短篇：世嘉的陨落

好的。让我们听听你最好的世嘉尖叫模仿。

Okay. Let's hear your best Sega Scream impression.

世嘉。

Sega.

重音是放在“世”上吗？世嘉。

Is the emphasis more on the set? Sega.

他们在主机大战里讨论过这个。

They talk about it in console wars.

对。那位配音演员。

Yeah. The voice actor.

而且他当时生病了。我记得他当天早些时候吐过，身体和精神状态都极差，才能发出那种疯狂的尖叫。简直完美。伟大艺术背后的代价。是你吗？

And he was sick. I think he had thrown up earlier in the day, and he was just in such a bad physical and mental state that he could do this insane scream. It was perfect. The cost you pay for great art. Is it you?

是你吗？是你吗？谁现在掌握了真相？是你吗？是你吗？

Is it you? Is it you? Who got the truth now? Is it you? Is it you?

是你吗？让我坐下。直说吧。又一个故事即将上演。谁掌握了真相？

Is it you? Sit me down. Say it straight. Another story on the way. Who got the truth?

欢迎收听本期《Acquired》，一档讲述伟大科技公司及其背后故事与策略的播客。我是本·吉尔伯特。

Welcome to this episode of Acquired, the podcast about great technology companies and the stories and playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert.

我是大卫·罗森塔尔。

I'm David Rosenthal.

我们是今天的主持人。为大家带来首期《Acquired》短篇故事。有些公司历史值得用三小时以上从头到尾完整讲述，但也有些故事或章节可以在一小时左右说完。在《任天堂》第二集中，我曾向David提过一个问题。

And we are your hosts. Today, we have for you our first Acquired short. There are some stories that deserve three or more hours to chronicle the entire company history start to finish. But there are also some stories or perhaps chapters of stories that can be told in an hour or so. Now in Nintendo part two, I asked David a question.

世嘉究竟是如何在短短几年内，从凭借Genesis主机占据美国游戏机市场过半份额，到Dreamcast之后彻底退出主机业务的？David你当时给了简短回答，但后来我们都觉得这个故事远不止于此，值得单独做一期节目。坦白说，这也是《Acquired》审视那些未获巨大成功的公司并汲取教训的好机会。所以今天我们将讲述：世嘉之死。

How exactly did Sega manage to go from having over half the video game console market in The US with the Sega Genesis to abandoning the console business entirely after Dreamcast in a few short years. And, David, you gave us a quick short answer, but we were both sort of looking at each other afterwards thinking, there is so much more to this story. It really does deserve its own episode. And frankly, it's a nice opportunity for us here at Acquired to take a look at a company that didn't become hugely successful and what the lessons we can learn from that one are. So we bring you today the death of Sega.

这会是个有趣的尝试。我们要讲好这个故事。听众们如果喜欢这种形式请告诉我们，可能会推出更多短篇。

This could be a really fun experiment. We get to tell this story right. Listeners, let us know if you like this, and, we might do more of them.

对，欢迎来Slack频道反馈。Acquired.fm/slack是节目发布后最好的讨论地，任天堂那期后加入的新朋友特别多。

Yep. Let us know in the Slack. Acquired.fm/slack. It is the best place to discuss episodes after we release them. Tons of folks joined after the Nintendo episodes.

现在有很多精彩的游戏讨论。推荐关注我们的第二档访谈节目《ACQ two》，最新嘉宾是Retul创始人兼CEO David Shu。接下来很高兴向大家介绍节目新合作伙伴WorkOS。

There's a lot of great video game discussion right now. Check out ACQ two, our second show with interviews. The most recent interview is with David Shu, the founder and CEO of Retul. Okay, listeners. Now is a great time to tell you about a new friend of the show we are very excited about, WorkOS.

没错。WorkOS是企业级平台，客户包括OpenAI、Cursor、Perplexity、Vercel、Plaid等数百家成功企业。

Yes. WorkOS is the enterprise ready platform used by OpenAI, Cursor, Perplexity, Vercel, Plaid, and literally hundreds of other winning companies.

这些公司用WorkOS做什么？假设你是高速发展的初创公司，产品市场匹配度很好，突然收到大企业的合作意向——但随之而来的是安全问卷。

So what are all these companies using WorkOS for? Imagine you're a fast growing startup. You've got product market fit, and you're getting inbound interest from big enterprise customers. Very exciting. But then they send you their security questionnaire.

对，47页长的问卷全是天书般的需求：支持SAML 2.0吗？能对接Okta吗？有SCIM配置吗？SCIM？

Yep. And it's, like, 47 pages long with requirements that kinda sound like alphabet soup. Do you support SAML two dot o? Can you integrate with our Okta? Do you have SCIM provisioning, SCIM?

还有RBAC（r-b-a-c）？你根本不知道这些缩写什么意思，更别说实现了。

What about RBAC, r b a c? And you're thinking, I have no idea what these acronyms even mean, let alone how to implement them.

关键在于：这些不是加分项，而是准入门槛。没有单点登录（SSO）、没有SCIM、没有RBAC、没有审计日志，企业级订单根本签不下来。

So here's the thing. These are not nice to haves. These are deal blockers. Without SSO, without SCIM, without RBAC, without audit logs, you simply cannot close enterprise deals, period.

但这些功能无一能提升你们的核心产品品质。用我们在Acquired节目里最爱的比喻来说——它们不会让啤酒变得更好喝。如果你正在开发设计工具，花六个月构建SAML认证系统并不会让你的设计工具更强大。

But none of these features make your core product better. They don't make your beer taste better, to use our favorite analogy here on Acquired. So if you're building like a design tool, spending six months building SAML authentication doesn't make your design tool more powerful.

这时WorkOS就派上用场了。他们打造了企业级功能的Stripe版解决方案。WorkOS将企业认证需求转化为即插即用API，尽可能消除不必要的复杂性。

So this is where WorkOS comes in. They've built Stripe for enterprise features. WorkOS turns enterprise authentication requirements into drop in APIs, abstracting away as much unnecessary complexity as possible.

现在你的团队无需耗费数月研读SAML规范，几分钟就能实现企业单点登录。WorkOS负责用户配置、权限管理、审计日志等所有企业IT要求的必选项。

So instead of your team spending months reading SAML specs, you can implement enterprise SSO in minutes. WorkOS handles user provisioning, permissions, audit logs, all the checkbox items that Enterprise IT requires.

所以无论你是种子轮公司正试图

So whether you are a seed stage company trying

争取首个企业客户，还是已具规模正全球扩张，WorkOS都是最快实现企业级适配的途径。只需访问workos.com或直接Slack联系他们的技术支持——那里有真正的工程师快速答疑。联系时记得提是本和大卫推荐你的。

to land your first Enterprise customer or already big and expanding globally, WorkOS is the fastest path to becoming enterprise ready. Just visit workos.com or just message their Slack support. They have real engineers in there who answer questions fast. And when you get in touch, just tell them Ben and David sent you.

顺便声明：本节目不构成投资建议。大卫与我可能持有讨论公司的股份，节目内容仅作信息交流与娱乐用途。

And with that, this show is not investment advice. David and I may have investments in the companies we discuss, and this show is for informational and entertainment purposes only.

从技术上讲我们现在仍能投资世嘉（世嘉飒美控股）。虽然不太确定是否值得...但让我们进入正题。剧透预警：故事要从1992-1993年左右说起。

We could technically still invest in Sega today. Sega Sammy Holdings. Not quite sure we'd want to, but, let's get into it. Spoilers. So we start our story in around, call it, 1992, 1993.

当时世嘉及其北美版Genesis主机，与任天堂超任在美国家用机市场战成平手——实际上如果你听过我们任天堂系列节目，就知道世嘉简直是把任天堂打得落花流水。考虑到他们的起跑线落后那么多，能抢占50%甚至更多的市场份额简直不可思议。

Sega and its Genesis, as it was known in North America, has battled Nintendo and the Super NES to basically a tie in The US home console market, which really in practice, if you go listen to our Nintendo series, was beating the pants off of Nintendo. Like, Sega had no right to get to 50%, maybe even 50% plus market share given how far behind they came from.

