The completion rate of game games this year was indeed a bit low, mainly because, apart from Galgame, other games required much more hardware support, development difficulty, and development cycles.
Fortunately, game is not short on money now.
Especially after the release of pokémon 3d world, the sales in Japan alone have already reached an astonishing 2 million copies.
With another wave of releases in Europe and America by the end of the year, 5 million copies should be a sure thing.
This is the global power of Pokémon.
For the upcoming period, Aoki Haruhi has no other thoughts; he just wants to promote the one treasure he has, to the moon, well.
So, Aoki Haruhi quickly arranged to dine with the presidents of various distributors.
After talking with Hattori Hiroyuki, President Hattori immediately expressed his intention to pre-order 100,000 copies.
Last Time, because he wasn't very optimistic about the 3D market, he didn't dare to take too many copies of pokémon 3d world, which led to an embarrassing situation where it was out of stock.
However, after this incident, Hattori Hiroyuki also gained a very clear understanding—
Between the Time market and Aoki Haruhi, choosing Aoki Haruhi is the right choice.
So this Time, he directly ordered 100,000 copies in one go.
After the two finished their meal, on the way home, Hattori Hiroyuki, as usual, threw the to the moon disc into the trash can.
Duang!
"The game is a huge success!"
...
After finalizing the marketing plan for to the moon and the contracts with various distributors, Aoki Haruhi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Next, the project team will work with the operations department to complete the PV and posters, and then distribute the corresponding materials to various media outlets. Then to the moon can enter the normal release process.
These routine matters will be fully handled by Operations Director Kazuma Takahashi.
...
October 9, 1995.
As Aoki Haruhi was returning to the company, he suddenly remembered something. He was about to press the 14th-floor button but then pressed one floor down.
The 13th floor also belongs to Aoki Haruhi, but the name of this company is—
P-net.
Yes, this is the subsidiary that Masayoshi Son forced to spin off from game. Its main business now is internet products.
However, so far, P-net only has two products: one is game's official website, and the other is game's official forum.
But in fact, these two are combined, with the forum hosted under the website.
P-net is currently in a money-burning phase, with network fees alone costing tens of millions of Japanese Yen each month.
Fortunately, it has also achieved a certain scale. As of now, the daily unique visitors to game-net have exceeded 100,000.
In 1995, this was already a very impressive achievement.
Because of game's existence, a website operating company named Yahoo is now having an extremely difficult Time.
Whether it's consulting or entertainment, Yahoo hasn't really beaten game. The most crucial thing is that Masayoshi Son, who should have invested in Yahoo in the previous life, did not become their sugar daddy.
Without external funding, Yahoo is growing with difficulty.
It's not that it hasn't grown at all. After all, the internet is a hot trend. As long as you stand on the trend and differentiate yourself from game, you will eventually take off.
However, according to Aoki Haruhi's estimation, the take-off Time might be delayed quite a bit.
...
The moment Aoki Haruhi's figure appeared outside the glass door, the Miss at the front desk was a little startled.
Nani?!
Is that him?
Really?
Although she was incredibly shocked, Miss reacted extremely quickly, quickly stood up, and bowed to Aoki Haruhi.
"Hello, President."
President?!!
Others heard the Miss at the front desk and looked over in unison.
Nani?!
Why would the President visit our P-NET?!
Oh my god!
Isn't that incredible?!
Seeing the President come to inspect their work, the employees of P-net were incredibly moved.
Especially those old employees from game who were transferred to "support" from the head office, they were almost in tears.
He finally remembered us.
Although it's only one floor apart, it doesn't feel like working at the headquarters.
Although this place, according to the President, is strategically important, the old employees actually know very well in their hearts—
We've all been exiled.
High-salary exile is truly unheard of. One can only say that the President plays his cards well.
Not only does he demote you, but he also raises your salary, fearing you might jump ship.
In the current employment environment, it's really not easy to get such a high-paying job. Who would dare to jump ship? Who would be willing to jump ship?
"Hello, President!"
The P-NET employees stood up in unison and saluted Aoki Haruhi.
Ah, this...
Aoki Haruhi was also made nervous all of a sudden.
He felt like he was participating in a military parade.
Aoki Haruhi's surprise was no less than theirs.
P-NET currently has over 50 people, 80% of whom are newly recruited unfamiliar faces, and Aoki Haruhi doesn't know any of them.
It's not that he doesn't want to know them; it's mainly because he's too busy and simply doesn't have Time to come down and inspect the work.
And with Aoki Haruhi's memory, unless someone is particularly good-looking or distinctive, he basically forgets who is who after returning.
