Chapter 70 Young Female Chairman

Washimine Shion is an intellectual woman with long green hair and red eyes. As the chairman of a large company, she looks more friendly than Ms. Hoshizora, the president of J Company whom Nanaya met at the awards ceremony before.

But Nanaya did not dare to underestimate this smiling lady. Since she could become the chairman of a large company, she must have her strengths. Not to mention that she was also the investor of this project, that is, the major sponsor.

Washimine Co., Ltd. is a long-established electronic game manufacturer. In the 1980s, the company almost swept the entire global gaming market with its own game console JC.

Relying on its "Plumber" series, "Saint and Brave" series and a series of other world-class game IPs, Washimine can be said to be the only overlord of the gaming industry in the 1980s.

Although the company has been on the decline since the 1990s under the attack of other game manufacturers such as Sony and Sega, JGC was even defeated by its old rival Sony's PS2 in last year's new console war.

For this reason, Washimine Hiroshi, the former chairman and president of Washimine Corporation, had to resign. The people who succeeded Washimine Hiroshi as the new generation of leaders of Washimine were Iwata Satoru, who had just turned 40, and Washimine Hiroshi's granddaughter Washimine Shion, who was only 25 years old.

This incident caused quite a stir in the gaming community at the time; even Nanaya, who was in the entertainment industry, had heard about it.

However, unlike others who doubted whether this young "brat" duo could successfully lead the heavyweight company in the gaming industry, Washimine, Nanaya's first reaction after seeing the news was to complain directly.

"Isn't this the hell of this world? Where is that old man Yamauchi Hiroshi? So, is Congge now working for a pretty girl?!"

Even now, Nanaya still couldn't get used to the fact that the woman standing in front of him was actually the boss lady of his once favorite gaming company.

As if noticing Nanaya's distressed look, Washimine Shion deliberately pretended to be distressed: "Ah, it seems that Director Kiryu has a deep prejudice against me, which is really regrettable. Cry~ cry~"

Nanaya quickly apologized to Washimine Shion and said, "No, I really like your company's games, especially the [Pet Master] series. I never get tired of playing it."

This is true. If there is any game in the world that can force you to buy a game console just for this game, it must be the Pokémon series.

Washimine Shion immediately smiled again and said proudly, "Ah, I believe Brother Iwata will be happy to hear this, because that is a game series he has always loved~"

"Brother?"

Nanaya, who was used to calling him Cong-ge, didn't react for a moment.

Washimine Shion covered her face with her right hand wearing a black glove and smiled as she said, "Of course it's Iwata Satoshi-nii. Apart from him, is there anyone else in Washimine who I can call my brother?"

"I will definitely visit if I have the chance."

[By the way, I want another autograph. ]

Nanaya felt that if he could really get Cong Ge's autograph, then it would not be a loss even if the project failed.

"Okay, let's stop here to get to know each other."

Washimine Shion, who was originally smiling, changed her expression. She showed a serious expression and said to Nanaya and Hanai Ryuichi: "Thank you two directors for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come to our Washimine project pre-screening. I will first inform you of the content related to this matter. Iioka!"

"Yes!"

The man named by Shion immediately placed a set of materials in front of Nanaya and Hanai Ryuichi.

"First of all, I would like to express to you two our attitude towards this project on behalf of Washimine."

Before Nanaya opened the information, Washimine Shion started to explain: "It's like this, two directors. Our company wants to expand its business, and also to diversify our game IP development, so we hope to make a movie adapted from our game company. This will be the focus of Washimine's work in the next two years."

"Your company's cross-border expansion is a bit too big..."

Nanaya's words were obviously sarcastic but did not make Washimine Shion feel embarrassed at all: "You can't say that. After all, we just want to promote our games. We have no ambition to expand into the movie market, nor do we have any intention of changing the company's strategy. Otherwise, we would not have come to Lin Bao, a giant in the industry. We came here with full sincerity."

Washimine Shion's words were obviously directed to Ryutani Nobuyuki, but the other party did not respond at all. He just looked at the table with lifeless eyes, as if this bidding had nothing to do with him.

Nanaya was skeptical about Washimine Shion's explanation, because in his previous life, he never released any information about the project after the failure of NGC. But he could not rule out the possibility that this was a change in a parallel world, after all, Nintendo's name had been changed to Washimine, so what else was impossible?

"Well, Chairman Washimine." Nanaya confirmed with Washimine Shion in a deep voice, "Then I wonder what your company's requirements are for this movie? After all, based on the overall trend of game-adapted movies and the level of special effects production, if you want to make a game-adapted movie profitable, then I think the large budget proposed by your company is not advisable. A medium to low budget is a good choice. After all, it is not easy for a game-adapted movie to make a profit."

A budget of $60 million might be considered medium-sized ten years later, but in 2001 it was a big-budget project in Hollywood.

