Masaya Nakamura remained silent for a moment, then opened a drawer, retrieved a cigar cutter, and snipped the end of his cigar with a decisive click.
"Money is no object," he said. "Namco can't afford to lose face, and neither can I." He looked up, his gaze steady. "Do as you said. Don't release the game until the graphics catch up to Sega's."
"Yes!" Katsuhiro Harada breathed a sigh of relief, his tense shoulders slumping.
"Don't rush off," Nakamura called out to Harada, who was about to turn and leave. "This isn't just Namco's problem. Sony is still waiting for our flagship title. If we suddenly delay the release, we need to give them an explanation."
He pressed the intercom button on his desk. "Connect me with Mr. Ken Kutaragi and Mr. Nobuyuki Idei at Sony. Tell them I have something I must demonstrate in person and insist they come to Namco headquarters immediately. Yes, contact them now."
The next day, a black Toyota Crown pulled up in front of the Namco building.
Ken Kutaragi stepped out with a grim expression.
With the PlayStation's release imminent, every moment was precious. If Nakamura had summoned him just for tea and idle chatter, Kutaragi would have lost his temper on the spot.
Nobuyuki Idei appeared much calmer, though a slight frown creased his brow, clearly puzzled by this sudden invitation.
Instead of being led to a reception or conference room, they were brought to the arcade development department. In the research lab stood a disassembled Virtua Fighter 2 cabinet, and beside it, a development machine running on a System 11 motherboard.
"President Nakamura, what is the meaning of this?" Ken Kutaragi asked, his tone sharp as he glanced at the Sega machine. "If you're just trying to show us how impressive Sega is, you didn't need to. I've been to Akihabara; I admit they've done well this time."
"Not just well, Mr. Kutaragi," Masaya Nakamura replied, gesturing for Katsuhiro Harada to turn on the displays of both machines.
"This is a technological downgrade."
The screens lit up.
When Kutaragi saw Akira Yuki, whose pores seemed to breathe, and then looked at the smooth, slippery Kazuya Mishima beside him, his earlier impatience froze on his face.
As a hardware expert, he immediately spotted the trick.
"Impossible—" Ken Kutaragi strode quickly to the Sega screen, his face nearly pressed against the glass. "Model 2's processing power is barely a step above System 11. How could it possibly render this kind of material? With this texture detail, the VRAM should have exploded ages ago!"
"They used a clever trick," Katsuhiro Harada added coldly from the side. "The backgrounds are entirely 2D textures, and they've also employed their signature Sprite Technology for less critical graphics. They've poured all the saved resources into the characters. This allows them to allocate more processing power to the 3D graphics. Plus, they've implemented a highly efficient compression algorithm to cram the texture maps into the limited VRAM."
Kutaragi whirled around, glaring at the screen as if trying to mentally strip the Sega code bare.
"Clever bastards—" he spat through gritted teeth, a curse mixed with grudging admiration.
"So, this is the issue we need to address," Masaya Nakamura said, tapping the table. His voice echoed in the empty conference room. "We can't release Tekken as is. We need time to replicate this approach and technology. With Tekken likely missing the first-tier launch lineup for the PlayStation, we're in trouble."
Nobuyuki Idei's expression darkened. "President Nakamura, do you realize what this means? Without a killer fighting game to prop up the console at launch—"
"That's still better than releasing a joke," Masaya Nakamura interrupted. "Sega has made their move. If we can't counter it, we'll lose not just the arcade market, but your PlayStation as well."
Ken Kutaragi straightened up, his gaze shifting between the two screens.
After a long pause, he took a deep breath, the arrogance in his eyes replaced by a deeper resolve.
"How long?" he asked.
"Three months," Katsuhiro Harada answered quickly.
"I'll give you four. Such complex technology, combined with Sega's existing expertise, won't be easy to match," Kutaragi said, looking at Harada. "I hope the folks at Namco won't keep Sony waiting in vain. President Nakamura is right—we absolutely cannot have a joke of a game on the PlayStation's launch lineup, one whose performance is clearly compromised by rushed development."
Minato Ward, Sony Headquarters.
The air in the conference room was thick with tension, the only sound the hum of the projector's fan.
Two images were frozen on the screen: one of Kazuya Mishima, his skin pale and gleaming, and the other of Akira Yuki, his martial arts uniform's texture so clear it was almost tangible.
Ken Kutaragi sat at one side of the long table, his expression grim.
As the father of the PlayStation, he had always firmly believed that hardware performance was paramount. But Sega had just delivered a harsh slap in the face. With nearly identical hardware specifications, their software optimization and development approach had somehow produced visuals that were light-years ahead.
"This is what we saw at Namco," Nobuyuki Idei broke the silence, tapping his fingers lightly on the table. "If we hadn't seen it in person, I would have found it hard to believe these graphics were running on the same generation of hardware. Sega is a true master of finding clever workarounds. We have to admit, their decade-plus of accumulated expertise isn't just for show."
Oga Norio, the President, sat at the head of the table, his gaze sharp.
This music-trained executive had an innate sensitivity to "craftsmanship."
He didn't need to understand the code, but he understood the gap.
"So, we gave Namco the finest scalpel, and they're only using it to sharpen pencils?" Oga Norio cut straight to the heart of the matter.
"It's not just Namco's problem," Ken Kutaragi said, his voice dry but honest as he looked up sharply. "We're also at fault. We built the PlayStation, handed developers a brick-thick manual, and thought we'd done enough. But Sega is different. They build their own hardware and develop their own games. They've already forged the shovels that dig into the hardware's potential and handed them straight to the developers."
Ryoji Nakabachi adjusted his glasses and studied the technical analysis report in his hand. "Many of the Model 2 board's underlying code calls are so resource-efficient that you'd never think of them without deep research. Sega is using the meticulousness of 2D game development and their vast technical expertise to create ample performance headroom for the massive computational demands of 3D games. This clever approach is indeed worth learning from."
Admitting the opponent's strength wasn't shameful, especially since Sony hadn't officially entered the market yet.
Oga Norio scanned the room, his gaze sweeping over the faces of each core executive.
Now that the problem had been identified, Sony had no reason to back down.
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