Chapter 466 370 Yamauchi Hiroshi Is Forced Into a Desperate Situation

Chapter 466 370. Hiroshi Yamauchi is cornered

"Damn it!!!"

As expected, on the first day of work after the New Year, at the company's strategic meeting

Hiroshi Yamauchi flew into a rage.

He threw the magazine hard against the wall.

There was a pile of articles on the table, all about how well Pokeni's Pokémon series games were done during the New Year.

Especially the reports about Pokémon Racing were full of praise.

The magazine gave the Pokémon series a high honor, and the players also used their actual actions to prove how good Pokeni's Pokémon series is.

How popular the peripheral products are.

Now walking on the street, you can see Pokémon toys displayed in stores and claw machines everywhere.

This is not only a carnival for Pokeni, but also a carnival for all the people.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Qing Zhiyuan is a lucky money harvester, because in just a few days during the Chinese New Year, Pokeni made a lot of money with two Pokémon products and peripherals, making the children willingly take out all the lucky money.

If there is no Pokémon toy at home, it seems that something is missing.

"Do you know?! Pokeni has made the game to this level. What about us?!" Yamauchi Hiroshi cursed fiercely.

For the same type of game products, they are better than us, with higher playability and fun. This is not just a simple problem of picture quality crushing.

It is an all-round dimensionality reduction attack.

In this case, how can we praise you?

How can we appease the troops? !

Shigeru Miyamoto and a group of staff were scolded so much that they couldn't raise their heads at all.

This kind of thing is also quite helpless to say, it is almost equivalent to falling behind step by step. From the game console platform, N64 has already fallen behind PS, and the design of the handle is not better than their dual joysticks.

Although the PS's dual joysticks seem a bit bulky, once you get used to it, playing 3D games is a breeze.

The hardware of the game console is not as good as others, and the game design is not as good as others. This is indeed Shigeru Miyamoto's fault.

Mario Kart is also a racing game, which supports multiplayer games and various competitions. If there is no Pokémon Kart, it must be a series of good products that can be loved by players.

But...

Compared with Pokémon, Pokémon's technology and art design are crushing them in all aspects.

Moreover, Pokémon has its own unique evolution and skill gameplay, which greatly enriches the fun and playability of racing games.

The comparison is a bit embarrassing, and Mario Kart looks like a low-quality product.

In this case, who would buy your game instead of playing the better Pokémon Kart?

It's the same reason that even if players think with their feet, they will choose Borderland with better picture quality and expression instead of the [backward] Thor's Hammer.

But this can't be completely blamed on them. Shigeru Miyamoto had no way of knowing that Qing Zhiyuan was actually a time traveler. The game knowledge and design concepts stored in his brain were not all products of this era.

It's equivalent to that he has already understood the evolutionary history of Rentian Paradise and the entire game world. You can't fight against it by using Mario Kart 2.0 to beat 1.0.

If it weren't for the hardware limitations now, Qing Zhiyuan could have come up with something even more shocking.

After more than two hours of meetings, President Yamauchi's face became more and more ugly.

In response to the performance of Pokémon during the Chinese New Year, Rentian Paradise's strategic department gave its own analysis, and everyone present, including Shigeru Miyamoto, expressed their opinions.

At present, there are several reasons why Pokémon has been so successful.

First of all, the theme of Pokémon itself is very inclusive, and it can almost include all creatures in this world and creatures that do not exist in this world and are imagined.

Whether it is flying in the sky, running on the ground, or swimming in the water, they can all be accepted.

Moreover, Pokémon can effectively convey the concept of keeping pets and the concept of symbiosis between humans and Pokémon. There is a similar reason in the real world.

Many people keep pets at home, whether they are cats, dogs or some reptiles. In the summer, they go to the woods to catch cicadas and go to the river to catch fish...

Pokémon activates some instinctive needs of human beings, which are the fun that can be found in nature and life, and are packaged and brought into the game.

Just for this reason, Pokémon has a considerable vitality, which comes from nature and the universe.

In comparison, Mario's worldview is smaller, which is the traditional Dragon Quest model. At the same time, it will be subject to certain restrictions if it wants to expand. For example, Mario's core gameplay is water pipes, and the worldview exists to meet the setting of plumbers.

