Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 148 If I can survive by kneeling, I will break my knees for the future
July 1977, 7, Kyoto.

As night falls, the lights in the downtown area of ​​the ancient city flicker. Street lamps, billboards, and neon signboards of Coca-Cola and Sony stand on the roadside, making people feel as if they are in the brightly lit white night of Las Vegas. In the bars on the street, tall bottles of beer are placed in front of the men, and warm sake is placed in exquisite cups. When the golden or white liquid flows down their throats, the busyness of the day is like a fragile cocoon peeling off, and their bodies are full of vitality again.

In contrast, on the other side of the Kyoto River, in the quiet and silent old town, the Nintendo office building here is brightly lit, but there are only a handful of employees who are actually working overtime. Except for a few female receptionists in light blue work clothes and short skirts who are still at their posts, the rest are all in an office on the top floor without a door number.

There was a large wooden table with sofas on either side and an industrial grey carpet with beige patterns on it. Hiroshi Yamauchi, wearing rubber sandals, was sitting on a sofa on one side of the low table, and on the other side were two people, one named Hiroshi Imanishi and the other named Minoru Arakawa.

"...That's just the way it is."

Arakawa, who flew back directly from San Francisco, narrated his experience in a concise manner.

After listening to this, Yamauchi Hiroshi directly picked up the premium Scotch whisky that had been opened on the coffee table and poured three parts of it into the thick crystal flat-bottomed glass filled with ice cubes.

His wrist shook, making a crisp sound. The jingling sound made him close his eyes. "So Ethan Jones thinks that everything that is happening now is a conspiracy that we planned in advance?"

He asked in a calm tone.

"Yes." Arakawa nodded and said, "Although I told Ethan Jones about the possibility of accidents as you said, but when multiple accidents occur at the same time..."

Arakawa Minoru looked at his father-in-law cautiously and spoke out his true feelings.

"If it were me, I wouldn't believe it either."

"Haha——" Yamauchi Hiroshi laughed at his son-in-law's honest words.

"So he threatened me?"

"Threatening me not to break the contract?"

"Threatening me to continue?"

"Threatening me to push the game Star Wars into our country so that Pac-Man will be drowned in the sound of the Force?"

The hurried words suddenly appeared.

Yamauchi Hiroshi, who had closed his eyes and was listening, suddenly opened his eyes.

He shook his wrist vigorously, and the amber whiskey instantly swirled in the glass. "I, Hiroshi Yamauchi, have been in charge of Nintendo since I was twenty-one!"

"I haven't been afraid of anyone since then!"

"How dare those old guys in the company who started the business with my grandfather take advantage of their seniority in front of me?"

"what--"

"I fired them all straight away!"

"I also founded a taxi company. When it started to make a profit, those damn drivers' unions kept asking me to increase their salaries and benefits!"

"No one can take money from me that I am not willing to give!"

“So I cancelled the company directly!”

"No one dares to threaten me after that!"

"Because they know I will crush their jobs! Get them out of here!"

"Snapped--"

A roar was heard, followed by a sound of shattering.

Yamauchi Hiroshi smashed the crystal glass in his hand to the ground.

The glass splashed, the wine flew everywhere, and the ice cubes in the cup shattered, creating a sad and beautiful ice flower on the gray carpet.

Arakawa Minoru shuddered and instinctively lowered his head.

Meanwhile, Hiroshi Imanishi beside him was like an old monk in meditation, with his eyes lowered and unmoved.

The only sound left in the huge space was Yamauchi Hiroshi's heavy breathing.

After a burst of heavy breathing, Yamauchi Hiroshi finally calmed down and asked gloomily, "Imanishi Hiroshi, assess the threat level of Ethan Jones to us."

Before he finished speaking, the fellow with a strong physique, regular features, and somewhat like a Rottweiler raised his head.

As a "veteran" who joined Nintendo in the early 1969s, he has worked in administration, finance, planning, personnel and other departments. In , he even created the Nintendo Game Department at the request of Hiroshi Yamauchi, which accommodated Gunpei Yokoi, Masayuki Uemura, and Genyo Takeda, and served as the first development director. Now, he is the general affairs director of Nintendo appointed by Hiroshi Yamauchi.

As a true confidant of Yamauchi Hiroshi, this guy who graduated from the law department of Doshisha University has the right to inquire about and supervise all projects within the company. And precisely because Yamauchi Hiroshi trusts him, when Yamauchi Hiroshi asks for his opinion, he does not hesitate and directly leans forward and says: "President, in my opinion, Ethan Jones's threat to us has a great chance of success."

