Game Development Giant

In this way, not long after joining Sony Music, Shigeo Maruyama, who wanted to open up the American market, promoted Kazuo Hirai, who was fluent in American spoken English, as his personal oral interpreter. This also further promoted Hirai Kazuo's talent to Maruyama. Discovered by Shigeo, a prince in the Sony Empire.

Based on the original history, Kazuo Hirai would have to go through many years of hard work before being entrusted with important tasks. However, SCE was not established five years later as historically. Their cooperation with Nintendo began at the beginning. There was a rupture, and Kutaragi Ken also convinced Norio Ohga immediately.

sce was also established five years in advance.

Naturally, the twenty-nine-year-old Hirai Kazuo, who had been with Maruyama Shigeo for five years, was naturally reused as soon as possible, just as he had been for a long time, and with Kutaragi taking care of Maruyama Shigeo, he When he was a child, he had already become familiar with Kazuo Hirai, and Ken Kutaragi was naturally very aware of Kazuo Hirai's talent.

Another great rival.

Jester recovered from the memories in his mind, and he sighed unconsciously. The character of Kazuo Hirai and Hisao Oguchi are very different, but they are also very similar. The difference is that the character of Hisao Oguchi is relatively different. He is straightforward, which is consistent with his decisive behavior.

But if you don't know Kazuo Hirai's personality, you will think that this person who always has a kind smile on his face no matter what happens will be very easy to deal with. You will think that his behavior will be more elegant and will never be too direct. But if you understand what he did after taking over Sony, you will have a feeling about him that you know the person but not the heart.

When he was at Sony Computer Entertainment in North America, his acting style was consistent with his external performance. Even if it was a reform, it would not feel too abrupt, but would make people feel like a spring breeze. When everyone thought that Kazuo Hirai's character was like this, he surprised everyone.

Howard Stringer, who succeeded Nobuyuki Idei as the head of Sony, was the first non-Japanese head in Sony’s history and was also the culprit who forced Ken Kutaragi to retire. After a series of reforms, there was no Let Sony get out of Nobuyuki Dei's predicament, but it directly caused Sony's market value to plummet by half, although this is not entirely due to Howard Stringer. In the face of the global financial crisis, Sony at this time. It no longer has the strong resistance to risks it once had.

In the field of Walkman, they were completely beaten by Apple. In the field of game consoles, even their combined sales with Microsoft's Xbox 360 are not as high as the sales of the re-emerging Nintendo's Wii, not to mention the dilemma of their laptop brand. The embarrassing situation.

Just when everyone thought that Sony should choose a leader to stabilize the morale of the military after Howard Stringer's reforms, rather than another leader who continued to act arbitrarily and compete with the princes for power, Kazuo Hirai stood up. This operator, who seemed to be kind and non-toxic in the past, seems to be the perfect transition in this situation.

Temporarily give up on Howard Stringer's strenuous reforms, and let's restore our strength for the time being, and deal with the future. Let’s talk about it later.

But Kazuo Hirai was not as docile and good as others expected. In fact, more than 70% of his more than fifty years of life was spent in the United States. He spent his childhood and youth in the United States and worked in the United States for nearly fifteen years. Rather than saying he is a Japanese, it is more accurate to say he is an American.

Just like the Wall Street investment group's evaluation of Sony, at this time, Sony's electronic and electrical appliances division has become their biggest liability.

Kazuo Hirai thinks so too.

But the biggest difference between him and these Wall Street investors who are watching the fire from the side is that he understands better than these people that those are the soul of Sony. The electronics department is indeed useless to Sony now, but the electrical department is not like this. For Sony, no matter where their focus has shifted at this time, no matter how long their personal insurance department has become the bulk of their profits, Sony's soul, the so-called sony-make-belive, is what Sony believes in. The promise is always hardware.

These things have nothing to do with the Sony that Jester is facing at this time. The current Sony Electronics and Electrical Appliances Department is still very bullish. He temporarily stopped his meeting because recalling these is enough. The following things have already There is no need to reminisce.

Jester picked up the phone and dialed a number.

If Sony invites me, notify me as soon as possible. Looking into the receiver, Jester ordered quickly. The difference this time from the original history is that Hirai Kazuo also shouldered the responsibility this time. to establish the American division of Sony Computer Entertainment.

This is Sony's long-standing tradition. Although Sony has its own branch in North America, they are still accustomed to having their son set up a subsidiary company that is completely under his control.

After all, this is a huge regional company, and it is responsible for the largest electronic game consumer market in the world. And Kazuo Hirai is really a little too young. If he is already in his thirties at this time, he will be different from the one he was assigned before. If Kato Yu who went to Europe is about the same age, he might be appointed as the president of Sony Computer Entertainment in North America.

And since Sony wants to gain a foothold in the gaming industry and open up the market in North America, although the two parties will inevitably be competitors in the future, after all, there is no deep hatred like with Nintendo. Therefore, if Hirai Kazuo wants to organize Sony As for the Computer Entertainment North America branch, it would be inevitable to invite Jester to the establishment dinner.

For Jester, the arrival of Kazuo Hirai was an unexpected event, and this is not his main contradiction. In fact, Sega or Nintendo should be much more anxious than him now - because of these Everyone knows that it is meaningless and unrealistic to compete with themselves for the top spot in North America, their home stadium. For the time being, their goal can only be second place.

Only by keeping the second share position, and then steadily increasing one's own share, and when certain conditions are met, can one be qualified to challenge the first place.

Sega expressed dissatisfaction with this point before, but just the release of Jester and a small trick have made Sega understand this truth. In this market in North America, no matter what methods you use, you are not qualified to compete with me. .

A few days later, some newspapers and magazines continued to report on the news of Jester's new game.

Soon, an article in Game mentioned the matter of Jester's new game, but this news made the matter even more confusing. In this report of Game, it was their report on Sid May. An interview with a member of the Civilization development team.

The game Civilization caused a great response after its release. Although the sales volume was only a few hundred thousand copies, the fans were extremely loyal. In this interview, one of the developers of Civilization was very serious. He told the interviewer a deeply hidden secret.

In fact, more than a month ago, before the official release of Dreambox 2, when preparing for the release of Civilization, the boss personally asked Mr. Sid Meier to go to the headquarters. As for what Sid discussed between the two We didn't know Mr. Meier because of his confidentiality agreement with the big boss. But when Mr. Sid Meier came back, we saw a pleasant smile on his face. At that time, we all curiously asked him if he had Why is this good thing so pleasant? Did you get more promotion funds from the big boss?

When talking about this, this member of Sid Meier's Civilization development team smiled proudly and continued: At that time, Mr. Sid Meier also smiled and said to us that it was not him. He got more promotion funds, but he said we would have new projects to do soon.”

As you know, we are very passionate about game development. At that time, many people, including me, were asking what new project it was and whether the big boss had agreed to Voyage 2 or Civilization 2 Development? You know, these two games are masterpieces in our minds, but we still hope that the development of Voyage 2 will be better. After all, we have just completed the development of Civilization, and it is the most suitable choice to change the flavor afterwards. ”

But Sid Meier just smiled and shook his head. He told us simply that he had no comment about the new game, but he said that this game will definitely not disappoint us because it It will be a game that has never appeared before in this world!”

At the end, a mysterious smile appeared on the face of this member of the Civilization development team: I was very surprised when I heard Mr. Sid Meier say this. For Sid. Mr. Meyer's game development methods are very familiar to those of us who have followed him for many years. His development habit is that he will conceive a game again and again for a long time, and he will constantly discuss with us before making it. We have decided that we will never tell us without any sound that we will develop a new game that has never appeared before! (To be continued...)