Jester hates eating Japanese food.

It's not because of the taste – any country's cuisine tastes good if it's cooked by a master, well, maybe England is an exception.

It's the restrained, rigorous, and strict style of Japanese cuisine, and the petty family spirit that fills him with makes him feel extremely uncomfortable.

It's a psychological disgust, not a physical one.

Jester is an unrestrained, free-spirited person, in his previous life, as a northerner, he liked to drink in a big bowl, eat meat in large pieces, and divide the money in a big way, rather than eating a delicate mix of vegetables like gongbi and eating Japanese food for a long time.

However, Minoru Arakawa, a person who came out of a traditional Japanese wealthy family, obviously has great respect for Japanese cuisine, and the actions of the meal are very rhythmic, which seems to be a certain kind of dining etiquette, especially in this restaurant based on Kansai cuisine, eating smooth and tender soup tofu, the delicious taste rolls on the tip of the tongue, which reminds him of the taste of his hometown.

His hometown is Kyoto, Japan's fourth-largest city and one of the birthplaces of Kansai cuisine.

Just as Chinese cuisine is divided into eight major cuisines: Shandong, Sichuan, Guangdong, Fujian, Huaiyang, Zhejiang, Hunan and Hui, Japanese cuisine is also divided into three categories, or two square dishes, according to different regions, practices, and ingredients.

These two dishes are Kanto cuisine and Kansai cuisine.

Among them, Kansai cuisine has a long history and is of course more famous than Kanto cuisine.

Kanto cuisine is also known as Tokyo cuisine, and the Japanese are also known as "Edomae", which refers to Tokyo Bay in front of the Edogawa River, where the seafood is fresh and can be used to cook a variety of delicious dishes.

The popular Edo dish is a representative Kanto dish that was once the domain of the samurai in the Edo period, and the dishes also show the temperament of the samurai, so it is also called a men's dish.

As the name suggests, Kanto cuisine is rich and heavy, and the famous dishes include fried tempura and shiki rice, which are produced in Edomae (i.e., Tokyo Bay), and Kanto chefs use these locally produced ingredients to make tempura and shiki rice, so the taste is very delicious.

Kansai cuisine mainly refers to the representative dishes of the regions around Kyoto and Osaka, among which Osaka cuisine, also known as wave cuisine, is the essence of Japanese cuisine, and because of this, Osaka is often called the capital of Japanese cuisine.

The Kyoto area has excellent water quality, and it is a thousand-year-old capital with many temples, so Rai cuisine has the characteristics of the court and temples, and the ingredients are expensive and the methods are complicated, and the dishes made by steaming and cooking are very delicious, such as soup tofu, and of course, the world-famous Okonomiyaki.

Kansai cuisine is characterized by its light taste, which allows you to eat umami, and the ingredients used are more delicate than Kanto cuisine - the Seto Inland Sea is also famous for its taste of seafood, and the water quality in Kansai is better than that of Kanto, and the vegetables produced are also delicious, so generally speaking, Kansai cuisine is better than Kanto cuisine.

During the banquet, Arakawa saw that Jester was not very interested, and he was a little strange, he had been in the United States for many years, and the Americans he knew were very fond of Japanese food, especially the delicacy of Japanese food, which made them love chopsticks.

In order to make Jester eat comfortably and make the subsequent negotiations on "American Cubes" more smooth, he also enthusiastically continued to introduce him to the allusions of these dishes and the etiquette of how to eat, hoping to make Jester's appetite better.

But Jester, accustomed to his father's quasi-first-class chef's daily heavy oil and heavy flavor of Sichuan cuisine, really has no interest in these Kansai dishes that have faded out of taste, and the only thing he is interested in is the fried Wagyu beef that he doesn't know how to make because he can't even stuff his teeth.

Mark Seni was very interested in these things, and listened to them with relish.

This made Jester roll his eyes, and he kept despising in his heart, you still have eaten Chinese food.

"Mr. Arakawa!"