"There are three reasons."

"The first point is that Star Wars is indeed an excellent game. According to reports from the North American media and personal testimony from Minoru Arakawa, within a month of the game's release, more than 30,000 arcade machines had already appeared on North American streets. This number was previously unimaginable in North America."

"In the past few years, the North American arcade market has indeed been hot, but because of the vast land and sparse population, they can't sell video arcade machines like we do. Arcades only exist in big cities because the population in remote rural areas cannot support the revenue expectations of local merchants for game arcades. Therefore, when the merchants in major cities are full, those merchants who pursue extreme profits will not purchase goods."

"This time it's different. Even though North American theaters released the game first, damaging the interests of the original merchants, those who entered the market later still showed enough enthusiasm for the arcade machines, because the people in North America are all crazy about games and movies. The unquenchable wave of fire is the reason why the Star Wars arcade machines are selling well. And when this fire spread to our country..."

"Personally, I think Pac-Man probably can't beat them head-on."

"It's not a question of whether the game is good or bad, it's that the Star Wars game also has a movie, and that movie was made by George Lucas..."

Having said this, Hiroshi Imanishi lengthened his voice and tilted his head to look at Arakawa Minoru.

The young man sighed after feeling the other's movements and said, "Father-in-law, I can swear that Star Wars is the best movie I have ever seen. If I have to describe it, it can only be invincible."

"I don't know whether the movie Star Wars will create the same huge wave in our country as it did in North America, but I know that all the directors in our country combined may not be able to make such a movie. The unparalleled effect is really amazing."

Although Arakawa's words seemed to boost others' morale and reduce his own prestige, Yamauchi Hiroshi didn't care. After venting his anger, he picked up a glass of whiskey again, tasting it while asking: "So how many units do you think the game Star Wars will sell after it is launched in our country?"

Estimating sales volume was not difficult for the two people present.

After looking at each other, Arakawa Minoru, who had seen the power of the game, was the first to say, "One hundred thousand."

"Ahaha..." This number made Yamauchi Hiroshi laugh. "Snake sold 65,000 units, Pac-Man is expected to sell at least 100,000 units, and now you tell me that Star Wars is estimated to sell 100,000 units? If that's the only number..."

"One year." Arakawa added.

"What?" Yamauchi Hiroshi's smile suddenly stopped.

"One hundred thousand units a year." Arakawa Minoru repeated seriously.

Yamauchi Hiroshi narrowed his eyes instantly.

He looked at Hiroshi Imanishi, who pursed his lips and nodded.

"Oh, then Ethan Jones is really amazing."

Yamauchi Hiroshi was stunned for a moment, then he smiled and said, "But this is useless, right?"

"Our country has special management standards for the import of movies. Generally speaking, there is a long gap between the release period of our imported films and the original release period of other countries."

"The purpose of this is to protect our local films."

"For example, Ethan Jones's good brother Steven Spielberg's film Jaws was released in North America in the summer of 75, but it was not released in theaters in our country until December?"

“It’s a nice time difference.”

"In half a year, we can sell a lot of Pac-Man arcade machines."

Yamauchi Hiroshi said with a smile.

“That’s the second reason.”

Before he finished speaking, Hiroshi Imanishi added: "President, although our country has special management standards for imported movies, there are often exceptions, right?"

"Star Wars has already caused a craze around the world. When Fox brings the movie to our country to apply for review, the speed will definitely be faster than other movies."

"And if Ethan Jones really licenses the Star Wars game to Fox, those companies that want to get the game agency from Fox will definitely be more eager to see the movie released than the movie companies."

"Even if we could get Pac-Man out there early, what good would that do?"

"We couldn't sell 100,000 arcade machines in that empty six months."

"more importantly……"

"If we do sell them, we'll have to give Ethan Jones 14 percent of each unit."

Imanishi Hiroshi sighed.

“……” Yamauchi Hiroshi’s breath was choked.

Although Arakawa Minoru had mentioned this matter when relaying Ethan Jones' words just now, and used Ethan Jones' perspective, when his own people said that the huge sales of "Pac-Man" would only benefit Ethan Jones, Yamauchi Hiroshi suddenly felt that his heart was grasped by a pair of invisible hands, and the sudden pressure made him breathless.

At this moment, the thought of killing Pac-Man in his hand even popped into his mind.

But the next second, he knew that he couldn't act on impulse.

Because Nintendo and Destiny signed a guaranteed distribution contract.

Even if they don't sell Pac-Man, when the time comes, they still have to pay Destiny a commission based on the guaranteed number of units shipped. Otherwise, it would be a breach of contract.

