Super Game Empire

Central Street, Redmond, Washington. Minoru Arakawa returned to the Nintendo of America branch building and walked into his office. When he saw several Tetris model toys placed on the table, he couldn't help but get angry and slapped her.

After turning over these, I trampled the Tetris model to pieces.

He left the negotiation table in anger in New York. This was the first time in his life that he was so angry.

He studied in Kyoto University's Faculty of Engineering, Engineering Research Course, and MIT Civil Engineering Research Course, and then he worked hard alone in Marubeni Corporation North America Company without any help from his family, until he reached the position of senior director of North America Company.

Finally, at the personal invitation of his father-in-law Yamauchi Ura, he founded the North American branch of Nintendo. Starting from scratch, he conquered 85% of the market with his bare hands. In his life, there was only success and no failure!

In the past forty years, except for his father-in-law Yamauchiura, he has been working hard in society and has always been begged by others. He has never looked at anyone's face!

But at KTT Company in New York, he saw a disgusting villain. He didn't know how much he weighed, but he dared to ask for the copyright of Nintendo's Super Mario!

Such a partner without any business ethics made him feel sick!

After breaking some teacups and kicking down a few potted plants, and after venting his anger, Minoru Arakawa gradually calmed down as he watched his secretary cleaning up in a panic. He waved to his secretary to leave first, as he wanted to be quiet.

At this time, there was a knock on the door of the office. Unsurprisingly, it was his partner, American Howard Lincoln, vice president of Nintendo North America and director of legal department.

"The court sent a summons!" Howard looked serious.

Arakawa Minoru's mood that had just calmed down fluctuated again, and he had a headache: "What's going on?"

Howard said: "The FTC accused us of violating antitrust laws and infringing on some consumer rights, and the federal New York State Court accepted the case. Damn it!"

Minoru Arakawa was confused: "Why is the Federal Trade Commission targeting us? Doesn't this allow us to spend this Christmas safely? Howard, can't you deal with these vampires?"

Howard was helpless: "If the Washington state court sends a subpoena, I'm not afraid of a lawsuit with the FTC, but for some reason, this time it's a New York state court, and I'm beyond my reach. They have 25 justices! You

You know, this kind of lawsuit will take at least two years. If I get stuck in it, I’m afraid I won’t be able to do anything in the past two years!”

"Damn it!" Minoru Arakawa hammered the table hard, "Based on your experience, how much compensation will Nintendo have to pay if we fail?"

Howard shook his head: "I suggest you never think about admitting the penalty. The FTC's ability can influence the jury and the judge. Once you admit defeat, you are likely to face tens of millions of dollars in fines. We may even lose the entire market. The court

We will be banned from selling game consoles and software in North America!"

Arakawa Minoru felt his head hurt even more. He might have caught a cold after coming back from New York. He waved his hand and said, "Let's arrange a conference call with the headquarters tonight and tell Yamauchiura for me. I will report in detail."

The house leaked, it rained all night, the boat was late and there was a strong wind, Arakawa felt really tired.

It’s been a bad year. Nintendo has had several bad things happen one after another these days. A truck crash just occurred in the Redmond warehouse. 80,000 FC game consoles, hundreds of thousands of large arcade baseboards and GameBoy game cards imported from Japan.

Everything was burned. Although there was insurance, the loss of the goods was the most serious thing. It directly affected the sales of arcade machines and FC. The supply chain of GameBoy handheld console suffered the most.

In addition to the two major events that happened today, even Minoru Arakawa did not dare to handle them without authorization. Yamauchiura must be notified of such an important matter and left to this tyrant to decide!

When it was time to go to work during the day in Japan, the conference call was connected. Arakawa Minoru first reported KTT’s unreasonable request, which caused an uproar.

Chief designer Shigeru Miyamoto was the first to object: "I don't agree with exchanging Super Mario for Tetris!"

For Shigeru Miyamoto, the plumber was like his own son, someone who wanted to be snatched away by others unless they stepped on his corpse.

Gunpei Yokoi, the head of the product design department, did not say anything. The designer and promoter of the GameBoy actually had a very good impression of Tetris. It can be said that it was Tetris that made the GameBoy so popular. Before there were a large number of GB format games,

Before its launch, Tetris single-handedly accounted for 80% of sales, and it was impossible not to be favored by Gunpei Yokoi.

Subconsciously, Gunpei Yokoi agreed to get Tetris, but he was smart and didn't fight to talk.

Arakawa Minoru was about to express his objections when suddenly the angry voice of Yamauchiura came: "Baga! Don't you have the courage to buy him? 50 million or 80 million. What Nintendo does not lack most is abundant cash! You

Coward, what are you hesitating about?"

