" Kazuma, wanna grab a drink after work?"
Mitsuo Kodama, carrying his briefcase, gently patted the young man in the seat.
Kujo Kazuma, an unknown developer.
He was a colleague of IREM, but not in the same development team.
Most Japan companies have this structure.
" Mitsuo ----"
Kujo Kazuma knew who was speaking without even turning around, and paused for a moment in his packing.
He has recently heard many unpleasant rumors circulating about him.
"After Nishiyama- senpai and Tsujimoto-senpai left, IREM really became quite deserted----"
"Shh!"
Upon hearing this, Mitsuo Kodama quickly put his arm around his shoulder and leaned closer to make a shushing gesture.
If the Nanao Electric heard him say that, they'd probably give him a piece of their mind.
The talent poaching war between Capcom and SNK is now raging fiercely, and the intensification of factional conflicts has reached a point where they are almost irreconcilable.
In a sense, this is a family conflict.
The twins born to Irm are now fighting tooth and nail over the inheritance.
Meanwhile, IREM, caught in the middle, hasn't had an easy time these days either.
" Mitsuo ----"
Kujo Kazuma pulled his hand away from Mitsuo's and looked at him earnestly. "You don't need to hide it anymore, I've already heard. Nishiyama- senpai sent you an invitation, right?"
Takashi Nishiyama, once the glue that held IREM together, a man who straddled the line between Capcom and SNK.
Kujo Kazuma has recently been hearing rumors that "another person is going to be poached."
Based on Mitsuo's recent somewhat unusual behavior, he could guess the general idea.
Mitsuo will probably be switching to SNK soon.
Mitsuo Kodama did not answer him immediately, but responded with a long silence.
But that's already the answer.
Kujo Kazuma sighed.
"Never mind, I—I already have plans with friends tonight, so I won't go."
"You bastard----"
Tokyo Metropolis, Roppongi Minato Ward, Tokyo.
IREM is located in the Chiyoda area, which is in the same part of Tokyo Metropolis as Roppongi, and the distance between them is not too far.
Kujo Kazuma, carrying a briefcase, walked into a rather quiet izakaya (Japanese pub) that wasn't very big.
Following instructions, he knocked on the door of the private room.
"Please come in."
The response came from a young voice, causing Kujo Kazuma to pause slightly.
He ran his fingers through his hair, then steeled himself and gently opened the door.
There was only one young man in the room, wearing square-framed glasses, who was even younger than himself.
"You—you must be Mr. Satoshi Tajiri?"
Kujo Kazuma swallowed hard, matching the person in front of him with the image in his memory.
It was indeed him.
Satoshi Tajiri, President of GameFreak and head of GAMENOVA's distribution in Japan.
Not long ago, he received a letter from the other party, inviting him to Roppongi for a meeting.
Honestly, when he first saw the contents of the letter, Kujo Kazuma almost fainted from excitement.
This is clearly the best possible sign!
Even if it's not poaching, it must be some form of cooperation intention.
If this matter can actually be brought to fruition, it would be a great honor for me.
Gamenova was a video game marvel in North America.
"Yes, please sit down."
Satoshi adopted a senior's air and gestured for Kujo Kazuma to sit down casually.
Several skewers of yakitori and saury were grilling on the stove, and a bottle of sake sat next to them.
Unlike the luxurious and upscale restaurant I had imagined, this was more like a typical after-work gathering for office workers.
However, Kujo Kazuma didn't dare to Panasonic so easily and obediently sat down opposite Satoshi.
What has IREM been busy with lately?
Seeing that he had already sat down, Satoshi Tajiri casually asked, and picked up a sizzling skewer of yakitori.
"Uh... it's just the usual stuff, all sorts of arcade games."
Kazuma answered, but then felt he had been too simplistic and perhaps impolite, so he added, forcing himself to stay calm, "Capcom and SNK are getting increasingly aggressive in poaching talent; many of IREM's core developers have left."
Everyone wants to recruit more outstanding developers to their side as quickly as possible.
"The people at Nanao Electric —they only care about the production and sales of arcade games, and don't care much about development."
Kujo Kazuma breath, but these were all things that could be easily investigated, so it couldn't be considered a leak.
"Um----"
Satoshi nodded and finished the skewer in his hand.
Kujo Kazuma understood immediately and poured him a cup of sake.
Having spent a lot of time with Lin Lixin, Satoshi has now developed his own strategy for showing off.
Simply throw out the name of Gamenova, then strike a pose of authority and project an air of superiority—it always works.
In particular, they could enjoy yakitori and heavy drinking at public expense.
Wow, that's really wonderful!
"Ahem, IREM was a good company, at least it used to be."
However, a good company doesn't necessarily mean it can make good games.
"A common problem with large corporations is that a project requires a risk assessment first, followed by layers of approvals—and even after all the formalities are completed, there's no guarantee of getting much development resources."
"By the time the project was actually completed, the final product was no longer what I had envisioned."
It's here!
Kujo Kazuma's heart suddenly raced.
Although he had suspected it on the way here, he only truly felt it when the other person brought it up.
