On Monday, at Konami headquarters, in the same reception room overlooking the Osaka industrial district, Kozuki Kagemasa still wore his smiling expression as he personally brewed tea for Hayao Nakayama, his movements identical to when he hosted Takuya last time, as if nothing had changed.
"President Nakayama, congratulations. The MD's battle was truly earth-shattering, a real eye-opener for us," Kozuki Kagemasa pushed the teacup towards Hayao Nakayama, his tone not betraying whether it was genuine congratulations or mere politeness.
Hayao Nakayama did not touch the tea. He took a document from his briefcase and gently placed it beside the exquisite Arita-yaki tea set. The document was not thick, its cover simply stating "MD First Week Sales Report and Future Product Line Planning" in black text on white paper.
"President President Kozuki, you flatter me; it was just luck," Hayao Nakayama's voice was steady, devoid of emotion. "This information is a bit more detailed than what's in the newspapers."
Kozuki Kagemasa's smile remained unchanged as he reached for the document. He opened the first page, his gaze falling on the global sales figure of nearly 900,000 units, his pupils imperceptibly contracting. The news in the newspapers was, after all, media sensationalism, but this report, personally handed over by the President of Sega, carried a completely different weight.
His fingers silently traced the words "560,000 units" for the Japanese domestic market, as he quickly calculated the market size this implied for Konami.
"pokémon is indeed a genius idea," Kozuki Kagemasa closed the document, hinting, "Your son truly surpasses you."
"Takuya is still young, sometimes acting without enough consideration," Hayao Nakayama's tone shifted, his gaze directly at Kozuki Kagemasa. "For instance, regarding the hiring of Hideo Kojima, he didn't inform you in advance. I apologize to you on his behalf."
The air in the reception room seemed to freeze for a moment. For the first time, Kozuki Kagemasa's smile showed a subtle stiffness. Apologize? Apologize for hiring an employee I fired? Is he implying that I, Kozuki Kagemasa, am a poor judge of character?
"President Nakayama, you exaggerate," Kozuki Kagemasa quickly regained his old fox demeanor, his smile even widening. "Konami is too small to accommodate a great Buddha. It is Hideo Kojima's good fortune to find a discerning master like Sega. In fact, I should thank Sega for handling an uncooperative employee for us."
These words were flawless, maintaining face while also deflecting the issue.
Hayao Nakayama remained unperturbed; he knew that with such people, verbal sparring was just an appetizer. "President President Kozuki, you must be clear about my purpose in coming today." He leaned forward slightly. "The conditions Takuya proposed last time are still valid. However, he promised a future then, while what I bring today is a present with nearly a million users."
Kozuki Kagemasa picked up his teacup but did not drink, merely skimming the foam with the lid. "The conditions are indeed tempting. But Nintendo…"
"President President Kozuki," Hayao Nakayama interrupted him, "You and I have been making games under Nintendo's shadow for so many years. You know better than I how tight the collar around our necks is. Now, I've simply placed the key on the table."
Kozuki Kagemasa stopped skimming the tea leaves. He put down the teacup and leaned back against the sofa, the sharp glint in his eyes, visible through his gold-rimmed glasses, no longer concealed.
"We have internally evaluated the MD's hardware capabilities; they are excellent," he finally began to speak frankly. "If, and I mean if, Konami is willing to launch a new title from our flagship series, such as contra, as an MD exclusive, what additional support can Sega provide?"
Here it comes. The merchant, waiting to be valued, finally started to state his price.
Hayao Nakayama's face showed the first genuine smile of the trip. "For marketing expenses, Sega and Konami can split it 70-30, with Sega taking 70. Additionally, our North America branch will list it as a top-priority promotional title. Oh, right, Takuya also has a suggestion for well-known third-party exclusive games: we can release limited edition consoles, like pokémon, with no more than ten thousand units, as a bundled sales package. Sega can also offer a five-point profit margin on these consoles."
Hayao Nakayama took a sip of tea, seemingly casually remarking, "Sega only prepared thirty thousand pokémon limited edition consoles for all of Japan. The stock in Tokyo sold out by noon on Valentine's Day. Now, it seems they're going for almost 40,000 yen on the secondhand market. Sigh, I even want to ask Mr. Terauchi to make another twenty thousand units to secretly put on the secondhand market."
Kozuki Kagemasa's fingers began to tap gently on the armrest of the leather sofa, making a soft 'thump, thump, thump' sound. In the entire room, only this rhythmic sound remained. The scales in his heart were gradually tipping towards Sega.
