Game Development Giant

For a company that aims to dominate a field, relying solely on its own strength is not enough.

And now Mars Entertainment is in such an embarrassing situation. Their own research and development capabilities are extremely outstanding. Even if Nintendo joins forces with its third-party developers, it seems that they are no match. However, Jester is better than anyone else. It is clear that using this overdraft method to maintain this advantage is not a long-term solution. Before his many independent studios can grow, he will also need the support of some third-party manufacturers.

Although domestic manufacturers in the United States are very enthusiastic about this and have produced several passable games. For example, Activision, their first puzzle game on Dreambox, was well produced and sold well, but It’s just a small game, and developers such as Verizon, Snow Mountain, and EA that are well-known in the PC field seem to have not gotten used to the development pace of home game consoles. So far, they have reported to themselves for review. Games, none have yet met the minimum release standards he set.

Jester believes that a good system should be used to learn from. Although Nintendo’s royalty system is extremely strict, it is undeniable that this is a system created based on the lessons of Atari’s failure, which can effectively guarantee The quality of the game, at least, will never happen again like the Atari crash that happened in history, where players completely gave up on the game. This is a question that is puzzling in Western countries. In their eyes, the currency has lost half its value and the economy is close to collapse. This will not bring down their government. Instead, it will make them support the person who is the culprit of all this. This is simply impossible in their country. Well!

In fact, if Jester had been asked to speak, he might have been procrastinating for a long time without getting to the key points, but at that time he had read a review, and there were not many sentences in that review to analyze this issue. Just a simple comment made Jester feel that the comment was almost profound - what is the reason for the devaluation of the ruble and the increase in Putin's approval rating instead of falling? It's actually very simple, but also very cruel, because the Russians already died once more than 20 years ago. Of course, Jester couldn't use Nintendo's outrageously harsh royalty system directly. He didn't want to be like Nintendo in the future, of course. It is impossible for him to be as loose as the royalty system of later generations. He just modeled the royalty system of the Temple of Heaven to design a relatively less stringent system that can be accepted by current third-party developers.

This looseness and lack of strictness only apply to the collection of royalties. Regarding the quality of games, Jester, like Nintendo, has extremely strict requirements.

Therefore, some games simply cannot meet the production standards set by Mars Entertainment in terms of quality. The only option is to go back to those companies. Because of this, Jester's relationship with these large game companies in North America is not so harmonious. But Jester doesn't care about this. It's impossible for him to produce some rubbish games and damage his brand at such a juncture.

It is precisely because of this that Jester is extremely jealous of the Japanese developers under Nintendo, especially the six major software developers, especially K Club and Capcom, because these developers have great problems with home game consoles. The development capabilities are really not comparable to those of these American game companies. It does not mean that American game companies cannot produce excellent games, but that they cannot produce excellent console games.

In the restaurant, Jester met Kenzo Shikimoto for the first time. Although he had heard this story more than once, whether in this world or the world before he was reborn, it was legendary in the entire gaming world. name.

Neither of them spoke first, they just looked at each other.

Kenzo Shikimoto was surprised by how young Jester was. He was thinking about what he was doing when he was as old as Jester, but it was so long ago that he couldn't remember clearly - but it was definitely not a good job. Either laying bricks on the floor at the construction site or moving the bricks to the construction site.

And Jester was also looking at this person he had only seen in photos. He was looking at photos of the person thirty years later. At that time, the person was already over seventy years old, very old, but in a game The speeches at the development meeting were still loud and clear. If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, you wouldn't have believed that someone with such a strong voice could be an old man of his age.

After sitting down, Jester was also thinking about the fact that Kenzo Senmoto's request for an audience was indeed beyond his expectation, and he could guess the purpose of the other party coming to him without the other party opening his mouth. At this time, in this situation, Next, the other party comes to meet me as the president of a franchise company under the Nintendo royalty system. As long as he is not a fool, he will naturally know the other party's purpose.

