Just when Bandai was struggling on the verge of bankruptcy, also in the context of the financial turmoil, Sony was very well-off, following the global shipments (non-sales) of PS game consoles on November 30 last year exceeded 10 million units, and on August 20 this year, the global shipments of PS game consoles exceeded 20 million units again, including 8.5 million units in Japan, 6.4 million units in North America, and 5.1 million units in Europe. During this time, masterpieces on the PS game platform were also frequent, such as "Front Mission 2", "Resident Evil Director's Cut", "Final Fantasy 7 International Version", "Bubble Cube SUN Decision Board", "Crash Bandicoot 2", "Chocobo Maze", "GT Racing" and other wonderful games have been released one after another.

On the surface, Sony should be living a good life, but in fact, there are a lot of hidden worries, global shipments exceeded 20 million units, but the actual cumulative sales are only 9 million units, and more than half of the PS game consoles shipped are actually in the seller's warehouse. However, Nintendo's N64 game console, which was launched almost a year and a half late, has gradually caught up, especially after the majesty of the North American market, and the cumulative sales have reached 7 million units.

Sony overwhelmed Nintendo in the global and Japanese markets, especially in the Japanese market, it has an absolute advantage, but in the North American market, Sony has fallen into a bitter battle, and the game sales in North America are even more exaggerated, this year's top ten sales N64 games account for seven seats, PS games are only three, and the top five are all N64 games, it seems that Nintendo seems to have the possibility of turning the tables in North America.

Sony Electronic Entertainment (SCE) president Ken Nagataki is very worried about this, and he is especially worried about the weakness of SCE's first- and second-party game development capabilities, and almost all of the best-selling titles on the PS game platform are controlled by other companies, which is a big hidden danger for Sony. Just like SCE poached Square Enix from Nintendo, bringing a series of best-selling masterpieces such as "Final Fantasy", "Front Mission", "Chocobo Labyrinth", others can also use the same method to dig into the corners of SCE, in case of a similar incident like Square Enix's job hopping, Kutaragi Ken knows that it will definitely have a very big negative impact, but there are not many ways to prevent it, and you can only try to create a better environment for third parties, but it is always difficult to say that this involves interests. Therefore, the best way is to enhance the strength of SCE's first-party and second-party game development forces, and invite some powerful companies to join, as long as SCE itself has strong game development capabilities, then even if there is a game company jumping ship, it will not be impossible to do anything.

Since last year, Ken Kutaragi has commissioned a research company to investigate some of the game companies he is more optimistic about, and when the final investigation results came out, he was even more worried, and he found that many of the best-selling development companies were eventually related to a company called Oriental Industrial Group, or even wholly owned by it, such as owning 86.33% of Capcom's shares, owning 83.82% of Konami's shares, and owning 93.8% of Naughty Dog, the developer of "Crash Bandicoot". Wholly owned by Tianzhien (Shanghai) and others, each of which is an important game developer on the PS game platform, Kutaragi Ken is very worried about this, he feels that the influence of Dongfang Industrial Group on the PS game platform is too great, and this situation must be changed.

How to change it, of course, the best way is to turn someone else's into your own, but after further investigating the strength of the Oriental Industrial Group, Kutaragi Ken is dead, and it is very difficult to buy those game development companies from the Oriental Industrial Group, not to mention large companies like Capcom and Konami, even if it is a small point like Naughty Dog, even if there is a whole Sony behind his back, there is no good way. Oriental Industrial Group has Standard Chartered Bank to finance, unless Sony is willing to fight an endless war and completely defeat Oriental Industrial Group and Standard Chartered Bank, SCE can detect leaks and take down Naughty Dog and these companies, but this situation is impossible, so Kutaragi Ken had to choose another target.

