Three days later, Aoki Haruhi finished organizing the new proposal, pulled Tsuda Nao along, and visited the Sony headquarters once again.
Upon seeing the contents of the proposal, Sony's current president, 70-year-old Morita Akio, was taken aback.
"Sega?!"
"Yes, Sega," Aoki Haruhi nodded. "We will be co-developing a new handheld console with Sega. Sega can be said to be the most influential game developer in the world right now, besides Nintendo.
If we can cooperate with Sega, Sony will definitely be able to successfully enter the gaming market."
Morita Akio swallowed silently.
To be honest, this time Aoki Haruhi's proposal was extremely attractive.
It hit the nail right on the head.
[Does not want to enter the gaming market.]
[Deeply hurt by Nintendo's betrayal...]
These were all lies.
Otherwise, Sony wouldn't have spent such a long time planning it.
It was just that they lacked accumulation in the gaming field, and without a foothold, it was difficult to break in.
The previous proposal from Pokeni was actually quite good; it hit Sony's pain point directly.
The only problem was—
Pokeni lacked the influence; the company was too small and had little name recognition. Sony's board of directors believed they could not support Sony's ambitions to enter the gaming market.
So, it was shelved.
Originally, Sony was prepared to contact Namco, but now Aoki Haruhi had come knocking again with such a tempting proposal.
As Aoki Haruhi rightly said, Sega could be considered, to date, the most influential game developer in the world besides Nintendo.
Since Nintendo established its gaming hegemony, countless game manufacturers had attempted to challenge it.
But the only one that could truly shake the empire's foundations and pose a threat to Nintendo was Sega.
Whether in game console R&D or game content production, Sega was Nintendo's greatest enemy.
Especially when Sonic the Hedgehog burst onto the scene. This game could directly compete with Super Mario, leading people to place Sega and Nintendo on the same platform for comparison.
Relatively speaking, Sony was currently just a novice in the gaming field.
To say they weren't tempted would be a lie.
As the president of Sony, Morita Akio had no reason to refuse.
"But, does Sega really agree?" Akio Morita asked, perplexed. "You have to realize that Sega is a console developer itself, and until now, they have never collaborated with any third party."
Sega's president, Hayao Nakayama, was practically another Hiroshi Yamauchi.
The two were cut from the same cloth.
Not only were they extremely aggressive in their behavior, but they were also incredibly stingy.
Back when the Mega Drive (MD) was at its peak, Sega wouldn't let anyone get involved. Nakayama had even rejected requests from third-party developers to create games for the MD.
If it hadn't been for Nintendo releasing the Super Famicom (SFC) later, which caused many game companies to defect to Nintendo and led to Sega suffering major setbacks in the gaming market, it would have been almost impossible for Nakayama to allow third parties to get involved with the MD.
They were that cautious even about releasing games.
Letting others get involved in something like console R&D was even more out of the question.
"No problem," Aoki Haruhi said with a smile. "Without Sega's agreement, I wouldn't have dared to come to Sony."
Hmm?
So, it seemed Pokeni really did have some tricks up its sleeve!
Akio Morita couldn't help but look at the young man in front of him with renewed respect.
In this world, getting Sega to lower its head and making that old stubborn fool Nakayama change his long-standing business philosophy could be called an incredibly difficult task.
The fact that this young president had actually managed to do it...
It was truly astonishing.
Akio Morita raised his head and glanced at Ken Kutaragi, who was sitting at the end of the table, his brows furrowing slightly.
Why didn't Sony have talent like this?
"Very well, I understand."
Akio Morita stood up, holding the proposal from President Qing in his hand, and said seriously:
"President Qing, please give us some time. We need to discuss this internally before we can make a decision."
Although the words were much the same, this time when Qing shook hands with Akio Morita, he could feel a tremor in the other man's fingertips.
It was a tremor of excitement and thrill.
"Then, please make your decision as soon as possible," Qing said with a smile, "because I can't guarantee that Sega won't have a sudden change of heart."
Er...
Akio Morita's brow furrowed deeply.
"Understood, President Qing."
"Not bad."
As they left, Tsuda Nao cast an approving glance at Aoki Haruhi.
"Ah~ my back is drenched in sweat," Aoki sighed.
Tsuda Nao looked at this man with a mix of annoyance and amusement.
Honestly, this guy Aoki Haruhi had some nerve.
He lied without batting an eye or missing a beat.
He hadn't even met the president of Sega, yet he dared to claim he had "handled Sega."
