New revenue streams! At the mention of this, the shareholders immediately perked up, and those who had been whispering quietly below fell silent.
Over the past year, they had witnessed Takuya's money-making ability. Projects like the handheld version of tetris, with their massive influx and outflow of materials, allowed some Sega shareholders with supplier stakes to earn a fortune, while fatal fury and the Sega eSports tournament brought smiles to the faces of shareholders with arcade businesses.
Not to mention, most shareholders had, to varying degrees, benefited from Sega's distributors.
This was the power of a blockbuster that could expand the pie.
"As for the specific projects, I will elaborate on them at the next planning seminar. I won't take up everyone's time here," Takuya said, bowing before exiting the conference room.
The conference room fell silent once more.
Seeing that no one was speaking, Hayao Nakayama took the initiative and said, "What are everyone's thoughts on Takuya's report just now?"
Whispers began in the conference room, with some nodding occasionally, but others still furrowed their brows.
Hayao Nakayama did not wait for the shareholders to discuss much. He stood up directly and said,
"Since its inception, Sega has never been a company that adheres to old ways."
"We dare to bet where others cannot see, and we dare to challenge powerful opponents."
"This is Sega's DNA!"
"The holding of the eSports tournament will prove our ability to create trends and ignite market enthusiasm."
"And the next generation 16-bit console is the platform that will carry our greater ambition to truly shake Nintendo's hegemony!"
He slammed the table, producing a dull thud.
"As president and major shareholder, I propose a resolution vote: effective immediately, accelerate the development plan for the 16-bit home console!"
"Who is in favor? Who is against?"
Hayao Nakayama's gaze was as sharp as a knife, sweeping over every director.
The conference room was silent. No one raised any further objections.
Nearly half of the shareholders raised their hands in agreement without much hesitation, and the remaining ones, after some deliberation, slowly raised their hands as well.
The resolution passed unanimously!
-----------------
Takuya came down from the top-floor conference room of the headquarters building and returned to Development Team Three, where he saw Suzuki Yu.
"Suzuki-san, why are you here? Aren't you developing Out Run?" Takuya asked while filling his teacup with water.
"Didn't I hear you were called to the top-floor conference room? How was it? Any new arrangements?" Suzuki Yu rubbed his hands, asking with anticipation.
Takuya said to him with a chuckle, "There should be, but wait for the official notification. You'll definitely have to sign a non-disclosure agreement."
"Oh, oh, oh! Yosh!" Suzuki Yu let out two strange cries, knowing that this was the most he could get out of Takuya. He then hurried back to Team Two.
Seeing Takuya send Suzuki Yu away, Shimizu, the leader of Development Team Three, and other team members gathered around, asking, "Nakayama-san, do we have any new projects coming up?"
"Yeah, it's been too boring assisting other teams lately."
Takuya looked at the people gathered around, put down his teacup, and pressed his hands down, signaling for everyone to be quiet.
"I won't say much more. This week, everyone, please finish up your current work, understood?"
"Awoo!"
"I knew it!"
Everyone cheered loudly and returned to their workstations, continuing their work with even more enthusiasm than before.
-----------------
The time came to Friday. Before the new planning seminar was the Hardware Development Seminar.
During the meeting, Takuya explained his idea, based on the System 16 arcade board and centered around the Motorola 68000 CPU, to the Hardware Development Department and the leaders of the various game development teams, as he had presented it at the shareholders' meeting.
"The above is the general development plan for the 16-bit home console, linked to the System 16 arcade board, which I presented to the shareholders at the shareholders' meeting. Since the company developed Hang On and fatal fury, the pre-System 16 board has been perfected and upgraded to System 16 by all of you present. Everyone is already very familiar with this board and the Motorola 68000 CPU. I'm sure many of you understand their performance limits better than I do."
Seeing that everyone generally nodded in agreement, Takuya continued, "Those in the Hardware Development Department should be able to roughly estimate the price of the Motorola 68000 and these memory chips in two years. The 68000 is becoming more widely used, and its production is increasing. Its cost-effectiveness should reach a more suitable range in two years."
"At that time, the production cost of our 16-bit home game console and the porting cost of arcade games will provide a lot of pricing flexibility for promoting the game console."
"Our Hardware Development Department approves this development approach. For other components, we will also try to use models that are currently relatively mature and are expected to have sufficient price reduction space in about two years. This will allow for the rapid formation of a reliable and stable game development environment, so that the game development teams can prepare escorting masterpieces as early as possible." The head of the Hardware Development Department was clearly well-prepared. They had no reason to miss out on such a valuable project with low practical risk.
Other development team leaders also expressed that they would immediately dedicate themselves to game development centered around the System 16 board after completing their current projects.
Thus, the news that "Sega, seeing the excellent performance of the System 16 board, will increase its investment in game development on System 16" was subtly spread. Meanwhile, the Hardware Development Department's home console development was packaged as a research and development project for a new generation light gun—after all, Nintendo's NES Duck Hunt sold better in North America than in Japan.
"Sega is determined to stick with arcade games," most Nintendo and third-party game developers thought, as Sega's advantage in arcade games was too great, just like Nintendo's market position in home consoles.
However, Hiroshi Yamauchi did not take it lightly, as the performance of Takuya's previous two games alone had greatly impressed him.
Masaya Nakamura of Namco and Kozuki Kagemasa of Konami also did not fully believe it.
Everyone had been directly or indirectly hit hard by Takuya. I don't believe a word you say!
Sometimes, they would even lament, "Ever since Takuya joined Sega, Sega has become sly; it's no longer the straightforward boy it used to be. Not only is its punch heavy, but it's also secretive and deceptive, completely disregarding martial ethics."
Thus, under Hiroshi Yamauchi's command, Nintendo still increased its investigation and infiltration efforts against Sega, hoping to obtain information that could not be found through overt means. However, this was destined to be futile in the short term. The Hardware Development Department immediately signed non-disclosure agreements after the shareholders' meeting, and the internal meeting minutes of the Hardware Development Seminar only mentioned the promotion of System 16 game development and the development plan for a new light gun. No information about the development of the 16-bit new home console was left on paper.[1]
[1] Sega Consoles | Gaming console | Record HeadThe first home console to use a 16-bit processor was the Mattel Intellivision, released in 1979/1980, featuring a General Instrument 16-bit CPU, predating the widely recognized 16-bit era (which began with the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 in 1987). While the Intellivision had the 16-bit hardware, the true "16-bit console era" for major market dominance started later with the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, followed by the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) and Super Nintendo. Key Details:Mattel Intellivision (1979/1980): The true pioneer with its 16-bit CPU, though games used 10-bit ROMs and it had 16-bit registers.PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) (1987): Launched the official 16-bit era for the fourth generation of consoles.Sega Genesis / Mega Drive (1988/1989): Became a major force in the 16-bit era, competing with Nintendo.Super Nintendo (SNES) (1990/1991): Nintendo's dominant entry in the 16-bit war.