Soon a game development company called Qipo Interactive came into the sight of Ken Kutaragi, a game development company similar to Naughty Dog, which had previously launched a 3D action side-scrolling game called "Burst Police" on the PS platform, and also achieved quite good results. Coincidentally, Qipo Interactive is currently planning to expand its staff and develop new projects, which happens to be a bit of a funding gap, and SCE can provide support in this regard. In order to ensure that he could take down Chipper Interactive, Ken Kutaragi sent his right-hand man Ichiro Fukai to Santa Monica, California, to negotiate with Borrell, the president of Chipper Interactive. Ichiro Fukai is an old man in front of Ken Kuta, and he is currently the head of the Planning and Development Department, and he has worked in the United States before, and his English is quite good, which is one of the reasons why Ken Kuda Ragi likes him.

……

As the plane slowly landed at Los Angeles International Airport, Ichiro Fukai walked out of the terminal not far away, and was greeted by two SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment America) employees, Paul and Kuzo Aoki, who were both here to pick up the plane and assist Ichiro Fukai in the acquisition negotiations. After resting for the night and recuperating their spirits, the next morning, Ichiro Fukai and his party drove to Santa Monica, about 20 kilometers away from downtown Los Angeles, in a rented car.

Unfortunately, there was a traffic jam on the road, and it took an hour and a half to drive before the car came to the building where the Qipo Interactive Office was located. Ichiro Fukai got out of the car, looked at the very ordinary, even a little old building in front of him, and asked Aoki Kuzo, who was standing beside him, "Aoki-kun, Qipo interaction is here?"

Aoki Kuzo nodded and said, "Minister Shenjing, Qipo Interactive is currently on the 6th floor of this building. After doing well on our consoles, they're planning to move to a new office and expand their development team, so they're a bit tight on money right now. ”

At this time, Paul had already parked the car and walked over, and Ichiro Fukai waved his hand and said, "Okay, let's go up." With that, he took the lead and walked towards the building, followed by Paul and Aoki Kuzo.

Taking the elevator to the sixth floor of the building, in his office facing the elevator, Ichiro Fukai met Borrell, the president of Chipper Interactive, a tall white man in his thirties, wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses. Ichiro Fukai didn't expect the negotiation process to be very smooth, as soon as he said SCE's idea of acquiring Chipper Interactive, Borrell agreed on the spot, and it went smoothly to make him wonder if he was dreaming. But then Borrell put forward two conditions, one of which is that Qiper Interactive must have independent development permissions, that is to say, any game developed in the future must be decided by Qipo Interactive, even if the development funds come from SCE, which Fukai Ichiro agreed on the spot, because before going out, President Nagata Muken specifically explained that SCE needs a powerful game development company, and some concessions can be made appropriately for this purpose, such as delegating independent development rights.

However, the second condition that Borrell then said made Ichiro Fukai dumbfounded, he actually wanted to have the core technical team of SCEA, IceTeam, that is to say, the technical team that was originally in the hands of SCEA was owned by Qipo Interactive, and then Ichiro Fukai was worried, obviously this condition was not something he could agree. Ichiro Fukai had to immediately contact Jared, the president of SCEA, and Ken Nagataki, the president of SCE, by phone, and Jared was furious on the spot when he heard that someone was going to dig his corner, and Ichiro Fukai even suspected that if Borrell had just said it in front of Jared, Jared would have exploded on the spot. Fortunately, Kutaragi Ken understood the righteousness, and under his persuasion, Jared reluctantly agreed.

On the third day, Ichiro Fukai officially signed the acquisition agreement with Qiper Interactive on behalf of SCE, and IceTeam was merged into Qipo Interactive as Borrell wished.

Ken Kuta, who had achieved the first goal, breathed a sigh of relief, and was about to ask Ichiro Fukai to advance to the second goal, a game development company based in London, England, when an unexpected person appeared in front of him.

The one who came to visit Kutaragi Ken was none other than Masashi Miyamoto, one of Square Enix's shareholders and an 18% shareholder. Although Square Enix has been in contact with each other more frequently after he joined the PS camp, it is usually Nangong Yun who comes to visit Kutaragi Ken, and Miyamoto Masashi has always been very low-key, and even makes people forget him, Square Enix's original owner.

"Kutara-kun, long time no see!" said Masashi Miyamoto with a smile on his face.

Kutaragi Kenya smiled and said, "Miyamoto-kun rarely comes out usually, why do you have time to come to me today?"

