July 15, 1991.
Konan, Minato City, Tokyo, Japan.
Sony Corporation Headquarters.
Aoki Haruhi arrived for a visit, accompanied by engineer Senkawa Hiroichi and copywriter Ishino Mika.
In the conference room, sitting opposite them were three men in suits.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to even call them old men.
The man in the middle was named Morita Akio. His hair was completely white, his face was covered in deep wrinkles, and he had heavy eye bags. He wore a pair of glasses that accentuated his high cheekbones and sunken cheeks.
At 70 years old, he still insisted on staying at his post at Sony.
Morita Akio was one of the two founders of Sony and currently served as the company's Chairman.
Although he wasn't the President, in reality, he was the one who made decisions on many major company strategies.
The second person was Ohga Norio. Born in 1930, he was now over 60 years old and served as the General Manager of the Product Department, while also leading Sony's Product Design Department.
It was Ohga Norio who had signed the development agreement with Nintendo on behalf of Sony.
The last person was Kutaragi Ken, who had the highest visibility during the recent incident where Nintendo unilaterally tore up the agreement, and was also the initiator of the entire project.
Born in 1950, Kutaragi Ken had jet-black hair, a broad forehead, and a perpetually guileless smile on his face.
At 40 years old, Kutaragi Ken could be considered a pillar of Sony Corporation. If not for this "backstabbing" incident, he would have actually had a very good chance of being promoted to a higher management position.
The atmosphere in the conference room was extremely serious, as if a war were about to break out.
The big shots opposite stared at Aoki Haruhi, as if they were about to swallow him whole the next second.
Of course, this was just an illusion.
Ishino Mika, the copywriter who had come with Aoki, felt her palms sweating nervously.
To be honest, this was the first time Ishino had attended such a terrifying meeting.
If it weren't for the fact that Pokeni hadn't been able to hire a suitable specialist in biology, she wouldn't have been here at all.
When she first heard the President say they were going to make a simulation game that would be better handled by someone with a background in biology or entomology, she was very resistant to the idea.
However, after communicating with the President, she realized it was a false alarm.
Pokémon was just a pet simulation game, after all.
And the [Pikachu] image the President had drawn was really cute.
Fluffy and especially adorable, it went straight to Ishino's heart.
This is also the reason why she agreed to take over and create the project proposal for it.
The only thing she hadn't expected was that the president was actually going to use it for negotiations with Sony.
She looked over at Senkawa Hiroichi beside her.
This young man didn't seem to be doing any better than her; even though it was a hot day in July, it wasn't enough to explain the sheer amount of sweat on his forehead.
"President Qing, could you please give a brief introduction to the proposal?" Morita Akio said with a polite smile.
To be honest, Morita Akio could be considered a rare gem in the Japanese corporate world.
Whether it was Nintendo's "Game Tyrant" Yamauchi Hiroshi or Sega's "Iron-faced Killer" Nakayama Hayao, both were the type of intimidating figures who could make people tremble in their presence.
Yet, in his interactions, Morita Akio displayed an unusual level of approachability, one that often made people think—
...an illusion that this old man was genuinely considerate of others.
It had to be said that there was a reason the media held Morita Akio in such high regard.
"Certainly."
Aoki Haruhi stood up and stated, "This proposal is one we have put forward for cooperation, based on the current situation of both your company and Pokeni."
As he spoke, everyone lowered their heads to flip through the proposal in front of them.
The content of the proposal was quite extensive, and there was a lot of supplementary material attached at the back.
"First of all, I believe that Sony Corporation possesses the best hardware development capabilities in the industry, and your company's pursuit of excellent quality and perfect performance in product development is truly admirable and moving.
I believe that with Sony Corporation's capabilities, you have enough strength to develop the next generation of console products.
Perhaps even surpassing Nintendo.
No, I should say you have enough hardware strength to leave Nintendo far behind."
The three people opposite him did not speak, only nodding silently.
Although what Aoki Haruhi said contained some polite rhetoric, to a certain extent, it was also a fact.
At the very least, Sony certainly had the strength in hardware.
"This report points out that while Sony Corporation is indeed very formidable in terms of hardware, it still lacks an opportunity to enter the gaming market."
"Games are composed of two parts: the console and the game cartridge," said Aoki Haruhi. "We have no doubt about Sony's ability to manufacture consoles, but in terms of game content, it seems you still need a partner."
Aoki Haruhi was not wrong.
Sony's primary business had previously been in semiconductor hardware, particularly in music products.
But in the field of gaming, Sony was truly a novice.
With no representative works and plenty of technical expertise, if there weren't enough weighty and high-selling hit games for the machine, then this game console would only end up as a failed product.
This was also the reason Sony had approached Nintendo.
Sony had the technology, and Nintendo had the content.
The combination of the two could be said to be invincible.
Truth be told, if the agreement hadn't been torn up by Nintendo, who knows what the future would have become?
Most likely, Sony would have leveraged the momentum to become Japan's, no, the world's largest gaming company, right?
Unfortunately, all these dreams had now vanished into thin air.
This could not help but make Morita Akio feel heartbroken.
Aoki Haruhi had clearly struck a sore spot.
"What kind of help can your company offer us?" Akio Morita asked politely.
"Pokeni may not be able to compare with Nintendo or Sega, nor can we match the likes of Namco or Square, at least not in terms of influence right now, but we have sufficient potential and strength."
Aoki Haruhi then produced a videotape, which contained footage of the Onmyoji series and The Mermaid's Heart, so that everyone could have a more vivid understanding of Pokeni's products.
Upon seeing the game footage playing on the television, Aoki Haruhi clearly saw Ken Kutaragi's eyes light up.
"To be frank with you all, this game, called Onmyoji, is a title we developed for the FC, and it once received a high score of 39 from Famitsu."
"What?!"
Everyone was taken aback.
Was this truly the kind of performance that could be rendered on the FC?
Just then, Ken Kutaragi suddenly recalled—
Right, this was that company that had rudely inserted a chip into their game cartridges to process graphics and memory.
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