111. bare-mouthed?
While the three geniuses were talking without knowing that the night was up, Ho-young left the room saying he was going to the bathroom for a while.
“Gaia, find out if there are any back stories about PlayStation and Nintendo.”
Hoyoung already knew that there was a behind-the-scenes story with Nintendo in the development of the PlayStation, but he did not know the details, so he searched through Gaia.
Gaia displayed relevant information on the screen in an instant.
“This happened, I understand. thank you.”
Hoyoung, who carefully checked the relationship between the two and what would happen in the future, sneaked back to her seat.
Then, as if nothing had happened, he fell into conversation with John Carmack and Shigeru Miyamoto again.
They shared opinions, sometimes agreeing, or contradicting each other, admiring each other, and recognizing each other once more.
And by the time the clock strikes 5 in the morning.
Finally, the story of the three is finished to some extent.
“We had a lot of trouble talking to each other almost all night. I will establish a mid-term plan soon and contact you.”
“okay. I need to get some sleep on the fast-moving plane. In fact, there are parts left to be developed by tomorrow.”
At Hoyoung’s closing words, John Carmack said with sleepy eyes.
“Okay. Come back quickly.”
“Then see you next time. Shigeru-sama was also really nice.”
“I was really happy. I learned a lot today.”
John Carmack greeted Hoyoung and Shigeru and left the bar.
“Hoyeong, won’t you come in? If I take a taxi from here, the hotel is less than 5 minutes away.”
“I’m that far too.”
“It’s close. Then I will get up too.”
When Shigeru tried to put on his coat, Hoyeong stopped him.
“Wait. Would you like to have another drink with me?”
“Do you have anything else to say?”
“That’s right.”
Shigeru put down his coat again and sat down in front of Hoyeong.
“What more do you want to talk about with me?”
“Wait.”
Hoyoung looked around and saw a sign that said ~09:00 AM, and called the owner, reassuring that he wouldn’t have to worry about closing.
“waiter! Would you like another bottle for Valentine’s Day?”
The owner, who had been dozing off, walked up to them with glazed eyes and said,
“Valentine. How many years would you like?”
“As a 30-year-old.”
“yes. thank you.”
The owner went back to get the drink with a smile as if selling expensive alcohol was good.
“Looks like you have a lot to say. Enough to order another bottle of wine.”
“haha. A lot. Don’t you know what I’m going to say?”
“I do not know.”
When the owner brought a drink and set it down in front of them, Hoyoung poured a drink into Shigeru and himself, and emptied the glass at once.
“Keu- According to the information I obtained, I know that Nintendo has already reached out to the production of a full 3D game console, isn’t it true?”
Shigeru’s always smiling face hardened.
He thought for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“You know everything.”
“yes. In fact, I have already told you everything. I understand that ‘Sony’ and ‘Playstation’ are almost done developing.”
Shigeru continued to speak with a hard face.
“As expected, Hoyeong… How do you know?”
“Would it be easier to understand if I said that Sony also has a source of information?”
“The information leaked from Sony. Haha, I also knew that information was leaked on our side.”
“Whoops. That’s not it.”
Hoyeong was vague, but fortunately Shigeru agreed and moved on.
“But I never had the slightest thought of deceiving Hoyeong. We are going to end our contract with Sony soon.”
“Why?”
Shigeru hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.
“okay. It’s not anyone else, it’s Hoyoung, so I’ll tell you everything honestly.”
“please. It can be difficult to do business together if there are parts that are uncomfortable with each other.”
“yes. I agree. To be honest, the reason why we want to break our contract with Sony is all our greed. This is especially the desire of the senior board members.”
“What if it’s greed?”
“Actually, this project is not a collaboration. It’s a game machine production contract that’s almost like subcontracting from us. However, during the contract process, we accepted ridiculous terms and conditions.”
“What condition is that?”
“Sony wanted to lead the CD-ROM specification. So we asked for a license for the CD-ROM media, which we accepted. It was because I thought that the CD-ROM drive was just an accessory to our game machine anyway.”
Hoyoung nodded.
It was because it was not very different from what I found through Gaia.
Shigeru continued with a dark look.
“It was actually in 1989 that we signed a contract with Sony and started development. At that time, CD-ROM technology was an experimental and primitive technology that was expensive and difficult to produce.”
“However, in the current situation, it seems likely that CD-ROM will be decided as the industry’s next standard medium.”
“you’re right.”
“If that happens, since Sony holds the rights to the CD-ROM, if third parties for next-generation game consoles develop games on CD-ROM, the right to approve the project goes to Sony.”
Shigeru said with a small admiration as he looked at Hoyoung with the same kind of eyes.
“Exactly. That’s why we want to break the contract and remake a new game machine in a new way.”
Ho-young, who knew everything exactly, thought that it could be the case with Nintendo.
Then he laughed.
“As expected, it seems unreasonable to change the nature of the company itself in a short period of time. It hasn’t been a few years since we went through something similar.”
Shigeru blushed knowing what Hoyeong was trying to say.
The similar job Ho-young was talking about was the job he turned down without even listening to H&H’s offer because of the cartridge.
