Vibrations of the Future
Ken Kutaragi couldn't even think of picking up the fallen pad. Humans perceive the outside world through five senses via the body: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Of these, sight and hearing were the easiest to convey through media, which is why the term "audiovisual materials" exists. Game consoles were no different. Visuals through a television and audio through speakers were straightforward to implement. Even creating decent graphics and sound effects was already a challenge at the basic level, leaving no room to consider anything else.
Yet at this moment, in a place he had never imagined, Ken Kutaragi felt with his entire body that someone far ahead of him existed. His mouth hung open in awe as the ultra-high-resolution screen moved with flawless smoothness. Suddenly, an intense vibration erupted from the pad in his hands. Startled beyond measure, he dropped it. It was as if the pad had come alive like a mischievous goblin, writhing in his grasp.
"Wh-what is this?"
He was so shocked that instead of the English he had worked so hard to master, his native Japanese burst out.
"Sorry for startling you. It's called live force feedback technology."
Live force feedback! Vibration! His heart pounded wildly. Still, he couldn't afford to make a fool of himself in front of someone who might become an important partner. He quickly retrieved the pad, gripping it so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
Thud! Thud! Every time an explosion rocked the intro screen, the pad vibrated in response. That thrilling sensation returned once more. Several dozen seconds passed. This time he braced his entire body, determined not to show any foolish reactions. Yet he still couldn't stop his mouth from slowly falling open.
The intro screen itself was a visual shock. Demons poured out of a portal that had opened on Earth, slaughtering cities and armies. Remarkably, every frame was rendered in true 3D—not crude polygons with paper-like textures, but with natural lighting and lifelike surface details. What drew him even deeper into the visuals was the vibration. Though it felt like he might faint at any moment, the feedback wasn't constant. Its intensity and duration varied depending on the size and nature of each explosion. He realized he could almost visualize the on-screen action just from the sensations in his hand, even with his eyes closed.
He was beginning to understand why it was called live force feedback, but this was only the beginning.
"It's started. Go ahead and play."
"Huh? There was no loading screen?"
Yoo Jae-won merely smiled at Ken Kutaragi's question. The intro wasn't actual gameplay footage but a pre-rendered CG video. While it played, the stage had been loading in the background, allowing a seamless transition into the game the moment the video ended. In the 21st century this was commonplace, but right now it felt like cheating. The principle was simple, yet implementation was difficult. If system performance was lacking, the video would stutter during loading. It required technology to control the hard disk without routing through the CPU during read operations, along with smooth video playback capabilities.
Only after physically moving the pad did Ken Kutaragi realize the game had begun. And here he experienced the true meaning of live force feedback. The starting weapon was a pistol. When he pulled the trigger with his index finger, a short vibration accompanied the gunshot sound. The feedback changed depending on the weapon held. The more powerful the weapon, the stronger the vibration. The chainsaw was the pinnacle. Along with the roaring engine sound from what felt like a high-end A/V speaker, the ceaseless vibration in his hand made it feel as though he were truly wielding a chainsaw.
Moreover, the vibration didn't activate only when using weapons. Every time the player took damage, a sharp jolt came through. It also responded when running across uneven terrain or stepping onto lava fields that drained HP. With the addition of the sense of touch to the game, immersion reached an entirely new level. Already blessed with stunning graphics and sound, the experience completely captivated Ken Kutaragi.
"Wow, this is incredible."
After twenty attempts, he finally defeated the Stage 1 boss—something impossible alone, achieved only through cooperative play with Kensuke beside him. Ken Kutaragi set the pad down. Both he and Kensuke itched to move on to the next stage, but they hadn't forgotten their duty. The company had sent them to America at considerable expense.
"I can say with 100% certainty—this game will be a massive success!"
Ken Kutaragi began his praise with Doom 2. He raised his thumb without hesitation. The game's quality was simply overwhelming. The visuals alone proved it: massive polygon counts, high-resolution textures, natural lighting, and realistic materials. Having previously created a few prototype games for the PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi felt like crawling into a hole after seeing Doom 2's visuals. The screen movement was impossibly smooth. Even during massive explosions with countless flying debris, there was no stuttering. Loading was lightning-fast, eliminating any sense of boredom.
"And the live force feedback was the real showstopper!"
