The Valentine's Day Offensive Continues
At 11 p. m. that night, Sega Headquarters were brightly lit. The sales manager, the same man who had been holding a walkie-talkie during the day, watching the square full of people unable to restock, his heart aching to the point of near collapse, was now holding a newly printed report, his hands trembling slightly, not from fear, but from extreme excitement.
He cleared his throat, trying to make his voice sound steady, but the tone still came out slightly off. "Everyone! The final data is in!"
The office fell silent instantly, and everyone's eyes were focused on the piece of paper in his hand.
"Sales across Japan: Over 100,000 units sold on the first day!"
"Wow!"
The emotions that had been suppressed all day exploded, and cheers and whistles almost lifted the ceiling. Some people slammed their fists on the table, while others hugged each other excitedly.
The sales manager took a deep breath and continued loudly, "Among them, the Pikachu limited edition bundle sold over 8,000 sets! Total game cartridge sales reached 180,000 boxes! <Pokémon Adventure: Pokémon Land> single game sales exceeded 100,000 boxes!"
This means that almost every player who bought the Mega Drive also purchased Pokémon Quest. This bundling rate is nothing short of a commercial miracle.
"We'll have to wait another week for the compiled data from North America and Europe, but we're already in an invincible position!" the sales manager shouted, jumping up before he could finish.
However, amidst the jubilation, a few people from the Marketing Department seemed somewhat out of place. They huddled in a corner, smiling, but the tension between their brows hadn't completely dissipated. The champagne cork popped open with a "pop," and they only glanced at it subconsciously before falling back into their hushed discussion.
Takuya walked over with a glass of water and calmly asked, "Still worried about the plumber?"
The Marketing Department manager nodded with a wry smile, "After all, it's Super Mario Bros. 3. Nintendo's sales figures for today haven't come out yet, so we..."
"So, our battle isn't over yet," Takuya interrupted him. "Today is just the beginning." He gestured for the others to follow him to a small meeting room nearby.
"Go back and get some sleep. We can find out about the competition tomorrow morning." Takuya leaned against the table. "For tomorrow's publicity, follow the plan I prepared beforehand."
He looked at the head of the Marketing Department: "Do you remember what I said during the day? Valentine's Day."
The person in charge's eyes lit up.
"Move all the large Pokémon inflatable models from outside Akihabara to Chuo-dori in Akihabara Electric Town. I want to fill the entire sky above that street."
"All of them?" someone asked instinctively, "Was that Ginza from Snorlax transferred there too?"
"Yes, especially that Snorlax." Takuya's lips twitched. "It's big enough to block out a lot of things that are in the way." Everyone couldn't help but laugh out loud, and the tension in their hearts instantly disappeared.
"For street advertising, besides Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Psyduck, and the Starter Pokémon, I've also prepared two new faces." Takuya held up two fingers, "Nidoran♂ and Nidoran♀."
"Nidoran♂ and Nidoran♀?" The Marketing Department staff were puzzled; these two Pokémon were far less popular than Pikachu and the others.
"Besides attracting customers as usual, they have another special mission," Takuya said with a hint of slyness, "To give a small gift to every couple who comes to buy an MD together."
He took out two palm-sized plush toys from his bag, a blue-purple Nidoran♂ and a light blue Nidoran♀, their bodies cleverly sewn together with a red thread, making them look inseparable.
We told them it was a "Proof of Love" limited to couples.
The conference room fell silent. The Marketing Department manager picked up the pair of plush toys, examining them closely, his expression shifting from surprise to ecstatic delight. "Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! We're not just selling game consoles, we're selling Valentine's Day gifts!"
Takuya and said, "Go and rest. I've already arranged the work group for tonight."
The next morning, in the temporary Mega Drive sales command room at Sega Headquarters, the air still carried the lingering sweetness of the previous night's champagne, mixed with the bitter aroma of fresh coffee.
The fatigue from a night of revelry was etched on everyone's faces, but their energy remained undiminished. The sales manager, with dark circles under his eyes, paced anxiously back and forth in front of the whiteboard, clutching a blank form, glancing at the door every now and then.
Just after ten o'clock, a young man from the Marketing Department rushed in, panting, the fax paper in his hand slightly crumpled.
"They're here!"
All eyes immediately turned to that direction.
The young man ran to the whiteboard, picked up a marker, took a deep breath, and wrote down a number stroke by stroke, so hard that the pen tip was making a screeching sound.
In the Tokyo area, Super Mario Bros. 3 sold 78,566 copies on its first day.
An eerie silence fell over the office.
Less than 80,000?
This number was like a stone thrown into a stagnant pond; instead of creating the expected ripples, it stunned everyone. It was too little, unrealistically so. This was Nintendo's star product.
"There must be some mistake?" the sales manager exclaimed first, unable to believe his eyes. "Could the information be incorrect? Or is it just sales figures for a particular region?"
"That's right, this is the total sales volume in Tokyo that we've checked repeatedly," the young man replied confidently.
The crowd exchanged glances, their expressions shifting from anticipation to confusion, and even a hint of unease. Everyone understood the saying, "Where there's smoke, there's fire."
All eyes turned to the young man in the corner, who was holding a coffee and had a calm expression.
Takuya blew on the steam rising from his cup, his gaze shifting from the numbers on the whiteboard to the puzzled faces of the others.
"Don't forget what happened on Wednesday," he said, his voice not loud, but clearly reaching everyone's ears.
"Wednesday?" Someone didn't react immediately.
The Marketing Department manager slapped his thigh. "Dragon Quest Commotion!"
"Yes." Takuya nodded. "Nintendo's core gamers in Tokyo are currently holed up at home, immersed in the world of Dragon Quest III. For them, saving the world is far more important than going out to buy a new Mario game."
He paused, a playful smile playing on his lips. "Besides, what day is it today? Valentine's Day. Why would a single player go out and make themselves miserable? Wouldn't it be more fun playing Dragon Quest at home?"
"Pfft—" Several single employees couldn't help but burst into laughter, which immediately eased the tense atmosphere in the office.
"And our Pokémon Quest, the ' Proof of Love ' for Nidoran♂ and Nidoran♀," Takuya's gaze fell on the head of the Marketing Department, "Is naturally not rejected by couples. With one gaining at the expense of the other, today's sales gap will only widen."
The sales manager's eyes lit up; he finally understood. It wasn't that Nintendo was weak, but rather that they had been temporarily held back by another storm.
"Now," Takuya put down his coffee cup, walked to the whiteboard, picked up another pen of a different color, and drew a huge "greater than" symbol between their "over 100,000 on day one" and Nintendo's "less than 80,000," "we have a fantastic opportunity."
"Before Nintendo can react, exploit this initial sales gap to create a media storm. Let all the media and all the players see that Super Mario Bros. 3 lost to Pokémon Quest."
He glanced around at everyone, his tone sharpening. "I know that with the massive number of Famicom players, Mario's sales will quickly catch up, even surpass ours. But at that point, the sales comparison between the two games will no longer matter to us."
"When many people thought we had won, our battle was already over."