“But the senior directors are still firm. We firmly believe that if we give the CD-ROM rights to Sony as per the contract, we will lose the initiative in the game business and suffer great losses.”
“You must have been very pleased when I suggested the production of a new game console a while ago.”
Shigeru sipped a glass of Western liquor and answered.
“Actually, it was. It’s embarrassing.”
“no. If you think about it, it’s completely understandable.”
Currently, Nintendo was looking for a partner to work with after breaking its contract with Sony.
If Hoyoung hadn’t intervened at this timing, Nintendo was destined to restart the project with Phillips.
“By the way, Mr. Shigeru. Before that, there is one thing to point out.”
“What is it?”
“Aren’t Nintendo currently unable to make games using CD-ROMs?”
“That’s right.”
“Then, did you try to use the ROM pack for the next game as well?”
“you’re right. The decisive reason why we decided to break the contract with Sony was because we thought that even if CD-ROM was decided as the standard medium for the next generation, we could compete with ROM packs. It also fits with one of the most important principles at Nintendo: you can’t make players wait for loading.”
“If that’s the case, there won’t be any legal problems. Rather than carrying out a project with Sony with another company, it will be like discontinuing that project and starting a new one.”
“Yes… It is.”
Hoyoung nodded at those words.
“I got it right. But I don’t think you can think of the most important thing?”
“I think we reviewed it without missing anything. What are we missing?”
“You don’t think Sony will go ahead with the abandoned project on its own, do you? If Nintendo breaks the contract, there will be no way to restrict Sony from using the materials and prototypes developed so far.”
Shigeru made a slightly absurd expression at Hoyeong’s words.
“You mean Sony?”
“yes.”
“haha. You don’t have to worry too much about that.”
“Why?”
“We made a decision after thinking about that. Obviously, if we break our contract with Sony, Sony will naturally walk away from the game business.”
He continued to question Shigeru as if interrogating him.
“What is the reason for such a result?”
“There is no way that a home appliance company that has no know-how on game consoles and does not know how to make software can make game consoles without a partner like us.”
“You underestimate Sonny too much.”
“It’s not something we look down on, it’s the result of our cool thinking.”
Regardless of his age, he recognized Hoyeong as a great person.
It’s not bragging, but the people Shigeru recognized in the industry could be counted on one finger.
Hoyoung was looking at him with disappointed eyes.
Shigeru had a hard time accepting those eyes.
“Shigeru. When we first met two years ago, Shigeru told me this. He said he would try to fix the rotten Nintendo at any cost.”
“It was. So I think a lot has already changed-”
“Why did you want to change Nintendo? Wasn’t it really about to change to become a company for gamers? Is this really a decision for gamers?”
Hoyoung cut off Shigeru’s words and came in, and Shigeru was greatly shocked by those words.
“that···. that···.”
“Of course, Nintendo is a self-interested company. I’m not saying you should give up all your profits now. But will gamers really like the results of pursuing profits right in front of them?”
“…you won’t like it.”
Hoyoung continued with a firm expression.
“If the contract is canceled and Sony completes the game console independently, there will be no need to worry too much about game development.”
“Why?”
“Isn’t there a way Nintendo does it best? We will use a third party.”
“Which company would stick with Sony? Few companies can stand the pain of making a game for unproven game consoles.”
“I think more third parties than you think will leave Nintendo and go to Sony.”
“Why?”
“Have you not heard rumors that fairly large companies such as Square, Enix, and Namco are increasingly dissatisfied with Nintendo and are preparing to leave?”
Shigeru narrowed his brows.
“well···. I didn’t know. What are the rumors going around?”
“I’m going to say it directly, without turning around. Many third-party companies are fed up with Nintendo’s bigoted attitude and only trying to make money by monopolizing the rights to cartridges.”
“Yes… That’s right.”
Shigeru answered with difficulty.
He changed it because he changed it, but Nintendo, which boasts a huge history and scale, could not be changed in a short time.
In the parts he still didn’t pay attention to, things from the past were repeating like custom.
“But this is not the important talk of the day. The management of third party companies should be corrected gradually from now on. It’s not that serious yet.”
“Thank you for speaking up. I will make things right as soon as I return to Japan after my work in the United States is over.”
“yes. If Sony completes the game console, it will offer much more reasonable conditions to third parties. Please proceed with that in mind.”
“I will keep that in mind.”
Hearing the answer, Hoyeong nodded heavily, and Shigeru’s expression improved.
“Then what should I do now? Is there any way out of this situation?”
“Of course there is.”
Shigeru as expected! said with a face.
“Can you tell me? If you give me wisdom, I will listen.”
Shigeru was desperate.
Seeing him like that, Hoyeong smiled and said.
“With your bare mouth?”
“yes?”
“I will come up with a solution. Then Shigeru will listen to my request as well.”
Shigeru thought that Hoyoung’s face looked like a goblin.
He intuitively felt that something was wrong with Hoyoung, but his mouth moved differently than he thought.
“All right. Please give me a solution.”
Hearing that, Hoyoung smiled even deeper.
