Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 364 Computer Population Growth Strategy

While Morgan Stanley CEO John McMill was still hesitating, his rival Goldman Sachs CEO Paulson had already arrived in Tokyo.

Although Masato Takeshita was very optimistic about Paulson's future, he still arranged for Takamasa Kamoto to receive him this time.

Morgan Stanley has only declined slightly, not died out, and Xinghai Group is still not someone you can afford to offend.

Paulson was fully aware of everything that was happening in Tokyo, but he didn't think anything of it and happily attended the banquet.

However, not long after the welcoming banquet began, he tentatively asked Jia Benlongzheng a question.

"Can I meet with President Takeshita tomorrow?"

"Of course, Xinghai Group welcomes Goldman Sachs's visits at any time."

Kamoto Takamasa, having already received authorization from Takeshita Masato in this regard, responded with a straightforward smile.

And even if Paulson doesn't ask, the young man will meet with both Mike and Paulson separately in a few days.

Negotiations involving tens of thousands of dollars cannot be accomplished by using others as a front.

The meeting between the two was scheduled for the afternoon of the following day at the Xinghai Group headquarters.

"So, have we reached a consensus?"

"That's right, we're prepared to invest $15 billion this time."

"No problem, then let's keep this number from now on."

$15 billion is Masato Takeshita's psychological limit.

If it gets any higher, he'd rather risk everything.

Paulson paused for a moment, but quickly replied, "Okay, that's our company's idea too."

Although he felt some regret, it wasn't unacceptable.

Besides joint ventures, Goldman Sachs can also directly invest in Xinghai Investment's Zodiac Fund projects, much like pension institutions do.

You do earn a little less, but it's still more than other companies.

After the two parties reached an agreement, the next step was naturally to divide the money.

Because the cooperating fund had already completed the liquidation of its stock holdings, the two parties quickly finalized a new phase of cooperation.

$30 billion was re-injected into the fund, while the remaining $22 billion was divided into two parts.

Of the $20 billion, the two major investors, Masato Takeshita and Goldman Sachs, split the remainder equally, with each receiving $10 billion.

The remaining $2 million will be used as a bonus for Starsea Investment.

However, most of Xinghai Investment's employees are still managing the Zodiac Fund, so the bonuses will be paid out after some time.

After Starsea Group and Goldman Sachs reached a new cooperation agreement, John McMill immediately signaled for further negotiations.

Perhaps he was unsure of the investment amount and simply adopted a follow-the-leader strategy.

Because Goldman Sachs served as a model, the two parties quickly reached an agreement on the investment amount.

As for the rights and obligations that follow, the two sides were extremely hostile.

"Your lobbying group must help Starsea Investment fend off threats from Washington's political and economic circles."

"If anyone tries to cause trouble, we must suppress them immediately."

Morgan Stanley immediately denied Xinghai Group's outrageous demands.

"No, the conditions are too general and too absolute. We can only try our best to help you suppress the dissenting voices within Washington..."

"What do you mean by 'try your best'? Doesn't that mean there are no conditions?"

The two sides went back and forth, arguing endlessly, each trying to gain more benefits at the lowest cost.

However, Xinghai Group quickly gained the upper hand.

Xinghai Group holds the dominant position in establishing the joint venture fund.

The negotiations lasted a week, and John Mack finally made the decision to agree to a series of demands from the Star Sea Group.

The main point is to leverage Morgan Stanley's deep roots in both the political and economic spheres of Washington, D.C., to thwart potential malicious surveillance.

This protection extends not only to Xinghai Investment, but also to the entire Xinghai Group.

Of course, everything comes at a price.

When companies under the Xinghai Group other than Xinghai Investment seek assistance, they must share profits with Morgan Stanley.

With conditions similar to those of Goldman Sachs, Xinghai Group was not overly greedy.

Besides these overt benefits, another advantage Xinghai Investment will gain is greater anonymity in its investments. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs will collaborate to help Xinghai Investment conceal its investment activities.

Meanwhile, Xinghai Group's acquisition in the United States will proceed more smoothly.

For example, if Xinghai Group wanted to acquire Apple, it could successfully lobby them with a small amount of money.

"Happy cooperation!"

"That's right, it's a pleasure doing business with you!"

After signing the contracts, Masato Takeshita took the initiative to extend a friendly gesture, and Mike responded positively.

