Chapter 71: Welcome to New York

  On November 21, 1989, Yang Yun boarded a flight from Hong Kong to New York in the United States alone.

  In the first half of November, Alexey had already called Yang Yun twice, Nintendo's US branch had urged KTT Company several times, and the patent licensing negotiations for Tetris were urgent. Christmas season was approaching, and Nintendo Co., Ltd. would not miss this opportunity to make its fourth-quarter financial statement look better.

  Yang Yun was busy developing Longteng Three Kingdoms at that time and couldn't spare any time in the early stages of the project.

  Inoue Yoshinori broke down the game framework provided by Kudō Akiko, and Yang Yun appropriately added and deleted, striving to make the Longteng version and Namco version Glorious version different. He increased the interesting dialogue and folk legends that are common in later generations, reduced redundant and not-so-important nodes, made the Longteng version full of Chinese flavor, enhanced its interest and playability.

  SLG games are not something that can be played through in ten minutes or an hour, Yang Yun called Fang Jin Dong over and arranged for him to do a task of using game cards with battery storage to save the game's progress.

  This hardware design was still handed over to Fang Jindong of Harbin Machine Tool Factory to implement CNC, which is not the first innovation in the world, but it is absolutely leading technology.

  In addition, Sega would occasionally come over to inquire about the progress of game development. Whenever he thought of Sega, Yang Yun felt a sense of relief.

  This home console market's perennial runner-up, in order to counter Nintendo, really is thinking of every way to fawn all over and curry favor with each cooperative partner, afraid that the other party will be dissatisfied and jump ship to Nintendo, they always play the role of the underdog.

  Now in order to curry favor with Longteng, looking forward to the Dragon and Tiger version of the Three Kingdoms game making a big comeback, Nagano even went so far as to personally foot the bill for Kudou Aki's international long-distance calls with Longteng Company. Sega's US branch also helped Yang Yun resolve his business visa in advance and provided pick-up service at the airport, showing great sincerity.

  Sold by others and still counting money for them, thinking of this sentence, Yang Yun couldn't help but burst out laughing, her voice a bit loud, attracting the attention of a young woman on the other side of the corridor.

  Coughing, Yang Yun discovered something was off and sneaked a peek, it was a Chinese girl who looked very pleasant to the eyes, her face couldn't help but turn red, subconsciously saying a soft apology.

  The woman was not constrained at all, but rather showed great interest in Yang Yun. Across the narrow aisle, she asked softly: "What are you looking at? Is it that funny?"

  Yang Yun was holding a stack of white paper, with several holes punched along the edge and tied together with thin cotton thread to make a simple binding. This was a notebook made by Yi Zhongtian's wife, filled with Yi Zhongtian's handwritten manuscripts. Earlier, he had taken it out to pass the time.

  He handed it over, and Yang Yun smiled: "A friend's essay diary, quite interesting..."

  Pfft...

  That girl flipped through two pages and suddenly burst out laughing, covering her mouth in embarrassment, saying: "Who would comment on Yuan Shao like that?"

  Yang Yun looked at it and saw that Yi Zhongtian's handwriting was very beautiful, but the content made him so angry that his nose twisted.

  "Cao Cao returned to the allied military camp covered in blood, while Yuan Shao and those other lords were doing what? Still drinking and feasting, neglecting their duties, having parties, playing video games..."

  Yang Yun's molar teeth all ached, but looking at this yellowed and worn-out paper, it was probably written down a long time ago. No wonder Yi Zhongtian didn't think much of making games before, but now he is an enthusiastic game supporter!

  He could only awkwardly explain: "This friend was using a humorous tone to get at the essence of the matter, which is that Yuan Shao and others really are without great ambitions and not diligent in their work, rather than actually opening a party to play electronic games. Ah no, playing electronic games isn't necessarily not being diligent, no no, opening a party is also an important way for people to interact with each other... Ah, in short, you understand..."

  It's better not to explain, once explained, the girl laughed even more exaggeratedly, her hand holding the manuscript relaxed, and with a "pa" sound, it fell on the aisle. Yang Yun bent down to pick it up, and with a "bang", he bumped heads with the girl, knocking them both to cover their heads, looking at each other, and then simultaneously bursting into silly laughter.

  "Nice to meet you, I'm Yuan Xinyi, a senior staff member of Beijing PuHua Certified Public Accountants."

  "My name is Yang Yun, a small boss of Longteng Entertainment Game Company in Beijing."

  Yuan Xinyi was very familiar: "You don't look very old, I didn't expect you to be a successful person!"

  Yang Yun smiled casually: "You're just messing around, you're not much older than me, and you can work at PwC, a top international accounting firm, and be more successful!"

  This young boss who makes entertainment games actually understands the accounting industry? Yuan Xinyi was slightly surprised and corrected: "PwC is PwC, EY is EY, we are two different firms."

  Yang Yun was unfamiliar with the accounting industry and later generations only knew of the Big Four, having heard that PwC was originally formed by the merger of two different companies.

  Anyway, they were idle on the way, and it was a long flight of over ten hours. They had just taken off not long ago, and it wasn't time to sleep yet, so the two of them simply chatted casually.

  Although Yang Yun was young, he had accumulated some common sense knowledge from his past life. However, in 1989, it was already astonishing and too advanced, making Yuan Xinyi greatly admire him and constantly praise how much Yang Yun knew.