想象你是个初创公司，正与行业巨头对抗。三年内就夺取近半壁江山...

Imagine you're a startup, and you're fighting some big incumbent. And within three years, you get to a basically fifty fifty market share.

这实在太疯狂了。Genesis堪称九十年代最酷的游戏机——它有音速索尼克，有约翰·麦登橄榄球，还有众多顶级体育游戏系列。

It's totally nuts. The Genesis I mean, it was the cool console in the nineties. It had Sonic. They've got John Madden football. They've got great sports franchises.

他们有带血腥效果的真人快打版本。

They've got the Mortal Kombat version with the blood.

哦，是真实的红色血液，不是任天堂那种调成灰色的血液。

Oh, the real red blood, not the Nintendo toned down gray blood.

而且世嘉Genesis在全球的总装机量约为3000万台，其中绝大多数（约2000万台）在美国。

And they have about a 30,000,000 total unit install base of the Sega Genesis around the world, the vast majority of which, about 20,000,000, is in The United States.

没错。这基本上是我们当时最好的游戏主机。多年后，PlayStation 2销量达到1.5亿台，但在那个年代还没有任何游戏系统能卖出超过1亿台。所以3000万台的销量非常稳固，是市场上的重要玩家。

Yeah. And this is basically the best video game consoles we're doing at the time. Years later, the PlayStation two with a 150,000,000, but no one was doing 100,000,000 plus units sold game systems at this point in history. So 30,000,000, rock solid, huge player in the market.

这是个很好的基础。是的。在1992、1993年左右，CD光盘显然已成为未来趋势，不仅对电子游戏行业，对所有领域都是如此。CD专辑销售和CD播放器此时正呈爆发式增长，这对索尼等公司来说是巨大的业务驱动力。

A great base to build on. Yes. Now also at this time in, call it, 1992, 1993, it has become clear that compact discs are the future, not just for the video game industry, but for everything. CD album sales and, like, CD players are on their meteoric rise at this point. It is a huge driver of business for companies like Sony.

在与游戏行业相邻的个人电脑行业，CD-ROM驱动器正成为PC的标准配置。软件和游戏在PC行业都是通过这种方式发行的。

In the personal computer industry, neighboring to the gaming industry, CD ROM drives are now becoming standard in PCs. This is how software is shipping. This is how games are shipping in the PC industry.

而游戏的权衡在于，卡带不需要加载时间。CD虽然存储量大得多，但需要将内容加载到机器上，这是它的缺点。

And the trade off with games is, of course, a cartridge doesn't really require loading time. The CD, while it has a ton more storage, does have trade offs where it needs to load stuff onto the machine.

是的。CD介质对行业商业面还有一个非常大的优势，就是生产成本远低于卡带。卡带需要内置硅芯片，而CD只是光学碟片。

Yeah. And there's one other really big advantage of the CD medium for the business side of the industry, which is that CDs are much lower cost to produce than cartridges. Cartridges, you gotta, like, put silicon in there. They have chips. CDs are just optical discs.

CD的制作成本只有卡带的十分之一甚至百分之一，几乎可以忽略不计。因此很明显，家用游戏主机行业也将转向以CD介质作为未来的主要发行技术。当时业内普遍认为，这一重大转变不会通过新主机实现，而是通过现有主机的附加外设实现。现在回头看，这显然是个非常糟糕的发展路径，是游戏进化树上幸运消亡的一个分支。

You can stamp these out for a tenth, a hundredth of the cost of a cartridge. Pennies. So it's obvious that the home video game console industry is also going to move to the CD medium as its primary distribution technology going forward. And the way right now that people in the industry are thinking that this great migration is gonna happen is not via new consoles, but via add on peripherals to existing consoles. Looking back now, this was obviously a very, very poor path, an evolutionary branch of the gaming tree that mercifully died off.

但当时似乎所有人都在这么做。像雅达利的Jaguar主机就推出了CD-ROM外设。日本NEC的PC Engine（在美国叫TurboGrafx）也推出了CD外设。当然，最著名的是任天堂宣布与索尼达成重大合作，为超级任天堂开发CD-ROM外设，这个项目被称为Play Station——索尼Play Station超级任天堂外设。

But at the time, everybody seemed to be doing it. There are other consoles like Atari's Jaguar console came out with a CD ROM add on. The NEC PC engine in Japan in The US, it was called the TurboGrafx console that came out with a CD add on. And, of course, famously, Nintendo is working on a major partnership that they've announced that everybody knows about with none other than Sony to make a CD ROM add on for the Super Nintendo that would be known as the Play Space Station. The Sony Play Station add on to the Super Nintendo.

我们稍后再回到这个话题。事情并没有按计划发展。

We'll come back to that in a little bit. That, doesn't go as planned.

这已经是继索尼和任天堂之后，我们第三次在节目中讨论这个话题了。

This is now our third episode in addition to Sony and Nintendo where we've talked about this.

当然，回到世嘉的话题，他们当时也在为Genesis开发CD-ROM外设。就像Genesis主机一样，他们曾抢先任天堂和超级任天堂推出首款16位游戏机。这次他们决心要赶在任天堂和索尼之前，率先推出CD-ROM外设。于是在1992年末，世嘉在北美发布了Genesis的Sega CD外设。首发游戏《Night Trap》是一款全动态影像游戏，基本上算是可互动的电影。

So, of course, back to Sega, they are working on a CD ROM add on too for the Genesis. And just like with the Genesis, they had beat Nintendo and the Super Nintendo to market with the first 16 bit console. They wanna make sure that they beat Nintendo and Sony to market with the first CD ROM add on. So in late nineteen ninety two, they launched the Sega CD add on for the Genesis in North America. It comes out with this game called Night Trap, which is a full motion video game that uses, like it's basically a playable movie.

这游戏其实很糟糕，但人们认为这正是CD-ROM技术将带来的革新。它像是一部青少年恐怖片风格的僵尸题材游戏。这款游戏后来成为国会抨击电子游戏毒害青少年的典型案例，直接促成了娱乐软件分级委员会（ESRB）的成立——相当于电子游戏界的电影分级制度。

It's a really crappy game, but people think that this is the feature that CD ROM technology is gonna enable. It's like a zombie slash like a teen horror flick that you basically play as a video game. This is one of the games that gets congress all spun up about video games are corrupting the youth and leads to the creation of the, entertainment software ratings board, the, video game industry version of movie ratings that comes out.

评级为E（适合所有人）。

Rated e for everyone.

没错。现在回头看这些特别好笑。和《使命召唤》比起来，这根本不算什么。

Yeah. Exactly. So funny. You go back and look at this stuff today, and you're like, yeah. Compared to Call of Duty, you're like, this is nothing.

真的。

Seriously.

《侠盗猎车手》。

Grand Theft Auto.

对。但归根结底，尽管这些CD外设游戏引发了诸多争议，世嘉的战略存在一个根本性问题——游戏机的外设从来都不是好主意。因为游戏机行业遵循的是'剃须刀与刀片'商业模式：像世嘉、任天堂以及后来的索尼这些公司，主要利润都来自软件销售而非硬件。所以企业需要尽可能扩大主机装机量，才能分摊软件销售收益。

Yep. But ultimately, despite all this hand wringing over these games and everything coming out with these CD add ons, there is a fundamental problem with what Sega is doing here, and that is that add on technology for consoles is never really a good idea. Because the business model of the video game console industry, it's a razor and blades model. And the way that video game companies like Sega, like Nintendo, like Sony in a minute, make all of their profits is from the software sales, not from the hardware sales. And so you wanna have as big of an installed base of consoles as possible to amortize the software sales across.

当你销售外设时，目标市场就局限在已有的3000万Genesis用户。这注定比原有市场更小。由此产生恶性循环：开发者不愿为有限装机量开发优质游戏，消费者也不愿购买游戏贫乏的平台。尽管Sega CD初期销量不错，但很快就陷入停滞。

So when you're selling an add on console, you are limiting the target market to the 30,000,000 people that already own a Genesis. It will be smaller by definition than the market base that you've already created. And this creates a huge problem because then developers don't wanna make their best games for a limited installed base of consoles. Consumers don't wanna go buy a platform that's only gonna have a very limited number of good games, and it quickly becomes a death spiral. So the Sega CD sales, despite starting off relatively strong, stall out quickly.