The relationship between the two companies will become closer, and there will be more cooperation.

After his attempt to find a powerful patron within the United States ended, Masato Takeshita's daily work returned to normalcy.

Later, feeling a bit bored, the young man went to Xinghai Entertainment again.

"How's the Tokyo Game Show going?"

"Of course, all manufacturers, including Nintendo and Sega, actively supported us, so it went very smoothly."

Rogers was delighted because the gaming industry finally had its own exhibition.

"Hmph, that brain-dead, shitty Las Vegas electronics show, I'm never going to suffer that torture again."

Rogers still feels a surge of anger when he thinks about how, a few years ago, all the game companies, including his own, were forcibly evicted from the Las Vegas Electronic Arts Show by the organizers when it rained, and had to set up tents on the street to exhibit.

However, it is thanks to this that Xinghai Games' idea of ​​holding a professional game exhibition was able to gain everyone's strong support.

Because of Nintendo and Sega, it felt even more like a disgrace.

"That's good." Masato Takeshita smiled with satisfaction, then asked curiously, "How are the venues for Sega and Nintendo arranged?"

Sega and Nintendo have been engaged in fierce competition worldwide for the past few years.

Last year alone, Nintendo secretly lobbied a very influential member of Congress and many Washington politicians, giving Sega a major setback.

"The two companies are next to each other and are in the best positions in the venue."

"Oh, that must be really interesting!"

The young people's curiosity grew even stronger, and they wanted to know what tricks the two companies had up their sleeves at the booth.

"Fortunately, it's still a state of both cooperation and competition."

Although Nintendo dealt Sega a harsh blow last year, the two companies quickly began an unprecedentedly close collaboration.

Yes, an unprecedented level of close collaboration.

The reason is simple: both companies are worried that Washington will gain control over the gaming industry.

Because of Nintendo's mistakes, Sega successfully captured about 50% of the North American console game market in the first half of the 1990s.

However, Sega's strategy to seize the North American game market also gave Nintendo an opportunity to defeat Sega.

Sega's games are filled with elements of blood and violence, drawing strong criticism from American media.

With just a push from Nintendo, they could ban a whole bunch of Sega games.

However, Nintendo soon realized that it had shot itself in the foot.

Because Washington was completely playing along, trying to take advantage of the nationwide media criticism of Sega games to gain final approval for the games.

Nintendo was caught off guard and quickly tried to mend its relationship with Sega. Because if the US government gained control over game approvals, Nintendo couldn't guarantee its games wouldn't be blocked.

Nintendo fears being targeted, and Sega is naturally even more afraid. This is because Sega's games are far more gory and violent than Nintendo's, including some that are shockingly 18+.

Keep in mind that this was in the 90s, when the entire gaming industry was very conservative.

Subsequently, the two companies joined forces with all medium and large-scale game developers to develop a more explicit game rating system based on Sega's game rating system.

Yes, the game rating system was first established by Sega.

However, Sega at the time only used the rating system as a cover and didn't really take it seriously.

Now that Washington is taking this seriously, game companies like Sega will naturally have to formally implement this game rating system.

It's better to review games ourselves than for the government to do it.

However, after the game review system was established, the two companies resumed their competition, each wanting to become the leader in the North American game market.

"That's it, then I understand."

Takeshita Masato felt it was a pity that he missed many opportunities to watch the excitement.

"By the way, the Los Angeles Game Show is scheduled for January next year, right?"

"That's right, they'll likely achieve even greater success over there, and the battle between the two sides will be even more exciting."

Although Japan was the center of the gaming world in the 1990s, the competition was actually more brutal in the United States.

The main reason is that Nintendo almost monopolizes the Japanese console game market, while the US market is a two-way battle.

Competition inevitably leads to greater bloodshed.

"I think so too. It's a pity I can't go and participate."

"Well, there will be a suitable opportunity."

Rogers didn't know what to say, so he could only offer a dry word of comfort.

"Well, let me borrow your good words."

Masato Takeshita enjoys playing games and is quite interested in things like game exhibitions.

But if he goes now, he'll only be a minor character at the game show, watching Sega and Nintendo take center stage.

He naturally had no interest in participating.

After discussing the game expo, Masato Takeshita quickly steered the conversation to his company's PC game division.

