At the beginning of April, Diablo finally landed on the Western continent.

The English version of Diablo was actually made back in February.

The reason why it was delayed until March to sell in Europe and the United States was mainly because it was necessary to go through the review process on Sega's side, and at the same time to do publicity.

Sega has its own outlet in the Omi region, which saves Pokeni a lot of money.

……

As soon as Diablo was released, it immediately swept the entire European and American markets like a storm.

With sales surpassing 300,000 in the first week, followed by a staggering 600,000 in the first month, Diablo has the potential to become the first Pokeni game to break the million-level game.

No, to be precise, with the part of neon's local sales, it has already reached the million mark.

Countless European and American players have said that this game is too fun.

"It's a very exciting game, I never thought a real-time combat game could be so fun before Diablo."

"This is completely different from the real-time game of the side-scrolling version, its strategy is deeper, the experience is stronger, and the sense of substitution is also very addictive, as long as you are in the game, you can feel the invisible sense of oppression."

"The game is very well done, whether it's the special effects, the equipment or the skills, it gives people the motivation to keep playing. To this day, I still remember the first time I met the butcher, the scary and scary sound of the fresh meet coming from the shadows.

But it's really exciting.

Very cool! ”

"It's probably the funniest and coolest game I've ever played this year!"

Obviously, Europeans and Americans prefer Diablo's realistic style, and the basic worldview of the game itself is from Western myths and legends, not only demons but also archangels, human ...... These are all elements that are easily accepted and loved by Westerners.

Coupled with Diablo's unique real-time system and skill combination, it immediately became popular throughout the Omega region.

It can be said that this year's game has not had a single opponent in Europe and the United States.

……

"Sizzle...... Is Pokeni's Diablo so popular in the European and American markets? ”

When he saw the data, Hayao Nakayama, the president of Sega, was still a little incredulous.

In addition to Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega has actually not been able to make such a powerful work for a long time, and according to the current momentum, it is only a matter of time before Diablo breaks through 1 million copies.

It is even possible to exceed 2 million or 3 million copies.

Prior to the game, Sega had been pursuing a strategy to attract teenage users, but it had not yet reached that level.

This time, Diablo opened Nakayama's eyes to a new possibility.

Luckily, the game was released on the Sega platform, otherwise......

The consequences are unimaginable.

As of the beginning of this year, more than 16 million units of Sega GENS (the European and American version of the MD) have been sold in the European and American markets, which is much larger than the SNES (the European and American version of the SFC) of Rentendo and has become a well-deserved market leader in the European and American markets.

And now, with the popularity of Pokeni's Diablo, this data has been pushed forward a little further, which can be seen from the sales data of the US branch.

It is not necessarily the game console itself that determines the success or failure of the game console, but the games carried on the game console.

Take MD as an example, the performance is much higher than FC, and compared to the newly launched SFC of Non Heaven, it is not lagging behind at all, and has successfully eaten away at many of Ren Heaven's market share, but in the end it still failed to shake its dominance in Neon, and the most important thing is that the number of excellent games on MD is much lower than that of SFC and FC.

Some games are exclusive to the boss, and you can't grab them at all.

……

Since Sega threatened the position of Ren Tian, the two companies have been like fire and water, secretly competing, in the United States, Ren Tian has its own branch, Sega also has its own branch.

The marketing strategies of both sides are also similar.

It's just that one of the main focuses on sub-supply, that is, the child strategy, and the other is the adolescent adult strategy.

So the feedback is that Sega is more mature and crazy, while Rentendo is more fairy tales and legends.

This time, Diablo, which appeared on Sega, caught the American branch of Rentendo off guard, and it was even difficult to find a game of the same type to counter and contend with for a while.

Under such circumstances, Randy Perezman, the marketing director of the American branch, also wrote a detailed report on Diablo and sent it to the headquarters of Paradise.

According to the report, Diablo has successfully captured the hearts of players with its groundbreaking real-time combat design, very infectious special effects and combat effects, and a Western-friendly backstory.

It is suggested that Ren Heaven can also come up with a similar game, and develop it for the European and American markets to suit its background, and strive not to let this part of the players be won over by all the opponents.

In the report, it was euphemistically pointed out -

Rentendo is a paradise for all children, and that's right.

But when the children grew up, they went to Sega's arms.

This has to be vigilant, if Ren Heaven wants to be invincible, then it should cover all ages.

In general, it is necessary to achieve that no one has me, and no one has me.

After reading Randy's report, Yamauchi was furious, "What kind of garbage is this?" Such a bloody and violent game, what is it called, Diablo, a bullshit name, can achieve such good results?!

