Game Development Giant

Just when Jester was discussing the issue with Will Wright.

Kutaragi Ken finally met Namco's president Masaya Nakamura and Hudson's president Seki Kudo at Namco's headquarters. Needless to say, Ken Kutaragi was much younger than Masaya Nakamura, and even compared to Seki Kudo. , and, for the game industry, he is just a complete newcomer, so his attitude is very humble, putting himself in a backward position.

But obviously, his previous remarks did not really impress the two people in front of him, at least judging from the expressions on their faces, this was indeed the case.

And the other party's answer confirmed this.

Mr. Kutaragi, what you said is not enough to convince us to join you. It is not sufficient. We have already made a mistake once before, and we don't want to make it again now. Nakamura Masaya didn't say anything, Hard Mori's president, Kudo Kazuji, took the initiative to speak first. After he finished speaking, he glanced at Nakamura Masaya with the corner of his eye. He didn't say a word, and there was no expression of dissatisfaction on his face. , obviously, there must be some covenant between the two parties.

This is not a secret. Namco and Hudson have advanced and retreated together several times over the years. Whether it was in the selection of the president of the Electronic Game Association or in their recent defection from the Nintendo camp, the two companies have both advanced and retreated. in this way.

Kutaragi Ken actually doesn't have many cards in his hand that can impress the opponent. Although Sony has strong R\u0026D capabilities and elites are even more capable, but no matter what, they are just a novice in the video game industry. In addition, Japan Electrical examples, own these rhetoric. It is bound to be impossible to impress the other party.

Because what he said would not remind them of Sony's success in this industry, but would only remind them of Nippon Electric. If you think about it with your buttocks, you will know that when Nippon Electric was persuading Namco and Hudson. This is the inevitable excuse.

At that time, both parties thought that Nippon Electric was one of the top 500 companies in the world. Both in terms of scientific research capabilities and foundation, it was much stronger than those in the current gaming industry. Therefore, their joining was simply the biggest move to break this balance. Sharp weapon.

But in fact, making games is not making products. On an eight-bit computer, the p-e, which uses a 16-bit PPU architecture, is an excellent eight-bit computer, and Nippon Electric has fully demonstrated its R\u0026D capabilities in this regard. However, this is the case in the game industry, and it is not If you can produce good products, you will be successful.

The reason why players buy game consoles is to play games, not because of the good performance of the game console. The game console is just a carrier.

Making game consoles is a job that is not much different from other consumer electronic products. At this point, whether it is Sony or the previous Nippon Electric, it must be the current Mars Entertainment. Sega, beyond Nintendo's reach, develops games. But that's not the case.

Jester has said this to his employees before. Games are commodities because they are sold to players. Since they are for takeout, they can be called commodities. However, this is not just a commodity. Products, in a game, also have the connotation of a work of art.

It's like painting. Just like writing articles, developing games. It is a very personal thing, it is to express the thoughts of the designer or producer. His understanding of games is that these things are very abstract, but they can be easily attached to every aspect of a game.

This is why many game manufacturers in later generations like to learn from the successful works of other companies, but the quality of the games they produce is very poor. It is because the producers simply do not understand what the game wants to express or show. thing.

…Of course, there are also many designers who, after referring to a famous game, incorporate their own completely different understanding of this type of game and create even better games. There are countless such examples. For example, Blizzard has learned from After that, this work was produced, which is essentially a simple and crude copycat.

Except for replacing the enemy and friend with a magical background that is more popular among Europeans and Americans, there is no essential difference between this game and the original game.

To put it bluntly, this game is actually a crude imitation of Blizzard, which is exactly the same as what Painson is doing now. Of course, the biggest difference between Blizzard and Painson is that they have a large group of talented designers.

While following the trend and imitating copycats, these designers had a completely new understanding of this new type of game they named RTS created and led by Ximutou, and they carried it forward. Ximutou did not carry it forward on the throne of China. They Later, this milestone work of RTS games was developed, but Blizzard's designers did not stand still.

On the surface, they have great admiration for Ximutou and their RTS culture. In fact, they are adding their own understanding to this game type. From the beginning, their progress can be described as rapid, until it turned out to be a breakthrough.

In the end, they added their own guidelines to the RTS game type, and the RTS games represented by Ximutou were called old-school by players.

Another example is from birth to prosperity, at least from the day he was reborn. Although this game is no longer as popular as it was back then, it is still the best mm in the world.

Blizzard was not the first to do RPG, and even the dungeon mode was not the first one Blizzard completed in the game. Of course, this theory was indeed proposed by Blizzard designers first, and it has never been used in NGA. In an exclusive interview with Blizzard around 2000, Blizzard designers mentioned the concept of dungeons in that interview.

Later, soe implemented this idea in their game, eq. Of course, I am not saying that eq copied the idea of ​​Warcraft. After all, Warcraft was still in the initial development at that time. I just want to explain that Warcraft is actually It was because of eq that it became so successful. eq actually helped them go through many detours.

Jester is looking forward to the next game that can stand on the success of Warcraft, but unfortunately, at least until he leaves that world, no game can do this.

Although these are all conclusions drawn from the experience and lessons of many successful or failed examples in later generations, it does not mean that no one in this era knows these unreasonable principles. At least they were, or are still, stuck in the quagmire. Namco and Hudson know.

And Kutaragi Ken, who has witnessed all this, can generally understand this.

Therefore, for Ken Kutaragi, he is very grateful to Nippon Electric for this attempt, which at least gave her a very direct understanding of the cruelty of the video game industry. Otherwise, he may not have such a sense of awe now. , and the senior management of the group may not be so concerned about this industry.

Of course, in essence, Kutaragi Ken is still a firm hardware controller. He is a technician in hardware development. He firmly believes that technology trumps everything. Although he is now a little cautious about game development, it is only It's because Sony can't beat them in terms of hardware.

After Sony can crush it in terms of hardware, some problems will be solved and will no longer be called problems.

After pondering for a moment, Kutaragi Ken wasted no time thinking about how to convince the two people in front of him. These two people were indispensable in his plan, because it would cost a lot of money and money to form a large number of first-party game development companies of his own. Time, for Sony, money is not lacking, but they are short of time. Now for Kutaragi Ken, time is the most serious problem.

…So, only external solicitation can be carried out.

And now, still stuck in Nippon Electric's P-E quagmire, the two strongest software developers of the six previous Nintendo royalty plans have naturally caught the attention of Ken Kutaragi. For him, , I was just dozing off and someone gave me a pillow, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

After a very short period of thinking, Kutaragi Ken immediately made a decision and immediately asked people to contact Namco and Hudson because he judged that the two companies should still be considering their options. No specific decision has been made.

Sure enough, although the other party did not say it clearly, Kutaragi Ken could also know that Nakamura Masaya met him in person because his judgment was not wrong, and the location was at Namco's headquarters. It seemed that the other party did not want it at all. To hide this matter.

From this point, Kutaragi Ken knew that although he did not dare to judge Nakamura Masaya's thoughts, Nakamura Masaya did not reject the thoughts he had people tell him, and even wanted to accept them. However, This kind of signal is not clear. Whether the other party can accept it or not, you still need to convince yourself.

If what I come up with cannot satisfy them, the two families are already frightened and will definitely not be willing to give in.