Courting Konami and Koei

On Monday, at Konami headquarters, in the same meeting room overlooking the Osaka industrial area, Kozuki Kagemasa was still smiling as always, personally making tea for Nakayama Hayao, his actions exactly the same as when he entertained Takuya last time, as if nothing had changed.

"President Nakayama, congratulations. MD's victory was earth-shattering, truly an eye-opener for us." Kozuki Kagemasa pushed the teacup in front of Nakayama Hayao, his tone neither genuinely congratulating nor merely being polite.

Nakayama Hayao didn't touch the tea. He took a document from his briefcase and gently placed it next to the exquisite Arita Ware tea set. The document wasn't thick, and the cover was simply printed in black ink on white paper. "MD First Week Sales Report and Subsequent Product Line Planning".

"The president was overpraising us Kozuki; it was just a fluke." Nakayama Hayao's voice was calm and emotionless. "This information is more detailed than what was in the newspaper."

Kozuki Kagemasa's smile remained unchanged as he reached for the document. He opened to the first page, his gaze falling on the figure of nearly 900,000 units sold globally, his pupils contracting almost imperceptibly. Newspaper reports are ultimately media sensationalism.

The report handed to him by the president of Sega was of a completely different weight. His fingers silently traced the words "560,000 units" in the Japan domestic market, and he quickly calculated in his mind how much market this meant for Konami.

"Pokémon is indeed a genius idea." Kozuki Kagemasa the file, his words carrying a pointed meaning. "Your son has truly surpassed his master."

"Takuya still young, and sometimes he doesn't think things through." Nakayama Hayao changed the subject, looking directly at Kozuki Kagemasa. "For example, regarding the hiring of Hideo Kojima, I apologize on his behalf for not informing you beforehand."

The air in the meeting room seemed to freeze for a moment. For the first time, a slight stiffness appeared on Kozuki Kagemasa's smile. An apology? An apology for hiring an employee I had fired? Was this a reminder that I, Kozuki Kagemasa, had misjudged people?

"President Nakayama, you flatter me." Kozuki Kagemasa quickly reverted to his sly demeanor, his smile even deepening. "Konami too small a temple to accommodate a great Buddha. It's Kojima's good fortune to have found a wise leader like Sega. Speaking of which..."

I also want to thank Sega for dealing with one of our uncooperative employees.

These words were perfectly worded, saving face while also putting the ball back in the court.

Nakayama Hayao didn't take it to heart; he knew that dealing with this kind of person involved more verbal sparring than anything else. "President Kozuki surely understands why I'm here today." He leaned forward slightly. "The conditions Takuya proposed last time are still valid."

However, what he promised back then was a future, while what I bring today is a present with nearly a million users.

Kozuki Kagemasa picked up his teacup but didn't drink; he merely skimmed the foam off the surface with the lid. "The offer is indeed tempting."

But Nintendo's side...

"President, Kozuki," Nakayama Hayao interrupted him, "you and I have both been making games in Nintendo's shadow for so many years,

You know better than I how tight the collar around your neck is. Right now, I'm just putting the keys on the table.

Kozuki Kagemasa stopped glancing at the tea leaves. He put down his teacup, leaned back on the sofa, and his eyes, peering through his gold-rimmed glasses, flashed with a sharp glint that he no longer concealed.

"The hardware capabilities of the Mega Drive, as we've internally evaluated, are excellent." He finally began to speak the truth, "If, and I mean if, Konami were willing to release our flagship series, such as the new Contra title, as a Mega Drive exclusive..."

What kind of additional support can Sega provide?

Here they come. The merchants, who live by waiting for the best bidder, have finally begun to state their prices.

Nakayama Hayao's face broke into his first genuine smile of the trip. "Regarding marketing expenses, Sega and Konami can split it 30/70, with Sega 70%. Additionally, the North American Branch will prioritize it as their top promotional project. Oh, and Takuya has a suggestion for well-known third-party exclusive games: we could release a limited edition console, like Pokémon, with no more than 10,000 units, as a bundled sale. Sega can also offer a 5% discount on these consoles."

Nakayama Hayao took a sip of tea and casually remarked, "Pokémon only prepared 30,000 limited-edition Sega consoles across Japan. The stock in Tokyo sold out by noon on Valentine's Day, and now it seems to be going for almost 40,000 Japanese yen on the secondhand market. Sigh, I'm even thinking of having Terauchi secretly make 20,000 more and put them on the secondhand market."

Kozuki Kagemasa's fingers tapped lightly on the armrest of the Genuine Leather sofa, making a soft, rhythmic sound. The only sound in the room was this gentle tapping. His heart was gradually tipping in Sega.

