Sega Headquarters, Tokyo, Japan......

Okawa leaned on the sofa in the president's room, with an oxygen hose in his nose, one hand on his chest, and his face flushed slightly. Not far in front of him was a large-screen television showing the AMSHOW from the Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, and a press conference held by Sega was shown.

Hiroshi Suzuki, Akira Nagai, Hisashi Suzuki and other capable players of Sega stood on the podium, all with relaxed smiles on their faces. With a smile, Kayama Zhe also smiled, took the microphone handed over by the host of the press conference, looked at the news media and guests in the audience, and happily announced: "I am very happy that you can come to the press conference of Sega, and now we will immediately reveal today's mysterious guest ...... for you."

As he spoke, Kayama Tetsu turned sideways and handed a secret message to Suzuki Yu and the others without attracting attention, and Suzuki Yu and the others comprehended and moved together, pulling off the red silk covering the unknown object behind him, revealing a transparent glass cover underneath, and there was a substrate for arcade machines in the glass cover.

"This is our star today, Sega's upcoming next-generation arcade substrate, the 'NAOMI2'. While being compatible with the existing 'NAOMI' substrate, the performance has been greatly improved, with a polygon processing capacity of up to 10 million per second, and support for 6 independent light sources and multiple acceleration capabilities such as hardware T&L...... The performance of the new substrate 'NAOMI2' will be four times that of the 'NAOMI' substrate...... In order to ensure that the games on the new baseboard can be ported to the Dreamcast console, an expansion card for the Dreamcast console will be released in the near future......"

At the same time as Tetsu Kayama introduced the new substrate "NAOMI2", a demonstration animation of "VR Warrior 4" was playing on the big screen TV, and in a pavilion full of Chinese style, a Shaolin monk was performing a fierce boxing technique, and the clear and realistic picture immediately attracted the attention of many people.

Kayama Tetsu looked at the eyes full of antiquation with satisfaction, and launched a new arcade substrate, which was his suggestion to President Ko Okawa, although the arcade market has declined slightly, but after all, the arcade is the foundation of Sega, and it is also an important pillar that has always supported the growth of Sega, and at least more than half of the company's technical force is invested in the arcade machine, if it comes to arcade-related technology, Sega recognizes the second, then there will be no more first. In Kayama's view, the revival of the arcade market can be stimulated by the launch of the "NAOMI2" board, and the stronger performance of the "NAOMI2" board can be used to develop better games, and the attraction of Sega's core players will also increase. After all, arcade port games have been Sega's flagship product since the days of MD consoles, and Kayama believes that this strategy will definitely bring some turnaround to the Dreamcast console.

Looking at the lively scene on the screen, Okawa Gong's mood also became slightly excited, if it wasn't for the doctor's death order, asking him to pay attention to his emotions, maybe he would have planned to stand up and celebrate a little. For example, today's "NAOMI2" board press conference, in addition to the department responsible for arcade board development, several game departments that have been separated from the division also rushed to cheer, which was unimaginable in the past. In the past, Sega, the arcade machine was the arcade department, the home machine was the home machine department, the hardware belonged to the hardware department, and the game belonged to the game development department.

Perhaps it is because Sega has stood on the edge of a cliff, or maybe it is the feat of Okawa Kon donating money to save Sega that has moved the employees, in short, the atmosphere within Sega is probably the best time in the past decade. Okawa is still very pleased with this change, and he has always felt that as long as the company's employees can work together in one direction, Sega will not be able to overcome the hurdle.

A satisfied smile appeared on Okawa's face, and suddenly he felt a little uncomfortable in his throat, and suddenly coughed violently, and the secretary Miss Kurosawa hurriedly walked over, while slowly rubbing his hand on his chest, and asked with concern: "Mr. Okawa, are you okay?" ”

With the help of the secretary's Miss Ayumi Kurosawa, Okawa felt that his throat seemed to be more comfortable, and his coughing gradually stopped, and he raised his head and smiled reluctantly at Ayumi Kurosawa. The smiling face is close at hand, and a gentle sniff of a leisurely and shallow fragrance wafts in, making Okawa Gong's mood throbbing, if he is in good health before, he will definitely stretch out his hand and have a "courtesy exchange" with Miss Kurosawa, and even deeper contact is also very possible, but now he has the heart and no strength, so he can only sigh in his heart: "The years are not forgiving!" ”

Sega's internal worries have subsided for the time being, but the external environment has not improved much. With the sharp price reduction of the Dreamcast host, and even launched a free hosting strategy based on SegaNet (Dreamcast host dedicated network service, that is, to provide Internet access services specifically for the Dreamcast host), that is, pay the Internet fee to get a free set of Dreamcast hosts, and the sales of Dreamcast hosts in North America can be said to be booming, and have overtaken Nintendo's N64 console and climbed to second place. The gap between the DreamBox 128 and the first-place DreamBox 128 is only a few thousand units, and it is not impossible to become the sales champion in North America as long as you work harder.

