Recaps

Tom Kalinske tested Metal Slug on Sega’s new System 32 board and watched arcade owners snap up the first American shipment. He called Tokyo headquarters to request up to twenty thousand more units, declaring that the war had only just begun.

• Frank Marshall announced ICQ’s plans for London servers and multilingual versions while Tom Kalinske oversaw Metal Slug’s arrival at Sega of America.
• Tom Kalinske and Sega’s engineers tested Metal Slug, marveling at its graphics, smooth performance, vehicles, and varied combat.
• Tom Kalinske held an ordering meeting for arcade owners and distributors, where concerns about the System 32 board’s price initially slowed orders.
• An East Coast distributor ordered three hundred cabinets, triggering a rush that sold out all two thousand units in less than two hours.
• A Los Angeles arcade owner bought the remaining demo cabinet, and Tom Kalinske told his assistant to ask Managing Director Nakayama for twenty thousand more units.

Nakayama Takuya’s Metal Slug launch overwhelmed U.S. arcades, prompting Sega to rush more cabinets and boards across the country while delaying the Japanese release. Nintendo executives dismissed the game as an arcade sideshow, and Shigeru Miyamoto began reading a market brief about it.

• Nakayama Takuya learned that the first two thousand Metal Slug cabinets had sold out in two hours and told Tom Kalinske that twenty thousand more cabinets and boards were on the way.
• Nakayama Takuya explained that Sega would hold back the Japanese release until Metal Slug had built momentum in North America.
• Arcade owner Louis watched players crowd around his Metal Slug machine, while arcade owners across the United States clamored for more units.
• Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln discussed Metal Slug, but Arakawa dismissed its success and kept Nintendo’s focus on home consoles.
• A Nintendo assistant delivered a North American arcade market brief to Shigeru Miyamoto, who read the words “Metal Slug.”

Shigeru Miyamoto dismissed an unfamiliar Sega arcade game while focusing on finishing The Legend of Zelda, but Metal Slug’s rapid spread across American arcades began drawing teenagers away from home consoles. Minoru Arakawa recognized the threat to Nintendo’s North American market and resolved to rely on the upcoming SNES release to win players back.

• Shigeru Miyamoto asked his assistant to obtain detailed information about Metal Slug from North America, then returned to testing The Legend of Zelda despite his poor health.
• Nakayama Takuya’s promised twenty thousand Metal Slug units reached the United States and were quickly distributed across the market.
• Metal Slug crowded American arcades and drew teenagers away from Art of Fighting, Mortal Kombat, and home-console games.
• Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln examined declining sales and retailer reports showing that fewer teenagers were visiting stores and more were going to arcades.
• Minoru Arakawa realized Sega’s arcade rollout was a deliberate attack on console players and vowed that the SNES release of Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda would bring them back.

Nakayama Takuya persuaded Square to delay Final Fantasy IV’s North American release so it could launch alongside a soundtrack album and an official art and setting book. Months later, the coordinated release reached North American stores just as Metal Slug players were looking for another game.

• Nakayama Takuya proposed turning Final Fantasy IV’s music into an OST and a single, and its artwork and world details into an official book.
• Sakaguchi Hironobu and Nobuo Uematsu embraced the plan, and Miyamoto Masashi agreed to Square’s delayed, expanded release.
• Final Fantasy IV, its soundtrack CD, and its art and setting book appeared together at prominent North American game counters.
• After playing Metal Slug, two boys noticed the Final Fantasy IV display in a game store window.

Sega’s lavish North American release of Final Fantasy IV drove a sharp recovery in Mega Drive sales and renewed pressure on Nintendo. Minoru Arakawa recognized that Sega’s worldwide release strategy and cheaper collector’s edition had won players’ goodwill, leaving him to confront Nintendo’s disadvantages.

• Jesse and other customers eagerly bought Final Fantasy IV’s collector’s edition, which bundled the game with a soundtrack CD and art book.
• Final Fantasy IV’s release sent Mega Drive sales in North America surging after Metal Slug had hurt them.
• Minoru Arakawa reviewed the game’s rising sales figures while the first batch of SNES consoles arrived in North American warehouses.
• Howard Lincoln accused Sega and Square of using the collector’s edition to placate North American players, then revealed it was also sold in Japan.
• Minoru Arakawa showed Lincoln that the complete set cost less in North America than the soundtrack and art book cost separately in Japan.
• Minoru Arakawa concluded that Nintendo had lost ground through its slower overseas releases and poor treatment of international players.

