Game Development Giant

Chapter 27: Nintendo is here

Jester received a call from the company, which forced him to rush back early.

However, his affairs in Los Angeles were basically over. After he explained the situation to his grandfather, his grandfather also very reasonable asked Jester to rush back as soon as possible to handle the company's affairs.

Jester also promised his grandfather that no matter how many people would eventually participate in the delegation he wanted to organize to invest in the mainland, as long as the trip took place, he would definitely go.

If he couldn't make the trip, he would accompany his grandfather back to the mainland.

This also made his grandfather very happy, and he said directly that he didn't expect that his rebellious son actually raised a good son.

As for the planned visit to Zhang Lean's house tomorrow, he had no choice but to give it up. Jester had to hang up the phone to Zhang Lean and explain the situation.

White Wolf is open-minded by nature and is naturally not a petty person. When he heard Jester saying that people from Nintendo had found his company and wanted to discuss transplanting "American Cube" to home machines, he even encouraged Jester. I will try to kill the Japanese severely.

Jester just smiled and did not explain. He had no intention of collaborating with Nintendo on "American Cube".

Just kidding, Tetris in Jester's original world is not only a big seller in arcades and handheld consoles, but also sold more than five million copies on FC, ranking among the top ten in the entire FC game sales list.

How could he give such a hen that could lay golden eggs to his biggest rival in the future?

This is an absolute weapon for his initial sales!

He wanted to go back to see the Nintendo people, just to find out their truth. He knew that Nintendo only started selling their es in the United States in October 1985, but in this era he could Not allowed.

After all, the "American Cube" he launched has made the arcade market popular again to a certain extent, and the next few games he will launch will inevitably pour a big bucket of hot oil on it.

The electronic game market is inherently closely connected, and a large number of players will inevitably be interested in home electronic games again.

So will Nintendo temporarily change its mind and release NES ahead of schedule?

Jester wasn't sure.

He drove back to the company as fast as possible. He didn't even ask about the completion of the tasks he had assigned before leaving, and came directly to Mark Saini's office in a hurry.

Inside, Mark Cerny is drawing the setting diagram for his new game "Avengers". The ground is like a garbage dump filled with various abandoned sketches.

Jester had informed Mark Saini before he came. After Jester came in, Mark Saini did not waste any time. He directly pulled out a folder from the pile of sketches on the table and threw it to Jester. in hands.

"In it is the information about the people who came to Nintendo this time. They are very sincere and determined to win. I have called them several times before, but I asked them to talk about "American Cube" after you come back."

"Um!"

Jester agreed, then quickly opened the folder and looked at it carefully.

Inside the folder was a very detailed profile of a character. Jester didn’t know how Mark Cerny got it, but it became clear when he thought about his relationship with Sega of Japan.

Sega is also an enemy of Nintendo now.

He knew the person in the information, or in other words, he was very familiar with it.

Minoru Arakawa is the president of the American branch of Nintendo and the son-in-law of Hiroshi Yamauchi, the head of Nintendo. He married Yoko Yamauchi, the eldest daughter of Hiroshi Yamauchi, while he was in school.

As a senior game enthusiast, Sogou, and a conscientious player who has always regarded Nintendo as a cancer in the industry, Jester is naturally very familiar with this crucial figure during the rise of Nintendo.

He was the first person to be called the successor of Hiroshi Yamauchi. In 1946, the year after the Emperor of Japan announced the surrender decree, he was born into the Arakawa family, a wealthy Japanese samurai family. His mother was also from a wealthy family—— The eldest daughter of the Yuo family. These two families also owned a lot of wealth in post-war Japan. Some people estimate that in 1946, these two wealthy families controlled one-fifth of the land in Kyoto.

Minoru Arakawa grew up in such a well-off environment. Although his family was engaged in the traditional textile industry, he chose civil engineering as a path to further study. He studied in the engineering graduate courses of Kyoto University and the world's most prestigious university. Good engineering from MIT. In 1980, Minoru Arakawa, who was already working for Marubeni, one of Japan's five largest trading companies, was inspired by his father-in-law Hiroshi Yamauchi. He eventually quit the company and established Nintendo of America in New York, and became the president himself.

