"Steve, you need to control your emotions. Getting too worked up isn't good for your health," William White said, feeling exasperated as Steve Jobs was looking for an argument, but White wasn't willing to engage.
"William, do you really not have faith in the Macintosh?" Jobs asked.
"Steve, let me tell you this: I think highly of graphical operating systems but not of the Macintosh itself. Haha, don't get riled up yet; as I've said before, hardware development is severely lagging. You can't perfectly realize that idea of yours without at least 100 megabytes of hard drive space."
"Damn it, are you aware of what you're saying? That sounds like mainframe specs."
"Haha, that's why I'm not in a hurry. Maybe in five years, maybe ten, I'm still very young. I'll see the day this thing comes to fruition."
At this point, Jobs realized his ambitions were a bit too grand, and now he had stretched things to a point of breaking. The most frustrating part was that no matter what measures he took, there was no way to recover from it.
Jobs left, walking away in disappointment. It's true; he and William White failed to reach a consensus. Clearly, both had their own stances. Like parallel lines, they could never meet.
...
The Japanese finally showed their prowess, and this year they released many games. The two most popular ones were indeed from Japan.
The folks at Legendary World grew quite anxious about all this. They didn't want to face the wrath of their boss.
To their surprise, William White only urged them to learn from the Japanese experience and didn't blame them at all.
If the Japanese didn't have this bit of ability, there wouldn't be any point in digging traps for them. Even if they were making money, the initiative was always in his hands.
"Mr. President, it's such a pity to have to give them so much money."
"Money isn't the issue; being controlled by them is the real headache. If they threaten our position, who knows how difficult it would become for us."
"I submitted a few more proposals yesterday. Apart from that zombie shooting game, all other proposals passed without any hurdles."
"Ah, this is someone with great wisdom. This way, we practically lose the chance to start afresh."
"Mr. President, do you mean the shareholders will oppose?"
"Of course they will oppose. If I insist, they wouldn't mind tearing me apart."
In the gaming console industry, Japanese conglomerates don't pay much attention, as this stuff clearly can't sell forever.
However, the game was indeed excellent, with a much higher profit margin than consoles.
As for that damned royalty system, it indeed needed control. Atari had thousands of games stopped, and that's no secret. If everyone rushed to make homogenous products, this industry would soon collapse.
Thankfully, William White was quite reliable. If he only focused on collecting money, this industry couldn't really survive.
However, it's never good to have control in someone else's hands. If possible, it's best to have control yourself.
The stock price of Legendary World remained high, thanks entirely to those bastards. The shares they directly or indirectly controlled have already approached 10%.
So, the president of Nintendo judged correctly. If he dared to go independent, he would face a series of attacks.
Conglomerates have no sentiments; they prefer capital operations. Even if they can't control Legendary World, profiting from it isn't bad at all.
The most pleasing thing was the slowdown in PS sales growth, while PSP sales kept increasing.
My God, all those stacks of dollars could drive someone insane.
William White, the spendthrift, actually opened up production licensing once more.
The Japanese thought this guy was quite charming. After acquiring Atari, didn't he already have production capacity?
Well, that learning machine does seem pretty high-end.
Yeah, and then there's the PDA. This thing definitely must be acquired.
...
The Japanese felt they gained the upper hand in this matter, and William White thought so too. Others might be clueless, but the conglomerates knew well.
Wow, with that massive cash flow, he's definitely secretly acquiring yen assets.
That damned comic magazine already has a weekly circulation in Japan exceeding eight million copies. Plus, the current volumes, oh my God, his assets in Japan are growing at an alarming pace.
Japan's financial system is still quite closed, completely opening to foreign capital was something that happened after the Plaza Accord.
But William White didn't have this issue. He had proper companies in Japan, and they couldn't have restricted him from using his own company's money.
...
Meanwhile, Japanese officials were frequently visiting the U.S. They knew they couldn't wait any longer. If the yen had to appreciate, it had to be swift and decisive.
However, they were disappointed.
Upon learning this news, William White burst into laughter.
"Are you that amused, William?"
"Hahaha, such a creative idea, George. Tell me, who came up with it?"
"Goldman Sachs."
"Damn, I knew it, these vampires. Aren't they afraid of destroying Japan completely?"
"Is it that serious? Just a little heist, right?"
"Hahaha, appreciation isn't the thing, but what's with this timetable? With this, forex trading can be risk-free, can't it?"
"I doubt any institution would take on this business, right?"
"Yeah, so as long as all assets head to Japan, anything pegged to the yen, even if it's just a bottle of Coke, has purchase value."
"Do you mean Japanese assets will soar in value? But that's not surprising, is it?"
"Hehe, soaring isn't scary. Someone like me, who planned in advance, can easily profit and exit. But growth with a timeline will attract endless investment. Such a tiny place like Japan might just be filled with dollars!"
"After hearing all this, it doesn't seem like a big deal, does it?"
"Hehe, wait until those investments leave, and you'll know what hell is."
"Hmm, I suppose it's because they developed too fast. Made some folks uneasy."
"Maybe, but it doesn't matter now. I've struck it rich."
William White could indeed be overjoyed. Not even mentioning continuous investments, those past loans alone were enough to make the guy ecstatic.
Borrowing in dollars and repaying in yen, how delightful is that!"
*****
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