Chapter 66. Please Make Sure to Live a Long Life
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Regarding Yamauchi Hiroshi as a person, judging from his life history, he was a natural-born talent and dictator.
The family business was originally a hanafuda card workshop.
Through the painstaking management of two generations of the Yamauchi family founders—Yamauchi Fusajiro and Yamauchi Sekiryo—Nintendo completed its primitive capital accumulation.
Shortly after Yamauchi Hiroshi's wedding, Yamauchi Sekiryo suddenly suffered a stroke and passed away.
On his deathbed, Yamauchi Sekiryo entrusted Nintendo to Yamauchi Hiroshi.
The young and spirited Yamauchi Hiroshi immediately took on this great responsibility and suspended his studies.
But in most people's minds, Yamauchi Hiroshi was only nominally the family heir. Behind his back, everyone called him a "spoiled playboy."
When the 22-year-old young man walked through Nintendo's doors, many senior employees were seeing him for the first time in their lives, let alone understanding him.
One can imagine how dismissive those powerful ministers who held great authority were of this greenhorn kid.
Rumors like "that playboy back from Tokyo is going to ruin Nintendo" began spreading within the company.
However, to everyone's great surprise, Yamauchi Hiroshi's methods were more sophisticated and tougher than any previous Nintendo leader.
After taking office, in a very short time, he swept out the company veterans and senior managers who opposed him one by one, and recruited classmates from his Waseda University days and top students from Tokyo University into Nintendo with surprisingly high salaries.
Yamauchi Hiroshi's highly characteristic "dictatorial" and sharp "iron-fisted rule" thus unfolded.
If Nintendo was the legendary creator of the feudal order in the gaming industry—
Then Yamauchi Hiroshi was the tyrant of this feudal empire.
Fifty-three years in power, absolutely dictatorial rule, one-man decision making.
What Yamauchi Hiroshi decided, no one could oppose.
...
After Nintendo invented the Famicom in 1983, it swept through Japan and the West, becoming the world's largest game console manufacturer.
As of 1991, Famicom sales had reached an astounding 45 million units.
Just with the Famicom alone, Nintendo established its dominant position in the gaming industry.
It could be said—
Ninety percent of Japan's gaming market belonged to Nintendo.
To firmly monopolize the gaming industry, and also drawing lessons from the "Atari crash"—
When Nintendo created the Famicom, it established a very strict review system.
On one hand, it collected "seigniorage tax"—any game released on Nintendo's gaming platform had to go through Nintendo's review. Only after passing could it be released, and for each cartridge manufactured, 2,000 yen in royalties had to be paid to Nintendo.
Besides that, it was also to protect their own games.
Once they discovered a game that might pose a threat to the company, they would restrict it.
Third-party game manufacturers, as long as they signed a release agreement with Nintendo, could only release no more than 5 games per year on Nintendo's gaming platform.
Nintendo used its console hegemony and strict review system to consolidate its own position while also weakening competitors and suppressing main rivals.
For Yamauchi Hiroshi, game consoles, cartridges, the review system, and games produced by his own company were a four-in-one foundation jointly constructing the commercial empire.
At the same time, in his view, it was precisely these things that guaranteed Nintendo's lasting prosperity.
If Sega's Mega Drive hadn't caught them off guard, Pokeni's Onmyoji series would never have been able to release on the FC platform.
...
Light returned to the conference room.
All these previous events flashed through Kiyoshi Yuuma's mind like a revolving lantern.
Just as the conference room door was about to close, Kiyoshi Yuuma walked quickly forward a few steps and grabbed the door handle.
"President Yamauchi!"
Hearing his voice, Yamauchi Hiroshi turned around.
"What?"
Kiyoshi Yuuma stepped forward, getting close to Yamauchi Hiroshi, looking down at this white-haired old man from his superior height.
"Please make sure to live a long life."
"I will repay today's humiliation ten times over!"
He spoke the famous line from Hanzawa Naoki, then left with large strides without looking back.
What?!...
This was the first time anyone had dared to confront him face-to-face like this.
Yamauchi Hiroshi's entire face turned livid with anger.
Kiyoshi Yuuma, so your games never want to be released on Nintendo again, is that it?
...
"Everyone!"
As soon as he returned to the company, Kiyoshi Yuuma clapped his hands and gathered all the employees together.
"Our games will no longer be released on Nintendo!"
What?!
Everyone was shocked.
What nonsense is the President saying?
"President, the game has already been fully developed."
To say at this point that it won't be released on Nintendo—is the President trying to fail spectacularly?
Although both were 16-bit consoles, the SFC and MD had completely different interfaces.
While it wouldn't mean starting completely from scratch, making the game adapt to the MD would also take considerable time.
"Yes!" Kiyoshi Yuuma stated firmly. "Not only Mermaid's Heart, but all games produced by Pokeni in the future will not be released on Nintendo's platform. We will switch to Sega."
"What?!"
This declaration was like thunder on flat ground.
Everyone was shocked.
In terms of performance, the SFC supported more color types, and its visual quality was definitely stronger than the MD.
But in terms of fluidity and execution efficiency, the MD's advantages were more obvious.
These were differences arising from the different development philosophies of the two game manufacturers.
The MD itself originated from arcade games, so its thinking would also lean more toward arcade games, emphasizing fluidity and action.
Nintendo's SFC was more suitable for making RPGs, for telling stories, with softer audio and richer sound sources.
This was also a very important reason why Kiyoshi Yuuma chose the SFC initially.
The reason the SFC was able to overpower the MD and become the console hegemon was mainly because of this.
Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, and a series of famous RPGs shone brilliantly on the SFC—that's what established its dominant position.
...
"There's no choice." Kiyoshi Yuuma said with a deep bow. "Nintendo's review department didn't approve it, and due to my personal reasons, today not only did I fail to negotiate properly with President Yamauchi, but we had a big argument instead."
"Pokeni's games will no longer be released on Nintendo's consoles from now on."
After hearing Kiyoshi Yuuma's words, the scene fell silent.
Urobuchi Gen looked like his soul had been drained.
It's all because of my Mermaid's Heart that dragged down the company, causing the President to go begging and ending up like this...
"It's okay, President. We believe in your judgment." Akanishi Ken stepped forward. "Sega isn't bad at all."
"That's right, Sega's 16-bit console has quite a market. Releasing on Sega is the same."
"Mm-hmm, it's no big deal. We can just cooperate with Sega from now on."
...
Seeing everyone being so understanding and even comforting him instead, Kiyoshi Yuuma's heart was deeply moved.
"Then I'm counting on all of you."
"Let's make our games shine brilliantly on the MD!"