Enemy Mine, A Nintendo/Sega TL

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    • Sirenthedog07

    Sirenthedog07

    Hi this is my first alternate history timeline, so writing tips and constructive criticism is appreciated. Plus there aren't a lot of “Nintendo buys Sega in the 2000s' ' timelines out there. Inspiration came from Player Two Start by Nivrk and RySenkari and Burying the Hatchet by Gaminguy010, and my Girlfriend.

    Shinagawa, Tokyo

    December 2nd, 2000​

    A company president is at his desk, conflicted, pondering something.

    President: If I sell the company to them, it will have a lasting impact on the industry, long time rivals, putting aside differences, and becoming one. Probably even changing the trajectory of the industry.

    Then, an intern walks in, holding a coffee cup

    Unnamed Intern: Here's your coffee sir!

    President: Good Good, just put it on my desk

    The intern puts the coffee on the company president’s desk. Before the intern leaves, the president asks the intern to stay

    President: Can I ask you something?

    Intern: Sure go ahead.

    President: Good, (he pauses), so I'm pretty sure you're aware about the offer from our rival company to buy us right?

    Intern: Of course

    President: Well let me ask you this, if you were me, would you accept the offer?

    Intern: well of course, you see, our and our rival share a lot of philosophies in making games, similar franchises, and we also have a shared rivalry with you know who, so I would say yes, because with two previous rivals becoming allies, our power will double, and we may, actually have have a chance to reclaim our previous glory in the console business. Although judging by your attitude, I just don't want to sell the company.

    President: You're almost right about the last part.

    Intern: oh, so you're not selli- wait what, what do you mean almost?

    President: Your reason why you would accept the purchase made me realize what the answer is.

    There is a pause​

    Intern: Mr Okawa, are you saying?

    Isao Okawa: Yes, for us it's now official, I'm selling Sega to Nintendo. Intern, hand me the phone.

    Intern: Yes Mr Okawa.

    Nintendo of Japan headquarters, Kyoto Japan

    December 3rd, 2000​

    Hiroshi Yamauchi: So, I'm assuming everyone knows the response from Isao Okawa about my offer?

    Meeting room with Nintendo’s board of directors, including Hiroshi Yamauchi, Minoru Arakawa, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Satoru Iwata​

    Arakawa, Miyamoto, Iwata, and the others: Yes, we know.

    Hiroshi Yamauchi: Good, glad we're on the same page. Now, I know all of you are wondering why I decided to purchase Sega, our long time rival, in the console business, well known for the series Sonic the Hedgehog, the opposite of our Mario series, the anti Mario in a way. Well, Nintendo and Sega are similar in a lot of ways, we both have franchises that are similar to each other, Fire Emblem and Shining Force, Star Fox and Pansar Dragoon, and even Mario and Sonic. But, the most important reason why I'm purchasing them, is the situation they are in, nearing 3 consecutive years of financial loss. I fear that if I let Sega fall and go bankrupt, it would let Sony gain even more control over the console Market.

    Shigeru Miyamoto: So one of your reasons for buying Sega is to one up Sony?

    Hiroshi Yamauchi: Yes, both Nintendo and Sega have shared competition with Sony and their PlayStation. But also if we let Sega go bankrupt and split up, it would let Sony gain more space In the console business and definitely prevent us from reclaiming our previous size of power in the video game business.

    Minoru Arakawa: What will happen to Sega of America?

    Hiroshi Yamauchi: I’m planning on transferring the employees from Sega of America into Nintendo of America. Sega of America will become Nintendo of America San Francisco, and the reason why is because I know not every Sega employee wants to move out of California.

    Minoru Arakawa: Well, to let you know now Yamauchi, I've actually been planning on stepping down from my role as CEO of Nintendo of America two years from now, and with you buying Sega, I think we already found my successor, I'm pretty sure his name was Peter Moore, he is the CEO of Sega of America, and since we're purchasing Sega, he already in our grasp.


    Hiroshi Yamauchi: I'll consider it. As for Sega lf Europe, I'm doing the same thing as the USA branch and turning it into Nintendo of Europe London. Now I think I explained enough, now, anyone opposed to the purchase?

    Satoru Iwata raises his hand​

    Satoru Iwata: Mr Yamauchi, this purchase is made official, it could change the entire course of the Video Game industry. And a purchase of this scale has never happened before in the Japanese gaming industry, and who knows, maybe Sony would try to stop it on the grounds of being anti consumer

    Hiroshi Yamauchi: Satoru, you're thinking like an American. You do realize Japanese companies think a lot differently than American ones. Sony doesn't give a shit about Sega and sure as hell doesn't care if it gets bought out by its major competitor. And want to know why, it's their ego, it's so big it can cloud their vision, So big that it could be around the same size as Mount Fuji, and with our soon to be gained power from Sega, I hope we can humble them. So, All in favor?