世嘉仅售出约300万台Sega CD，而他们卖出的Genesis主机超过3000万台。这对他们来说是一次失败。任天堂则要么靠运气，要么靠技巧，或者只是因为动作慢，他们最终没有为超级任天堂推出CD扩展设备，与索尼的合作也告吹。所以他们某种程度上避开了世嘉陷入的这个灾难。

Sega only sells about 3,000,000 Sega CD units versus the 30,000,000 plus Genesis units that they've sold. This is a flop for them. Now Nintendo, by either luck or skill or maybe just being slow in Nintendo, they never actually come out with the CD add on for the Super Nintendo, and the Sony partnership falls apart. So they kind of avoid this disaster that Sega stumbles into.

但在与索尼合作破裂后，他们不是又和飞利浦建立了新合作，要搞任天堂CD吗？

But after the Sony partnership fell apart, didn't they form a new partnership with Philips to create the Nintendo CD thing?

确实如此，但这个拖延让所有人都意识到这是个坏主意，任天堂基本上也放弃了这个项目，让飞利浦自己推出他们的主机。我记得叫CD-I。没人支持它。它很糟糕。不属于超级任天堂的生态系统。

They did, but that delayed everything enough that everybody kinda realized that this was a bad idea, and Nintendo basically also abandoned that project and let Philips come out with their own console. I think it was called the CD I. Nobody supported it. It sucked. It wasn't part of the Super Nintendo ecosystem.

好吧。那世嘉在放弃Genesis的CD扩展后做了什么？

Okay. So what does Sega do after the Sega Genesis CD add on is abandoned?

你可能会想，就像任天堂在这里的做法一样，应该吸取教训。主机扩展是个坏主意。它带来各种问题。市场有限。及时止损。

Well, you would think, just like Nintendo sorta did here, you would learn your lesson. Console add ons are a bad idea. You've got all these problems with it. It's a limited market. You cut your losses.

继续前进。拥抱下一代。这才是合乎逻辑的做法。对吧？没错。

You move on. You just embrace the next generation. That's the logical thing to do here. Right? Yep.

但世嘉没这么做。他们决定在失败的扩展设备之后，再推出另一个失败的扩展设备。没错。就是那个臭名昭著、糟糕透顶的32X，1994年推出。这是另一个为Genesis主机设计的硬件扩展，插在主机顶部，为Genesis增加了一个32位处理器。

That is not what Sega does. They decide that they are going to follow-up their failed console add on with another failed console add on. That's right. The, infamous and infamously terrible 32 x, which launches in the 1994. This is another hardware add on for the Sega Genesis system that you plug into the top of the console, and it adds a 32 bit processor to the Genesis.

它的工作方式有点像Game Genie。对吧？你把它插在游戏卡带的位置，然后把真正的游戏卡带放在上面，像叠塔一样？

And it works sort of like the same way a Game Genie worked. Right? You, like, put it in where your game cartridges go, and then that way, when you put your actual game cartridge on top, it's sort of, like, stacked like a tower?

是的，完全正确。这整个设计太粗糙了。它可能为现有的Genesis游戏增加了更多颜色，但也有专门为它单独购买的32X游戏。这东西完全是一场灾难。

Yes. Exactly. This whole thing is so hair brand. I think it added more colors maybe to existing Genesis games, but then it also had its own 32 x games that you bought separately for it. This thing was just an unmitigated disaster.

电子游戏史上最糟糕的决策之一。

One of the worst video game industry decisions of all time.

好的。

Okay.

没错。所以32X的总销量不到100万台。与此同时，几乎紧接着，世嘉又匆忙向市场推出了另一款全新的原生32位系统，名为

Yeah. So the 32 x sells less than 1,000,000 units total. And in the meantime, almost immediately thereafter, Sega also rushes out a separate brand new native 32 bit system to market called

土星。真是场噩梦。

the Saturn. What a nightmare.

这完全说不通。据说这一切基本上都是日本世嘉总部下达的决定。他们命令美国世嘉CEO汤姆·卡林斯基推出土星机。美国世嘉其实并不想这么做，但他们别无选择。于是他们为土星机启动了世嘉专利的绝妙营销方案。

This makes no sense what's going on here. The story goes that all of this was basically a decision handed down from Sega in Japan. They order Tom Kalinsky, the CEO of Sega of America, to launch the Saturn. Sega of America doesn't really wanna do this, but they don't have a choice. So they spin up their patented brilliant Sega marketing launch playbook for the Saturn.

他们向美国宣布1995年9月2日将是土星日。就在那个周六，世嘉土星将在当天发售。但在1995年5月的E3展会上，他们震惊了全世界。汤姆·卡林斯基在世嘉主题演讲中登台说，其实我们知道之前告诉过大家会在9月发售。好吧，惊喜来了。

They announce to America that 09/02/1995 is going to be Saturn Day. It is Saturday, September 2, and the Sega Saturn is gonna launch on that day. But then at e three in May 1995, they shock the world. Tom Kalinski comes out on stage for the Sega keynote and says, actually, I know we told all of you that we were gonna launch in September. Well, surprise.

我们今天就要发售。世嘉土星现在就要上市了。在场的媒体、业界人士和开发者们都一脸懵：什么情况？

We're launching today. The Sega Saturn is coming out right now. The press, the industry, the developers here, they're they're all like, what?

这既让人兴奋又困惑。完全不合常理。

It's, like, exciting but confusing. This makes no sense.

没有准备好的索尼克游戏。完全没有第三方游戏。零售商毫无准备。他们根本不知道会有这事。也没有任何营销预热。

There's no Sonic game ready. There's no third party games at all. The retailers aren't prepped. They don't know to expect this. There's been no marketing.

所有基础工作都没到位。事实上所有人都以为这东西9月才会上市。

None of the groundwork has been laid. In fact, everybody thinks this thing is coming out in September.

这太奇怪了，因为作为大家心目中对抗任哥利亚（指任天堂）的大卫（指世嘉），本应全速前进，却出现了32X和世嘉土星的市场混乱。现在土星还要提前发售？到底在搞什么鬼？

It's really weird because it's like everyone's sort of recent hero, the David versus the Goliath of Nintendo, seems like they should be firing on all cylinders, but you have the market confusion with the 32 x and the Sega Saturn. And now Sega Saturn sooner? What the heck is going on?

没错。除了这一两年前发生的或许情有可原的Sega CD事件外，整件事都显得非常诡异。紧接着土星主机就遭遇惨败，仅售出900多万台，而Genesis的销量是3000万台。如果你读过布莱克·哈里斯所著的《主机战争》，书中花了大量篇幅记载美国世嘉CEO汤姆·卡林斯基的访谈内容。

Right. On top of this maybe forgivable Sega CD thing that happened, you know, a year or two before, like, this whole thing is just weird. So on the back of this, the Saturn flops. It sells just over 9,000,000 units compared to the Genesis, which sold 30,000,000 units. And if you read the book console wars by Blake Harris, he spends a lot of time with Tom Kalinsky, the CEO of Sega of America, and interviews him.

当时在美国世嘉的汤姆和其他高层虽然措辞相对委婉，但基本都在抨击日本总部的管理层。他们表示美国世嘉曾反对过所有决策，认为日本母公司是嫉妒Genesis在美国取得的成功。

And Tom and the other folks who were at Sega of America at this time, like, they're somewhat diplomatic, but they just kinda lambast the Japanese management of Sega at this point in time. They say that they had Sega of America fought against all of these decisions, that the Japanese parent company was jealous of Sega of America's success with the Genesis.

因为Genesis在美国卖得特别好，在日本市场表现却很一般。

Because the Genesis sold really well in America. It didn't sell as well in Japan.

没错。Genesis的全部成功都来自美洲、欧洲和南美市场，在日本本土几乎毫无建树。

No. All of the Genesis' success was in America, Europe, and South America. It basically did nothing in Japan.

