143. Pokemon
Hoyoung had a special attachment to Pokémon.
When he liked and enjoyed Pokemon, it was before the Pokemon craze broke out all over the world.
Of course, Hoyoung was not as enthusiastic about the character as a child.
What he focused on was the game.
‘In the middle of my Ph.D., I fell in love with Pokemon and almost got into trouble for a while.’
When Hoyeong thought of the past, she smiled involuntarily.
It was in 1997 that he first encountered Pokémon in his previous life.
While he was researching his thesis for his doctoral degree, a senior from a graduate school accidentally gave Ho-young a large Game Boy and a game pack of Pokémon red (red version).
After that, Hoyoung was with the little Game Boy wherever he went.
Catch, train, and adventure Pokémon.
Even after clearing all the four kings, Hoyeong was able to return to her daily life only after filling up most of her Pokémon encyclopedia.
When the gold version was released years later, it was an unfunny happening that his move was repeated once more.
‘At that time, even with all the used batteries, a box would have come out.’
Hoyoung enjoyed playing games a lot, but if he had to choose the most memorable game out of countless games, Pokemon would always be on one hand, so he was very happy at this moment.
“President. Im here.”
Miru’s words brought Hoyeong to her senses.
He stopped reminiscing and looked around and asked Miru.
“Here?”
“yes. The address is clearly set here.”
The Game Freak that Hoyoung remembers was rented in an old, shabby four-story building.
Of course, he attracted a large amount of investment, but where they are now is in the forest of buildings.
Miru smiled at Hoyeong’s bewildered expression.
“It is not that the entire building is used, but it is said that only one floor of the 12th floor is rented.”
Hoyoung nodded as if he finally understood.
Then, Hoyeong and Miru parked their car in the parking lot of the building at their address and took the elevator to the 12th floor.
When I got off the 12th floor, there was a familiar company logo that resembled a treble clef.
“Looks like you’ve come to the right place.”
“I see.”
Perhaps because the company is still small, there doesn’t seem to be an information desk or receptionist yet.
So, Hoyoung had no choice but to open the door slightly and enter Game Freak.
“uh? president?”
“how are you? Satoshi.”
When I opened the door and went inside, Satoshi, who was instructing other employees to do something, was surprised to see Hoyoung.
“Call me when you come. How did you come so suddenly?”
“I contacted you on the company phone, but no one answered. So I had no choice but to find out.”
“ah! sorry. I think it’s because the company doesn’t have a CS team yet, so I registered my representative number as my number. A lot of times I’m not there…”
Satoshi scratched the back of his head as if embarrassed.
In fact, Satoshi was not at his desk just a moment ago, he was walking around the company and looking at the work himself.
“Do you think I should give you a cell phone as a gift?”
“Oh, it’s not like I didn’t think of that either. However, the mobile phones currently in Japan are of poor quality and have very short batteries, so they are not very effective.”
“Ohh. You mean?”
It may be a very short and meaningless conversation, but it was the moment that decided Hoyoung’s next move.
‘I’ll have to tell senior Joo-Jeong to investigate the introduction of CDMA while proceeding with Japan’s ADSL.’
Hoyeong thought of Kim Joojung and smiled inwardly.
I could trust Kim Joo-jung to do things related to Japan.
“Anyway, you worked hard to come here. Please come this way.”
“You were at work, weren’t you? I have a lot of time today. You can wait a bit.”
“no. Now I have a good time too. come this way This is the laboratory.”
Satoshi led Hoyoung to the laboratory.
Hoyeong laughed out loud at this situation.
In an ordinary company, when an investor comes to the company, he or she is invited to the reception room or the representative office first to talk about various things.
However, Satoshi took Hoyoung to the laboratory without even recommending something to drink.
He couldn’t stand it because he wanted to show his results as quickly as possible, even if it took only one minute and one second.
“Here it is. Please understand even if it is a little messy.”
The lab was larger than expected.
And there were messy wires strewn all over the desk.
“Is this by any chance?”
Hoyoung pointed to a Game Boy on the desk in the middle and said.
