At 8:58 AM on Tuesday, July 31, 2001, Ian Johnston made me yell a bunch
of profanity by writing:
>I'd love to hear your views on exactly why the above is so prevalent among
>Japanese businesses.
For the American Otaku who lives and breathes Japanese creativity, this
is a really hard pill to swallow, but for all of the whining about "NEC
America didn't do the job right," with respect to the TurboGrafx-16 the
real situation is completely the opposite. The Japanese companies were
100% uncooperative with NEC America and other companies seeking licensure
in the American market. With Konami's resources they could have easily
marketed any number of PC Engine exclusive titles and sidestepped the
prohibitive Nintendo clause that existed at the time. Even NEC Japan was
like a rock with this matter. They weren't about to hop up and help
anybody to get the titles over. They left it completely, totally up to
the licensor, and that was too big a risk for many to take as the market
was still so unproven (first couple of years). Hudson Soft basically
stood alone and it's pretty obvious as to why, what with having their own
stakes in the sake of the hardware.
MK on the Duo would have been nothing other than ruinous to the entire
platform at the time it was rumoured to occur.
Someone on this list started this rumour that Midway offered TTi an exclusive.
I do not believe this.
For starters it just plain doesn't make good business sense. Or any
business sense. I've not heard the first whisper anywhere but this list
that they ever chatted with anyone about this, seriously, other than
Acclaim. Acclaim, and one developer whom Acclaim absorbed shortly before
their MK contract, had been the licensor of nearly all of Midway's
mainstream games. Oh wait Arena, that's the developer. And I can't think
of one reason that Arena, having no experience or expertise with the
Turbo's CD-ROM hardware, would have approached TTi, or NEC (either
America or Japan) to see this game through on the platform in any form or
fashion, much less to give it an exclusive. I'm going to have to see a
heck of a lot more meat on this bone than "I talked with an employee!"
story before I bite that one. The Turbo was already on the way out by the
time the MKs showed up on home consoles in 1993 with a smattering of
interesting games that the recouping startup (TTi) managed to whip
together to regain some semi-respectable image. I can't even begin to
fathom how they could financially ink a deal for exclusivity with a
responsible lawyer and accountant in their own corner.
I do remember reading in an old EGM a "rumour" that Acclaim had thought
about bringing the original MK to the Duo, but that's as far as that went
in the press of the day. And it was featured in their "Quartermann"
rumours page, nonetheless. Read with care, believe with caution.
~Alek
--
She came from money, he called her honey
Her family make wine, he's robbing her blind
When I see her and you on Second Avenue well it makes me want to spew