Game Development Giant

Yokoi Junpei was sitting in his office, looking a little lonely.

A little more than a month ago, he was the most prestigious and influential figure in Nintendo after Hiroshi Yamauchi. Even the president of Nintendo of America, known as Hiroshi Yamauchi's successor, and the son-in-law of Mr. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Arakawa Minoru's status in the head office is slightly lower than his own.

Not to mention Shigeru Miyamoto, Masaru Uemura and others.

These people are not even qualified to compare with him. It's not that Gunpei Yokoi is unhappy. He doesn't have such an arrogant and unruly character. He feels pity for Nintendo.

Yes, this cooperation, or alliance, with Sony can indeed help Nintendo get out of this predicament temporarily, but what about after that? With the end of this cooperation, after understanding all the experience in developing game consoles, and having a good start in cooperation with Nintendo on third-party games.

Will Sony, with its wealth and power, just be willing to be an ally of Nintendo and a bystander in the growing video game market?

Yokoi Gunpei feels that behind Sony's humility now, there must be amazing greed hidden.

Moreover, even if Sony relies on Sony to survive the crisis of this new generation of consoles, Nintendo is still facing this situation, and it is simply unable to seize more market share from the increasingly powerful and mature Mars Entertainment. , and even have to face the eyeing gaze of Sega, a newcomer in the home game.c.net industry. In the eyes of Yokoi Gunpei, the only thing is to open up new markets. Only the market that others have not touched can restore Nintendo's disadvantages as a whole.

If President Yamauchi can listen to his advice this time and be willing to take this risk, maybe Nintendo can really be brought back to a level with Mars Entertainment...

such a pity.

With a sigh, Gunpei Yokoi also knew that now that Nintendo and Sony have formed an alliance, his idea is absolutely impossible to realize, and he has also received an unprecedented cold reception. Even President Yamauchi, who has always valued him, did not come. explained to myself.

"It's time to leave."

Don't know why. Such a sudden idea suddenly appeared in Yokoi Gunpei's mind. It lingered for a long time and became more and more clear. He subconsciously rejected such an idea, but it did nothing to fix it. . Not to mention leaving, even if he was asked to return to the workshop to work as a front-line worker in production, he would be happy to do so.

However, he couldn't help thinking this way now.

Since I was assigned to the second hardware development department. It's just like a commander's job. Every day's work is to sign in at the right time and then leave at the right time. Every day's work is to come to the office, read the newspapers purchased by the company's administrative department, drink a few cups of coffee, and then leave.

It's like this every day, as if I have become an idler.

It would be fine if the company was always so busy, but every time he left the office, he would always see Nintendo employees with hurried looks and hurried steps. Some of these employees were familiar to him, and some were strangers to whom he had only met a few times. But he could tell from the movements and expressions of these people that Nintendo was extremely busy right now.

And what about yourself?

Although he didn't know if it was a psychological suggestion, Yokoi Gunpei always felt that people nowadays looked at him with a strange color. He couldn't tell what this kind of look was. In short, it was a kind of look that made him very uncomfortable. gaze.

After returning home and eating the meal cooked by his wife, Yokoi Gunpei locked himself in his house.

And his wife also knew that her husband had been having a hard time recently and wanted to offer words of comfort, but she always didn't know how to speak. When she was ready to say what she wanted to say, she saw that her husband had already left. Went to his room.

Yokoi Gunpei waited for half a month. President Yamauchi seemed to have forgotten him as a person. He had not contacted him, not even a phone call. There were no recent development meetings with the joint development team. Give yourself instructions to attend.

It is true that I was not allowed to join the joint development team, but according to my status in the Nintendo Hardware Development Department, it is okay to sit in and observe. Even if I am not allowed to participate in the development, I can always give my opinions, right?

This is still not the most important thing.

The most important thing is that after he was pushed out to the second hardware development department, there was a vague rumor in the company, because this cooperation between Nintendo and Sony made a lot of concessions, not only agreed All of Sony's requirements for hardware development even allow Sony to independently produce authorized new consoles after the new machine is completed. It even allows Sony to contact third-party developers and give them the right to develop games on the new console. .

You must know that these rights have always been regarded as fundamental to Nintendo before.