So if you want to achieve the level of Pokémon, you actually don't have a natural advantage.

The biggest advantage of Rentendo is that they have been operating for a longer time than Pokeni.

However, from a business perspective, some of Pokeni's practices are very worth learning from.

For example, one of the important reasons why Pokémon games have created a huge wave of popularity around the world is naturally because of the well-done animation of Pokémon.

Now it has been translated into more than a dozen different texts and languages ​​and broadcasted around the world. Through animation as a medium, it has strong dissemination around the world.

In addition, the core of Pokémon is humans and Pokémon partners. This kind of relationship, battles, and storylines are trans-international, which means that they can be universally recognized by the world without too much interpretation.

About friendship, about the emotions between people and Pokémon, about dreams, about...

These are the simplest values ​​that exist in human beings themselves, and they are the most communicable things.

So in terms of promotion, especially through animation, Rentendo is not as good as pokeni.

They didn't pay much attention to this problem before. Hiroshi Yamauchi only discovered this recently. Sometimes you think that a game is a simple toy, or something that brings fun to players, but it actually has many things. Inextricably linked.

pokeni not only makes animations, but is also now operating comics. Regarding the future development of the company, Qing Zhiyuan has taught his peers a solid lesson. The textbook-level interactive model has used games and animations as well as movies, comics, and light novels. , surrounding...

All-round linkage will produce the widest communication effect, and with the game as the core, a huge interactive network will be built to expand the influence of the game itself.

And through joint action, the effects produced by different nodes on this network are expanded.

For example, if the Pokémon game sells well, it will definitely feed back the TV animation, and it will also promote the sales of peripheral products.

Every time a new Pokémon is released, there will be a wave of panic buying.

When the related peripherals of Moon Eevee and Sun Eevee were released, they were so popular that many people wanted to get a Moon Eevee.

Among pokeni's peripheral products, Ibrahimovic is often sold out.

In terms of linkage and publicity, pokeni has obviously done a better job.

This is also the only thing Rentian can do, or it is the most cost-effective according to the current evaluation.

In addition, it is the game itself. Pokeni’s strategy is very clear. It takes the traditional Pokémon battle game as the core and extends outwards to other products.

Then it feeds back to the orthodox sequel through derivative products, thus forming a virtuous network cycle.

The simplest example is——

In order to launch Eevee Moon and Eevee Sun in the orthodox handheld sequel "Pokémon Light/Dark", Pokémon even spent a lot of money to produce "Pokémon 3D World: Dark of the Moon" "Pokemon 3D World: Myth of the Sun"

Rather than simply throwing new Pokémon into the battle game and calling it a day, it gives these newly added Pokémon a stage and opportunity to show themselves.

Through these two Pokémon derivative works with Moon Eevee and Sun Eevee as the core, players can not only experience extraordinary game fun, but also learn about different Pokémon stories through these games.

The two games themselves have high publicity value and have made outstanding contributions to the marketing of Pokémon. At the same time, these two games also serve as a link between the past and the future.

It has warmed up and paved the way for the release of the orthodox game "Pokémon Light/Dark".

The entire Pokémon series suddenly became colorful and interconnected.

This was actually what Rentendo was doing at the beginning, using the orthodox Mario games to derive other different types of games, expanding the Mario series, and achieving a strong linkage effect.

Rentenda has actually produced many animations and movies related to Mario, but unfortunately none of them have reached the level of influence as Pokémon.

From this perspective, Mario, a big IP, is inherently flawed in the structure of the worldview.

Although Hiroshi Yamauchi is very reluctant to admit this, and even often thinks that "the game should be simple enough, brisk and short, so that children can experience the purest fun", the basic core setting of the plumber is both What made Mario possible, also limited Mario.

This game IP cannot be made more interesting and inclusive.

…

The expansion of the game series is very necessary.

Sometimes, the sales volume of the game itself is one thing, no matter where it is placed, when the number is large, it will add to the entire game family, allowing players to see its richness.

In other words -

I don’t guarantee that every Pokémon player will like it.

But what I can guarantee is that whatever you like can be found in the big Pokémon family.