    Most of the board of directors raise their hands​

    Hiroshi Yamauchi: All opposed?

    Only 3 raise their hands​

    Hiroshi Yamauchi: Ok, I'll make sure I'll call Isoa Okawa tonight to tell them the deal is official, and make sure this stays under wraps.

    December 27th 2000

    Unknown American Household dinner table with two brothers and a mom and dad, CNN is on in the background​

    Brother 1: No way the Dreamcast is better than the Nintendo 64, the 64 has Mario.

    Brother 2: (smugly) Well the Dreamcast has better graphics, sound, and audio, basically better everything.

    Brother 1: Shut Up!

    Brother 2: No you shut up!

    Dad: Will you two knock it off, you've been going at the Nintendo vs. Sega debate for over 7 years now, grow up.

    Brother 1: Dad back me up!

    Brother 2: Mom back me up!

    Mom: Listen to your father, sure he grew up with Nintendo and I prefer Sega, but we don't let our preferences in video games deter our relationship.

    Dad: Besides, I'd bet if Nintendo bought Sega or vice versa, you two would be buddy buddy.

    Brother in unison: Like that's ever gonna happen.

    The TV then shows that there's some breaking news.

    Bernard Shaw: Ladies and gentlemen breaking news, the Video Game company Nintendo has made the historic purchase of buying their main competitor Sega for around $2 Billion, the two companies are well known for selling the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis respectively during the early 90s, the news about the buyout just came out about 2 hours ago by The New York Times. For Sega’s Current Console, The Dreamcast, it hasn't been stated on what will happen to it yet, and there's hasn't been a press release for the reason behind the purchase yet, we will report more info about the buyout as it comes out

    There is a pause

    Dad: Well son of a bitch.

    Brothers in unison: WHAT THE FU-
     
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  • Index
    • Sirenthedog07

    Sirenthedog07

    Nivek said:
    As said before there's nothing stop some n64 ports to DC, And maybe if affordable enough ..try BC with DC in GameCube (but that's might be impossible because architecture). Regardless they can move everything DC to GC
    Click to expand...
    Sorry but what does BC with DC in GameCube mean?
     

    Nivek

    Sirenthedog07 said:
    Sorry but what does BC with DC in GameCube mean?
    Click to expand...
    Backwards compatibility, ie being able to play Dreamcast games disc on GC, when the disc format can be easily solved(just a little bigger tray, or use the DVD without the DVD proprietary tech), the architecture might be very different, as when Xbox was a little more powerful than GC, and they did try to make Xbox BC before dropping it
     
    January 2001, The Aftermath
  • Index
    • Sirenthedog07

    Sirenthedog07

    “And on that day, the video game industry was changed forever. What Nintendo did was unprecedented for the time. All over the gaming industry, from the big players to the small studios, the purchase affected everyone, even to the people who thought it wouldn't change anything, including me and my boss, Shinya Nishigaki. We assumed that since our game, Illbleed was scheduled to release next year for Dreamcast, which was on the way to it grave, we thought Nintendo would just let it die, but all that changed when early in February 2001, Shigeru Miyamoto visited Climax Graphics to tell us that Nintendo was interested in publishing Illbleed and there plans going forward.” (Quote from “A Cold Day in Hell, How Nintendo’s purchase of Sega changed the gaming industry”).

    It was official, as of December 27th 2000, Sega was now a subsidiary of Nintendo. Internal Reactions from both Nintendo and Sega were all over the place. People like Yuji Naka and Shigeru Miyamoto liked the purchase because they were already familiar with each other, first meeting each other at a games show after Sonic 1 first released, so they were excited to potentially be working with each other. Then there were people who were more mixed. For Nintendo, it was Chris and Tim Stamper, the founders of the British game studio Rare. They wanted Nintendo to buy them or at least get a controlling stake in the company, and with Nintendo purchasing Sega, The stamper brothers thought it was a slap in the face from Nintendo and they were now considering other options if Nintendo wasn't interested in them. For now, it was anyone's guess to how Nintendo and Rare's relationship will go forward with Sega now apart of Nintendo.

