America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 322 Trying to undermine the foundation only resulted in digging up the ground itself.

"Ichima, wanna grab a drink after get off work?"

Kodama Mitsuo, carrying his briefcase, gently patted the young man in the seat.

Kujo Kazuma, an unknown developer.

He was a colleague of IREM, but not in the same development team.

Most Japanese companies have this structure.

"Mitsuo————"

Kujo Kazuma knew who was speaking without even turning around, and paused for a moment while packing his things.

He has recently heard many unpleasant rumors circulating about him.

"After Nishiyama-senpai and Tsujimoto-senpai left, IREM really became quite deserted —"

"Shh!"

Upon hearing this, Kodama Mitsuo quickly put his arm around his shoulder and leaned closer to make a shushing gesture.

If the Seven-Tailed Electric Generators heard this, they'd probably give him a piece of their mind.

The talent poaching war between Capcom and SNK is now raging, and the intensification of factional conflicts has reached a point where they are almost irreconcilable.

In a sense, this is a family conflict.

The twins born to Irm are now fighting tooth and nail over the inheritance.

Meanwhile, IREM, caught in the middle, has also been having a tough time these days.

"Mitsuo————"

Kazuma Kujo pulled his hand away from Mitsuo's and looked at him earnestly. "You don't need to hide it anymore, I've already heard. Nishiyama-senpai sent you an invitation, right?"

Takashi Nishiyama, once the glue that held IREM together, a man who straddled the line between Capcom and SNK.

Kazuma Kujo has recently been hearing rumors that "another person is going to be poached."

Based on Guang Sheng's recent somewhat unusual behavior, he could guess the general idea.

Mitsuo will probably be switching to SNK soon.

Kodama Mitsuo did not answer him immediately, but responded with a long silence.

But that is already the answer.

Kujo Kazuma sighed.

"Never mind, I—I also have plans with friends tonight, so I won't go."

"You bastard—"

Roppongi, Minato Ward, Tokyo.

The Chiyoda area where IREM is located is in Tokyo, just like Roppongi, and they are not too far apart.

Kujo Kazuma, carrying a briefcase, walked into a rather quiet izakaya (Japanese pub) that wasn't very big.

Following instructions, he knocked on the door of the private room.

"Please come in."

The response came from a young voice, causing Kujo Kazuma to pause slightly.

He ran his fingers through his hair, then steeled himself and gently opened the door.

There was only one young man in the room, wearing square-framed glasses, who was even younger than himself.

"You—you must be Mr. Satoshi Tajiri?"

Kujo Kazuma swallowed hard, matching the person in front of him with the image in his memory.

It was indeed him.

Satoshi Tajiri, President of GameFreak and head of GAMENOVA's distribution in Japan.

Not long ago, he received a letter from the other party, hoping to invite him to Roppongi for a meeting.

Honestly, when he first saw the contents of the letter, Kujo Kazuma almost fainted from excitement.

This is obviously the best possible sign!

Even if it's not poaching, it must be some form of cooperation intention.

If this matter can be brought to fruition, it would be a great honor for me.

GAMENOVA was a video game miracle in North America.

"Yes, please sit down."

Ash adopted a senior's demeanor, gesturing for Kazuma Kujo to sit down casually.

Several skewers of yakitori and saury were grilling on the stove, and a bottle of sake was placed next to them.

Unlike the luxurious and upscale restaurants I had imagined, this was more like a typical dinner gathering for office workers after get off work.

However, Kazuma Kujo didn't dare to relax so easily and obediently sat down opposite Satoshi.

What has IREM been busy with lately?

Seeing that he had already sat down, Satoshi Tajiri casually asked, and picked up a sizzling skewer of yakitori.

"Uh—it's just the usual stuff, all sorts of arcade games."

Kazuma answered, but then felt he had been too simplistic and perhaps impolite, so he added, forcing himself to stay calm, "Capcom and SNK are getting increasingly aggressive in their poaching efforts; many of IREM's core developers have left."

Everyone wants to recruit more outstanding developers to their side as quickly as possible.

"The people at Nanao Electric — they only care about the production and sales of arcade games, and don't care much about development."

Kujo Kazuma said a lot in one breath, but these were all things that could be easily investigated, so it couldn't be considered a leak.

"Um----"

Xiao Zhi nodded and finished the skewer in his hand.

Kujo Kazuma understood immediately and poured him a cup of sake.

Having spent a long time with Lin Lixin, Xiao Zhi has now developed his own strategy for showing off.

Simply throw out the name of Gamenova, then put on airs of being a senior and create a sense of grandeur—it always works.

In particular, they could also enjoy yakitori and heavy drinking at public expense.

Wow, that's really wonderful.

"Ahem, IREM was a good company, at least it used to be."

"However, a good company doesn't necessarily mean it can make good games."

"A common problem with large corporations is that a project requires a risk assessment first, followed by layers of approvals—and even after all the formalities are completed, there's no guarantee that much development resources will be allocated."

"By the time the project is actually implemented, the final product is no longer what I wanted."

"Kujo-san, have you ever considered—perhaps trying a different work environment?"

coming!

