While Hideo Kojima was busy promoting the metal gear setting collection, a sales report detailing the overwhelming success of Konami's contra and Koei's Nobunaga's Ambition: Zenkokuban on the Sega MD console lay quietly on Executive Director Takuya Nakayama's desk.
contra sold 70,000 units in its first week, and Nobunaga's Ambition: Zenkokuban sold 50,000 in its first week.
These sales figures quickly reached other third-party companies.
Victories followed one after another.
Letters of intent from third-party manufacturers flew in like snowflakes, almost piling up on the assistant's desk.
Takuya Nakayama leaned back in his chair, his fingertips lightly tapping a data summary. He knew very well that the Sega MD's powerful capabilities were an invincible sharp blade in this lightning war.
The successful transplant of contra and Nobunaga's Ambition was like the crucial sharpening of this unsheathed blade.
During a brief internal meeting, Takuya Nakayama first gave unreserved high praise to his subordinates' achievements, and excited whispers filled the office.
But then, he changed the subject, and the atmosphere in the entire conference room instantly became tense.
"Our human resources and energy are limited."
His gaze swept over every young and excited face.
"For hardliners like Enix, who are determined to stick with Nintendo, we don't need to waste any more energy."
His voice was not loud, but it instantly silenced the entire conference room.
"Our goal is not to conquer everyone."
"Instead, it is to provide the best stage for third parties willing to join us—a stage that is freer and more profitable than Nintendo's."
He stood up, walked to the whiteboard, crossed out the word "lure," and heavily wrote down the word "service."
"Deeply bind existing partners, ensure that partners who have already boarded the Sega MD battleship receive top-tier technical support, and can earn more money here than elsewhere, forming an unshakeable virtuous cycle. This is the core of our next phase."
While Sega was quietly adjusting its strategic direction internally, a small but significant piece of news spread throughout the industry.
Nintendo quietly lifted the ban they had personally imposed on Konami's game on the FC platform, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
This signal was interpreted by the entire market as Nintendo's "truce" signal in this third-party war.
When the assistant handed him the news, Takuya Nakayama merely chuckled.
He knew that it was not Hiroshi Yamauchi's goodwill, but a compromise that Nintendo had to make under Sega's fierce offensive to stabilize its position and prevent a snowballing defection of more third-party companies.
It was a step down that Nintendo offered for the sake of appearances.
Soon, the quick-witted Konami immediately followed this step and submitted applications to Nintendo for the release of two major shooting games: Gradius and salamander.
Nintendo approved them at an unprecedented speed.
The ripple effect of Konami's "unbanning" spread faster than anyone expected.
The day after the news broke, as if by prior agreement, several photocopies of "sales permits" also from Nintendo were discreetly sent back by Sega's informants embedded in different companies.
"Executive Director Takayama, these are from Hudson and Namco." The assistant placed the documents on the table, a hint of suppressed laughter in his voice. "They resubmitted the arcade transplant games that Nintendo had previously rejected, and this time, Nintendo stamped them overnight."
Takuya Nakayama picked up the papers, almost able to imagine the grim face of Nintendo's review department head.
The assistant's voice dropped even lower, as if sharing a brilliant joke: "Our contact at Bandai reported that Bandai's producer took the game cartridges and traveled to Kyoto overnight by Shinkansen, afraid that if they arrived late, the door that Nintendo had finally opened would close again."
A light, cheerful laughter filled the office.
This scene was truly comical. The manufacturers who had been branded as traitors and cast into the cold by Nintendo the day before were now scrambling to Kyoto, like a pack of sharks smelling blood, vying for the scraps that Nintendo was forced to throw out. What they presented were precisely those games that Hiroshi Yamauchi had once scoffed at, declaring that they "would never appear on the FC."
And now, Hiroshi Yamauchi not only had to greet them with a smile but also had to personally clear the way for the launch of these games.
"A bunch of smart fence-sitters," Takuya Nakayama said, putting down the documents, his assessment precise and calm.
He was not at all surprised; in fact, he found it all perfectly natural. This was not Nintendo's benevolence, nor was it the victory of these manufacturers.
Instead, it was a crack in the door that Sega MD had pried open for them with real sales figures.
"They are proving their value to us and demanding a long-overdue explanation from Nintendo." He leaned back in his chair, looking out the window. "This means that the most climactic and intense stage of this third-party war, which has caused huge waves in the industry, has passed. However, it doesn't matter much anymore."
"We have already attracted many third parties, and among the three console manufacturers, our console's performance is the best."
"If games are released on multiple platforms, our game's performance will definitely be the best. With this alone, we are already in an invincible position in the field of third-party games."
"The rest is about first-party games. I'm even less afraid of that."
When everyone saw that Takuya was confident in his company's game development, they felt reassured and continued their work with renewed vigor.
As Takuya returned to his office with a cup of coffee, the phone on his desk rang.
Takuya put down the coffee and answered the call.
A voice with a clear smile came from the receiver.
"Executive Director Takayama, I apologize for the intrusion."
It was Kozuki Kagemasa, the president of Konami.
"First, allow me to congratulate you."
"metal gear is truly an amazing masterpiece; it showed me entirely new possibilities for games as an art form."
Immediately after, he changed the subject.
"Additionally, regarding contra's performance on the Sega MD, we at Konami are very, very satisfied."
Kozuki Kagemasa didn't mention a single word about Nintendo lifting the ban; he didn't even mention Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
Facing this carefully presented compliment, Takuya Nakayama showed no hint of a victor's pride.
He followed the other party's words, responding in a similarly humorous but more candid tone:
"President Kozuki, you exaggerate."
"We, Sega, merely provided another worthy stage for excellent creators like Konami to choose from. After all, good works should be seen by more players, shouldn't they?"
He didn't expose Konami's little scheme of playing both sides.
Instead, he pushed the chessboard to a higher dimension.
"To celebrate the successful start of our cooperation, Sega is willing to provide deeper technical support for Konami's future Sega MD blockbusters. We can even discuss cooperation models for certain exclusive content; I think players will be very interested in that."
Kozuki Kagemasa on the other end of the phone fell silent for several seconds.
His shrewd mind quickly whirred, and he instantly realized that this young man didn't even care about the benefits of playing both sides. After all, he also saw clearly that Sega was not at a disadvantage in games simultaneously ported by three parties. Exclusivity was the killer.
With this thought, Kozuki Kagemasa vaguely agreed to Takuya's proposal.