Game Development Giant

Jester hates Japanese food.

It's not because of the taste - as long as the dishes of any country are cooked by experts, they will taste good. Well, maybe the UK is an exception.

It was the restrained, rigorous, and strict style reflected in Japanese food, and the little family spirit that made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

This is a psychological aversion, not a physical one.

Jester is a free-spirited person who likes to be free. As a northerner in his previous life, he liked drinking from a big bowl, eating large pieces of meat, and sharing the money on a large scale, rather than eating a delicate meal like this. The gongbi-painted green vegetable mix is ​​a Japanese dish that takes a long time to worry about.

However, Minoru Arakawa, who comes from a traditional Japanese wealthy family, obviously has great respect for Japanese food. His dining movements are very precise and rhythmic, which seems to be a certain kind of dining etiquette, especially in this restaurant that focuses on Kansai cuisine. At the restaurant, eating the smooth and tender soup tofu, the delicious taste rolled on the tip of his tongue, reminding him of the taste of his hometown.

His hometown is Kyoto, the fourth largest city in Japan and one of the birthplaces of Kansai cuisine.

Just like Chinese cuisine is divided into eight major cuisines: Shandong, Sichuan, Cantonese, Fujian, Huaiyang, Zhejiang, Hunan, and Anhui, Japanese cuisine is also divided into three major categories, or two major cuisines, based on region, method, and ingredients.

These two major dishes refer to Kanto cuisine and Kansai cuisine.

Among them, Kansai cuisine has the greatest influence. Kansai cuisine has a longer history than Kanto cuisine and is of course more famous.

Kanto cuisine is also called Tokyo cuisine, and Japanese people are accustomed to calling it "Edo-mae", which refers to the Tokyo Bay in front of the Edogawa River. The seafood there is fresh and can be used to cook a variety of delicious dishes.

The popular Edo Zazoi is a representative type of Kanto cuisine. During the Edo period, the world was dominated by samurai, and the dishes also showed the temperament of samurai, so Kanto cuisine is also called male cuisine.

As the name suggests, Kanto cuisine has strong and heavy flavors. Famous dishes include fried tempura and four-ki rice. This is because Edomae (i.e. Tokyo Bay) produces a kind of small fish and shrimp, and Kanto chefs use local products. These ingredients are used to make tempura and four-ki rice, so they taste very delicious.

Kansai cuisine mainly refers to the representative dishes from areas near Kyoto and Osaka. Among them, Osaka cuisine, also known as Nana cuisine, is the essence of Japanese cuisine, and because of this, Osaka is often called the capital of Japanese cuisine. All.

Because the water quality in Kyoto is particularly good, and it is a thousand-year-old capital with many temples, the dishes in Kyoto have the characteristics of palaces and temples. The ingredients are expensive and the methods are complicated. The dishes made by the steaming method are very delicious, such as soup tofu, and of course, there are also There is the world-famous Okonomiyaki.

Kansai cuisine is characterized by its light taste and umami flavor, and the raw materials used are more refined than Kanto cuisine - the taste of seafood from the Seto Inland Sea is also famous. At the same time, the water quality in Kansai is better than that in Kanto, so it produces The vegetables also taste good, so generally speaking, Kansai cuisine dishes are better than Kanto cuisine dishes.

During the dinner, Arakawa saw that Jester was not in high spirits, and he was a little surprised. He had been in the United States for many years, and the Americans he knew were all very fond of Japanese food, especially the exquisiteness of Japanese food, which made them so fond of it that they couldn't bear to put down their chopsticks. .

In order to make Jester eat comfortably and make the subsequent negotiations on "American Cubes" smoother, he also enthusiastically introduced to him the stories of these dishes and the etiquette of dining, hoping to use this Whet Jester's appetite.

But after Jester was used to eating Sichuan cuisine that was heavily oily and flavorful every day from his father, a quasi-first-class chef, he really had no interest in these off-flavor Kansai dishes. The only thing he was interested in was the dish that stuck with him. I don’t know how to cook the pan-fried wagyu beef without enough space in my teeth.

However, Mark Saini was very interested in these and listened to them with great interest.

This made Jester roll his eyes and feel contempt in his heart. Fortunately, you have eaten Chinese food.