Sega introduced Virtua Fighter to North American arcade owners and players, presenting its 3D fighting gameplay as a new attraction after Metal Slug. The first players were quickly drawn into the game, and a losing boy immediately paid to play again.

• Sega quietly unloaded ten thousand Virtua Fighter cabinets and MODEL1 boards at the Port of San Francisco.
• A Sega sales manager demonstrated Virtua Fighter to arcade owners, who marveled at its 3D movement and began placing orders despite its high price.
• Frank ordered twenty cabinets and worried whether players would accept the angular-looking characters.
• Frank watched players question the game's graphics and limited roster before a sidestep and elbow strike sparked their interest.
• The first player to lose inserted another twenty-five-cent coin and prepared to try again.

Virtua Fighter drew huge crowds to Frank's arcade, while Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln prepared Nintendo's North American SNES launch. Nintendo's advertisements and arriving games revived players' interest, leaving the SNES poised for a major release.

• Frank watched Virtua Fighter attract long lines and bragged to another arcade owner about how quickly its coin boxes filled.
• Jesse and Tim discovered Virtua Fighter after finishing Final Fantasy IV, and Jesse kept challenging the game after losing.
• Minoru Arakawa set aside the report on Virtua Fighter and focused on the SNES launch plan with Howard Lincoln.
• Howard Lincoln reported that English-language copies of Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods had cleared customs, and Minoru ordered distribution.
• Nintendo launched a sweeping advertising campaign across the United States, prompting players to notice the SNES and its new games.

Nintendo celebrated the SNES selling over two million units in its first week, while Sega prepared a theater-based launch for Hook. Tom Kalinske welcomed the Japanese development team and revealed that thousands of Hook arcade machines would be installed in cinema lobbies across North America on the film’s premiere day.

• Nintendo's first-week SNES sales exceeded two million units, and Howard Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa celebrated the result.
• Nintendo's marketing director reported that arcade traffic and coin drops for Sega's Metal Slug and Virtua Fighter had declined after the SNES launch.
• Tom Kalinske welcomed Ono and the Japanese development team at San Francisco International Airport.
• Bernard told Kalinske that North America's ten largest theater chains had agreed to make space for Hook machines in their ticketing halls.
• Kalinske revealed that five thousand Hook arcade machines would be placed in cinemas across America on December 11, with distributors later buying them back for resale to arcade owners.

Sega’s Hook arcade game debuted in movie theaters alongside the film, drawing crowds and turning the lobbies into busy gaming spots. Mike and his friends played together before the screening, then watched Hook with a new sense of connection to its characters.

• Sony Columbia Pictures promoted Hook without mentioning its arcade game until Sega’s machines and posters appeared in theater lobbies two days before the film’s release.
• Mike and Jack spotted two crowded Hook arcade machines at the AMC Theatres and recognized Peter Pan on the screen.
• Mike, Jack, and their friend pooled their money to play as Lost Boys characters, enjoying cooperative battles against pirates.
• The theater manager watched the lines grow and calculated the extra income the machines would bring.
• Mike and his friends watched Hook, seeing its characters differently after playing as them.

Hook’s game and movie drove customers to each other, boosting arcade earnings and the film’s opening box office. Sega and Columbia TriStar celebrated the cross-promotion’s success while Steven Spielberg remained troubled by the critics’ reviews.

• Fat Joe reluctantly hung a Hook poster in his Chicago arcade after a Columbia TriStar representative paid him.
• Arcade regulars left to see the movie, but new visitors arrived after missing their chance to play Hook at the theater, and Fat Joe embraced the promotion.
• Sega executives learned that the game had influenced at least ten percent of the film’s opening-day audience and that theater cabinets had filled their coin boxes repeatedly.
• Sony Columbia Pictures executives celebrated the film’s box office and audience response despite poor reviews from critics.
• Steven Spielberg sat apart from the executives, reading negative reviews and frowning over their criticism.

Spielberg turned his regret over Hook’s technical limits into resolve to make a more ambitious film, while Sony executives discussed how PlayStation could secure launch games through partnerships. Nintendo’s North American sales began to flatten as Hook’s success brought arcade machines into movie theaters, prompting Howard Lincoln to blame the shift on Sony and Columbia.

• Spielberg heard an executive console him about Hook, then became eager to use better technology on a future dinosaur film after remembering Michael Crichton’s script.
• Hook passed one hundred million dollars at the North American box office a week after release, bringing Sony Columbia and arcade and theater owners substantial revenue.
• Ken Kutaragi and Ryoji Chubachi reviewed Sega’s winter results and discussed PlayStation’s timetable and the difficulty of attracting game developers.
• Norio Ohga proposed that Sony fund most of the development of exclusive games with capable third parties while allowing them to take most of the profits.
• Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln saw Nintendo’s sales growth flatten, and Howard angrily blamed the company’s intelligence team for missing Sony’s move into movie theaters.