The old employees were emotionally excited, while the new employees were extremely unfamiliar. Aoki Haruhi had the illusion of being watched like a monkey.
Am I here to inspect, or am I being observed by you?
It's hard to say.
Many employees also saw the real-life President for the first Time.
Aoki Haruhi is actually considered a relatively low-key boss in the game industry. Except when necessary, he rarely appears on TV or in media Lenses.
But that doesn't mean few people know him.
Aoki Haruhi occasionally appears in newspapers, for example, Famitsu has reported on him, and in previous news, there was even a peak master talk between Aoki Haruhi VS Hayao Miyazaki.
His most recent appearance on screen was due to his participation in the Electronic Entertainment Industry Association organized by Sony.
Compared to the presidents of other companies, Aoki Haruhi is truly too outstanding in appearance. He stood out especially at press conferences, looking like a celebrity.
It's hard not to be remembered.
What's more, on the wall right inside the entrance of P-net, there hangs a large organizational chart.
The only portrait at the very top of the pyramid is Aoki Haruhi's.
So, those new employees who had only seen Aoki Haruhi's photos and videos were both nervous and excited.
Seeing the living President for the first Time.
"The President is really handsome!" a female employee whispered, sighing.
The person next to her didn't dare to move, but she had similar thoughts in her heart.
The President looks much better in person than on TV.
Those reporters really don't know how to take pictures, making our handsome and dashing President look dark and blurry.
...
Taking this opportunity, Aoki Haruhi, with a smile, got to know all the employees of P-net one by one.
As a result, he didn't remember a single one.
programmers in IT these days are basically all male; even if there are one or two females, they are usually very ordinary-looking.
After a tour, Aoki Haruhi called Yosuke Higashiki, the current head of P-NET, into the conference room.
"President, what made you think of coming here?"
"Hmm, I just had a little Time today, so I came to take a look." Aoki Haruhi nodded slightly, "I'm sorry for coming late, mainly because I was too busy with work before and couldn't get away. I should have come down earlier to interact with you more."
"No, President, your work is important," said Yosuke Higashiki.
Yosuke Higashiki is very young, only 21 years old. He has been working for several years and was recommended by Akanishi Ken to take over the position in a crisis.
So, his technical skills are undeniable.
"Um, I might not be able to pay attention to so much, so could you please give me a brief overview of P-NET's current business situation, Higashiki-san?" Aoki Haruhi asked.
"Yes, President."
Yosuke Higashiki took a deep breath, his brain rapidly working.
To be honest, it was his first Time meeting the President face-to-face, and without any prior notice, he was truly too nervous.
"According to the tasks you assigned earlier, President Hattori, we have now set up the Pokémon official website. This is a comprehensive website where dedicated staff members will update information daily.
At the same Time, we have also implemented the website's image functionality. However, due to network speed limitations, the loading speed of our web pages may vary in different locations and with different network conditions."
"Mm-hmm." Aoki Haruhi nodded.
He was very clear about this in his mind.
Dial-up internet was very slow at the moment, with transmission speeds of only a few kilobytes to tens of kilobytes. Loading images at such a speed was indeed a bit strenuous.
However, with images, the Pokémon-net possessed strong portal website capabilities. At least, in terms of loading speed and image support, P-NET was in a league of its own.
With text and image functions, the Pokémon-net had the basic ability to accept advertisements and could generate some revenue.
Aoki Haruhi was quite optimistic about this.
Regarding network hardware, Masayoshi Son was already working on it. The world was still using the IPV4 protocol, and Masayoshi Son was building the experimental IPv6 network, 6bone.
But this was difficult to implement. According to the normal development process, it was estimated that it would not reach the commercial stage until after 2003.
ADSL communication should be faster, which was the legendary broadband.
This technology was born in the United States in 1989. For it to be commercialized in Japan, network cables first had to be laid out.
The original method of telephone lines, which we used for making calls, only occupied the low-frequency part of the copper wire and did not fully exploit its potential.
ADSL technology, on the other hand, used frequency division multiplexing to divide ordinary telephone lines into three relatively independent channels: telephone, upstream, and downstream, which avoided interference and improved speed.
From dial-up internet to ADSL was definitely a qualitative leap. Network speeds could instantly increase from a few kilobytes to 1M or even 2M.
Don't think that 10M is slow in 2023, but in this era, a network speed of 512k already felt like it was taking off.
It's coming soon, it's coming soon.
Aoki Haruhi thought to himself.
There was no need to ask for too much. As long as ADSL was commercialized, many things could be done.
