Game Development Giant

"A different game..."

When Hayao Nakayama heard what Yu Suzuki said, he pondered for a moment. He also felt that the current console market was calm. He had also seen several plans for games that Yu Suzuki was planning to make. Among these plans, Suzuki Yu also mentioned several of his current ideas, but they were all abandoned due to functional issues.

"Suzuki, the current console market is also like this. Without excellent games to drive sales, it will be difficult for us to regain our advantage." Hayao Nakayama sighed and said casually. You know, Sega was the first to put the 16-bit console on the market. , and, using graphics that are far superior to those of eight-bit machines, we have indeed achieved some very good results.

However, with the entry of Mars Entertainment, its share of the 16-bit console market has become smaller and smaller. Now it has basically returned to the eight-bit console era. Mars Entertainment is in a similar situation to Nintendo. The only The difference is that Mars Entertainment is still Mars Entertainment, and Nintendo's position was already shared with Sony.

"More than 70% of the market share..."

Facing the dominant share of Mars Entertainment, it is difficult for Nakayama Hayao to get angry and want to fight, but he also knows that it is impossible not to fight, and he also has to thank Jester for the World Electronic Games Association proposal, otherwise, there will be very few third-party developers to support them.

Of course, Nakayama Hayao also knew that Jester's purpose of establishing this association was to better monopolize.

However, this is indeed a matter of great benefit to him and Sony.

After careful consideration, his choice was not wrong.

"Our 16-bit machine has been put into research and development?" As if thinking of something, Nakayama Hayao temporarily suppressed his previous thoughts deep in his heart. He also knew that there was no use in thinking about these now, so he simply thought of it. He then asked about another thing, which was crucial to Sega's future.

Although Yu Suzuki is only the head of the game development department, because he was responsible for the development of Sega's large arcade machines, he is also very influential in hardware development.

"It went very smoothly, but maybe our process was a little slower. According to the information we found, Sony was in their computer entertainment department. Not long after it was established, they started the research and development of a new console. It is said that Kutaragi Ken is very interested in the Thirty-Two Bit Computer attaches great importance to it and considers it to be the most important product for the rise of Sony Computer Entertainment, so almost 60% of their experience has been invested in it. As for Mars Entertainment..."

Having said this, Suzuki Yu paused slightly and pondered. He seemed to be thinking about something.

This also aroused the doubts of Nakayama Hayao. He glanced at Suzuki Yu and said doubtfully: "Is there any problem? Mars Entertainment hasn't started research and development yet?"

"No."

Suzuki Yu shook his head firmly this time, but then. His tone became less conclusive again.

"Because the other party's development center is in the United States, and most of the developers are Americans, it is difficult for us to place our people in, and it is not easy to bribe them. But one thing is certain, they The research and development started very early, but we know nothing about their progress, let alone the direction in which they focus on development."

The function of the 32 machines that Sony focuses on developing is 3D games.

Regarding 3D games, the industry also holds different views. Including those within Sega, developers at the headquarters such as Yu Suzuki are very optimistic about the future development and potential of 3D games, and those from branches such as Developers believe that traditional 2D games, after the functions of 32-bit computers are more perfect, can produce pictures that are far more beautiful than 3D.

Therefore, they believe that, at least within a generation, 3D is not as good as it seems.

Although those who support 3D headed by Yu Suzuki have a strong say in the headquarters, you must know that Sega's main R\u0026D strength is the seven affiliated development companies. These development companies are like a small headquarters, almost all of them are Ability to develop any type of game.

Apart from their inability to sell consoles, basically, in terms of research and development, they are not much worse than the headquarters.

Therefore, within Sega, the dispute between these two research and development ideas has always existed.

And this is mapped to the new generation of consoles, which also emphasize both functions. But then again, if the two functions are equally emphasized, then it will not be able to achieve the ultimate in a single function. This is also Suzuki's Yu was not very satisfied.

Not just internally at Sega, actually.

Even within the entire video game industry, this kind of contradiction and dispute is equally acute.

