Game Development Giant

However, Sega was a bit unable to recover from the blockbuster news suddenly thrown out by Mars Entertainment.

Nakayama Hayao held a copy of today's Yomiuri Shimbun and saw that a whole page had been vacated, with only the somewhat weird word gameboy written on it. The meaning of this word is not difficult to understand, although it is composed of two words. A self-made word, but one is a game and the other is a boy. Together they are a game boy. So what does this word mean?

Is the name of their new handheld device worth mentioning?

Thinking of this, Nakayama Hayao's face instantly showed an angry look, and he sighed hard in his mouth. He specifically chose this time to avoid all competition, because he knew that ten people from Mars Entertainment Six-bit machines will be released almost before the end of the year, and if I release 16-bit machines at the same time as them, I will definitely be far inferior in terms of influence.

This is also the reason why he deliberately avoids the Christmas Golden Week. Although the temptation to sell during Christmas is extremely powerful, he cannot let a completed product be stored in his warehouse for ten months and then wait until At the end of the year, it is not worth the gain to compete with an opponent who has no chance of winning. But unexpectedly, he had already taken a step back, and the other party had not let go of him yet.

Handheld phone? Huh! Even if it is a real handheld phone, the time cannot be selected as long as wind. C.ne can choose it on time! Looking at the release time of Mars Entertainment, it is obvious that it is for For Sega, when the idea of ​​pre-sales was originally brought up in the high-level meeting, it received enthusiastic support from everyone. But now that Mars Entertainment’s statement came out, many people came to discuss with me whether to do it a little bit. Postpone your pre-sale date a bit.

This is the consensus of all the visionaries in the company not to go head-to-head with Mars Entertainment, which is currently in the limelight.

It's a pity that others don't appreciate my concession at all.

Yuya Suzuki was in Hayao Nakayama's office. He just sat on the sofa and didn't speak. Nakayama Hayao threw the page of The Yomiuri Shimbun that he had read several times on the table, looked up at Suzuki Yu who was sitting in front of him, and a smile appeared on his face. Suzuki Yu was discovered by him personally. Talents were transferred from the administrative department to the development department, from the development of arcade machines to the development of home console games. Suzuki Yuto is the well-deserved core and ace of Sega. Moreover, the two games that Yu Suzuki personally supervised in this MD launch were recognized by everyone in the club, and they all agreed. Yu Suzuki is a designer who is not inferior to Shigeru Miyamoto, or even a designer who is not inferior to Jester. They all believe that Yu Suzuki has such ability and level.

What do you think? Suzuki.

Hearing Hayao Nakayama's question, Suzuki Yu was stunned for a moment, and then looked up at his president. He was a little strange, because his boss rarely asked him these questions before. These seemed not to be his game. Issues developers should care about, and. It doesn't really matter to him. He is currently planning a game to be produced next. Now the MD 16-bit console, which the company has high hopes for, is about to be released. His desire for games is beyond all else.

In the absence of third-party game manufacturers. You can only tap your potential internally, and as the banner of the company's development department, you naturally have to play the leading role.

But since his president asked him, Suzuki Yu did have some opinions on the handheld phone mentioned by Mars Entertainment. Although he is not very mature, since his president asked, it doesn't hurt to say it himself.

This handheld phone reminds me of GW many years ago. President, you still have an impression. At that time, we were also optimistic about this market and prepared a similar product. We also developed a similar product for our handheld phone. A rechargeable battery, it seems to be the world’s first commercial rechargeable battery, but for some other reasons, this plan became smooth.”…

Hearing what Suzuki Yu said, Nakayama Hayao also thought about it. He still had some impressions of this matter, but he did not control Sega at the time, and he was not responsible for this aspect. However, this matter was a hot topic at the time. It's very big. It seems that some carcinogens were found in their rechargeable batteries, and they were banned from sale in the United States by the FDA.

At that time, there was still a lot of gloom and gloom within the group, and they felt that they had missed out on an excellent market. However, after Nintendo's GW became popular for a while, it did not achieve much of a sensation. The company only watched their jokes, and then, It was the collapse of Atari.

Nakayama Hayao nodded, smiled, and said: I remember, you mean, this market is not big?

