Chapter 055 KOEI Co., Ltd.

  Yang Yun intentionally leaked the news of renegotiation because he knew that Sega would never be willing to give up the ownership of Tetris after missing it last time.

  The Game Boy sold 8 million units in North America within three months, Tetris sold 2 million copies, and other various game cartridges were also sold by the tens of millions. It was a huge success, Sega was filled with envy, jealousy and hatred towards Nintendo's sales, but they were powerless to do anything about it.

  After half a year of fermentation, the Christmas holiday in 1989 will definitely become Nintendo's most important sales season. At that time, FC and GameBoy will fly together, plus Tetris and Super Mario, these two popular twin-star games, which will surely set off another sales craze.

  Looking at Sega, their 16-bit Genesis may be more powerful than Nintendo's 8-bit FC, but total sales have not yet reached 10 million units. Meanwhile, the handheld Game Gear is still in development, and can only watch as Nintendo's Game Boy leaves it in the dust. This year's North American Christmas season will undoubtedly see Sega fall further behind its old rival Nintendo.

  When Yung heard that Yang Yun and Nintendo would be re-negotiating the patent rights for Tetris, Nagata's heart skipped a beat as he struggled to contain his emotions, cautiously asking: "Mr. Yang, you and Nintendo... what aspects of the content will you be discussing?"

  Yang Yun furrowed his brow and said calmly, "Not quite sure, the specific situation should be discussed face-to-face. Nintendo just extended an invitation for commercial talks, which my Soviet partner is in charge of. However, I don't mind telling you, Mr. Nagano, that Nintendo seems to hold this game in high regard. They've already paid us for 2 million copies, and with Christmas approaching, they'll likely need more."

  Nagano struggled to keep his facial muscles calm, grasping the table and gritting his teeth as he said: "Mr. Yang, I understand. Sega won't miss this opportunity again. Thank you!"

  Yang Yun almost laughed so hard he cried. It seemed that Sega, this poor kid, would again be running around busily behind him, and he needed to think carefully about how to maximize his benefits.

  It's just that I don't know if he can get what he has always wanted in this renegotiation with Nintendo. Yang Yun is even looking forward to going to the United States.

  Changing the subject, with He Ping and Nagano savoring Japanese tea ceremony, chatting about industry information similar to usual, three Japanese people, plus Yang Yun and translator, five people sat cross-legged in the tea art room, relaxing and chatting.

  Nagano performed the tea ceremony himself, and Yang Yun looked at his elegant movements and casually mentioned a report on the latest gaming trends in the industry, asking: "Mr. Nagano, what type of game is currently the most popular in Japan? Where do Japanese game developers usually get their inspiration from?"

  Nagano is proud to say: "In Japan, we value enjoyable work. Inspiration may come from just a moment, a conversation, a piece of TV news, a baseball game, a debate, or a movie - all can be sources of inspiration. For example, recently in Japan, the hottest news is that NHK is preparing to film 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms', and Asahi TV has produced the 500th special episode of 'Abarenbo Shogun'. Additionally, KOEI's 'Nobunaga's Ambition: Warlords' has just been released and is selling well across Japan, sparking a wave of nostalgia for the Warring States period and revisiting the legendary tales of the shogunate."

  Inoue Osamu and Matsumoto Kōshirō burst out laughing, even humming the theme song of Abarenbō Shogun, very much in line with the atmosphere. They had watched several hundred episodes of this TV series in Japan, but only broke the habit of chasing updates after coming to China for a few months.

  Because Nagano spoke in a joking tone, some Japanese words were not easy to translate into English, so there were many Japanese words interspersed throughout, which only the three Japanese people understood implicitly, while Yang Yun was half-understanding.

  Yang Yun only understood part of it, but a few key words made his ears perk up instantly: "Nagano-kun, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, General Bao Fang, I don't quite understand these, and what you said about Koei, is that the Japanese game company translated to Chinese as Glorious Corporation?"

  The translator on the side also got a headache, usually Yang Yun and Nagano's conversation was in English plus Chinese, but when they really couldn't communicate smoothly, they would remember to ask her for translation, however every time they asked questions, she felt like she couldn't answer.

  What Nagano said earlier contained too much information. Firstly, NHK is planning to film a live-action version of the Three Kingdoms, which is explosive news. Japan, despite being a small island nation that highly reveres the Three Kingdoms culture, simply cannot complete such a large-scale production. At most, in 1983, they only managed to produce a puppet drama adaptation of the Three Kingdoms. It's almost impossible for them to film scenes like the Battle of Red Cliffs with thousands of soldiers clashing.