This is why Qing Zhiyuan has been constantly expanding the Pokémon series, allowing Lisa Asano’s team to develop Pokémon for different game types.

We will even develop different Pokémon protagonists in the future to meet the needs of more people.

When the [Pokémon Big World] is built, it will produce a very amazing crowding effect.

Generally speaking, after some discussion, the members of Rentiantian came to the conclusion:

Or develop new Mario or Kirby series games, strive to expand family members, follow the Pokémon model, or even catch up in the next generation of games and make game products that surpass Pokeni.

The so-called surpassing is not only reflected in the gameplay, but also includes the game's picture quality, the game's story, playability, and all aspects must have higher requirements.

After all, if it exists as a competitor, failing to defeat the opponent head-on is equivalent to losing yourself.

This risk is actually the greatest, but if it can be done, it will definitely achieve extraordinary results, at least it can stabilize the throne of Rentendo.

The difficulty is actually very high, and the key is that everyone here, including Shigeru Miyamoto, is not completely sure.

It is already difficult to improve the picture quality to be similar to Pokeni, let alone surpass it.

Another way is to open up new markets, avoid its edge, and not confront Pokeni head-on. This is actually more stable and can also make money.

But how could Yamauchi Hiroshi swallow this breath?

Just thinking about it is very frustrating, okay?

When Rentendo was still at its peak, who in the world didn't want to play the games they made?

Rentendo is the benchmark in the industry, but now it has to fear a newcomer, Pokeni, and even dare not confront him head-on because of fear.

This kind of psychological gap is unacceptable to anyone.

Let alone Yamauchi Hiroshi.

The former king now has to bow to Qing Zhiyuan, how can this be possible? ! !

"Do it! We must improve the quality of our products. We can't lag behind like this!"

Yamauchi Hiroshi slapped the table heavily, "No matter what, we must surpass Sony in hardware. In terms of games, Pokeni has already launched an attack on us head-on. If we can't respond, how will others see us?

So we must fight back head-on!!"

Hearing Yamauchi Hiroshi's words, everyone couldn't help but take a breath.

This means that they must work harder to surpass Pokeni, at least to achieve the next generation product level in terms of game quality.

But now, let alone surpassing, even approaching is impossible.

What's more frightening is that they have no idea how far Paradox's technology has developed. Maybe Pokeni has already entered the next generation.

This is all completely possible.

It's difficult.

It's extremely difficult.

Fortunately, after some thought, Yamauchi Hiroshi agreed to their second plan, which is to make products that face the challenge head-on, strive to improve product quality, and also explore new markets and differentiate products.

This way, at least there will be a bottom line.

Although he was very unwilling, Yamauchi Hiroshi was forced to make such a compromise.

In addition, in other aspects, Rentiandi is ready to replicate Pokeni's successful route and start to take a full-scale network derivative structure. In the future, it will invest in the development of Mario-related animations and live-action movies, etc., and will also build Rentiandi's star products into world-renowned big IPs.

IP strategy will become the core of Rentiandi in the future.

Whether it can succeed depends on this one move.

...

After the meeting, Yamauchi Hiroshi sat in a chair, looking at the sunset outside the window.

The golden sunlight sprinkled on the ground, coating his eyelashes and half of his body with a layer of golden light.

His silver-white hair was also dyed with a thin layer of gold.

Although he was reluctant to admit it, at this moment, he seemed to feel that he was really a little powerless.

Calculating his age, Yamauchi Hiroshi is already a 70-year-old man. If it were someone else, he would have retired and spent his old age.

But he couldn't do that. The current Rentendo is far from being able to let go.

At this time, Yamauchi Hiroshi already had a vague feeling of being forced into a desperate situation.

When did the decline of Rentendo begin?

He closed his eyes and thought carefully.

Was it the defeat in the console war?

Or was it defeated by Sega in the handheld game?

Or...

He silently opened his eyes and looked at a corner in the conference room.

A long, long time ago, there was a young man who sat in that position and begged him not to remove the game from the Rentendo platform.

Yamauchi Hiroshi frowned, but he was confused deep in his heart.

If time could be turned back, would he make a different choice?

……

……

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There is another chapter in the afternoon