This is how the legend begins.

At that time, Minoru Arakawa basically went to the United States alone, and Hiroshi Yamauchi also gave Minoru Arakawa great trust. At that time, the upper limit of the funds he could mobilize was 10 million U.S. dollars, which was very difficult for Nintendo at the time. It's an extremely huge number. If it fails, hell will be almost doomed.

Of course, Arakawa Minoru did not live up to his father-in-law's trust in him.

Although Arakawa Minoru was an executive of a gaming company who never played games, in the United States in 1980, there were not even dedicated arcades. Arcades could only be regarded as accessories to entertainment venues such as alcohol. People can only play extremely childish games like Little Bee, so there is no need for someone who knows much about games to manage it.

Arakawa does not play games, but he is a truly genius businessman. He knows that arcade games are a product and are essentially no different from other products.

As a business wizard, he had high hopes. At that time, Nintendo had failed several times before "Donkey Kong". This attempt in the United States can be said to be a huge gamble for Nintendo to break the boat.

If you succeed, you will go to heaven; if you fail, you will go to hell.

At that time, Nintendo's trading method was to pay and deliver, but this sales method was very inappropriate for an arcade machine like "Donkey Kong" that was still unknown and expensive.

Because those who are willing to buy these arcade machines are those in liquor stores, and the presence or absence of these arcade machines does not have a big impact on them, so "Donkey Kong", which is twice as expensive as other arcade machines, will naturally not be favored.

Therefore, the bold Arakawa Minoru made a decision behind Hiroshi Yamauchi's back, that is, use it first and buy it later. This decision seems to be extremely correct now.

It is exactly the same as Jester's method when he first promoted "American Cube".

"Donkey Kong" was a crushing shock to Americans who thought it was the most fun game in the world just by playing Little Bee. This made Americans feel for the first time, can video games still be played like this?

In just a very short period of time, the first batch of 2,000 yuan of "Donkey Kong" arcade motherboards were sold out. Then, seeing how popular the market was, Arakawa boldly asked the Japanese headquarters for 6,000 yuan of "Donkey Kong". 》Substrates, and before the goods arrived, these 6,000 substrates were purchased in advance by enthusiastic Americans with real U.S. dollars.

In just over a year, "Donkey Kong" sold more than 60,000 units in the United States, earning Nintendo more than $100 million in profits.

Since then, Minoru Arakawa has become famous in one battle, establishing himself as the absolute core in Nintendo.

Jester clearly knew how sharp Arakawa's vision was. After seeing Tetris, Arakawa decided to win it at all costs. In the end, he spent nearly 10 million US dollars on the copyright of Tetris.

But he lived up to his expectations. Just relying on Tetris, he made unimaginable profits for Nintendo. Tetris played the most important role in GB's early success.

In the last life, before Tetris became popular, Minoru Arakawa could see the charm of this game, and of course this world can see it too.

"The person in charge of Nintendo's American branch is here in person? Does Nintendo think highly of us?"

Closing the information in his hand, Jester smiled and said to Mark Saini, who was still frowning and drawing sketches.

Perhaps because he was not very satisfied with the painting he had just finished, Mark Saini sighed, balled up the drawing paper on the table, and threw it aside.

He looked up at Jester, shrugged, and said with the same smile: "It's not that you look up to us, but that you look up to "American Cube". It's impossible for people in Nintendo to miss the charm of this game."

"They didn't say how they planned to talk to us?" Jester pulled a chair casually, sat down, crossed his legs, and asked casually.

Mark Saini frowned and thought for a while, then said: "I didn't discuss it with them in detail, but judging from their intention, they want to buy our copyright directly. Even if they can't buy it, at least they plan to win " "American Cube" is licensed for home consoles."

"Buying the rights to "American Cube"? They wouldn't even think about it!" Jester snorted disdainfully after hearing Mark Saini's words.