在《主机战争》中，作者用父母与子女来比喻日美市场关系——父母本应为子女的成功感到骄傲不是吗？但现实中更像是兄弟市场间的竞争：日本曾是父母最宠爱的孩子，当父母开始偏爱美国市场时，日本管理层就通过各种方式哭闹抗议，要求获得更多关注。

In in console wars, the author draws this great analogy of Japan as the parent and America as the child. So shouldn't the parent be proud of the child's success? But in reality, the way that it actually was going on is that Japan and America were sort of sibling markets, and the parent's favorite child used to be Japan. And as the parent showed more favoritism toward America, the Japan leadership sort of retaliated and found ways to kick and scream and say, hey. You need to pay more attention to me.

确实。而世嘉...

Yep. And Sega,

当时毕竟是日本企业，董事会都是日本人。最终日本总部赢了这场博弈。汤姆和大部分美国世嘉团队深感挫败，最终选择离职——包括策划Genesis整个激进营销战略（比如'世嘉尖叫'和'欢迎进入次世代'）的史蒂夫·赖斯。

at this point, of course, is a Japanese company, and the board is Japanese. And at the end of the day, Japan wins here. So Tom and most of the rest of the team at Sega of America, they get super frustrated. They end up just leaving the company, including Steve Reiss, who masterminded the whole aggressive marketing strategy behind the Genesis, you know, the Sega Scream, the welcome to the next level.

他后来去索尼参与PlayStation的上市工作。

He goes to work for Sony to launch the PlayStation.

噢没错，我们稍后会详细聊这个。此时日本世嘉已全面掌权，在土星主机挣扎几年后，他们决定放弃并推出全新自主研发的主机Dreamcast。

Oh, yes. We will talk much more about that in one minute. So Sega of Japan is kinda running the ship now at this point in time. They decide after a couple years to give up on the Saturn. They launch another new internally developed console, the Dreamcast.

Dreamcast其实有不少真正创新，比如它是首款内置互联网连接功能的在线游戏主机。

The Dreamcast actually had some real innovations to it. Like, it was the first true online console that shipped with Internet connectivity built in.

它有个可以滑出的小型手持设备，就像从控制器里弹出来的迷你Game Boy，这设计简直酷毙了。

It had the little slide out handheld thing that was like a little Game Boy that popped out of the controller. That was super cool.

哦对，那个VMU（视觉记忆单元）。那玩意儿确实很酷。

Oh, yeah. The VMU. That thing was cool.

而且很多设计理念非常合理，他们使用的是通用组件而非专用芯片。

And a bunch of the design philosophy made a lot of sense. They were using commodity components instead of special silicon for it.

没错。但不幸的是，它上市时正面对抗PlayStation 2——后者最终成为史上最畅销游戏机并彻底碾压了Dreamcast。结果Dreamcast销量甚至比土星还低，实在令人唏嘘。上市仅两年半后，世嘉就宣布停产Dreamcast，并完全退出硬件业务，转型为其他平台（如PlayStation、Xbox等）的游戏开发商和发行商。

Yep. But, unfortunately, it launches against the PlayStation two, which goes on to become the best selling console of all time and completely trounces it. So the Dreamcast sells even fewer units than the Saturn, and it's really sad. After just two and a half years on the market, Sega ends up discontinuing the Dreamcast, announcing that they're getting out of the hardware business entirely. They're gonna go to just being a video game developer and publisher on other platforms, on PlayStation, on the Xbox, etcetera.

这家公司从此一蹶不振，勉强维持运营。从2001到2003年间，世嘉仅为其他平台开发游戏，最终被日本上市公司Sammy收购——这家公司主营柏青哥机（类似日本的弹珠机）。对于曾叱咤风云的世嘉而言，这结局堪称黯然收场。

The company really just becomes a shadow of its former self. It limps along. And then finally, after a couple years from kinda 2,001, 2002 into 2003 of Sega just making games for other platforms, the company gets sold off to another Japanese public company, company called Sammy, that was a manufacturer of pachinko machines, which is kinda like the Japanese equivalent of pinball machines. It's just sort of sad ending with a whimper for this once legendary Sega Scream company.

是啊，人才大量流失，你难免会困惑为何崩塌得如此之快。我开始深挖背后的原因、过程以及当时的公司交易细节。大卫，我觉得这故事还有隐情，因为我查了PitchBook的数据——

Right. You've got the exodus of all the talent. You're sort of still scratching your head a little bit about how it all fell apart so fast. You know, I started digging into why and how and what were the corporate transactions that actually happened around here. And, David, I feel like there's more to this story because I pulled up PitchBook to look.

围绕这家公司的交易数量远超你目前提到的规模。

There are a lot more transactions around this company than you've sort of mentioned so far.

哦？真的吗？要是能有档播客深度挖掘这段历史就好了。

Oh, are there? There are. Oh, if only there were a podcast that went and did really deep research on what actually happened here.

没错。各位听众，现在正是感谢我们Acquired新合作伙伴Sentry（拼写为s-e-n-t-r-y，意为哨兵）的好时机。

Yeah. Alright, listeners. This is a great time to thank a new partner of ours here at Acquired, Sentry. That's s e n t r y, like someone standing guard. Yes.

Sentry帮助开发者调试错误和延迟问题，解决各类软件故障，在用户投诉前及时修复。正如其官网所言，它被超过400万开发者评价为'还算不赖'。

Sentry helps developers debug errors and latency issues, pretty much any software problem, and fix them before users get mad. As their homepage puts it, it's considered, quote unquote, not bad by over 4,000,000 software developers.

今天我们讨论的是Sentry如何与被收购宇宙中的另一家公司Anthropic合作。Anthropic曾有一些较旧的基础设施监控系统，但在其庞大的规模和复杂性下，他们转而采用Sentry来更快地发现和解决问题。

So today, we're talking about the way that Sentry works with another company in the acquired universe, Anthropic. Anthropic used to have some older infrastructure monitoring that was in place, but at their massive scale and complexity, they instead adopted Sentry to help them find and fix issues faster.

没错。在AI领域，崩溃可能是个大问题。如果你正在运行像训练模型这样的大型计算任务，而一个节点失败，可能会影响数百或数千台服务器。Sentry帮助他们检测出故障硬件，以便在引发连锁问题前快速剔除。Sentry让他们能在几小时内而非几天内调试大规模问题，从而恢复训练运行。

Yep. Crashes can be a massive problem in AI. If you're running a huge compute job like training a model and one node fails, it can affect hundreds or thousands of servers. Sentry helped them detect bad hardware so they could quickly reject it before causing a cascading problem. Sentry enabled them to debug massive issues in hours instead of days so they could get back to their training runs.

如今，Anthropic依赖Sentry实时跟踪异常、分配错误并分析故障，覆盖其研究团队使用的所有主要语言，包括Python、Rust和C++。据Anthropic团队称，Sentry为我们的开发者提供了一个集中所有调试所需信息的平台。

And today, Anthropic relies on Sentry to track exceptions, assign errors, and analyze failures in real time across all the primary languages used by Anthropics research teams, including Python, Rust, and c plus plus According to the Anthropic team, Sentry gives our developers one place where they have all the information they need to debug an issue.

Sentry世界的另一个有趣更新是，本月起Sentry推出了名为SEER的AI调试器。SEER是一个AI代理，它能利用Sentry的所有问题上下文和你的代码库，不仅猜测问题根源，还能针对你的应用程序提出可直接合并的修复方案。

And one other fun update in the world of Sentry is that as of this month, Sentry now has an AI debugger called SEER. SEER is an AI agent that taps into all the issue context from Sentry and your code base to not just guess, but root cause gnarly issues and propose merge ready fixes specific to your application.

我们非常兴奋能与Sentry合作。他们拥有令人难以置信的客户名单，不仅包括Anthropic，还有Cursor、Vercel、Linear等。如果你想像超过13万家组织那样快速修复问题代码——从独立爱好者到世界顶级公司——可以访问sentry.i0/acquired了解更多，他们为所有Acquired听众提供两个月免费服务。就是Sentry，sentry.i0/acquired，只要告诉他们是本和大卫推荐你的。

We are pumped to be working with Sentry. They've got an incredible customer list, including not only Anthropic, but Cursor, Vercel, Linear, and more. If you wanna fix broken code like the over 130,000 organizations using Sentry from indie hobbyists to some of the biggest companies in the world to find and fix broken code fast. You can check out sentry.i0/acquired to learn more, and they are offering two free months to all Acquired listeners. That's Sentry, sentry,.i0/acquired, and just tell them that Ben and David sent you.

