Chapter 476 380 Things Are Going to Change!
Chapter 476 380. Things are going to change!
1998 was a year of twists and turns.
During this year, Japan's currency continued to depreciate, many people's wealth shrank, and many large companies, especially those in the physical industry, had a very difficult time. Companies that were already short of employment conditions laid off employees.
Everyone felt that winter was coming.
Survival has become the most urgent need in many people's hearts, and companies like Pokeni that are still spending a lot of money to buy overseas assets are actually rare.
This is a change in the overall environment.
Secondly, in the game industry, a series of changes are also happening quietly.
Sony, Rentendo, and Sega, three industry giants, are brewing a new storm.
First of all, on the Sony side, the current CEO and co-executive president, Norio Ohga, who was born in 1930, is already 68 years old and is considering retirement. After retirement, he will most likely exist as a shareholder of Sony, but will no longer participate in Sony's decision-making.
He has his own unfulfilled dream, which is to make more contributions to the music industry, and it would be best if he could have time to hold a personal concert, which he would conduct.
Before this, Norio Ohga had never had the opportunity, and was always busy with Sony's affairs.
But you have to know that this old man is actually a very good musical talent. He is not only the father of CD, but also launched a series of CD players, Walkmans, audio equipment, etc. when he was in charge of Sony.
At the same time, he is also very talented in music. After graduating from university, Norio Ohga entered the Munich Conservatory of Music for further studies and graduated from the Berlin State University of the Arts as the chief musician.
Then he started his singing career.
One of his life ideals is to become a famous baritone singer.
During his study abroad, Ohga pointed out the design defects of the music Walkman produced by the Tokyo Communication Industry Company (the predecessor of Sony) at that time, and was appreciated by the founder of Sony and invited to join Sony.
It can be said that Mr. Norio Ohga is a musician who was completely delayed by Sony.
But the facts have proved that Norio Ohga is not only talented in music, but also has extraordinary talents in company management.
Without Norio Ohga, Sony would not have achieved today's brilliant achievements.
Moreover, Norio Ohga is a very courageous entrepreneur. If he had not endorsed Ken Kutaragi and supported this passionate and creative middle-aged man as CEO, Ken Kutaragi would not have been supported by the Sony board of directors, and there would be no PS game console and the glorious Sony Computer Entertainment.
...
However, Norio Ohga is now considering retirement due to his advanced age and his own dreams.
After the news came out from Sony, the company's stock price immediately fluctuated violently.
Everyone is speculating who will be the next successor to Sony.
Although Ken Kutaragi is the president of SCE and has made a name for the Sony Group, he is far from Ken Kutaragi in terms of company qualifications.
The most promising candidate now is actually Nobuyuki Idei, who is currently the president, representative director and chief executive officer of Sony.
This man established Sony's French branch, when the "May Storm" was taking place in France.
However, in terms of age, Nobuyuki Idei does not have any advantage. Born in 1937, Nobuyuki Idei is now 61 years old. Although he is not yet retired, he seems to be about the same age as Norio Ohga.
The difference of 7 years is quite obvious when you are young, but after you are over 60, there seems to be no such big difference. No one should laugh at anyone at 61 and 68.
Another candidate is Mickey Schulhof, who is in charge of Sony's US branch and the Dada branch. He has a very good relationship with Sony's former chairman Akio Morita and is considered a leader in Western Europe.
He is best at film, television, Internet and entertainment-related industries.
In short, when Sony is changing dynasties, the situation is very unclear. Both Nobuyuki Idei and Mickey Schulhof are actually capable and qualified people.
Although Ken Kutaragi has also made some achievements, he is still a little late.
…
In fact, Rentendo is facing the same situation.
In the president's office, Hiroshi Yamauchi sat on a chair with his hand covering his forehead.
Although he looks strong, he looks a little tired. What he is thinking about is the next generation of successors of Rentendo.
Born in 1927, Hiroshi Yamauchi is now 71 years old.
