Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: New Game
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"This is a handheld gaming console from Savior?"
Sgeru examined the 'Savior Pulse' handheld in his hand as he spoke.
"Yes, that's right. It launched at 19,900 yen."
Sgeru was so startled by his subordinate's words that he nearly dropped the Savior Pulse he was holding.
'Just 19,900 yen?'
And well he might be shocked. From Sgeru's perspective, 19,900 yen was an unbelievably low price.
Nendo's handheld console, the Game Boy, retailed for around 7,000 yen these days.
'It started at 12,500 yen. Even that was only achieved after years of production efficiencies. But the Savior Pulse is on a whole different level from our Game Boy—how can they possibly release it at 19,900 yen?'
Sgeru's doubts were entirely justified.
Truth be told, Nendo's Game Boy was selling well not because it lacked competition, but despite its many flaws in performance.
The Game Boy, first released in 1989, had skipped backlighting to cut costs, making it impossible to play in dim light.
And thanks to those same cost-cutting measures, it was still stuck with an 8-bit CPU, meager RAM, and woefully inadequate storage.
Nendo knew full well about these shortcomings and had already begun work on the improved Game Boy Color.
But no one had imagined Savior—neither Seton nor Uni—would be the one to launch a handheld. Sgeru was reeling from the shock.
Of course, if the Savior Pulse had been a shoddy product, Nendo wouldn't be in such an uproar right now.
"A 2.8-inch TFT color LCD with built-in backlight."
"The display is downright ordinary compared to the internals. The CPU is 32-bit, and the main RAM and VRAM are several times more powerful than the Game Boy's chips."
"That's exactly what doesn't make sense! Even if they could cram all that in, how are they selling it at this price?"
"It seems to be thanks to in-house manufacturing and cooperation from Uni."
"What?"
"Savior acquired companies that design CPUs and graphics chipsets a while back, and they leveraged that to produce the Savior Pulse at near-cost levels."
"And Uni?"
"Savior and Uni have always been close, right? Word is Uni connected them with Surf, the company that made the display for the Savior Pulse."
Only then did Sgeru grasp the insane tech specs of the Savior Pulse and the inversely proportional price. A headache began to throb.
'One year... no, even ten months more, and we could've released the Game Boy Color. It might not match the Pulse, but it would've been a decent fight.'
The Game Boy Color prototype was already in the final stages, targeting an October launch this year.
Just ten months—that's all Sgeru needed to have confidence against the Savior Pulse.
But,
-The Game Boy is still selling like hotcakes. Pocket Tamer is such a hit right now that we can't keep them in stock. Do we really need to rush a new one?
President Miyamoto had delayed the Game Boy Color repeatedly because the original was still flying off shelves. Now, that decision was stabbing Nendo in the back.
"Haa... Losing Game Freak was a huge blow."
Sgeru sighed, recalling the bad news from a few days ago.
The aging Game Boy had sold like wildfire this year, hitting 60 million cumulative units, all thanks to Pocket Tamer.
Nendo often provided tech support to other developers, and Game Freak—the Pocket Tamer studio—was one of them.
When a Nendo developer returned from supporting them and reported that Pocket Tamer was no ordinary game,
Why stop at tech support? Let's fund them too and turn it into a Nendo title outright.
On President Miyamoto's orders, Nendo secured exclusive rights to Pocket Tamer. Game Freak was practically a subsidiary now.
So no one at Nendo felt threatened by outsiders approaching Game Freak.
'We control sales, distribution—everything. Without Nendo's approval, they can't even sell shares. We had every reason to be complacent.'
But Savior mocked that complacency by throwing down a massive sum to snag the overseas distribution rights for Pocket Tamer.
It was a fatal blow to Nendo.
-Pocket Tamer was supposed to lead overseas sales for the Game Boy Color!
The Game Boy Color was designed to conquer not just Japan, but the world.
Nendo desperately needed new revenue streams after their new Nendo 64 console bombed disastrously in their home market Japan.