所以大卫，感觉这个故事里缺了些重要内容。

So, David, feels like there's some big things missing from the story here.

是啊。你喜欢我刚讲的那个小故事对吧？

Yeah. You like that little story that I just told you. Right?

这几乎像是个光鲜的杜撰故事。如果你仔细琢磨，会觉得并不满意。

It almost feels high gloss, apocryphal. And if you really stare at it, you're like, I'm not satisfied.

这不可能是真的。

That can't be right.

这还不够。

This is insufficient.

你说的每一点都完全正确。但有趣的是，各位听众，我敢打赌你们大多数人如果知道世嘉衰落的任何版本故事，刚才我们讲述的很可能就是你们熟悉的版本。虽然这个版本没错，但它只是故事的其中一面。另一个版本不仅对日本母公司世嘉更为宽容，而且我认为从中能汲取的教训也更有趣。

Everything you say is exactly correct. The funny thing is though that, like, listeners for you all listening, I bet most of you, if you knew any version of the story of the death of Sega, what we just told was the version you probably know. But while it's not wrong, it's only one version of the story. And the other version is both way more charitable to Sega, the parent company in Japan. Also, I think, way more interesting in terms of, like, lessons we can take from it.

让我们来讲讲这个版本。如果去听我们两集的任天堂传奇故事，途中我们多次谈及世嘉。特别是在第一期任天堂节目里，我们将世嘉描述为街机公司——这确实是它的本质。家用主机业务，比如Genesis和更早的Master System，其实只是这家总部位于日本、庞大且极其成功的街机企业的衍生副业。

So let's tell it. If you go listen to our two part Nintendo saga, we talked quite a bit about Sega along the way. And especially in our first Nintendo episode, when we talked about Sega, we talked about them as this arcade company, and that's actually what Sega was. The home console business, the Genesis, the Master System before it, these were, like, side project offshoots from what was otherwise an enormous and very successful arcade business based back in Japan.

完全正确。它始于四十到五十年代的投币服务游戏，是街机制造商与分销商的合并产物。你甚至讲过那个故事——虽然因时长原因从任天堂那期剪掉了——在《潜望镜》这款极具创新的世嘉游戏里，他们确立了用25美分硬币作为街机游戏的标准收费单位。

Totally. It started as service games back in the, like, forties, fifties, this merger of arcade game makers and arcade distributors. You even had this story that you were telling I think we actually cut this from the Nintendo episode for time. But on Periscope, the Sega, very innovative Sega game, they standardized the unit of the quarter as what you pay for an arcade video game session.

没错。街机产业如今已湮没在历史中，因为它基本不复存在了。但它曾比家用主机产业更庞大，而世嘉正是这个行业的霸主。他们是真正的元老，如你所说，他们literally确立了25美分标准。

Yeah. The arcade industry, it's lost to history now because, basically, it doesn't exist anymore. But it was bigger than the home console industry, and nobody was bigger in the arcade industry than Sega. They were the OGs. They literally standardized the quarter, as you say.

《潜望镜》这款游戏诞生于六十年代，那是电子游戏出现前的时代，属于机电游戏。游戏机台里有会移动的潜艇和船只机械元件，材质是塑料和纸板。

Now that game, Periscope, came out in the sixties. This is before video games. This is what was called an electromechanical game. So there were, like, mechanical elements to this cabinet of submarines and ships that moved around. They were, like, plastic and cardboard.

玩家操作发射器，让鱼雷沿着灯泡照亮的路径击中船只——相当酷炫。由于大获成功，世嘉在1969年就被收购了。

And then you fired a gun that had, like, torpedoes that traveled on a light bulb path to hit the ships. Like, it was pretty cool. But it became so successful. Sega actually gets acquired in 1969.

是的。我在PitchBook看到这个时很震惊，像往常查看融资的私营公司种子投资人那样往下翻，发现世嘉的第一笔交易记录竟在1969年。

Yeah. I was shocked to see this in PitchBook. I scrolled all the way down like I normally do when I'm looking at, like, private companies who raise money to see who their seed investors were, and the first transaction for Sega is from 1969.

对。收购方是海湾西方工业公司，一家大型石油企业

Yes. The company that acquires them is Gulf and Western, which is a big oil company

总部位于

based in

美国。这到底怎么回事？原来当时海湾西方还拥有派拉蒙影业这家电影公司。

The US. So, like, what the hell is going on here? Well, turns out at the time, Gulf and Western also owned Paramount Pictures, the movie studio.

哦，我总在那个小地方看到它，就是，我觉得现在看不到了，就是那个小小的标题画面。对，电影刚开始的时候。

Oh, I've always seen that at the little, like, I don't think you see it anymore, but the little Title screen. Yeah. When the movie's starting.

没错。所以他们收购了世嘉并并入派拉蒙。运营保持独立，世嘉和派拉蒙的董事会也各自独立。但在海湾西方公司内部，世嘉属于派拉蒙帝国的一部分。以至于他们抽调了派拉蒙两位最有才华的高管，让他们加入世嘉的内部董事会，与海湾西方公司共事。

Yep. So they acquire Sega and merge it into Paramount. The operations stay separate, and the, like, boards of Sega and Paramount stay separate. But within Gulf and Western, Sega's part of the Paramount empire. So much so that they take their two most talented Paramount executives, and they put them on the internal Sega board with engulf and western.

你知道那两个人是谁吗？不知道吧。是迈克尔·艾斯纳和巴里·迪勒。

Do you know who those two people are? No. Michael Eisner and Barry Diller.

什么？真的吗？我完全不知道。

What? Right? I had no idea.

所以迈克尔·艾斯纳和巴里·迪勒其实是世嘉历史中的关键人物。

So Michael Eisner and Barry Diller are, like, key parts of the Sega history.

而且所有

And all

这些，我们讨论的所有事情，都发生在雅达利之前。那时还没有家用游戏机业务，电子游戏产业都还不存在。这就是世嘉在街机领域的重要性。

of this, all we're talking about, this is before Atari. This is before there is a home console business. This is before there's a video game business, period. This is how important Sega is in arcades.

比迈克尔·艾斯纳成为迪士尼CEO早了20年，更远早于巴里·迪勒构想出互动公司。

20 before Michael Eisner becomes the CEO of Disney and long before Barry Dillard dreams up Interactive Corp.

对。这是1970年代的事。我们在任天堂系列里也聊过雅达利如何被华纳兄弟收购，当时这很疯狂。就像，雅达利这个游戏公司成了电影工作室的一部分，然后变成了这个电影工作室最大的部分。华纳兄弟其实是在模仿派拉蒙和他们对世嘉的操作。

Yep. This is in the nineteen seventies. So we also talked on the Nintendo series about how Atari got acquired by Warner Brothers, and this was this crazy. Like, Atari, this video game company becomes part of this movie studio, and then it becomes the biggest part of this movie studio. Warner Brothers was just copying Paramount and what they did with Sega.

是不是很有意思？

Isn't that so funny?

疯狂。

Wild.

世嘉在此期间采取的战略之一，是他们成为一家真正国际化的公司，因为街机业务本身就是全球性产业。他们在美国蓬勃发展，在日本风生水起，在欧洲乃至全世界都蒸蒸日上。他们不仅开始研发这些游戏和街机设备，还着手建立并运营自己的街机中心。

So part of the strategy that Sega adopts during this time, they're, like, a truly international company because the arcade business was a truly international business. They're thriving in The US. They're thriving in Japan. They're thriving in Europe, all over the world. They start not only building and creating these games, these arcade cabinets, they started building out their own arcade centers that they operate.

他们的理念是：我们要在这个行业里全方位赚钱。所以在日本叫家庭娱乐中心，在美国叫世嘉中心。美国的世嘉中心几经转手后更名，但世嘉始终参与其中，最终演变为'Time Out'街机连锁——美国最大的街机连锁品牌之一。

They're like, we're gonna make money every which way in this industry. So they're called family fun centers in Japan and Sega centers in The US. The Sega centers in The US change hands a few times, go on to get rebranded. Sega always stays involved. These become time out arcades, which is one of the biggest chain of arcades in The US.