Finally Jester, who couldn't bear it anymore, interrupted Minoru Arakawa, who was still talking endlessly and felt good about himself, and then he unceremoniously pointed to the pitiful fried Wagyu beef that had been eaten by him, and said: "Can you bring me two catties of this fried sauce beef, I really like this dish in your country too much, but it is better to put more chili peppers, I feel that its taste is still too light!" ”

Then, Jester could clearly see a hint of anger flashing in Minoru Arakawa's eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.

Then, Minoru Arakawa's face showed an apologetic look and his attitude was very respectful.

"I'm really sorry that I didn't ask Mr. Li about his food preferences in advance, so I chose this restaurant in my hometown on my own initiative, originally because I wanted Mr. Li to taste our Japanese deliciousness."

Seeing that other people's posture is so low, Jester is not very good and continues to have nothing to do, but he still secretly slanders himself in his heart, Nima Japan is embarrassed to call himself a delicacy? The beauty is almost the same, except for the exquisiteness, it can't fill the stomach at all.

But he couldn't show it directly, so he could only smile and say with the same hypocrisy: "I'm not saying that your Japanese food is not delicious, it's just that I'm used to heavy Sichuan cuisine, and I'm really not interested in these light flavors, not only your Japanese food, even our Chinese Huaiyang cuisine is the same for me." ”

Seeing the flash of contempt in Minoru Arakawa's eyes, Jester's mood was not very good again, what the hell, saying that I was not used to eating your Japanese food and looked down on me?

Anyway, he didn't have any plans to talk to the other party about "American Cubes", he just wanted to get a little bit of news out of his mouth about when Ren Hell would come to the United States to sell the NES, but Minoru Arakawa's tone was very strict, and he didn't have any useful reply to Jester's several side knocks, and I don't know if he did it on purpose, or if Ren Hell didn't have any plans to release it in the United States at all.

This also made Jester a little uneasy.

"I don't think we're in the mood to continue eating, so let's talk about it as much as possible, everyone's time is limited." Seeing that the time was almost up, Jester simply planned to talk to Ren Hell and leave, and he had to go back to the company to see the completion of the three new games, after all, just listening to Mark Saini's mouth, he could only understand a rough idea.

Arakawa didn't hear the negative tone in Jester's mouth, he took it for granted that it was something to be happy about for them to let Hell buy the rights to one of their games, after all, it was a good deal.

But he didn't expect that the game company in front of him, which had just released a small-scale game, was also planning to enter the field of home consoles, and it was still in such a depressed market environment.

In fact, it was Minoru Arakawa who didn't do enough work before, or he really didn't take the company Mars Entertainment seriously, you know, Jester asked his father to recruit all the R&D teams of Atari VCS7200 not long ago.

Raising a hardware R&D team is not an easy task, it is not an ulterior plan, and it will definitely not be such a waste of money.

If this information is obtained, then Minoru Arakawa knows what Mars Entertainment wants to do even if he is a fool, and naturally there will be no completely superfluous negotiations this time.

"Mr. Li, your company's "American Cube" has done a very good job, and the current market response in the United States has fully proved one point, but I wonder if your company is interested in further expanding this influence?" Minoru Arakawa has a modest smile on his face, and his English is not as problematic as the usual Japanese voiced strict zhòng, but a very standard New York accent.

"Huh." Jester cursed hypocrisy in his heart, and deliberately pretended to be unclear and asked, "I don't know what Mr. Arakawa means?" Do you mean that Ren Hell wants to buy us Mars Entertainment or American Cubes? ”

"Not exactly." Arakawa is not a nonsense, he is a shrewd businessman, and he values the charm of American Cubes, especially when it comes to his father-in-law's plan for the American strategy that he presented at a mid-year high-level meeting.

However, he was only interested in American Cubes, and not much in Jester's newly formed game company - not to mention that they had a game development team owned by Hell, but if the royalty plan that his father-in-law was planning was successful, they would not be short of good game development teams at all.

"We at Ren Hell value your company's "American Cubes" very much, and think that this is a very good game, and it is also very suitable for use on home game consoles, so we Ren Hell hopes that your company can sell us the rights of "American Cubes" on home consoles, and our offer for this is also very sincere." Arakawa said earnestly.