Although Hiroshi Yamauchi has semi-retired due to health reasons, allowing his son-in-law Minoru Arakawa to take over Nintendo, in fact, the real controller of Nintendo is Hiroshi Yamauchi, as shown in a recent interview with Hiroshi Yamauchi.

Someone asked him about Sony's emphasis on next-generation 3D features.

However, Hiroshi Yamauchi scoffed at Sony's emphasis. He said in a very contemptuous tone: "For at least the next ten years, 2D games will still occupy the mainstream. As for whether 3D games have a future, that depends on The future is developing.”

There are many people who think like Hiroshi Yamauchi.

Even within Mars Entertainment, despite the suppression of great and outstanding figures like Jester, many people still express their different opinions from time to time.

In Jester's opinion.

Whether it is 3D or 2D, in fact, it is just a form of game expression.

At least he agrees with it.

That is, in the next ten years, it is indeed difficult for 3D games to become the absolute mainstream. Moreover, in the future, whether it is 3D games that have just begun to sprout or 2D games that have matured, There have been many exceptionally good works.

Although 3D has a sense of space that 2D cannot achieve in terms of scene expression, but in terms of exquisiteness and precision, 3D modeling in this era is far inferior to hand-painted 2D artists.

Even if it is more than twenty years in the future.

Can high-fidelity 3D modeling be compared with hand-drawing?

not necessarily.

Therefore, Jester is not annoyed with the assertion made by many people inside that 2D games will remain mainstream for some time to come.

Make a game!

It’s not about whether the game is 3D or not, but whether it’s fun or not.

Fun or not, this is the only criterion for judging a game.

If it is said that 3D can definitely overwhelm 2D games, many examples can completely deny this statement. For example, is QQ Xianxia's fax more fun than the pixel game "Runestone Guardian"?

Jester had just finished a high-level meeting.

The attendees of the meeting were all high-level executives from Mars Entertainment, and almost only developers at the level of Yuji Naka and Hironobu Sakaguchi could participate.

This is a conference call.

The content of the discussion was about the new host.

Jester's attitude towards console development is in the form of software leading hardware, which is contrary to the traditional hardware-first concept of this era. For example, Sony Computer Entertainment, because Kutaragi is a hardware professional, Sony It has always been developed using this hardware as a standard method.

This is also the biggest difference between Mars Entertainment and other game companies in hardware development.

For example, Sony, their hardware engineers developed the game console according to their ideas, and then gave the game console to the game developers, allowing them to design the game based on the hardware they developed. As for whether this hardware meets those requirements? The thoughts of software developers are not what these hardware developers care about.

This development idea has existed since the birth of Sony Entertainment until Kutaragi Ken's sad retirement.

Of course, Sony Computer Entertainment's phenomenal success in its first fifteen years, under the leadership of Ken Kutaragi, illustrates the rationality of this R\u0026D approach, but this rationality is based on a Under the conditions of leaders with vision and great courage.

And Ken Kutaragi’s understanding of hardware is like that of later generations of Steve Jobs.

They are the kind of people who have no idea what product they need until you put it in front of them.

However, such people are not always infallible.

Or to put it another way, such people are farsighted and don’t always see where they should.

For example, Kutaragi Ken's development of PS3. Indeed, Kutaragi Ken saw the future, but the future he saw was a little too far. As the saying goes, if you are one step ahead, you are a hero, and if you are ahead of the food supplements, you are not a hero.

Then, Sony learned from the mistakes Kutaragi made regarding hardware development.

The decision was made to let software developers lead hardware development.

This is also to solve the difficulty of how to solve this dilemma when a hardware company lacks a great figure like Kutaragi Ken.

Jester can naturally rely on his knowledge of the future to act as a legendary figure like Ken Kutaragi or Steve Jobs who seems to be able to see through the fog of the future.

But he knew that this method of completely placing bets on one person was not advisable.

But this way of returning the design ideas of a product to people who really need them is more in line with his inner thoughts.

Because this is a manifestation of collective strength. (To be continued...)