哇哦。明白了。

Woah. Okay.

世嘉拥有数百家这样的街机厅，简直就是印钞机——他们既通过向自家和其他街机厅出售设备赚钱，街机厅本身又是利润极其丰厚的生意。

So Sega's got hundreds of these arcades that they are just printing cash out of because they're making money from selling the cabinets to their own arcades and other arcades. And then the arcades themselves are, like, hugely profitable businesses.

没错。很多街机厅的外墙上都贴着巨大的世嘉标志。显然这是家不仅专注家用主机，更致力于游戏开发的公司。

Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of arcades that when you look at the side of them, have a gigantic SEGA logo plastered over it. I mean, clearly, a company focused not just on home consoles, but, like, making games.

是的。当你说'不仅专注家用主机'时，从母公司角度来说，他们根本不想碰家用主机业务。现在你能看到事情的另一面了：1981年世嘉发行了科乐美制作的《青蛙过街》，靠这个游戏赚了数亿美元。

Yeah. When you say a company focused not just on home consoles, from the parent company's perspective, they'd rather not focus on home consoles at all. So now you can start to see another perspective on things here. In 1981, Sega publishes the game Frogger that Konami had made, but Sega published it. They made hundreds of millions of dollars on that thing.

1983年，就在雅达利引发的家用游戏机市场崩溃前夕，作为派拉蒙旗下部门的世嘉实现了2.14亿美元营收。当年年底游戏业崩盘后，派拉蒙和华纳兄弟对待雅达利一样，想退出游戏业务。于是世嘉原创始人之一大卫·罗森，与被世嘉收购的日本公司企业家中山隼雄，联手以总价3800万美元完成了管理层收购——不知道这个数字是否收录在PitchBook里。

In 1983, right before the home video game console crash led by Atari, they do 214,000,000 in revenue, Sega does, as a division within kind of Paramount. Then when the video game crash happens at the end of that year, Paramount, just like Warner Brothers and Atari, they want out of the business. So they wanna divest Sega. And one of the original founders from back in the day, a guy named David Rosen, and a Japanese entrepreneur of a company Sega had acquired named Hayao Nakayama, they engineer a management buyout of Sega for the grand total price. I don't know if this is in PitchBook, of $38,000,000.

这简直是世纪大捡漏。

This is the steal of the century.

确实。1984年有笔交易记录，投资方显示是CSK控股。

Yes, actually. There's a transaction in 1984. Looks like the investor name is CSK Holdings.

没错，就是这样。CSK控股是一家日本上市公司，罗森和中村认识其管理层。他们为这次收购提供了资金，相当于扮演了私募基金的角色。

Yes. That's it. So CSK Holdings was a public Japanese company that Rosen and Nakayama knew the management of. They financed this buyout. They were like the PE shop.

他们是这笔交易的发起方。哦，有意思。这就是世嘉如何成为真正日本公司的过程，尽管它最初是由美国人为服务军事基地而创立的。

They were the sponsor of this transaction. Oh, interesting. And this is how Sega becomes an actual Japanese company, even though they were started by Americans to serve military bases back in the day.

对。好的。所以先被海湾西方工业全资收购，然后又完全分拆出来。

Right. Okay. So wholly bought out by Gulf and Western, then wholly spun out.

是的。他们仅以3800万美元就买下了整个公司。这简直荒谬——这家街机行业的传奇公司，在交易前半年结束的财年里营收达2.14亿美元。

Yes. They bought the whole thing for only $38,000,000. Like, this is ridiculous. This company, which is legendary in the arcade industry, did $214,000,000 in the year ended six months before this.

为什么估值这么低？

Why did they value it so little?

关键就在这里。由于美国家用游戏机市场崩盘，电子游戏整体成了没人想要的毒资产，特别是派拉蒙和华纳兄弟正在剥离雅达利。虽然街机业务也受到冲击，但实际上运营良好。所以这简直是笔惊人的交易。

This is the thing. Because of the home video game crash in America, video games in general just became this toxic asset that nobody wanted to own, especially, you know, Paramount, and Warner Brothers was divesting Atari. So the arcade business, yeah, got hit by the crash, but it actually was fine. And so this was just an amazing deal.

管理层抄底是因为他们知道公司并未真正受到影响。

Management bought the dip because they knew that they weren't actually really affected by this.

他们可真是赚大了。

Boy, did they ever.

我记得那是1984年。后来他们在1988年于东京证券交易所上市，现在成了上市公司。

So then I think that was in 1984. They would go on to take it public, I think, in 1988 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. So now it's a publicly traded company.

没错。这很合理，因为收购后不久世嘉就重操旧业并大获成功，接连推出《Outrun》（很多人可能听过的著名赛车游戏）、《Shinobi》、《Afterburner》和《Altered Beast》等街机爆款——后者是我们任天堂专题里聊过的格斗游戏。

Yep. That makes sense because pretty quickly after the buyout, Sega gets back to their old tricks, and they're crushing it. They're pumping out Smash arcade hits like Outrun, people might have heard of, very famous racing game, Shinobi, Afterburner, Altered Beast, which was a kind of beat them up brawler that we talked about on the Nintendo episodes.

那是Genesis主机推出前游戏里的原始包。所以他们又回来了

That was the original pack in game before Sonic with the Genesis. So they're back

在街机业务上重新赚取数亿美元，既制作游戏又在自己经营的街机中心运营。中山隼雄是参与收购的两人之一。

to making hundreds of millions of dollars in their arcade business, both making the games and operating them in their own arcade centers. Nakayama, who was one of the two guys involved in the buyout.

中山和罗森因此变得极其富有，因为他们当初购买股权时支付的金额低得难以置信，等到公司上市时这些股权已经价值连城。

And Nakayama and Rosen had to get hugely wealthy from this because of how unbelievably little they paid for the equity that by the time they IPO ed it would have been very valuable.

没错。虽然不清楚细节，但我确信他们赚翻了。中山开始推动公司转型，他对任天堂的动向和NES的表现感到担忧，于是提出我们应该进军家用主机市场。

Yes. I don't know the details, but I'm sure they did. Nakayama, he starts pushing the company. He gets worried about what Nintendo's doing and what he sees with the NES. And he says, we should also enter the home console business.

所以这像是个多元化赌注。

So it's like a diversification bet.

正是如此。罗森、CSK和其他董事会成员并不太支持，因为他们觉得街机业务已经很成功了，不太在意这个提议。不过既然中山坚持，就让他去尝试。于是中山找来了汤姆·卡林斯基负责北美业务。

Exactly. Rosen, CSK, the rest of the board, they're not that supportive, because they're like, we're doing great in arcades. Like, I don't really care that much. But sure, if you care about this, go do this. And that's when Nakayama goes, and he recruits Tom Kalinski to come in and run North America.

Genesis在北美取得的成功让所有人都感到意外。还记得我们在任天堂第二部里讨论的场景吗？汤姆带着推翻任天堂的四点计划向日本董事会汇报时，那些日本董事们满脸写着‘我不确定，不太喜欢这个计划’。现在一切都说得通了。

It's kind of like a surprising success to everyone, the Genesis in North America. You know, there's the scene that we talked about in Nintendo part two where Tom comes over and presents his four point plan for dethroning Nintendo to the board in Japan. And the Japanese board is like, I don't know. Like, I don't really like this. Now it all makes sense.

他们并不愚蠢，只是觉得：既然我们在街机市场大获成功，为什么要冒险把大量资金投入家用主机业务？

They're not dumb. They're just like, why would we risk pouring all this capital into the home console business when we're killing it in the arcades?

一方面这是创新者的窘境，另一方面街机业务确实长期保持着良好的现金流，这个市场并没有真正萎缩。

And on the one hand, it's an innovator's dilemma. On the other hand, I have to imagine arcades stayed a very good cash flow business for a long time. It's not like that was actually going away.