"Extremely sincere?" Hearing these four words, Jester sneered twice in his heart, when can Ren Hell be hooked with the word sincerity?

Relying on Yamauchi Pu's iron-fisted monopoly policy that took advantage of FC's best-selling and then used the royalty system, Ren Hell can't be linked to the word sincerity, not to mention the deeds of only frying cold rice and mosaic to earn hard-earned money without repentance.

And Jester didn't want to sell it in the slightest.

Therefore, Jester's face immediately changed, with an angry look on his face, and he said categorically: "American Cubes is my first game, and he means to me like my child, and I will never sell it." ”

Minoru Arakawa didn't care when he heard Jester's statement, he never believed that there were things in this world that couldn't be sold, it was just that the price was not enough.

But he doesn't want to force the other party to be in a hurry, and he doesn't have to buy the home console copyright of "American Cubes", as long as he gets the authorization of the other party, it's the same.

Therefore, he just smiled, his smile was still the same, and his tone was still sincere.

"Mr. Li is too worried, we don't want to buy your ownership of this game, but you only need to license the copyright of this game on the home console platform to us, of course, the price will definitely satisfy you."

"Copyright for home machines? Is it just the copyright of the home machine? You don't want arcades, palm ......" Hearing Minoru Arakawa's words, Jester's eyes flashed, as if he had thought of something, and then subconsciously wanted to blurt out the doubts in his mouth, but fortunately he reacted quickly and quickly shut up, not revealing the most important information.

And Arakawa actually looked at Jester with some confusion, not understanding what he meant by the palm he just said.

Of course, Jester didn't have the slightest idea of an explanation.

However, Jester still got a very important information from Minoru Arakawa's mouth, that is, the plan of the handheld BAME-BOY has not yet begun, otherwise, they would not even mention the copyright of the handheld.

It's impossible for the designers of Hell to fail to see how lethal American Cubes can be on a handheld console.

Then Jester had another idea, and it seemed that there was another message hidden in Minoru Arakawa's words.

For example, about the scope of the home machine authorization.

Thinking of this, Jester's face showed a thoughtful look, his eyebrows furrowed tightly, and after a minute or two, he deliberately asked in a tentative tone, "Do you want the home console rights of "American Cubes" in Japan?" If that's all it takes, it's not something that can't be discussed. ”

A hint of unhappiness flashed in Minoru Arakawa's eyes, but his face still did not show any dissatisfaction, and he still said very earnestly: "No, we want the authorization of American Cube on home consoles in all regions, not just in Japan. ”

"You in the United States too? There is no market prospect in the United States now......" Then Jester felt that it was almost over, so he deliberately raised his tone, pretended to be surprised, looked at Minoru Arakawa with incredible eyes, and said in surprise, "Do you want to sell FC in the United States?" Can't you see what the Atari console looks like now? ”

"Huh."

Arakawa smiled disapprovingly, he reached out and pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, he didn't answer Jester's question directly, but continued in the tone that made people involuntarily feel good before.

"This is the company's decision, we don't want to deceive Mr. Li, we are really sincere. Mr. Yamauchi saw the game of your company's "American Cubes" that I mailed to him, and immediately made an order, and the instructions I received were to get the copyright of the home console of "American Cubes" no matter what, and the price please take a look at this article, after reading it, you naturally understand the sincerity of our Ren Hell this time, if you are not satisfied, we can continue to discuss. ”

As he spoke, Minoru Arakawa pulled out a few pieces of white paper with handwriting from his briefcase on one side and handed them to Jester.

Jester took it casually, he didn't mean to say yes anyway, he just looked down and pretended.

While watching, Jester was amazed, the conditions given by Hell on this are too good, there is simply no domineering behavior of Hell in the 80s, and those who go along with it prosper and those who rebel perish.

First of all, as long as the agreement is signed, the one-time payment of the license price is $20 million, and for each copy sold, Mars Entertainment, which owns the rights to American Cubes, will receive a $5 cut.

