Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 424 The Opportunity Has Arrived!

"That's good, but we can't sacrifice quality in pursuit of speed."

If Thailand was the model project for PHS (Personal Handyphone System) technology, then China was the ultimate destination.

If problems arise, it will greatly affect the development speed of PHS (Personal Handyphone System).

"Please rest assured, Chairman, our people are keeping a close eye on the project and will resolve any problems as soon as possible."

Kenji Ono knew very well that Xinghai Communications needed to rely on the performance of Xiaolingtong (a type of mobile phone service) to grow and expand.

Therefore, he directly sent his deputy to China to oversee the overall situation, and he himself also frequently went to China for inspections.

He wouldn't allow a serious accident to occur in China's PHS (Personal Handyphone System) project.

"We must maintain this attitude and build our largest PHS (Personal Handyphone System) base."

"Yes, understand."

PHS (Personal Handyphone System) was important, but the exploration of 3G was equally important.

Therefore, after thoroughly understanding his own PHS (Personal Handyphone System) business, Masato Takeshita couldn't wait to inquire about the company's development of CDMA technology.

“We are already the leader in CDMA technology, and in many aspects we have even surpassed Qualcomm. But in some core areas, we are still far behind Qualcomm.”

Qualcomm began researching CDMA communication technology very early on, as early as the mid-to-late 80s.

Xinghai Communications is a new company established in the 1990s. Although it is backed by the super giant Xinghai Group, it is still inferior to the established giants in many aspects.

Of course, Qualcomm's lead isn't by much either.

After all, in terms of investment, Xinghai Communications can far surpass Qualcomm.

Masato Takeshita knew this, so he smiled and gently comforted him.

"Oh, that's alright. Why don't we just continue to increase our investment elsewhere?"

"Continue to increase investment?"

"That's right, keep increasing the stakes."

It's just money; Xinghai Group has never lacked it.

The young man needs his company to reach the same level as Qualcomm in the field of communications; he doesn't want to be restricted in the future.

As they chatted, it became lunchtime.

This time, Masato Takeshita did not choose to stay, but returned to the group headquarters.

He has something to do in the afternoon and can't take up too much time.

"Rogers-san, is something the matter?"

After buying lunch at the headquarters cafeteria, Masato Takeshita looked at the group's first vice president, who had suddenly sat down opposite him, with some surprise.

What's so urgent that you can't wait until you've finished eating?

"I have something to take care of. Do you have time this afternoon, Chairman?"

Rogers didn't really want to bother his chairman during dinner, but he had no choice; he had something important, yet not so important, that he needed to consult with the chairman privately.

However, the chairman has been away from the group headquarters most of the time these days. Since we finally managed to run into him today, we naturally had to make the most of the time to avoid him suddenly leaving again.

"Yes, I'm not planning to go out this afternoon."

"That's great! President, please eat first, we'll talk later."

"OK, let's set it for 3 p.m., in my office."

After lunch and a short nap, Rogers arrived at his office right on time.

"Enter!"

Masato Takeshita first gestured to Miho Uchida, who was knocking on the door, to bring Rogers in, and then gave the instructions.

"Brew a pot of hot tea and get some snacks."

"Yes, President!"

After the black tea and snacks were delivered, Miho Uchida respectfully left the room, and then Rogers began to explain the purpose of his visit.

"Chairman, are you aware of the situation between Square and Nintendo?"

Square Enix? What, did they offend Nintendo?

Although Square has grown into an important third-party game developer for Nintendo, it is still not enough to compete with Starsea Group.

Let alone comparing it to Xinghai Technology and its subsidiaries under Xinghai Life, it's completely incomparable to even other companies under Xinghai Entertainment, such as Xinghai Games, Xinghai Music, and Xinghai Films.

Yes, Square Enix's current position is indeed that weak.

The flagship Final Fantasy series has only reached its sixth installment, and it can't compare to Starsea Games' "Soviet Blocks" and Street Fighter series at all.

As for Xinghai Music and Xinghai Films, which were once very weak under the same company.

One made a comeback with Tetsuya Komuro's electronic music, while the other made a fortune with Hideaki Anno's "Neon Genesis Evangelion".

Therefore, aside from the year-end financial report, Masato Takeshita paid no attention to this company at all.

However, he instantly recalled the story of the two companies from his previous life, and a look of sudden realization appeared on his face.

"Could it be that Square Enix is ​​planning to switch sides with Sony's PlayStation console?"

