1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 114



Only Noblemtl

Episode 114 – Ten Million Copies

“Congratulations on your export~. Congratulations on your export. My love···!”

“Hey, Seo Ji-hye. How many times do I have to say it? Don’t call me ‘beloved’, call me ‘proud’.”

“Oh, that’s right. This is sooo …

“Hey, guys. Don’t fight over something like that…”

“Brother, stay still! What the hell is so difficult about this? Okay, let’s go again. If I make a mistake this time, I’ll really die!”

After signing a game publishing contract with Sega and returning to Japan, a celebration party was held at home.

Second, Subin played the piano accompaniment, and youngest, Jihye, sang a song that changed the happy birthday song to a song to celebrate exports. Subin got really angry when the youngest kept getting the lyrics wrong.

Every time, Jihye would stick her tongue out and laugh awkwardly, but no matter how I looked at her, I could tell that she was making mistakes on purpose to tease her older sister.

Subin, who has perfectionist tendencies, couldn’t let even small mistakes pass even at family events like this one.

Jihye, who knows this better than anyone else, keeps getting it wrong even when it’s not that difficult?

As expected.

Jihye, whose eyes met mine, quickly winked at me.

Soobin, who doesn’t know that, is the only one getting angry, and his mother is anxiously filming it with a video camera.

I signaled to Jihye to take it easy, and Jihye realized that she couldn’t handle it anymore, so she sang properly this time.

“Okay, applause!!!”

The commotion ended with Soobin’s father, who had been watching her closely to see if she would cross the line of anger, clapping his hands as soon as the song ended.

“Really, Jihye, I’m never doing this with you again. How can you not memorize a few lines of lyrics? What are you going to do when you go to high school like that? Are you going to be able to properly go to college?”

“Why are you worried, Sister? Then just don’t go to college. My brother didn’t go to college either, but he’s doing really well at a gaming company. He even exports.”

“Are you like your brother? That’s because he knows how to make games. You don’t know how to do anything, do you?”

“No way? I marked all the dots for . If it doesn’t work out, I’ll ask you to get me a job at my brother’s company later.”

“Oh, no. Our company has a really high cutoff line now. If you want to get in, you have to study a lot about games.”

“Is this totally fatal?! Okay. Then I’ll go to my dad’s company.”

“Yeah, Jihye will work with Dad. Namjoon started his own company and left, and Soobin only knows music. Now Dad only has Jihye.”

When I took Subin’s side, the youngest grumbled and clung to his father.

“Yeah, don’t worry and just trust me. I’ll take over Myeongseong Group after my dad!”

“Yeah, yeah, I feel very reassured too.”

“If I had known this would happen, I would have had another one. Who should I leave my gallery to?”

“Whew… If Jihye becomes the president, I will sell all my shares. Don’t stop me.”

“Okay! Then, all of your shares are mine!”

Well, seeing these jokes going around, I guess I really do live in a wealthy family.

If you watch dramas, you’ll see that the chaebol families are all fighting among themselves over the succession plan. But my family is completely different.

Well, first of all, I have no interest in becoming the group’s successor.

Still, there are things that must be done before the IMF arrives.

Growing Starbeat into more than just a celebrity group.

I may not be able to prop up the conglomerate that is going bankrupt due to the IMF, but if I had the power, I could at least help them to reorganize the insolvent companies and keep only the good ones so that they can continue on with their business.

I don’t know for sure, but so far there haven’t been any particularly unusual signs in the company. If the group suddenly starts growing abnormally, I’ll have to do my best to stop it.

And I will continue to work with groups like Myeongseong Electronics, Myeongseong Capital, and Myeongseong Planning to increase the number of things I can help with and receive help from.

If you keep piling things up like that, won’t the future change again at some point?

Just like we were the first Korean game company to export a K-game through Mega Drive.

“Then Namjoon, what are the future plans for ? How popular is that game console called Mega Drive?”

“Actually, the Mega Drive situation isn’t that great. It’s only sold in Japan and the US, and has sold less than a million units. That’s a far cry from the tens of millions of units Nintendo sold for the Famicom.”

“The more I hear about it, the more I think Nintendo is amazing. If we had sold TVs like that, we would have been in the top 10 in the financial world in no time.”

“That’s right. But Nintendo did a good job making the Famicom, but the real power comes from games. The reason the Mega Drive is struggling right now is because there aren’t enough games. But that was actually a good thing for us. Thanks to that, Sega showed interest in .”

“So if there are a million game consoles now, and you sell all the games to those people, you’re selling a million games in total? How much does one game pack cost?”

The youngest asked.

“The price hasn’t been decided yet. Usually, one Mega Drive ROM pack costs around 6,000 yen.”

“Then 6 billion yen? If we roughly multiply the exchange rate by five, that’s 30 billion in our currency?”

The youngest opened his eyes wide in surprise.

“Oh~, Jihye’s quick calculations? She really has the qualities to follow in her father’s footsteps.”