Arakawa Minoru trembled and did not dare to speak anymore. Yamauchiura's acrimonious and merciless style had long spread throughout the industry. Everyone called him a tyrant. He was the only voice within Nintendo.

, no other opinions are allowed.

"We must get Tetris. Can't you all see its great prospects? Are you all blind? No one in the company is optimistic about it?"

"Mr. President, I agree!" Gunpei Yokoi wiped his sweat and said: "According to GameBoy's sales report, the long-term growth of Tetris will be much higher than that of Super Mario. This year's Christmas promotion

, sales of Tetris game cards should reach new peaks

, surpassing the Super Mario series, I personally quite agree and support your decision! However, the other party’s harsh conditions are simply to increase the value. We can increase the price again. 50 million is not enough. We can increase it by 10 million or 20 million.

Best to buy in cash!”

Arakawa Minori felt agitated: "The other party made it clear that they only accept exchanges and do not accept any conditions. Moreover, I have two other things to report..."

After adding the FTC complaint and the truck crash report, Arakawa's vest was soaked through.

These things that add insult to injury will inevitably attract the tyrant's rebuke. Each of these three things is not easy to solve. Fortunately, no one was killed when the truck crashed. If someone had died, I'm afraid even the warehouse would have been sealed.

If the replenishment is not timely, they can only be shipped from Japan as soon as possible. At the same time, various suppliers in the North American market need to take inventory, postpone the warehousing time, and allocate goods from wealthy warehouses to shortage sales points, which will be busy for at least a week.

The Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit cannot be underestimated. The Japanese headquarters will send the head of the legal department to Japan to join the US branch's lawyer team and fight with them in this long lawsuit. It can be delayed for half a year or half a year. Nintendo has prepared a good fight.

It took two or three years to prepare for the lawsuit.

The most troublesome and urgent thing is to get KTT. If we delay it for one more day, there will be one more batch of time bombs produced in the Nintendo factory. The task of Christmas promotion will be one point more arduous and the uncertainty will be more dangerous.

Sure enough, more than 70% of this conference call was spent scolding Yamauchi. Even Shigeru Miyamoto was accused of being short-sighted and unwilling to make progress. He treated Super Mario as a treasure and couldn't even see Russia.

Huge market for cubes!

"Full copyright! I want to get the full copyright of Tetris! Home game consoles, personal computers, business computers, mobile devices, anywhere you can think of will be covered! But I will not give up Super Mario, my bottom line is

Joint ownership, joint venture operation! Arakawa, if you mess up this matter, I will break your legs even if I run to the United States!"

…

…

Minoru Arakawa sat down at the negotiating table for the second time. It was obvious that he was very tired. He had encountered a lot of overwhelming things, and everyone would be tired.

This time, Alexey is in high spirits. There is good news every day here, but the opponent is in the quagmire. Everyone here is in high spirits.

Minoru Arakawa said: "Mr. Pajitrov, Nintendo headquarters has vetoed the exchange of Super Mario copyright. This is impossible. Should we discuss it in another way?"

Alexei said: "You walked too fast last time, maybe you didn't understand what I meant. We are not exchanging copyrights with Tetris and Super Mario, but cooperation. My opinion last time was that KTT

Tetris, Nintendo brought out Super Mario, and we jointly formed a third-party company to jointly operate these two games, with equal rights and equally shared interests."

Arakawa Minori was relieved. This was the bottom line his father-in-law gave him. Unexpectedly, it coincided with KTT's idea. Sure enough, ginger is still hotter!

This is not the first time Nintendo has done this kind of thing. It previously invested in electronic component factories with Philips and Sony, and later cooperated with Microsoft to jointly invest in third-party companies to provide satellite signal support for its online games. Joint venture operations are not unfeasible. Nintendo is

A listed company can absorb and try everything.

The key is how the joint venture company is allocated!

Arakawa Minoru said: "If it is a joint venture, it is also possible, but it needs to hire a third-party evaluation agency to evaluate the assets of Super Mario and Tetris, and then allocate the share ratio and equity of the joint venture company."

Alexei shook his head: "I want to make two points. First, we insist that the two games are of equal value, and the joint venture company must each hold 50%. Second, considering certain factors, the copyrights of Tetris and Super Mario

Both parties can share it together, but KTT will also get the full copyright of the two games The Legend of Zelda and Contra for free!"

Bangdang...

The water glass was knocked over by Minoru Arakawa on the table. Alexei could only see his eyes widening, and he could even fit an egg into his mouth!

"Are you kidding?" Arakawa seemed to be listening to a fantasy.

Is there such a negotiation?