What kind of primitive animals are the people of the United States?! ”

At the meeting, everyone was taken aback.

Including Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoshi Iwata, and Junhei Yokoi.

……

Diablo's super good results in Europe and the United States are both unexpected and seem to make sense.

Many neon game companies have begun to study this game before, and when it achieved results in Europe and the United States, many people in the industry sighed.

"Although I thought Diablo was a great game from the beginning, the reaction on the neon market was not as strong as I thought. It turns out that the reason is here.

Diablo's entry into the European and American markets is really a clever move, and this game seems to be tailor-made for European and American players. ”

"When I first played Diablo, I had a strong sense of disobedience, after all, there were too many deviations from the Neon Man's aesthetics in the painting style.

Even before that, there were many Western-themed games in the gaming industry, but many of them added local elements.

At least in terms of painting style, it belongs exclusively to the neon people.

For example, "Fire Emblem" describes the Western knight war, the world of magic and swords, but the picture is still in the familiar Japanese manga style, even Final Fantasy, it is mainly based on Japanese images.

Even the core warhead, which is an obvious game with a Western comic book theme, actually has neon characteristics.

But Diablo is very hardcore in terms of painting style, and it is so hardcore that you can see at a glance that this is a game made by an American company.

But when you study it carefully, you find out that this game is actually from a neon local company, and even the producer himself has never been abroad, nor has he received much Western culture.

This sense of disobedience was something I could experience at first glance, and at the time I thought that Diablo should not have chosen Neon as the first market.

I didn't expect Pokeni to really aim more than that.,I have to say that the president of Pokeni took a risky move.。

But at the same time, they have super talent and excellent foresight, and in retrospect, they must have planned to attack the European and American markets from the beginning. ”

"It's really amazing, the creativity of Pokeni makes people feel hopeless, and you even feel that this company has no bottlenecks or ends in terms of creation. Diablo's success in Europe and the United States, I don't know if it can be replicated, but at least let us know one thing -

Neon Man can also make games that have a very American flavor.

The vision should not be limited to the immediate future, but should be taken more long-term.

The game is the world, and the world is the game. ”

……

"Get rich, get rich! President, our game is going to be on fire! ”

As soon as he stepped into the door of the company, the little HR hurried over to report the good news.

This guy's news is quite well-informed, and he will directly give Takahashi Kazuma, the minister of the marketing department who is ready to report later.

He looked up and winked at Akane Ayase, indicating that this shouldn't be my job?

"What?" Qing Zhiyuan didn't care too much about it, and asked knowingly.

He smiled at the corners of his lips and walked over to the office to place his briefcase on the table.

At first glance, you can tell that you are in a super good mood today.

People are in good spirits on happy occasions, not to mention the good news that Diablo is selling.

"Diablo. No, it should be called Diablo, and the sales volume in Europe and the United States has exceeded 600,000 copies! Akane Ayase said seriously.

Her face lit up, as if she had made the game.

But it's really reassuring to be a member of Pokeni and feel so proud.

Now the little HR is no longer the little girl who always counts how much the head is worth.

What does this mean?

Description Pokeni is thriving!

"Isn't that how it should be?" Qing Zhiyuan said lightly, "It's normal to break through 1 million. ”

In the previous life, Diablo was only released in 1996, but it was able to set a super sales record of 550,000 copies in Europe and the United States in the first month.

What's more, it's 1992, which directly hits all the games on the market at present.

Gee.

Little HR muttered in his heart-

The president's mistake of talking big has been done again.

As soon as there is an achievement, the whole person's tail is cocked, it's really too! No! Steady! Heavy! Finish!

……

After Diablo's explosion, Pokeni's cash flow immediately became much better.

The game is priced at $69 in Europe and the United States, which is equivalent to 8,738.85 yen at the current exchange rate.

600,000 copies, or about 5.24 billion yen.

Deduction of taxes, transportation and packaging costs...... Among the various costs, Sega will also collect 20% of the seigniorage (which is already much better than Rentendo, which charges 30% of the seigniorage. There is still a profit of close to 3 billion yen.

The revenue from the Omi region, combined with the sales of almost 400,000 copies in Neon soil, now Diablo has brought Pokeni about 4 billion in profits.

This is great news for Pokeni.

It has to be said that gaming is indeed a lucrative industry.

This is only the first step, after Pokeni pays off the bank loan, there is still a surplus of 3 billion.

The rest of the money is enough to do a big deal.

In the afternoon, Gen Xubuchi and Shinji Mikami arrived as scheduled with new game proposals.

