Chapter 374: Ambitious People
After watching the two games brought by Enix, Shirakawa Feng was deeply stimulated.
A computer game company that was just established last year and had no reputation received more than 300 entries just because it held a game creation competition.
It can be seen that computer games during this period were far more prosperous than imagined. No, it should be said that game enthusiasts were far more active than imagined.
Most of the creators of these works are young people who are fascinated by computers and have strong hands-on skills.
However, because the computer ecosystem is not yet complete, several major computer manufacturers are fighting each other and have not formed a unified platform.
So although these enthusiasts are full of talent, they have no place to display their talents.
So a company like Enix, which has no reputation and a total prize pool of only 3 million yen, can attract so many fans to submit their works.
To put it bluntly, Japan at this moment lacks a stage for programming masters to display their talents.
Come to think of it, if computer systems are not unified, how can various software developed around computers be taken seriously?
But now that Baichuan Feng is aware of this problem, there is no reason not to do it himself.
With the reputation of Shirakawa Electric and the gimmick of 10 million yen, he believed that the number of works HAL received would be far higher than that of Enix.
After all, Shirakawa Electric and HAL already have their own appeal in the gaming industry. HAL has released many handheld and computer games in the past two years.
Even compared to Enix, HAL Research Institute is a well-known company.
Holding a game creation competition under the name of "Golden Cross Game Competition" at this time will definitely attract a large number of game enthusiasts to join this business.
The meaning of the "Golden Cross" comes from the cross key on the handle of the home game console that Shirakawa Electric will soon release.
In the eyes of many people, this has almost become the iconic symbol of Shirakawa Electric's electronic games.
Because this button design has been used in handheld game consoles for a long time, the FES game console will further deepen people's impression of it.
"It's only February now, so there's still time. Let's hold our Golden Cross Game Contest in May or June.
In the past few months, we have started advertising in major media, especially print media and journals.
For example, "Electronic Game Daily", "Weekly Shonen Jump", "Monthly Microcomputer", "Shonen Magazine", etc.
We must spread the name of our Golden Cross to every corner of the Japanese computer industry.
As for the second game competition next year, we can still…" Suddenly Baichuan Feng paused, "Forget it, let's talk about next year later, let's focus on doing the things in front of us first."
Satoshi Iwata, who was writing non-stop with a pen next to "Hayi", couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Honestly, Shirakawa Kaede's constant flashes of inspiration are extremely charismatic, but remembering them all is quite exhausting.
"FES will be available on April 1st, is there any problem?"
Shirakawa Electric plans to launch its home game console in the first half of the year, with CD players and Walkmans in the middle of the year and desktop computers and speakers at the end of the year.
Detailed internal planning is done for the release of new products throughout the year.
This is conducive to the rational use of resources and avoids the crowding of new products and internal competition for attention.
Shirakawa Electric has not yet grown into an electronics empire, and it cannot hold a grand press conference for all its products like in later generations. At present, it cannot support such a stage.
As for the game consoles, they were placed in the first half of the year in preparation for the upcoming summer vacation.
After all, its consumer group is mostly students, so the two months before summer vacation is a perfect time to promote FES's reputation.
"The machine has been debugged many times and can run smoothly. We have also done a lot of screening on the first game lineup."
Satoru Iwata was basically in charge of home game consoles, and during that time Shirakawa Kaede only asked a few questions and didn't pay much attention to it.
Judging from the current results, he did not disappoint Shirakawa Kaede. Iwata-san indeed has an extraordinary talent in programming.
The entire development cycle took about a year and a half, which is pretty good.
"Since there is no problem, let's do the necessary publicity."
Everything is ready, so let's show it off.
…
After making further adjustments to HAL's home game console and future development plans , Shirakawa Kaede also took the time to meet with Kenzo Tsujimoto, who was introduced by Satoru Iwata.
He is older than both Hudson's Yuji Kudo and Enix's Yasuhiro Fukushima, and looks a lot like the yakuza boss in the movie.
If it weren't for the pair of gold-rimmed glasses and polite appearance, Baichuan Feng almost thought he was meeting a member of a society.
Kenzo Tsujimoto, who is in his early 40s this year, was originally very successful in the arcade field, but since last year, the competition in arcades has become fierce.
While several mainstream manufacturers such as Taito, Nintendo, Sega, and Namco were competing fiercely, Kenzo Tsujimoto's Sanbi Corporation collapsed first.
No, Sanbi Corporation did not go bankrupt. Kenzo Tsujimoto, who was heavily in debt, resigned and became one of the unemployed.
"Tsujimoto-san, I heard from Iwata-san that you still want to continue your gaming career?"
