Game Development Giant

Sony's influence is unquestionable, as can be seen from the rise in stocks already listed on the Nikkei.

In the past, Nintendo's stock price fell ugly due to various incidents. This time, after the news of Norio Ohga's cooperation was broadcast, Nintendo's stock price returned to its original state in just a few days, which also made Hiroshi Yamauchi suddenly relieved. One breath.

Although he knew that bringing Sony in was equivalent to luring a wolf into the house, or driving the tiger away to devour the wolf.

It’s not clear whether Sony has him now, but in the future, the possibility of them starting their own business, rolling up their sleeves, and entering the gaming industry is still very high in Hiroshi Yamauchi’s opinion. Now Norio Ohga has taken over Sony from Akio Morita. After assuming power, he must do something that Akio Morita has never done.

Moreover, from the cooperation agreement he negotiated with Norio Ohga, he could see the escape route Sony gave them and their wolfish ambitions.

However, he couldn't help but disagree.

Jester was also thinking about Sony's cooperation with Nintendo. He knew that this period of history was different from what he was familiar with, but he still couldn't help but want to use it for reference and comparison. In the original history, it was Sony to promote its own products. The cd-rpm format was actively developed by leveraging Nintendo's influence on game consoles.

Moreover, at that time, both NEC and Sega had already taken the lead in launching their own CD-ROM systems. However, Nintendo knew that its development capabilities were insufficient, so it agreed to Sony's suggestion.

At that time, Nintendo was still the well-deserved overlord. Moreover, since Ken Kutaragi used PCM sound source to defeat Fujitsu's FC sound source and won Nintendo's first multi-billion yen contract, Sony and Nintendo have cooperated very closely. The reason why sfc It was so successful because Sony provided a lot of help to Nintendo during the development process.

As for the final betrayal of Nintendo, there are different opinions, and Jester is not interested in referring to this paragraph, because the current cooperation between Nintendo and Sony is that Nintendo is in a weak position, and it is completely different from the history he knows. The difference was that at that time, Nintendo was the market leader and could get rid of Sony without hesitation. Now, they do not have this qualification.

The news only says that Nintendo and Sony have formed an alliance to develop new consoles, but there are no specific details on how the alliance was formed or what the details are. There cannot be any. Jester has to guess on his own. This has not happened in history. things.

First of all, according to Sony's size, for them to make such a decision, first of all, there must be enough benefits, whether current or potential, which can be verified by the history he is familiar with, that is, the CD-ROM system.

In Sony's eyes, the game market has great potential, but they have not yet entered it. However, judging from Sony's subsequent forcible acquisition of Hollywood film companies, we can also know that Sony dares to invest huge amounts of money even in areas it is not familiar with. funded.

It cannot be ruled out that besides being determined to win CD-ROMs, Sony also has no interest in the game market.

In the history that Jester is familiar with, Sony decided to enter the game industry only after Nintendo betrayed it. However, in Jester's view, this was just a gimmick. On the surface, it was to take revenge on Nintendo, but if video games The industry did not have huge potential that could make the top giant Sony at the time excited, so Norio Ohga, who had been promoted to chairman of Sony at the time, would never make such a decision.

Because Norio Ohga was under a lot of pressure at the time, after the cooperation with Nintendo broke down, many senior people within Sony objected on the grounds that making their own game consoles would damage the high-end image of our big Sony. Instead, Kutaragi Ken, who strongly advocates entering the game industry, is regarded as a heretic.

...One can only imagine how difficult it was for Akio Morita, who had just accepted Sony from Akio Morita, to make such a decision when his prestige was insufficient.

However, this decision was obviously the right one to make, because after more than 20 years, the gaming department has become one of Sony's few departments that are still profitable, and the home appliance department that they were proud of at the time had long since It has already suffered losses one after another.

Gunpei Yokoi was marginalized.

Nintendo and Sony are moving very quickly, and it won't work if they don't move quickly, because now the development of new consoles must be accelerated, and although Sony's developers are elite hardware developers, it still takes a while to be familiar with and understand how to develop consoles. Time.

Although home appliances and game consoles both belong to hardware development, and even high-end home appliances are much more difficult to develop than current game consoles, it is extremely difficult to easily transform from a home appliance merchant to a game console developer. In fact, during the period of history that Jester was familiar with, neither Nintendo nor Sega at the time were optimistic about Sony's brazen journey.

It's not that they don't know Sony's strength, but because of the failure of nec before. Secondly, the most important thing in making games is third-party game manufacturers. Before Sony's products don't have enough sales, it's impossible to own them. From a reliable third-party game developer.

