Over the past six months, Silicon Valley Online had amassed a wealth of invaluable network testing and operational experience through Dungeons & Dragons Online.
This entire foundational architecture—from concurrent processing techniques to the initial logic for anti-cheat measures—was bundled up and sent directly to Blizzard's headquarters in Mountain View.
Logically, with the double technical safety net provided by Sega of North America and Silicon Valley Online, the Tokyo Headquarters shouldn't have had to worry much.
But Takuya Nakayama knew better than anyone just how ahead of its time, how utterly insane, the concept of "Battle.net" was in 1996!
While the vast majority of players were still tearing their hair out over configuring LAN IPX protocols—or even struggling to understand what TCP/IP was—Blizzard was actually attempting to build a free matchmaking platform based on a wide-area network, daringly challenging the physical bandwidth limits of the dial-up era.
It was like trying to build a rocket in a primitive tribe!
Therefore, Takuya Nakayama had to have absolute, first-hand intelligence.
"Battle.net just completed its final large-scale beta test last week," Oguchi Hisao said, his voice—usually so steady—now tinged with unconcealed astonishment as he reviewed the data on the report. "The server stress tests met all specifications. In the security tests, the patches to prevent data tampering have been applied. But the most incredible part is the smoothness—even on a dial-up modem crawling at 28.8 kbps, the latency when players party up to enter a dungeon was actually kept within an acceptable range! The engineering team Silicon Valley Online sent over to help rewrite some of the network communication modules was an absolute godsend."
Takuya Nakayama nodded in satisfaction.
Silicon Valley Online's heavy involvement had saved Blizzard years of technical dead ends.
Once Battle.net was fully operational, Blizzard's throne in the PC gaming world would be completely secure, and Sega would share in the generous rewards.
"What about Tecmo?" Takuya Nakayama changed the subject. "How's the progress on Dead or Alive, the game they're developing on our Model 2 arcade board? I recall they invited our technical staff to observe the final round of testing. Any feedback?"
At the mention of this, Oguchi Hisao's expression turned a bit awkward. He flipped to the next page of his memo and coughed lightly to hide his embarrassment.
"The situation is very optimistic," Oguchi reported truthfully. "Testing is proceeding steadily according to the checklist. Few bugs have been found, and the underlying code is running extremely stably. The staff who observed the tests wrote a detailed report. Aside from the characters previously demonstrated at the E3 Exhibition, the other newly added characters and stages are all highly polished. The depth of the combat system and the visual quality are in no way inferior to the initial demo version."
Oguchi paused, his expression turning strange as he added a professional assessment.
"However—our staff specifically mentioned in the report that Tecmo is truly unique when it comes to character modeling and physics feedback. They've taken the Model 2 board's powerful floating-point processing capabilities and applied them to some... very special, even borderline areas," Oguchi said, choosing his words carefully with a wry smile. "In terms of visual impact, once this game hits the market, it will absolutely be an incredibly eye-catching draw in the arcades. In the long run, it has enough potential to pose a serious threat to our own Virtua Fighter series, as well as Namco's Tekken series."
Takuya Nakayama couldn't help but chuckle as he heard this. The legendary, eye-popping "physics engine" from the Dead or Alive series in his past life immediately flashed through his mind.
"Tomonobu Itagaki is a true genius," Takuya commented sharply, his tone tinged with admiration. "He has a perfect grasp of the psychology of those hot-blooded young arcade players. Fighting games aren't just about hardcore frame-data and complex combos. Hormones and extreme visual stimulation are equally powerful drivers that make players keep pumping in coins. Let him run with it; the market will give him the best feedback."
Oguchi Hisao closed the folder and pushed up his glasses.
"I've already made the necessary commercial arrangements for this game," he said, demonstrating his growing maturity as a top executive. "As per our standard procedure, I've submitted a written proposal to Tecmo to port Dead or Alive to the Jupiter console, offering them a very generous royalty deal. Simultaneously, we've opened up all of Sega's arcade distribution channels for their upcoming arcade release. The moment the cabinets are ready, they'll be rolled out to all our directly-operated stores across Japan, ensuring they make a killing."
"Excellent work, Mr. Koguchi." Takuya Nakayama expressed his strong approval of the strategy. "We provide them with top-tier motherboard technology and the widest possible distribution channels, then bring the game onto our console platform to complete the commercial loop. This is the kind of all-encompassing ecosystem Sega needs! We want more third-party manufacturers to make a fortune within this ecosystem. The more they earn, the more stable our platform becomes. There's no need to imitate Nintendo's narrow-minded, restrictive approach—squeezing partners over distribution channels and licensing fees until they're forced to become our adversaries."
Hearing this, Oguchi Hisao felt a jolt of admiration, deeply impressed by the young Managing Director's grand vision and strategic prowess.
With a leader like this, how could Sega not dominate the industry?
As for Sega's other major internal projects, their release windows were scheduled for after next summer at the earliest. Development was proceeding on schedule, so a detailed review wasn't necessary at this time.
Takuya Nakayama glanced at the clock on the wall, bringing the brief and efficient report to a close.
"You can get back to work now," he said, waving a hand dismissively at Oguchi Hisao. "Keep a close eye on the year-end distribution and logistics, especially the production capacity for the Jupiter console. Don't let the distributors screw things up at the critical moment."
"Understood!" Oguchi Hisao gathered the documents, gave a respectful bow, and strode out of the office.
November arrived.
The temperature in Tokyo plummeted, and the autumn wind swept the ginkgo leaves into a golden carpet across the ground.
Inside the top-floor conference room of the Sega Headquarters Building, the heating had been turned on early, completely sealing out the early winter chill.
It was another routine board meeting.
The first half of the agenda moved quickly, covering the usual reports on hardware and software sales and overseas distribution.
Documents were passed around the long table. When the rustle of turning pages ceased, everyone's gaze naturally converged on the right side of the table.
There sat Sega's current "God of Wealth"—Director Hoshino.
Director Hoshino pushed the thick folder in front of him aside, took a sip of the warm water at his elbow, and cleared his throat.
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