At that Time, he could show the world what a true future game was.
…
In addition to the image support function on the website and web pages, Yosuke Higashiki also talked about search engines.
This term was coined by Aoki Haruhi.
Because just like a car engine, an engine is a crucial tool and technology that allows us to drive information retrieval and feedback to players.
Don't be fooled by its simple, unassuming entrance; what is deeply buried beneath is as vast as an iceberg.
"For the search engine, our internal site search can support nearly a hundred thousand posts, and it can retrieve them via keywords within 2 seconds. It is still affected by the network, so it might be slower externally.
Afterward, we will further optimize the algorithm to make the retrieval faster and more accurate, and at the same Time, make it more intelligent."
In this era, Aoki Haruhi didn't demand much intelligence. High retrieval efficiency was enough, and accuracy was also a step-by-step process.
In this era, as long as you are fast, you have already surpassed most internet companies in the world.
Fast, good, and smart all at once was actually not very realistic.
Aoki Haruhi discussed his ideas with Yosuke Higashiki, who nodded in agreement and wrote down President Hattori's words in his small notebook.
…
After Yosuke Higashiki finished his report, he felt cold sweat trickle down his back.
Was there anything more terrifying than a surprise inspection from President Hattori?
Fortunately, although he had been exiled by the head office, he was not a slacker. In Yosuke Higashiki's opinion, as long as he performed well in the subsidiary, he would one day be summoned back by President Hattori.
…
Now with a portal website and a search engine, it was as if Aoki Haruhi had merged the two companies, Google and Yahoo, into one.
If this subsidiary performed well, its future market value would be in the trillions.
However, he still felt like something was missing.
Aoki Haruhi rubbed his forehead, carefully thought it over, and suddenly realized that he still had a very important but relatively simple thing he hadn't arranged.
"That's right, Higashiki, do one more very important thing: an instant messaging tool."
"Instant messaging tool?" Yosuke Higashiki was a bit confused.
From the literal meaning, it was easy to understand, but he didn't know what it should look like.
Aoki Haruhi smiled, pulled over a whiteboard, and began drawing on it with a marker.
First, he drew a personal chat user interface, and then next to this interface, he drew a chat box.
This thing was what QQ looked like in Aoki Haruhi's memory.
However, he omitted some extended functions.
Basically, only text input, friends, image insertion, and file transfer functions were retained.
After Microsoft's Windows 95 came out this year, it basically signaled that the internet era was truly coming.
Windows 95 was a true graphical user interface operating system. It was precisely because of its visualization and ease of operation that personal computers entered ordinary households.
In the first half of this year alone, the number of personal computer owners in Japan more than doubled, reaching nearly 5 million users by now.
This meant that one out of every 20 Japan people owned a computer.
And this number would become over 50 million by 2000.
Developing instant messaging software was imperative.
…
By this Time next year, an instant messaging software called ICQ will be born in the world. Aoki Haruhi must get ahead of them.
Doing this was part of Aoki Haruhi's own strategic considerations.
On one hand, seizing the instant messaging track meant having a large user base in the future. This was following the QQ model of accumulating users first and then monetizing.
On the other hand, developing instant messaging tools was also preparation for future online game. You would definitely need this for interacting with others in game.
Anyway, it would be developed sooner or later, so it might as well be developed earlier.
In reality, this thing looked complicated but was quite simple to make.
When Aoki Haruhi was in college, he could independently write a simplified version of QQ, and it didn't take much Time.
The first version had very simple functions, and the company definitely had the technology for it.
The only thing to pay attention to was all user privacy and data security issues. These data needed to be stored on a server, not simply stored on the local client.
That would require a tiny bit of transmission efficiency.
According to Aoki Haruhi's estimation, with the company's capabilities, this thing would be developed in at most a week. More Time could be spent on beautifying the interface.
What is cost-effectiveness?
This is cost-effectiveness!
…
Aoki Haruhi explained it in great detail, and Yosuke Higashiki understood it at a glance.
"This should be doable."
He didn't dare to say it was simple, but he instinctively felt there shouldn't be much difficulty, just a matter of workload, and even the workload wasn't that big.
Perhaps a small team of 3 to 4 people could finish it in a month.
So, the question arose.
Yosuke Higashiki asked doubtfully, "Then what should we call this instant messaging software?"
"Hmm…"
Aoki Haruhi stroked his chin.
"Since it's an instant chat software developed by our company, let's give it an English name based on its literal meaning.
How about Pokémon Real-Time Talk?
Abbreviated as PRTT.
Or RTT works too."
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