As an engineer by nature, his admiration for new technology ran deep. Sony was also developing a PlayStation controller, but compared to the one in his hands, it felt like a toy. It had only a directional pad and four action buttons, and its shape looked crude. It seemed designed for children's hands; an adult holding it for long would likely get cramps. Naturally, he didn't want to put it down. He especially wanted to incorporate force feedback technology into the PlayStation. The thought crossed his mind that perhaps this was the technology Yoo Jae-won had hinted at offering in exchange for increased SCE equity. Otherwise, there would have been no reason for the ID Group chairman to bring him and Kensuke here to play the game.
Ken Kutaragi felt slightly more at ease, thinking that if he simply waited, force feedback would eventually be implemented in the PlayStation.
"Could I possibly see the system running this game?"
Thanks to that, his curiosity shifted from the pad to the system itself. Even Sony's research labs would struggle to produce visuals of this caliber. He wanted to see with his own eyes just how powerful the hardware was.
"No problem at all."
Yoo Jae-won rose from his seat at Ken Kutaragi's words. The two men also stood, apparently imagining some enormous system that couldn't be moved by one person. The reality far exceeded their expectations. Yoo Jae-won opened a drawer in the shelf beside his chair and pulled out a flat device connected by several cables. Roughly 33 cm wide, 24 cm tall, and 3 cm thick, he disconnected the cables and handed it directly to Ken Kutaragi.
"What is this?"
It was surprisingly light, with a faint warmth. The combination left Ken Kutaragi with a puzzled expression.
"Heh, what do you think?"
Yoo Jae-won didn't give an immediate answer. Then Ken Kutaragi's face suddenly lit up with realization. Matching his expression, Yoo Jae-won grasped the edge of the device and opened the lid. Inside the now-halved device, a bright light shone forth—a TFT-LCD screen. An 88-key keyboard was also visible.
"A notebook!"
Bingo! It was a notebook. The successor to the Egg series, named the Shell Book after its scallop-inspired design. It featured the polycarbonate case that had become the Egg series' trademark and specs far beyond anything available at the time. It started with a 486 processor at the base level, with the highest-end models using Pentium chips. Memory and hard disk capacity rivaled desktop specifications.
The device in Ken Kutaragi's hands wasn't a mass-production model but one specially tuned. It included an additional 3D acceleration chip and carefully selected high-yield memory from Mirae Electronics, all overclocked. Thanks to these premium components, it delivered roughly 25% more performance than retail models, allowing it to run Doom 2 smoothly.
"Good heavens."
Ken Kutaragi was now completely overwhelmed. The notebook's design was unlike any existing product—not alien or unappealing, but stirring an intense desire to own one. And its performance? It ran Doom 2, a game that would struggle on most PCs, with perfect fluidity. Having played it himself, Ken Kutaragi had assumed a large computer was hidden somewhere running the game. He still couldn't believe it. Yet the notebook's LCD screen displayed the very character he had created, and when connected to the pad, it moved. Though the LCD's afterimage caused slight dizziness, the graphics quality matched exactly what he'd seen on the larger screen.
"ID's hardware manufacturing capabilities are truly astonishing. I thought they were purely a software company…"
Ken Kutaragi couldn't continue. ID Group was already universally recognized as the world's best in software. The Android operating system had instantly dominated the PC market partly due to Microsoft's missteps, but primarily because of its superior completeness. Now he was reminded once again that their hardware division was also world-class—perhaps several times ahead of Sony. With technology like this, they could easily produce their own video game console.
"You must be tired from the long flight. Shall we call it a day?"
Seeing Ken Kutaragi's complicated expression, Yoo Jae-won stood up.
"Ah, yes!"
Ken Kutaragi and Kensuke also rose. Their eyes lingered on Doom still displayed on the notebook, filled with reluctance.
"I'll lend you the Shell Book Pro and the pad for a day. Feel free to use them as much as you like. The LCD afterimage is quite severe, so I recommend connecting it to a television for play."
The cool-headed Yoo Jae-won read their disappointment and offered both the Shell Book and pad.
"Wow! Thank you so much!"
The two immediately cheered. Since Ken Kutaragi was an engineer, there was no need to explain how to use them. Conversely, because he was such an expert, Yoo Jae-won had to be especially careful about technology leaks. But he wasn't worried. All related patents had already been registered. If one were to rank Silicon Valley companies by monthly patent filings, ID Group had never fallen out of the top ten. They filed massive numbers of patents every month. Even if someone found a loophole in one patent to copy the technology, Yoo Jae-won had filed similar patents covering every possible workaround. If Sony's legal team could defeat ID Group's—which had already beaten Microsoft—they were welcome to copy freely. Otherwise, they would have to prepare themselves.