Does Capcom want it? There is no doubt that acquiring Capcom will not only deprive Nintendo of a big boost, but also allow the strength of its third-party development camp to rise like a rocket. Even the thought of being moved to Kenzo Honzo The profiteers gathered those geniuses around him, and Jester became hot for a while.

To be honest, when Jester wanted to poach people before, he also contacted Kaputin's Okamoto Yoshiki. However, this young man who was fired from K Club did not even have the opportunity to let Tamahide Yoshiro state his conditions. He refused verbally, and Jester had long heard of the loyalty of these Capcom employees. When Atari hit, Kobe's Wave fired a quarter of its employees, including Yoshiki Okamoto. At that time, Kenzo Shikimoto was busy building his Capcom, constantly recruiting people from people who had been dismissed from K Society. This is also the reason why Capcom’s early works have such a strong K Society style - —Because the same people are making the games.

At that time, Kenzo Takimoto personally interviewed the other party. It was not that Okamoto Yoshiki was so important at the time, but Kenzo Takimoto's habit. He had to interview every employee who joined Capcom.

Jester read about the first meeting between Kenzo Shikimoto and Yoshiki Okamoto in a book How to Reflect Your True Value that was once a best-seller in Japan.

At that time, Kenzo Shikimoto didn't even raise his head to look at Yoshiki Okamoto, who was coming for the interview. He just asked a question that would definitely be asked during the interview: What is your monthly salary at Konami? At that time, he was still carefully looking at a company's development plan.

Okamoto Yoshiki's answer was also very honest. He answered quickly: One hundred and fifty thousand yen.

Kenzo Moto had no doubts about this salary. He must have done some research on the salary in the field of game development before recruiting, so he just continued to ask: Then what salary do you hope to be after joining our company again?...

Three hundred and fifty thousand.

After hearing this answer, Ken Moto suddenly raised his head, his face full of dissatisfaction and surprise. You know, the monthly salary of 350,000 yen at this time is almost equal to that of Toyota, Panasonic, etc. Large trust groups are in charge of manager-level salaries and benefits, and to give such benefits to a young man like Okamoto Yoshiki, at least in the eyes of Kenzo Okamoto, is absolutely impossible.

However, Kenzo Takimoto did not express his dissatisfaction at the beginning. He just stared at Okamoto Yoshiki for a while, and then said in the same slow tone as before: What is your reason? ?”

And Okamoto Yoshiki respectfully presented him with the plan he had carefully prepared for two weeks, and then said: If you can read this carefully, you may believe that I am completely worth the price. What happened next. It has been known to everyone that Yoshiki Okamoto joined Capcom and became the undisputed leader and soul of Capcom's early game development.

It can even be said bluntly that without the addition of Yoshiki Okamoto, Capcom might still be a very small company.

Jester withdrew his thoughts from his memories. His eyes when he looked at Kenzo Kenzo, who was sitting in front of him, became softer and softer. His look made Kenzo Kenzo feel a little uncomfortable. However, neither party seemed to want to speak first, so the situation seemed a bit awkward for a while.

For Jester, the lesson that Capcom makes him so coveted is not just Yoshiki Okamoto. He knows extremely well how united and powerful a game company Capcom is, and how they can combine so many talented people. The gathering of outstanding people belongs to the personality strength of Qian Benxian's three people, which is what he covets.

In Jester's memory, the geniuses in Capcom's history now or in the future, in addition to Okamoto Yoshiki, there are also Funamizu Noritaka who is as capable and talented as Okamoto Yoshiki, and has passed Tokuro Fujiwara, the producer who showed his talent in bt's Makai Village, Takashi Nishiyama and Ryo Nishitani who will become the two heroes of Street Fighter in the future, Juan Nishimura, the master of original painting of Street Fighter, Yoko Shimomura, the classic music producer, Shinji Mikami, the father of Resident Evil, Hideki Kamiya, the best genius in CA, Keiji Inafune, the father of Mega Man and Onimusha, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, the producer who has received mixed reviews, and Jun Takeuchi, the new generation of biochemical producer , the late-blooming Father of Ace Attorney Takumi... These characters who have joined or have not yet joined Capcom have become well-known names in the gaming industry.