Game Development Giant

"I want to be successful."

Just after Hisao Oguchi finished speaking, Hayao Nakayama took the initiative to speak for the first time. He looked at the young man who had just talked with admiration.

"The method you mentioned is not an isolated case."

Nakayama Hayao continued, with a smile on his face and a gentle expression.

"About nine or ten years ago, Atari was still the dominant player in the video game industry. At that time, their consoles swept the world. Not only the United States, Canada, and Europe, but even Japan, we had no resistance at all. Their research on video games is so far ahead of ours."

"At that time, many companies were jealous of Atari's profits, so they imitated their game consoles. At that time, there was no software patent law. This was only passed in the 1980s. Games are also unscrupulous in making games. At this time, Nintendo teamed up with Panasonic to produce a home console."

"Their console uses what you mentioned. It is sold at a price lower than the cost. After occupying the platform share, it relies on games to recover the previous losses."

After saying that, Hayao Nakayama still had a smile on his face. He looked at Hisao Oguchi and asked: "Have you heard of this? Do you know what happened to Nintendo?" This incident happened too long ago, and at that time Hisao Oguchi may not even be twenty years old, and it's not like the future at this time. You can get it by searching for various cases.

Therefore, Hisao Oguchi was also surprised when he heard Hayao Nakayama talking about this incident, because he had indeed never heard of it.

Moreover, although he has never heard of this matter, he can analyze it. The analysis process is also very simple. He was before Nintendo FC. I have never heard of Nintendo making any achievements in home games. This is very obvious.

In other words, Nintendo’s original plan failed.

After hearing this case of General Nakayama Hayao, although Nakayama Hayao's face was gentle and his smile was not cold, in the eyes of Hisao Oguchi, it was more unbearable and unacceptable than the previous angry shouts by naming names. .

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something. But he couldn't say a word.

However, Hayao Nakayama laughed. He waved his hand to signal the other party not to be nervous: "I was just joking, not disapproving of your opinion."

With that said, Hayao Nakayama continued to talk about the follow-up to this incident with Nintendo.

"Many people here have actually heard of this matter, but I want to say in detail that this plan was successful at the beginning. It was sold at Nintendo's below-cost production price. In many cases Two to three hundred thousand units were sold in a short period of time. Two or three hundred thousand units may not seem like much now, but at the time, it was already a very impressive number."

"However. Because they were sold too fast, Nintendo's capital turnover remained unchanged. After all, if they sold game consoles in this way, they would lose money if they sold more than one unit. And most of their games at that time were copied from others. There is no means of self-research and development, so the sales volume is not high.”

"That's why they failed."

"But the most funny thing is. After this incident, Nintendo, which was severely damaged, actually made an incredible decision. That is, Hiroshi Yamauchi actually set a rule that every product sold by Nintendo Hardware must be profitable.”

"In my opinion, this is too rigid and too inflexible."

After Nakayama Hayao briefly mentioned this old incident, the faces of everyone present also became clear. If they saw Nakayama Hayao say this and didn't know his thoughts, these people would not be qualified to be Sega's employees. Director, sitting here for a meeting.

"I think Hisao Oguchi's proposal is very good. If it weren't for his physical reminder, I might not be able to remember this old incident of Nintendo. It is of great reference value for us."

Nakayama Hayao's tone is extremely confident: "What I'm most worried about now is the influence of Mars Entertainment. As for the game development capabilities, I'm not worried. Our game development capabilities at Sega are just as strong, and we can still create games that players will like and be willing to buy." games, and our financial resources are not comparable to those of Nintendo back then.”

In this era, the leaders of Nintendo and Sega, the two most famous and powerful game companies in Japan, are very tough. Basically no one dares to object to the decisions they make within the company. What's more, this decision this time is even more reasonable and convincing.

After the meeting ended, Hayao Nakayama asked Hisao Oguchi to wait a moment.

After everyone left, only Nakayama Hayao and Oguchi Hisao were left in the conference room. Oguchi Hisao looked at Nakayama Hayao, his president, with some confusion. He didn't know that his president was left alone. whats the matter.

But in Nakayama Hayao's eyes, approval glances flashed from time to time.