“You can’t even remember a few lines of lyrics, but you’re really quick at counting money.”

“But look, Jihye. If the Mega Drive sells 10 million units and our game sells 10 million copies, how much would that be?”

“Then···, three trillion?!?!?!”

The youngest opened his mouth wide and rolled his eyes. His eyes looked genuinely shocked.

“Then, can my dot-printed sell that much? Then I’ll go to your company! I’ll make games too!”

“Wisdom. Are you abandoning your father so quickly?”

“But Dad, wouldn’t it be much easier to make money through games?”

“But that’s not necessarily the case. It’s only theoretical. In Korea, there are probably only about 500,000 G-Mix units. Even if you combine the MSX platforms that have spread across Japan and the world, there might be 10 million units. And more importantly, even if 10 million game consoles are distributed, it’s not like 10 million copies of games will be sold.”

“It’s not selling?”

As I explained, the youngest looked very disappointed.

Nintendo Famicom’s worldwide sales are approximately 62 million units.

The best-selling Famicom game of all time was Super Mario Bros., released in 1985, which sold approximately 40 million copies.

In percentage terms, it’s about 65%.

65% is a really huge percentage, but it keeps dropping over time.

Moving on to 16-bit and the Super Famicom era, the console sold about 49 million units. The best-selling game was Super Mario World, which was released along with the console, and sold about 20 million copies.

The ratio drops sharply to 41%.

The Mega Drive is estimated to have sold around 40 million units, with the best-selling game being Sonic the Hedgehog, which sold around 15 million copies.

The ratio is 37.5%.

However, since Sonic was included as a Mega Drive bundle game, it’s hard to tell the exact sales figures. If it weren’t for the bundle, sales would probably have been lower.

As time goes by, competition among game consoles becomes fiercer and the number of games increases, so even mega-hit games see fewer sales.

The 16-bit era, which can be said to be the golden age of retro games, lasted until the mid-90s.

It’s unlikely that will gain the same level of popularity as Sonic, but we’re in a time where there’s a huge shortage of Mega Drive games.

If a masterpiece is established in the early days of its release, it will sell steadily for a long time, so if we turn the Hope Circuit to full capacity and predict the maximum sales for the next five years, wouldn’t it be possible to sell 10 million copies if we do very well?

10 million copies!

My heart races just thinking about it. But it’s still just a wish.

I explained to my youngest why games don’t sell as well as consoles.

“Game packs are passed around among friends, and since the price of game packs is not cheap, there is a lot of activity in second-hand trading. If you look at game magazines, people post games they want and exchange them. That’s why even popular games don’t sell as well as consoles.”

“Used? You’re buying something that someone else has used? Why?”

The youngest had a look in his eyes that said he couldn’t understand that second-hand trading existed in this world.

Yeah, I guess there’s no such thing as second-hand trading in your world.

But they say the world is not as rich as ours.

“Anyway, that’s the way the world is. So, for a game to sell well, it has to be really fun. It has to be liked by both children and adults. If it’s too one-sided, people will have mixed feelings about it and it won’t be popular with the general public. There’s a lot to think about, it has to be well-made, and the graphics have to be cool. It’s really hard work.”

“Our Namjoon is doing all that difficult work so effortlessly?”

“Hey, what’s up? You were bragging about your brother in the end, right?”

“Is that how it is?”

The game business, if done well, can achieve enormous sales and operating profits beyond imagination, but of course, I was trying to say that it is equally difficult.

Somehow the conversation turned into bragging.

“Hmm, what should I do? Should I go to my dad’s company? Or should I go to my brother’s company?”

“Hamlet, you’re out. Stop drinking kimchi stew and start studying hard in advance. Three years will pass quickly. If I had known this would happen, do you know how much I regret not practicing more?”

Jihye pursed her lips and made a strange expression at Soobin’s nagging, but she still didn’t talk back.

Because he knows very well how much of a practice bug Soobin is. And he knows that he is saying this out of consideration for himself.

As the house party continued, I asked my father a question I had been thinking about for a while.

“But, father. Does Myungsung Electronics have any plans to advance into the semiconductor industry?”

“Semiconductors? I want to say that. Just looking at Osung Electronics, you can see how important the semiconductor industry will be in the future. However, semiconductors are a technology, but the money required to set up production facilities is truly enormous. It’s not just in the hundreds of billions.”

My father shook his head as if he had already thought it over a lot.

“In addition, the business ups and downs are more severe than expected. In order to hold on and get back on track while steadily developing technology, not just Myungsung Electronics alone but the entire group needs to pool its capabilities, but since each affiliate thinks of its own company first, it is not easy. The executives also check each other, knowingly or unknowingly.”

“Is there any competition like that?”

“Then. If you focus your investment on electronics and Myungsung Electronics grows rapidly, other affiliates will inevitably become dissatisfied. Why are you emptying your own pockets to invest in electronics? If you want to make a strategic investment at the group level, you need the consent of the executives. Even if you do make that investment, you’re already much later than others, so I can’t guarantee that it will succeed. If you fail, the entire group will be in danger.”

