In early April, at Sega Headquarters in Tokyo, within the office of the Managing Director of Operations.
A document, still warm from the printer, was rushed to Takuya Nakayama by a subordinate.
Several department heads, who had heard the news, gathered around, their faces etched with solemnity, their hushed whispers urgent and suppressed.
"Are Konami out of their minds?"
"They actually gave Gradius to PCEngine! Have they forgotten who supported them in their fight against Nintendo?"
"This is trouble. PCEngine was already half-dead, revived by Hudson and Namco, and now with Konami's strong boost, we might face a two-front war."
In everyone's view, this was an undeniable stab in the back.
Konami's first game on the MD platform hadn't even materialized, yet they turned around and supported another potential rival. This was akin to stabbing Sega in the back.
However, Takuya Nakayama's gaze did not linger on those unsettling analytical conclusions.
His fingers gently traced the names Gradius and salamander, but in the depths of his pupils, a completely different scene was reflected.
The surrounding discussions seemed to be isolated by an invisible barrier.
In his mind, what appeared was not the image of the white PCEngine console, but a massive fortress built of red brick and white walls, named "Nintendo."
At this moment, this nuclear bomb named "Konami," contrary to what everyone thought, did not fall in front of Sega's position, but precisely struck the very foundation of that fortress.
An earth-shattering roar seemed to explode in his ears.
The seemingly indestructible city wall was blown open, leaving a shocking, gaping hole.
Kozuki Kagemasa's gambler-like madness, objectively, created a once-in-a-lifetime, even fleeting, excellent opportunity for Sega.
Takuya Nakayama suddenly stood up.
The screeching sound of his chair scraping against the floor brought all discussions in the office to an abrupt halt.
Everyone was stunned into silence by the complex expression on his face, a mixture of anxiety and fanaticism.
Without a moment's hesitation, he grabbed the report and rushed directly to the President's office at the end of the corridor.
"Knock, knock, knock."
Hayao Nakayama, who was engrossed in a pile of documents, was interrupted by the sudden knocking. His brows furrowed instantly, but he still said, "Come in."
But when he saw the expression on his son's face as he pushed open the door, his displeasure turned into confusion.
It wasn't panic, nor was it anger.
It was the ultimate excitement of a hunter finally seeing his prey step into the trap.
"Father, please immediately convene all directors. I hope we can hold an emergency meeting this afternoon."
Takuya Nakayama's tone was beyond doubt, every word squeezed out through gritted teeth.
Hayao Nakayama stared at his son for a full three seconds. He knew that Takuya must have seen something deeper, hidden beneath the surface, that ordinary people could not perceive.
He didn't ask a single word more.
He just silently picked up the internal phone on his desk and pressed the button to the secretarial office.
By the afternoon, in the top-floor conference room of Sega Headquarters, amidst the swirling cigar smoke, every face appeared exceptionally serious. Everyone had received the news about Konami and likely knew that this meeting was related to it.
A senior director, with slightly gray hair and high prestige within the company, was the first to break the silence, his gaze fixed on Takuya Nakayama.
"Executive Director Nakayama, Hudson, Namco, and now even Konami have chosen to focus their efforts on PCEngine."
"Will this trend divert the developers and players we've worked so hard to attract from Nintendo?"
"Our resources are already limited. Should we not focus more on countering Nintendo, our main enemy, rather than being dragged into a war of attrition with PCEngine?"
These words represented the sentiments of the vast majority of directors present.
They habitually viewed PCEngine as a direct competitor, believing Konami's actions were funding another enemy, which was more detrimental than beneficial to Sega.
Some radical directors even began discussing how to pressure Konami as a form of punishment.
Takuya Nakayama walked silently to the whiteboard at the front of the conference room.
He did not directly refute anyone's views.
He simply picked up a black marker and drew a large, enclosed circle in the center of the whiteboard, writing "Nintendo" heavily inside it.
