The Final Preparations

There was a knock on the office door.

"Enter."

The door opened.

Hattori strode in and closed the door behind him.

He walked straight to the water dispenser, filled two cups with warm water, and gulped them down.

The Adam's apple moves up and down.

After finishing his water, Hattori crumpled the paper cup and threw it into the wastebasket.

He walked to the guest chair in front of the desk, sat down, and loosened his tie.

"The talks broke down?" Nakayama Takuya picked up his coffee cup and took a sip.

"It collapsed completely." Hattori exhaled a breath of stale air. "Ms. Watsuki showed no mercy whatsoever. She slammed her bag down, knocked the door, and left. Executive Director Osaki's hand was still raised in mid-air, his face turning green."

Nakayama Takuya put down his coffee cup and leaned back.

Where is Miyahara?

"Sit in my chair, sweating profusely, I couldn't utter a single word for a long time." Hattori recalled the scene in the conference room and sneered, "No matter how shrewd their plans were, without the original author's signature, all their previous preparations were just a pile of waste paper. Dentsu and TBS are going to have a headache now; just explaining the reason for the scheduling conflict to those potential sponsors will be enough to give them a hard time."

Nakayama Takuya didn't reply, but simply reached for the cigar box on the table and pushed it in front of Hattori.

Hattori pulled out a match, struck it, and lit it.

He exhaled a puff of blue smoke.

"President, speaking of which," Rurouni Kenshin said, a cigar between his Hattori, his brow slightly furrowed, "We invested a considerable amount in the Rurouni Kenshin project in the early stages. Sega Galaxy's legal department negotiated the framework, and the Planning Department contacted the action choreography team in Hong Kong Island. Now it's just been put on hold indefinitely. To say I'm not at all disappointed would be a lie."

Nakayama Takuya chuckled softly.

He picked up the report faxed from North America and casually tossed it to Hattori.

The report flew through the air in an arc before landing steadily on the coffee table.

Hattori leaned forward, picked up the report, and opened it.

"A report from Sega of America?" Hattori glanced at the title. "StarCraft?"

"Blizzard's new game. Two weeks after release." Nakayama Takuya held up three fingers. "Sales have exceeded 300,000. This is just the beginning. The most crucial thing is the Battle.net registration data."

Hattori's fingers, which were flipping through the reports, stopped.

The active user curve above shows an extremely steep upward trend.

"Silicon Valley Online provides them with the underlying support," Nakayama Takuya, his fingers interlaced on his lap. "Matchmaking is extremely fast, disconnections are almost nonexistent, and they can accurately pick opponents of similar skill levels. Now, university dormitories and internet cafes across America are all staying up all night Wired."

Hattori immediately realized what was happening.

He knew all too well how terrifying the cash flow could be generated by a highly social and engaging online game.

Three hundred thousand copies, plus the long-term player retention.

This is a gold mine that can never be fully exploited.

"The live-action ' Rurouni Kenshin ' drama series being cancelled is no big deal," Nakayama Takuya said calmly. "Dentsu insists on circumventing the rules, let them play their game. Sega Galaxy doesn't need to fight those old fogies at the TV station."

Hattori put the report back on the coffee table and flicked off his cigarette ash.

"Then our focus will be on --"

"Continue to expand our core base." Nakayama Takuya stood up, walked to the whiteboard, and picked up Mark.

He wrote "StarCraft" on the whiteboard, followed immediately by "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and "Neon Yu-Gi-Oh!".

"While the gaming business is leading the charge, Sega Galaxy's mission is to completely fill the gaps in these IPs."

Nakayama Takuya turned around and pointed at Hattori with Mark.

"StarCraft is a hit, so we can immediately find top science fiction authors in North America to write official background novels. We can also set up dedicated discussion forums for the tournament on Silicon Valley Online's portal and various leading industry BBS forums."

Hattori nodded repeatedly, his thoughts wandering far and wide.

"This applies not only to North America but also to domestic IPs." Nakayama Takuya tossed Mark onto the table. "We have ample budgets and generous payment terms. Sega Galaxy will recruit various animation, comic, and novel production teams to continuously enrich the derivative content of these IPs. We want our audience to constantly have choices within our product line."

When I'm not playing games, I go to buy novels.

When I'm not reading novels, I turn to watching anime.

While browsing offline stores, I casually bought a few IP-related figurines.

All-around, no blind spots.