However, this did not alleviate Sega's predicament, and even the best-selling Dreamcast console would bring more losses, because the production cost of the Dreamcast console has remained high, and now it will lose at least 10,000 yen for each unit sold. Speaking of Sega's current losses, one is the development fee of more than 7 billion yen for "Shenmue", and the other main contribution point is to sell a loss-making Dreamcast console, the loss of "Shenmue" is already in the past, but the Dreamcast console has always been in progress, but Okawa Gong is a little unable to give up. Because he knew that once the Dreamcast console was put down, Sega would not have the strength to do it again, at least for a long time.

During this time, Okawa has been trying to save the Dreamcast console again, including agreeing with Tetsu Kayama's plan, once again promoting the free hosting strategy in North America, and even paying for Sega to fill the hole, in order to allow the Dreamcast console to live for a longer period of time.

A while ago, Okawa Ko made an exception to invite Pu Yamauchi and Ken Kutaraki, also to find a way back for the Dreamcast console, he hoped that when Sega gave up the Dreamcast console, the Dreamcast console could survive in another way. On that day in the Luming Club in Ginza, Okawa suggested to the two old rivals that he hoped that Nintendo's "Dolphin" console or Sony's PS2 would be compatible with the Dreamcast console, which means that once the Dreamcast console was launched on the market, users of the original Dreamcast console could migrate to the "Dolphin" console or PS2, but Yamauchi Pu and Kutaragi Ken were not interested in it.

Okawa himself actually hopes that Nintendo's "Dolphin" console can be compatible with the Dreamcast console, after all, only the "Dolphin" console is still in the research process, PS2 has been put on the market and it is more difficult to be compatible, of course, it is not completely impossible to get a similar "BleemforDreamcast" (Dreamcast console compatible with the emulator of PS games), but unfortunately Ken Kutaragi is not interested, and Yamauchi Pu, who hopes to be larger, is also not interested.

Sitting in the Luming Club, Yamauchi's eyes stayed on the woman beside him for a longer time, Okawa Gong was a little skeptical of what he said Yamauchi Pu heard it, Kutaragi Ken put forward a new proposal, hoping to cooperate with Sega in game development, and even willing to fund to help Sega tide over the difficulties. In desperation, Okawa had no choice but to agree, but he also kept an eye on it, and did not agree to have Sega develop the game directly for Sony Computer Entertainment, nor did he accept the proposal of Ken Kutaragi to invest in the fund, but the two sides set up a joint venture to carry out the matter.

Okawa Gong doesn't know what Kutaragi Ken thinks in his heart, judging from the other party's initial proposal, it seems that there is still the idea of annexing Sega, if it was in the past, Okawa Gong would have slapped this nasty guy out, but the current situation is very unfavorable to Sega, and he also knows that his body is running out, so he tries to pave more ways for the future of Sega, his future is gone, but he doesn't want Sega to have no future. Agreeing to Ken Kutaragi's proposal, it doesn't mean that Okawa Kokai is willing to swallow his Sega, and in his opinion, the relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment can only be regarded as an alliance, a temporary alliance to fight together against the fierce latecomer DreamBox128. According to Okawa Gong's idea, he originally wanted to pull Yamauchi Pu into the gang, but unfortunately Yamauchi Pu's arrogance is still the same, and he can only temporarily use Sony Computer Entertainment as a shield to resist DreamBox128, during which Sega can work hard to accumulate strength for a better time in the future.

While accepting Miss Kurosawa's gentle service, Okawa looked at the bright smiles of Tetsu Kayama and others on the TV screen, and he sighed secretly: "Whether the Dreamcast console succeeds or not, it depends on this last one......"

Tokyo, Japan, in the Sony Computer Entertainment Office Building......

Kutaragi Ken "snapped" and slammed the phone back into place, he was very angry now, very angry, angry and wanted to kill, if Fukai Ichiro that stupid guy hadn't reported the situation over the phone just now, he dared to guarantee that Fukai Ichiro was definitely lying down now.

During this time, Ichiro Fukai was entrusted by Ken Kutaragi to communicate with PS2 game developers, of course, mainly to keep track of the progress of various developers in order to arrange appropriate marketing activities, including Oddworld Inhabitants in the United States.