  Similarly, young Yuan Xinyi was able to become a senior executive at PwC, which is also an extraordinary achievement. The international accounting certification is considered one of the most difficult exams in the world, and Yuan Xinyi is a typical representative of the elite.

  By the time they arrived in New York, the two had become quite familiar with each other and had a sense of mutual appreciation, exchanging contact information both domestically and overseas.

  Of course, Yang Yun instinctively feared this career elite woman. For him, before his rebirth, he had accidentally burned a hole in his girlfriend's clothes. This innocent young man was really not good at handling relationships between men and women. Furthermore, in the half year since his rebirth, every day had been particularly busy, coming and going, and as a result, he had delayed enjoying life...

  The Sega US branch sent someone to pick him up. Someone was quietly waiting at the exit with a sign that had Yang Yun's Chinese name written on it.

  A tall and large white man, a short but exceptionally lean middle-aged Asian man, and a sweet-looking doll-faced girl. Yang Yun recognized them at a glance, this was the contact person that Yongye had mentioned, and he hurriedly waved his hand to signal, walking over.

  "Hello! I am Yang Yun!"

  An Asian middle-aged man, smiling in Japanese-style English, greeted Yang Yun and introduced himself: "I'm Toshihiko Fujita of Sega's US branch. This is my deputy Pete, and this is our translator Miss Yoshida."

  Both shook hands and Pitt gave Yang a warm bear hug, laughing: "Welcome to New York!"

  ……

  ……

  Upon arriving at the hotel where they would be staying, Yang Yun did not ask to rest due to jet lag, instead he kept Tofu and Pete behind to discuss matters.

  This time it's mainly negotiating with Nintendo, who knows Nintendo best? Of course, it's Sega, their arch-nemesis. Knowing each other inside out is the key to winning a hundred battles without being defeated. Yang Yun has some questions that need to be clarified.

  Yang Yun asked: "Mr. Fujita, do you know approximately how many Nintendo Game Boys were sold in North America?"

  "According to Nintendo's third-quarter report, Game Boy sales in North America were 2.2 million units and game cartridges were 2.9 million copies. However, based on our Sega data, this number may still float up by 15%. With only three months since its release, the sales are already quite impressive. Generally speaking, Christmas season sales account for more than 40% of annual sales, so Nintendo's fourth-quarter numbers may reach new heights."

  Yang Yun calculated that 2.2 million with a 15% increase would be 2.53 million Game Boy consoles, and this was just after they went on sale. As the number of excellent games ported to the GB platform increases in the future, sales will surely continue to rise.

  But Nintendo sells so well, what about Sega...

  Yang Yun looked at the other party with a strange expression and asked, "Mr. Fujita, when will Sega's handheld console be released? What are the sales figures for the 16-bit machine? This winter, you won't have an easy time in North America, will you?"

  Fujiwara hesitated for half a day before answering, "It's really not going well. According to the market survey statistics report of DownHill, a US authoritative statistics company, Nintendo currently occupies 85% of the North American market..."

  Yang Yun was shocked: "85%? Is Sega's situation so bad?"

  "Tohru Fujita sighed: "Since Atari went bankrupt, the American game industry was severely damaged and sluggish. It wasn't until Nintendo's FC entered that it saved the American game industry. Moreover, Nintendo's marketing is excellent, and their market share has been rising year by year from 50% to now almost no one can match them. Our Sega always lags behind."

  Yang Yun asked: "Didn't our Longteng Company also provide several games for Sega's game platform? Didn't it help with the sales of Sega games at all?"

  Fujiwara sighed: "If it weren't for your Dragon Quest, Nintendo might have taken 90% of the market share."

  Three people fell silent, the Nintendo giant was indeed too terrifying, Yang Yun's classic games were not many, even if Sega supported with all its might, it could only bite 2.5% of the market share.

  Perhaps after the release of Dragon Warrior and Double Dragon, we can take back some market share from Nintendo's camp, and after the release of Three Kingdoms, we can snatch a big chunk of meat from Namco and Koei. However, this is far from enough, as these games are still not hot sellers, nowhere near Super Mario, Tetris, Final Fantasy, Gundam, or the Pokémon that will appear in the next few years.

  To think of defeating Nintendo, Yang Yun suddenly felt a heavy burden on his shoulders, a long and arduous road ahead!

  Seeing Fujita and Pete's frustrated look, Yang Yun's heart moved, secretly calling out "not good"!

  Is Sega having second thoughts?

  Yang Yun asked calmly, "Mr. Fujita, how are Sega's sales in the traditional arcade market? You can't have lost that to Nintendo too, can you? Having lost the TV game war, are you going to give up and focus on defending the arcade market?"

  Tohru Fujita smiled slightly: "Of course not, in the arcade market, it's still Sega that calls the shots. Our board performance far surpasses our peers and is something other hardware companies can't catch up to. We won't give up on TV games either, the development of GameGear is going very smoothly, and the performance of the Sega 5th generation console is something Nintendo FC can't match! We are Japan's best hardware company!"

  It's the same old "technology is king" argument! You indeed have the best hardware, but your software is terrible. Meanwhile, Nintendo may be second in terms of hardware, but they're first when it comes to software, so they're living a much more comfortable life than you guys!

  Yang Yun shook his head constantly in his heart and scolded with a "hate iron for not becoming steel" tone.

  Sega, your business philosophy is completely wrong!