    On the Sega side, for people internally who didn't like the purchase, it was a lot of the older Genesis era higher ups, mainly the people who were jealous of Sega of America during the early 90s, which was one of the main reasons why Sega floundered after the genesis. So naturally, a lot of the older higher ups were fired by Isao Okawa at the behest of Hiroshi Yamauchi. On the more positive side, many employees in Sega of Japan were just happy because they weren't getting laid off. On the other side of the pacific ocean, the employees in Sega of America were both worried and scared they they were gonna lose there jobs unless they moved to seattle with Sega of America being merged with Nintendo of America, but most of the bad feelings were put to rest when they were told that the San Francisco build was being turned into its own branch of Nintendo of America in March of next year, especially when Peter Moore met with Minoru Arakawa and he told Peter that in 2002 he will become the next CEO of Nintendo of America due to Hiroshi Yamauchi approving the idea shortly after the December 3rd meeting.

    Now it's time for the external reactions, from other game companies and the general public. In Japan, many people were confused. The gaming magazine Famitsu’s coverage of the purchase came with a confused and surprised tone from both of its writers and editors. “Us here at Famitsu are just as surprised that Nintendo saved Sega from breaking up. Usually when a company is near and goes bankrupt, it is usually mocked and not saved by its competitors, but Nintendo showed some pity and saved Sega. Neither Nintendo nor Sega has given us an official reason why but when or if they give a reason, we will report about it immediately.”(translated quote from the January 2001 issue). In America, Mark Cerny who was working at Sony Computer Entertainment was more supportive of the acquisition, “I think Nintendo Purchasing Sega is a good thing. I used to work for Sega of America and I did some programming for Sonic 2, and sure, I'm currently working at a rival company, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't be happy that my former partners and employee’s didn't lose their jobs' '.

    But, there was a group who hated the acquisition, and that group was Microsoft. Microsoft recently went through an antitrust trial, and they were found guilty of monopolization, so on june 7th 2000, it was decided they had to be broken up, so Microsoft then appealed the case to the supreme court. At the same time they were developing the Xbox and earlier in 2000, they already approached Sega with Dreamcast backwards compatibility but plans fell through. They also approached Nintendo about buying them, but they were swiftly laughed out of the meeting room. So they weren't happy about those. But with the announcement on December 27th, they were furious, they just appealed an antitrust case that would have broken them up if they didn't appeal it, and then Japanese basically let a big game company buy another company around the same size as them. “I can't fucking believe it, first were threatened by the US government that they are going to break us up because we got a bit to big for there britches, and now the Japanese government let a purchase happen that's on the same scale as letting Disney buy Universal! That almost makes me want to file a lawsuit against Nintendo to break them up!” (Quote by Bill Gates during a January 2001 meeting).

    As for Nintendo’s new main rival, Sony, they didn't really pay attention to it. The PS2 was selling really well and was already 3 months in its life and made Sony $250 million during its launch day. But there were some people in Sony and the Sony bubble who saw the impact the acquisition brought to the industry. One was David Jaffe, the creator of Twisted Metal, “Sony really didn't understand the impact on Nintendo Buying Sega, and when they finally found out, it was too late for them and the Playstation 3.”(Excerpt from an Ign interview with David Jaffe about the 20th anniversary of Twisted Metal, June 7th 2015). Another person within Sony who saw the impact was Fumito Ueda of Team Ico, “At first I didn't really think about it because me and my team were developing Ico while it happened, but after Ico released and the sales paled in comparison to the sales of another unique game Nintendo published that was developed by another small studio[Crazy Games] 11 months later, we knew that Nintendo was now at its pre N64 strength again.”(excerpt from an interview with Ico’s creator from vol. 25 of CONTINUE magazine 2005).

    Reactions from smaller developers and game studios were all over the place. Electronic Arts was mixed, on one hand they already developed titles for the Nintendo 64 so this won't really change much. But on the other hand, Nintendo purchased the same company who refused to let them be the only sports brand on the Dreamcast, and the CEO of Electronic Arts Larry Probst worried that the same will happen for the next Nintendo Console. A company who was positive on the Purchase was Capcom, they were already working with Sega and were actually interested in Ninetndo’s next console, especially Shinji Mikami who famously hated developing games for the PS2 due to it being difficult to develop for. A part of the PS2 that Nintendo and Sega would use to sell development kits project dolphin to developers. But That's a story for another day.

