In the evening, Chi Young, Nao Tsuda, and Ken Kutaragi of Sony had dinner with Tom Collinsky.

A full glass of stout, steak and large meat.

Eat heartily.

Speaking of what happened at the press conference today, Kolinsky still feels scared for a while.

"It really scared me at the time," Qing Zhiyuan said, "the screen was burning, I don't know how to get back down, Mr. Collinsky is really too strong to react on the spot." ”

"Haha, did you see it?" Collinsky laughed.

Qing Zhiyuan said, I am also a person who has gone to school, okay, some simple magic tricks are still easy to see.

"Fortunately, now that things have passed, it should be quite smooth." Collinsky said with a smile.

"Of course, not only did it go smoothly, but with this twist and turn and vignette, today's press conference will become a classic in a few years." Kutaragi Ken said.

It wasn't until now that he reacted, and it was really an accident after a long time.

"But, Mr. Collinsky, will this broken machine allow me to bring back neon, I and the Sega crew will have to overhaul it and figure out what's wrong."

"Okay."

Collinsky didn't care so much and handed the console to Ken Kutaragi.

"But, Mr. Collinsky, aren't you worried about being punctured by the media in the future?" Ken Kutaragi asked, "After all, this magic trick is too simple, as long as there is a video, you can find it by comparing the position of the front and back pockets, right?" ”

"It's okay." Collinsky laughs and says, "At most, I used two different consoles, but I couldn't prove that there was a problem with the original one. Unless you send the evidence to them. ”

Kutaragi Ken glanced down at the game console in his hand and smiled knowingly.

"Hahaha......"

"If it's hardware, there will be a yield rate. If the yield rate is not 100%, then there will definitely be a problem. Collinsky cut a small piece of steak and chewed it twice in his mouth, "But it was really unlucky to meet it at the press conference, but as long as the problem can be solved, after the console was released in August, the machine failure rate that players get is low enough."

"Hmm." The crowd nodded.

……

Everyone chatted for a while, gained some understanding of each other, and Qing Zhiyuan also acted as a translator during the banquet.

Collinsky recalled an incident and laughed.

"You know what?"

"The Sega Genesis (called MD in Neon) uses the Motorola 68000 as the CPU, just like the Commodore Amiga.

In the United States, there is a company called Electronic Arts.

This company has a lot of experience in game development with this processor.

The first thing they did was not to apply to become a third-party game company for Sega, but to quickly reverse-engineer Sega Genesis to develop a game that would work without a license from Sega.

It's really off the charts.,Why don't you crack Nintendo 10NES with this effort.,What is Sega doing here? ”

At this, Collinsky's expression was very exaggerated, and everyone laughed along.

"Sega's fees for third-party games are much lower than Nintendo's, not 30 percent, but around $8-10, which is equivalent to 20 percent of the selling price.

Then the year before last, in 1990, Hawkins approached me.

Take out EA's reverse engineering and ask for cooperation: only $2 per game card, plus a $2 million license cap for a single game, or EA will proliferate its technology.

Hawkins said to me, 'We've successfully reverse-engineered Genesis, and if the contract hadn't been signed, we'd have made and sold the game software that was operating in Genesis.' '”

Collinsky put down the knife and fork in his hand, and looked at Qing Zhiyuan and Nao Tsuda with his chest straight, "Can you imagine what kind of rude request this is." ”

"I took a closer look at the young and handsome young man in front of me and wondered if there was something wrong with his brain."

"Haha, indeed."

Qing Zhiyuan smiled and nodded.

EA is indeed a hooligan, but the hooligan knows martial arts, and no one can stop him.

This kind of rogue logic is really no one.

It can only be said that the brain circuits of Westerners are really difficult to understand, and they want to rob you and thank him.

"Hawkins is playing a very high-risk operation, and once Sega initiates a lawsuit against EA's behavior, Hawkins will most likely not be able to eat and walk around.

But what I thought at the time was that there was nothing wrong with working with EA.

After all, we are facing a god-like opponent, Nintendo NES.