"Hai, I think people's pursuit of entertainment will never disappear, and the prospects of this industry are far more optimistic than what we see now."
"Can you tell me what you think?"
“I am planning to set up a new company, Capcom Co., Ltd. The first business will still be arcade games. This is because I am most familiar with it and I am most confident in it.
After that, Capcom also plans to enter the computer game industry. Judging from the market situation in the past two years, it may be another major game platform in the future.”
Arcade games first, then PC games? It seems that more and more people are aware of the future potential of PC games.
"Shirakawa Electric can help you build Capcom with 30 million yen for 40% of the shares . What do you think?"
Shirakawa Electric has not yet entered the arcade field. Since there is an opportunity right now, it might as well give it a try.
The investment in an arcade machine is huge, and the start-up capital is far more than just a few million yen.
However, faced with Shirakawa Kaede's generous offer, Kenzo Tsujimoto shook his head seriously.
"Shirakawa-san, I only need 10 million yen, and I can give up 30% of Capcom's shares."
Baichuan Feng raised his head unexpectedly and looked at him deeply, "Okay, let's do as Tsujimoto said. 10 million, 30% of the shares."
He was another ambitious man. Faced with the olive branch from Shirakawa Electric, he only took the part he wanted to take.
Such a person..., I hope we can have a pleasant cooperation experience in the future.
…
Because Capcom is still in its infancy, it will not become a third-party game developer for FES for the time being.
But don't worry, Taito and Namco have joined the developer camp of Shirakawa Electric's home game console.
Both companies are giants in the arcade field, and they own a large number of arcade game IPs.
Just porting a few of them to the FES platform would be enough to sell them for a whole year.
But also because they are giants, the contract that Shirakawa Electric reached with them is much more relaxed than that of companies like Hudson.
For example, the commission is only about 26%, and the production of game cartridges is also the responsibility of Taito and Namco themselves.
After all, FES has not yet proven its potential, and Taito and Namco are not objects that Shirakawa Electric can easily control.
So in the end, after many negotiations between the two sides, they reached such an agreement.
Including its own HAL, Shirakawa Electric now has as many as six game developers.
In the short term, there is no need to worry about the game’s lineup.
Moreover, Shirakawa Feng believes that once FES has established its reputation, more and more game manufacturers will sign agreements with Shirakawa Electric.
…
Kyoto, Nintendo.
Yamauchi Hiroshi looked at the newspaper in front of him with a frown.
"Shirakawa Electric's home game console will be released in April. What is the current progress of our product?"
"Uh," Uemura Masayuki wiped the sweat from his forehead, "The design has been completed, but we are still doing the final debugging work."
Because the chip was selected relatively late, Nintendo's game console has just completed the adaptation work of the entire machine so far.
Some details are still being worked on and final adjustments are being made.
"We will bring forward the release date of our home game console to April 1, the same day as Shirakawa Electric's game console."
Nintendo originally planned to release its own home game console in July, but Shirakawa Electric's actions made him decide to abandon his original plan.
"But Mr. Yamauchi, although the design work has been completed, the debugging of the game has not yet been completed. Isn't two months too rushed?"
Masayuki Uemura had no choice but to suffer in silence, as the debugging of new products was equally important.
It is equivalent to the last checkpoint of product quality inspection. Only after internal confirmation that there are no problems in operation can it be safely launched into the market.
If this step is not taken, or is carried out relatively hastily, once an unknown BUG is encountered in the future, it will definitely be a fatal blow to the reputation of the product.
"The date is April 1st, no need to say more about this! As for the debugging issue, if you can't catch up, you can work overtime.
In short, I want Nintendo's home console to be released no later than the release date of Shirakawa Electric, this is the bottom line!"
Yamauchi Hiroshi gave the order in a decisive tone, and the unquestionable tone in his tone made Uemura Masayuki's scalp tingle.
"Hay!" Although he felt extremely helpless, he could only grit his teeth and agree.
"Go! This is a crucial battle for Nintendo, and there must be no mistakes!"
"Hai!"
Watching Masayuki Uemura leave with a distressed look on his face, Yamauchi Hiroshi also sighed deeply.
The launch of Shirakawa Electric's home game console put him under tremendous pressure, and he fought with the other party for so long.
Yamauchi knew very well that he must never give the other party any chance to gain the upper hand, otherwise Nintendo would probably never catch up.
Therefore, even though he knew that the progress of his own products was very tight, he still ordered his subordinates to catch up with Shirakawa Electric at all costs.
However, Yamauchi Hiroshi didn't know that there were many more manufacturers that wanted to release home game consoles on April 1 than just Shirakawa Electric and Nintendo.
The third entrant has also been rubbing his hands, secretly waiting for the opportunity.
