Game Development Giant

No one knows what Hiroshi Yamauchi was thinking at this time.

Just from his stern face at this time, we can tell that he is not in a happy mood at this time. Presumably, no one will be happy if he is betrayed by his two most important allies.

Kutaragi Ken, as a bridge figure between Sony and Nintendo, naturally sees Hiroshi Yamauchi often, and Hiroshi Yamauchi is also very familiar with the short, fat middle-aged man in front of him. He is a very shrewd, intelligent, and capable person. People, and sometimes even Hiroshi Yamauchi compares his son-in-law, who leads the overall situation in North America, with him from time to time.

The final conclusion always made Yamauchi sigh. It has to be said that at least in his several comparisons, the son-in-law who was already an outstanding person in his mind was compared with the short, fat middle-aged man. The person is still a little inferior, and Hiroshi Yamauchi has made several subtle suggestions to Ken Kutaragi that he would like to let him come to Nintendo and entrust him with important tasks. However, I don’t know whether Ken Kutaragi did it on purpose or if he really couldn’t hear what he said. Hidden meaning, whenever he talks about this matter, the other party always talks about him.

Hiroshi Yamauchi thought that it was impossible for a shrewd person like Kutaragi Ken not to understand the meaning behind his words. Thinking about it, it must be the former one. After this situation happened three or four times, Hiroshi Yamauchi｜Wan｜｜Ba｜...m also gradually cut off the idea of ​​recruiting Ken Kutaragi. Previously, the brazen joining of nec had already made Hiroshi Yamauchi somewhat overwhelmed. Now, is Sony, which is not inferior to nec in terms of strength, also taking a peek at the video game industry?

There was a gentle smile on Kutaragi Ken's face, which made it difficult for people to see through his thoughts. His expression was very respectful, as if facing his elders, and said: President Yamauchi, we are not interested in the video game industry. Interest, you know. Our booth at Sony is big enough. President Akio Morita has recently been in intensive negotiations with those Yankees in the United States for film companies. Now we don’t have enough energy to develop new industries-this time I came to see you because I was entrusted by the group and wanted to ask you a favor.

oh?

Hearing what Ken Kutaragi said, a look of curiosity suddenly appeared on Hiroshi Yamauchi's face, and after hearing that Sony had no plans to enter the video game industry, it also made him feel relieved, so he kept a straight face. He also rarely showed a subtle smile. A fleeting moment.

Then he asked: The cooperation between us is close, and we will do our best to meet your company's requirements. Disk storage!

After hearing what Kutaragi Ken said, Yamauchi Hiroshi suddenly understood that optical disk storage and cassette storage each have their own advantages and disadvantages, but compared with the disadvantages. They compare the advantages of cassette storage, which are really too great, the two most important ones. These are the two biggest problems that plague all game companies and game production, and they will be solved soon.

First, the most important thing for game console distribution companies is cost. Compared with the high cost of game cartridges, the cost of optical disc carriers is almost negligible. If sold at the same price, optical disc carriers will make at least more money than cassette carriers. Quarter.

Second, one of the biggest problems that plagues game design companies when designing games is that the capacity of cassettes is too small, while the capacity of optical discs is completely opposite. If you use optical discs to create games, no matter which game production company you are, A wide variety of game content can be added to it, which can greatly improve the quality of the game to a certain extent.

But are there any disadvantages...

Nintendo's biggest advantage over Mars Entertainment is their cassette compression technology. They can compress games stored on cassettes at an eight-to-one level. It is unknown how much Mars Entertainment can achieve at most, but it is certainly not eight-to-one. To this extent.

This is true even for Mars Entertainment, not to mention other game companies. When it comes to producing games based on cartridges, they are naturally far behind Nintendo. For the same game, Nintendo can produce more content. The same, but Nintendo can make more beautiful games, which is why its third-party development companies can rarely produce better games than Nintendo.

If you switch to optical disc storage, this advantage of Nintendo will be gone immediately.

