This is also crucial for Bill Gates.

Because there is this point for him to convince the board of directors more than not.

Although he was confident that he would convince the board of directors without Sega's hardware R&D team, the efforts he put in here were incomparable to the hard work.

At this moment, Bill Gates suddenly thought of something, which was what Jester mentioned, Sega planned to withdraw from the host hardware field. Since Jester asserted that the other party would make this conclusion one year later, does that mean that they already have this idea now?

He doesn't know much about the inside story in the video game industry, but he can ask Jester.

Jester did not hide it, because there was no need to hide it. This was not a top secret matter. Basically, if you have an in-depth understanding of the industry, you can see that Sega is just at the end of its strength at this time. Now it is just struggling to support it. Everyone is waiting for the day when Sega can't stand it, and then just sweeps the goods in this big supermarket.

"If I guess well, Mr. Kokoro Okawa should have made a decision in his heart, but I don't think it's so easy to let him give up so quickly. He will definitely let Sega persist for a while, and..." Jester thought of Okawa Kokoro's will before his death, and donated all his personal property to Sega for free, but this matter was too shocking and there was no need to give it to Bill Gates.

To be honest, if it weren't for Okawa Kou's property donation, Sega might have really completely died this time.

"And, I think if you go to Sega to talk about this matter now, Sega may not agree to you, but she will definitely not directly reject you. If you can show enough sincerity, I think Okawa will not persist because he has already made a decision."

Jester also clearly said this, that is, it is a matter that Okawa Kou had decided long ago, but the difference was that he had not decided when to stop.

However, as Sega's situation gets worse, this time will eventually come.

If that is the case, it would be better than Bill Gates to discuss this matter with Okawa Gong himself. If it can be agreed, it will be of great benefit to both parties. First of all, Bill Gates can get what he wants and get a consistently excellent hardware development team. In a short period of time, he can come up with a host that is comparable to P3 or even Dream Wave 4.

Secondly, Sega can earn a good income at the most critical moment. Although this does not have much effect on saving Sega out of the dilemma, it can at least delay the time of the final explosion, which is also good.

Although this time, Bill Gates offered a dinner that he actively invited did not achieve the initial purpose.

But it was also a good thing to know another solution from Jester's mouth, so Bill Gates was in a good mood when he left.

And Jester naturally invited Bill Gates to have the opportunity to visit California.

Not long after Jester returned to Mars Entertainment, a big event happened in the industry, that is, Microsoft's chief executive Steve Ballmer visited Japan and had a private meeting with Sega's president Mr. Kokoro Okawa. The two discussed what no one knew, but according to insiders inside Sega, it was said that Microsoft also wanted to enter the TV game industry.

So, this time Ballmer wanted to ask about the feasibility of acquiring Sega. However, this inquiry was rejected by Kou Okawa.

Let’s not talk about whether this matter is true or false, but after Ballmer returned from Japan, Microsoft suddenly made several acquisitions. These acquisitions are not big, but the goal is very clear, all of which are game development companies engaged in TV game production.

You know, Microsoft does not have tv game projects, but this time they are constantly contacting tv game development companies, which also shows that Microsoft really intends to enter this industry.

Then the statement that they contacted Sega and asked about the possibility of Sega's acquisition was greatly enhanced.

In fact, Microsoft's ability to enter the gaming industry so quickly in its original history is inseparable from Sega's weakness.

If it weren't for the help of Sega's hardware department and the full help of Sega's software department, then Microsoft's first generation may not have ended. The reason why such an excellent host is also crucial to the joining of the elites in Sega's hardware department.

However, Ballmer's trip to Japan did not achieve his original idea. At least the industry thinks so. Recalling the previous private meeting between Bill Gates and Jester, which he knew about, and what Jester said that he would officially retire after the O development was completed, many people thought about whether Microsoft intends to acquire Mars Entertainment.

However, this statement was quickly overturned.

That was Ballmer's trip to Japan. He met Sega's Okawa Kou after Bill Gates and Jester's meeting.

In other words, Jester rejected Bill Gates' proposal.

Of course, this is all speculation, but according to a senior executive who did not reveal his name within Microsoft, Bill Gates did propose to the other party to acquire Mars Entertainment during his meeting with Jester, and offered a price that is difficult to refuse. Originally, in Microsoft's opinion, since Jester has decided to retire, their very sincere price should be able to impress the other party.

But the other party refused them without much thought.

As for how much quotation Microsoft has given, no one has revealed it, but it is speculated that it will probably not be less than fifty dollars, or even higher.

Even, maybe Bill Gates has proposed a way to replace shares.

Jester never asked Bill Gates his final offer package not including the conditions for share replacement, but judging from Bill Gates' expression of quoting a price of 7 billion US dollars at that time, this should not be his bottom line price.

It is very likely that the bottom line price is to replace it with Microsoft's shares, which is a solution that Bill Gates does not want to adopt.

However, if I really had the idea of ​​selling it at that time, then Bill Gates might have proposed it.