  Secondly, Asahi TV produced a special issue of "Abarenbo Shogun" for its 500th episode. This "Abarenbo Shogun" tells the story of Tokugawa Yoshimune, the eighth shogun of the Edo bakufu, who goes undercover to fight crime and eliminate evil forces, and is a heroic tale of encouraging good and punishing evil. This represents how mainstream Japanese society is collectively nostalgic, and stories about the bakufu are once again becoming popular topics of discussion. NHK's promotion of the "Three Kingdoms" TV drama is also a natural consequence.

  Finally, KOEI's best-selling Nobunaga's Ambition game, although both Yon and Yang are important companies in the gaming industry, but KOEI is far less well-known than Konami or Capcom. The games produced by Koei in its early days were almost unknown in mainland China, so when Yang asked if it was Koei Co., Ltd., she couldn't translate accurately because she hadn't seen the Chinese translation of KOEI's name.

  The translation girl could only use her meager knowledge of Japanese culture to give Yang Yun a disjointed explanation of the above content, immediately making Yang Yun fall into deep thought.

  If Nagano hadn't said that, Yang Yun might have overlooked this matter. Now he thinks about it more and feels lucky, startling a cold sweat, secretly using the back of his hand to wipe away the sweat on his forehead, silently sighing in relief. If he had missed out on the game Three Kingdoms, he would definitely regret it for the rest of his life.

  KOEI Co., Ltd. was initially focused on simulation games, and its three historical epics, Nobunaga's Ambition, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Genghis Khan, were all based on real historical backgrounds with exquisite craftsmanship, becoming epic masterpieces that spanned over 20 years, captivating countless fans of historical simulation games. Not only did they influence Japan's thoughts on loyalty to the emperor, militarism, and filial piety, but also overseas Chinese people's familiarity with the Three Kingdoms was largely acquired through Japanese games rather than mainland TV dramas.

  However, in the domestic game console market in China, until the PC era, Koei's computer games were not exposed to Chinese gamers. Later on, Taikou Risshi Den, Uncharted Waters, Sangokushi Eiketsuden, Shin Sangoku Musou, and many other classic games were released by this Koei company, and it was only then that people realized how powerful the Koei company was.

  Because of its strong presence on PC, Yang Yun almost forgot the creators of these classic games in this weak FC era, and he even forgot that Sangokushi was Koei's masterpiece.

  In fact, in 1983, Nobunaga's Ambition shocked the gaming world as soon as it was made. In 1985, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Genghis Khan swept the Far East. In 1988, Nobunaga's Ambition: Haouden brought a sales boom to Nintendo's Famicom, KOEI Co., Ltd. became the leader in historical simulation games in the gaming world.

  At this time, by the end of 1989, these three games had already been made and were selling well in Japan and among overseas Chinese communities. Yang Yun wanted to rush ahead, but it was definitely too late for that. However, he still had an opportunity - the spread of the game and subsequent versions.

  For example, the game "Nobunaga's Ambition" has had 13 generations from Koei, but the first three generations were poorly made and ugly. The RPG games that ran on Nintendo FC's 8-bit home console could only be so refined. From Yang Yun's perspective, they were simply unbearable! So the first three generations, although Koei started production six years in advance, can almost be said to be failed works, only serving to accumulate technical experience.

  Until 1990, Nobunaga's Ambition developed to the fourth generation, transplanted to PC, added more than a hundred new generals, various parameter settings became more reasonable, art production had a qualitative change, and there was also a game core upgrade system, upgrading to a certain level can unlock the manufacture of various advanced buildings and troops, making the game's playability greatly improved, which achieved great success.

  Yang Yun has now come to a timely realization, rushing to make Sengoku Musou may be too late, but Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he must take advantage of Koei's glory before it's too late and secure China's own Three Kingdoms game!

  Without batting an eyelid, Yang Yun picked up his teacup and said a few casual words, glossing over the previous topic, and then started talking about baseball and women. In the joyful atmosphere of their conversation, time flew by in a flash.

  It was almost time for dinner, so Nagano took the opportunity to invite Yang Yun to try authentic Japanese cuisine. Yang Yun turned around and saw that Inoue Takeo and Matsumoto Yoshino's eyes were shining with excitement, smiled and agreed without dampening everyone's enthusiasm.

  A group of people were about to head to the most famous Japanese restaurant in Beijing, Hokkaido Cuisine, when Jiang Shaoyun rushed over, looking anxious, and stopped Yang Yun outside the Sega Building.

  "Director Yang, Director Duan suddenly had a heart attack and was sent to the hospital!"

  Yang Yun was taken aback: "Slow down, what's going on?"