Chapter 524: Chapter 474 ZEPS 2 100%
Thursday 20 March 1994
Zaboru now held a very important meeting that all ZAGE higher-ups in Japan were attending. Even Nando Michio, the co-owner of Nanco along with Zaboru, was present. Nanco was playing a crucial role in distributing the ZEPS 2 across Japan, making their involvement vital. As for the USA-based executives, Zaboru planned to hold a separate meeting at a later date.
The meeting officially began when Zaboru stood up and spoke. "Good morning everyone. Currently, the ZEPS 2 progress is sitting at 99%, which means if this meeting concludes without issues, we can push it to 100%, and tomorrow, the official teaser trailers will be released on Friday night. So, is everyone ready?" Everyone in the room nodded in agreement.
Zaboru smiled in satisfaction. "Excellent. First thing—Shinsuke-san, how's the distribution plan across Japan progressing? Are our teams fully prepared to deploy when the release date nears?" Shinsuke, the head of marketing at ZAGE, smiled and nodded confidently. "Yes, boss. Thanks to Nanco's support with logistics and distribution, our team's load has lightened considerably, allowing us to enhance our quality control. We're fully prepared."
Zaboru turned to Nando. "Thank you very much, Nando-san."
Nando chuckled. "Don't mention it, Zaboru. After all, you hold the majority of shares in Nanco, haha."
Zaboru nodded in amusement before shifting his attention to Sayuri, the head of ZAGE's Finance division.
"Sayuri-san, we've gone over this a few times, but we all still agree that our console pricing is fair, right?"
Sayuri nodded. "Yes, boss. Each ZEPS 2 console costs around 12,500 yen to manufacture. We plan to sell them to retailers at 19,000 yen. The retailers will have a maximum allowed markup, capped at 23,500 yen. That way, we'll always be cheaper than Sonaya Titan Drive"
Zaboru grinned. Initially, he had wanted to sell the console at a lower price point, around 15,000 yen, but Sayuri had strongly opposed that. She explained that pricing a premium and high quality product too cheaply could damage its perceived value, and most of the leadership team agreed with her. The final retail price of 19,000 yen would secure ZAGE a profit margin of 6,500 yen per unit.
He continued, "As for our game cartridges, we're matching Sonaya's standard pricing—8,000 yen per game, right? All our games will follow this pricing guideline."
Sayuri sighed but nodded. "Yes. On average, our cartridges cost about 2,500 yen to produce, which is very manageable. But some titles, like Starfox 2 that utilize the Super FX coprocessor, have higher production costs—up to 3,500 yen. You're still insisting we keep the retail pricing for those at 6,000 yen and cap the maximum price at 8,000 yen?"
Zaboru nodded. "Correct. Titles like Starfox 2 are meant to showcase our console's capabilities and ZAGE's innovation. I'm fine absorbing a bit of margin loss on them to demonstrate what we can do."
Sayuri had been trying to convince him to raise the prices for Super FX games for days. But Zaboru remained firm—until Zanichi stepped in.
"Boss," Zanichi began, "if we slightly increase the price of Starfox 2, it might send a positive signal to players. It's an extraordinary game. If we raise the price just a bit, future games that use the Super FX chip will be seen as premium products and the games will be extraordinary. We can bump the price to 6,500 yen wholesale and allow retailers to sell it for up to 8,700 yen. What do you think? Like Sayuri said, underpricing quality hurts more than it helps."
Zaboru sighed. Even his father was siding with Sayuri. Maybe it really was the right move. "Alright. Sayuri-san, go ahead and increase the price for Starfox 2. Shinsuke, please make sure to inform all our retail partners across Japan."
Shinsuke and Sayuri both nodded and made notes while Zanichi smiled, knowing his son all too well. Zaboru was undoubtedly intelligent and incredibly talented when it came to anything game-related, but he still lacked some of the key traits of a true businessman—shrewdness, a certain level of calculated greed, and the instinct to seize every opportunity. Even so, Zanichi didn't mind. In fact, he preferred it that way. He didn't want Zaboru to become a cold, ruthless executive like so many others in the industry. The fact that his son had a kind heart and a good personality was a source of pride for him. To Zanichi, that balance of talent and decency made Zaboru not just a capable leader, but an exceptional one.
"Next, let's talk about our games. So far, development and testing have been progressing smoothly. Shigeru-san, Dad, Yuna, Yugo—anything you want to add?"
There was a moment of silence. It seemed there were no major issues. Then Shigeru Miyamoto raised a question.
"Boss, with the ZEPS 2 launching, are we going to stop supporting ZEPS 1? Will we discontinue game production for it?"
Zaboru chuckled. "No, not at all. We'll continue supporting ZEPS 1 with occasional new games. In fact, I want to give it a proper farewell—with a grand send-off. That means releasing a batch of excellent games to close out its life cycle." Everyone nodded in agreement.
He added, "I already have a plan for ZEPS 1, but we'll wait until after ZEPS 2's release to implement it. Beside the player can still play their ZEPS 1 Cartridges with ZEPS 2" Zaboru is ensuring that backward compatibility is always available for ZAGE Consoles.
The meeting continued, touching on all the final details of the ZEPS 2 project. After everything had been covered, Zaboru addressed the room once more.
"So, any final questions about ZEPS 2?"
The room was quiet.
Zaboru smiled. "Great. Then this meeting is officially concluded. As of now, ZEPS 2 is 100% complete! Congratulations everyone, and thank you!"
Applause filled the room. Everyone stood and began filing out, full of satisfaction. Zaboru returned to his personal workshop, anticipation building for the teaser reveal tomorrow.
Zaboru sat in his chair, leaning back with a long exhale. "Finally, 100%. But even now, there's still so much left to do. Sigh... Let's see. First, I need to handle CD-related deals. Philips is the key partner for that because as far I research they owned the patent alongside Sonaya. Then there's AMD—I should invest in them while they're still under the radar, before they become a tech powerhouse. And phones... ZAGE definitely needs to break into the phone market. But Nokia is out of the question. They've already risen too high as a company, and acquiring a significant share of theirs would be incredibly expensive. Even if I could buy in, it might not be worth it. I need to find an alternative, but so far, nothing promising. Sigh."
He chuckled to himself, both overwhelmed and excited. The horizon was packed with opportunities—and challenges.
Just then, Yumi Ichijou, his ever-efficient secretary, entered his office and placed a cup of coffee on his desk. Zaboru looked up, smiled, and thanked her.
"Boss," Yumi said, raising an eyebrow, "you don't have to do everything by yourself, you know? You can hire people to help. Delegate, boss."
Zaboru grinned and nodded. "You're right, Yumi-san. I'll take that advice to heart—maybe start small and build a proper team around me to handle negotiation stuff."
Yumi laughed softly and nodded before stepping out of his workshop. Zaboru leaned back again, this time thoughtful. "Yeah," he murmured, "I might need the help of others to really grow this company. Dealing with many parties alone is really exhausting." But even so, Zaboru recognized that handling negotiations on his own came with substantial benefits—despite the time commitment and occasional exhaustion.
He giggled, the weight on his shoulders slightly lifted, and then turned to his sketchpad. He began sketching new characters, refining his artistic skills, sharpening his ideas for the next comic book he would release through Marvel.
To be continued
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