Namco's press conference ca to a close.
Hideki Sugano bowed slightly and turned to leave the stage, to thunderous applause from the audience.
"That lineup is a serious investnt," the editor from GaPro closed his notebook. "Sony's hit the jackpot this ti."
Namco had placed the weight of their presentation squarely on the PlayStation, with only a single RPG for the 16-bit Super Famicom and ga Drive.
Masaya Nakamura never hesitated in his choices—he was betting everything on Sony.
However, Takuya Nakayama noticed a subtle detail.
Throughout the presentation, Hideki Sugano had never once uttered the word "exclusive."
He only listed the release platforms for each ga, deliberately avoiding any language that implied exclusivity.
This was a way to keep his options open.
While Namco was currently close with Sony, they hadn't burned their bridges.
Like Kazumasa Kozuki of Konami last month, Nakamura wouldn't put all his eggs in one basket.
The difference was that Konami was openly diversifying their strategies, while Namco was heavily investing in one side while secretly retaining room for maneuver.
During the brief interval between segnts, the discussions among the audience grew noticeably more intense than before.
Namco's three PlayStation titles were so visually stunning that they imdiately shifted the focus to "comparing the 3D performance of next-generation consoles."
"What exactly did Sony offer Namco?" the forty-sothing reporter from the Los Angeles Tis asked in a low voice to his younger colleague from Wired.
"I heard they provided the full developnt toolkit for free, plus a joint developnt agreent for the arcade board. The System 11 board—Sony's chip, Namco's software solution. The profit-sharing ratio hasn't been disclosed, but it's definitely not a small amount."
"What about Sega? Isn't their Jupiter also very powerful?"
"It is, but Namco and Sega are direct rivals in the arcade market. Have you ever seen two arcade giants maintain such close ties on the console side?"
The answer was blunt, but it reflected industry reality.
Namco and Sega had been locked in a decade-long rivalry in Japanese arcades. While their relationship wasn't outright hostile, asking Namco to develop exclusive gas for Sega's console would have been a difficult psychological hurdle.
As a newcor, Sony had no such historical baggage.
At exactly eleven o'clock, the Capcom logo flashed across the big screen.
The person who took the stage made Takuya Nakayama's brow twitch—it was Yoshiki Okamoto.
Okamoto wore a wrinkled, dark blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and no tie. Compared to the previous speakers, his deanor was more casual. He began, "I have quite a bit to cover today, so I'll speak quickly."
The audience chuckled.
But he wasn't joking.
Capcom's press conference was arguably the most information-dense of the morning.
Street Fighter Zero was unveiled first.
This was Capcom's latest 2D fighting ga, featuring a completely new art style with finer character lines and more vibrant colors.
It would first launch on arcades, with simultaneous developnt for PlayStation and Jupiter ports.
"Three platforms?" soone in the audience caught the detail.
Yoshiki Okamoto offered no explanation for the multi-platform strategy on stage, simply listing the platforms before moving on.
But the information itself was a statent—Capcom's flagship fighting ga launching simultaneously on Sony's and Sega's next-generation consoles was a clear declaration of intent.
Darkstalkers 2 followed, also for the CPS arcade platform.
This dark, gothic-style fighting ga featured highly recognizable characters: a transford vampire, a half-human, half-cat female, and a moving suit of armor.
Its visual presentation was also top-tier for 2D fighting gas.
Then ca a rapid-fire montage of ga reveals.
ga Man 7, for both SFC and MD. The screen flashed briefly, and veteran journalists in the audience murmured in approval.
Mickey Mania, for SFC and MD. A Disney-licensed ga with charming visuals.
ga Man X, for SFC and MD. This series had a solid fanbase in North Arica.
Armored Warriors, 19XX: War Against Destiny, ga Man: The Power Battle, Star Gladiator.
Four CPS arcade ga trailers were shown in rapid succession, each lasting fifteen seconds.
Capcom was clearly stockpiling its arcade ammunition.
Mickey and Donald: Magical Adventure 3, Final Fight 3—action gas for both SFC and MD, a standard lineup for console players.
This entire segnt took only fifteen minutes.
Eleven gas, each averaging less than a minute and a half.
The pace was so rapid that the reporters in the audience could barely keep up.
"Is Capcom holding an arms fair here?" a reporter from GaPro shook his head as he flipped through his notes. "Eleven gas... my hand is already aching from taking notes."
The person next to him circled a na in his notebook. "The fact that Street Fighter Zero is coming to three platforms is the real story here. Capcom is playing it safe and not alienating anyone."
"Kenzo Tsujimoto has always been the type to pounce wherever the at is. He won't let go of the established markets on the SFC and MD, but he also wants to capture the growth market on the PlayStation and Jupiter."
"Sa strategy as Konami."
"But Capcom is more aggressive. Konami at least staggered their releases, while Capcom is throwing everything at us at once."
"Did you notice, though? Neither Konami nor Capcom showed any previews of 3D gas."
"Maybe they're still cautious about new technology?"
Just as they finished speaking, they realized Yoshiki Okamoto hadn't left the stage.
Several reporters who had already started packing up flipped their notebooks back to blank pages.
The bombardnt of eleven gas in fifteen minutes had already strained their wrists, and now this guy still had more in store.
Yoshiki Okamoto stood before the microphone, pushing up his rolled-up shirt sleeves to his elbows.
He remained silent, stepping back half a step to make way for the screen behind him.
The screen went dark.
The hum of the air conditioning suddenly beca strikingly clear in the venue.
The first image to appear on the screen was a door.
A wooden door, old and weathered, with a dim, yellow light seeping through the cracks.
The cara zood in. The doorknob slowly turned, emitting a tallic creak.
The sound emanated from speakers on both sides of the main stage. It was quiet, but in the sudden shift from the earlier high-octane assault, the effect was striking.
The door opened.
A corridor. Dark stains marred the floor, wallpaper peeled from the walls, and the fluorescent lights on the ceiling flickered.
The cara adopted a first-person perspective, moving slowly. With each step, the sound of shoe soles on the floor echoed.
"What is this? A horror movie?" soone muttered from the dia section.
No one answered.
Because as the character on the screen turned the corner at the end of the corridor, a hunched figure appeared.
Its back was to the cara, shoulders trembling, and a wet, chewing sound ca from its mouth.
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