Game Development Giant

After Yokoi Junpei hesitated for a moment, he suddenly laughed.

Just when Jester was still curious about why the other party suddenly laughed, his outstretched palm was held by Gunpei Yokoi.

Then, Gunpei Yokoi's voice sounded in Jester's ears.

Actually, when I was at Nintendo, President Yamauchi asked me what I would do in the future. I was very confused at the time because I was only interested in designing some strange things, so I told him that I Go back and make the handheld phone that I said was rejected by you to prove to you that what I said is correct, but what I didn't expect is that you have actually started research in this area a long time ago.

As he said that, Yokoi Gunpei let go of Jester's hand. He smiled bitterly again, and then sighed and said: But fortunately, my suggestion was rejected by Mr. Yamauchi. I never expected that anyone else would do the same. We are conducting research on handheld phones, and even the research and development process is more than half completed. If President Yamauchi really takes my suggestion and temporarily slows down the development of home consoles, he will have the right to develop handheld phones to open up new markets. If the profits obtained from the new market are used to counter the strategy of competing with traditional home consoles, the final result will be that not only the previous market will be robbed by emerging home console manufacturers such as Sega, but also in the new handheld market. You will lose the opportunity and end up in a dilemma. In the end, Yokoi Junpei also sighed with sadness.

For Jester, being able to obtain Gunpei Yokoi is almost the greatest victory he has ever achieved in a direct confrontation with Nintendo, because no one in the world knows better than him that this person will be used by countless people in future generations. The man game developers call the God of Hardware. What a powerful inspiration it is for the development of game consoles, especially handheld consoles.

Can get Gunpei Yokoi. For Jester, not only did he infinitely enhance his soft power in handheld mobile phone development in an instant. It also infinitely weakened Nintendo's hard power in the development of handheld consoles. When Nintendo saw that its handheld consoles were released and swept a brand new game market with irresistible momentum, they regretted it. They want to re-enter the development of handheld mobile phones, but without Yokoi Gunpei, they can still come up with a good enough one in a short period of time. Is it a handheld phone comparable to my own?

Yes, later generations of Nintendo, after Gunpei Yokoi left, did use their strength in handheld phones to make up for their decline in home consoles. Although there were times when they were badly beaten by Sony's PSP, there were also times when 3DS After it came out, it was invincible in the world. But the problem is that after losing Gunpei Yokoi, a person who knows nothing about the development of mobile phones now and in the future, we no longer have the hardware development master who spent more than ten years leading it. Close the handheld development team. With countless development elites, can they still make a difference on mobile phones?

Jester didn't know, but he knew. He got Gunpei Yokoi.

Less than a month after Gunpei Yokoi left Nintendo, he successively rejected invitations from Nippon Electric and Sega to join Mars Entertainment, which once again made him a front-page figure in some magazines.

Nintendo declined to comment, wishing Gunpei Yokoi all the best in his future career.

But the real situation is completely different. After learning that Gunpei Yokoi joined Mars Entertainment, Hiroshi Yamauchi once again held a high-level emergency meeting at Nintendo. This also made him feel very funny. He felt that the recent situation High-level meetings held within a month or two. More than he has convened in the past few years.

Gunpei Yokoi was previously the number two person in Nintendo, ranking above Hiroshi Yamauchi's son-in-law Minoru Arakawa. The internal understanding of Nintendo is extremely clear, and such an absolute high-level executive has joined Nintendo's direct enemies. It's impossible not to shock Nintendo.

However, Hiroshi Yamauchi also knew that from the moment he agreed to Yokoi Gunpei's departure from Nintendo, he would have to bear this problem.

But before that, he didn't know that Gunpei Yokoi would definitely join Mars Entertainment.

When he resigned, he agreed to sign a non-competition clause and he would not participate in the development of any game programs. Seeing some ugly-looking company executives, Hiroshi Yamauchi said lightly.

Just after he finished speaking, the faces of the executives of these companies became slightly better.

Although Gunpei Yokoi is a hardware development engineer, according to Jester's Mars Entertainment, the development of a new generation of home consoles has entered the final stage. At this time, according to the management of hardware development, It is unlikely to arrange for senior development personnel to go there, because there is no need.

According to Gunpei Yokoi's status at Nintendo, after he joins a new company in the same industry, it is impossible for him to join a development team as an ordinary developer.

