Chapter 116 New Year Tea Party

Iwata is not a very conceited person, but as a game developer and leader, he has sufficient confidence in his abilities. Although his status in the eyes of Washimine employees has been significantly improved, many unpleasant voices have been heard from the management, saying that Washimine's improvement has nothing to do with Satoru's own ability, but is purely due to the improvement of the overall environment.

This is what made Iwata very angry. If he did something wrong, he could just criticize him directly, but he couldn't accept this kind of questioning of his ability out of nothing.

"Well, Iwata-san, calm down." Shion smiled and consoled Satoru, "Grandpa and I both know your abilities, otherwise we wouldn't have given you the position of president. I believe that your abilities will soon convince everyone."

"To be honest, I don't really want the position of president." Satoru rubbed his brow and said, "There are really too many things that bother me. If possible, I actually hope that I can just be the director of the game department."

Shion smiled bitterly and replied, "I'm afraid this is difficult to achieve. Brother Iwata, you should just give up."

Since Satoru is now the president of Washimine, he can only continue to work in this position. Unless he changes jobs or resigns, there is no other possibility for him to leave this position.

"Well, I was just talking."

Satoru also knows that his idea will always be just an idea, but if he retires in the future, maybe he can become a game consultant? He just doesn't know if this wish can be realized.

Satoru, who seemed a little disappointed, didn't say anything more. He finished the tea in front of him and got up and left.

As the first year of his tenure as the president, this year's Chinese New Year is even busier for Satoru than his usual working days. Because he has to visit customers all over the country and meet with all the customers and suppliers related to Washimine. Normally, he has no time to visit because of work, but now during the Chinese New Year, he must take time to visit. This is a matter of etiquette as a corporate manager.

In fact, it was for this reason that Satoru followed Shion to see Nanaya today. After all, Nanaya has been in New Zealand for most of the year. If they didn't see each other during the New Year, who knows when they will meet again in the future.

"I'm sorry, Director Kiryu." As he left, Satoru apologized to Nanaya very apologetically, "Although I really want to discuss with you in depth about the development of new-era games, I heard from Shion that you have many unique insights into the new-era entertainment industry, but I really don't have time now. I will visit you specifically when I have the chance in the future."

"He's really busy."

After Satoru left, Nanaya couldn't help but sigh. It was a rare opportunity to meet Satoru, but he couldn't even get his autograph, which made him feel a little regretful.

"Yes, Iwata-san pushes himself too hard." Shion's voice also revealed a hint of helplessness, "Working 10 hours a day, and often not even a day off a week, I am worried about his health."

"After all, Brother Satoru is under a lot of pressure. The situation of Washimine's two generations of consoles, J64 and JGC, is not very ideal. If Washimine fails to make a breakthrough in the new generation of consoles, it will become very dangerous for the development of the entire company." This is the evaluation given by Nanaya, a Nintendo, on Washimine's current situation.

Satoru Iwata is under a lot of pressure now, but it is precisely this pressure that has led to the success of NDS and Will.

"But Satoru is really good at making games. I believe he can turn around Washimine's current business status in the game industry. What we can do is to provide him with a better environment. If Brother Slayer is successful, it will definitely relieve a lot of pressure on Satoru. Also, it's better to pay more attention to Satoru's physical condition. It would be troublesome if his health collapsed due to such high-intensity work."

In history, Satoru's contribution to Nintendo can be described as "devoting himself to the company until his death". Even if there is failure in Willu, it still cannot erase his contribution to the development of Nintendo.

If possible, Nanaya still hopes to help Satoru to live longer. But he knows very well that he is a person who regards games as his life, and a craftsman who regards games as the meaning of his life. For Satoru, not allowing him to work and create games may be better off dying.

So all Nanaya can do is to create a better and more relaxed working environment for Satoru as much as possible. This is the greatest help he can give Satoru.

"In fact, Washimine is still paying for a series of wrong decisions made by his grandfather in the 1990s."

Although it is not a good thing for a granddaughter to speak ill of her grandfather, what Shion said is an indisputable fact.

In the Famicom era, Washimine was extremely domineering, and it was no exaggeration to describe him as the overlord of the gaming world.

However, this glorious history is both an honor and a pressure. After entering the 1990s, Washimine encountered various setbacks on the console.