"Mr. Arakawa!"

Jester, who finally couldn't bear it anymore, interrupted Minoru Arakawa who was still talking and feeling good about himself. Then he pointed unceremoniously at the pitifully small portion of fried Wagyu beef that he had already eaten cleanly, and said: "Can you give me two pounds of this kind of fried beef with soy sauce? I really like this dish from your country, but it would be better to add more chili peppers. I think its taste is still too bland!"

Then, Jester could clearly see a trace of anger flashing in Minoru Arakawa's eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.

Afterwards, Minoru Arakawa showed an apologetic look on his face, and his attitude was very respectful.

"I'm really sorry. I didn't ask Mr. Li about his food preferences beforehand, so I chose this restaurant in my hometown on my own initiative. I originally wanted him to taste our Japanese delicacies."

Seeing others with such a low profile, Jester felt uncomfortable continuing to look for trouble, but he still secretly cursed in his heart, how dare Japan have the nerve to call himself a gourmet? It looks pretty good, but apart from being exquisite, it doesn’t fill my stomach at all.

But he couldn't show it directly, he could only say with the same hypocritical smile: "I'm not saying that your Japanese food is not delicious, it's just that I'm used to heavy-flavored Sichuan food, and I really have no interest in these light-flavored dishes. , not just your Japanese food, even our Chinese Huaiyang food is the same to me."

Seeing the flash of contempt in Minori Arakawa's eyes, Jester's mood was not very good again. What the hell, he said he looked down on me because I wasn't used to eating your Japanese food?

Anyway, he had no intention of talking about "American Cubes" with the other party. He just wanted to get some information out of him about when Any Hell will come to the United States to sell nes. However, Arakawa Minoru had a very strict tone and treated Jester After several insinuations, there was no useful reply. I don’t know if he did it on purpose, or if Nintendo simply has no plans to sell it in the United States.

This also made Jester a little uninterested.

"I think since we are not interested in continuing to eat, we should talk as soon as possible. Everyone's time is limited." Seeing that the time was almost up, Jester simply planned to talk to Nintendo and leave. He had to go back to the company to take a look at the completion status of the three new games. After all, he could only get a rough idea from what Mark Saini said.

Minoru Arakawa didn't hear the negative tone in Jester's mouth. He took it for granted that Nintendo buying the copyright of one of their games was a happy thing for them. After all, it was a partnership that would benefit both parties. .

But he didn't expect at all that the game company in front of him, which had just released a small-level game, was also planning to enter the field of home consoles, and it was still in such a depressed market environment.

In fact, it was because Minoru Arakawa had not done enough work before, or he really did not take Mars Entertainment seriously. You know, Jester not long ago asked his father to recruit the entire Atari VCS7200 R\u0026D team. Came over.

Raising a hardware R\u0026D team is not an easy task. It is not a waste of money if you have ulterior motives.

If this information is obtained, then even a fool Arakawa Minoru will know what Mars Entertainment wants to do, and naturally there will be no unnecessary negotiation this time.

"Mr. Li, your company's "American Cube" is very good. The current market response in the United States has fully proved this point. I just wonder if your company is interested in further expanding this impact?" Arakawa Minoru's face With a modest smile, his English does not have the serious voiced problem of ordinary Japanese, but has a very standard New York accent.

"Haha." Jester cursed the hypocrisy in his heart, and asked deliberately pretending not to understand, "I wonder what Mr. Arakawa means? You mean Nintendo wants to acquire our Mars Entertainment or "American Cube" "?"

"Not entirely." Minoru Arakawa is not talking nonsense. He is a shrewd businessman. He values ​​​​the charm of "American Cube" very much, especially for the American strategy plan proposed by his father-in-law at the high-level meeting in the middle of the year. It is even more important.

However, he was only interested in "American Cube" and was not that interested in the newly formed game company under Jester - not to mention Nintendo's own game development team, just the royalties that his father-in-law was planning. Once the plan succeeds, they will not be short of excellent game development teams at all.

"We at Nintendo attach great importance to your company's "American Cube" and think it is a very good game and very suitable for use on home game consoles, so we at Nintendo hope that your company can put "American Cube" on home consoles The copyright was sold to us, and our offer was extremely sincere." Arakawa said sincerely.