The game that Oldward is developing is called "MunchOddysee", which is a game that combines action-adventure, RPG, strategy, Hollywood-style sprawl and many other elements into one, and it made a big splash at the E3 show in the United States in May this year, attracting the attention of many industry insiders. In order to speed up the development progress of the game, Kutaragi Ken also specially arranged for someone to provide technical support for Oldward, and asked Ichiro Fukai to pay attention to the development progress of Oldward.

Since then, the situation has been quite smooth, the only pity is that Oldward does not seem to be short of money, did not accept Sony Computer Entertainment's financial assistance, and at the beginning of this month, "Abbie Goes to the Sky" was well received at the British ECTS exhibition, so Kutaragi Ken specially explained that Ichiro Fukai recently went to Oldward Company and signed a game exclusivity agreement with them, that is, to formalize "Abbie Heaven".

At that time, he said it well on the phone, and Ichiro Fukai agreed very happily, but who knew that he would bring back bad news that "Abi Goes to the Sky" has actually become an exclusive game on DreamBox128. When he first heard the news, Kutaragi Ken didn't slow down for a moment, and he thought that he had a problem with his ears and heard it wrong.

"President, "Abi Breaking the Sky" has been signed by someone else!" Ichiro Fukai actually repeated it again with a shy face.

"I didn't ask you to sign the agreement, how could it be signed by someone else!" Kutaragi Ken roared on the phone.

"This ...... President, when I arrived, Oldward had already signed a contract with someone else, and I ......" Ichiro Fukai said curtly: "President, I need to manage more projects, and Oldward's side is a little less, that ......"

"You bastard!" Kutaragi Ken was angry, obviously it was something that he had already explained, and it was clear that the previous development progress was what Fukai Ichiro had been staring at, and this stupid guy was embarrassed to say any reason.

Kutaragi Ken angrily slammed the phone, he was afraid that if he listened to it again, he couldn't help but make some irrational actions. During this time, Sony Computer Entertainment had a very dull time, and when it first started cooperating with Sega, it also attracted a lot of media attention, and now other people's attention is on DreamBox128, and some game magazines have often talked about when DreamBox128's global sales will exceed 60 million units, and Sony Computer Entertainment seems to have become a loser.

This situation is also helpless for a long time,At present, PS2 can only be sold in the Japanese market due to the ban,And his opponent DreamBox128 is much more calm,On the one hand, it is struggling with Sony Computer Entertainment in the Japanese market,On the other hand, it can easily occupy overseas markets,PS2But you can only watch and can't get out.,You have to stay up until the license expires in October.。

In fact, Kutaragi Ken understands the current situation very well, his side is equivalent to being captive, and he can only grab water from others in a small pool, while others dominate part of the small pool, and at the same time, he can still pump water in the big pond outside. It's not that Ken Kutaragi doesn't want the PS2 to be marketed overseas sooner, after all, there is a limit to the size of the Japanese market.

However, Japan's traditional habit is to pay attention to the process, and it is a very lengthy process, and Kutaragi Ken very much wanted to appeal directly to the prime minister, so he even did not hesitate to pull down his face and ask the headquarters for help. It's a pity that the maddening thing is that the process that should be gone is still unavoidable, because the prime minister needs to arrange someone to investigate, analyze, demonstrate, and discuss, and so on all this should be done, it is expected to take at least four months, and it is already June, which means that when the prime minister arranges someone to toss it is over, and agrees to the appeal of Ken Kutaragi, PS2 can already be sold overseas at that time. So the end result was that Kutaragi Ken gave up his appeal, and while his heart was dripping with blood, he waited for the day when his license expired with "peace of mind".

PS2 console sales can't have a big leap for the time being.,Kutaragi Ken had to focus on the game software.,For this reason, I also paid attention to Sega who was in a dilemma.,It's a pity that Okawa Gong's old fox is not easy to deal with.,It's easy to say that it's only a joint venture that doesn't hurt or itch.,And the so-called multi-platform (PS、PS2、PC)It's actually PC-based.,This makes Kuda Ragi Ken feel like he's taking money and squandering it.。 Now Ichiro Fukai has made such a play again, and "Abi Breaking the Sky", which has been put in the bag, has been robbed and killed halfway.

"That stupid ...... Fukai," Kutaragi muttered through gritted teeth, reaching out and tearing an unfortunate document on the table into powder, then crumpling it into a paper ball, and with a full of anger, he fell into the paper basket......

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