让我们深入探讨。事实证明，任天堂的NES和超级NES等家用主机业务从未真正威胁到街机行业。因为街机的技术硬件运作方式与主机周期截然不同，游戏类型也各异。街机领域全是迭代更新，持续不断的迭代。

Well, let's get into it. So Nintendo and the NES and the Super NES and the home console business turned out was never really a threat to the arcade business. Because the way arcade technology and hardware worked was very different than the console cycle, and the types of games were different. In the arcades, it was all iterative. It was constant iteration.

当时每款游戏推出时都有专属的硬件机台，它们基于特定设计架构。这些被称为基板，即街机基板，但每次都可以进行调整。想想世嘉在家用主机上推出的各种外设，对他们来说这种做法就很合理。

Every game that came out was its own proprietary hardware cabinet, and they were based on designs. They're called boards. They're arcade boards, but you could tweak it each time. You think about what Sega's pushing with all their add ons to the home console. Of course, that would make sense to them.

这就是他们研发团队的工作方式。他们会有一个核心基础平台，比如称为System 16——这是世嘉16位街机的基准平台，Genesis主机就是基于它开发的。没错，我刚才提到的所有游戏，《忍》《Outrun》等等都运行在这个平台上。但每款新游戏都会对硬件做些微调。

That's the way their R and D team worked. They'd have, like, a core base, you know, call it the system 16, which was Sega's kinda base 16 bit arcade platform that they based the Genesis on. Yeah. All these games I was just talking about, Shinobi, Outrun, etcetera, they ran on that. But each new game, like, they tweaked the hardware a little bit.

这是个迭代演进的过程。

It was iterative.

所以他们实际上不需要考虑'要为开发者建立未来五年通用的标准平台'，因为每个机台都是独立系统。这种'五年不变，为开发者打造稳定基础平台'的理念，本质上就不符合他们的基因。

So they didn't actually have to think about we need to create a standard platform for developers to target for the next five years because every cabinet was its own self contained system. So it's not really in their DNA to, like, do a once every five plus year. This is the standard thing, and we promise not to change it, and we will create a bedrock platform for you developers. That's not really a thing.

是的。这对市场意味着：街机产业不仅存活，还蓬勃发展。这个时代技术最先进的游戏都在街机领域，因为硬件更新是迭代式的。家用系统——即便是革命性的NES——由于主机周期必须设计得持久，反而无法承载最新技术。所以世嘉用Genesis对抗任天堂时，强调对方游戏节奏缓慢、缺乏刺激，而这正是家用主机游戏的常态。

Yes. And so that means couple things for the market that keep the arcade market not just viable, but thriving. The arcades are where the most technologically advanced games are during this era because the hardware cycle is so iterative. The home systems, even the NES, as amazingly groundbreaking as it was, because the console cycles have to be designed to last so long, that's not where the latest cutting edge stuff is. And so those games, the Nintendo games that they're making, you know, the way Sega counter positioned against them with the Genesis, they're slow, they're not exciting, but that's what home console games became.

家用游戏逐渐演变成这些长篇冒险、幻想世界，与街机体验截然不同。

They became these long adventures, these fantasy lands, a very different thing than you would do in the arcades.

有道理。

Makes sense.

进入90年代早中期，世嘉街机部门势不可挡。80年代那些爆款让他们赚得盆满钵满，随后他们开始全力突破技术边界，创新成果层出不穷。

So coming out of this era and then into the early and mid nineties, Sega's arcade unit is just killing it. They had had those hits in the eighties. Everybody got super wealthy. And then they start really pushing the envelope on technology. There was a ton of innovation coming out of Sega.

他们开发了首批真正优秀的现代3D游戏。虽然现在人们认为《超级马里奥64》是首个被消费者喜爱的3D游戏，但实际上早在前几年，世嘉就在街机推出了VR系列——《VR赛车》《VR战警》，最重要的是《VR战士》。这款格斗游戏采用了3D多边形技术。

They developed the first real modern great three d games. We all think now of Super Mario 64 as being the first three d video game that consumers used and loved. Actually, years before, Sega put out the Virtua series in the arcades. So this was Virtua Racing, Virtua Cop, and most importantly, Virtua Fighter. Now this game, Virtua Fighter, which was a fighting game, it used three d polygonal technology.

回想16位超任游戏，它们都是平面2D的。而像《马里奥64》这样的3D游戏，你是在三维世界里奔跑，所有场景和角色都用多边形构建——我们在英伟达那期节目里详细讨论过这个。

If you think back to 16 bit Super Nintendo games, they're flat. They're two d. Three d games, like think Mario 64, you're running around in a three d world. All of the environments and characters are built using polygonal math. We talked about this a lot on the NVIDIA episode.

没错。三角形。三角形。这是新东西。世嘉是真正将优秀游戏带入市场的公司，而且全都在街机领域。

Right. Triangles. Triangles. This is new. Sega is the one that actually brought really good games to market with this, and it was all in the arcades.

所以《VR战士》在1993年问世时大受欢迎。世嘉以每台1万多美元的价格在全球售出超过4万台《VR战士》街机。仅这一项就带来5亿美元收入。哇。这对公司来说是巨大的财务成功。

So Virtua Fighter, when it comes out in 1993, is so popular. Sega sells over 40,000 Virtua Fighter cabinets worldwide at a price of, like, $10,000 plus per cabinet. So that's half a billion dollars in revenue on Virtua Fighter. Wow. So it's a huge win financially for the company.

但更重要的是，它对电子游戏产业影响深远。《VR战士》问世后，所有人都意识到：3D多边形游戏就是未来。

Even more so though, it's so impactful on the video game industry. Once Virtua Fighter comes out, everybody realizes, hey, three d polygonal games are the future.

这是哪一年的事？

And what year was this?

1993年。当时久夛良木健和索尼团队正在研发独立PlayStation。他们已与任天堂分道扬镳，准备推出自己的主机。

This was 1993. Right. As Ken Kutoragi and the team over at Sony are working on their standalone PlayStation. They've broken up with Nintendo. They're gonna come to market with their own console.

这具有决定性意义。我想引用PlayStation主机维基百科的内容：'索尼目睹1993年世嘉《VR战士》在日本街机的成功后，PlayStation的发展方向立即变得清晰'，3D多边形图形成为主机的主要焦点。索尼电脑娱乐总裁感谢世嘉及时推出《VR战士》，因为它'恰好在关键时刻证明了3D图像游戏的可行性，这正是PlayStation应该专注的方向'。其影响极为深远。

And this is pivotal. So I wanna read now from the Wikipedia page for the PlayStation one console. After Sony witnessed the success of Sega's Virtua Fighter in 1993 in Japanese arcades, the direction of the PlayStation became, quote, instantly clear, and three d polygon graphics became the console's primary focus. Sony Computer Entertainment president expressed gratitude for Sega's timely release of Virtua Fighter as it proved, quote, just at the right time that making games with three d imagery was possible and that this was the direction the PlayStation should focus. So the impact of this is huge.

九十年代街机仍具竞争力，因其技术领先。但如今索尼即将入场，他们不关心街机。他们将把所有技术和财力投入家用市场，目标是打造能与街机技术匹敌的家用设备。

Arcades remained viable through the nineties because they had the technological edge. But now Sony is gonna come enter the market, and they don't care about arcades. They're gonna bring their technology and financial firepower all to the home market. And their goal now is to make a machine that can rival the arcade technology in the home market.

而且他们有财力补贴，可以采取策略：以消费者能承受的价格，将尖端技术带入家庭市场。

And they have the balance sheet to subsidize it, so they can take a strategy of coming into the home with very, very good technology at a price point that consumers could afford.

没错。时间来到1993-1994年。索尼宣布将推出PlayStation，全力进军电子游戏市场。他们开始游说所有非世嘉系街机厂商——南梦宫、美国Midway、科乐美。

Yep. So here we are now, the 1993 into 1994. Sony has announced that they're coming out with the PlayStation. They're all in on entering the video game market. They start going around and talking to all of the non Sega arcade manufacturers, Namco, Midway in The US, Konami.

并说服这些厂商将所有新街机游戏直接移植到PlayStation。1994年在日本首发、1995年登陆美国时，它被标榜为'街机杀手'。虽然后来远不止于此——它成就了《侠盗猎车手》。

And they start convincing them to bring all of their new arcade games directly to the PlayStation. When it first comes out in 1994 in Japan and then 1995 in The US, It's an arcade killer. That's what it is billed as. It becomes so much more than that over time. It is Grand Theft Auto.