Minoru Arakawa responded to slowing SNES sales by ordering Nintendo to help third-party developers bring games to North America faster, while Nakayama Takuya cautioned Sega that its advantage might not last. The story then shifted to Christmas 1991, when Sony executives watched the Soviet Union’s final collapse on television.

• Minoru Arakawa told Howard that the SNES needed more games and ordered Nintendo’s Marketing Department to assist North American third-party developers with translation, testing, and funding.
• Nakayama Takuya celebrated Sega’s slowing of SNES sales but warned his staff that Nintendo would push its third-party partners to respond.
• Nakayama Takuya recalled the coming collapse of the Soviet Union as Christmas 1991 approached.
• On December 25, Gorbachev announced his resignation as president of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union officially dissolved the following day.
• Norio Ohga, Ken Kutaragi, and Ryoji Chubachi watched the Soviet flag come down on television at Sony headquarters.

Norio Ohga interpreted the post-Cold War sales boom as a peace dividend and ordered Sony to accelerate PlayStation and recruit talent from third parties. At Sega, Nakayama Takuya urged his staff not to lose heart over Nintendo’s European surge, pointing to the Mega Drive’s worldwide lead as an advantage in the coming console war.

• Ken Kutaragi predicted that reduced military spending might ease technology restrictions and help Sony’s semiconductor division.
• After SNES sales surged across Europe during Christmas, Norio Ohga linked the boom to post-Cold War optimism and consumer spending.
• Norio Ohga ordered Ken Kutaragi to accelerate the SFC-CD project and PlayStation, and told Ryoji Chubachi to recruit top talent from third-party developers.
• Sega received reports from Ubisoft showing strong European demand for SNES and requests to import Sega arcade games.
• Nakayama Takuya explained that Nintendo’s sales had brought SNES close to ten million worldwide, then reminded Sega staff that the Mega Drive still outsold it by more than twenty million units.

Nakayama Takuya rallied Sega’s marketing department by promising the Sega CD and its RPG Dream Team, then learned Sony Computer Entertainment was offering generous deals to poach Sega’s core developers. He planned to retain key deputies and programmers by letting them form independent development teams, leaving the proposal for the board meeting.

• Nakayama Takuya restored the Marketing Department’s morale and urged Sega to expand its games and arcade presence while preparing for the next-generation console.
• Nakayama Takuya learned that Sony Computer Entertainment was offering Sega programmers doubled salaries, higher positions, and project leadership.
• Nakayama Takuya decided Sega would negotiate modest raises for development leaders but let those determined to leave go.
• Nakayama Takuya proposed allowing deputies, chief programmers, and core artists to establish new development groups and become team leaders.
• Nakayama Takuya told his assistant to keep the targeted employees at Sega for now and said he would present the plan at the board meeting.

Nakayama Takuya persuaded Sega’s directors to let Sony poach employees while Sega expanded its development teams and waited for Sony’s conflict with Nintendo to unfold. Meanwhile, Mark Cerny’s team advanced its John Wick arcade game toward a summer release, building a light gun with recoil feedback and cinematic close-combat QTEs.

• Nakayama Takuya explained that Sony was secretly developing its own console from the SFC-CD project while recruiting developers across the industry, and proposed using the distraction to strengthen Sega.
• Nakayama Hayao approved the strategy, and the board unanimously agreed to let Sony’s poaching proceed while Sega built new teams.
• A week later, Sega’s HR head reported that fewer than five core developers had resigned and that seventeen groups had applied to form independent development teams.
• Bernard Stolar told Mark Cerny that Universal Pictures planned to release John Wick in early July, and Mark promised the game would be ready in time.
• Mark Cerny directed his team to refine the arcade light gun’s recoil feedback and cinematic QTE combat, as development revealed the game’s distinctive potential.

Nakayama Takuya attended the production kickoff meeting for Mobile Suit Gundam F91 and urged the team to make Cosmo Babylonia’s mobile suits more distinctive and varied. Kunio Okawara agreed to bring Hajime Katoki onto the design team, and Nakayama left the Sunrise building after the meeting.

