The Second E3 Opens

The assistant stood in front of the desk, not daring to breathe too loudly.

"They're using Sony as a gun." Ken Kutaragi leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. "Using our PR money to raise Nintendo's value."

"Should we lodge a protest with the IDSA? After all, we sponsored the venue guide signs and rest areas," the assistant suggested carefully.

"Protest what? The votes are real. Those are the rules." Ken Kutaragi stood up and walked to the window, looking down at the traffic below. "Notify the construction crew in the South Hall. Turn the audio power at our booth up by another twenty percent. Since we have no part in the opening ceremony, then inside the exhibition hall, we'll drown out their voices. Put the demo areas for PoPoLoCrois Story and Crash Bandicoot beside the main aisle. Players don't watch speeches. They only look at games."

Third-party manufacturers had their own commercial logic.

Sega's plate was too large now. Jupiter's installed base was riding far ahead in a cloud of dust, and its OEM system was mature.

Sony was chasing hard from behind, relying on cheap disc costs and its global home-appliance, audio, and video channels to court developers.

If Nintendo were allowed to be suppressed again at an event like E3, with the highest global exposure, the balance of first-party manufacturers' market share might spin out of control.

Fighting without breaking, three legs standing like a tripod—only that was the hotbed where third-party interests could be maximized.

At Electronic Arts's internal meeting, Probst laid it out plainly.

"Sony wants to be the bird that sticks its head out. We can't let them get what they want. Sega is already a monster. If Sony takes off on the back of E3's opening as well, then in the