Square Enix's past entanglements with Nintendo and Sony can be described as a classic scene in the console wars.

Square Enix, which Nintendo relied heavily on, initially thought Nintendo's new console was inadequate and decided to develop games using Sony's console.

Then Nintendo felt offended and decided to teach Square a lesson.

Square Enix really suffered. Games that could have made money were sold off because Nintendo dumped them at a loss, leading players to mistakenly believe the products were bad, resulting in a sharp drop in sales.

When the results came out, Square was naturally very angry. After all, their profitable business had lost money because of Nintendo, and they made up their minds to break with their former benefactor and switch to Sony.

As for Nintendo, its supposedly drastic measure of making an example of someone has backfired spectacularly.

Which game company isn't afraid that Nintendo might suddenly pull this stunt on them too?
Therefore, after other game companies discovered that Nintendo was breaking the rules, they began to unite more closely around Sony.

Sony effortlessly gained a large number of game developers who had long been envious of Nintendo.

"Yes, that's it. Mr. Yamauchi even called to ask me what happened."

Rogers and Hiroshi Yamauchi were good friends and often drank together.

This sudden move by Square Enix naturally prompted Hiroshi Yamauchi to inquire about the situation on Rogers' side.

"I don't think there's a solution to this. Nintendo's new console isn't very good, and Starsea Games is also considering switching to Sony."

"Is there really no way to fix this?"

"There's no other way; most of our company's games are developed for the PlayStation console."

Masato Takeshita also wanted to support Nintendo, but Nintendo's new console was no match for Sony's.

From a business perspective, he would naturally prefer his companies to work with Sony, which could bring him greater profits, in game development.

"Alright, looks like I'll just have to go to Nintendo for drinks a few more times."

The two had talked about the PS game console before, and he knew that Sony was coming in with great force this time.

Rogers came here just to give it a try.

If it doesn't work, then forget it.

But he can let it go; it won't work on Masato Takeshita's side.

Of course, the young man was going to talk about something else.

"How's the situation with Gunpei Yokoi now?"

"We are still negotiating with Nintendo, but we have seen the first signs of progress."

Although the VR project failed mainly because Hiroshi Yamauchi rushed to launch it when it was still a half-finished product, the president of the Japanese company never takes the blame.

Therefore, it is natural that Gunpei Yokoi is responsible for the project's failure.

He had already offended most of Nintendo's top executives, including Shigeru Miyamoto, by opposing Nintendo's strategy of pursuing high-performance consoles.

After this incident, even the president of the company, Hiroshi Yamauchi, who had always trusted him, chose to abandon him.

Gunpei Yokoi, this genius, can no longer stay at Nintendo. "Speed ​​up. If Nintendo keeps dragging its feet, then talk to Gunpei Yokoi himself more."

Next came the era of Sony, and the Starsea Group could easily bear the consequences of poaching Gunpei Yokoi and offending Nintendo.

At worst, we can just stop selling all games through Nintendo.

"understand!"

Rogers knew that his boss was really serious, and he couldn't help but feel sad for his friend.

"Sigh, it seems like Nintendo's new console is in serious trouble."

Rogers was smart; he understood what the chairman meant.

Since the chairman is almost never wrong in making major decisions, the only possibility is that the future of Nintendo's consoles is not very bright.

If Nintendo remains the dominant force in the gaming industry, its chairman is unlikely to choose to offend a talented individual.

Although Square's move to Sony suited the young man's wishes, he still decided to give Hironobu Itaguchi and others a warning.

That's incredibly audacious. They didn't even inform their superiors about such a major decision as replacing the computer.

Even if he gave Square sufficient autonomy, it shouldn't have been so disorganized and undisciplined.

Masato Takeshita was worried that one day he might act first and ask questions later to produce a Final Fantasy movie.

After a brief exchange of words, Masato Takeshita summoned Kalinsky, the president of Seikai Entertainment, to his office.

"How's work going?"

"It went very smoothly, much better than at Sega."

When Sega is mentioned, Kalinsky looks speechless.

The company was plagued by internal strife, which resulted in the new mainframe being severely uncompetitive.

But it doesn't matter anymore; he has escaped his misery and arrived at a place where he can fully display his talents.

"That's good."

Takeshita Masato smiled and nodded, then said in a gentle tone.

"Now that the company has been reorganized, let's take action. I hope to hear good news about the successful acquisition of Bandai in the second half of this year."