"I have two pieces of news, one good news and one bad news, I don't know if I'm not interested?" said Miyamoto Masashi with a faint smile.

"What?" Kutaragi Ken sat up straight all of a sudden, stared at Masashi Miyamoto in front of him, and asked, "What good news and bad news?"

Instead of answering directly, Masashi Miyamoto asked, "I wonder if Kutaragi-kun wants to hear good news or bad news first?"

Kutaragi Ken pondered for a while and said, "Miyamoto-kun, let's talk about the good news first." ”

"Square Enix can completely throw himself into Sony Computer Entertainment, I wonder if you think this is good news?" said Masashi Miyamoto with a smile.

"Isn't Square Enix already in the PS game camp now?, do you still need to vote?" asked Kutaragi Ken pretending to be puzzled, but in his heart, he suddenly thought of a certain possibility, and couldn't help but have a little more anticipation.

"What I mean by this is that in the future, Square Enix will become a second-party development company for Sony Computer Entertainment, developing games only on Sony's game platforms. Masashi Miyamoto explained.

"It can't be, as far as I know, Square Enix hasn't had that kind of policy all along. "It's not that Ken Kutaragi hasn't investigated Square Enix, a company that has brought great help to the popularity of PS game consoles, and has always been a problem for Ken Kuta, so he has never stopped paying attention to Square Enix.

"It's a little different now......" Masashi Miyamoto mysteriously explained.

After listening to Masashi Miyamoto's statement, Ken Kutaragi finally figured it out temporarily, and for some reason, the major shareholder of Square Enix recently reduced his holdings of the company's shares, and his ownership dropped to 32%. Masashi Miyamoto, who had always been disgruntled about being at the bottom of the list, felt that an opportunity had come, and he made secret contacts with other shareholders and found that many shareholders were willing to give up their shares as long as the price was right, but this reasonable price was something he could not afford. So Masashi Miyamoto thought of SCE and Sony, and he hoped that SCE could come forward to help and contribute to recover a part of Square Enix's equity from other shareholders, and he also contributed some money to increase his equity appropriately, so that the two companies together could oust the representatives of the major shareholders, and by the way, they could kick out the people they had installed in the company, so that Miyamoto Masashi would have the opportunity to regain control of the company for the New Year.

In order to convince Ken Kutaragi, Masashi Miyamoto did not hesitate to say that if Sony and SCE can help him, then Square Enix will only develop games on Sony's game platform in the future. This point is very tempting to Ken Kutaragi, but all this is not enough to convince him to intervene, after all, now Square Enix has entered the PS camp, if this matter is not done well, annoying Square Enix, and changing jobs again, it will really become a chicken and egg fight, and the two ends are empty.

Seeing that his words didn't work, Miyamoto Masashi couldn't help but say: "Kutaragi-kun, the good news has been said, I'll talk about the bad news." You should have heard the news that Sega and VisualSystem Group are working together to develop the next generation of game consoles, the Demon Knife, and you should have heard of ......"

The bad news that Masashi Miyamoto said scared Ken Kutaragi, he knew that Square Enix was controlled by KF-Panda, and he also knew about the holding of KF-Panda by the VisualSystem Group, but there was no association. But now that Sega and VisualSystem Group are cooperating and are involved in the development of next-generation game consoles, this means that many things are possible, and Benmasashi confirmed Kutaragi's conjecture.

"I've heard from within the company that because of the partnership between Sega and the VisualSystem Group, Square Enix is likely to fall to Sega......"

This is bad news for Ken Kutaragi, although he is sure that Square Enix will only develop games on the PS game platform at present, but if the "Demon Knife" is successfully developed, with the relationship of the VisualSystem Group in it, Square Enix will make a new choice. In this way, he can only agree to Miyamoto Masashi's request to help him recapture Square Enix, so as to ensure that Square Enix will not suddenly change jobs in the future.

Thinking of this, Jiu Taliangmujian's face became serious: "Miyamoto-kun, is the matter you just said about the acquisition of Square Enix shares reliable? Will there be any variables......

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