Preparations by the Various Third Parties

"Confidence alone isn't enough. We need a few bombs to blow the place open." Ken Kutaragi cut him off, a feverish light flashing in his eyes—the wildness of an engineer pursuing technology to its absolute limit. "Nakayama Takuya wants to use Shigeru Miyamoto to set E3's tone around software, so we'll do the exact opposite. While he's up onstage talking sentiment, we'll be showing off the hardest-core technology below. Don't forget, Namco's port of Tekken is nearly finished, and there's also that anti-gravity racing game Psygnosis is developing. The sense of speed is incredibly strong."

He braced both hands on the tabletop and leaned forward, like a wolf staring down its prey.

"Let Shigeru Miyamoto go tell his fairy tales. What we need to do is crank the speakers to the max in Los Angeles and use the coolest 3D visuals and the fastest polygon processing speed to bombard those Americans' retinas head-on. Once they realize the Super Famicom in their hands can't even run the ass end of a 3D model, they'll naturally know who to choose."

Nobuyuki Idei looked at this unruly technical genius. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly, but in the end, he did not refute him.

Though he disliked Ken Kutaragi's crude way of doing things, he had to admit that on the bayonet-red battlefield of game consoles, perhaps it was precisely this almost paranoid aggressiveness that could help Sony carve out a bloody path.

Osaka, Konami headquarters.

Kozuki Kagemasa set down the fax paper in his hand, casually picked up his teacup, and blew away the floating foam, his movements slow and unhurried.

"Have Shigeru Miyamoto give the opening speech?" He laughed once, his tone giving away neither praise nor criticism. "Nakayama Takuya's move is sinister enough, and magnanimous enough too. Lift your