Third-Party Blitz

Tokyo, early April, Sega Corporation, Operations Managing Director's Office.

A document, still warm from the ink, was handed to Nakayama Takuya by his subordinate, who ran alongside him.

Several department heads, having heard the news, gathered around, their faces grave, their whispers suppressed and urgent.

"Are Konami and the others crazy?"

"They actually gave Gradius to PC Engine! Have they forgotten who was backing them against Nintendo?"

"This is troublesome. PCEngine was already half-dead, but Hudson Namco gave it a boost. Now that Konami has given it a shot in the arm, we're probably facing a two-front war."

To everyone else, this was a blatant betrayal.

Konami's first title on the Mega Drive platform was barely out of the question when they went and supported another potential competitor, which was tantamount to stabbing Sega in the back.

However, Nakayama Takuya's gaze did not linger on those unsettling analytical conclusions.

His fingers gently traced the names "Gradius" and "Salamander," but deep within his pupils, a completely different scene was reflected.

The surrounding chatter seemed to be shut out by an invisible barrier.

What appeared in his mind was not the image of the white PC Engine console, but a huge fortress made of red bricks and white walls, named "Nintendo".

At that moment, the nuclear bomb named "Konami" did not land in front of Sega's position as everyone expected, but instead struck precisely at the foundation of the fortress.

A deafening roar seemed to explode right next to his ears.

The seemingly impregnable city wall was blasted open, leaving a shockingly huge breach.

Kozuki Kagemasa's gambler-like madness objectively created a once-in-a-lifetime, or even fleeting, opportunity for Sega.

Nakayama Takuya suddenly stood up.

The screeching sound of the chair scraping against the floor brought all the chatter in the office to an abrupt halt.

Everyone was speechless, stunned by the complex expression on his face, a mixture of anxiety and fervor.

Without a moment's hesitation, he grabbed the report and rushed straight to the president's office at the end of the corridor.

"Knock knock knock."

Nakayama Hayao was engrossed in a pile of documents when the sudden knocking interrupted him. His brow furrowed instantly, but he still managed to say, "Come in."

But when he saw the expression on his son's face as he walked in, his displeasure turned into confusion.

That wasn't panic, nor was it anger.

It's the ultimate thrill a hunter feels when their prey finally steps into their trap.

"Father, please summon all board members immediately. I hope we can hold an emergency meeting this afternoon."

Nakayama Takuya's tone left no room for argument; every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.

Nakayama Hayao stared at his son for a full three seconds. He knew that Takuya must have seen something that ordinary people couldn't see, a deeper change hidden beneath the surface.

He didn't ask a single extra question.

He simply picked up the internal phone and pressed the button to connect to the secretariat.

In the afternoon, in the top-floor conference room of Sega Headquarters, amidst the swirling cigar smoke, everyone's faces appeared exceptionally serious. They had all received Konami's message and roughly knew that this meeting was related to it.

A senior director with slightly graying hair and beard, a highly respected figure in the company, broke the silence first, his gaze fixed on Nakayama Takuya.

"The executive director of Nakayama, Hudson, Namco, and now even Konami are choosing to focus their efforts on PCEngine."

"Will this trend siphon off the developers and players we've worked so hard to attract from Nintendo?"

"Our resources are already limited. Shouldn't we focus more on fighting our main enemy, Nintendo, instead of getting bogged down in a war of attrition with PCEngine?"

These words represented the sentiments of the vast majority of directors present.

They habitually view PCEngine as a direct competitor, believing that Konami's actions are funding another enemy, doing more harm than good to Sega.

Several radical board members have even begun discussing how to put pressure on Konami as a form of punishment.

Nakayama Takuya walked silently to the whiteboard at the front of the conference room.

He did not directly refute anyone's point of view.

He simply picked up a black Mark, drew a huge, closed circle in the center of the whiteboard, and wrote the words "Nintendo" heavily on it.

