Next-Generation Plan Submitted to the Board
For nearly a month, Sega's massive war machine, under the command of Nakayama Takuya, operated efficiently and covertly in all its departments.
In the Hardware Development Department, in a testing room designated as having the highest authority, the air was filled with a mixed smell of solder and heat from equipment.
Yuji Naka stood in front of a modified Model 1 board, operating it with a focused expression.
On the screen, a simple humanoid character is moving.
It's described as rudimentary because it has no textures whatsoever; it's just a "skeleton" made up of a few dozen simple polygons.
But what makes it extraordinary is its incredibly fluid movements, every action brimming with power.
"Look here." Yuji Naka typed on the keyboard.
On the screen, the surface of the polygonal skeleton was instantly "dressed" in a gorgeous "outer garment". The originally bare geometric shape was transformed into a fighter wearing a martial arts uniform with well-defined muscles.
This "outer layer" is not a 3D texture, but an extremely detailed 2D sprite image.
As the skeleton moves, this "skin" stretches, rotates, and layers perfectly, creating a visual effect far more delicate than the angular characters in Virtua Fighter.
"Hardware load—completely within acceptable limits." Yuji Naka pointed to the fluctuating data stream on the monitor beside him, his tone calm, but his eyes betrayed a hint of excitement. "We've successfully shifted the vast majority of the graphics workload from the 3D polygon processing units to our forte: 2D sprite rendering. This approach works!"
Standing to the side, Yu Suzuki crossed his arms, staring intently at the screen with his mouth slightly open.
He saw the character make a side kick motion, and the bulge of the thigh muscles and the wrinkles in the trouser leg were all vividly represented by the changes in the 2D sprite.
This—this is exactly the expressive power he's been dreaming of!
"Minister Nakamura, what do you think?" Nakayama Takuya's voice broke the silence.
Hardware Development Department Nakamura remained silent. Unlike Yu Suzuki, who only focused on results, he was constantly calculating costs in his mind.
"Executive Director," Nakamura Head Nakamura adjusted his glasses, his expression serious, "If this plan is adopted, the architecture of the graphics chip can utilize many of our existing mature technologies, and R&D risks and manufacturing costs can be effectively controlled. This—is highly feasible."
With the final confirmation from the two core technical personnel, Nakayama Takuya felt much more at ease.
Verifying the technical approach is only the first step.
A few days later, several thick reports were placed on Nakayama Takuya's desk.
The first one came from Nakamura's Hardware Department.
After conducting thorough research on the television market, they set the target video output for the new host at a maximum resolution of 640,480 pixels and a color depth of 24-bit true color.
This specification is sufficient to meet the display requirements of mainstream TVs for the next few years without causing hardware costs to spiral out of control.
The second document was a player questionnaire survey report submitted by the Marketing Department.
Nakayama Takuya turned the pages one by one, his smile growing wider and wider.
The report shows that the vast majority of players remain loyal fans of 2D games; they love Sonic and are also addicted to various RPGs and side-scrolling platformers.
However, at the same time, a considerable number of respondents expressed strong curiosity and anticipation for "real 3D games".
Many hardcore gamers explicitly stated in the survey that they could distinguish light gun games like "High-Speed Pursuit" as "pseudo-3D" and strongly hoped to play a true 3D masterpiece where the characters were no longer "blocky figures".
The players' demands perfectly validated his strategic concept of "2D as the foundation, 3D as the spearhead".
The third email was a collection of responses from the "inquiry" emails he sent to various producers within the company.
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
The developers of action games, in particular, were practically in despair.
They felt their inspiration was drying up and desperately needed the new dimension of 3D to save their increasingly barren creativity.
One of the emails made Nakayama Takuya chuckle.
From: Hideo Kojima.
The email was a tearful and passionate "petition."
"Director Nakayama! My Snake is fully prepared! The complete script and hundreds of storyboards for Metal Gear 2 have been locked in my office safe for months."
"If I'm not allowed to develop 3D games, my creative spirit will be extinguished."
4
Nakayama Takuya could almost see Hideo Kojima's serious yet dramatic face.
This guy—he's a real gem.
He smiled, shook his head, and closed the email.
The technology is feasible, the market has high expectations, and the internal workforce is eagerly awaiting its development.
He had now collected all the puzzle pieces.
Nakayama Takuya leaned back in his chair, gazing out the window at the bustling cityscape of Tokyo. Now, all the research, testing, and preparation had come together.
It's time to have a proper chat with those old men on the board who're happily counting their money about Sega's "future."
In October, autumn deepens.
Inside the boardroom at Sega Headquarters, the atmosphere was quite different from the coolness outside; it was warm, even somewhat stuffy.
Around the long conference table sat a group of directors who controlled the lifeline of this huge company; most of them had gray hair.
Nakayama Takuya, as the operations manager, sat calmly in the lower seat.
The meeting proceeded smoothly, with financial reports and sales summaries—every figure attesting to the MD mainframe's success, and the board members showing expressions of satisfaction.
Sparse applause broke out as the directors nodded in satisfaction, basking in the fruits of their victory.
At that moment, Nakayama Takuya stood up.
"Next, I will present a proposal regarding the company's future development direction." Nakayama Takuya's voice was not loud, but it drew everyone's attention.
His opening remarks instantly froze the relaxed atmosphere in the meeting room. Several directors frowned, slightly displeased that their enjoyment of victory champagne had been interrupted.
Nakayama Takuya didn't care at all. Instead of immediately taking out the plan, he distributed the research reports from the Marketing Department, Hardware Department, and internal developers to everyone present.
Then, he turned on the projector and presented the culmination of his efforts over the past month, including detailed research reports, technical verification data, and player questionnaires, one by one.
From the technical approach of combining 2D and 3D, to the simple yet groundbreaking demo video created by Yuji Naka; from players' dissatisfaction with "blocky characters" and their expectation for true 3D, to the company's internal producers' desire for a new dimension.
A low chuckle rippled through the conference room, easing the tension somewhat.
But when Nakayama Takuya turned to the last page of his PowerPoint presentation, the estimated R&D budget of over one billion US dollar still caused the entire conference room to fall into a deathly silence.
"Ahem." An elderly director with graying hair cleared his throat and spoke slowly, "General Manager Nakayama, your plan is very ambitious. But, damn it, why are we in such a hurry to slaughter this golden goose and exchange it for an egg that may not even hatch?"
"That's right," another director chimed in, "The safest approach is to strike later. Nintendo's Super Famicom is a prime example."
"Aren't Panasonic and that United States company involved in 3D0 right now? Let them explore first, and we can follow behind, learning from their successes and avoiding their failures. Wouldn't that be better?"
This is a typical conservative argument, which is conservative but also means missing out on opportunities.