'We should've negotiated with Game Freak sooner and grabbed those overseas rights.'
Sgeru had suggested as much to President Miyamoto.
But with Pocket Tamer exploding in Japan, Miyamoto delayed, fearing they'd demand too much right now.
Even now, the president was raging in his office, calling Game Freak traitors.
Sgeru could only worry about Nendo's future.
"Why didn't you partner with Uni in Japan?"
"Pardon?"
"Oseong hasn't built up distribution in Japan yet, so I get needing a separate deal. But isn't Uni the best partner? Great network, and they're on good terms with us."
Jane sunbae, who had come to Korea with me and spent time with family for the first time in ages, suggested tagging along when I mentioned a Japan trip.
'I had business in Japan anyway.'
Raised under my father, the head of the Korean branch of Jikjin Koksudo, Jane was a 3rd dan herself and needed to visit the Japanese headquarters.
'From 3rd dan on, you have to show your face at HQ events occasionally or risk demotion.'
So Jane joined me on the business trip to Japan.
Now, we were heading back after finalizing distribution for Savior Pulse with Bancco in Osaka. She seemed puzzled by my choice of Bancco over others.
"You're right—Uni would've been the ideal partner."
"Then why Bancco?"
"Hm... Nendo and Seton wouldn't touch our products, for starters."
"Fair enough. Relations are too frosty."
The top three distributors in Japan for games were Nendo, Seton, and Uni.
But Nendo and Seton were on bad terms with us.
Seton was still salty about Scarlett—former North America marketing team lead—jumping ship to Savior.
And Nendo was calling us traitors for switching to Uni's GameStation, plus snatching Pocket Tamer's overseas rights. They probably saw us as public enemy number one by now.
"Uni would've backed the Savior Pulse all the way and given us killer terms. But."
"But?"
"You don't sign with someone who might kick you to the curb someday."
For now, Uni wasn't in handhelds, so peaceful coexistence worked. But they wouldn't sit idle forever.
Handhelds were a must-challenge field for any console maker.
And it wasn't just Uni—it was a problem for us too.
-How about launching Savior's next title alongside GameStation 2? We'll make the terms unbeatable—HQ will go all-in!
I recalled Agarak i, the new president of Uni Games, pitching that.
But I had no intention of releasing Savior games on Uni hardware.
Because it was time to launch on our own consoles.
"Whoa... Savior's really entering the home console market."
Jane sunbae looked stunned, still processing my plans.
It was hard to believe, for sure.
The console market had been a Nintendo-Sega duopoly for nearly a decade.
Uni had shaken things up recently, but it was no easy arena for newcomers.
'That's why we've been bulking up Savior's scale and tech all this time.'
You needed serious weight to survive consoles.
Proof: Nendo, undisputed king until now, was reeling from one failure.
So I planned to grow Savior even bigger.
No plans to fail in games, but even if we did, the company needed to be so massive the risk was laughable.
Bigger than peak Minisoft, influencing the global economy.
Once we were that untouchable—mess with us, and the world economy tanks—no one could oppose Savior making VR games.
"Now it clicks. Why you always dodged and delayed whenever the CEO brought up new titles with Uni."
Pulled back to reality by Jane's voice as I daydreamed about the future.
"But don't we need to start on our new game soon?"
"We do. Savior's home console drops in 2-3 years, so it's time for a flagship title."
She was right.
Lately, with the IPO, Korea expansion, Savior Pulse—too much going on. I'd drifted from game dev.
Though Savior Games staff in the US were swamped porting dozens of titles to Pulse.
"Got anything prepped?"
"Of course."
"Can't you give me a little sneak peek?"
True to her hardcore gamer side, Jane's eyes sparkled at the topic.
I'd planned to reveal details when the early Savior crew gathered, but a teaser for Jane wouldn't hurt.
"RPG. Savior's next genre is RPG."
Following the action game Soul Hunters, Savior's new title would be an RPG.