This fact made Yamauchi Hiroshi lean back on the sofa.

His head was tilted back slightly, his eyes narrowed.

As his body sank into the soft sponge, his face under the yellow glasses turned pale under the light. "What's the third reason?" he asked.

"The third reason is even more difficult," said Hirofumi Imanishi. "Because of Ralph Baer's video game patent, there are only three companies in North America that can make video games freely."

"One is the patented Mirohua."

"An Atari that holds low-priced patents for a long time."

"One company got support from Ralph Bell and didn't have to worry about patents or royalties. It was just a game of fate with a small consulting fee."

"Besides that, any other company that dares to bypass them to make video games will face crazy lawsuits from Milova. If Milova's asking price was relatively reasonable before, then after they were beaten up twice by Ethan Jones, they wanted to kill all other competitors. Therefore, many American game companies have discovered that they may not be able to make video games without relying on these three companies, and these three companies..."

“There is no family to rely on.”

"There's no need to say much about Milova. Dozens of lawsuits in the past two years have ruined their reputation. There's no need to say much about Atari either. They started out by plagiarizing and are currently the weakest game company in North America. Although Destiny has the highest reputation and the best reputation, everyone can see that Ethan Jones is not the kind of person who can accept mediocre games. So far, Destiny has only issued one announcement to the public, and that was a recruitment notice. It wanted creative personnel, not to acquire other companies. So, if nothing unexpected happens, when the remaining game companies find that North America is no longer suitable for them to survive, most of them will flock to our country."

"For example, Sega..."

"They haven't released any new games since they were sued by Milova." "They can no longer survive in North America, and their branch in our country also intends to acquire the headquarters. If they really do this, it means that the next video game war will start in our country."

"And after losing Ethan Jones's support..."

“Whoever gets the agency for Star Wars will have the upper hand in this war.”

"Once we angered Ethan Jones, it was no longer a fight between us and him."

"Because companies like Taito, Namco, and Bandai have all announced their official entry into the video game market in the past few years. They will be eager to chop off our heads and send them to Ethan Jones as a token of their loyalty..."

Imanishi Hiroshi's eyes flickered.

In his sight, Yamauchi Hiroshi, who was leaning on the sofa with his face up, looked a little decadent.

In fact, as early as last year when Hiroshi Yamauchi stated that Nintendo must obtain the licenses for 6502 and "Pac-Man", he was opposed to the advancement of the COLOR TV GAME project.

In his opinion, they could lose a little money in the early stages of this project to conceal their ambitions and exchange for a scene of eternal peace, but... Yamauchi Hiroshi denied his idea.

President Yamauchi at the time felt that no matter how great Ethan Jones was, he would not be able to launch a game better than Pac-Man, because a person's inspiration has a limit, and no matter how famous an artist is, it is impossible for him to make breakthroughs all his life.

They will definitely have their peak!

Lasts for a while at most!
Then it will inevitably go downhill!
But now?

"Special code!"

Yamauchi Hiroshi, who was leaning on the sofa, suddenly started cursing.

"Ethan Jones is a fucking monster!"

"What's up with his brain?"

“Why do his games sell better and better?”

“Why don’t we have artists like this?”

"what--"

Yamauchi Hiroshi clenched his right fist and slammed it hard on the sofa beside him.

The dull thud sound expressed his unwillingness.

In fact, when he learned that Ethan Jones had crushed Atari's New Generation and Magnus' Apollo in just three days, he wanted to kill the COLOR TV GAME project.

But unfortunately, it was too late.

The advertisement of COLOR TV GAME has been released. 6 units of 15 and have been produced and put in department stores in major cities in Japan. In addition to the tens of millions of dollars in payment for the goods, the loss caused by the temporary cancellation also includes a huge penalty from Mitsubishi. According to the five-fold compensation, plus the compensation from the advertisement and dealers, their losses will definitely exceed million...

Although they could afford the compensation and Yamauchi Hiroshi was willing to pay, the cancellation at that time would only make Ethan Jones feel that they were guilty!
and so……

Even if he had an expert hand in the book, he could only watch the machine being sold successfully!

The initial fluke made them a lot of money, but now...

How much do they have to pay for this profit?
Yamauchi Hiroshi didn't know.

But what he knew was—

"We have to give Ethan Jones an explanation now, right?"

Yamauchi Hiroshi, lying on his back, murmured.

"We can't let another company get him, can we?"

