Game Development Giant

Jester listened quietly to Sega's conditions brought by Yu Suzuki.

Generally speaking, Sega's conditions were within the scope of his acceptance, and Sega also learned about Nintendo's failure to purchase the home console copyright of "American Cube", so this time they did not raise any unreasonable ideas in this regard. .

In fact, the more Arakawa thought about it after he returned, the more he felt wrong. His price was high enough and his attitude was good enough. Apart from his trump card of letting Mars Entertainment join Nintendo's royalty plan, this was almost his highest offer, but The other party didn't seem to care about it and refused without even thinking about it. This was really unreasonable.

Moreover, he had a hard time getting Mars Entertainment to join the royalty plan being formed by Nintendo from his father-in-law, but the other party did not even give him a chance to reveal it.

As a result, Minoru Arakawa, who was unwilling to give up, began to seriously collect information about Mars Entertainment, and it was only through this collection that he suddenly realized.

Especially after he saw that Mars Entertainment had integrated the entire R\u0026D team of Atari vcs7200, and also recruited dozens of other hardware developers, even a fool knew what Mars Entertainment was going to do.

After knowing the real situation, Minoru Arakawa suddenly became furious, thinking about the other party's trick on him during the negotiation, and the other party obviously wanted to get information from him about whether Nintendo had released a home game console in the United States, and he was stupid. There was no precaution at all - who would be prepared for the fact that a little-known company that has only made one game has the guts to make a home console in the current industry context?

You know, in the same industry, news has always been very fast. When Nintendo knew about it, Sega, who also coveted "American Cube", basically knew about it.

It is impossible to say that Sega does not want the copyright of "American Cube". Their newly released home console Sega 1000 was defeated by Nintendo in Japan. It was almost eliminated as soon as it was released, so they had to start updating the new generation. Almost all the previous investment in the development plan of the console was wasted. Doesn't Sega want to get "American Cube" to reverse this situation?

No, it's because Sega knew it was impossible.

Nintendo's offer is good enough. Sega's offer is absolutely impossible for Nintendo to offer, because their platform share is far lower than Nintendo's. Therefore, Sega cannot afford the price Nintendo can offer.

But they still came. They didn't just value the home console version, but the agency rights for the arcade game "American Cube" in Japan. You must know that before Sega entered the home console industry, they were a veritable arcade giant. , has produced countless classic arcade games that are best-selling all over the world, but now, their arcade machines are also forced by old rivals such as Namco and Capcom to suffer serious losses in market share, especially since the company has just received accurate information. , these two companies will release two very good games in the second half of the year, and their own companies do not have good enough games to compete with them.

In fact, the other party did a very good job of keeping this secret. They only knew that they were vertical scroll shooting games, but they knew nothing about the gameplay and settings.

President Zhongshan has been furious about this in high-level meetings several times.

Suzuki Yu knows this deeply, and he will not allow failure this time.

"Do you want the arcade rights for "American Cube" in Japan and Europe?" Jester asked with a smile.

"Yes." Suzuki Yu nodded and admitted.

"So, how to divide it?" Jester does have plans to sell the arcade agent rights of his games, because he has just started to publish, and it will be difficult to complete the North American business first. When distributing goods abroad, firstly, they don’t have the energy, secondly, they don’t have the ability, and thirdly, they don’t even have the production capacity.

Even including his three new games, after he completed them, he did not have enough production capacity. He had asked Atari before that if he let them produce these three games again, they would directly ask for a share of the production. .

This is absolutely intolerable in Jester's eyes. He was not famous at the beginning, and Atari took the opportunity to blackmail him. He had no choice but to endure it. Now that his wings are strong, you still want to blackmail me?

Facing Atari's request, Jester sneered in his heart and said he would quit working.

The only one in the world that can mass-produce arcade machines is Atari. Isn't this Sega the same one in front of you?

Obviously, Sega's investigation is also very detailed, and it is also well aware of the current difficulties encountered by Jester's Mars Entertainment.

Yu Suzuki was serious about his words. He took out a stack of documents directly from the briefcase in his hand, handed it to Jester with both hands, and then he said: "We at Sega are very sincere. Not only will we pay an upfront payment of two thousand We will purchase the agency rights of your company's "American Cube" in Japan and Europe at a price of US$10,000, and will also transfer 30% of the net profit as your share, and all production and publicity costs will be borne by us. .”

Before he could even look through the document, Jester suddenly raised his head when he heard Suzuki Yu's words and looked at him in surprise. It was impossible not to be shocked in his heart. This offer was really good beyond expectations. His expectations.

You must know that the entire Japanese and European markets combined can at best be compared with the United States. This is still a false statement. In fact, even if they are combined, they are far inferior to the United States.

It is incredible that an arcade machine can sell 20,000 to 30,000 units in Japan, but it can reach 60,000 units or even more in the United States.

Although Europe is large, the game market does not even have Japan's share.

"Did Sega encounter some trouble?" A thought suddenly appeared in Jester's mind, and then the thought expanded uncontrollably. He began to recall Sega of this period in his mind...

After thinking for a few minutes, Jester remained silent throughout the whole process and looked at Yu Suzuki who was sitting there with an expressionless face.

He couldn't think of any big crisis for Sega at this time. In his impression, Sega only failed miserably on the Sega 1000, which they had just entered in the field of video games. However, Sega had already accepted this, and the development process of MS should have started earlier. That’s when it started. Since it’s not this, then there’s something wrong with their arcade industry…

The arcade industry at this time...

