Chapter 80. We Want to Collaborate With Sony
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July 15, 1991.
Konan, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan.
Sony Corporation Headquarters.
Kiyoshi Yuuma, accompanied by engineer Asakura Hiroki and scriptwriter Mika Ishino, came to visit.
In the conference room, sitting across from them were three men in suits.
Even calling them old men wouldn't be an exaggeration.
The one in the middle was named Morita Akio. His hair was completely white, his face covered with wrinkles, heavy bags under his eyes. Wearing glasses, his high cheekbones made his cheeks appear sunken.
This person was already 70 years old but still persisted at his position at Sony.
Morita Akio was one of Sony's two founders and the current company President.
Although not the CEO, many major decisions were actually made by him.
The second person was Ohga Norio. Born in 1930, he was now over 60 years old, serving as general manager of the product department and also leading Sony's product design department.
This collaboration with Nintendo was contracted by Ohga Norio representing Sony.
The last person was Kutaragi Ken, who had the highest exposure during Nintendo's unilateral tearing up of the agreement and was also the initiator of the entire agreement.
Born in 1950, Kutaragi Ken had jet-black hair, a broad forehead, and always wore a simple, honest smile on his face.
Kutaragi Ken, now 40 years old, could be considered a pillar of Sony. If not for this backstabbing incident, he actually had high hopes of being promoted to a higher management position.
...
The atmosphere in the meeting room was very serious, as if a war was about to begin.
The several big shots across from them stared at Kiyoshi Yuuma, as if they would devour him alive the next second.
Of course, this was just a person's illusion.
Mika Ishino, the scriptwriter who came with Kiyoshi Yuuma, was so nervous her palms were sweating profusely.
Honestly, this was Mika Ishino's first time attending such a frightening meeting.
If it weren't for the fact that Pokeni temporarily couldn't recruit suitable biology professionals, she wouldn't be here at all.
When she first heard the President say he wanted to make a nurturing game that would be better handled by biology or entomology planners, Mika Ishino was very resistant inside.
But after communicating with the President, she discovered it was a false alarm.
Pokémon was simply a pet-raising game!
And the [Pikachu] image the President drew was really cute.
Fluffy and especially adorable, it directly struck Mika Ishino's heart.
This was also why she agreed to take it on and create a proposal for it.
The only thing she didn't expect was that the President would actually use it to negotiate with Sony.
Looking at Asakura Hiroki beside her—
This young man didn't seem to be in much better shape than her. Although it was hot July weather, it shouldn't warrant that much sweat on his forehead.
"President Kiyoshi, could you briefly introduce the proposal content?" Morita Akio smiled politely.
Honestly, Morita Akio could be considered a rare flower in the Japanese business world.
Whether it was Nintendo's game tyrant Yamauchi Hiroshi or Sega's iron-faced killer Nakayama Hayao, they both belonged to that type of very intimidating character who could make people tremble.
But Morita Akio would display extraordinary affability in interactions, often even making people feel—
This old man really is quite considerate—a misconception.
It had to be said, there was a reason the media gave Morita Akio such high praise.
"Okay."
Kiyoshi Yuuma stood up and stated, "This proposal is a collaboration proposal we've put forward based on the current situation of your company and Pokeni."
As he spoke, everyone looked down to read through the proposal in front of them.
The proposal content was quite extensive, with many additional materials attached at the back.
"First, I believe that Sony possesses the industry's best hardware development capabilities, and your company's pursuit of excellent quality and perfect performance in product development is truly admirable and moving.
I believe that with Sony's capabilities, you have sufficient strength to develop next-generation console products.
Even surpassing Nintendo.
No, I should say you have sufficient hardware strength to leave Nintendo far behind."
The three people across from him didn't speak, just silently nodded.
Although what Kiyoshi Yuuma said had some elements of pleasantry, to some extent, it was also factual.
At the very least, Sony did have strength in hardware.
"This report points out that Sony is indeed very impressive in hardware, but still lacks an opportunity to enter the gaming market."
"Games are composed of two parts: game consoles and cartridges." Kiyoshi Yuuma said. "We don't doubt Sony's ability to produce game consoles at all, but in terms of game content, it seems you still need a partner."
Kiyoshi Yuuma wasn't wrong.
Sony's previous main business was in semiconductor hardware, especially music products.
But in the gaming field, Sony was really just a little brother.
No representative works—possessing martial skills but empty-handed. If there weren't sufficiently weighty and high-selling hit games on the console, then this game console would only become a failed product.
This was also why Sony sought out Nintendo.
Sony had the technology, Nintendo had the content.
Combined, they would be unstoppable.
Honestly, if the agreement hadn't been torn up by Nintendo, who knows what the future would have looked like.
Most likely, Sony would have leveraged this to become Japan's—no, the world's—number one game manufacturer, right?
What a pity. Now all these dreams had turned to bubbles.
This couldn't help but cause Morita Akio great heartache.
Kiyoshi Yuuma had clearly struck their pain point.
...
"What kind of help can your company provide us?" Morita Akio asked politely.
"Although Pokeni can't compare with Nintendo and Sega, nor with Namco and Square—at least our current influence is not as great as theirs—we have sufficient potential and capability."
Kiyoshi Yuuma produced a videotape on the spot containing recorded materials about the Onmyoji series and Mermaid's Heart, intended to help everyone have a more visual understanding of Pokeni's products.
When seeing the game footage playing on the TV—
Kiyoshi Yuuma clearly saw Kutaragi Ken's eyes light up.
"I won't hide it from you all—this game called Onmyoji was our work developed on the FC and once received a high score of 39 points from Famitsu."
"What?!"
Everyone was shocked.
This was the effect that could be achieved on the FC?
At this moment, Kutaragi Ken suddenly remembered—
Right, this was that crude company that added chips to cartridges to handle graphics and memory.