The first is the problem of J64. Perhaps because of the success of the Famicom and the failure of the floppy disk drive, Washimine became obsessed with the medium of cassettes.

Of course, Nanaya believes that the biggest reason why Washimine likes cassettes is that cassettes can bind developers to his train and make it easier to control developers.

This approach is indeed very effective when there is only one dominant player, but when there are other competitors, it will only make developers switch sides more quickly.

In fact, cassettes as a game carrier are still very advantageous. After all, cassettes have the characteristics of fast reading and stable operation. But unfortunately, the technological development of cassettes lagged far behind that of CDs in the 1990s.

The advantage of large capacity alone makes J64 powerless in front of PS. Although J64 is slightly better than PS in terms of game console configuration, the capacity limit of the game makes these higher configurations useless.

So even though J64's games are outstanding and fun to play, they are far inferior to Sony's PS games in terms of game graphics.

And in Nanaye's memory, this problem was not solved until 20 years later, and the complaints about the quality of Nintendo games have never subsided.

Although the phrase "full-screen gameplay" is just a joke, it is also the most true portrayal of Nintendo's games.

Of course, the problem with J64 is far more than just this one point. There are also many problems in the design of the game console itself. Because of cost considerations and other issues, J64's game console uses very funny designs in many places.

For example, although JGC changed the game media to optical discs, it used an 8cm small disc that was completely different from the mainstream DVD discs on the market at the time, and its capacity was only 1.5G.

The reason is that Washimine does not want to pay patent fees to the DVD Alliance. Although Washimine has always emphasized that the use of discs of different specifications is to combat piracy, who would believe such a thing!

Although in this world, Mr. Yamauchi's surname was changed to Washimine, his stingy habit still continued.

Perhaps it is because he realized from the failure of JGC that his brain has failed to keep up with the trend that the old man has simply become a hands-off boss.

"You're right." After hearing Nanaya's complaints about their own products, Shion was not angry, but echoed, "Because of the success in the early years, everyone in Washimine has the illusion that Washimine's products are the best in the world. The consequence of resting on their laurels for a long time is that they lack a keen sense of the market, and always think that players will like what they make. But in fact, these guys have misunderstood the cause and effect. Players never accommodate manufacturers, but manufacturers need to accommodate players."

"Yes, in the past, everyone had no choice but Washimine, whether it was the players or the game developers."

"Well, times have changed." Shion nodded. "Come to think of it, if you were in my position, how would you solve Washimine's problem?"

"I?"

"Yes, I want to hear your advice. After all, you are my Zhuge Kongming, right? Now is a rare opportunity. Mr. Strategist, why don't you come and have a discussion?"

Most people would probably feel flattered if they heard such praise from their boss, but Nanaya first thought of a wizard who died of kidney deficiency due to overwork.

"I--"

"We are back. I heard that you have guests, Senior?"

As soon as Nanaya started talking, the door to the living room was opened.

"Ryougi-san, long time no see."

Shion greeted Ori with a smile.

"Well, hello."

With a big smile, Ori nodded to Shion, and it was obvious that he was in a very good mood at the moment.

Then Ori sat next to Nanaya very naturally, acting as if it was natural.

Shion just glanced at Ori's behavior and didn't say much.

"Pour me a cup of tea and bring me some more refreshments. I'm starving."

"How are things going over there? What does your mother say?"

Although Shion was not an outsider, the matter of Ryougi Shiki belonged to the internal affairs of the Ryougi family. Therefore, when Nanaya asked, he was still vague about it.

"I haven't explained it clearly to her yet, let's just stick to what we said before." Ori didn't seem to particularly want to talk about it.

[In other words, in front of Aunt Kiyomi, we still exchanged identities? ]

Nanaya took a sip of hot tea. Although he had guessed that this might be the result, he actually preferred that Ori could be frank with his mother.

"Where are your uncle and aunt?"

"They are still in the hospital with my sister." Ori took a sip of the hot tea, imitating Nanaya's example. "They seemed to have endless things to say to each other. I felt that I was in the way, so I came back first. Well... I am alive again. As expected, daifuku tastes the best."

Ori bit off half of the strawberry daifuku, his face full of happiness.