At the Atlas office, the Koeis—Yoichi and Keiko—came to visit Kobayashi Tetsu.
No one dislikes money, especially Koei, who was even willing to make Little Butter just to earn it.
Yoichi Koei firmly shook Kobayashi Tetsu's hand.
"President Kobayashi, I never expected Atlas to take our Koei game so seriously. You've gone all out with the GG promotion and even given us such a high cartridge specification! I originally thought selling ten thousand copies in the first week would be an amazing figure, but I never imagined it would reach as high as seventy-two thousand!"
Even Keiko Koei maintained a reserved smile, though her eyes were filled with considerable admiration.
Although this GG promotion seemed a bit embarrassing, they had brought in so many celebrity actors, which must have cost a fortune!
Koei wouldn't even dare to dream of such a promotional scale in their daily operations.
Seeing that Atlas was willing to commit to such a promotional scale, Keiko Koei felt that agreeing to partner with them was the right move.
Would any other company have gone to such lengths for a promotional campaign? Even filming a single commercial would have been considered a major marketing effort.
Kobayashi Tetsu, however, shook his head in disappointment.
"Only 72,000 copies? I thought it was 720,000!"
To be honest, Kobayashi Tetsu was still dissatisfied with the number 72,000. He had even brought in Akira Kurosawa; they should have sold at least 100,000 copies!
Unfortunately, they only sold 70,000. This made Kobayashi Tetsu sigh with regret.
It seemed strategy games were indeed hard to sell!
"The payment settlement hasn't arrived yet," Kobayashi Tetsu said. "But I can give you two a rough calculation."
He casually pulled over a whiteboard.
Since the selling price of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms cartridge was as high as 11,680 yen, its premium was almost 40% higher than that of ordinary cartridges.
This meant that, with the cost per cartridge remaining the same, the revenue per unit was nearly 5,000 yen—approximately 4,800 yen.
According to the publishing agreement between Atlas and Koei, Koei would receive about 30% of the revenue, while Atlas would take 70%.
In other words, after just one week of sales, Koei had earned 100 million yen, and Atlas had earned nearly 240 million yen.
Kobayashi Tetsu said, "Based on Koei's past sales and the target audience for strategy games, I estimate that Romance of the Three Kingdoms II will sell around 300,000 copies on the MS platform. Of course, Atlas isn't publishing on other platforms, so we can't be sure about those, but combined, it will definitely reach 500,000."
Yoichi Koei and Keiko Koei exchanged a glance, seeing the same emotion reflected in each other's eyes.
Three hundred thousand copies was an incredible number! This was the best-selling game in Koei's history, without a doubt. And if Atlas didn't step in later, it was unlikely they would ever have a higher-selling game.
They were thrilled and deeply satisfied. No one could resist the feeling of being so highly valued.
Atlas was pulling out all the stops for the promotion—they'd even brought in Akira Kurosawa to film a commercial!
Yoichi Koei worried that Kobayashi Tetsu was losing too much money. Seeing how President Kobayashi's office was only a dozen square meters, he feared that at this rate, the man would be reduced to taking the bus!
"Don't worry. After all, I'm a shareholder of Koei, and I care about the company's success," Kobayashi Tetsu reassured them. "If you don't mind, President Koei and Madam Koei, please wait for the end-of-month settlement. Atlas will transfer the funds on time."
Keiko Koei nodded sincerely.
Friendship was important, of course, but money was just as crucial! Still, she was confident Atlas wouldn't delay their dividend payments.
Yoichi Koei also relaxed and made casual conversation. "I heard President Kobayashi is planning to invest in Mr. Kurosawa's film."
"I've considered it, but it's unlikely he'll need my help," Kobayashi Tetsu explained. "Mr. Kurosawa has two American fans—the director of The Godfather and the director of Star Wars. With them supporting him, he hardly needs any other funding."
Kobayashi Tetsu had indeed said he would invest in the movie, but with Akira Kurosawa having overseas funding, his need for Kobayashi's money wasn't that urgent. In the end, Kobayashi would probably only need to spend a few million yen, while the Americans would cover the rest.