“Oh, you can see it at a glance. We have already made a demo pack and inserted it into the Game Boy to test it on our own.”
As if possessed by something, Hoyoung sat down on a chair in front of the desk and picked up the Game Boy.
A large, heavy white Game Boy.
The black and white LCD screen, which looks small compared to the large body, stands out.
“All the bosses are like this…”
click-
Satoshi was about to tell Hoyoung how to control the Game Boy, but stopped.
It was because Hoyoung was manipulating the Game Boy so naturally.
“Have you ever used a Game Boy?”
“sure. I’ve been using it for quite some time.”
Satoshi thought that since the Game Boy had already been released in 1989, it would be possible for Hoyoung to use it.
Of course, the meaning of what Hoyoung said was quite different.
Satoshi did not speak to Hoyeong any more.
Thanks to this, Hoyoung was able to concentrate and test the Pokémon.
.
After a while.
Hoyoung was now sitting in the representative office and talking with Satoshi.
The representative office was also not as good as a laboratory, but it was messy with various papers and cookie bags that had not been cleaned.
Satoshi, perhaps feeling a little embarrassed, said while making space by putting the garbage roughly into the trash can.
“If I had known you would be here at this hour, I would have put it away. sorry.”
“no. In fact, there are many times like this in my studio, so don’t worry too much about it.”
After a while.
The building moved to a nicer building, but Game Freak still didn’t have a tearoom, and Satoshi didn’t have a secretary, so an employee bought him a cold drink from a convenience store.
“How about playing the game?”
“It was very good. How many Pokemon have you made so far?”
Satoshi rummaged through the documents on the desk, found one document, and handed it to Hoyoung.
The document listed Pokémon numbered 1 through 150 that were currently scheduled to be included in the game pack.
“It is 150. We originally aimed for 200, but due to the capacity of the Game Boy, we had to delete 50.”
The number of Generation 1 Pokémon that Hoyoung knows is definitely 151.
Fortunately, however, Hoyeong knew what Pokémon the other one was.
Hoyoung pointed to the end of the document and said, as if he didn’t know what to do.
“The name of Pokémon number 150 is Mewtwo, right? Then, is there no MewOne?”
“ah! That Pokemon is… How about the final boss? This Pokémon can only be encountered in the Hidden Stage, which opens when all content is cleared. There is no Pokemon called Mu-One. Instead, there was a Pokémon called Mew. It is one of the 50 deleted that I just mentioned.”
“Why was that Mew deleted?”
“Well, first of all, because of the capacity. It just feels like a fantasy Pokemon that becomes the material for making Mewtwo. It’s a kind of MacGuffin.”
Hoyoung smiled.
“music. We put it in the game.”
“yes?:
“Using that Mew Pokémon would be a huge help in marketing.”
“Marketing?”
“yes. As previously planned, announce that there are 150 Pokémon in total.”
Satoshi looked like he had no idea what Hoyoung was talking about.
“president. If that’s the case, why put another Pokemon in? And in the first place, there is no place to put that Pokemon data. I also want to add at least one more Pokémon that our company has worked hard and worked hard for. But there is no capacity.”
“You can’t just think of it now. Will Satoshi release a debugging tool even when the game is officially released?”
Satoshi looked like he had been hit by something.
“this! I hadn’t even thought of a debugging tool. How did you know that, boss?”
“haha. The fact that I can only play in the lab means that the testing isn’t fully finished yet. Before the test is over, of course there will be debugging tools. If I delete it at the end, won’t there be room for one more Pokemon?”
“There will be enough.”
Satoshi even felt a little embarrassed about forgetting something simple.
And that I have to ask Hoyoung one more question.
However, he didn’t mind feeling ashamed in a situation where he could hear advice for Pokémon to succeed.
“Then may I ask why you have to hide Mew?”
“Because that’s the true hidden piece of the game. Think of Mew as putting it in the game, but set the stats to maximum. And not letting anyone know of its existence.”
“Isn’t it absolutely useless if no one knows about its existence?”