Kujo Kazuma's heart suddenly raced.

Although he had already guessed on the way here, he only truly felt the reality when the other party brought it up.

Mr. Satoshi Tajiri is right; IREM does indeed suffer from this problem.

A cumbersome administrative system and chaotic factionalism.

It's incredibly difficult to focus on your own work here.

In contrast, GAMENOVA doesn't care about ROI, development costs, or project timeline at all.

Once they come up with an idea, they'll stop at nothing to use incredible resources to bring it to fruition.

It's as if they make games purely for fun.

"What does Tajiri-senpai mean—?"

Although he understood what the other party meant, Tajiri Satoshi didn't say it explicitly, so he had to pretend not to understand.

Sega's newly established AM10 10th Development Team is short of a director.

"Huh? Sega?"

Kujo Kazuma's wildly beating heart suddenly stopped for a moment.

How could it be Sega??

"Change in shareholding structure —"

Kazuma Kujo suddenly remembered the big-name battle between Sega and Nintendo that had been making headlines recently.

Since that battle, Sega has never recovered, and its stock price has been nearly destroyed.

It is said that the major shareholder CSK has cashed out and run away, leaving behind a mess.

As another arcade giant in Japan, Sega, a true top player, has always been IREM's strictest father.

Naturally, the company paid a lot of attention to them.

However, Kazuma Kujo himself wasn't particularly interested in this area and didn't know much about it.

Looking back now, he did indeed hear things like "GAMENOVA invested and took over a 20% stake."

"The world has changed!"

"What do you mean? Do it or not?"

"6

""

Kujo Kazuma remained silent for a moment.

Switching to GAMENOVA and switching to Sega are completely different concepts.

Although it now seems to be a company in the GAMENOVA camp.

But Sega's system was chaotic—even more so than IRM.

He didn't know anything about President Hayao Nakayama, only that Sega was completely defeated in the video game field compared to Nintendo.

Could I have been sent there to bail out Sega and clean up their mess?

but----

With the departure of key members, coupled with the shrinking arcade market and internal management problems, IREM is now in a much worse state than Sega.

Staying at IREM is truly an uncertain future.

He gritted his teeth and finally made up his mind.

Sega may have a bleak future, but it still has Gamenova behind it.

Rather than slowly committing suicide here, waiting for a poaching invitation from Capcom or SNK that may never come, it's better to take a gamble.

"I'll do it!"

"Hey, well done!"

Tajiri Satoshi suddenly relaxed, a smile appearing on his face. "Now that things are settled, let's have a drink to celebrate. President Hayashi is paying for it."

After a few rounds of drinks, Satoshi Tajiri reached out and patted Kazuma Kujo on the shoulder.

"By the way, do you have any other suitable candidates to recommend? The current AM10 is just an empty shell."

"Recommend? Hmm—"

Kazuma Kujo frowned and pondered for a moment. A familiar figure appeared in his mind: "Mitsunari Kodama, he's a very talented art and UI designer."

"Alright, your task is to bring him over too. Oh, and Akio, and Atsushi Kurogane too—"

Satoshi Tajiri rattled off a long list of names in one breath, leaving Kazuma Kujo wide-eyed.

This is fucking—

This is practically taking away the few remaining core development teams from IREM!

Without these guys, IREM can officially declare that it has completely lost its development capabilities.

However, considering that the other party was representing GAMENOVA, such a large-scale gesture is quite normal.

"Tajiri-senpai—if that's the case, I have another suitable candidate."

"Who?"

"Takashi Nishiyama of SNK."

The original Metal Slug was not actually developed by SNK in a strict sense.

Its true creator is a game studio called Nazca.

Its members are a group of geniuses who refuse to be mediocre.

They resolutely left the chaotic world of IREM and together founded this company.

It wasn't until the huge success of Metal Slug that the Nazca development team was acquired by SNK and became one of their teams.

The members of Nazca are the core developers from the neutral factions who survived the talent war at IREM.

Men.

Kazuma Kujo, the developer of R-Type;

Atsushi Kurokawa, who will be involved in the production of Bayonetta in the future;

Akio, the legendary art director and the soul artist of Metal Slug —

A brand new development team has gathered at Sega to make this a great event.

After discussion, it was decided that this AM10 10th Development Group would be officially named "Nazca Studio".

Their first task was to collaborate with the legendary GAMENOVA, located on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, to develop a new game called Metal Slug.

IREM's president stared at the stack of resignation letters on the table, lost in thought.

I remember I had a development department?

In the blink of an eye, how did his own company get undermined?

While Capcom and SNK have poached one or two people from time to time in the past, they have never gone this far.

-

"Is it Capcom or SNK? Who on earth is so despicable?!"

This is a damn scheme to wipe out any descendants; it's utterly unethical.

Beside him, his assistant licked his lips, hesitated for a long time, and then timidly spoke up: "President—it wasn't President Kenzo Tsujimoto and President Yoshihiko Takado who did it—"

"Who the hell is that?! Who could possibly have this kind of money? Could it be Gamenova?"

"It really is—"

"."

C