Qing Zhiyuan couldn't help frowning fiercely.

These two guys are really action-oriented.

I was going to let Shinji Mikami take over Diablo 2.

……

Qing Zhiyuan took the project with some reluctance, opened it and took a look, and the title on the first page between them was written with a few big words-

The Witcher

Sizzle......

Qing Zhiyuan couldn't help but gasp.

His first reaction was-

These two guys aren't going to make The Witcher, right?

But after flipping through it a little, I found that it was not the same thing at all.

Although they are both witchers, in this game, the main story stands out for the centuries-long grudge war between the Bloods and humans.

The background of the game itself has a bit of a steampunk flavor, and the protagonist can use both cold weapons such as swords and firearms.

It's just that this game is based on Diablo and is a flat game with a 45-degree top-down view, which is far from the 3D effect of The Witcher 3 in the future.

The use of firearms is also similar to that of archers in the dark, and skills can be used, without special aiming in the direction, reducing the difficulty of operation.

So to be precise, this should be an action game with shooting elements, but it's not the same thing as FPS and TPS.

This guy is a standard military fan, a gun fan, and in his works, firearms can be added.

I used to tighten it a little, but here in "The Witcher", it's completely released.

However, his writing is really emotional, with an iron-blooded straight man flavor, a thick sense of suspense, and an unexpected reversal, which has a certain depth here.

It's fascinating.

……

It was probably more than an hour in the past.

Qing Zhiyuan let out a subtle sigh after reading their joint proposal.

It's not Resident Evil, it's not Madoka Magician......

These two people created something that was not within the scope of Qing Zhiyuan's cognition.

"So, what kind of game is this?"

"Mikami-san and I have been obsessed with vampires lately, and we had a whim during a drink. How about taking the dark mechanics out and making a bloodline-themed game? ”

"Uh-huh." Shinji Mikami nodded, "Actually, I had this idea when I was developing Dark, after all, Diablo is a story with a more Western theme. I want to make a real-time game with a Japanese-style Western fantasy theme with a more sense of action and combat feeling. ”

Real-time games really have a lot of charm, and after the genre came out, a lot of things that were previously unimaginable were realized.

After listening to their descriptions, Qing Zhiyuan crossed his hands and thought carefully for a while.

Bloodline, Instant, Dark......

What do these things combine for?

Devil May Cry?

It's not quite the same, the story is completely different.

Times have changed, and these two people are not the same as Qing Zhiyuan knows.

The story of Xuyuan Xuan, although it is very sad, but the multiple endings in this proposal, leaving the choice to the players to decide, Qing Zhiyuan thinks it is quite interesting.

In particular, the choice itself has a strong sense of thought and depth in it.

And the battle described by Shinji Mikami, although it was created based on Diablo, has also undergone a lot of changes, the action requirements are higher, and the skill design is more difficult.

In order to be able to increase the refreshing feeling of the game, a lot of improvements should be made in terms of the sense of impact, otherwise it will be difficult to achieve the effect he wants.

None of this is easy for the game development team.

The two of them looked forward to it, staring at the president's eyes, for fear that this person would refuse.

It took about 10 seconds.

"Yes." Qing Zhiyuan nodded.

Seriously, if it weren't for the fact that the game proposal was too good, Qing Zhiyuan wouldn't want to agree at all.

"This time, Mikami-san will be the producer."

"Huh?"

Shinji Mikami was stunned for a moment, as if he didn't expect the president to give him such an important task.

It stands to reason that Xuyuan Xuan has dominated two galgames, and he is more suitable in terms of qualifications, right?

"The reason I considered Mikami was because Diablo was handled by you later, and I was rarely involved in post-production decisions, and this game can hone the ability to control all aspects of stats, combat, graphics, and quality.

Based on Dark's performance, I think you've done a pretty good job, so I've given you this task.

What's wrong? Qing Zhiyuan raised his eyebrows, "Don't you want to?" ”

"Nope." Shinji Mikami blushed in flattery and said, "I'll do my best." ”

I don't have much opinion on this, anyway, the script is his.

It's not the first time he's cooperated with Mikami.,There are also a lot of tacit understandings between the two.,This proposal is his script plus Shinji Mikami's game design.,From the overall point of view,Lao Xu himself also thinks that Mikami is more suitable for producers.。

After deciding on the direction of production, Qing Zhiyuan couldn't help frowning.

While it is true that the company needs to grow and need new games, this proposal is also quite good.

But......

As a result, the company will not have enough manpower.

Qing Zhiyuan couldn't help but worry about this.

……

……

(End of chapter)