If you think about the importance of semiconductors in 20 or 30 years, it would be a good idea to start now.

Semiconductors are not easy because they require both technology and capital. However, you don’t necessarily have to make large-scale facility investments to do semiconductor business.

“Then isn’t there another way?”

“Another way?”

“Yes, it’s a method of designing without manufacturing. It’s called fabless.”

“Only designing and not producing? Then how do you produce it?”

“That is left to semiconductor contract manufacturing companies. On the other hand, there are semiconductor companies that do not design but only manufacture according to orders.”

Since Taiwan’s TSMC was founded in 1987, semiconductor consignment manufacturing foundry companies already exist. In addition, Korea also has semiconductor powerhouse Osung Electronics.

Although Osung Electronics remains strong in the memory and foundry sectors, it does not exert much influence in the design sector.

In fact, even after 30 years, Korea still has no company that stands out in the semiconductor design field.

Going forward, specialized semiconductors will continue to be needed in areas such as 3D graphics, displays, mobile, autonomous driving, and AI, but Korea is always lagging behind in this competitive market.

If Myungsung Electronics enters this field now, gathers people, and steadily develops technology, wouldn’t it be possible to overcome the IMF crisis and become a global semiconductor company?

And of course, that is something I really need.

“I felt this way while making the A1 board this time. Even if we use a general-purpose chip for the CPU, to make our own unique board, we need a custom chip with the technology we want for things like graphic processing, but I didn’t have the ability to do that. We had to outsource the design to another semiconductor company, but it wasn’t easy to find a company that was just right in terms of cost, time, and so on.”

“In that regard, there’s nothing Myungsung Electronics can do. Semiconductor design is not our field.”

“In the end, I ended up making a board using only general-purpose chips, but it’s quite regrettable. I’m covering up things that can be more easily handled with hardware with programming skills. For an arcade board, the board can be large, and I can use whatever chips I want, but for developing a home console, I need a custom chip. I’m in a situation where I need to find a semiconductor company that I can work closely with in the future.”

“So? Let’s make a semiconductor design part at Myungsung Electronics? For Starbit?”

“Not just for us. As my father said, semiconductors are an industry that will continue to become more important in the future. It is big now, but in 10, 20, or 30 years, it will become an industry that is incomparably bigger and more important than it is now. It is even bigger than what my father thinks.”

“That could be the case.”

“My father thinks it’s too late, but I don’t think so. Considering the importance of semiconductors, it’s never too late. We need to start as soon as possible and continue to accumulate technology. We need to think about 20 or 30 years, not 5 or 10 years. But how do we start? Strategic direction is important.”

I seriously emphasized to my father the necessity of entering the semiconductor business in a fabless way.

“You don’t necessarily have to follow what others do. From what I’ve experienced this time, semiconductor design technology will become very important in the future. If you invest in people and technology now, you can get more than that with just 1/10th of the capital required for investment in production facilities. If you can’t do both design and production well, I think investing in technology is the most efficient.”

My family, including my father, looked at me without saying a word.

Did I talk too seriously about business during a house party?

“Oh my god… I thought Namjoon only thought about games, but when did you think about all that for your father’s company? Isn’t it really amazing, honey?”

“That’s right. I really thought you didn’t know anything besides games. Now that I think about it, Namjoon, you seem to know the electronics industry better than I do.”

“Well, that’s right. To make a good game, you need to know hardware well, and that naturally leads to semiconductors.”

“Peplisra… Hmm, I haven’t considered that yet. I’ll have to look into it.”

“Yes, our StarBeat will be the number one client. And I will continue to explore promising semiconductor technology routes. You may not realize it yet, but games are always at the cutting edge of IT technology.”

I took a step back, mixing in some jokes.

Anyway, my father will probably think about it and review it several times because of his personality, so if I push too hard, it could have the opposite effect.

“I don’t understand a single word you’re talking about. But I think what you said is right, Dad.”

“Yeah, I think so too. Anyway, what you’re saying is that we shouldn’t just spend money without thinking and that we should focus on our skills, right?”

“Mom usually doesn’t get involved in business discussions, but this time she agrees.”

“Hehehe, if that’s the opinion of our shareholders, I will also review it more positively.”

Father laughed happily.

My theory of entering the Pepsi business gained further strength with the strong support of my family.

Although it has boarded the Mega Drive platform and has confirmed its global expansion, it is only a step and not the final destination.

I will continue to build up my strength and create a 16-bit console with my own power as quickly as possible to enter the global market.

If possible, I would like to continue to partner with Myeongseong Electronics.

If I don’t have the skills I need, I’ll create them.

After all, I can’t be good at everything, and I can’t do everything.

If we lend each other our shoulders and use them as a stepping stone for growth, we will be able to overcome the dark future that lies ahead.