This is a market that Xinghai Games has the opportunity to monopolize, and it must be given high priority.

Of course, the monopoly here refers to the monopoly of the Japanese PC game market.

The North American PC gaming market is too large, with numerous game companies, and Starry Sky Games holds a dominant position. Unlike Japan, where there are few other significant PC game developers besides Starry Sky Games.

"How is the PC gaming division doing now? I mean, in Japan."

There's absolutely no need to worry about the PC gaming division in North America. With legends like Carmack at the helm, Starsea Games is the undisputed king of the North American PC gaming market.

The situation is different in Japan; Starry Sea Games needs to continuously nurture and develop talent there.

Masato Takeshita has big ambitions; he wants to develop the Japanese PC game market to a level that can rival the console game market.

At least it can't be like in my previous life, where I was completely relegated to a minor role in console games.

"The progress is obvious, with some games already selling over a million copies."

"Oh, what game is it?"

Takeshita Masato's interest was piqued, because in his previous life, the best-selling PC single-player game in Japan barely reached 50 copies.

"Doom Warrior".

"It's the Doom Slayer! It seems our internet cafe promotion strategy is working."

"Yes, after Xinghai Internet Cafe appeared, our PC game sales increased several times."

The market needs to be nurtured. In its previous life, the Japanese PC game market was weak, mainly because the overall PC environment was very poor.

Most college students only encounter computers for the first time after starting work, and they are very unfamiliar with using them.

This life is different. Under the guidance of Xinghai Internet Cafe, countless people are able to access computers earlier and become familiar with them.

"Is that so? Indeed, the best way to increase PC game sales is to increase the number of PC users in Japan."

"Indeed, as the chairman said, expanding the number of PC users is the foundation of everything."

Rogers greatly admired Masato Takeshita's Starry Sky Internet Cafe development strategy, which greatly expanded the gaming population.

Many people who didn't play games before started playing games through Xinghai Internet Cafe.

At that moment, a sudden inspiration flashed in Masato Takeshita's mind.

"What do you think would happen if a company prioritized computer skills in its hiring decisions?"

There is no such thing as an entirely bad thing in the world, and bad things can, in a sense, turn into good things.

The same applies to the previous competition between Sega and Nintendo over gore and violence, and now to the current employment slump for Japanese university students.

Once the Xinghai Group establishes a policy of prioritizing the recruitment of university students with computer skills, countless Japanese university students will begin to study computers.

Because in the fierce competition, even if they can gain the slightest advantage, everyone will choose to complete the task.

This will lead to a larger PC gaming population in the future.

"I think this is acceptable."

Rogers hesitated for a moment, but under Masato Takeshita's gaze, he finally agreed.

Although university life in Japan is more demanding, learning more computer skills is indeed very useful.

"Okay, that's settled."

Masato Takeshita plans to disseminate the new recruitment rules of the Xinghai Group throughout Japan through media such as television, newspapers, and schools.

Starsea Games needs a large enough PC user base in Japan, and Starsea Group needs the same.

"Will it be implemented this year?"

"No, let's start next year. Let's leave it at that for this year."

Starting now is too sudden; we need to give everyone some time to prepare.

"This is indeed better, as it will not cause confusion among university students."

"Yes, it's better to play it safe, these are extraordinary times."

Both of them were very confident that Xinghai Group's new recruitment policy would encourage university students to collectively learn computer skills.

The reason is simple: Xinghai Group's recruitment scale has been expanding year by year.

The number of Japanese university students recruited in the second half of this year may even exceed 10% of the total number of university students in Japan.

With such a large proportion, no college student would dare to ignore Xinghai Group's recruitment rules.

This is especially true for students from ordinary backgrounds.

Because Xinghai Group not only recruits a large number of college graduates, but also doesn't have many people with connections.

Unlike other large companies, this one not only has a small recruitment scale, but also has half of its positions taken up by people with connections.

It can only be said that young companies that are still in a phase of rapid expansion are better for recent graduates.

With a new idea to expand the number of PC users, Masato Takeshita did not linger at Xinghai Entertainment.

He needed to get back to his office as soon as possible to jot down the inspiration that had suddenly flashed into his mind.

In addition, you should also inform the personnel, publicity and other departments, as well as your own secretary, about the new regulations for next year.

His memory is only at an average level; he'll easily forget it next year.

(End of this chapter)