Sony's Conditions

This was an immensely tempting number. A thirty percent premium was enough to make the shareholders of any listed company's hearts race.

Honda Keiji looked at the amount on the letter of intent, his expression unchanged. "Sony's financial strength is renowned in the industry. The funding support is very sincere."

Nobuyuki Idei threw out his second bargaining chip, the trump card that set Sony apart from Sega. "Beyond funding, marketing and distribution are what determine a game's ultimate sales ceiling. Sega's channels are limited to game retail stores. Sony is different. If Dragon Quest lands on PlayStation, Sony's consumer electronics division's experience stores around the world will all use this game as a standard display for visual quality demonstrations. Columbia Pictures' cinema trailer ads, bundled promotional brochures for audiovisual products—all of them can be opened to Enix. Sega cannot offer marketing and distribution on this kind of cross-industry scale."

Honda Keiji picked up his teacup. The tea had already cooled a little.

He took a sip, rapidly calculating the actual value of these conditions in his mind.

A great deal of money, very broad channels.

Any small or midsized developer short on funds would sign its name without the slightest hesitation when faced with this offer.

Enix was not a small or midsized developer.

"Director Idei's proposal is extremely ambitious." Honda Keiji set down his teacup. "Sony's strengths across its entire industrial chain are indeed impressive. There is a practical issue facing Enix. We have always maintained an asset-light operating structure. Core planning is handled internally, while specific code and art are outsourced to external studios. This is the foundation of Enix's quality control and cost management,"

He paused, then threw out the central question. "In a next-generation 3D environment, traditional 2D outsourcing teams will be unable to handle the