"Look at the hydraulic details on that mechanical arm," one colleague said, pushing up his glasses. "They didn't take the easy way out with 3D modeling. It's all hand-drawn cel animation. These Japanese animators are madmen when it comes to mechanical structures."
"But that green 3D scan sequence was entirely computer-generated," another colleague added. "Has Japanese animation become this aggressive in adopting new technologies?"
In the Japanese press area, a Famitsu editor recognized the distinctive art style and spotted Mamoru Oshii's name in the credits.
"Mamoru Oshii. The cold color palette and camera work give it away." He jotted down "Mamoru Oshii" in his notebook and circled it. "The music is also unmistakably his."
The scene advanced.
Remember the launch site domain: twkan.com
Motoko stood on the edge of a skyscraper in Shinohama City, gazing down at the shimmering neon lights below.
She tore off her coat, leaned back, and plunged into the abyss.
Mid-fall, her optical camouflage activated. Her figure twisted and vanished into the night, leaving only a trail of splashing raindrops.
The music came to an abrupt halt at its climax.
The screen went black.
Two lines of minimalist white text materialized:
[ Ghost in the Shell ]
[ 1995 Winter — Theatrical Release ]
[ 1996 Summer — Jupiter Game Release ]
The audience remained silent for a full five seconds.
Then, applause spread from the front rows, where the media were seated.
There were no screams, no whistles.
It was a pure acknowledgment of top-tier audio-visual production standards.
The Editor-in-Chief of EGM stuffed his notebook into his bag and stood up. "Clever move. With such a long development cycle, they probably have very limited game footage to release. Using a high-quality animated movie trailer as both a movie and game trailer is both cost-effective and won't give players the impression they're being fobbed off."
He glanced at the Deputy Editor beside him, who was still lost in thought over the music. "Before, Toy Story leveraged Hollywood and Pixar's resources. Now this project's using Japan's top animation industry. Sega's really mastered cross-industry marketing."
Walmart's channel representatives whispered in the back rows.
"This game won't get a low rating. It has nudity and violent elements."
"It doesn't matter. Even if the movie can't be released in North American theaters, there's still the home video market. This game and movie will sell themselves. There's always a demand for quality adult sci-fi."
The stage lights came on one by one.
The host returned to the microphone and announced the end of Sega's pre-show press conference, reminding the media that they could visit the booth area in the afternoon for hands-on demos. Many attendees were still humming the chime of the handbell and the female chorus.
The press conference officially concluded. The overhead lights brightened, and the crowd began to disperse.
A ten-minute break.
Reporters in the front rows stood up to stretch their legs.
Some went to the restroom, others queued for free coffee, and a few gathered in the aisle to exchange business cards.
The lingering echoes of Bulgarian harmonies still hung in the air.
"Sega has set the bar impossibly high," a GamePro editor said, dumping two packets of sugar into his coffee and stirring with a wooden stick. "No other company will be able to follow this act."
"Who's next?" A colleague beside me flipped through the conference schedule, his fingertip pausing at the 1 PM slot. "Ubisoft. French."
"That agency that handles European distribution?"
"Exactly. They just established their own internal studio for development in the past two years, recruiting plenty of European programmers and artists."
The conference announcement crackled in English over the speakers.
The crowd settled back into their seats.
The lights dimmed.
The big screen lit up, displaying the Ubisoft logo.
There was no lengthy opening speech.
One of Ubisoft's founders, Yves Guillemot, strode onto the stage.
Dressed casually in a shirt, he delivered a brief address in heavily accented English:
"We've brought a new friend."
The screen transitioned to game footage.
Vibrant, hand-drawn 2D backgrounds filled the frame.
A cartoon character appeared in the center—a limbless figure with hands, feet, and torso suspended in mid-air.
Rayman.
The scene came to life.
The protagonist ran and leaped through fantastical forests and musical worlds.
The absence of limbs paradoxically lent the character's movements a peculiar fluidity.
Fists could unleash charged attacks to topple enemies, while hair transformed into helicopter blades for gliding flight.
A few soft chuckles emerged from the North American press section below.
"This character design is truly innovative," a tester from NetGeneration scribbled in his notebook. "To save on skeletal animation resources, they simply removed the limbs?"
"A clever trick," remarked the Editor-in-Chief of EGM, watching the live demo on the screen. "The art foundation is rock-solid. The scrolling layers are smooth as silk, and the color scheme perfectly evokes the style of European fairy tale picture books. The number of unique hair colors on screen at once is astonishing."
"Listen to the background music," another editor said, pausing his notes. "This isn't standard MIDI. The CD format delivers genuine studio-quality orchestration—a blend of symphonic and electronic elements. The French have a unique artistic intuition when it comes to this kind of thing."
On the screen, Rayman dodged exaggeratedly large, spiny fruits. The background flora and monsters displayed rich idle animations.
Ubisoft had been publishing games in Europe for years, building an extensive distribution network and gaining valuable development experience along the way.
They invested their profits into research and development, and their proprietary 2D engine demonstrated remarkably mature industrial standards.
The demo video finished playing.
Release information appeared on the screen:
[ Rayman ]. Fall 1995.
The logos of three consoles lit up in a row below:
[ Atari Jaguar ]. [ PlayStation ]. [ Jupiter ].
A murmur rippled through the audience.
"An Atari Jaguar launch title?" the Walmart channel representative whispered. "Is anyone still willing to develop for that system?"
"Ubisoft started this project using an Atari development kit," a colleague beside him replied in a hushed tone. "There must be other factors at play. The French aren't fools. Atari's installed base is too small to recoup development costs. Cross-platform release is their only viable path."
"Ubisoft is playing it very safe," the Editor-in-Chief of EGM added. "Europe has always been a weak market for Sega and Nintendo. By leveraging their local advantage and controlling the distribution channels, Ubisoft is now moving into game development.
As long as their first game doesn't flop, they'll have bargaining power in the upcoming Next-Gen console war."
"It's interesting that they kept the Atari version. This suggests that the initial development costs were too high to abandon. Adding PlayStation and Jupiter is like buying double insurance."
"Do you think this game will sell in North America?"
"If it's a family-friendly game with a well-designed difficulty curve, it should be able to carve out a slice of the market in the second half of the year—especially in Europe."
Yves Guillemot bowed on stage, announcing the end of the press conference.
Without the spectacle of Sega's lavish production, Ubisoft had demonstrated the entry stance of a new European developer with a solid 2D side-scrolling game.
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