One or two traditional TV stations and rigid advertising agencies are simply not enough to hold Sega back.

Hattori stubbed out his cigar in the ashtray and straightened up.

"I understand. Since Dentsu doesn't want to get on board, let them watch helplessly from the shore. Sega Galaxy holds so many heavyweight IPs; any one of them could be picked for derivative development, and the profits would far exceed those from a compromised late-night drama."

"Go and get it done." Nakayama Takuya waved his hand. "I'll have Sega of America transfer the rights to the StarCraft novels and comics to you later. Find a few reliable partners, and you need to act fast. Take advantage of the hype and launch a full-scale expansion into the North America market."

Hattori readily agreed, picked up the documents on the table, turned around, and strode out of the office.

It was mid-April at Sega Headquarters in Tokyo.

The computer tower emitted a low hum, and two unread encrypted emails popped up on the monitor screen.

Nakayama Takuya gripped the scroll mouse and opened his inbox.

The senders were Terauchi, who was in charge of the East Asia manufacturing system, and Hatano, who was in California.

The division of labor, which was decided in the conference room on the 19th floor two weeks ago, has finally been put into practice at the data level.

The first email came from Terauchi.

The report was extremely detailed, listing the schedules for five core contract manufacturers in Shenzhen and two special component production lines in Japan.

Over the past two weeks, the East Asia Division has repurposed seven surface mount production lines originally used for regular peripherals, converting them entirely to produce the GP2 core substrate and the programming motherboards for the Pokémon Pokéwalker. Thanks to the timely allocation of expedited subsidies from the headquarters' supply chain special fund, the contract manufacturers are operating on a 12-hour shift system. As of 6 PM yesterday, all 750,000 sets of high-density LCD screen modules and control chips have completed factory testing, with an overall yield rate of 97.3%.

At the end of the email, Terauchi included a brief memo. "The first batch of 300,000 semi-finished products was loaded onto a ship at Kwai Chung Terminal in Hong Kong this Tuesday, destined for Port of Long Beach via the Pacific Ocean route, and is expected to clear customs next Monday. Another 200,000 expedited core boards were flown directly to Los Angeles via FedEx charter flight, and ground handover was completed last night. Our flexible production capacity pool in East Asia has been established, and as long as there are no shortages in the raw material supply chain, we can maintain an output pace of 400,000 sets per week. Furthermore, the special advance from the headquarters Finance Department has been fully offset against the mold modification costs of the contract manufacturer, and the East Asia Division's book profit for this quarter has not been affected by abnormal amortization."

Nakayama Takuya scrolled the mouse wheel, closed the emails in the Terauchi, and opened the reply from Hatano in San Jose.

Hatano's email style was completely different; the text was concise, and the words conveyed a sense of relief, as if he had just climbed out of the mud.

President:

The chaos in Tijuana has been completely reversed.

According to the plan determined at the meeting, we completely dismantled the high-precision Patch and soldering stations in the Mexico plant area, and replaced the original...

The factory was renovated into eight modular assembly lines and three fully automated plastic sealing packaging lines.

Now Mexico workers only need to do three things: stuff the core module, which was airlifted from East Asia, into the injection-molded casing, tighten the four screws on the back cover, insert the button battery and English instruction manual, and box it up.

After the process was simplified, the workers' operating speed more than doubled. Yesterday, Tijuana's daily assembly line produced more than 45,000 sets, and the first-time power-on test pass rate of the products rebounded from 84% two weeks ago to 98.7%. Union representatives no longer organize protests on the grounds of complex processes.

The first batch of 200,000 Pokémon Electronic Pet, delivered by air, was fully packaged by 6:00 AM this morning and is currently being transported in batches across the Otay Mesa border crossing by 80 container trucks.

The supply shortage in major North America channels has been effectively alleviated.

Best Buy's logistics manager withdrew his previous claim for delay this morning and proactively emptied the shelf space originally scheduled to arrive next week. Walmart has confirmed that the first batch of goods will be distributed to the electronics and toy sections of its 600 core stores across the United States within 48 hours.

As long as Terauchi -san's next batch of semi-finished products arrives at the port on time next week, we are fully capable of ensuring that the GP2 console and Pokémon Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire will be available for sale in all North America states when they are released on April 15.

In addition, matters in California have been gradually handed over to my deputy. I have booked a flight to Frankfurt next Thursday, and will then travel to Budapest to conduct on-site research for the selection of Europe manufacturing center.