Around the circle, he drew many small squares, representing the third-party developers who had once been forced to bow to Nintendo.
"Gentlemen, in the past, what we thought about was how to chisel a hole in this wall and pull out the third parties trapped inside, one by one."
His pen tip drew a small gap in the fortress wall, and from it, he drew a line pointing to a square he labeled "Sega."
The drawing was simple, yet clear at a glance.
"But now, the situation is completely different."
Takuya Nakayama's voice suddenly rose, and with a flick of his pen, he drew a symbol filled with explosive lines below the fortress representing Nintendo, as dazzling as the sun.
"What Konami did was not chisel a hole."
"He ignited enough explosives beneath the feet of all third parties to shake the entire city wall!"
"What is Hiroshi Yamauchi's foundation of hegemony?"
Takuya Nakayama's gaze swept over every director.
"It's the fear of 'you can't live without me'!"
"Now, Hudson with gekitō sēnto wōriāzu (fist fight saint warrior), Namco with yōkai dōchūki (spirit warrior), and Konami with Gradius—they are using the success of PCEngine, with sales data in black and white, to prove one thing to everyone in the industry—"
"Not only can you live without Nintendo."
"You can even live better!"
"This is not a victory for PCEngine alone; this is a collective victory for all 'anti-Nintendo forces'!"
"Once fear disappears, greed will immediately take over!"
"Gentlemen, Nintendo's wall, its foundation, has begun to collapse from within!"
Takuya Nakayama's voice echoed in the conference room.
He took a deep breath and threw out his true core argument.
"We are in a unique, fleeting 'golden window'!"
"Hiroshi Yamauchi is currently facing an unprecedented crisis of trust, and he will inevitably take action to salvage the situation. But he is an extremely proud man. From the moment he realizes the crisis, to him lowering his stance, and then to him reaching a new compromise with 'traitors' like Konami and Hudson—
This process takes time!"
"It might be a day, a month, or three months, and as soon as Konami, Hudson, Namco, and other leading third parties climb down the ladder offered by Nintendo, this window will close."
"That is all the time we have!"
His tone suddenly became sharp as a knife, and his eyes gleamed with the keenness of a hawk.
"Once Nintendo proactively amends the royalty terms and shows goodwill to all third parties, those wavering developers who have just begun to harbor dissenting thoughts will immediately retreat to a wait-and-see state due to the FC's massive installed base."
"We must completely and permanently pull them onto our ship before this window closes!"
He turned and wrote a large line on the whiteboard: Blitzkrieg.
Then, Takuya began to clearly outline his plan.
"First, immediately establish a 'Third-Party Special Operations Department,' led by me personally, drawing the most elite talents from various departments. All regular departments must cooperate unconditionally!"
"Second, launch a full-scale offensive, advancing simultaneously. List TAITO, CAPCOM, JALECO, DATAEAST… all the wavering first and second-tier third parties on our list. We will dispatch specialized teams, bringing technical personnel, MD consoles,
bringing all our development assistance tools, and a cooperation agreement they cannot refuse, to appear in all their offices at the same time!"
"Third, and most importantly, what we offer must be an allure beyond money!"
"The content of the agreement will not only include royalties far lower than Nintendo's. It must also include third parties independently leading production and sales, with Sega only responsible for content review; we will not enforce any exclusivity, nor seek IP copyright control, providing the same conditions as our initial third parties."
"We will also send our most excellent engineers to provide full-time on-site technical support, share our internal core development technologies, and help them produce the highest quality works on the MD platform as quickly as possible!"
Takuya Nakayama's speech was filled with undeniable confidence and passion.
He painted a blueprint for the future for everyone.
When these top third parties release original new works tailored for the MD, gushing into the market like a geyser, all players will truly realize that MD and FC are products of two completely different eras.
By then, the tide of the market will irreversibly flow towards Sega.
The conference room fell into a long silence.
Only faint breathing and the soft crackle of burning cigars could be heard.