Tomonobu Itagaki leaned back into his leather chair, satisfied.
This was exactly the effect he had been aiming for.
Use the most primal, direct visual stimulation to draw in casual players and get them to drop coins, then use a solid, deeply strategic system to keep them hooked.
This one-two punch had caught the entire arcade market completely off guard.
"The arcade version is completely secure now," Itagaki said, tapping the table to bring the meeting's focus back to the main topic. "Next, we need to push forward with the Jupiter console port with all our might. According to the original plan, it must be released around next summer. We need to capitalize on the peak of the hype and rake in the home console market's money."
The Development Director immediately opened another technical document. "Thanks to Sega's technical support, the Model 2 arcade board's underlying architecture is highly compatible with the Jupiter console. The porting process has been much easier than we imagined. We've already completed over 60% of the code conversion. Preliminary tests show that the graphical downgrades are well within an acceptable range, and the frame rate is stable at 60 fps."
"Just achieving a perfect port is nowhere near enough," Tomonobu Itagaki interrupted him mercilessly. "Use your heads. Players can experience the original game at the arcade for just 100 yen. Why would they pay 5,800 yen to buy a disc and play it alone at home?"
The conference room fell silent instantly.
Several core planners exchanged glances, their minds racing.
"What if we add a huge amount of unlockable costumes to the console version?" a young planner tentatively suggested. "For example... designing two swimsuits for Kasumi with even less fabric? Or maybe a sailor uniform?"
"We'll definitely use that trick, but as a core selling point, it's not enough." Itagaki chuckled softly, pulling two exquisite sketches from the black briefcase beside him and slapping them down on the center of the table with a thwack.
The sketches depicted two new character designs with completely different styles.
On the left was a girl with purple hair and a cold, arrogant gaze. She wore a purple-black ninja outfit that was even more revealing—one could even say daring—than Kasumi's. Large patches of snow-white skin were exposed to the air; the fabric was pitifully scarce, yet it perfectly traced her exaggerated curves.
To the right stood a burly man with a massive, muscular frame.
He wore sunglasses and a wild, American-style wrestling outfit, radiating an aura of raw, overwhelming power.
"Ayane. Bass," Tomonobu Itagaki said firmly, pointing to the character sketches. "Add these two new characters to the console version. They'll be exclusive content for the Jupiter Console!"
The Development Director stepped forward, taking the sketches to examine them closely. A thin layer of sweat gradually formed on his forehead.
"Ayane is Kasumi's half-sister, an assassin who hunts rogue ninjas," Itagaki explained, standing up and pointing to the purple-haired girl. "Her move set can be modified directly from Kasumi's base, adding some high-difficulty spinning and aerial attacks to make her style more flamboyant. As for Bass, he's Tina's father, a pure power-type grappler with wide, sweeping moves."
"Adding two new characters will increase the workload exponentially," the Development Director said, his face darkening as he calculated the development cycle. "Motion capture, remodeling, and the most headache-inducing part—balance testing... We're aiming for a release around next summer. This schedule is absolutely insane."
"Then hire more people! Bring in two new recruits to help out—consider it practice for them. I've heard Sega often uses high-pressure projects like this to train their new hires. We at Tecmo can learn from such advanced experience." Tomonobu Itagaki declared, his tone final and leaving no room for argument.
He strode to the whiteboard at the front of the conference room, grabbed a black marker, and wrote the word "SALES" in large letters, circling it heavily.
"Remember, the arcade version is simply a massive hype machine for our console release! We'll build the hype to its peak in the arcades, then use these two exclusive new characters to directly monetize that hype!"
Itagaki turned around, his gaze sweeping across the room from behind his sunglasses. "The vast majority of players who buy the console version are doing so for the female characters. So listen up—Ayane's physics feedback parameters must be tuned ten percent higher than Kasumi's!"
At his words, a collective gasp of shock rippled through the conference room.
The Development Director choked on his own spit, coughing violently. "Ten—Ten percent more?! If we raise it any further, the physics engine's floating-point load will skyrocket exponentially! The Jupiter console has plenty of RAM, but it can't take this kind of abuse! The game will absolutely drop frames!"
"Then cut the polygon count of the background assets on-screen!" Tomonobu Itagaki made a wildly reckless trade-off without a moment's hesitation. "Chop down those useless flowers and trees! Lower the resolution of the background textures!"
"But that will make the environment look empty—"
"Who cares?!" Itagaki slammed his hands onto the table and roared, "Listen up! Players don't give a damn how many leaves are on a tree in the background! All they care about is whether the parts of the screen that should move, can move! Whether they move beautifully! Whether they move in a way that makes them want to open their wallets!"
This shocking "cut the leaves to save the breasts" philosophy left the planners frantically taking notes, heads bowed, desperately stifling their laughter. Yet, in their hearts, they were utterly awestruck by this mad genius of a producer.
"So—adding Bass... is that to balance the male-to-female character ratio?" a planner asked, raising his hand in an attempt to bring some semblance of serious game development logic back to the discussion.
"No," Tomonobu Itagaki corrected coldly. "We're adding this muscle-bound brute purely so players can feel a stronger sense of accomplishment when they use a dainty female character to beat him senseless. The bigger the contrast between a beautiful woman and a savage beast, the better the visual impact, and the more excited the players will get!"
The tension in the conference room completely dissipated, and some people even burst out laughing.
He's completely figured out how to play this game, they thought.
"But—will Sega have any objections to our sudden decision to add new characters to the console version?" the Development Director asked, folding up the sketches with a worried expression. "After all, these two aren't in the arcade version. Isn't this a bit of a betrayal?"
"Objections? They'll be popping champagne!" Itagaki smiled confidently as he put away his marker. "The more console copies we sell, the more royalties Sega collects. Sega will never object to making money. Let alone two characters—they'd probably let us cram all eighteen characters in if it meant doubling the sales of the Jupiter version!"
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