The next day.
At 1 PM, Yoo Jae-won began the first official meeting with Ken Kutaragi. Yoo Jae-won attended alone, while Ken Kutaragi brought Kensuke. As it turned out, Kensuke was highly proficient in English. The conversation began, as expected, with Doom 2, the vibration pad, and the Shell Book. They had stayed up until dawn playing Doom 2 instead of sleeping and had still been half-asleep after breakfast, so they thanked Yoo Jae-won for scheduling the meeting at 1 PM.
"So, what's Sony's answer?"
Yoo Jae-won cut straight to the point without preamble.
"Ah, that is…"
Unlike most Japanese people, Ken Kutaragi was accustomed to direct speech, but at this moment his usual demeanor failed him. Instead, an anxiety he hadn't shown yesterday filled his expression. The reason was simple: just before departing for America, the company's executives had set a limit far below what Yoo Jae-won had mentioned. Sony's rigid executives were deeply reluctant to give away valuable equity. Though Ken Kutaragi had been the most proactive, his motivation was that offering stock instead of cash would allow them to save on licensing fees and invest in technology development. Naturally, the maximum SCE equity allocated to ID Group had been firmly capped before departure—at 26%. Until arriving in America, even Ken Kutaragi had thought that licensing the 3D acceleration chip and Glide X2 library would be sufficient.
That notion had been completely shattered yesterday. He now felt belated regret for having been so complacent. He should have worked harder to persuade the executives. Or, like when he had saved the PlayStation project, he should have negotiated directly with the president. Yet he had come here satisfied with merely 26%.
"It seems quite different from what I proposed?"
Yoo Jae-won immediately read Ken Kutaragi's troubled expression.
"A dedicated miniature operating system for the PlayStation, force feedback technology, ID Software's games, VCD functionality, and so on. Are these trump cards still not enough?"
At Yoo Jae-won's continued words, Ken Kutaragi's expression grew even more distressed. Each item was an irresistible blockbuster. A PlayStation equipped with all the features Yoo Jae-won listed would be impossible to fail.
"They're more than enough. But the stubborn higher-ups won't easily accept my opinion."
Ken Kutaragi's voice was filled with anguish. It was torturous to have such tempting bait right in front of him yet be unable to take it—especially when he knew exactly how delicious it would taste. How had they managed to add vibration to the pad? And the convenience of the analog stick controlled by the thumb? The fluidly smooth 3D technology—these were items he desperately wanted.
"The maximum we can offer is 26%. I explained everything thoroughly over the phone last night, but the president is being too stubborn… If you could give us a little more time, I'll definitely convince him."
Ken Kutaragi's eyes were filled with determination. If possible, he wanted to grab the president by the collar and force this deal through.
"Ah, that won't be necessary. There's no law saying ID must enter the game console market hand-in-hand with Sony."
Ken Kutaragi was taken aback. He hadn't been given the Shell Book, only lent it for a day, so he hadn't been able to disassemble it. But from outward appearance alone, the Shell Book's level of completion was world-class. If they applied the technology used to create the Shell Book to a game console, they could produce one in no time. Production capacity was also beyond question. TG, which manufactured Egg PC hardware, had long since surpassed 3 million units in annual shipments. A game console, being simpler than a PC, could be mass-produced instantly. And software? ID Group was equally powerful in that domain. Beyond their own in-house games, they maintained an almost intimate relationship with Electronic Arts, the world's largest game distributor. Supplying new titles to the console would be no issue at all.
"Our ID Group could also enter the game console market directly."
Before Kensuke could even translate, a sigh escaped his lips. A moment later, Ken Kutaragi received the translation and reacted the same way. This was the true source of his anxiety. With ID Group's technological and financial power, they could easily enter the market themselves. A next-generation console armed with such cutting-edge technology would undoubtedly become the eye of a typhoon. Then a strange feeling suddenly struck Ken Kutaragi. Chairman Yoo Jae-won was fully aware of ID Group's capabilities. Yet his top priority in negotiations remained acquiring equity in SCE.
'There must be a reason!'
Discovering a sliver of hope, Ken Kutaragi's mind began to race.