Horrible! Actually playing this kind of game!

Satoru Iwata, born in 1959, is 39 years old this year.

Very young, but already the president of HAL Research Institute.

In 1982, Iwata graduated from Tokyo Institute of Technology.

HAL's start-up team only has 5 people. Among the graduates of the same class, Satoru Iwata undoubtedly joined the [smallest] company.

At Nintendo, Satoru Iwata spent most of his time working at the HAL Research Institute, focusing on writing game programs. He was called a "genius programmer" in the early days.

Due to manpower shortage, everyone at HAL has to wear multiple hats.

While working as a programmer, Satoru Iwata is also responsible for game design, promotion, and even helping everyone order food and clean up, but he enjoys it.

In February 1984, the FC game "Pinball" was released. This was the first FC game that HAL participated in the development of. Their work was appreciated by Nintendo, and the two parties established an extremely close relationship.

Iwata's first work was to assist Nintendo in developing the FC version of "Golf" and achieved sales of more than one million.

Later, HAL continued to contribute several well-known works to Nintendo, including "Kirby", "Earth Adventure", etc...

In the autumn of 1992, Masahito Tanimura, the president of HAL Research Institute, invested a large amount of funds in securities, real estate and other real estate investments and incurred liabilities of more than 2 billion yen, putting the company in a desperate situation of bankruptcy.

Iwata thought of Nintendo, which he had always cooperated with, and went to Kyoto alone to ask for a meeting with Hiroshi Yamauchi.

Hiroshi Yamauchi provided a guarantee on the condition of [let Satoru Iwata become president], which helped HAL Research Institute overcome the difficulties. It was with the help of Hiroshi Yamauchi——

In 1993, Satoru Iwata was promoted to the position of president of HAL Research Institute.

Yamauchi Hiroshi liked this young man very much. From this perspective, Yamauchi Hiroshi was kind to Iwata Satoru.

…

Satoru Iwata showed his outstanding talents very early, not only in the field of games, but also in business and management. When Satoru Iwata served as the president of HAL Research Institute, he was saddled with a debt of 2 billion as soon as he took office.

But the astonishing sales of "Kirby" finally helped HAL turn a profit.

Afterwards, various game works were launched and received high response. Since then, the money borrowed from Nintendo has been gradually paid off, and HAL has successfully become Nintendo's most important second partner in Japan.

In his previous life, Hiroshi Yamauchi recruited Satoru Iwata, a young man, to Rentendo as the head of the business planning department in 2000, and paved the way for him.

Two years later, Satoru Iwata became Nintendo's fourth president and the first not to be a member of the Yamauchi family.

Among the smartest things Yamauchi Hiroshi did in his life, the first was to transfer Rentendo's main business from fireworks to electronic games.

The second thing was to support Satoru Iwata when he was unable to do what he wanted and was about to step down, and handed over the president of Rentendo to him.

These two decisions helped Rentiantang become the leader in the gaming industry, and it has remained evergreen.

Although Yamauchi Hiroshi was a bit overbearing and dictatorial, he had an extremely accurate vision when it came to looking at people, and his iron-blooded skills continued until his retirement. When he was leaving, he still used thunderous means to find the next captain for Ren Tiantang. Instead of using Minoru Arakawa, a close family member, or Shigeru Miyamoto, who has been following him and is not a relative but is better than a relative.

I have to say that Hiroshi Yamauchi is quite courageous.

However, it is not easy for an outsider to convince the public. Arakawa Minoru alone was very dissatisfied with this matter.

In order to support Iwata Satoru, Hiroshi Yamauchi even kicked out his son-in-law. Minoru Arakawa resigned from his post in 2002, and then Yamauchi took back all Kita's power, leaving Rentendo completely in the hands of Satoru Iwata.

Before the legend of Arakawa was finished, he was abruptly called "stuck".

A wound at the end made the original legend forever become an unfinished tense.

No one blames Yamauchi. Judging from Nintendo's subsequent results, choosing Satoru Iwata, who has a gentle and humble personality, is undoubtedly Eimei's decision.

There are no ifs in reality, but if Yamauchi had really chosen Arakawa as his successor, would Nintendo really be successful in the future, and would it be able to achieve Iwata's achievements?