The fewer enemies the better, and the more teammates the better.

Let's just assume that he has a problem.

EA wanted a free console platform.

We need third-party games that can compete against Nintendo, and the interests are aligned.

Such an opponent falls to the NES, and the consequences are unimaginable.

I said, 'Okay, but there's something to add.'"

I want you to sell EA's John Madden NFL rights. I wanted to change something and market it as a different game. We're releasing two games, John Madden NFL and Joe Montana's Rugby.

Of course, we'll pay for the promotion, and we'll pay you fair royalties. ’

Hawkins seemed a little shocked.

Two rugby games were released at the same time, which should have caused a lot of trouble.

Adult sports games happen to be Nintendo's shortcomings.

'Well, we're partners. Let's defeat Nintendo together. ’

I shook hands with Hawkins and came to a consensus.

After that, EA ported John Madden NFL to Sega Genesis.

No one could have imagined that the game, which was originally planned to sell 70,000 copies, would sell 400,000 copies on Genesis.

Isn't it amazing? ”

Collinsky asked with a smile.

The crowd nodded.

What Qing Zhiyuan thinks is-

Although Hayakuo Nakayama and Pu Yamauchi both have a stinky temper, they both want to be a monopoly and monopoly.

But it's really a lucky thing that Sega has a sales manager like Collinsky in the United States.

Is the essence of war for consoles a console?

No, it's a game.

Take Sega GG losing to Ren Heaven GB as an example, on the one hand, because the battery life on the hardware is too short, the power consumption is too high, and the body is relatively bulky.

But in terms of performance, Sega's GG handheld is going to crush the GB of Renten.

And one of the most critical turning points is-

Ren Heaven and Sega both launched the game Tetris on the handheld at the same time, but later Ren Heaven got the authorization of Tetris and sued Sega backhanded.

As a result, Sega's Tetris was forced to be taken off the shelves.

One game makes the difference between winning and losing.

……

From this point of view, instead of taking EA to court for playing hooligans, he chose to cooperate with Collinsky to fight against Ren Tian, which is really much bigger.

"So Mr. Korlinsky, can you give us the same discount as EA in the future," Qing Zhiyuan said with a smile, "or we will have to reverse-engineer Sega's game console." ”

Hearing Qing Zhiyuan's words, Collinsky was stunned for a second, and the beer in his mouth almost didn't squirt out.

"Hahaha...... Qing, you're really kidding. ”

The atmosphere was relaxed and warm.

……

After chatting with Collinsky, Qing Zhiyuan still has a lot of gains.

American players and neon players are fundamentally two species.

The rice market is also very different from the neon market, or the Chinese market.

These Western players prefer fresh and exciting games that can get your adrenaline pumping and secrete a lot of dopamine.

Simple, brutal and direct, it's all the way to go here.

And Neon and Chinese players may pay more attention to the inside, pay attention to some deep things with cultural connotations.

However, this does not mean that the players of the United States cannot appreciate it, or that the manufacturers of the United States lack depth.

It's just that in their opinion, before pursuing storytelling and depth, they have to satisfy their appetite.

If Pokeni wants to enter the Omi market in the future and do this, then it will have to change its thinking.

Fortunately, there are a lot of Western masterpieces in Qing Zhiyuan's brain, and the key is to copy it first, ahh

And who to do it and how to do it.

In this era, the income of neon is much higher than that of Chinese, and the income of American people is much higher than that of neon people.

In contrast, the Omi region can sell a little higher, and if you're confident enough, the game can sell for $99 (12,400 yen).

Some great games are like that, if you're good enough to be loved by your players, their pockets will be open for you.

This is the United States described by Collinsky, and this is also the impression that the current United States gives to Qing Zhiyuan.

During his two-day stay in Chicago, Seongchi-won accompanied Nao Tsuda to visit clothing stores, buy clothes that women like, and spend the evening together.

On the third day, we returned to Neon Tokyo together.

……

After entering June, Pokémon is already in the final test.

If you confirm that there are no problems, you will be able to issue it.

