Yuto Muto washed his face with cold water, then carefully styled his hair with gel and put on a suit. After tidying himself up and appearing refreshed, he hurried to his destination to attend the event.
Yuto Muto also held the identity of a reporter for "Game On," a magazine in Fusang. "Game On" was one of the earliest established game magazines in Fusang, which explained why it managed to secure the magazine name "Game On."
However, its development had been consistently unfavorable, always lingering in the tier-three game magazine category. In contrast, the later-emerging Fa
"Could it be that this man isn't from the gaming industry?" Yuto Muto began to ponder. "He appeared at Bandai's Yu-Gi-Oh! event. Could he actually be a senior executive at Bandai? Bandai rarely releases game products, so it's not impossible that I don't recognize everyone. But wasn't Bandai in a heated competition with PS? How could they be at Nintendo's press conference? Could Bandai be starting a collaboration with Nintendo? That would be absolutely massive news!"
The more Yuto Muto thought about it, the more excited he became. He realized he had finally found a major scoop. He left his hidden vantage point and proceeded directly through the press channel into the venue, intending to continue searching for the mysterious man.
Unfortunately, after entering the venue, he never saw the mysterious man again, not even after the press conference concluded. This left Yuto Muto with great regret.
As a result of his excessive focus on the mysterious man's identity, Yuto Muto hadn't properly participated in the entire press conference, failing to clearly recall many important pieces of information revealed.
Upon realizing this, Yuto Muto broke out in a cold sweat. If he couldn't even write a basic and detailed report of the press conference, he wouldn't receive any prize money, and might even have to offer a public apology.
"Right, what were the specific data points for the NDS that were announced this time?"
Unbeknownst to Yuto Muto, at that very moment, the mysterious man was sitting opposite a middle-aged man, both with serious expressions.
"Mr. Huang, I've heard great things about you, and I hope you'll guide me," the middle-aged man said, bowing first.
"Guidance is too kind a word; we'll grow together in the future!" Mr. Huang smiled and shook the man's hand, then gave a slight bow. That was all. He had no intention of bowing deeply. Bowing was not part of Chinese business etiquette; only Fusang people were so fond of bowing.
"However, President Iwata inviting me here has left me a bit perplexed. I hope President Iwata can enlighten me today!" Mr. Huang said very directly.
The man sitting opposite Mr. Huang was none other than Nintendo's current president, Satoru Iwata, the helmsman of Nintendo.
He had been invited to meet with the current president immediately after the press conference. If Nintendo had no requests for Mr. Huang, it would be highly improbable.
"Mr. Huang is indeed very direct. What are your thoughts on today's press conference? How do you feel about Nintendo's new generation handheld, the NDS?" Satoru Iwata asked with a smile.
"Undoubtedly the most powerful gaming handheld currently available!" Mr. Huang chose his words carefully before speaking. The statement was not inaccurate. However, Mr. Huang had deliberately left room for interpretation. He said it was the most powerful gaming handheld *currently* available, but not that it was the *ultimate* gaming handheld, because the PSP had not yet been released.
Indeed, although the PSP's announcement had been made a month prior, the information itself was not comprehensive. The PSP's hardware specifications were only briefly mentioned, and in those days, there were no game reviews or pre-release buzz generated by extensive media coverage.
Therefore, until the PSP was officially launched and sold, no one truly knew its specific capabilities.
Of course, the NDS was in a similar situation. Although several hardware specifications were announced at today's press conference, these were merely hardware figures. The actual gaming experience remained uncertain.
However, the NDS had distributed some samples on the day of the press conference, which, to some extent, could be considered a launch.
But purely based on the released hardware data, the NDS trailed the PSP in certain aspects. Thus, Mr. Huang's statement about the "most powerful handheld currently" referred to the fact that the PSP had not yet been released, while the NDS had seen a small-scale initial release, thus becoming the current most powerful handheld.
Of course, from the perspective of future generations, the NDS would far surpass the PSP.
Although the performance of both devices was quite similar, the games on the PSP were essentially downgraded versions of PS games, simply ported from the original PlayStation to the PSP.
In contrast, the games on the NDS were specifically designed for the handheld's unique features.
To give a simple example, the NDS had many exclusive games that could not be played on console platforms.
On the other hand, games on the PSP were mostly direct ports from the PS, with downgraded graphics and simplified controls. The gaming experience was incomparable, which ultimately led to the PSP's sales being less than half of the NDS.
Of course, neither Nintendo nor Sony knew the outcome of the competition between these two latest handhelds at that time. Nintendo itself was even somewhat apprehensive because, at least on paper, their console seemed to lag significantly in terms of specifications.
This caused Nintendo, which viewed handhelds as their final safe harbor, to worry incessantly. Therefore, when Satoru Iwata heard Mr. Huang's assessment, he was initially taken aback, then displayed a look of displeasure, but immediately could only nod with a wry smile.
"Therefore, we require the assistance of your company!" Satoru Iwata stated after a moment of contemplation. "We at Nintendo hope to obtain more high-quality and affordable memory chips!"
"We're counting on you, Mr. Huang!"