But Yu Suzuki shook his head and said: No, I think the market for handheld mobile phones is very large, not even smaller than that of home computers. However, this market is more difficult to compete than home computers, and it is much more difficult than home computers. The reason is very clear. Simple, at home, you can easily have two or even three home consoles coexisting, but it is impossible for one person to carry three different handheld devices at the same time.”

As he spoke, Suzuki Yu gestured at the size of his palm phone. He gestured based on the size of the gw, which was already bigger than an average person's pocket.

I heard that Mars Entertainment's electronic pets have also been very popular in recent years. Nakayama Hayao said quietly. Electronic pets are not very technical. Although Mars Entertainment has done a lot of tricks on it, in his case, In the eyes of professionals, it can be seen at a glance that underneath the seemingly gorgeous shell of the electronic pet is a simple circuit board with nothing worthy of praise.

To put it bluntly, even a technical secondary school student who has just graduated from a related major can complete such a simple circuit board as long as he listens carefully in class.

Hearing his boss' seemingly disdainful tone, Suzuki Yu frowned.

So, he reminded: Sir, this thing does not depend on its technical content, but its creative ideas. This is the key to game development. Moreover, the technical content of Mars Entertainment's electronic pets is not as high as you said. It’s that low, at least their version isn’t that low now.”

Suzuki Yu's words aroused the curiosity of Nakayama Hayao. He asked in surprise: Are you still interested in children's toys like Mars Entertainment? I think that's what that bastard Jester made to cheat money!

No. Yu Suzuki shook his head resolutely, and he said seriously, Electronic pets, it seems that Mars Entertainment calls them Pokemon Electronic Pet Edition. They said that when they first released it. , a game that seems to be called Pocket Monsters. I couldn't understand this game at the time. It seemed that there was always a layer of frosted glass in front of me, so that I couldn't see clearly or touch it. But as they This time the handheld phone was announced, and I suddenly understood that the game they were talking about called Pokemon was probably developed on their handheld phone.

Hearing these words, Nakayama Hayao's face changed. He was a little unbelievable, and muttered to himself unconsciously: How is this possible! You mean, Jester, he just released the electronic pet machine At that time, you had the idea of ​​​​making a mobile phone platform?

I think so. Suzuki Yu nodded firmly.

After hearing Suzuki Yu's answer, Nakayama Hayao remained silent. He stared in front of him in a daze for a few minutes, and then sighed slightly: Let's not talk about this for now. Let's bring up the topic while talking. Far away, this is not the reason why I came to you this time, but I want to ask whether it is necessary for us to develop a handheld phone.”…

After Suzuki Yu heard these words from Nakayama Hayao, a very strange look appeared on his face. He glanced at his president in surprise.

President, our home console has not been released yet, and the result is unknown...

Unexpectedly, before Suzuki Yuu could finish speaking, Nakayama Hayao waved his hand and said nonchalantly: I can't guarantee whether md can succeed, but what I can be sure of is that it will definitely not fail, and at least it can succeed. Among them, I got a piece of cake. As for better results, I didn’t think too far ahead. After all, Mars Entertainment is too powerful now, especially their development capabilities, which are far beyond what we can match, so I think Should we get a share of the pie in a newly opened market? It is impossible for one family to eat up a complete new market.

Nakayama Hayao said very firmly, and Suzuki Yuya was a little bit affected. However, he had only been engaged in the development of arcade and home console games before, and almost all his gaming experience was in these games. As for what this handheld game is like, he couldn't tell. Yes, since he couldn't explain it clearly, he didn't want to presumptuously make his own comments, but it didn't mean that he couldn't express his own opinions on this.

President, I haven't thought about this carefully. It seems that I shouldn't draw conclusions about your question without investigation. However, I heard a friend who works at Nintendo say before, Gunpei Yokoi had a falling out with that old fox Hiroshi Yamauchi, and it seemed that they were going all out to develop handheld phones or home computers.”

oh!?

Hearing Suzuki Yu's words, even Nakayama Hayao was surprised. This was the first time he heard the news. Unexpectedly, Yokoi Gunpei and Yamauchi Hiroshi had a falling out because of this incident, and then he immediately I thought of Gunpei Yokoi joining Mars Entertainment immediately after leaving Nintendo.