Chapter 31: Quest of Dragons - April - July - Year 2004
New
Enix was hard at work making their next game and it had come to fruition. With composer Koichi Sugiyama and Art director Akira Toriyama the game series would be one of the biggest hits in Japan, but a mystery everywhere else. In North America, the series was known as Dragon Warrior due to copyright issues and the 8th installment of the series was the first to be released in Europe. What game you might ask?
Why it was Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
video credit to Leonyasch
Dragon Quest 8 would take Enix and their newly founded partner, Level-5, to new heights of popularity. The story consisted of the player, namely Eight, and King Trodan of the Trodane Kingdom to retrieve a magical staff from the notorious Jester, Dhoulmagus. Speaking of Level-5 the Dark Cloud series of games would come to the Nintendo NetDrive, but the latest games made by Level-5 would find their way on Nintendo's latest and upcoming console.
Dragon Quest 8 would win multiple awards such as the best in show for 2004 and Game of the Year by IGN for Role Playing Game fans; however, with all this success Nintendo knew it needed to do something about Service Games and their issue with bad debt. Arcades were not booming as they should be in Japan and they were all but dead in the United States. Nintendo figured it would make a bid against the Sammy Corporation to save Sega.
Unbeknownst to Nintendo they would be saving one of their biggest rivals in an alternate timeline. So for a total bid of about $1 billion dollar, Nintendo would end up purchasing the arcade developer and would get access to all their game franchises.
Satoru Iwata: I want to know if Sega can help us with our upcoming console.
Yuji Naka: With their cutting edge technology they sure could. Sega never got to prove themselves in the Console business.
Satoru Iwata: So what you are saying is that Sega has good technology that we can add to our upcoming console and the consoles beyond that.
Yuji Naka: Exactly. Sega has shown they are capable of making great games with online functionality even with being stuck using Arcade machines.
Satoru Iwata: I see. Tell them we will commit to a merger of the two companies.
Yuji Naka: A merger you say? Isn't that a bit much?
Satoru Iwata: Nonsense. A merger would increase investment from the Sega employees.
Jamison: Oh really?
Gerald: I hope it is good news.
Jamison: Maybe Electronic Arts bought them out like Rare.
Gerald: HEY!
Dad: Boys stop. The reporter is starting to speak.
Reporter: In a shocking turn of events, Nintendo has put a $1 billion dollar stake into arcade developer and game maker Service Games. This announcement comes to the shock of the gaming world, showing that Nintendo is not afraid to make acquisitions and mergers to get ahead of their rivals in the console space.
Gerald: This is great news! Golden Axe lives on.
Jamison: Lucky you Gerald.
Dad: She is still talking.
Reporter: We want to show you the logo of the Nintendo Sega company merger.
Gerald: Looks snazzy.
Jamison: *sigh* If only they had the money to buy Rare when it mattered.
Dad: You know boys, I think this will start something huge in gaming.
Why it was Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
Dragon Quest 8 would take Enix and their newly founded partner, Level-5, to new heights of popularity. The story consisted of the player, namely Eight, and King Trodan of the Trodane Kingdom to retrieve a magical staff from the notorious Jester, Dhoulmagus. Speaking of Level-5 the Dark Cloud series of games would come to the Nintendo NetDrive, but the latest games made by Level-5 would find their way on Nintendo's latest and upcoming console.
Dragon Quest 8 would win multiple awards such as the best in show for 2004 and Game of the Year by IGN for Role Playing Game fans; however, with all this success Nintendo knew it needed to do something about Service Games and their issue with bad debt. Arcades were not booming as they should be in Japan and they were all but dead in the United States. Nintendo figured it would make a bid against the Sammy Corporation to save Sega.
Unbeknownst to Nintendo they would be saving one of their biggest rivals in an alternate timeline. So for a total bid of about $1 billion dollar, Nintendo would end up purchasing the arcade developer and would get access to all their game franchises.
Satoru Iwata: I want to know if Sega can help us with our upcoming console.
Yuji Naka: With their cutting edge technology they sure could. Sega never got to prove themselves in the Console business.
Satoru Iwata: So what you are saying is that Sega has good technology that we can add to our upcoming console and the consoles beyond that.
Yuji Naka: Exactly. Sega has shown they are capable of making great games with online functionality even with being stuck using Arcade machines.
Satoru Iwata: I see. Tell them we will commit to a merger of the two companies.
Yuji Naka: A merger you say? Isn't that a bit much?
Satoru Iwata: Nonsense. A merger would increase investment from the Sega employees.
Georgia, United States
Dad: Boys there is a big announcement coming up and it involves Sega.Jamison: Oh really?
Gerald: I hope it is good news.
Jamison: Maybe Electronic Arts bought them out like Rare.
Gerald: HEY!
Dad: Boys stop. The reporter is starting to speak.
Reporter: In a shocking turn of events, Nintendo has put a $1 billion dollar stake into arcade developer and game maker Service Games. This announcement comes to the shock of the gaming world, showing that Nintendo is not afraid to make acquisitions and mergers to get ahead of their rivals in the console space.
Gerald: This is great news! Golden Axe lives on.
Jamison: Lucky you Gerald.
Dad: She is still talking.
Reporter: We want to show you the logo of the Nintendo Sega company merger.
Gerald: Looks snazzy.
Jamison: *sigh* If only they had the money to buy Rare when it mattered.
Dad: You know boys, I think this will start something huge in gaming.