But these are troubled times for Nintendo. According to Hiroshi Yamauchi, although their unique compression technology makes them stand out from the crowd, it is not that important compared to what can be obtained after using optical disc storage. .

However, it is not something that he can make a decision on his own. It is true that he is the emperor of Nintendo, and his orders are true within Nintendo. However, this is a matter of hardware development. He has used almost all of it before. It was a forced method that forced Yokoi Gunpei to half-disband the handheld development team. This time, if he directly asked him to develop the optical disk storage system with Sony without consulting with Mura Masayuki, then even the development of this hardware would be The number two figure is also going to be offended.

Therefore, Yamauchi Hiroshi just thought briefly and made his own decision.

Mr. Jiuduo, I understand everything you said, but I still need to further discuss this matter with other people in the company, so I can't answer you right now, but one thing I can be sure of is that we will Your company will always be a partner.”

Yamauchi Hiroshi did not directly explain whether he agreed or disagreed, and his last sentence was also very ambiguous, but Kutaragi Ken didn't care. He saw that Yamauchi Hiroshi meant to see off the guests, so he no longer If you continue to stay longer, he has said everything you need to say, and there is no special meaning in staying any longer.

And he also believes that Hiroshi Yamauchi is a wise man. He should be able to think that if Nintendo wants to get out of this predicament at present, it can only seek changes. If they still do things the same way, they would be better off just maintaining a second position. position, and now, with the sudden rise of Sega and the brazen invasion of Nippon Electric, it may not even be able to keep its second position.

Does Hiroshi Yamauchi still want to transform Nintendo again in his later years? From poker as gambling equipment to children's toys to love hotels to video games, how else does Nintendo want to transform?

Therefore, Kutaragi Ken concluded that Yamauchi Hiroshi must agree in his heart.

Jester didn't know that Kutaragi Ken went to meet with Hiroshi Yamauchi to discuss the use of optical disk storage in their new home console, but he is indeed considering it now. This is not what he thought of, but his home console. A suggestion made by the development team.

In fact, although the development of Mars Entertainment's new console is not as fast as Sega's, which has been basically finalized, it is basically close to finalization. But just recently, a designer proposed that if the previously used cassette storage was replaced with optical disc storage If so, it will greatly improve the capabilities of the game console and make the cost of the game cheaper.

However, the development team has always adhered to and recognized Jester's remarks on hardware development, and used mature technologies to think in parallel. Cassette technology is a very mature technology, although relatively speaking, its disadvantages are also great, and optical discs The technology is not yet mature, although it seems to have great advantages and promising prospects.

Such a suggestion has been approved by many people. Of course, there are also many people who agree. In addition to those from the hardware development department, there are also people from the game development department, because in terms of game development, CDs are much better than cassettes. .

The reason why the hardware development department objected was not because they thought this suggestion was bad, but because they wanted to suddenly replace the entire system with the hardware that was about to be completed. Such a major project was very difficult compared to the current situation where we need to compete with Sega for time. Not worth it.

In the case of constant disputes, Jester can only make the decision.

Regarding the development of future game consoles, Jester naturally knows that optical disc storage will eventually defeat cassette storage, and Nintendo, which has been reversing history, clings to NGC with cassette storage, and finally almost completely lost it. The bitter pill of collapse.

You know, with a series of masterpieces on the n64, Nintendo actually almost made a comeback due to the joint stranglehold between the PS and the Sega SS. However, on the n64, the performance of cassette storage is obviously different from that of optical disc storage, but Nintendo Insist on continuing to use this cassette storage method on their NGC.

In the end, it completely offended third-party developers.

Then there is the complete failure of the NGC game console. It is true that the PS2 in the NGC era is a generational machine, and it can even be compared with the original FC to a certain extent. But if Nintendo took the initiative to abandon cassette storage when developing NGC, then they rely on With his die-hard loyalty, he may not be able to survive at that time.

Therefore, in the future, it is imperative for home game consoles to replace optical disc storage. Jester agrees with this, but isn’t it necessary to replace it with 16-bit machines soon?

This is something that has never happened before in history, and he needs to think about it carefully.