Then Mark Saini took a closer look at Jester, his face became serious, and he said seriously: "In my personal opinion, even the authorization for home machines cannot be given to them. Our development of home machines is progressing very quickly. It will definitely be completed before the end of the year. At that time, we were relying on the rapid distribution of "American Cube", so giving the "American Cube" home console copyright to Nintendo was a very wrong decision in my opinion."

"I think so too." Jester nodded, touched his chin and thought for a while before speaking, "I mainly want to get some information from Minoru Arakawa, when will they prepare to release them in the United States? of fc.”

"Do you think Nintendo will enter the United States? They can't see how sluggish the home game console market is now in the United States?" Mark Seney was a little confused after hearing Jester's words. He wanted to make a home game console because of his dream and Responsibility, but Nintendo’s President Yamauchi is a shrewd businessman, and he will not do anything that is obviously a loss.

In other words, Nintendo is also optimistic about the future of video games?

"FC's sales in Japan are so hot that they are completely out of stock. This may have given them enough confidence. After all, Nintendo's games are indeed doing well. Moreover, the US market is ten times that of Japan. He doesn't want to try it. , he must be unwilling to do so." Jester explained carefully, and then he asked, "Arakawa didn't say when he would arrive?"

"He said he will definitely arrive before noon today, and he has booked a hotel, which is a Japanese restaurant on Riberg Street. He said that if you can get there before noon, please come." Mark Saini nodded.

"Then let's go there at noon." A cold light flashed in Jester's eyes, and then he made a decision.

Then Jester discussed with Mark Saini some of the tasks he had assigned before going to Los Angeles. After hearing this, Mark Saini immediately showed an excited look on his face, and looked at Jester with a look in his eyes. There was a hint of respect.

"The alpha versions of the three games you designed have been completed. All employees are very fascinated by the games. They all unanimously commented that these three games are not inferior to "American Cube"! Of course, everyone still has different favorites. For example, I like "Zuma" the most, while Will Wright likes "Bejeweled" a little more... But it is foreseeable that if it is released, we will definitely be a big success!" Maxeni said excitedly again As he spoke, he danced uncontrollably. It was obvious that he was very excited at this time.

"That's good. Let's allocate some people to finish the remaining finishing work. After the beta version is completed, we will make five units of each and put them in the trial area on the first floor for players to try them out and see what their opinions are. , if it’s good, we’ll improve it and try to finalize the complete version before the middle of next month.”

Jester made his decision after just thinking for a moment, and then he turned to look at Mark Cerny and showed a smile. This smile made Mark Cerny look a little creepy, "Mark, I'm going to make a new one." The game is not a small-scale game like "American Cube", but a large-scale production similar to your "Avengers", but it is a still picture. I hope to borrow someone from your production team to help me. ."

Hearing this, Mark Saini's expression changed instantly, he hesitated for a moment, and then said with difficulty: "Okay, I can take one out for you, but I have to make up another one from the remaining people. "

"No problem." Jester smiled happily, "Don't say one, it's no problem to draw two. I want your Will Wright, let me see..."

Unexpectedly, before Jester finished speaking, Mark Saini's face instantly turned livid. He grabbed a stack of drawing paper on the table and threw it at it. At the same time, he yelled: "Get out!"

Then Jester ran away from Mark Saney's room in embarrassment, shouting loudly as he ran away: "What a stingy guy! I don't want to borrow someone else, I'll find a better one!"

Although they only got along for a short three or four days, Mark Saini has already felt from Will Wright his amazing talent in how to design an excellent game. It feels like Seeing fireflies flying in the dark night or scarab beetles in the fields, just one glance is enough to be engraved in my heart and cannot be forgotten.

And Jester wanted to borrow Will Wright when he opened his mouth. This was absolutely not allowed in Mark Saney's heart. In his heart, Will Wright was irreplaceable in his design team. of.

"Damn Jester! He always likes to take advantage of others."

Mark Saini, who was still angry, thought so.

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