• Nakayama Takuya arrived at the kickoff meeting and listened as Yoshiyuki Tomino presented the new Gundam F91 project.
• Nakayama Takuya criticized Cosmo Babylonia’s mobile suit designs as forgettable and their weapons as too monotonous for compelling battles or model sales.
• Nakayama Takuya suggested making the designs more vicious than bizarre and inviting Hajime Katoki to collaborate with Kunio Okawara.
• Bandai’s representatives backed Nakayama Takuya’s concerns, arguing that the mobile suits’ appeal was crucial to the company’s sales.
• Kunio Okawara accepted the proposal and agreed to meet Hajime Katoki, and Nakayama Takuya declined President Ito’s dinner invitation and left Sunrise alone.

Nakayama Takuya proposed an F1 racing game to Yu Suzuki, who eagerly took up the project and began assembling a team. Nakayama then rejected several unoriginal game proposals and urged Sega’s developers to create distinctive games with stronger scripts.

• Yu Suzuki returned from vacation without new inspiration, and Nakayama Takuya suggested he make another racing game.
• Nakayama outlined rally, NASCAR, and F1 concepts, and Yu Suzuki chose F1 for its fixed tracks and focus on speed.
• Nakayama proposed a full-size cockpit with an F1 steering wheel and paddle shifters, and Yu Suzuki rushed off to start the project.
• Nakayama reviewed new teams’ proposals, rejected the ones that lacked distinctive features, and told the teams to improve their scripts.
• Nakayama considered checking Sega’s hiring rules after reflecting on the developers’ lack of originality.

Nakayama Takuya identified Sega’s rigid hiring standards as a source of its weak game proposals and ordered HR to recruit game-development applicants based on skills, creativity, and knowledge of games rather than academic majors. He left after instructing Kitashirakawa to revise the recruitment process, while recognizing that changing the company’s entrenched mindset would be the greater challenge.

• Nakayama Takuya visited HR and found that its recruitment rules restricted game-development jobs to applicants with matching academic majors.
• Nakayama Takuya used Shigeru Miyamoto’s industrial-design background to show Kitashirakawa that Sega’s standards could exclude creative talent.
• Nakayama Takuya removed major restrictions for game-development positions and told HR to assess applicants through professional skills tests.
• Nakayama Takuya required applicants to describe and critique games they liked and disliked, including Sega’s products.
• Kitashirakawa agreed to revise the recruitment regulations and prepare a new plan that day.
• Nakayama Takuya left HR, knowing that changing Sega’s entrenched attitudes remained a larger challenge.

Nakayama Takuya opened a public game-development discussion on Sega’s internal BBS to challenge the company’s rigid creative culture. Employees hesitated to post under the executive’s invitation until a new reply finally appeared, leaving them poised to see who had broken the silence.

• Nakayama Takuya found that Sega Academy contained no meaningful discussion about game creativity and posted an invitation for employees to raise development questions and ideas publicly.
• Takahashi read the notice and alerted his colleagues, prompting surprise and debate across the development departments.
• Employees heard that Nakayama Takuya had rejected every proposal from newly promoted development group leaders as conservative and dull, and took the BBS post as a warning to change.
• Developers watched the post’s view count rise while its replies stayed at zero, afraid to be the first to speak.
• A notification showed that the post had received its first reply, and employees rushed to refresh the page.

Nakayama Takuya promised Yu Suzuki’s team access to McLaren’s pit area to research force feedback and handling for an F1 game, setting off excitement across Sega. He then asked Director Yoshikawa to make the connection, arguing that the opportunity would benefit both development and promotion.

• Yu Suzuki asked Nakayama Takuya whether Sega could provide a physical reference for the paddle-shift steering wheel and its force feedback.
• Nakayama Takuya replied that he would ask Director Yoshikawa to contact Honda and arrange for core developers to observe McLaren’s pit area during the Japanese Grand Prix.
• Sega employees celebrated the prospect of visiting McLaren, and the BBS filled with jokes and requests to join the trip.
• Nakayama Takuya printed Yu Suzuki’s request and went to Director Yoshikawa’s office to ask him to arrange access to McLaren.
• Director Yoshikawa questioned the difficulty of securing pit access, and Nakayama Takuya emphasized the development and promotional value of the opportunity.

Nakayama Takuya secured Yoshikawa’s help contacting Honda for a future F1 game and advised Sega to stop worrying about TurboDuo and prepare to replace Electronic Arts. Sony’s recruitment drive brought in more than a hundred developers, though Nobuyuki Idei questioned whether they were talented enough to become stars.