"Yes, President!"

Bandai's Gundam IP and its toy and merchandise manufacturing capabilities are a crucial element that Xinghai Entertainment greatly needs.

Even if it comes at a great cost, we must complete it.

"Oh, right, there's one more thing. Do you think early education toys have any potential?"

"Hmm, I feel it should be pretty good, but we still need to conduct data surveys."

Karins basically felt that there was a good market for early childhood education toys, but he wasn't the kind of person who acted on instinct.

He needs to gather more information to confirm the project's prospects.

"Okay, then it's up to you. If it shows promise, we'll start a toy company."

"It can not only create new profit points for the company, but also demonstrate our operational capabilities in the toy industry to Bandai."

Like other toy companies, Bandai has encountered a development bottleneck.

That's why Bandai has focused its attention on electronic products, especially in-game electronic products.

However, Bandai really doesn't have much talent in this area; both the game consoles they released themselves and those they released in collaboration with other companies were terrible.

For example, the game console launched this year in collaboration with Apple will be hung on the pillar of shame by future generations.

As the saying goes, "every industry is like a mountain," and only a very small number of enterprise-level professionals can excel in various industries.

"Yes, President!"

How could one toy company be enough? So the young man started talking about another major toy manufacturer.

"You should also pay close attention to LEGO toys from Denmark. After acquiring Bandai, LEGO will be our second company."

Lego, the leading giant in the toy industry for generations to come.

But for now, it ranks behind Mattel, which owns Barbie, and Hasbro, which owns Transformers.

This company, too, was thrown into disarray by the toy industry's stagnation crisis. They engaged in a whole host of haphazard business ventures.

"Lego, the company that sells polka dot toys?"

"Yes, I think Dot Toys has a lot of potential."

At that time, LEGO didn't think that dot toys had a future.

But that's normal. Who would have thought that a toy type that has lost its patent could win the almost fanatical brand support of adults?
"Lego isn't a publicly traded company, so it's unlikely we'll have a chance, right?"

“There might not have been an opportunity before, but now the toy industry is in a period of stagnation.”

When a company reaches a bottleneck in its development, even if it is a privately held, unlisted company, the owners are willing to try more things.

Furthermore, Xinghai Group will not swallow it all at once; it will leave 30% of the shares to the original shareholders.

The same applies to Bandai.

Be a man to stay on the line and meet each other in the future.

"Understood, I will try my best."

"Yes, no need to rush, we have plenty of time to wait."

This downturn in the toy industry will continue into the 21st century.

Lego can stick to its principles for one or two years, but can it stick to its principles for five years, or even ten years?

If it's really possible, then Xinghai Group will have no choice but to give up.

At worst, Xinghai Entertainment can also establish a dot-dot building block project department, and then focus on the adult building toy market, thus taking over the track that LEGO's predecessor once occupied.

Anyway, this thing isn't patented, so anyone can make it.

After talking about toys, Kalinsky couldn't help but turn the conversation to the game industry, which he loves.

"With Xinghai Entertainment's strength, have they never thought about making their own game consoles?"

“I’ve thought about it, but I don’t think the timing is right. I’m going to look for an opportunity to acquire Sega directly.”

If something already exists, there's no need to develop it from scratch. It's a waste of money and you're likely to be criticized for being foolish and wasteful.

"Sega is indeed a very good choice."

Sega was poor, and it was somewhat powerless to compete with Nintendo or Sony.

However, Sega has a rich history and can easily achieve development by resolving its internal strife.

"Yes, then you can enjoy the joy of turning the tables and becoming the master."

Kalinsky responded to his chairman's jokes with a similar joking response.

"Alright, then I'll send all those who spoke ill of me to Ryukyu."

“No problem, you are the president of Xinghai Entertainment.”

Faced with the young man's serious response, Kalinsky seemed to lose his composure.

"No, no, no, I don't want to be called a sly person who has achieved his goal."

Kalinsky is kind-hearted and would never do something like destroying a competitor.

That's why he quietly withdrew from the company during its fierce internal power struggle, instead of joining in to fight for power.

That's just my innate personality.

The two had a very pleasant conversation, so when it was time for dinner, he sincerely invited them to eat.

"Come on, let's eat and chat."

Kalinsky naturally didn't object. He stood up, straightened his clothes, and then said with a smile.

"No problem, I'm actually a little hungry."

(End of this chapter)