Game Development Giant

Sales of Shenmue dropped rapidly.

Although his reputation is very high on the Internet or in the media, many people in the industry call it a masterpiece.

But there are also some light players who play games for fun. Unlike the core players, they start to look for other things besides fun.

It cannot be said that the sales volume is not good.

However, it is always impossible to achieve the effect that Sega wanted to achieve at the beginning. In Sega's eyes, they hope that Shenmue can reach the level of The Hero. At the beginning, Shenmue was indeed It has a tendency to become the second in The Heroes and its sales volume is simply unparalleled.

With the sales of Shenmue, the sales of DC consoles are naturally growing at a very fast rate.

However, this trend did not last long.

Just a week later, this growth trend became slow, and DC's sales seemed to have reached a bottleneck. Although it was still growing every day, the growth rate was not too fast.

This, of course, made Sega extremely frightened.

Because for them, the reason why DC's rivals were launched so early is to alleviate their current poor economic situation, and the reason why they invested so much in Shenmue is to replicate the original The Hero miracle, but unfortunately, the current situation does not seem to be what people at Sega like to see.

One month after the release of DC.

Sega held its first high-level meeting of the new millennium.

At this meeting, even Nakayama Hayao, who had been semi-retired, attended this meeting in person.

You know, before, Hayao Nakayama had gradually become less involved in the company's affairs due to physical reasons, and founders like Isao Okawa were also present.

The meeting was dull.

There is only one issue, what to do next.

DC's dilemma, Sega's dilemma, and how to change these dilemmas.

After being silent for a long time, Nakayama Hayao looked at this scene with a little sigh and sadness. He did not expect that in just a few years, Sega, which was once all-powerful in the gaming industry, would have declined to this point. Moreover, just before this meeting, he personally inquired about the company's financial situation and found that it had deteriorated extremely, if some rectification was not carried out.

That whole Sega...

But looking at this scene now. Even Nakayama Hayao feels a little powerless. Rectifying Sega is easy to say, but extremely difficult to do.

Seven development companies, with confusing functions and cross-abuse of resources.

Hayao Nakayama also knows this, and he also knows the dangers involved. If these seven companies can be completely rectified and concentrated, Sega may not be able to get rid of this embarrassing situation.

but……

When I think of this. Nakayama Hayao touched his chest. He had a heart disease, and his current body was far from what he was a few decades ago. If this was himself decades ago, no, even ten years ago, he would be in trouble. If you have the courage, Sega will undergo a complete overhaul.

But this time...

Nakayama Hayao shook his head, he was already beyond his capabilities.

Moreover, the relationship within Sega is now complicated. Even doing it all by yourself is very time consuming.

This is not something you can just do if you want to.

Throughout the meeting, some innocuous issues were discussed. Although everyone knew the purpose of this meeting, no one wanted to get to the core.

Suzuki Yu felt that this atmosphere was a bit depressing. Shenmue did not meet previous expectations. Some people within Sega had strong opinions on it. Many people even said that investing so much in the development of Shenmue was a complete waste. If not so much was invested in the development of Shenmue , Sega now does not have to face this kind of financial depletion dilemma.

Words like this would often reach his ears.

Although angry. But he didn't know how to identify it, but it was an indisputable fact that the development of Shenmue did spend a lot of money.

However, this matter is not my decision. I am not qualified to make such a decision.

At the beginning, I just proposed my own plan, and the miracle of The Hero was still fresh in my mind at that time. It was the entire top management of Sega who agreed to this matter. As for having so many unrealistic illusions about Shenmue, even in Some people had previously said that Shenmue would replicate the miracle of the original Heroes, but he was not involved.

Moreover, he would never agree with this view.

Indeed, the sales volume of Heroes and Heroes played a huge role in the popularization of Mars Entertainment consoles, but this is definitely not just the role of Heroes.

You know, what was the game lineup of Mars Entertainment at that time?

Top producers have taken turns to produce works that are not inferior to The Hero one after another.

Final Fantasy 7, Metal Gear Solid, Zelda... these names one after another are the key to Dreambox 3 catching up from behind and dominating the market. Heroes played a big role, but it is definitely not decisive. role.

He knew these words, and he had told them to others, but others simply couldn't listen. In fact, the reason was very simple, that is, there was no way to copy the power of Mars Entertainment, and the game Heroes , can be copied. When there is no other way, choosing a possible path to go on is also a solution.

Unfortunately, Shenmue doesn't solve this problem.

The sales of Shenmue are quite good.

Suddenly, someone said this. Suzuki Yu heard someone mention his game, and he glanced at the person who spoke. The other person was his friend.

People at Sega don't object to this. Now Shenmue is indeed the most popular game on DC, and it has almost reached a one-to-one sales ratio with DC. It can be said that it is the biggest contributor to DC's sales so far. However, a total of US$100 million was invested in the game Shenmue, and subsequent investment in its release reached more than US$50 million.

This is almost Sega's largest investment ever.

Being able to achieve such results is in the eyes of many people. It's a given.

Nothing to be proud of.

Of course, as the company's hero, Suzuki Yu, most people would not blatantly offend him, and at most they would just complain behind his back.

So about the subsequent additional investment in Shenmue 2...

Unexpectedly, this sentence was not finished. Was interrupted.