• Nakayama Takuya revealed that he wanted to make a rally racing game, and Yoshikawa agreed to contact Honda about the F1 requirements while asking him to hold off on discussing the rally project.
• Tom Kalinske told Nakayama Takuya that NEC and Hudson had formed Turbo Technologies Inc. and launched the TurboDuo, but Nakayama dismissed it as no real threat to Sega.
• Kalinske complained that Electronic Arts wanted to cut its royalties, and Nakayama predicted it would leave Sega for Trip Hawkins and Panasonic’s next-generation console.
• Nakayama told Kalinske to recruit sports-game developers, have Mark Cerny monitor talent, and approach Visual Concepts as an alternative to Electronic Arts.
• Ryoji Chubachi reported that Sony had recruited more than one hundred developers from Sega, Konami, and Namco, and Nobuyuki Idei challenged the value of the hires because none appeared to be an industry star.

Sony completed the PlayStation prototype and decided to unveil it at the May CES in Chicago rather than wait for the Tokyo Toy Show. As Nintendo celebrated the expected Super Famicom CD, Yokoi Gunpei heard that Sony Computer Entertainment was aggressively poaching developers and began wondering why Nintendo had not been targeted.

• Ken Kutaragi announced that the PlayStation hardware prototype was finished and that Sony had completed the Super Famicom CD drive to the bare minimum required by its contract.
• Norio Ohga chose the May CES in Chicago as the stage for Sony to demonstrate the PlayStation, with technical demos planned for the end of April.
• News of the completed Super Famicom CD lifted Nintendo's spirits, and Shigeru Miyamoto returned early from vacation.
• At an izakaya, Yokoi Gunpei heard Kobayashi and another producer complain that Sony Computer Entertainment had poached developers from several game companies, including Konami, Namco, and Capcom.
• Yokoi Gunpei asked why Sony had not poached anyone from Nintendo or Enix.

Yokoi Gunpei warned Nintendo that Sony was secretly poaching game-industry staff and might be preparing to launch its own console. Nintendo’s executives discovered that Sony’s Super Famicom-CD contract granted it independent console and game-publishing rights, and they waited for the Legal Department to review the agreement.

• Yokoi Gunpei realized Sony’s alliance with Nintendo might conceal a plan to enter the console market, then rushed to report his suspicions to Yamauchi Hiroshi.
• Yokoi Gunpei told Nintendo’s executives that Sony was poaching employees across Japan’s game companies and was likely seeking its own platform.
• Yamauchi Hiroshi questioned why Sony had avoided poaching Nintendo, prompting Masayuki Uemura to recall the contract’s supplementary clauses.
• Masayuki Uemura revealed that Sony could sell compatible consoles and independently publish games without Nintendo’s consent or royalties.
• Yamauchi Hiroshi summoned the Legal Department and ordered the executives, including Masayuki Uemura, to remain at the company until the contract was reviewed.

Nintendo discovered that Sony had used loopholes in their SFC-CD agreement to prepare an independent console and game business. Yamauchi Hiroshi ordered Masayuki Uemura to keep pretending to cooperate while Yokoi Gunpei went to recruit Philips as a new partner.

• Nintendo's legal chief showed Yamauchi Hiroshi contract clauses that would let Sony sell compatible hardware and publish games without paying Nintendo royalties.
• Shigeru Miyamoto, Yokoi Gunpei, and the directors realized Sony had been poaching Nintendo developers to build its own console and game empire.
• Yamauchi Hiroshi dismissed the directors, praised Yokoi Gunpei for saving the company, and ordered Masayuki Uemura to continue cooperating with Sony while secretly gathering information.
• Yamauchi Hiroshi rejected Yokoi Gunpei's suggestion to terminate the partnership and instead decided to seek Philips as another CD-ROM partner.
• Yokoi Gunpei accepted Yamauchi Hiroshi's assignment to go to the Netherlands and tell Philips that Nintendo wanted a new friend to help improve the SFC-CD.

Nakayama Takuya joined Square and Rieko Kodama’s Sega team as they finalized the framework for Journey Through Time, combining Sakaguchi Hironobu’s battle ideas with Kodama’s time-spanning story. As the project moved to task assignments, Nobuo Uematsu declined to lead the music and recommended Mitsuda-kun instead.

• Nakayama Takuya arrived at Square for the formal planning meeting with Rieko Kodama’s team.
• Sakaguchi Hironobu proposed visible enemies, seamless battles, and cooperative combo techniques.
• Rieko Kodama outlined the journey through the Middle Ages, the Ice Age, and a ruined future, and she and Sakaguchi developed ideas for changing history across eras.
• Nakayama Takuya approved the finalized framework, and the teams began assigning tasks.
• Nobuo Uematsu declined to lead the music and introduced Mitsuda-kun as the composer he would supervise.