    But the Developers who at first hated the Purchase were a lot of developers who primarily developed for the Dreamcast, especially developers who worked closely with Sega. But those feelings were quelled because not only that they were told that they would get development kits for Nintendo's project dolphin for free, but also, they would get discounted licensing fees for Dreamcast games being ported to project dolphin, and it included games that were originally scheduled to release on Dreamcast but got canceled, and the games had to be dolphin exclusive. This program would be called the “Dream of the Dolphin Initiative '. And with that program, it helped Project Dolphin get its well known launch lineup. Speaking of Project Dolphin, there was a problem, “From what I'm seeing, this console will falter against the PS2 and Xbox with the lack of features”. (Hideki Sato to Hiroshi Yamauchi when he first showed Sato a dolphin prototype). There were some creative differences with project dolphin between Nintendo and Sega.
     
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  • Index

    • Nivek

    Amazing update buddy, the slowly merging of both entities and bill gates quotes were hilarious(and not, is not like Disney buying universal, but universal buying MGM, a big move but a healthier studio buying a smaller declining one)
     
    February 2001, Console Devopment Shakeups
  • Index
    • Sirenthedog07

    Sirenthedog07

    “Nintendo Life: What was your initial reaction to the ocean’s delay?”

    “Dennis Dyack: A Lot of feelings, confusion, anger, and fear. Before the delay I heard rumors from my employees and other game developers that were developing games for Project Dolphin(the Ocean's codename)that there was some friction between Nintendo and their new console designers that came from Sega and Sega president, and nobody knew what the friction about the console was about. There were alot of theories, Its looks, its controller, but the more prominent one and the one that scared me and the one that I believed was the rumor that the friction came from its graphical capability.”

    “Nintendo Life: Why did you believe in the graphical capability rumor?”

    “Dennis Dyack: Because I used to be a guy that really cared about the graphics. And a console's capabilities play a huge part in how detailed a game can be. That rumor made me worry about Eternal Darkness because with even one small change to the console graphical capabilities, it could have ended up with us having to start all over.”

    “Nintendo Life: Well then thank goodness when Nintendo gave out the reason why they delayed the Ocean to developers and what they were changing.”

    “Denis Dyack: (chuckles) Yep, and thank god indeed.” (Excerpt from An Interview with Dennis Dyack about the 10th Anniversary of Eternal Darkness, Nintendo Life Oct 3rd, 2013)

    When the console development team from Sega first Joined with Nintendo’ team on Project Dolphin, at first they seemed to like it. They liked the “Flipper” Graphics chip by Artx and Ati, which made porting games from the Dreamcast easy. What they really liked was the controller. They liked the idea of the main button, The A button being the biggest face button. The only thing they wanted changed was the B button to not be the same “bean” shape as X and Y. But there was one big problem the team from Sega saw, and it was the lack of features and the format.

    The Dolphin Prototype Yamauchi showed Sato played games, but that was it, it could only play games, and there were no plans to add online connectivity or DVD playback, and speaking of DVDs, the Dolphin Prototype didn’t use DVDs as its format. It used its own proprietary mini Disc format(the same that was used for the Gamecube IOTL). In a quote from an interview from Hideki Sato after the Consoles release, “The prototype me and the development team got shown wasn't feature packed enough, and with the use of those mini DVDs, Nintendo was walking into the same mistake as we did with the Dreamcast, using a proprietary format to unsuccessfully combat piracy”. That was the answer Yamauchi gave to Sato when he asked him about the use of mini discs. Using mini discs as an anti piracy measure.

    After the Sega console team told the Dolphin about their problems with Project Dolphin, there was a lot of arguing. The Dolphin development team complained that the changes the team from Sega asked to be made were “stupid” or “childish”, and the complaint that they hated most of all was that, “Project Dolphin’s shell is too kiddy and childlike”. The reason why it looked kiddy was because it was compact, and it had a purple color. And as soon as Hiroshi Yamauchi heard about the Sega team's notes, he went and talked to the leader of the Sega console development team, Hideki Sato.

    “Me and the Dolphin developers got into a pretty heated debate when Sato and his console development team gave me their notes on the prototype. I told Sato ``Why do you want Online and DVD functionality? Barely anyone uses the internet, almost under 2% use the internet in the US, and DVD use. Really, do you want our games to be pirated to kingdom come!?” But after I yelled at him, he wasn't mad, and he told me something that I will never forget. He said, “And we did the same thing you did with the game format for the Dreamcast, using a proprietary format to combat piracy, and within a few months, hackers managed to crack it after the us launch due to a flaw in the anti piracy measures, and I now think if we should have used DVDs for the Dreamcast, then i probably wouldn't be talking to you right now.” After he said that, I realized that he was right And that's why the Ocean uses DVDs as its game format.” (Interview with Hiroshi Yamauchi and the 20th anniversary of the Famicom, Ign, July 16th, 2003).