Moreover, in recent years, under the successive blows of Sony, Pokeni and Sega, Hiroshi Yamauchi's physical and mental conditions have become less than ideal.
There is always a feeling of powerlessness.
In this case, Hiroshi Yamauchi also has the idea of entrusting the company to others after retirement.
However, compared with Sony, the subsequent candidates do not seem to be too suspenseful. The media and the outside world all agree that Hiroshi Yamauchi will pass the position of president to Minoru Arakawa, his son-in-law.
Arakawa Minoru is the top leader of Rentendo in the US branch.
However, one thing that bothers Yamauchi Hiroshi is that his son-in-law is good at everything and has strong business skills, but he has two very fatal flaws.
The first is that Arakawa Minoru hardly plays games.
It is hard to imagine that a leader who never plays games wants to lead a game company to glory.
It is undeniable that Arakawa Minoru is a business genius, and Yamauchi Hiroshi also admires him. Being able to make Rentendo bigger and stronger in North America is enough to prove his talent.
However, in many concepts, Arakawa Minoru actually has huge differences with Yamauchi Hiroshi.
The game industry that Yamauchi Hiroshi is proud of is just a bunch of digital tools in Arakawa Minoru's eyes. It is a tool to make money and may be sold when necessary.
To put it bluntly, Arakawa Minoru has no feelings for games.
This is what worries Yamauchi Hiroshi the most.
Although Rentendo is somewhat overbearing in the entire game industry, Yamauchi's philosophy of making "games that bring happiness to people" has always been an important spiritual totem that has allowed Rentendo to reach today.
What Yamauchi Hiroshi is most worried about is whether he can maintain this totem after handing the baton to Arakawa Minoru.
Once the spiritual totem is gone, the company will not be far from extinction.
Can a person who has no love for games really run a game company well?
This is a question worth considering.
Another thing is that Arakawa Minoru is actually a little like Masayoshi Son to some extent. Perhaps this is also the nature of businessmen, that is, they like to gamble.
Acquisition, merger, expansion, selling assets...
Money will make money, and making good investments may be what Arakawa Minoru is concerned about. Moreover, this person is very courageous and sometimes really has a bit of gambling in him, which is also what makes Yamauchi Hiroshi feel uneasy.
A company that has achieved the level of Rentendo is basically stable as long as it does not commit suicide, but if it makes some moths, it is hard to say.
...
Another candidate for Rentendo is Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto.
As the pillar of the company and the legendary producer of Neon, Shigeru Miyamoto's name is almost equivalent to Rentendo, and the game IP created by him is well-known. Shigeru Miyamoto is even too legendary, and he is also known as the "God of Games".
Emotionally speaking, Shigeru Miyamoto is almost like Yamauchi's adopted son, and he is almost regarded as a family member.
So whether the company is handed over to Arakawa Minoru or to Miyamoto Shigeru, it is a matter of course.
However, Yamauchi Hiroshi is not particularly satisfied with Shigeru Miyamoto.
There is absolutely no problem for Shigeru Miyamoto to be a producer, but as a manager, especially a senior executive of the company, what is needed is not the ability to make games, nor is it just a love for games, but more importantly, business and management skills.
Whether you can make decisions for the general direction of the company, find a suitable path, save the company from danger, turn the situation around, and expand the market...
These are actually more important.
However, Yamauchi Hiroshi did not see these in Shigeru Miyamoto.
At this time, Yamauchi couldn't help but sigh--
How great would it be if Shigeru Miyamoto and Minoru Arakawa could be combined?
However,
At this moment, the name "Qing Zhiyuan" suddenly popped up in his mind.
Yamauchi Hiroshi was startled.
He almost knocked over the teacup at hand.
The last one is Sega, the old rival of Rentendo.
Sega is facing the same problem as Sony and Rentendo--
President Hayao Nakayama is already very old.
Born in 1932, Hayao Nakayama is now 66 years old. Although he is a little younger than Yamauchi Hiroshi, he is also considering retirement.