"Impossible." Washimine Shion said firmly, "My goal is to make a work as influential as Gladiator or Raiders of the Lost Ark. Even if it doesn't make much money at the box office, at least the film must have enough influence to make all the audience have a new understanding of Washimine."

"In this case, the risk would be very high."

However, Nanaya didn't think that the other party would not know about this. He was more concerned about his next question.

"Chairman Washimine, as a Japanese company, you should be very clear that Japan is not qualified to produce such an epic film at present. Only Hollywood can complete such a theme at present."

"We have tried it. Although several Hollywood film companies promised us well on the surface, the staffing they provided was not acceptable at all. Although I don't expect a top director like James Cameron or a superstar like Tom Cruise to shoot a movie, the 18th-tier staffing they provided is simply unacceptable to us. They have no sincerity in making this movie properly."

"It is their tradition to cheat outsiders. Sony has been badly harmed by them."

Nanaya snorted without comment.

Although it is a bit exaggerated that Hollywood dares to cheat Wall Street, Hollywood is indeed notoriously shady in dealing with foreign capital. In order to reduce the share, these Americans have done many things such as turning big-selling movies into small profits and small-profit movies into losses.

Let's not talk about the Germans who are about to be cheated by Hollywood and have nothing left, but there is a living example in Japan.

The most direct example is Sony Columbia Pictures. After Sony acquired the company, Sony basically retained the original management team in order to ensure a smooth transition of management.

Originally Sony thought that this would demonstrate its sincerity, but it did not expect that this group of Americans would directly poach employees from its own company.

These Americans took advantage of Sony's lack of understanding of the American market, constantly seeking benefits for the management through Columbia, and using various treaties that damaged the company as capital for their own kickbacks.

Then they turned around and coaxed Sony, saying that you Japanese are new here and the Americans are very resistant. You have to lose money first to increase your influence, and then you will make a profit after your influence increases.

At that time, Sony headquarters was affected by the bursting of Japan's bubble economy and had no energy to take care of American affairs, so it directly handed over power to the original Columbia executives.

So when Sony finally had time to take care of Columbia's affairs, what they were left with was a mess full of holes and Columbia's huge losses.

In just a few years, Sony's losses on Columbia reached a staggering billions of dollars.

However, even so, Sony's current market value is still 70 billion US dollars, while Washimine's is only more than 27 billion.

Washimine Shion certainly couldn't be unaware of her old rival's misfortune. She nodded and said, "After hitting a wall in the United States, we can only turn our attention to Japan, the only country in the world with a relatively complete commercial film system besides the United States. This is also the reason why I turned to Lin Bao for a project application after hitting a wall in Hollywood."

"In fact, Director Kiryu, a new generation director like you was not even in our consideration," Washimine Shion ignored Nanaya's unhappy expression and continued, "But with the recommendation of Chairman Ryutani, I saw your work. Your style has a hint of Hollywood, and you have your own ideas about commercial films. So I considered you as one of the candidates. I hope Director Kiryu can seize this opportunity."

Although he felt a little uncomfortable with Washimine Shion's condescending and commanding attitude, he was not too dissatisfied. After all, Washimine was a person that even Lin Bao had to look up to, and he, a small fry, was not worthy of attention at all.

"So what about the special effects part of the movie?"

Since this is such a big-budget movie, selling the special effects is obviously a foregone conclusion. However, the current special effects in Japan may not be able to meet the requirements of the chairman.

Washimine explained directly: "Washimine took advantage of the bursting of the technology stock bubble last year to acquire a number of small companies in North America, including two special effects companies. Although they are not as good as the top light and magic, they are still pretty good."

"Then the last question, what about the subject matter?"

Nanaya nodded. This condition was indeed quite good and he was eager to try it.

"Our company currently has three of the most popular IPs in the world, namely the Super Plumber series, the Saint and the Brave series, and the Pet Master series." Washimine Shion introduced to Nanaya, "The reputation of Super Plumber has been ruined because of that bad movie. I guess we won't consider its live-action movie series in the next 20 years. Although I personally want to adapt the Pet Master series very much, with the current technology, it is difficult to use computer special effects to create so many vivid non-realistic animals even in Hollywood. If this cannot be achieved, the Pet Master movies will lose the characteristics of this series."

"So, the project you chose is the "Saint and the Brave" series?"

Nanaya was greatly relieved after getting this result. This series is a Western fantasy game, which gives Nanaya, a time traveler, a lot of themes to choose from (plagiarism). If it were other series, there might not be so much material.

[But why do I feel uneasy? ]

Washimine Shion agreed with Nanaya's guess: "Yes, it just so happens that Hollywood's New Line Studios will be launching the Lord of the Rings trilogy for three consecutive years starting this year, and we can just take advantage of this popularity..."

"Wait a minute!" Nanaya slammed the table and stood up after hearing what Washimine Shion said. He finally realized where his uneasiness came from. "Are you saying that the Lord of the Rings series will be released starting this year?!!"