At this time, Hiroshi Yamauchi thought of the development plan for handheld mobile phones mentioned by Gunpei Yokoi.

It is absolutely impossible to say that Hiroshi Yamauchi was not interested in this plan at all. He had agreed to Gunpei Yokoi's development plan for a handheld mobile phone before Sega was exposed to the news of the new 16-bit home console. And more than half of the hardware elites from the entire company were mobilized to participate in research and development.

Because he was very excited about the brand-new game market described by Gunpei Yokoi and the potential market in this market.

But when the news about Sega's new console came to light, Yamauchi thought it was the lesser of two evils. In his opinion, home consoles were the foundation of Nintendo. If he couldn't launch it as soon as possible, With his own 16-bit console, the situation he finally managed to achieve in Japan is very likely to be completely occupied by Sega, the disruptor.

On the other hand, what Yokoi Gunpei said is to open up a new market. Although the prospects described are very attractive, they are just prospects. No one can be sure that the market for handheld mobile phones is really like Yokoi Gunpei said it was so big.

Although Mars Entertainment has proven that using the principle of fragmented time to develop the same type of game machine is the right decision by relying on the popularity of electronic pets, it is still questionable how big the potential market size is. If it can only compete with electronic pets If the market is that big.

In Pu Yamauchi's eyes, it was not worth the risk.

The most important thing is that if Nintendo wants to continue in the electronic game industry now, he absolutely cannot take risks. This is completely different from the situation when he just led Nintendo into the early days of the electronics industry. At that time, he started a business from scratch. , in the video game industry, Nintendo has nothing, so he can make crazy decisions again and again that outsiders think are extremely risky.

But now, it's completely different.

He wants to ensure the normal operation of Nintendo. In other words, in the eyes of Hiroshi Yamauchi, it is more important to maintain the existing market share and not be encroached by the newly joined Sega than to develop a market that is enough for himself and Mars Entertainment. many.

Because between the two, one is life and death, the other is not.

The question is, does Mars Entertainment also feel that the market for handheld mobile phones is promising? They have the data of several years of selling electronic pets as a basis, and it is not impossible for Yokoi Gunpei to use his persuasive words to convince the other party.

At this time, it was impossible for Hiroshi Yamauchi to restart the suspended handheld mobile phone plan, because firstly, Yokoi Gunpei left, and secondly, the entire company's development elites are now cooperating with Sony on the next generation of consoles. Development, there is no ability and no possibility to restart the research and development of handheld mobile phones.

However, Hiroshi Yamauchi made his decision at the end of this meeting.

Yokoi Gunpei left just because he was inconsistent with our current policies and guidelines. There is no doubt about his talent. In fact, if it weren't for Sega's sudden intrusion, he would still be one of our colleagues now, and he said I also agree with the statement that handheld consoles will definitely occupy an extremely important position in the future game console market.

This is the first time Hiroshi Yamauchi admitted his attitude towards handheld phones in front of the entire senior management after he rejected Yokoi Gunpei's handheld phone development plan.

Therefore, his remarks also puzzled many people.

Because saying that, it is not much different from Hiroshi Yamauchi admitting his mistakes to a certain extent.

Sure enough, after Yamauchi Hiroshi said this, he suddenly changed his voice and continued: However, things are about priorities. This is the biggest conflict between Yokoi and I, so I decided that after the development of the new console is completed, , I will restart the development of handheld mobile phones, this can be included in the plan, I don’t know what your opinions are.”

Unexpectedly, Masayuki Uemura, who had been opposed to Gunpei Yokoi before, immediately stood up after Yamauchi Hiroshi said this and said: I agree with the president's opinion. In fact, at the beginning, the president decided to mobilize all development efforts within the group. When Elite was developing a handheld phone, I personally supported it. I even talked with Yokoi all night for several days in a row about how the handheld phone should be developed and what functions it should have. The reason why I opposed Gunpei Yokoi before was just that Because I think the development of new home consoles is more important.

Before Miyamoto became famous with the development of Donkey Kong, he was a subordinate of Gunpei Yokoi. The reason why he was able to develop Donkey Kong was also because of Gunpei Yokoi's recommendation to Hiroshi Yamauchi, so he was very concerned about Gunpei Yokoi's departure. Very opinionated.

This opinion also actively transferred to Hiroshi Yamauchi and Masayuki Uemura with the resignation of Gunpei Yokoi.