As for Bill Gates's reason why he didn't want to adopt it is very simple, that is, Jester himself holds a part of Microsoft's shares. Although it is not a lot, it is definitely not a small amount.

If you are in a share swap, Jester will become a shareholder with great weight and voice within Microsoft, and Jester's own style is also very tough in his career, which is why Bill Gates doesn't want it.

He was afraid that his power would be provoked.

Actually, I thought too much about this.

Sega's D did not improve much in the next period, and it was still lukewarm. The main reason was that the lack of high-quality games made players not have a strong urge to buy consoles, let alone. Since the release of D, Mars Entertainment and Sony have agreed to it, and suddenly reduced their consoles and games significantly.

On some festivals, the price reduction even exceeds 30%.

This extremely sniping method makes the sales of games on D and D even worse.

It cannot be said that there are no good games on D.

For example, there are as many as four or five games with sales of more than one million.

The highly anticipated "Shenmu" was also amid a lot of praise, with sales of nearly two million copies.

However, these are too trivial for the host d.

The most important thing is that when d has been released for nearly ten months, there are no more than fifteen developers willing to develop games for d!

The third party of the game above has been made, and there are not even twenty games.

Let’s not talk about the quality for now. Just this quantity, the death penalty for D and Sega is already being sentenced.

Microsoft's layout in the past six months has become clearer and clearer. The mystery of the meeting between Ballmer and Okawa Kou was also revealed, because in the past six months, several core members of Sega's hardware development department have also resigned from Sega and joined the Microsoft game department.

Microsoft's game department was established very early. However, before, they were only responsible for the development of P games. There are several very famous P games, such as Genjster's "Age of Empire" with a high similarity, because the picture is better and the AI ​​is better. However, "Age of Empire" has not released the latest works in recent years.

Therefore, in similar games, there are more people who play "Earth Empire".

But Microsoft had only P-game departments before. This time they recruited some console development engineers from Sega. What is the reason?

Is Microsoft also planning to enter the TV game industry?

Although the industry is speculating whether Microsoft's next move will be a giant beast in the gaming industry, it has basically become a consensus among everyone about Sega's fall. Since Sega is willing to give up its hardware development department now, it means that Sega may no longer have a next hardware development plan.

As for how long D can last, it is an unknown number. Although it was very ugly in Sega's recent financial report, it also caused stock turmoil.

Many people have lost patience with Sega and have sold their Sega stocks.

However, Okawa Kou took out 50 billion yen of personal assets to acquire Sega's stock, so it did not cause Sega's stock price to decline too much. However, it can be seen from this incident that investors have completely lost patience with Sega. This time Okawa Kou can take out his personal assets to save Sega once. Can he save the second time next time?

The most important thing is.

Another bad news about Sega is that Mr. Kokawa has been hospitalized for physical reasons and is basically impossible to deal with Sega's affairs.

Sega is discussing who will replace Okawa Kou during this period to deal with the company's affairs.

Finally, after a fierce internal discussion, Xiangshan Takashi temporarily handled the company's affairs.

Of course, the president is still Okawa Kou.

In the hospital, Okawa Kou had a long talk with Takashi Kasuga, regardless of the doctor and his family's advice. It took a long time, and it took five hours. You should know that this was done under a serious illness, and no one knew the content of the conversation, but in the end, Okawa Kouu's decision on Sega's future cannot be escaped.

Okawa Kou's hospitalization once again cast a shadow on Sega's future fate, which was already in turmoil.

However, during this period, Jester's O development team did not make any big moves. It was just that after a while, about three to five months, some game development ideas and screenshots of the game will be announced, so that players can yell on their own.

Therefore, O is extremely expected. The number one in the most anticipated game on ign or gs is Jester's new game.

Despite this, because the outside world knows little news, players can't find any discussion if they want to discuss it.

But this does not mean that Mars Entertainment has no news.

Mars Entertainment did not show any sign of decline because of Jester's withdrawal from the development of console games. Mars Entertainment, which already has a large number of top producers, is still something other game companies cannot resist for the time being.

Even some game studios that have just begun their debut have burst into unimaginable charm.

For example, the Rock Star, which was founded a few years ago.

At that time, Jester was saying that they were developing a game with the theme of American gangsters. This theme was actually not recognized by most industry insiders in the game industry. Now, judging from the content of the game called "gta3" released by Rock Star, it is indeed not the type of game that can be accepted by most industry insiders.

Nothing else, this game is really violent.

So, during this period, many people have criticized this game on major forums, and many people even started to spit out Iwada Satoshi.

Because in the eyes of many people, this game was developed only after Jester announced that he would no longer care about Mars entertainment and Iwada Satoshi came on stage. If Jester were on Mars Entertainment, he would definitely not have given so much support to this game.

Even not just outside, even inside Mars Entertainment, some people have great opinions on the company's importance to a game that is violent, bloody or even pornographic.
Chapter completed!