"Xiaokou, if I ask you to die in Jia North America Branch and let you be responsible for the price reduction and sales of our consoles, are you confident that you can do a good job?" Nakayama Hayao asked in a consultative tone.

Hisao Oguchi opened his eyes in surprise when he heard what Nakayama Hayao said. He didn't understand why his president would ask him like this. He pointed at himself and said with some embarrassment: "President, but I'm a developer, not an administrator..."

But before Hisao Oguchi finished speaking, Hayao Nakayama waved his hand with a smile and said nonchalantly: "It doesn't matter which department you are in. Within Sega, there are not a few people who change positions at any time. Suzuki Yu was an administrative staff before. , but now I’m working on game development.”

Yu Suzuki is now the soul of Sega game development. He is praised by countless game newspapers and magazines as one of the two best game developers in Japan, as famous as Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto. And even in American newspapers and magazines, except for Jester. In addition to Lee's status being recognized as unassailable, Suzuki Yu often appears in the second position.

Even Jester has mentioned on different occasions that his favorite Japanese designer is Suzuki Yu.

As a member of Sega's game development department, Hisao Oguchi naturally has great respect for his immediate boss. Especially after working with him on development work, he admired Yu Suzuki's talent.

Therefore, when he heard Hayao Nakayama comparing him to Yu Suzuki, Hisao Oguchi quickly waved his hands modestly and said: "My talent is shallow, how can I be qualified to compare with Yu Suzuki-senpai?"

"Let's not talk about this yet."

Nakayama Hayao also felt that the topic was a bit far, and quickly began to change the topic. In fact, he did not think Hisao Oguchi could be compared with Suzuki Yu, but Suzuki Yu had no interest in administrative work. The only thing he was interested in was, It's game development.

Originally, Yu Suzuki was Hayao Nakayama's most promising successor, but he had no intention of doing so, and Hayao Nakayama certainly couldn't force it.

And now he saw Hisao Oguchi again. In fact, Hisao Oguchi was not qualified to attend this meeting according to his status. However, because a game that Yu Suzuki was developing recently encountered a bottleneck, Yu Suzuki really did not have time to withdraw from the development center. When he returned to the headquarters, he entrusted Hisao Oguchi to take him to this meeting.

Through Nakayama Hayao's answer to Hisao Oguchi just now, he carefully observed it and found that this young man is a rare talent with a strategic vision. He can look at problems from an overall perspective, rather than just looking at it one-sidedly. This is a quality that is crucial for Sega, a company that aspires to be the best game company in the world.

Therefore, Nakayama Hayao had the idea of ​​​​cultivating it.

"Do you want to engage in administrative work?" Nakayama Hayao put the question back on track. This time there was no fancy question, but something that got straight to his heart.

Hisao Oguchi originally wanted to say no, because he still has a half-finished development project on his hands. If he leaves at this time, the project will definitely lengthen the development time, but he also knows that such an opportunity It is extremely rare because he is willing to engage in administrative work.

"what are you worried about?"

The experienced Hayao Nakayama immediately caught something from Hisao Oguchi's hesitation. With this expression, he could of course make a reasonable judgment on his subordinate's thoughts in an instant - hesitation does not mean he does not want it. But there is something unspeakable.

Seeing Hayao Nakayama ask this, Hisao Oguchi expressed his worries in detail.

After hearing what Hisao Oguchi said, the look of satisfaction on Nakayama Hayao's face became more and more prosperous. He smiled, waved his hand, and said: "Logically, I should let you finish the work at hand first, but Time waits for no one now. Mars Entertainment has announced the launch date of their game console in less than a month. Compared with this matter, your current job is irrelevant. Sometimes , you have to make a choice, I can only give you some suggestions, but I can't help you make a decision."

"You can choose to go to the United States or finish your current job. I will wait for you for a day. If you make a choice, you can come to me at any time."

Nakayama Hayao said the above with a slight smile, and then encouraged Oguchi Hisao a few words before letting him leave first.

While Nakayama Hayao looked at the background of Hisao Oguchi's departure, he fell into blind thoughts. The scene of Hisao Oguchi chatting with the scholars at the meeting once again appeared in his mind, which reminded him of his youth. of myself.

"Young and fearless..." (To be continued...)