Hiroshi Imanishi said nothing, but Minoru Arakawa said, "Father-in-law, I want to ask you something. Can I know how correct Ethan Jones's guess is?"

"Puchi——" This question made Yamauchi Hiroshi laugh.

His whole body was still slumped there, but his head was lifted up by the force of his neck.

Those cloudy eyes were devoid of emotion, and the words that came out of his mouth were even colder.

"Is this important?" he asked.

"Of course." Arakawa nodded seriously, "If we hadn't done it before..."

"All."

Before he could finish, Yamauchi Hiroshi smiled and said:
"Ethan Jones is right. It was only after I received a call from Mi Luohua that I learned that Ethan Jones had the cheapest chip in the world."

"And I did learn about Ethan Jones's location from Milohua."

"Although Milova didn't tell me about their new console development plan at the time, I do know that Milova wanted to kill the Destiny game..."

"I called Ethan Jones to Kyoto because I wanted to help Mi Luohua!"

"Because Ethan Jones is too strong!"

"After seeing his game, I can't think of a way to deal with him!"

"But this kind of powerlessness must never appear in a shopping mall, you know?"

"If Ethan Jones dominates the entire North American gaming market with overwhelming force, then he will definitely come to deal with us next!"

"You should know why I say that, right?"

"If we, Nintendo, can clear the obstacles in our own market like him, then I will also raise the flag and try to occupy all overseas markets!"

"Besides, when I first met him! I already saw the light in his eyes!"

"And when he arrived in Tokyo—"

"He's standing in Akihabara! His pupils are filled with desire!"

"Since then, I knew that he actually wanted more!"

"So what we have to do is to keep him in North America! Let North American game companies continue to fight with him! So that we can get more time for development!"

"but--"

"Atari and MILO are two pieces of crap!!!"

"They are two pieces of shit!!!"

The hysterical roar caused the veins on Yamauchi Hiroshi's neck to bulge.

Her cheeks turned red instantly, and Arakawa Minoru lowered his head.

Although Yamauchi admitted everything, Arakawa did not think there was anything wrong.

Having been accustomed to business struggles since the day he was born, he understands that business is a place where winners take all. People only see the glory of the successful ones. As for others?

losers——

"So now we have to kneel down and beg for his forgiveness, right?"

Yamauchi Hiroshi stared at his son-in-law for a few seconds and sighed helplessly.

When he turned his attention to Hiroshi Imanishi, he asked, "What do you think Ethan Jones wants to be satisfied with? Money? Or an apology?"

“Why should we apologize?”

Imanishi Hiroshi said, "President, when did you do those things?"

"Those were accidents, and we've investigated them multiple times."

"We can't possibly apologize for an accident."

"Yes." Imanishi Hiroshi's question made Yamauchi Hiroshi laugh and nodded, "We at Nintendo never betray our allies. This is all an accident."

"So—" he asked.

"So we just discussed the cooperation with him normally," Hirofumi Imanishi said. "Like Pac-Man, we admire Star Wars very much. We want to get the agency of Star Wars. To this end, we are willing to revise the guaranteed shipment volume and profit sharing of Pac-Man."

"Everything that happened before is invalidated. The new plan now is to guarantee a minimum shipment of 150,000 units, with a profit margin of 20%, and a unit price of no less than 2,000 US dollars."

"In this way, their share of the profits can be increased from more than 20 million to a guaranteed minimum of 60 million."

"At the same time, we also need to sign an agency agreement with them for Star Wars, control the release of this movie to next year, and sign a minimum shipment guarantee of 200,000 arcade machines with a 20% commission. The price of each machine is no less than 2,000 US dollars."

"This deal can bring them at least 80 million in net profit."

"In these two transactions, we made a profit of 70 million."

"I believe this large sum of money can fully prove our innocence in the accident."

"At the same time, as a sign of sincerity, we also invite them to send a specialist to supervise."

"Ethan Jones has shares in the chip factory, right? Let him send a director and a supervisor to work directly. We at Nintendo have always been upright and are not afraid of any supervision."

Hiroshi Imanishi looked at Yamauchi Hiroshi with a smile.

Yamauchi Hiroshi turned his gaze to Arakawa Minoru.

The young man still lowered his head at this moment, and Hiroshi Imanishi hit him with his elbow.

"Ah?" Arakawa Minoru came back to his senses and looked up quickly.

Then he found that his father-in-law was looking at him with a smile.

"Arakawa, please make the trip for me..." said Yamauchi Hiroshi.

"If I can survive by kneeling, I will smash my knees for the future—"

"And all this—"

"I'll leave it to you—"

(End of this chapter)