Such suggestions are simply a shame and a huge insult to Nintendo today. In other words, there is now a voice among the top management that someone needs to be responsible for this.

When such suggestions have not been publicized to the outside world, most people do not know about it, so the voice is still relatively small. But when these information are gradually made public, the pressure that Nintendo needs to bear will be very great, and In other words, someone needs to take responsibility for why Nintendo did not start developing new consoles in advance.

This is a very simple truth. If Mars Entertainment also does not develop in advance, then this will not be a problem. But if Mars Entertainment's own new console is almost finalized, then for Nintendo. It's a very important thing.

As for Uemura Masayuki, the chief designer of FC is now the chief designer of the new console, so it is impossible for him to be pushed out of the top cylinder. Although the delay in the development of home consoles should be handled by him, who is responsible for home development. The minister is responsible.

Next is President Hiroshi Yamauchi, the most authoritative person in Nintendo. It is impossible for Hiroshi Yamauchi to have flaws or mistakes. In other words, it comes from his analysis on the strategic level. The fact that the development department was not allowed to take the lead in developing new consoles cannot be blamed on Hiroshi Yamauchi.

However, someone with enough weight must be brought forward to take responsibility for this matter, so it will be obvious who it is.

After Yokoi Gunpei thought of this, the lonely look in his eyes became more and more serious. Could it be that President Yamauchi has not seen him for this period of time just to make him think of this and then take the initiative to take on this responsibility?

After the lonely eyes. It is a kind of unwillingness.

Because the development of home consoles has never been the aspect that I am mainly responsible for. Although as the number one person in Nintendo's hardware department, I will definitely be exposed to a lot of things related to the development of home consoles, Uemura Masayuki has always been responsible for these tasks.

but now. But he needs to come out and give an explanation to the outside world who don’t understand the truth.

Yes, people outside don't know the truth. They only know that I, Gunpei Yokoi, am the head of hardware at Nintendo, so it is not wrong for me to take the blame for this incident. Thinking of this, Yokoi Gunpei smiled sadly, and it turned out that he was in the eyes of President Yamauchi. It's just a chess piece that can be discarded anytime and anywhere.

Now that he thought of this, even though he was unwilling to leave Nintendo like this, Gunpei Yokoi still made his decision.

He took a breath, took out a piece of white paper from the drawer, then picked up the pen on the table, and began to write something on the white paper. On the top of the white paper, with his head raised, he wrote a letter of resignation. Three words.

The next day, Gunpei Yokoi came to Hiroshi Yamauchi's office with a calm expression. He also greeted the Nintendo employees he met on the road with an unusually calm expression. There was no clue that he was a person who was about to leave his job. .

Yamauchi's palms were trembling as he looked at the letter handed to him by Gunpei Yokoi.

He is not a person who allows himself to be weak, even though he very much wants to tell Junpei Yokoi, stay. I have no intention of letting you leave. I haven't seen you during this period because I want you to calm down.

But after hesitating for a few seconds, he discarded all these words from his mind.

Yes, Nintendo does need someone to take the blame now, but even if he doesn't, it doesn't matter to Hiroshi Yamauchi. In Yamauchi's view, his own prestige is enough now, as long as he is still there. No one dares to gossip inside Nintendo.

Moreover, he knew Yokoi Gunpei's talent. He was a genius in the true sense. He would never be willing to simply let Yokoi leave.

But what can he do if he is unwilling to do so? He knows that Gunpei Yokoi is a very decisive person. As long as he has determined something, no one can make him change his mind, just like he was so unfaithful about the development of handheld mobile phones before. Reasons to persist.

Yamauchi Hiroshi raised his head and glanced at Gunpei Yokoi one last time. There was only an unhesitating look in the other person's eyes. At this time, Yamauchi Hiroshi was thinking, if he could see even the slightest hint of something in the other person's eyes or look. If you have even the slightest intention of retaining her, then you will not hesitate to break the bottom line you have set for yourself before.

Because Gunpei Yokoi deserves it.

However, he didn't see it.

"All right."

Without persuasion, Yamauchi Hiroshi signed his name at the end of the letter.

And the moment he lowered his head, he didn't notice that a look of loneliness and disappointment flashed through Yokoi Gunpei's previously firm and decisive eyes.

For him, his Nintendo career was over.