"Kobayashi-kun, this is nothing short of genius!"
At the Takakura Club, the flamboyantly dressed eccentric in a pink suit and floral tie gripped Kobayashi Tetsu's hand tightly, shaking it so hard that Tetsu could only smile helplessly.
"Even though the Yu-Gi-Oh cards have only been out for a week, sales have far exceeded my expectations!
Those kids are blowing all their allowance just to pull the card they want. And the addition of foil cards—now that's a masterstroke! How did you ever come up with something like this?"
Kobayashi Tetsu chuckled.
How did he come up with it? Too many gacha mobile games, that's how.
So-called foil cards were basically just reskins. Their performance was no different from the original versions—they were simply shinier and more eye-catching when you pulled them out.
Tetsu suddenly looked up.
"Brother Kadokawa, whatever you do, make sure the pull rates are clearly printed on the back of the cards. That's very important. And don't falsify the numbers. Even if kids can't understand them, the probabilities still have to be disclosed."
Kadokawa Haruki waved his hand dismissively.
That was a trivial matter. He just gave the orders; the actual card printing was handled by his subordinates.
If it weren't for the unexpectedly good news he'd received, he wouldn't have made the trip to see Kobayashi Tetsu in person.
The Yu-Gi-Oh cards had only been on shelves for a week, yet in the Tokyo area alone, they had already sold over a hundred thousand packs.
And this was with the anime having aired just three episodes, and news of the cards only just spreading.
One could easily imagine what would happen once sales expanded nationwide—and once the anime really took off, card sales would become even more terrifying.
Of course, as a hybrid of publishing and manufacturing—both low-margin industries—selling a hundred thousand packs didn't actually generate that much profit, especially after factoring in Kobayashi Tetsu's cut.
But Kadokawa Haruki could already see the future profitability of Yu-Gi-Oh cards.
Tetsu spoke casually. "Once the anime has been airing for a while, you can also partner with other companies to make toys—like the Duel Disks from the show. You can exaggerate the design a bit to sell better, maybe make the surface able to hold cards. You could even publish duel mats and arenas yourself. All of that counts as hidden revenue."
Tetsu had only one request.
"When printing cards, whatever you do—absolutely do not let the power levels spiral out of control."
In the original era, power levels weren't too high. A normal vanilla monster with 1500 attack was already impressive. Effect monsters shouldn't have overly strong stats either. A defender with 2000 defense was already pushing it. And a 3000-attack Blue-Eyes White Dragon was nearly impossible to summon casually.
That kind of balance was crucial and couldn't be broken lightly.
If things escalated too fast, like the later Synchro or Xyz mechanics—where before the game even really starts, both fields are stacked with ten cards and players are sitting on a fistful of hand traps—it would become unplayable.
In the early days, duels were straightforward and orderly. Later, some targeted strategies emerged, but matches could still last ten or more turns.
That was when the game was fun—back-and-forth exchanges, strategy, and mind games.
By modern times, Yu-Gi-Oh had evolved into something absurd.
The first player would set up an overwhelming board, then the second player would wipe everything out with an equally absurd chain. One or two turns were often enough to decide the match. Life points inflated from the original 4000 to 8000 and still weren't enough—you almost wished each player had tens of thousands.
Calling it a card game was generous. It was really just about who went second and got to play their hand.
This time, Kadokawa Haruki nodded seriously, his expression unusually solemn.
"I get it. Slow and steady growth. This is clearly a classic cash-flow model—I won't butcher it for short-term gains."
As he finished speaking, he casually hooked an arm around Kobayashi Tetsu's neck and laughed.
"So, is there anything you need our help with lately?"
"There actually is," Tetsu replied. "If the Kadokawa Group is shooting any films or TV dramas soon, slip in some ads for Atlus and Sonic."
He thought about it—it really could be useful.
Product placement was still advertising, after all.
Someone like Hiroko Yakushimaru was at the peak of her popularity. If she appeared on TV holding a game console and said a single line of promotional dialogue, the effect would be unmatched across Japan.
Kadokawa Haruki slapped Tetsu on the back, nearly sending him to the floor.
"That's easy enough! But the ad fees still have to be paid—we'll just give you a discount for friendship's sake. As long as it's within Japan, I guarantee results!"
Artists were a kind of resource, and when the Kadokawa Group operated as a film and television production company, it was one of Japan's top five studios—ranked very high, at that. With enough money, running ads like this was effortless.
Kobayashi Tetsu nodded quietly.
Now, all that remained was to see how overseas markets would respond.
He couldn't reach that far himself for the moment, so all he could do was place his hopes on Sega of America to get something done.
Sega of America was indeed working—but their efficiency was clearly lacking.
Tetsu had already received updates from the North American branch.
The key difference between Sega and Nintendo was that Nintendo didn't yet have a North American subsidiary, while Sega already did—meaning Sega had its own distribution capabilities.
However, those capabilities weren't very strong, so partnerships with other companies were still necessary.
The advantage, though, was that unlike Nintendo—which had to sign full distribution agreements and hand everything over to overseas departments—Sega of America could offer slightly better terms to attract distributors and players.
Even so, Tetsu received bad news.
At present, North American distributors were not very eager to sign agreements to sell Sega consoles.
The disaster left behind by Atari was still fresh in memory, and Americans simply weren't that enthusiastic about video games right now.
The good news was that Nintendo was in the same boat. Nintendo hadn't managed to crack the North American market either, and hadn't succeeded in signing distribution deals to get Americans to accept their consoles.
What frustrated Kobayashi Tetsu the most was that the North American branch flat-out refused the proposal he and Isao Okawa had previously put forward.
That proposal was to offer long-term warranties—five years or even more than ten—just like Nintendo would do later in history.
"Are they kidding me?" Tetsu scoffed. "At this rate, once Nintendo finally makes up its mind, it'll be too late! If you're not ruthless with yourself, how do you open the American market? They're just afraid of hurting their own interests."
He clicked his tongue. "Isn't there any way to push them to move faster?"
On the other end of the phone, Tanaka Minoru shook his head.
"Sega of America and Sega Japan aren't under the same department. They don't interfere with each other."
"That's really troublesome," Tetsu muttered. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly asked, "Can you get the revenue data for Sega of America?"
"That's possible," Tanaka Minoru replied. "It'll take some time—about a week. But why do you need it?"
"No reason," Tetsu said lightly. "I just want to show them that when it comes to this kind of thing, whoever makes the money gets the final say."
He cracked his knuckles.
The arcade version of Jörmungandr was selling extremely well in North America. Sega's core business was arcades to begin with, and space-themed side-scrolling shooters were exactly what Americans loved.
It could be said that although Kobayashi Tetsu was short on yen right now, he still had plenty of dollars in his pocket.
He really wanted to see whether some problems could be solved with U.S. dollars.
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