Hoyoung laughed at Satoshi.
“Satoshi looks down on gamers.”
“Me?”
“Push information about Mew only to the extent that it exists through Mewtwo, and devise a difficult trigger for Mew to appear. It’s okay to make it difficult enough for users to think that it only appears by exploiting a bug. Of course, the results won’t come out within a month or two after launch. But people will eventually find the trigger.”
“It’s literally hidden peace. Like an Easter egg in a movie.”
When Satoshi gave an appropriate analogy, Hoyoung smiled and expressed his affirmation.
“And then, after waiting for the Mew to be released…”
“next?”
“You say that Mew was a bug, and you are distributing a modified version that deletes the trigger of Mew.”
“Why are you doing that?”
Hoyoung smiled.
Then he quenched his thirst with a drink and opened his mouth.
“In that case, some users will have Mew, and some users will not have Mew.”
“If that happens, won’t there be huge protests from users of the modified version? Earlier, I told you to set Mew’s abilities very high, but then the more…”
“I’m aiming for that.”
Satoshi’s eyes widened.
“Just then, the popular media…. For example, a game magazine or manga magazine with a large number of subscribers officially acknowledges the existence of Mew, and selects a few of those who send postcards through a lottery to present Mew’s data.”
“It can create a lot of buzz. Are you saying this?”
“That’s right.”
Hoyoung’s expression was confident.
In fact, this method was the event that set the first button for Pokémon’s success in a previous life.
Prior to this event, the ambitious Pokemon sold only thousands of copies, but at Mew’s distribution event, close to 80,000 people applied for postcards for free, gaining nationwide recognition.
Ho-young was thinking of taking the case as it was and only speeding up the timing.
Of course, there are incidents such as polygon shock that increase awareness in North America, but I thought that it would be enough without such a thing if this was accelerated this much and proper marketing was done.
“All right. I will prepare to proceed as you have said.”
“yes. And one more thing. I’m against pushing the release date too far back for the details of the game. No matter what, we want it to be released within four months.”
It was a small concern for Hoyoung, who plays the character of Satoshi, who has a tendency to be a perfectionist.
However, Satoshi replied with a grin.
“Yes, six months is enough. We will prepare it in time.”
Hoyoung and Satoshi talked a little more about Pokémon.
Hoyoung told me more of the things he knew about the future that would be useful for Pokemon.
After talking for a while, Satoshi and Hoyoung decided to have a meal.
While Satoshi was preparing to leave, Miru approached Hoyoung.
“President. I haven’t even booked a hotel in Tokyo yet. Shall we find out where we stayed last time?”
“Wait. Let’s start with our meal, make a phone call, and then find a place to stay.”
“All right.”
Just then, Satoshi, who was ready to leave, entered.
“president. Shall we leave?”
“yes. Can I just make a phone call for a moment?”
“sure. If you are the boss, it is okay to use international calls.”
“haha. How did you know It’s really a call to America.”
Hoyoung smiled and picked up the phone.
And I fluently gave the number to the international operator.
Turrrr-
Turrrr-
After a while.
– Hello?
“smith? This is Hoyeong.”
– You contacted me at the right time. We were just getting ready to depart.
“okay? Lucky for you. When is the flight?”
– My flight is leaving in five hours. Arrive at Gimpo Airport in Korea.
“Good. Then, wouldn’t it be arriving in about 20 hours?”
– That’s right.
Hoyeong calculated the time in her head for a moment.
“All right. Then we’ll see you tomorrow. I will go to the airport.”
– All right. see you tommorow.
Hoyeong hung up the phone and looked back at Satoshi.
“ruler. Shall we go?”
“yes. The boss speaks English very well.”
“There is no choice but to do business in the United States. And the manager.”
“yes?”
“I don’t think you need to book a hotel. As soon as I finish eating with Satoshi, I will go back to Korea.”
“yes. Let’s find the fastest flight.”
Hoyoung smiled pleasantly.
Just imagining Kim Joo-jung and Smith meeting made him happy.