"Extremely sincere?" Hearing these four words, Jester sneered twice in his heart. When did any hell come to be associated with the word sincerity?

Relying on Hiroshi Yamauchi's iron-fisted monopoly policy of leveraging FC's sales and using the royalty system, Nintendo has nothing to do with sincerity, not to mention that it will only be idle in the future and earn die-hard fans in a mosaic way. The hard-earned money but no repentance.

And Jester has no intention of selling.

Therefore, Jester's expression immediately changed, with an angry look on his face, and he said categorically: ""American Cube" is my first game, it means to me like my child, I am absolutely Impossible to sell.”

Arakawa Minoru didn't take it seriously when he heard Jester's statement. He never believed that there were things in the world that couldn't be sold, it was just because the price was not enough.

However, he didn't want to push the other party into a hurry. He didn't have to buy the home console copyright of "American Cube". It was the same as long as he got the other party's authorization.

Therefore, he just smiled, his smile remained the same, and his tone remained sincere.

"Mr. Li, you are overly worried. We do not want to buy your ownership of this game, but you only need to authorize the copyright of this game on the home console platform to us. Of course, we will definitely let you pay the price." Your Excellency is satisfied."

"Copyright for home consoles? Is it just for home consoles? You don't want arcade machines, palm..." Hearing Arakawa Minoru's words, Jester's eyes flashed, as if he had thought of something, and then he subconsciously wanted to put the words in his mouth Doubts came out of his mouth. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and shut up quickly, without revealing the most important information.

Arakawa looked at Jester with some confusion, not understanding what the palm he just mentioned meant.

Of course, Jester had no intention of explaining.

However, Jester still got a very important piece of information from Minoru Arakawa, that is, Nintendo has not started the plan for the handheld bame-boy, otherwise, they would not even mention the copyright of the handheld console. of.

There's no way Nintendo's designers couldn't see how devastating "American Cube" would be on a handheld console.

Then Jester had another idea, and it seemed that there was another piece of information hidden in Arakawa Minoru's words.

For example, regarding the scope of authorization for that home machine.

Thinking of this, Jester's face showed a thinking look, his eyebrows furrowed tightly, and after a minute or two, he deliberately asked in a tentative tone: "Do you want "American Cube"?" "Is it a copyright for home consoles in Japan? If it's just this, then it's not something that can't be discussed."

A trace of displeasure flashed in Minoru Arakawa's eyes, but there was still no look of dissatisfaction on his face. He still said with great sincerity: "No, we want the authorization of "American Cube" on home consoles in all regions. Not just in Japan."

"You also want those from the United States? There is no market prospect in the United States now..." Then Jester felt that it was almost done, so he deliberately raised his voice and pretended to be surprised. He looked at Minoru Arakawa with incredible eyes and said in surprise, "Do you want to sell FC in the United States? Don't you see what Atari's game consoles look like now?"

"hehe."

Arakawa smiled indifferently. He stretched out his hand to push the glasses on the bridge of his nose. He did not directly answer Jester's question, but continued to speak in the same tone that made people involuntarily like him.

"This is the company's decision. We don't want to deceive Mr. Li. We are really sincere. After Mr. Yamauchi saw the game "American Cube" from your company that I mailed to him, he immediately gave the order and I accepted it. The instruction I received is to get the home console copyright of "American Cube" no matter what. Please read this document for the price. After reading it, you will naturally understand our sincerity this time. If you are not satisfied, we will still We can continue to discuss.”

As he spoke, Minoru Arakawa took out a few pieces of white paper filled with writing from the briefcase on one side and handed it to Jester's eyes.

Jester took it easily. He had no intention of agreeing anyway, he just lowered his head and looked at it pretendingly.

While watching, Jester clicked his tongue and marveled. The conditions given by Renhe were too good. There was simply no hegemony like the one in the 1980s, where those who followed the rules prospered and those who rebelled were destroyed.

First of all, as long as the agreement is signed, the one-time licensing price is US$20 million, and for every copy sold, Mars Entertainment, which owns the copyright of "American Cube", will receive a US$5 share.