No one can be sure.

Perhaps, having no choice but to leave that day can be regarded as another kind of perfect curtain call.

After Satoru Iwata took over Rentendo, he successfully developed Rentendo and subsequently launched NDS and WII, making many imaginative changes in game equipment and game design.

Moreover, compared to Minoru Arakawa, Satoru Iwata really loves games, and it is precisely because of this that he can think from the perspective of players. If he makes a more fun game, how can he make the game more attractive to players...

These are the questions he has been studying.

Under his leadership, Rentiantian not only got out of the predicament, but also grew and grew step by step.

It's a pity that Satoru Iwata's life was too short. He died of bile duct tumor proliferation in 2015. He was 55 years old.

It can be said that God is jealous of Yingcai.

…

However, today is different from the past.

In this timeline, Rentenda did not obtain the Pokémon IP, so Satoru Iwata had not participated in the development of Rentendao's "Pokémon Gold and Silver" as a collaborator before this. , naturally there is no such thing as the so-called deep feelings and the establishment of revolutionary friendship with the employees of Rentiantang.

Iwata's main focus is on HAL, and he leads the development of the "Kirby" and "Earth Adventure" series...

Therefore, even though he knew that Hiroshi Yamauchi was kind to him in supporting him to become the president of the research institute, Qing Zhiyuan still wanted to give it a try.

Whether you can dig it out depends on your sincerity and what you can give.

…

After cooking a pot of sake, Qing Zhiyuan looked very happy.

I think back on those days when Boss Cao and Mr. Xuande drank together to discuss heroes. Today, having him and Satoru Iwata discuss the future together is really a joy in life.

The two of them sat down to eat for a while and chatted briefly to get to know each other. Qing Zhiyuan got straight to the point and said:

"Iwata-san, I am a straightforward person, so I won't beat around the bush. I invited you here today because I want to invite you, Iwata-san, to come to our company."

"Um?"

In fact, before coming to the appointment, Satoru Iwata already had some premonitions in his heart, but he didn't really think much about it -

Why poach him?

Thinking about it, he and Qing Zhiyuan didn't seem to have much interaction. At most, they had attended some events together, but they didn't speak to each other.

Not even an acquaintance.

Seriously, this is their first meeting.

However, with such a relationship, Qing Zhiyuan actually wanted to invite him to pokeni. Why?

"President Yamauchi is kind to me. In fact, I shouldn't be here today. If I knew that President Ao wanted to poach me...

I just came to the appointment considering that everyone is making games, not to mention Pokeni is a company I like very much. If it is poaching..."

"Listen to what I have to say first, and then consider whether to come to our company."

Qing Zhiyuan quickly interrupted him, and then explained with a smile:

"Is such that."

"Our pokeni is now quite big. Mr. Iwata, guess what our game sales were last year?"

Iwata lowered his head and thought for a moment, then said hesitantly, "30 million copies? The results of the Pokémon series have always been very good."

Qing Zhiyuan smiled, stretched out his hand and said, "50 million copies."

Hiss...

Satoru Iwata gasped, this number was much more exaggerated than he imagined.

You must know that Rentian’s game sales last year were only 26 million copies.

In other words, pokeni is almost twice as good.

"From a game perspective alone, we are now definitely the number one player in the world, and our game sales are definitely crushing other companies."

"Before, I definitely wouldn't have invited you, but now pokeni is no longer what it used to be. pokeni has matured and become a major gaming company that can be compared with Rentendo.

Although what I say may sound like a boast, Mr. Iwata, please believe that what I say is true. "

Iwata lowered his eyelids and shook his head, "I believe what President Ao said."

“The fields we are now involved in are not just in the gaming field, but also in film and television, the Internet, light novels and comic publishing... we are involved in game peripherals, all of these.

You may not be able to see their value yet, but I guarantee that in a few years, within 5 years, after these planted seeds have taken root and sprouted, you will see a huge pokeni empire. "

When Satoru Iwata heard this, although he was silent and calm on the surface, he was extremely shocked in his heart.

What Qing Zhiyuan said has actually been reported in the news, but as President Qing said, because they have not yet produced value and are only in the seed stage, they have not been shown.

