The day after returning to the country, Kutaragi Ken and Sony director Idei Nobuyuki visited the Nintendo headquarters together.
"President Yamauchi, this is not what we agreed upon initially." Idei Nobuyuki felt a massive headache coming on.
Although the cooperation between Sony and Nintendo was single-handedly initiated by Kutaragi, Idei Nobuyuki had provided significant support for it.
Without Idei Nobuyuki, the cooperation agreement would not have been approved by the board of directors.
It could be said that Idei Nobuyuki himself had been under great pressure.
In the end, the prototype had already been developed, only for them to be double-crossed by Nintendo at the Chicago Electronics Show.
The board of directors was furious about this incident.
However, Sony was practically a weakling in the gaming industry that year.
Even though they had suffered losses and injustice, they still had to bow their heads in the end.
"That's right, President Yamauchi," Kutaragi nodded from the side.
He was the one who suffered the most in this incident.
"You really have the nerve to say such things." Yamauchi Hiroshi looked at the two of them, a cold light reflecting in his glasses, and snorted disdainfully, "If we hadn't discovered it in time, I'm afraid we would have already been eaten down to the bone by Sony."
"Huh?" Kutaragi was taken aback. "Where is this coming from?"
"Isn't it?" Yamauchi Hiroshi replied coldly. "The contract Sony signed with us maintained your company's usual ambiguity. Sony declared in the contract that it could develop a format that would allow the CD-ROM console to be compatible with the SFC. But once Sony used Nintendo's influence to open up the market, it could completely exploit loopholes in the clauses to develop a new game console compatible with the original format.
"And the SFC would not be compatible with this new format. In that case, Nintendo's market dominance would unknowingly shift into Sony's hands."
"Sony could develop games while casting Nintendo aside, while still being able to run Nintendo's game products, and we would be powerless to stop it."
"Is this your way of doing business?"
"If we hadn't discovered the underhanded tricks you used in the contract in time, it might have been me, Yamauchi Hiroshi, begging you on my knees right now."
Hiss...
Idei Nobuyuki held one side of his jaw, feeling an intense toothache.
"President Yamauchi, if you have any concerns about the contract, we can negotiate a resolution; there's no need to seek a third-party partnership," said Kutaragi Ken.
"I'm sorry, but Nintendo has lost faith in Sony," Yamauchi Hiroshi said resolutely. "We are going to shelve the PSX project. This is a right granted to Nintendo under the contract. If your company still wishes to fulfill the contract, we won't object. But Nintendo will be using the CD-ROM developed by Philips."
"President Yamauchi!"
Idei Nobuyuki cried out in alarm.
"President Yamauchi, please reconsider."
"Yes, President Yamauchi," Kutaragi Ken quickly stood up to persuade him. "Sony possesses the world's best storage technology. Our partnership is bound to be a match made in heaven. After all these years of effort, do you really want to discard Sony like a worn-out shoe just because of a mistake in the contract?"
"Hmm. I'm very sorry," Yamauchi Hiroshi nodded. "But this is all Sony's own doing."
Despite multiple attempts at persuasion, President Yamauchi remained unmoved in his decision.
The two of them walked out of Nintendo's corporate headquarters, crestfallen.
Outside, the sun was shining brightly, but they felt as if the sky had collapsed.
"Idei-san, what should we do now?" Kutaragi Ken asked, feeling wretched.
"I... how could I possibly know?" Idei Nobuyuki was also in despair. "We can only go back, hold a board meeting, explain the situation, and then make a decision."
Afterward, at the board meeting, the two of them explained the situation in detail, and the board members were stunned.
The board believed that if this were the case, it was equivalent to Nintendo abandoning Sony; relying solely on Sony's own technical specifications would not be enough to break into the market. Consequently, they terminated the development of the Super Nintendo compatible console.
However, Sony Music Entertainment had already begun developing related game software, and these projects died in the cradle, resulting in a loss of 1.5 billion yen.
A full 1.5 billion!
Kutaragi Ken was about to explode.
Not only did he suffer from insomnia every night, but he was also frequently woken up by nightmares.
Nintendo's unilateral termination of the game console development agreement with Sony caused quite a stir.
This went directly against the long-held Japanese value of loyalty and trust. In fact, due to the unilateral breach of contract, Nintendo was widely criticized by players, who viewed it as a definitive act of "betrayal."
Media reporters even went to them specifically, requesting Yamauchi Hiroshi to explain the situation.
Yamauchi Hiroshi himself was also very angry and responded directly, "The responsibility for this lies primarily with Sony. We didn't clearly see Sony's ambition and tricks before."
"During the process of signing the partnership agreement, Nintendo held a sincere heart, hoping to contribute better games to players with a groundbreaking game console."
"But we didn't expect that there were traps hidden within the contract."
"In this contract, Sony could use the loopholes to abandon Nintendo and independently develop a new game console, and this new console could even be compatible with all products released for the SFC."
"Yet, Nintendo would be unable to develop for this new console."
"This was clearly an unequal agreement. So why would we continue with it?"
A full 1.5 billion!
Ken Kutaragi was about to explode.
Not only did he suffer from insomnia every night, but he was also frequently woken up by nightmares.
As soon as these words were spoken, all of Japan was in an uproar.
Although people didn't fully understand the details or the underlying causes, and they didn't know whether it was Sony that was truly ambitious or Nintendo that was acting like a total scumbag.
With these words, all of Japan was in an uproar.
Although the details and reasons behind it were not quite clear, and no one knew whether Sony was truly ambitious or Nintendo was an old scoundrel, the media still reported the responses from both sides truthfully.
There were plenty of people who sympathized with Sony.
There were also many who sympathized with Nintendo.
However, on the whole, it could be summed up in one sentence—
Nintendo and Sony had completely broken off relations!
(The content written here is almost a replica of a real-life historical event, with only slight changes in the timeline.)
Nintendo and Sony have completely broken up!
(The events described here are almost a re-enactment of real history, with only slight changes in timing.)
"It's certainly lively, isn't it."
Seeing the report in the magazine about the fallout between Nintendo and Sony, Aoki Haruhi looked extremely pleased.
"Haha, it sure is, President."
Ayase Akane gently placed the freshly brewed coffee in front of him and laughed happily herself.
Setting aside who was right or wrong, just the fact that Nintendo had rejected Pokeni's game releases, forcing them to turn to Sega, was enough.
The little HR didn't have a very good impression of Nintendo.
Of course, this didn't stop her from liking Nintendo's games; she was just particularly annoyed by President Yamauchi's monopolistic, "I alone dominate" behavior.
The world is inherently open, and win-win cooperation is common sense.
No one can swallow the whole world in one bite.
Even a little HR like her understood this principle; how could President Yamauchi not?
Seeing Nintendo being attacked by the media now, she felt an indescribable joy.
"Hmm... It's a pity Sony got played pretty badly, though," Ayase Akane said.
"Yeah," Aoki Haruhi laughed. "This is perfect."
"Eh?" Ayase Akane wrinkled her little nose.
The President really had a nasty personality. Was schadenfreude really okay?
"Yeah," Aoki Haruhi put down the magazine in his hands and smiled.
"Sony might feel very aggrieved.
They invested time, energy, and a large amount of money, only to see it all go down the drain.
But for Pokeni, this is a rare opportunity."
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