    And with Hideki Sato’s answer, the debates continued more smoothly. It was agreed that Project Dolphin will now use DVDs as its format, needing a shell redesign. It was also decided that Project Dolphin will have online play, via using a separate add-on that users would plug into its extension port, selling it separately would help keep the cost of Project Dolphin down, but the initial $199(the Gamecube's price point IOTL price point it was had to be upped to $249 due to the use of DVDs. The same thing would also apply to DVD playback, users would have to buy a dongle to play DVD movies(like the og XBox IOTL). Nintendo and Sega’s new main goal for Project Dolphin was “1up and outrun the PS2 ''. It was also decided that there would be a change to the controllers and memory cards, for the controllers, there would be an added slot added and a window added, to insert the new memory cards in development, The OVMU, yes, the Dreamcast’s Visual Memory Unit was being used for Project Dolphin(and you will find out what the O means in a minute). Dreamcast backwards compatibility was discussed, but it was quickly decided to not scrap the idea, but save it for a later project. And by march of 2001, Both console teams managed to whip up a new prototype with all of the changes.

    But then there was another problem, there were already dev kits out that used the old prototype as a base. So Nintendo had to make a tough decision. “Attention purchaser of Project Dolphin dev kits, due to late stage addition of Using DVDs as the game format and the addition of online capabilities, the launch of Project Dolphin has been delayed to November 24th. We will send you new revised Dev Kits as quickly as we can. Thanks for working with Nintendo.” (Letter given to Game developers working on games for Project Dolphin, March 2001).
    Nintendo and Sega expected a lot of backlash from development studios due to their dev kits being outdated, but to the surprise of Both Nintendo and Sega, not a lot of Game developers were mad. The reason why is that the news about the friction in console development and late changes reached other development studios, so many were expecting a delay to happen. But there were a few who were mad, and the most prominent was Konami. In a press release, “What Nintendo and Sega did was careless and reckless, and if they continue making short sighted decisions like the delay and refined dev kits, we might just stop developing for Nintendo platforms.”(Konami march 2001 press release).

    And so, Project Dolphin’s specs were finally finalized, all that it needed now was a name. Nintendo and Sega couldn't use Gamecube anymore due to the new shell not being in a cube shape. Other names included the Nintendo 2000 and the Nintendo 128. But after mentioning the Gpu's name being flipper, a name was finally given, and both Yamauchi and Okawa approved of the name. Project Dolphin’s new name was, The Nintendo and Sega Ocean.
     
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    • Nivek

    Sirenthedog07 said:
    Konomi
    Click to expand...
    Konami. And the real reason never used DVD was never piracy, was not paying royalties to Sony, have they asked Panasonic,they could have used the optical disc without DVD feature (that means video and audio codec have to be done differently but Nintendo already have that solved) that was used on Wii otl.

    Also delaying GameCube is suicide. Xbox is going as otl,even Nintendo wanted GC to be 2000(but was delayed as the games weren't ready), that's giving a free year Xbox
     

    Gaminguy010

    Sirenthedog07 said:
    Hi this is my first alternate history timeline, so writing tips and constructive criticism is appreciated. Plus there aren't a lot of “Nintendo buys Sega in the 2000s' ' timelines out there. Inspiration came from Player Two Start by Nivrk and RySenkari and Burying the Hatchet by Gaminguy010.
    Click to expand...
    I've come back from the dead to wish you good luck on this endeavor.
     
    Sirenthedog07

    Sirenthedog07

    Nivek said:
    Konami. And the real reason never used DVD was never piracy, was not paying royalties to Sony, have they asked Panasonic,they could have used the optical disc without DVD feature (that means video and audio codec have to be done differently but Nintendo already have that solved) that was used on Wii otl.

    Also delaying GameCube is suicide. Xbox is going as otl,even Nintendo wanted GC to be 2000(but was delayed as the games weren't ready), that's giving a free year Xbox
    Click to expand...
    Yep, Konomi being Konomi. As for the DVD thing, the main reason why I'm going with DVD is because that's what Sega would have asked Nintendo to change, and also the Mini discs weren't successful in stoping piracy IOTL, about 2 years after launched with starcube. As for delaying the Ocean, I think it couldn't be possible for Nintendo to design, build, finalize, and ship two separate add-ons to be ready at it's original launch. But, now as im writing this, delaying the console by 11 is bit much. Should I edit the story and shorten the delay?
     
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