And all game developers are also in the hands of Nintendo and Sega.

Hiroshi Yamauchi even said disdainfully in an interview with the media at a charity dinner that if his sales could exceed one million, he would walk on his head upside down. Coincidentally, Sega also said in a public occasion Claimed that home appliance manufacturers also want to make games? It was just a dream.

However, if they cooperate with Nintendo, the situation will be completely different. Nintendo’s experience, coupled with Sony’s technology, coupled with the numerous third-party game developers and Nintendo’s own game development capabilities, this combination will ultimately No one knows what kind of energy it can burst out.

However, when Nintendo and Sony jointly established the development department, Yokoi Gunpei, who had always had a transcendent status within Nintendo, especially in the hardware development department, was regarded as a god by countless Nintendo employees, but he was suddenly transferred to the second position. Hardware Development Headquarters.

Masayuki Uemura, who originally served as the director of the Second Hardware Development Headquarters, was transferred to the First Hardware Development Headquarters.

The handheld mobile phone development team that had been retained before was also disbanded by Uemura Masayuki, who took over the first development headquarters, and all developers were merged into the newly established joint development department.

The new console development team that was originally in the Second Hardware Development Department was also adjusted to the Joint Development Department. It can be said that Yokoi Gunpei, after this adjustment, has become a complete polished commander.

Sony is very modest. In their newly established development team, they did not let their own people take the most important position. The chief designer was still Masayuki Uemura proposed by Nintendo, and Sony's Vice President Goto Seisuke Designer, but Goto Seisuke is not responsible for specific hardware development. He is responsible for the industrial design of the new console.

Kutaragi Ken serves as the leader of the joint development team, but he has stated that he will not intervene in specific research and development work, and will only be responsible for coordinating communication and administrative issues between Sony and Nintendo.

Originally, Yamauchi Hiroshi proposed that Yokoi Gunpei and Goto Sakisuke be the deputy chief designers of the new console project, because he clearly knew Yokoi Gunpei's talent, and Uemura Masayuki was far inferior to him, but this time It's just because they go against the grain in decision-making that they are marginalized.

...But Ken Kutaragi, who was usually easy to talk to, refused this question.

Kudo has learned from many aspects that Gunpei Yokoi was the one who was most opposed to all-out hardware development for new consoles within Nintendo, and it was also he who was not optimistic about the cooperation with Sony from the beginning, and instead wanted to do that. Market prospects for handheld phones.

Jiuda categorically disagrees with the fact that such a person who has completely opposite ideas to him can stay in such a high position in the joint development team.

In Kudo's view, the reason why the joint development team let Nintendo take the lead is because in the development of game consoles, Nintendo is indeed much better than Sony, which has just entered the industry. Secondly, Masayuki Uemura is also the chief designer of FC and has successful products. Provide evidence to prove your abilities.

The most important thing is that he is the one who strongly supports the development of next-generation home consoles within Nintendo. It is said that because of the breakdown of the relationship with Gunpei Yokoi, who was strongly involved in the development of handheld consoles, the two are now basically strangers.

Kuta doesn't care why Uemura Masayuki fully supports the development of home consoles. He wants to seize the throne of the top figure in Nintendo's hardware development department from Gunpei Yokoi. He really thinks that doing so is the best solution. Regardless of whether it was correct, what he cared about was that Masayuki Uemura had the same goals as his, or in other words, Sony's.

This is enough.

No matter how talented Yokoi Gunpei is, no matter how fanciful Yamauchi Hiroshi's words are, he has not agreed with the console development strategy from the beginning. This time he cooperated with Nintendo, and it was not easy for him to convince Mr. Ohga Norio. What he just got, for Jiu Duo himself, failure is absolutely not allowed.

It is absolutely impossible for him to let a person like Gunpei Yokoi, whose ideas and concepts are different from such a development team, hold such an important position as deputy chief designer.

Moreover, the most important thing is that in the joint development team, after someone from Nintendo serves as the chief designer, if the deputy chief designer position is occupied by someone from Nintendo, then there is no need for this joint development team to be called a joint development team. , and just call the Nintendo development team.

It is for these reasons that Kutaragi Ken did not hesitate to reject Yamauchi Hiroshi's suggestion to let Yokoi Gunpei serve as the deputy chief designer of the joint development team.

Is Kudo not aware of Yokoi Gunpei's talent?

No, this has nothing to do with talent. r1152