Jester only made a rough calculation, he couldn't remember the sales of Tetris, he only roughly remembered that it was more than five million, and the top ten sales in FC history.

Let's say five million copies, and the $5 split is $25 million, plus the $20 million in license purchases, that's a full $45 million.

This is a very sincere price, you know, according to the calculation of 50 yuan a game cartridge, 5 million copies is only 250 million US dollars in sales, if you remove the cost of manual channel production and so on, there may not be 200 million US dollars in net profit.

In other words, Mars Entertainment doesn't need to do anything, it only needs to license the home console version of this game to Ren Hell to take more than a quarter of all the profits of this game!

Seeing this, Jester's face couldn't help but change, Yamauchi Pu and Arakawa Minoru are really bold.

It seems that Ren Hell must have set his sights on the U.S. market a long time ago, but there is still a lack of a game that is enough to open up the backwater of the U.S. video game market.

Are they looking for American Cubes as a game that can completely activate the American video game market?

There is only one role for people to buy game consoles, and that is to play games, and only games that are good enough for people to can't help but play can drive the sales of game consoles.

It seems that Ren Hell has taken a fancy to this, otherwise how could they be so generous this time, which is not in line with Ren Hell at all.

And Jester can't help but think that Ren Hell will officially release NES in the United States in October next year, while their hometown treasure "Super Mario" will be released in September.

Of course, before the official release, Ren Hell did a test sale, but the effect was not very ideal.

Jester remembers watching a documentary about the history of video games, in which he interviewed Reggie Gorilla, who was then the president of Hell Americas, and that the die-hard Ren Dolphin said that Nintendo had come up with all kinds of housekeeping skills at that time, including light guns, ancillary toys such as machine assistants, but the sales of the NES did not improve, until Super Mario came to the United States, and then began to change.

For Ren Hell, the most immediate change is that NES has gone crazy.

In other words, it was precisely because the game "Super Mario" gave Yamauchi enough confidence that he made up his mind to promote NES in the United States.

Jester made his own inferences based on what was known.

Seeing the look of disbelief on Jester's face, Arakawa really thought that the other party was completely suppressed by the price on this agreement, and involuntarily showed a confident smile on his face: "How is it?" Mr. Li, I am quite satisfied with our sincerity. ”

Jester took a deep breath and slowly closed the agreement.

It's impossible not to be excited, but it's absolutely impossible to agree, Jester took a deep look at Minoru Arakawa, he did admire Ren Hell's methods, just saw a game that was just popular in the arcade market in the United States, in order to not know if it could succeed in the home console market, they dared to take such a big risk, and took out a full forty-five million dollars to buy a chance to succeed, if they were in the same position, would they dare to do it?

Jester thought silently, then shook his head, if he didn't know history, he would never have made such a decision.

The stakes are just too great.

"I don't agree with the offer." After five minutes, Jester, who had finished his contemplation, looked up and looked into Minoru Arakawa's eyes and said his answer word by word.

The answer was not difficult to make, and Jester had made a decision before this negotiation.

"Well, we'll be ...... What the? Refuse? Yaga! Arakawa, who originally heard Jester's reply, thought that the other party had agreed to the conditions, and showed an excited face, after reacting, his face became gloomy in an instant, he looked at Jester with some incredulity, and shouted in an almost hysterical voice, "Mr. Li, do you know what you rejected just now?" Please think about it! ”

"I think about it very clearly, Mr. Arakawa, I am also very grateful for the value of your company, but the price you gave is too low, and it is far from the bottom line in my heart, so I really can't give my hard work to you at such an insulting price, please forgive me."

Jester said with a straight face, and after finishing speaking, he stood up directly and left without looking back.

Mark Seni also stood up and left after Jester.

He didn't say a word during the whole negotiation process, because he knew what the outcome would be before the negotiation, and this was the result of what he and Jester had agreed together.

Leaving only Minoru Arakawa stunned, his face was still full of disbelief, and he was even muttering to himself: "At least two million dollars, the insulting price ......"

"Yaga!"