Thinking that his company's world's number one game record was going to be broken by another company's game, Yamauchi was a little unhappy, so he came up with some small ideas.
"Mr. Iwata, ask the marketing and planning department to prepare a marketing plan for me. The requirement is to make Super Mario's sales exceed 48 million within three months. We must maintain the world's number one game!" Yamauchi said.
"President, this … this …" Even the resourceful Satoru Iwata was a little speechless. Although Super Mario's record of 42 million sales was still increasing, that was a game launched in 1985. With the launch of Super Mario Bros 3, although the first game cartridge was still on sale, the sales growth was already quite slow, increasing by at most ten or twenty thousand per month.
Now Yamauchi wanted to increase the sales to 48 million in three months. Wasn't this asking too much? Even if he threatened the people in the planning department with suicide, they wouldn't be able to do this!
"Ahem, I know this is very difficult, so you can use your brain. In fact, the sales of Pokemon are not as good as our Super Mario Bros, but because they have two versions, many players buy them repeatedly. "
"You understand what I mean, right?"
"Yes, President!" Satoru Iwata immediately understood Yamauchi's meaning. Yamauchi wanted the company to release a new version of Super Mario Bros, so that many die-hard fans of Super Mario Bros would buy another copy of Super Mario Bros.
"But President, we have already released Super Mario Bros 3. If we want to release a new version, we should release a revised version of Super Mario Bros 3. How can we release the first generation!" Satoru Iwata said with a wry smile.
"But the sales of the third generation are very bad, right? Now, there are only 12 million copies sold. It proves that compared to the first generation, Super Mario Bros 3 is not good enough!" Yamauchi said lightly.
In fact, Super Mario Bros 3 was already a game launched in 1988. It was precisely because the sales of Super Mario Bros 3 were very poor that Nintendo had basically given up on releasing the traditional horizontal version of Super Mario Bros and replaced it with games like Mario World.
"So, I suddenly had an idea. Can we restart the first generation of Super Mario?" Yamauchi slapped his thigh and said, "I think this idea is very good. You ask the development department to remake the first generation of Super Mario Brothers with the latest technology. Basically, all the original content and Easter eggs should be retained, but the display effect should be better. At the same time, design an additional hidden level as the new content of this version!"
"Well, I've already thought of the name. Let's call it Super Mario Brothers Plus. It means that the content and quality are better than the previous one!"
"Ah …" Satoru Iwata's mouth was wide open. This was the first time he realized how terrifying Yamauchi's creativity was!
"Don't open your mouth. Let me ask you, can you do it?" Yamauchi Pu scolded.
"No problem! It can definitely be done! "Satoru Iwata immediately replied. After thinking about it carefully, the president's idea was actually quite good. If they took out the most popular Super Mario Bros and remade it, then the passionate customers would definitely immediately buy these games back. They might even sell tens of millions of copies. Wouldn't Nintendo's financial report be good this year? Wouldn't he have hope of getting a promotion and a raise?
However, there was still a problem.
"President, if we remake Super Mario Brothers Plus, it shouldn't be considered the same game. The sales of these two games shouldn't be stacked together!"
"Bastard, who said that it can't be stacked? Did you say that, or did I say that? " Yamauchi Pu couldn't wait to kick Satoru Iwata. This guy usually looked very smart, how could he be so stupid at this time?
"The content of these two games is exactly the same, but the graphics have been changed a little. How can it not be considered the same game? As long as we insist that this is the same game, no matter which media dares to talk nonsense, believe it or not, I will never let them report any news or information about our Nintendo games! "Yamauchi Pu's domineering words made Satoru Iwata suddenly realize.
Then Satoru Iwata began to work hard because he knew very well that Yamauchi Pu didn't want to see the sales of Pokemon exceed the sales of Super Mario Brothers, even if it was only for a minute.
So Satoru Iwata immediately gathered all the elites of the three development teams in the company and asked them to immediately put down everything in their hands and focus on developing Super Mario Brothers Plus.
In this regard, although the major development teams were quite dissatisfied, after Yamauchi Pu praised Satoru Iwata in public, no one dared to raise any objections.
In addition, because it was a copy of the original game, all the data and level information were ready-made, and even the development platform hadn't been changed, so most of the code could be used. Only some of the art information needed to be updated, and an additional small level needed to be created.
So the development department acted very quickly, and in less than half a month, the Super Mario Brothers Plus was produced and sold on the shelves.
Needless to say, after Super Mario Brothers Plus was released, it quickly aroused the feelings of a large number of people. This reset game reminded many children of the scene when they played Super Mario Brothers.
As a result, after a week of release, the sales of Super Mario Brothers Plus exceeded 3 million, and in a month, the sales exceeded 8 million, and it was estimated that the final sales of more than 20 million would not be a problem.
Nintendo publicly stated that because the content of the two games was the same, but the name had a little change, the sales of the two games should be counted together. So Super Mario Brothers, which had a stable sales record of 42 million, became 45 million after a week, and a month later, it became the first game in the world to break through 50 million sales.
In this regard, many die-hard fans of Nintendo and Super Mario Brothers began to cheer wildly.
"F * ck! How can Nintendo be so shameless, it's only 1994, and they already made a copy and a Plus! " When Boss Jia received the news that Super Mario Brothers Plus was on sale, he was shocked.
He felt that the entire history of the game had been led astray by our Boss Jia.
And Nintendo also found that the reset version or Plus was a good business. In the future, they could reset some of the old games!
— — —
"By the way, Iwata-kun, I still have a question!" In the conversation that day, there was actually such a small segment.
"President, please ask?"
"How much money do you think Jia Yapeng can make with such a small thing that sells for only 9 USD, and after deducting the profit and taxes of the distributor, the real cost is about 7 USD? Can he really make money?
"This …" Satoru Iwata didn't speak. He really couldn't understand how a pocket electronic pet machine that had basically entered the threshold of the game console could reduce the cost to less than 7 USD. This was simply terrifying!
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