Thinking of this, Jester's eyes suddenly lit up and he remembered.

Sega did encounter some troubles at this time, but it was also at this time that Yu Suzuki stepped forward to join the development department and take charge, which led to Sega's later glory.

This legendary designer first produced the world's first physical game "Motorcycle Frame" in 1985, and in the same year released Japan's first 32,000-color game "Space Harry", and "Motorcycle" Players of later generations of "Frame" should have seen it. It was a large-scale immersive motorcycle game where players could ride a motorcycle. Jester remembered it very clearly. Well, it cost one yuan and eight coins. At that time, this game required two dollars to play.

These two games helped Sega regain its arcade market share. So, since they regained it...whose hands did they regain?

Thinking of this, Jester suddenly showed a weird smile, which startled Suzuki Yu who had been silently observing him. He asked with some confusion: "President Li, is something wrong?"

"Haha, it's nothing. I just heard from friends in Japan recently that your old rival Namco is developing a brand new game. I heard that it is almost completed. And the news I heard is that this game is very shocking. It seems to be called x...xevious, it’s called xevious, right?" Jester said with a curious expression on his face.

xevious is the famous "Iron Plate", the originator of the vertical scrolling flight shooting game, a landmark game.

The expression on Suzuki Yu's face remained unchanged, but his heart surged like a wave. This was a bit unbelievable. How could the other party, a person far away in the United States, know that they had just obtained the information.

Is their intelligence system in Japan better than a local company like Sega?

"Oh, by the way, I also heard that Capcom has also made a similar game called 1942. It will be released soon. It is similar to this game. It is also a vertical scrolling flight shooting game." Jester kept talking, and he mentioned another classic game in his memory that was released this year and caused a gaming trend.

This time, Suzuki Yu finally changed his color, and he looked at Jester in disbelief.

He couldn't figure it out anyway, how did the other party know the types of these two games that they had been trying to find out about? The other party actually knows the information that Sega has not heard? Haven't they established a Japanese branch yet? Their R\u0026D Director Mark Cerney has recently been asking his friends at Sega to handle this matter...but they know much better than themselves, but how is this possible!

Suzuki Yu looked at Jester with shock in his eyes, and his lips became a little dry: "Li...President Li, is your news true?"

Jester did not admit it directly. He just smiled and said: "Mr. Suzuki, I only heard it from my Japanese friends. As for whether it is true, I can't guarantee it."

"Ali Gado!"

Suzuki Yu listened to Jester's face. He was silent for more than ten seconds at first, and then suddenly made a 90-degree bend towards Jester and said in a very respectful tone, "Thank you, President Li, for informing me. Sega is grateful." ."

"Then the licensing price we discussed..." Jester immediately stood up and stepped forward to help Suzuki Yuu up. To be honest, he had great respect for this future ace designer. He was the one who worked at Sega Under such difficult circumstances, he led Sega to fight against the Nintendo, never giving up, and never giving up. Moreover, the game he made in 1999 combined Chinese mythology, martial arts elements, and sandbox maps called "Shenmue" The classic game was Jester’s favorite at the time.

The quality of this game was definitely at the top of its time at the time, and it was no less than any other masterpiece. Unfortunately, it was born at the wrong time, and its final results were not ideal.

Later, in a "Famitsu" voting statistics, this game beat out super masterpieces such as ff and dq, and became the game that players expected a sequel.

For this game, this honor is well-deserved, but of course it can only be a little consolation.

After all, at that time, Sega's glory no longer existed.

Before Jester finished speaking, Yu Suzuki interrupted him with a serious look on his face: "President Li, you don't have to say anything, Sega can make further concessions!"

"No, no." Jester also understood that the other party might have misunderstood what he meant. He immediately explained, "I have no intention of raising the price. In fact, I am very satisfied with the previous quotation. We at Mars Entertainment treat Friends are always the most sincere and will never take the opportunity to blackmail."

Jester's tone seemed sincere.

Hearing this, Suzuki Yu's eyes flashed with a look of surprise. The other person he had learned before was not such a person. He would retaliate and take advantage of the opportunity to blackmail. The person in front of him who was younger than himself had done this before.

The four publishers who helped him release "American Cube" in the United States could go around slandering Jester and Mars Entertainment in the industry.

Even Suzuki Yu felt that Jester's demands on the four agents were a bit excessive when he saw them. If they were not forced to do so, no agent would be willing to sign such an alliance that would be humiliating and humiliating to the country.

"Let's not talk about the specific price now. So, Mr. Suzuki, are you interested in taking a look at some of the new games we have recently developed?" Jester saw the other party's expression and was not impressed. He has a purpose and doesn't care about the other party's random thoughts. He just needs to let the other party know that temporary cooperation between the two parties will be profitable for both parties.

"new game?"

Thinking of that clever elimination game that even he was addicted to unconsciously, Suzuki Yu couldn't help but show curiosity on his face. Although he got the news that Mars Entertainment was developing a new game, but it was not I didn’t get any exact information, I just knew that it was also an elimination game.

Seeing such a confident smile on Jester's face, Suzuki Yuya couldn't help but guess that "American Cube" was already perfect. Could it be that the other party could still be good at elimination games?

Then, Suzuki Yu nodded, and under the leadership of Jester, he walked towards the R\u0026D hall of Mars Entertainment.

ps: Teppanyaki was actually the Japanese version released in 1983, and the American version released in 1988. For the sake of the plot, I moved it to 1984. Don’t blame me, but Sega’s difficulties at the time were real.