At the same time, Takuya drove his RX7 to the Koei company building in Hiyoshi, Yokohama.
Takuya was meeting with Koei's founders, Yoichi and Keiko Kawamura, today.
The reception room had no leather sofas or expensive tea sets; instead, it featured sturdy wooden furniture and a wall filled with books—history, geography, economics, encompassing everything. Yoichi Kawamura was an elegant, scholarly man wearing glasses, while his wife, Keiko Kawamura, appeared more capable, with shrewdness in her eyes.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Takuya did not rush into his pitch but instead placed an identical sales report on the table.
The Kawamuras had heard about Sega's achievements, as Yokohama is not far from Tokyo. However, seeing this detailed internal report firsthand made a completely different impression. Keiko Kawamura looked particularly closely, her gaze lingering for a long time on the line "560,000 units in the Japanese domestic market."
"It is truly admirable that Sega has achieved such results under the heavy pressure from Nintendo," Yoichi Kawamura adjusted his glasses, speaking sincerely.
"Yes, I heard that Executive Director Nakayama was responsible for much of the MD's launch and game lineup preparation? He is truly young and promising," Keiko Kawamura picked up her husband's words and echoed.
"Not at all, you two seniors are too kind. It's all thanks to the collective efforts of everyone in the company," Takuya humbly replied, then cut to the chase.
"President Kawamura, I heard that 'Nobunaga's Ambition' and 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' have received excellent feedback on the PC platform. Have you considered porting them to home consoles?" Takuya immediately inquired about Koei's flagship games.
At the mention of this, Yoichi Kawamura's face showed a hint of helplessness. "Home consoles have too many functional limitations. Our proud complex systems and data would have to be heavily simplified for home consoles, almost becoming a different game, losing the essence of the original."
The weak capabilities of the Nintendo FC made it difficult for PC game developers like them to consider porting, which is why they still hadn't ported a single game to the Nintendo FC.
"This is precisely the problem our Sega MD can solve," Takuya leaned forward, steering the conversation towards his console. "The MD has a powerful 16-bit processor; I'm sure you at Koei frequently encounter Motorola's MC68000 when developing PC games. Its memory and video memory also far surpass the FC. More importantly," he emphasized, "we offer very flexible support for cartridge capacity. Technically, we can fully support games like 'Nobunaga's Ambition' and 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' that require vast amounts of data, achieving an experience close to the PC original, and making porting development more convenient."
These words clearly resonated with Yoichi Kawamura; a spark flickered in his eyes as he exchanged a glance with his wife beside him.
Keiko Kawamura took over, her question more practical: "Executive Director Nakayama, we are already aware of Sega's third-party policy, and it is indeed more lenient than Nintendo's. But regarding the production cost of cartridges, especially large-capacity cartridges, what kind of support can Sega provide?"
"Good question," Takuya smiled. "For a company like Koei, which focuses on high-quality strategy games, we can provide specialized technical support to help optimize costs. Furthermore, Sega's cartridge production lines have spare capacity, which can guarantee production for important partners like Koei."
He paused, then threw out another enticing offer: "Moreover, Sega's technical support for game cartridge upgrades isn't just about capacity. When we were developing the console, we already devised a plan for integrating special chips within the cartridges to assist with calculations or enhance graphical performance. This will allow your games on the MD to display effects that surpass the console's hardware limitations, and we have corresponding mature programming solutions that can be provided to developers for free reference."
During the MD's development, Takuya paid close attention to providing convenient development tools and technical support to third parties. If, like Sega in his previous life, he had simply given third parties a cumbersome and difficult-to-use development kit, the number of willing third-party supporters would have been much smaller.
Upon hearing this, even Keiko Kawamura showed interest. This offered them a more flexible hardware environment to showcase their talents.
After a long discussion, although the Kawamuras were very interested, they remained cautious, telling Takuya that they needed to carefully research and discuss it.
Takuya expressed understanding and stood up to leave. Before departing, he took out a packaged MD console and a game cartridge from his bag and placed them on the table. "This is our new game, releasing next week. A small token of my regard."
Yoichi Kawamura took it and saw the cartridge cover—first super robot wars.
"Super Robot Wars?" He was somewhat curious.
"Yes, a strategy RPG," Takuya nodded. "You two should be familiar with the gameplay mechanics inside, only the units have been replaced with robot characters. You can try it out for reference."
Yoichi Kawamura said, "Then I look forward to it."
Takuya bowed to them and smiled as he bid farewell.