Around the outer edge of the circle, he drew many small squares, representing the third-party manufacturers who used to have to rely on him.

"Everyone, in the past we thought about how to chisel a hole in this wall and then pull out the third parties trapped inside one by one."

His pen tip drew a small notch in the wall of the fortress, and from it a line pointed to a square he labeled "Sega".

The visuals are simple, yet immediately clear.

"But now, the situation is completely different."

Nakayama Takuya's voice suddenly rose, and with a swift turn of his pen, he drew a symbol filled with explosive lines below the fortress representing Nintendo, as dazzling as the sun.

Konami doesn't drill holes.

"He detonated explosives beneath the feet of all third parties, enough to shake the entire city wall!"

What is the cornerstone of Yamauchi Haku's hegemony?

Nakayama Takuya's gaze swept over each of the directors.

It's the fear of "You can't live without me!"

"Now, Hudson with * Fierce Battle Holy Warrior *, Namco with * Monster Journey *, Konami with * Gradius *, they've used the success of PCEngine and their sales figures in black and white to prove one thing to everyone in the industry—"

"Leaving Nintendo will not only allow you to survive."

"They could even live better!"

"This is not just a victory for PCEngine alone; it's a collective victory for all 'anti- Nintendo forces'!"

"Once fear disappears, greed will immediately take over!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, Nintendo's walls, its very foundations, have begun to crumble from within!"

Nakayama Takuya's voice echoed in the conference room.

He took a deep breath and presented his true core argument.

We are in a unique and fleeting "golden window of opportunity"!

"Yamauchi Haku is now facing an unprecedented crisis of trust, and he will inevitably take action to salvage the situation. But he is an extremely arrogant person. From the moment he realized the crisis, to his humbling himself, and then to his new compromise with 'traitors' like Konami and Hudson,..."

This process takes time!

"It could be a day, a month, or three months, but once leading third-party companies like Konami, Hudson, and Namco follow the ladder Nintendo has offered, this window of opportunity will close."

This is all the time we have left!

His words suddenly became sharp as a knife, and his eyes revealed a hawk-like edge.

"Once Nintendo takes the initiative to modify the royalty terms and shows goodwill to all third parties, those manufacturers who have just begun to have different ideas and are wavering will immediately retreat and return to a wait-and-see state because of the huge installed base of the Famicom."

"We must bring them onto our ship completely and permanently before this window closes!"

He turned around and wrote a line of large characters on the whiteboard, "Blitzkrieg Campaign."

Then, Takuya began to clearly describe his plan.

"First, immediately establish a ' Third-Party Special Strategy Department,' personally led by me, drawing top elites from all departments. All regular departments must cooperate unconditionally!"

"Second, a full-scale attack, proceeding in multiple directions. We will compile a list of all the wavering first- and second-tier third-party suppliers on our list, including TAITO, CAPCOM, JALECO, DATAEAST, etc. We will dispatch dedicated teams, with technical personnel and MD mainframes..."

They arrived at all their offices at the same time, carrying all our development tools and a cooperation agreement they couldn't refuse!

"Third, and most importantly, what we want to offer is an allure that transcends money!"

"The agreement is not just about royalties being far lower than Nintendo's. It also includes provisions for third parties to independently lead production and sales, with Sega only responsible for content review; we will not force any exclusivity, nor will we seek the same conditions as the initial third parties who control the IP rights."

"We will also send our top engineers to provide full-time on-site technical support, sharing our core development technologies to help them produce the highest quality work on the MD platform as quickly as possible!"

Nakayama Takuya's speech was filled with undeniable confidence and passion.

He painted a blueprint for the future for everyone.

When these top-tier third-party original titles tailored specifically for the Mega Drive (MD) flooded the market like an explosion, all players truly realized that the MD and the Famicom (FC) were products of two completely different eras.

At that time, the market's tide will irreversibly flow towards Sega.

A long silence fell over the conference room.

There were only faint breathing sounds and the soft crackling of burning cigars.