The release date was negotiated with Sega, and on August 1st, Sega's handheld console was released, and Pokémon will be on the shelves at the same time.

Originally, Collinsky wanted to demonstrate Pokémon at the Chicago Consumer Electronics Show this time, but unfortunately the online function has not yet been completed.

……

At the same time, Sega began to woo other princes.

……

Sega first approached Namco, and proposed that Namco would develop a game strategy on the new handheld, and gave it a high discount.

Then came the glorious and Konami ......

Except for SNK, which has a direct competition with itself in the field of game consoles, Sega has searched all over it.

The price offered is also very sincere.

Seigniorage, ahh

In addition, there is no limit to the number of games that can be developed on Sega consoles each year, as long as a partnership is reached, but Sega still retains the right to review them.

……

These two points alone are actually enough to make many game manufacturers feel excited.

It's just that due to the pressure of Ren Heaven and the current difficulty in judging the future market, these companies are still waiting and swaying.

If you offend Rentendo because of your cooperation with Sega, it will be difficult to make money.

Not every company has the ability to enter the Omega market.

And in Neon, Ren Heaven is everything.

And Ren Heaven, Yamauchi Pu's side, did not feel the status of being shaken, and the sense of precarious threat.

SFC is gaining momentum.

What's more, Yamauchi doesn't think a newly released handheld console will make much of a difference.

After all, the main force in the game console market is still TV.

……

June 28, 1992.

Tokyo.

Pokeni Co., Ltd.

"Do you feel it? A strong smell of gunpowder. Qing Zhiyuan sniffed the air and let out a sigh.

The Great War is on the verge of breaking out.

In the next few years, it can be described as a sudden change in the situation, and the console war will become white-hot.

Although the course of history is known, after all, these are changing now.

It remains to be seen what changes will take place in the future and what key role Pokeni can play in this.

However, Qing Zhiyuan has been working hard to increase his chips, in order to be able to become a chess player in the game, rather than a chess piece controlled by others.

Seeing the president's idiotic look, the little HR couldn't help but sigh.

"President, would you please sober up?"

Qing Zhiyuan frowned fiercely, what do you know.

"By the way, Kyoto Animation's Kigami Masaki has already arrived, and I've been waiting outside for a long time."

"Oh, okay, let him wait for me in the conference room." Qing Zhiyuan said.

"By the way, call Lisa Asano too."

……

In the conference room, Massaharu Kigami finished playing the 20-second sample he had made.

Qing Zhiyuan looked down at their plan, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Uh-huh.

Pretty good.

It almost restores the cartoon content in Qing Zhiyuan's impression when he was a child, and the painting style is even more exquisite.

On the basis of the design of Pokeni itself, in fact, whether it is a character or a character, it basically doesn't deviate much.

After all, animation and game linkage are ultimately game-based.

Otherwise, your name is Mennick in the cartoon and Pikachu in the game, and the image doesn't match, so it's very troublesome.

Several of the protagonists, as well as the important Team Rocket villains, are all hand-picked by Qing Zhiyuan and must be added to the animation, and even the characters have been set.

This is quite uncomfortable for Kigami, which is equivalent to dancing in shackles.

Fortunately, the script that was written in the end was not bad.

In the original Pokémon, Ash's character prototype came from the creator Tajiri Tomo.

And then because Miyamoto Shigeru of Ren Heaven was kind to him, it was Miyamoto Shigeru who fell in love with this game and positioned it as a key project of Ren Heaven's handheld, plus Miyamoto Shigeru had a lot of guidance for Tajiri Zhi, so Tajiri Zhi added the role of Xiao Mao in the creative process.

Now there are no twists and turns in between, and this story is missing from the production process of Pokeni.

So although the characters are still called Ash and Shigeru, they have little to do with Takeshi Tajiri and Shigeru Miyamoto.

……

After reading the script, I discussed some details with Risa Asano.

Qing Zhiyuan laughed happily.

"Well, just wait for the anime to air in August."

……

(End of chapter)