Meanwhile, Takuya drove his RX7 to the Koei Company building in Hiyoshi, Yokohama.

Today, Takuya is meeting with the founders of Koei, Yoichi Erikawa and his wife Keiko Erikawa.

The reception room lacked Genuine Leather sofas and expensive tea sets; instead, it featured solid wooden furniture and a wall of books covering a wide range of subjects, including history, geography, and economics. Yoichi Erikawa a bespectacled, refined scholar, while his wife, Keiko Erikawa, appeared more capable, with a shrewd glint in her eyes.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Takuya didn't rush into persuading the client, but instead placed a similar sales report on the table.

The Erikawa couple had heard about Sega's performance, after all, Yokohama is not far from Tokyo. But seeing this detailed internal report in person was a completely different experience. Keiko Erikawa looked at it particularly carefully, her gaze lingering on the line "560,000 units in the Japan domestic market" for a long time.

"It's truly admirable that Sega has achieved such success under the immense pressure from Nintendo," Yoichi Erikawa said sincerely, adjusting his glasses.

"Yes, I heard that many of the things that were prepared for the release of the Mega Drive and the game lineup were handled by Executive Director Nakayama? He's really young and promising," Keiko Erikawa, picking up where her husband left off.

"Not at all, you two are too kind. It's all thanks to the concerted efforts of everyone in the company." Takuya said modestly before getting to the point.

"President Erikawa, I've heard that Nobunaga's Ambition and Romance of the Three Kingdoms have been very well received on the PC platform. I wonder if you've considered porting them to home consoles?" Takuya asked about Koei's ace games right off the bat.

Mentioning this, Yoichi Erikawa's face showed a hint of helplessness. "Home consoles have too many limitations. The complex systems and data that we are so proud of have to be greatly simplified on home consoles. That would be almost a completely different game, losing the essence of the original."

The limited capabilities of the Nintendo (FC) have severely hampered PC game developers when considering porting games, which is why they haven't been able to port a single game to Nintendo FC to this day.

"This is precisely the problem that Sega's Mega Drive can solve." Takuya leaned forward, steer the conversation towards his console. "The Mega Drive boasts a powerful 16-bit processor— Motorola's MC68000, which you at Koei Tecmo have undoubtedly encountered frequently when developing PC games. Its memory and video memory far surpass those of the Famicom. More importantly," he emphasized, "We offer very flexible support for cartridge capacity. Technically, we can fully support games like Nobunaga's Ambition and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which require massive amounts of data, achieving a near-PC experience. Porting and development will also be much easier."

These words clearly struck a chord with Yoichi Erikawa; a glint flashed in his eyes, and he exchanged a glance with the woman beside him.

Keiko Erikawa picked up the conversation, her question more practical, "Executive Director Sega 'Nakayama third-party policy, and it's indeed more lenient than Nintendo's. But what kind of support can Sega provide regarding cartridge production costs, especially for high-capacity cartridges?"

"Good question." Takuya smiled. "For a company like Koei that focuses on high-quality strategy games, we can provide specialized technical support to help optimize costs. Furthermore, Sega has spare capacity in its cartridge production lines, which can guarantee the production capacity of such an important partner as Koei."

He paused for a moment, then threw out another lure. "Moreover, Sega's support for game cartridge upgrades goes beyond just capacity. When we were developing the console, we researched a solution for integrating special chips into the cartridges to assist in computation or improve visual performance. This allows your games to exhibit effects on the Mega Drive that surpass the limitations of the console's capabilities, and we have corresponding mature program solutions that we can provide to developers for free."

During the development of MD Takuya paid great attention to providing convenient development tools and technical support to third parties. If, like Sega in its previous life, they simply handed over a difficult-to-use development kit to third parties, there would inevitably be far fewer third parties willing to provide support.

Hearing this, Keiko Erikawa, showed interest. This provided them with a more relaxed environment to showcase their talents.

After a long conversation, the Erikawa couple, though very interested, remained cautious and replied that Takuya needed to study and discuss the matter carefully.

Takuya understood and got up to leave. Before leaving, he took a packaged Mega Drive console and a box of game cartridges from his bag and placed them on the table. "This is our new game that will be released next week. It's just a small token of our appreciation."

Yoichi Erikawa took it and saw the cover of the cassette tape: <The First Super Robot Wars>.

"Robot wars?" he asked, somewhat curious.

"Yes, it's a strategy game." Takuya nodded. "The gameplay should be familiar to you two, except the units are replaced with robot characters. You can try it out and see for yourself."

Yoichi Erikawa said, "Then I'll wait and see."

Takuya bowed to the two of them, smiled, and took his leave.