Sega is on the verge of a financial crisis due to the failure of the Saturn game console in the console battlefield.
Hayao Nakayama has been worried and worked hard for many years, and his hair has turned completely white due to anxiety.
If this continues, on the one hand, his energy and physical strength will not be able to keep up, and on the other hand, he does not want Sega to be ruined in his hands.
Now Sega has two very strong candidates.
The first one is Shoichiro Iriko. Born in 1940, he is now 58 years old, but he is very energetic and is a hardliner or radical in Sega.
In his opinion, if Sega wants to recover from its decline in the game console market, it should continue to invest a lot of money in the development of the next generation of consoles.
To defeat Sony in the frontal battlefield and regain the glory that belongs to Sega.
Especially at this time, Shoichiro Iriko saw the decline of Rentendo. As long as Sega can take over the console market, it will be the new king in the game field in the future.
Another candidate is Hideki Sato, who was born in 1950 and is only 48 years old now. In comparison, he is younger, but in terms of mental state and personality, he is very mature and steady.
Sato Hideki is completely different from Shoichiro Iriko's impetuous temperament. He is a deep and introverted type.
At this time, the factional struggle within Sega was actually very obvious and fierce. Not only did Neon Company fight with Beimi Branch, but there was even a situation where both parties were developing consoles at the same time to grab credit and resources. No one accepted the other.
On Neon's side, Sega also had factional struggles between arcades and home consoles.
Shoichiro Ikua belongs to the TV game school and advocates putting the company's main focus and main business on TV games.
Hideki Sato belongs to the arcade school. He has been an arcade development engineer since he entered the industry, and he produced pinball game machines for the company and achieved great success.
Hideki Sato has more enthusiasm for arcades and believes that the company should focus on arcade games. The console market has now become a dead sea, and it is too difficult to break out of it.
Not only will a lot of manpower and material resources be invested, but given Sega's current economic situation, there is a real danger of falling into the abyss.
…
In short, several major companies are now unstable and face the problem of leading replacement.
Under such circumstances, not only friends in the industry were frightened, but even the news media and members of various companies vaguely sensed a hint of danger.
This storm is brewing at sea, like a volcano about to erupt under the sea, and it may cause a major earthquake in the industry.
After changing people, the style is also different. Will the previous methods of dealing with each other still apply, and will future cooperation be able to proceed smoothly...
These are actually problems.
Moreover, after the leaders of these three major companies are changed, will their corresponding corporate strategies change? This is also a big question.
These issues combine to create a huge storm.
It might be slightly better if a company changes its boss, but if so many influential companies change their leadership, the problem will be huge.
…
In such a situation, everyone is in danger and cannot see clearly the future situation. They just feel that dark clouds are pressing down on their face, but they don't know what to do.
The first person to take action was Qing Zhiyuan from pokeni.
But what is very unexpected is that this young president, a new leader in the game industry, neither went to find Ken Kutaragi, who has a good relationship with him, nor Norio Ohga of Sony, nor Mr. Hayao Nakayama of Sega.
Of course, given that the relationship with Hiroshi Rentendo Yamauchi was relatively stiff in the past, Qing Zhiyuan would naturally not go to President Yamauchi to talk about anything.
Probably not able to talk.
Qing Zhiyuan made an appointment with a mysterious figure to have dinner with him in the evening.
And ordered a great seafood feast.
In the box, Qing Zhiyuan sat on the floor and waited for a long time.
About ten minutes later, the box door was opened, and a vigorous middle-aged man in a suit and leather shoes walked in.
"You've been waiting for a long time."
The person who came had short hair that was parted in the middle, neatly combed, and wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He looked gentle and elegant.
"No, no, please sit down."
Qing Zhiyuan raised his hand to greet him.
"Nice to meet you."
The other person smiled and held out his hand.
Qing Zhiyuan quickly stood up and held his hand.
"You're welcome. This is my first time meeting you. Please give me your advice, Mr. Satoru Iwata."
…
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There is another chapter tonight