Hisao Oguchi digested this information.
He was just an executive in charge of exhibitions and project coordination; company-level mergers and acquisitions were far beyond his purview.
"There will be a lot of internal resistance at Bandai, right?" Hisao Oguchi voiced his concern. "Their employees are accustomed to the slow-paced toy development process and certainly won't be able to adapt to Sega's high-intensity technical iteration environment."
"There will definitely be resistance. But that is out of their hands." Takuya Nakayama pulled out a financial analysis report and tossed it onto the table. "Bandai's profit margins have been steadily declining in recent years. If their prized anime IP products lack high-quality video games as a medium for secondary dissemination, their influence will gradually wane."
Takuya Nakayama stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window of the office.
"The gaming industry is shifting from marginal entertainment toward mainstream culture. This transformation requires massive capital and top-tier technical support. They might have the capital, but with their terrible decision-making, it's impossible for them to complete this transformation before the funds run dry.
As for the technology, don't even get me started—the players have already said enough." Takuya Nakayama's tone was certain. "They're playing the ostrich right now simply because they haven't been pushed to the edge of the cliff yet. When next year comes, and they realize they don't even have the qualifications to sit at the table, they will understand just how precious the olive branch Sega once extended really was."
Hisao Oguchi watched the managing director's back as he tucked the list into his briefcase.
"Don't dwell on those things for now," Takuya Nakayama said, turning around. "For this E3, just treat Bandai like an ordinary third-party exhibitor. Give them whatever they need, as long as they pay the exhibition fees on time. Our core energy should be focused on the launch event for the UE engine open-source community."
"Understood." Hisao Oguchi stood up and picked up the documents.
His thoughts returned to reality.
The air conditioning in the South Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center blew over him, making Hisao Oguchi shiver.
The neon light tubes in the *Ghost in the Shell* demo area had been fully adjusted.
The air conditioning in the South Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center sent a chill through Hisao Oguchi. The neon lights for the "Ghost in the Shell" demo area had been fully calibrated.
Red and blue light interwove across the casings of several Jupiter consoles.
The test engineer set down the controller. On the screen, Motoko Kusanagi was struck by a sniper shot and collapsed in a pool of blood.
The words "GAME OVER" popped up in bold red letters.
"Keep the difficulty as it is," Oguchi Hisao said, pulling himself out of his thoughts and refocusing on the exhibition area before him. "Prepare a few more crates of iced cola for Media Day. Those reporters are going to need to cool off after dying a dozen times or so."
He turned and began walking toward the temporary office trailer.
Passing through the main aisle, he glanced at the Bandai booth in the distance.
Workers there were struggling to move empty cardboard boxes.
A few Bandai representatives in suits stood beside a Gundam model, laughing and smoking, completely unconcerned with the game CG playing on a loop at the booth next door.
Hisao Oguchi shook his head.
Executive Director Nakayama was right.
These people were just a bunch of ostriches with their heads in the sand.
Forget them.
Mid-May in Los Angeles, and the temperature was climbing.
The main roads around the convention center were jammed solid.
Trucks were lined up bumper to bumper, forklifts shuttled back and forth in the loading zone, and the piercing sound of reverse alarms echoed incessantly.
With less than forty-eight hours left until the opening of the second E3 expo, representatives from major gaming companies and partners had gathered here.
Less than forty-eight hours remained until the opening of the second E3 exhibition.
Representatives from major game companies and partner merchants gathered here.
Inside the venue, the sounds of hammering, electric drills, and clashing steel pipes blended into a chaotic symphony.
Hisao Oguchi stood on the perimeter of the Sega booth in the South Hall, checking lighting circuits with a walkie-talkie.
On the other side of the South Hall, Sony's Ken Kutaragi was intently watching workers position several large, custom-made monitors, insisting that the PlayStation logo be placed in the most prominent position.
In the West Hall, Nintendo's red-and-white logo was already hanging at the highest point of the exhibition hall.
With Atari silent and 3DO barely hanging on, the focus of this E3 for console exhibitors fell squarely on the three companies: Sega, Sony, and Nintendo.
To keep the atmosphere from becoming too tense, the booths for these console exhibitors were spaced out, avoiding any direct face-to-face confrontations.
In the main stage area of the Central Hall, lighting adjustments were entering their final stages.
Masayuki Uemura, head of Nintendo's Second Development Department and lead hardware designer for the N64, stood at the center of the stage holding a microphone.
Below the stage sat thousands of empty seats.
In two days, this place will be filled with global gaming media, distributors, and Wall Street analysts.
Masayuki Uemura imagined himself giving a speech on stage, feeling both excited and a little helpless.
At last year's inaugural E3, it was Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto who gave the opening remarks.
However, Miyamoto's speech was more about representing the entire gaming industry, reflecting the Interactive Digital Software Association's core philosophy behind the E3 exhibition: "Let the games speak for themselves and bring a great gaming experience to players."
Being asked to take the stage this year was a bit unexpected, yet entirely reasonable.
Standing in this position to deliver the opening remarks symbolized the entire industry's focus on Nintendo's new console.
Masayuki Uemura walked down the steps and handed the microphone to the sound engineer beside him.
"The temperature from the stage lights is a bit too high," Uemura said, wiping sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. "When the event officially starts, turn down the brightness of the overhead lights by ten percent. I don't want to be sweating in front of the cameras. Also, there's too much echo on the microphone; cut the high frequencies by two decibels."
The sound engineer made a mark on the console and gave an "OK" gesture.
Getting to stand on this main opening stage had not been easy.
The IDSA operates on a member voting system.
Who gives the opening keynote is decided by the votes of all members of the Interactive Digital Software Association.
Half a month ago, Sony held multiple closed-door promotional meetings in major cities across the United States.
Ken Kutaragi personally flew to Seattle and invited the heads of several major North American publishers, such as EA and Activision, to play golf.
The purpose was singular: to get them to cast their votes for PlayStation.
The terms Ken Kutaragi offered were enticing.
If Sony secured the opening, the keynote would include a five-minute montage of third-party games, showcasing the PlayStation ecosystem in every aspect.
For third-party developers, who were in desperate need of exposure, this was a guaranteed win-win deal.
EA CEO Larry Probst held his golf club at the time, laughed it off, and gave a noncommittal response.
Back at headquarters in San Francisco, Probst cast his vote for Nintendo.
It wasn't just EA; representatives from major Japanese publishers like Capcom, Konami, and Hudson, and even some small to medium-sized independent studios, were surprisingly unanimous when it came time to vote.
Votes poured in for Nintendo like snowflakes.
Sony had spent a fortune on public relations, but when the final vote count came in, they had secured less than twenty percent.
In his office at Sony's North American branch, Ken Kutaragi saw the final voting results sent by the IDSA, crumpled the fax paper into a ball, and threw it into the wastebasket.
He had spent half a month on business trips, only to be played by this group of third-party developers.
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