Mr. Satoshi Tajiri is right; IREM does indeed suffer from this problem.
A cumbersome administrative system and chaotic factionalism.
It's incredibly difficult to focus on your own work here.
In contrast, GAMENOVA doesn't care about ROI, development costs, or project timeline at all.
Once they come up with an idea, they'll stop at nothing to use incredible resources to bring it to fruition.
It's as if they make games purely for fun.
"What does Tajiri- senpai mean—?"
Although he understood what the other person meant, Satoshi Tajiri didn't say it explicitly, so he had to pretend not to understand.
Sega's newly formed AM10 10th Development Team is short of a director.
"Huh? Sega?"
Kujo Kazuma's wildly beating heart suddenly stopped for a moment.
How could it be Sega??
"Change in shareholding----"
Kujo Kazuma suddenly remembered the big-name battle between Sega and Nintendo that had been making headlines not long ago.
Since that battle, Sega has never recovered, and its stock price has been nearly destroyed.
It is said that the major shareholder CSK has cashed out and run away, leaving behind a mess.
As another arcade giant in Japan, Sega, a true top player, has always been IREM's strictest father.
They naturally attract a lot of attention within the company.
However, Kujo Kazuma himself wasn't particularly interested in this area and didn't know much about it.
Looking back now, he did indeed hear rumors like "GAMENOVA invested to take over a 20% stake."
"The world has changed!"
"What do you mean? Do it or not?"
Kujo Kazuma remained silent for a moment.
Switching to Gamenova and switching to Sega are completely different concepts.
Although it now seems to be a company within the GAMENOVA camp.
But Sega's system was chaotic—even more so than IRM.
He was unaware of President Hayao Nakayama's situation; he only knew that compared to Nintendo, Sega had suffered a complete defeat in the video game industry.
Was I somehow relegated to this role, tasked with cleaning up Sega's mess?
but----
With the departure of key members, coupled with the shrinking arcade market and internal management problems, IREM is now in a much worse state than Sega.
Staying at IREM is truly an uncertain future.
He gritted his teeth and finally made up his mind.
Sega's future may be bleak, but it still has Gamenova behind it.
Rather than slowly committing suicide here, waiting for a poaching offer from Capcom or SNK that may never come, it's better to take a gamble.
"I'll do it!"
"Hey, well done!"
Satoshi Tajiri suddenly Panasonic, a smile appearing on his face. "Now that things are settled, let's have a drink to celebrate. President Hayashi is paying for it."
After a few rounds of drinks, Satoshi Tajiri reached out and patted Kujo Kazuma on the shoulder.
"By the Kazuma, do you have any other suitable candidates to recommend? The current AM10 is just an empty shell."
"Recommend? Hmm----"
Kujo Kazuma frowned and pondered for a moment, then a familiar figure appeared in his mind, " Kodama Mitsunari, he's a very talented art and UI designer."
"Alright, your task is to bring him over too. Oh, and Akio, and Atsushi Kurooka— "
Satoshi Tajiri rattled off a long list of names in one breath, leaving Kujo Kazuma wide-eyed.
This is fucking...
This practically means that IREM's already dwindling core development team was completely taken away!
Without these guys, IREM can officially declare that it has completely lost its development capabilities.
However, considering that the other party was representing GAMENOVA, such a large sum of money is quite normal.
" Tajiri- senpai—if that's the case, I have another suitable candidate."
"Who?"
" Takashi Nishiyama of SNK."
The original Metal Slug was not actually developed by SNK in a strict sense.
Its true creator is a game studio called Nazca.
Its members are a group of geniuses who refuse to be mediocre.
They resolutely left the chaotic world of IREM and together founded this company.
It wasn't until the huge success of Metal Slug that the Nazca development team was acquired by SNK and became one of their subsidiaries.
The members of Nazca were among the few remaining core developers from neutral factions after the talent war at IREM.
They.
R-Type Kujo Kazuma, the developer of R-Type;
Bayonetta Atsushi Kurooka, who will be involved in the production of Bayonetta in the future;
Akio, the Legend art director and the soul artist of Metal Slug ----
November 24th is Thanksgiving.
A brand new development team Sega to make this a grand occasion.
After discussion, it was decided that this AM10 10th Development Team would be officially named Nazca Studio.
Their first task was to collaborate with the Legend GAMENOVA, located on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, to develop a new game called Metal Slug.
The president of IREM stared at the stack of resignation letters on the table, lost in thought.
I remember I had a development department?
In Kung-Fu Master blink of an eye, how did his own company get undermined?
While Capcom and SNK have occasionally poached one or two players in the past, they've never gone this far.
"Is it Capcom or SNK? Who on earth is so despicable!"
This is a damn scheme to wipe out our entire family line; it's utterly unethical.
Beside him, his assistant licked his lips, hesitated for a long time, and then timidly spoke up, "President—it wasn't President Kenzo Tsujimoto and President Yoshihiko Takado who did it—"
"Who the hell is that?! Who could possibly have the resources for this? Could it be Gamenova?"
"That's really true!"
C