The movie wouldn't make a profit after its release, but it wouldn't lose money either.
It was just a way to keep the old man happy.
But Kobayashi wouldn't say such things out loud.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Kobayashi saw off Yoichi Koei and his wife.
Once the passionate couple had left, Kobayashi let out a sigh of relief.
To be honest, a sales figure of 72,000 was just a drop in the bucket for Atlas's usual games; it wasn't much of a deal.
This was also why Kobayashi didn't make strategy games.
If you did a bad job, your reputation would be ruined, the money wouldn't be much, and they were hard to sell.
In the future, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 13 sold fewer than 300,000 copies, and Koei got bashed so hard they were practically stripped naked.
Therefore, Koei later spent a long time doing one thing: accepting commissions from various companies to produce the Warriors series.
Often, these were even more fun than the ones Koei made themselves.
For example, Pirate Warriors, Fist of the North Star Warriors, Gundam Warriors, and even The Heroic Legend of Arslan Warriors—the Warriors series was far more profitable than strategy games!
Not long after Yoichi Koei and his wife had left, there was a knock at the door. Kobayashi Tetsu called out, "Come in."
When he looked up, Kobayashi Tetsu tilted his head slightly, a hint of admiration in his eyes. Takamine Aika, dressed in office attire, entered the room holding a folder. She held the door open, her posture impeccable.
"President, these are the distribution requests we've received from various companies after the sales figures for Romance of the Three Kingdoms II were made public. I've already compiled the list."
Kobayashi Tetsu wasn't surprised. After all, a strategy game had sold over 70,000 cartridges. Other companies were bound to take notice.
This was a classic case of throwing a brick to attract jade. Other companies would naturally seek distribution rights, and among them, there might be some truly outstanding games.
Koei was a company Kobayashi Tetsu had invested in himself, but other companies were different. If they wanted to distribute games, both parties would need to sign an agreement. Atlas would then share the revenue with the other company after the game's release, according to the terms of the contract.
If sales fell short of the target, Atlas would have to cover the deficit themselves.
Poor game quality would inevitably lead to poor sales, making the selection of the right titles crucial.
Kobayashi Tetsu flipped through the folder, already forming a clear idea in his mind.
He couldn't necessarily judge which games were good, but he could certainly identify which ones would become famous.
Games that became hits in the future never sold poorly—they were guaranteed to move units.
He set the folder down and stole a glance at the office door.
Close the door! You're supposed to close the door at a time like this! Who doesn't love an office lady?
But Takamine Aika simply bowed after setting the folder down and turned to leave.
Kobayashi Tetsu could only sigh softly.
I guess you have to keep business and pleasure separate after all.
He had no choice but to reopen the folder and continue his selection.
Guerrilla War was a classic title developed by SNK. It had been released in arcades first, followed by a console version. He hadn't expected it to be released on the MS instead of the FC this time.
Kobayashi Tetsu casually circled a title.
Guerrilla War was a sure bet. It would definitely be a profitable license.
Next was a game commissioned by Data East, the old stomping ground of Kunio Taki. However, Kobayashi Tetsu wasn't familiar with this one, Cobra Command, so he'd need to do some research.
"Oh? Flying Hero is on the list too?"
Kobayashi Tetsu had a vivid memory of this game. Players used a trampoline to launch firefighters into skyscrapers to rescue pigs. Though it didn't receive high critical praise, it had sold well and had a solid player base.
What truly surprised him, however, was the developer.
The company behind Flying Hero was called Epic-Sony.
Epic-Sony's main business was record production and artist management, but they had a small gaming division. This very company would later become the foundation for Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Sony Interactive Entertainment was spun off and restructured from this original entity.
Kobayashi Tetsu hesitated for only a moment before circling the title.
Flying Hero might not have been a critical darling, but it was a guaranteed money-maker. As for the "Sony" part of the name—why worry? Sony wasn't even in the game business yet.
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