"Sony is done, now only Sega is left. Good luck," Tsuda said, giving him a pat on the back.
"Hiss..."
Aoki winced in pain, then turned around to look at Tsuda Nao with a beaming smile.
"Could you please be a little gentler?"
That afternoon, Sony held a high-level executive meeting regarding Pokeni's proposal.
Compared to the autocratic nature of Nintendo and Sega, Sony relied more on such committee decisions.
At the meeting, Ken Kutaragi provided a detailed explanation and report to the board members and senior executives regarding the four-party collaborative R&D proposed by Pokeni.
After hearing it, everyone was extremely excited.
"Putting Pokeni aside, collaborating with Sega is genuinely incredibly attractive."
"If we can truly reach a cooperation agreement with Sega, this will be a great opportunity to reopen the door to the gaming field."
"We tried to approach Sega before, but unfortunately, President Nakayama's stance was very firm—he just didn't want to share the R&D rights of the game console with a third party. I wonder how Pokeni's president managed to do it."
"He really is an amazing young man."
If you can achieve something that others cannot, then you possess unique value as a partner.
Without this, Sony could have completely abandoned Pokeni and reached an agreement with Sega.
But precisely because they had previously communicated with President Nakayama, and Sega was extremely stubborn, this proposal from Aoyagi is now all the more valuable.
Pokeni's four-party joint R&D proposal is like a golden key for Sony.
Holding it, they can open the door to the game market they have longed for so much.
"I think how Pokeni convinced Sega is not important, as long as the result is that we can cooperate with Sega."
"Yes, this proposal can be said to be entirely beneficial and harmless to Sony. If it can be negotiated, we can enter the game market.
If it ultimately isn't signed, Sony loses nothing."
"Then, regarding Pokeni's proposal, please raise your hands to vote," said Akio Morita.
"In favor."
"In favor."
"In favor."
PS:
In marketing, there is a widely circulated story.
At a party, a young man from an ordinary background wanted to marry Bill Gates' daughter.
A man named Jack told him, "I can help you achieve this wish."
But clearly, given the young man's net worth, Bill would never let him be his son-in-law.
Then Jack went to Bill Gates and said, "I'd like to introduce a good husband for your daughter."
Bill replied, "My daughter doesn't want to get married yet!"
Jack said, "But the young man I'm talking about is a Vice President of the World Bank!"
Bill was surprised and said, "Wow! In that case... that would be acceptable."
Next, Jack went to the President of the World Bank and said, "I want to introduce a young man to be a Vice President at your bank."
The President said, "We already have dozens of vice presidents, that's enough!"
Jack said, "But the young man I'm talking about is Bill Gates' son-in-law!"
The President exclaimed, "Wow! In that case... that would be acceptable."
In the end, this ordinary young man married Bill Gates' daughter and became a Vice President of the World Bank.
"So, regarding the proposal for Pokeni, please raise your hands to vote."
Akio Morita said.
"In favor."
"In favor."
"In favor."
Although this story is fake, it actually has a prototype.
A world-famous shipping magnate.
At the beginning, all this shipping magnate had was one broken boat.
Although this story is fictional, it actually has a real-life prototype.
A world-famous shipping magnate. In the beginning, all this shipping magnate owned was one dilapidated ship.
He wondered how he could possibly own a ship leasing company.
He tried to get a loan from the bank, but because he only had one worthless, dilapidated ship, the bank always rejected his loan requests.
So, he went home, gave his dilapidated ship a fresh coat of paint, fixed it up, and leased it to the largest local shipping company.
He then took this lease contract to the bank to apply for a loan.
Consequently, the bank lent him some money.
He then used that money to buy another ship, which he also leased to that same shipping company.
He used the income from leasing the ships to pay off the loans.
He repeated this same process over and over again. Eventually, once the loans for these ships were paid off, all those ships belonged to this shipping magnate.
The author borrows this case here.
What is the underlying essence?
It's called "cross-endorsement."
When your strength is insufficient, finding someone more powerful to "endorse" you is an excellent marketing tactic.
Then, through continuous cross-endorsement, you can obtain higher value, trading up from small to large.
Thus, business deals that might not have been successful originally may perhaps succeed because of "cross-endorsement."
I didn't write it so the protagonist could close the deal with Sony all at once, mainly to highlight realism.
Finding DUN for an endorsement—Tsuda and Pokeni are already old acquaintances with a foundation of trust.
And DUN is at a much higher level than Pokeni.
So, I think it's reasonable.
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