible for the development of our new console."

At this point, Hiroshi Yamauchi also paused for a moment. He decided to give Yokoi some comfort, so he continued: "You can recruit 15% of new employees to join your mobile phone development team, but it requires It is certain to tighten your development plan, and set your development level at the maintenance level for the time being."

After hearing the final decision made by Hiroshi Yamauchi, Gunpei Yokoi slowly closed his eyes. His current status was all due to Hiroshi Yamauchi's favor. He respected Hiroshi Yamauchi extremely, and this time He took the initiative to oppose Hiroshi Yamauchi's ideas because he felt that now was the best opportunity for Nintendo to bring them closer to Mars Entertainment.

However, this does not mean that after Hiroshi Yamauchi makes his own decision, he will disobey President Yamauchi's decision. This is something he will never do.

Needless to say, taking on the responsibility this time is basically equivalent to disbanding the mobile phone team. Even if it is a bigger fault, if he needs to take it, he will not look back. Just more than ten years later, because of the failure of vb, in order to save Yamauchi With Pu's prestige within Nintendo, Gunpei Yokoi took the initiative to take all the responsibility for the failure of vb, as if he was taking the blame and resigning.

"Okay, I'll have it done within a week."

After finishing speaking, Yamauchi Hiroshi nodded, waved his hand, and let Gunpei Yokoi leave, leaving Masayuki Uemura alone.

After Yokoi Gunpei received the instruction from Yamauchi Hiroshi to leave, he bowed slightly, turned around, and left Yamauchi Hiroshi's office without turning his head. As for President Yamauchi, he wanted to follow him in his room. Whatever Masayuki Uemura said, it was not something Gunpei Yokoi wanted to pay attention to.