I think it would be better to discuss this matter after some time. Shenmue 2 requires too much investment, and we currently have several projects underway, and we do not have enough funds to develop Shenmue 2.

This view is shared by many people.

Suzuki Yu just watched all this quietly, and he knew it himself. It is indeed difficult for Sega now. There is not much capital flow. Almost every penny has to be spent on steel blades. Not only Shenmue 2, even several other best-selling games have been temporarily canceled. Subsequent additional investment is required, because for Sega, the most important thing now is to ensure the production of DC.

Originally, DC's production capacity was tight, so. Some funds are needed to prepare for emergencies.

According to the results of Shenmue, the development of the second part should have started long ago, but due to insufficient liquidity, so far, although the plot of Shenmue 2 has been designed, there has been no formal project approval.

For Suzuki Yu, Shenmue is the story he most wants to finish telling, but so far, this story has only just begun.

He really wanted to keep the story going.

However, the development team of Shenmue is very large. If there is no additional investment as soon as possible, there is no way to maintain such a large team, so although Yu Suzuki does not want to participate in the power struggle within Sega, if he does not speak this time. Maybe the Shenmue 2 team will be disbanded.

When he spoke, he immediately attracted everyone's attention.

Yu Suzuki was also unambiguous and straight to the point.

I know that the company's situation is very difficult now, but game development must still be carried out, otherwise, the team will not be able to maintain it. Regarding Shenmue 2, I hope to get a clear answer. If we want to continue, then At least let me maintain the team first. If I don’t do it, then give me an accurate explanation.”

Suzuki Yu said this very directly, but not everyone may like to hear it.

Suddenly, after Yu Suzuki said these words, several people's expressions changed immediately. They seemed to be very dissatisfied with Yu Suzuki's direct statement, but Yu Suzuki didn't care much. In the entire Sega, Yu Suzuki could not The only people who care are probably the two meritorious veterans Nakayama Hayao and Okawa Isao.

In fact, after Suzuki Yu finished what he said, he looked directly at the two people.

Nakayama Hayao pondered, and Okawa Gong didn't speak either.

The scene fell silent again for a while.

After a while, Okawa Isao's somewhat old voice spoke up: What Suzuki said is quite reasonable. I have seen the sales of Shenmue and it is indeed very good. If we don't continue such a game, If we invest, what game should we develop? However, the company's finances are indeed a bit tight now...

When he said this, Okawa Gong paused slightly.

Frowning, he seemed to be thinking about something. After a few seconds, he sighed and said, Let's do this. The Shenmue 2 project will be launched as soon as possible...

As soon as this sentence was said, a director of the Ministry of Finance immediately turned aside and wanted to speak out, but as soon as he showed the movement of wanting to speak, Okawa Isao directly waved his hand to block it.

I know it is difficult for the company to come up with enough money to develop Shenmue 2. However, Shenmue has been developed for so many years. Even if Shenmue 2 is developed, it will continue for many years, so there is no need to invest in one-time investment. So much money, let’s invest 20 million US dollars in the first phase of development funds, Suzuki, what do you think?”

After Suzuki Yu heard it, he felt that Okawa Isao's words were true to every word.

He is right. Shenmue 2 will be developed for at least three years. Therefore, there is no need to allocate all development funds at once, and 20 million US dollars of funds are enough for the entire development team to use for a very long time.

Of course, based on the development investment of up to 100 million in the first part of Miki, if Shenmue 2 also wants to reach the level of Shenmue, then the investment will definitely not be lower than this level.

But if Sega is required to spend 100 million US dollars to launch a project, they may not be able to do so.

Not that Sega didn't have $100 million.

But there are still more places that need to use the limited liquidity.

Thank you, President Okawa Isao.

After getting the answer he wanted, Suzuki Yuya stood up and bowed slightly to Okawa Isao to express his gratitude.

But Okawa Gong just waved his hand.

There was still no smile on his face, just a sad look.

Everyone knows that this period may be the most difficult period for Sega since it was founded. However, we have been around for more than 40 years. We have experienced enough setbacks and sufferings. We We have persisted until now, believe us, we will definitely be able to overcome this difficulty and difficulty.

At this point, Okawa Isao may have felt that what he said was a bit pessimistic, so he smiled to himself first.

He continued: Actually, our current situation is pretty good. DC's sales are good. It's only been a month since its release, and our sales have exceeded one million units. I remember that Saturn didn't even have this speed, right? And Shenmue is also very popular. It is so popular that it has sold one million copies in one month. Although it is still far from our expected results, it is already one of our best-selling games.

Everything is developing for the better. As long as we can use one year to establish certain advantages, we still have great hopes.

Okawa Isao did not say what hope it was.

No one wanted to know. They knew that there was definitely no hope of turning defeat into victory, because there was no way they could defeat Mars Entertainment.

Since it is not the hope of turning defeat into victory, what else is there?

In the position of a console manufacturer, it's just a matter of survival.

But is this kind of existence meaningful?

Many people at Sega are thinking about this issue. In fact, Okawa Isao is also thinking about this issue.

If DC really does not achieve the expected results, then is it necessary for Sega to continue to make consoles? Or is it that DC itself made a mistake after experiencing the fiasco of SS? (~^~)