Pokeni is not a listed company until now, so without disclosing financial reports, what assets does this company have and what is its revenue status? From the outside, it has always been a fan of the group.

However, Satoru Iwata vaguely feels that Qing Zhiyuan's layout is amazing. These industries are inextricably linked. Although it has not been reflected yet, I am afraid they will all become stars in the sky and shine brightly in the future.

Qing Zhiyuan first demonstrated the company's strength, mainly for comparison with Rentian Paradise, and told Satoru Iwata——

Our pokeni are no worse than Rentian.

Qing Zhiyuan did not say how much revenue it generated last year, nor did he say how much less Pokeni earned than Rentiantang. Just by spreading the industry and showing the sales data, it is already very shocking.

Satoru Iwata appears calm on the surface, but in fact he is already in turmoil inside.

I guessed that pokeni was very powerful, but I didn't expect it to be this powerful.

"After that, I will establish the pokeni group and reorganize the company into a group system."

Qing Zhiyuan smiled and expressed his plan in front of Satoru Iwata, "The current pokeni game company will be taken out, and then you will be the CEO of the group."

"Eh?!"

Hearing the word CEO, Satoru Iwata was stunned.

In his previous expectations, he thought that Qing Zhiyuan was just recruiting him to be the head of a certain department, or at a lower level, he was just a supervisor or producer.

Satoru Iwata developed Kirby, and he definitely has this ability.

But--

Unexpectedly, Qing Zhiyuan was directly offered the position of CEO!

"But, two years!" Qing Zhiyuan raised two fingers, "I need two years. Within two years of joining the company, you need to convince the public with your results."

Satoru Iwata became the next generation president of Rentendo, and it did not happen overnight. After being recruited to Rentendo in 2000, it took him two years to prove his worth.

Otherwise, how could an outsider suppress a group of elders?

However, it took only 2 years for him to be promoted to the position of president. In addition to Yamauchi's support from behind, Satoru Iwata's own talents also played a crucial role.

Why should you be appointed president if you can't achieve results?

Qing Zhiyuan wanted Satoru Iwata to liberate himself from the tedious daily management and company strategy implementation matters.

After much thought, Satoru Iwata is actually the most suitable candidate.

After the restructuring of the group is completed, Qing Zhiyuan himself will still serve as chairman, that is, the company's top leader and decision-maker, leading the board of directors, and then Satoru Iwata will serve as CEO, which is equivalent to the position of general manager.

…

"After you come to pokeni, and after the group reorganization is completed, I will set up a strategic planning department, you can also call it a secretariat.

Then let you be the minister.

This department is primarily responsible for all strategic operations of the company.

The strategic planning department can determine the company's future strategic direction and operations through analysis reports. It also has the power to appoint and replace the presidents of subsidiaries, which is equivalent to the brains of the company.

And you are the brain in this brain department.

Iwata-san, what do you think? "

The secretariat is actually the operating model of Samsung Group. It is precisely because the secretariat has huge power to control the direction and make macro strategic adjustments that there is no need to worry about resource competition and internal strife among multiple subsidiaries.

As Qing Zhiyuan said, the strategic planning department is equivalent to the brain, responsible for coordinating the operations of all departments and controlling the direction.

Otherwise, like Sega and Sony, it is actually not a good thing for everyone to have internal friction in order to compete for resources. Instead, it will cause the company to expand to a certain extent and then decline, or even fall apart.

Satoru Iwata is a smart man. He immediately understood the value of this strategic planning department as soon as he heard what Qing Zhiyuan said.

To be honest, it is very exciting. Once the setup is successful, this is the most important core department of POKENI. It controls the company's resource allocation and has the power of life and death. It is equivalent to handing him the rudder of the pokeni ship.

This sense of trust shocked Iwata.

This is the guarantee of strength.

If it were pokeni from a few years ago, it would definitely not have such great appeal.

Therefore, the amount of chips in a person's hand also determines how much you can accomplish. For those with capital and resources, success is easier than ordinary people.

…

"But... why me?" Satoru Iwata asked with some confusion, "I am an outsider, and as you know, HAL is Rentendo's second partner. We have no relationship with Rentendo and President Yamauchi. fine."

…

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There is another chapter in the evening (end of this chapter)