Nakayama Takuya leaned back in his leather chair and closed his email.

The internal phone on the table rang twice.

Nakayama Takuya picked up the receiver and pressed the speakerphone button.

"President, it's me." Hisao Oguchi's voice came through the loudspeaker. "The Channel Department just compiled the latest pre-order data faxed from North America. Would you like to take a look?"

"Just give me the numbers." Nakayama Takuya picked up the ballpoint pen next to him.

"Best Buy and Toys "R" Us" R" Us have jointly placed additional orders." The sound of Hisao Oguchi flipping through papers was clear. "They saw that the first batch of Electronic Pet had already been received, and their attitude changed quickly. Both companies requested an additional 50,000 Electronic Pet units each, on top of their existing GP2 bundled quotas."

"No." Nakayama Takuya wrote the names of two merchants on a sticky note. "Tell them that the first batch of 800,000 Electronic Pet must strictly adhere to the rule of one person, one device, and priority collection based on pre-order vouchers. If they want to buy in-stock items, they should wait for the second batch to arrive by sea."

Hisao Oguchi on the other end of the phone.

"Scalpers are already posting on some university forums, reselling vouchers. A set of initial Electronic Pet with hidden features is already fetching US dollar 35 on the secondhand market, almost double our suggested retail price."

If we don't take this opportunity to sell more goods, the scalpers will pocket all the price difference."

"Let them hype it up." Nakayama Takuya put his pen on the table. "How's the Pokémon section doing on the major BBS forums under Silicon Valley Online these days?"

"Very high." Hisao Oguchi replied quickly, "There are thousands of discussion posts every day about different attribute Pokéwalker' step-based training and infrared battles. There are even University of California students posting on the forum, organizing offline exchange gatherings on weekends."

"This is the effect we want." Nakayama Takuya picked up the cold water on the table and took a sip. "If the stock on the shelves is piled up to the ceiling, and everyone can grab it at will, this spontaneous discussion will die out within three days. We must maintain a moderate sense of scarcity in the market and drag out this discussion until the official release date of the GP2 in mid-April. When players realize that only by inserting the Electronic Pet into the GP2 cartridge can they unlock the full version of the hidden skills, their pent-up spending power from the past two weeks will be concentrated on the handheld console itself."

Hisao Oguchi understood the layout of this floor.

"Understood. I'll reply to the North America Channel Department according to the original quota."

April 18th, 6:30 AM.

On the Yamanote Line platform at Shimbashi Station, the early morning train had not yet arrived.

Salaryman Sato, carrying a briefcase, stood behind the yellow line, yawning.

He looked down and rubbed his eyes, when suddenly he bumped into something hard at his feet.

He took a half step back and looked down.

Next to the waiting seats stood a half-meter-tall rigid foam board box, painted military green with the bold white letter "H" painted on it.

"What's this? Who left a supply box on the platform?" Sato muttered, thinking it was a package someone had left behind.

A high school student in uniform nearby turned around, followed his gaze, and exclaimed, "Heavy machine gun ammunition boxes! They really brought them out!"

The high school student rushed over and crouched down to examine the area.

The foam board is quite thick, and the edges are painted with distressed, worn black trim.

On the side of the box, there is a clear blue and white slogan. "April 25th, GP2 Metal Slug GP2 launches, get ready to fire!"

"Metal Slug?" Sato snapped out of his daze. "That coin-operated side-scrolling shooter from the arcade?"

"You know about this, sir?" The high school student looked up and tapped his finger on the cardboard. "Sega ported it to GP2..."

It's here! Last week's demo even allowed four-player co-op for ammo! Look over there, there's an "S" shotgun and an "F" flamethrower behind that pillar!

Sato looked in the direction he pointed and sure enough, there were two other cardboard boxes of different colors pasted on the corner of the load-bearing column.

The platform's originally monotonous gray and white tiled floor was now fragmented by these colorful icons.

"I went home last night, and this place was still empty," Sato muttered to himself.

"Sega did it in the middle of the night, I guess." The high school student pulled his backpack up higher. "When I entered the station just now, the whole wall at the turnstiles had been changed to a countdown timer for the release; only seven days left."

The tram's beeping sounded as it pulled into the station, and the flow of people pushed Sato forward.

He stepped into the carriage and looked out through the window. The military green cardboard box on the platform was still standing there, and several young people waiting for the train were taking out their point-and-shoot cameras and snapping pictures of it.