Jester only made a rough calculation. He couldn't remember the sales volume of Tetris. He only roughly remembered that it was more than five million, which was among the top ten sales in FC history.

Assuming there are 5 million copies, the share of 5 dollars per share is 25 million U.S. dollars, plus the 20 million for purchasing the license, this is a total of 45 million U.S. dollars.

This is a very sincere price. You know, based on fifty yuan for a game cartridge, five million copies is only a sales of US$250 million. If you exclude the production costs of manual channels and so on, Maybe the net profit is not $200 million.

In other words, Mars Entertainment does not need to do anything. It only needs to license the home console version of this game to Nintendo, and it can take away more than a quarter of all profits from this game!

Seeing this, Jester's expression couldn't help but change. Yamauchi Hiroshi and Arakawa Minoru were so courageous.

It seems that Nintendo has definitely set its sights on the US market for a long time, but it still lacks a game that is enough to open up the stagnant water of the US video game market.

Do they regard "American Cube" as a game that can completely activate the American video game market?

People buy game consoles for only one purpose, and that is to play games. Only games that are good enough that people can't help but play can drive the sales of game consoles.

It seems that Nintendo has taken a fancy to this, otherwise how could they be so generous this time, which is not in line with Nintendo's stingy style.

And Jester couldn't help but think of the fact that Nintendo's nes was officially released in the United States in October next year in its original history, but their family treasure "Super Mario" was released in September.

Of course, before the official release, Nintendo conducted trial sales, but the results were not very satisfactory.

Jester remembered that when he watched a documentary about the history of video games, he interviewed Reggie Gorilla, who was the president of Nintendo's Americas Division at the time. This die-hard Nintendo said that Nintendo used various special skills at that time. , including accessory toys such as light guns and robot assistants, but the sales of nes did not improve until "Super Mario" came to the United States, and then everything began to change.

For Nintendo, the most direct change is: NES is selling like crazy.

In other words, it was precisely because the game "Super Mario" gave Hiroshi Yamauchi enough confidence that he made up his mind to promote nes in the United States.

Jester made his own inference based on the known information.

Seeing the disbelieving look on Jester's face, Arakawa thought that the other party was completely swayed by the price in this agreement, and a confident smile appeared on his face involuntarily: "How is it? Mr. Li, yes We are quite satisfied with our sincerity.”

Jester took a deep breath and slowly closed the agreement.

It's impossible not to be excited, but it's absolutely impossible to agree. Jester took a deep look at Minoru Arakawa. He did admire Nintendo's methods, but he just saw a copy that was only popular in the arcade market in the United States. They dared to take such a big risk and spent a total of 45 million US dollars to buy an opportunity that might succeed for the sake of the home console market that they didn’t know whether it would succeed. If they were in the same position , Do you dare to do it yourself?

Jester thought silently in his heart, and then shook his head. If he didn't know history, it would be absolutely impossible for him to make such a decision.

The risks are simply too great.

"I don't agree with this offer." After five minutes, Jester, who had finished his meditation, raised his head, looked into Arakawa Minoru's eyes and said his answer word by word.

This answer is not difficult to make. Jester had made a decision before this negotiation.

"Well, we will... what? Reject? Baga!" After hearing Jester's reply, he thought that the other party had agreed to the conditions, and Arakawa, who looked excited, reacted, and within a split second, His face darkened, he looked at Jester in disbelief, and shouted in an almost hysterical voice, "Mr. Li, do you know what you just rejected? That's 45 million US dollars! Please Be sure to think about it!”

"I have thought it through very clearly, Mr. Arakawa, and I am very grateful for your attention to your company, but the price you gave is really too low, and it is far from the bottom line in my heart. Forgive me that I really can't put my Please forgive me for giving you my hard work at such an insulting price."

Jester said this with a straight face and righteously. After finishing speaking, he stood up directly and left without looking back.

Mark Saini also stood up at the same time and left behind Jester.

He didn't say a word during the entire negotiation process, because before the negotiation, he knew what the outcome would be, and this was the result that he and Jester discussed together.

Only the stunned Arakawa Minori was left, his face still full of disbelief, and he even muttered to himself: "At least 20 million US dollars, an insulting price..."

"idiot!"

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