这就是《最终幻想》的全部意义。但在最初，PlayStation的愿景是：我们要将街机的技术火力带入家庭市场，以任天堂无法做到、世嘉不愿采用的方式实现。

It's Final Fantasy. It's all that. But in the beginning, the vision for the PlayStation was we're gonna take the technological firepower of the arcades, and we are gonna bring that in a way that Nintendo can't and Sega won't into the

家庭市场。当然，其他所有街机厂商都喜爱这个策略。

home market. And, of course, all the other arcade manufacturers love this strategy.

没错。我们可以借助索尼平台进军客厅市场获利，但世嘉将在这场风潮中陷入困境。

Right. We can benefit from riding the Sony platform into the living room, but Sega is gonna get caught in the wind here.

因为他们已有家用主机，这使他们无法与其他家用主机平台结盟。

Because they have a home console that's making it so that they can't go align with another home console.

南梦宫没有家用主机。科乐美没有家用主机。Midway也没有家用主机。在PlayStation发售前，全球街机产业年产值已回升至约70亿美元，其中很大部分由世嘉掌控。而PlayStation发售后，到90年代末，这个数字已降至20亿美元。

Namco doesn't have a home console. Konami doesn't have a home console. Midway doesn't have a home console. So before the PlayStation launched, the arcade industry was back up to about $7,000,000,000 a year globally, and a huge portion of that was controlled by Sega. After the PlayStation launches, by the end of the decade, it's down to $2,000,000,000.

哇哦。短短几年内暴跌60%，这完全归因于PlayStation的冲击。

So Woah. It drops by 60% in just a few short years, and it's all due to the PlayStation.

所以PlayStation基本上摧毁了世嘉的街机业务和主机业务。

So the PlayStation basically killed Sega's arcade business and their console business.

没错。事实就是如此。现在让我们重新审视那些传统主机战争书籍的叙事——我们此刻拥有了全新的视角。

Yep. That's what happened. Wow. So now let's go look at this kind of original console wars book type narrative about what happened. We have a whole different perspective now.

所有那些疯狂的硬件分裂式外设，其实都是对索尼海啸般攻势的恐慌反应，他们不仅担忧家庭市场，更恐惧失去街机领域的统治地位。

All this crazy hardware schizophrenic add ons, these are, like, panicked responses to the coming tsunami of Sony, not just worrying about the home market, but worried about their arcade dominance as well.

我猜想，日本世嘉在某刻失去了打造强力竞争性主机的动力，因为这正是阻碍他们与索尼合作的关键。这并不意味着他们会立即停止主机制造，但确实埋下了战略矛盾的种子——我们要么全力投入主机战争并取胜，要么就专注游戏开发。是的，我们不可能在两者间摇摆不定，脚踏两条船。

And I have to imagine at some point, Sega of Japan lost their desire to make a great competitive home console because that was the thing that was preventing them from being able to be in business with Sony. Now it doesn't mean that they're gonna stop making consoles right away, but it does sort of plant this seed of, we have a little bit of a strategy conflict here where we either have to be all in and winning in consoles, or we just need to make games. Yes. But we can't really be on a seesaw kinda trying to do both and have a foot in both worlds.

事情是这样的。1994年9月，就在这款疯狂的32x产品问世前夕，索尼与南梦宫——当时南梦宫还是世嘉在街机业务上的最大竞争对手——联手发布了一个足以改变行业的重大公告。他们将合作推出一款号称'VR战士杀手'的街机游戏《铁拳》。大家可能都听说过《铁拳》系列。好吧，我当时完全不知情。

So here's what happened. In September 1994, right before this crazy 32 x thing comes out, Sony and Namco, when now Namco was Sega's biggest rival in the arcade business, they come out with a pretty huge industry changing announcement. They're gonna partner together to release a, quote, unquote, Virtua Fighter Killer arcade game called Tekken. Folks might recognize the Tekken series. Well, I had no idea.

《铁拳》的意义远不止于此。这款游戏将在PlayStation首发时同步登陆。虽然还没上市，但确实很棒。好吧，我们都记得《铁拳》。

Tekken is so much more than Tekken. The game is gonna come to the PlayStation when it launches. It's not out yet, but, yeah, like, great. Okay. We all remember Tekken.

你们在PlayStation上玩过。我记得是独占游戏之类的。但它也将在1994年9月登陆街机市场。实际上，它将运行在南梦宫与索尼联合开发的全新System 11街机基板上。猜猜怎么着？

You played on the PlayStation. I think it was an exclusive, etcetera. But it's also coming out right now in September 1994 in the arcades. And in fact, it's gonna be running on Namco's awesome new System 11 arcade board platform that they have developed together with Sony. And guess what?

更令人惊讶的是，这个与索尼共同开发的System 11街机基板就是PlayStation。哇哦。这简直是对世嘉的终极背刺。

Further surprise, this System 11 arcade board developed with Sony is the PlayStation. Woah. So this is just the ultimate knife in Sega's back.

他们基本上就是把PlayStation主机装进了这些街机框体里？

They're just basically shipping PlayStations inside of these arcade cabinets?

没错。就是PlayStation的硬件。虽然做了一些强化处理。但南梦宫以及很快其他街机厂商都会觉得：太好了，我们要把整个街机产业的开发平台都迁移到PlayStation平台上。

Yeah. It was the PlayStation hardware. Like, there was some buffs to it and whatnot. But Namco and now Freddy soon, all the other arcade guys, they're gonna be like, oh, great. We're moving all of our development platform for the arcade industry to the PlayStation platform.

技术最前沿现在将同时存在于街机厅的PlayStation和家用PlayStation上。哇。

The technological bleeding edge is now gonna be, yeah, also in the arcades powered by the PlayStation, but in the home powered by the PlayStation. Wow.

真是特洛伊木马。

What a Trojan horse.

所以世嘉当时就慌了：糟了，我们完蛋了。必须紧急出动，尽一切可能阻止这场灾难。于是他们推出了32x。看起来很蠢，但他们必须做点什么。

So now Sega is like, oh, shoot. We are screwed. We need to scramble the jets and just do anything we can to try and stave off this apocalypse. So they launched the 32 x. Seems really dumb, but they gotta do something.

就像：好吧，我们必须立即推出32位主机，试图抢占先机对抗索尼和PlayStation的发布。然后他们大幅提前了土星主机的发售。为什么这么做？原因相同。

Like, okay. We need to get into market right now with a 32 bit system to just try and preempt Sony here and the PlayStation launch. Then they massively accelerate the Saturn launch. Why did they do that? The same thing.

他们现在就是绞尽脑汁想尽办法，试图从索尼那里抢走一些风头。

They're just trying to do anything they can think of to steal some of Sony's thunder here.

是啊，有道理。

Yeah. Makes sense.

街机业务领域的野蛮人已经攻破城门——南梦宫今天开始发售System 11街机框体，而明年PlayStation将兵临城下。

The barbarian is already through the gates on the arcade side of the business because Namco's shipping these system 11 arcade cabinets today, and it's right at the gates coming next year with the PlayStation.

有趣的是，在我们任天堂那期节目里，冲突是世嘉对阵任天堂，但世嘉真正的生死对决其实是和索尼。没错。

It's funny how much in our Nintendo episode, the conflict was Sega versus Nintendo, but the death of Sega really is against Sony. Yes.

这就引出了1995年5月那场著名的E3展会。这可能是游戏史上最震撼的行业盛会。我们节目前面提到过，现在重点说说这场发布会——索尼预计将在此公布PlayStation的美国发售日期和售价，大家都猜测会在秋季上市。

So that brings us to the very famous e three conference in May 1995. And this is maybe the most incredible video game industry event of all time. We referenced it earlier in the show, but we're heading into the conference. Sony is expected to announce The US release date and pricing of the PlayStation at this conference. People expect it's gonna be in the fall.

你根本预料不到接下来会发生什么。世嘉必须采取行动，于是日本世嘉总部命令卡林斯基和美国世嘉：立即突袭发售。

You don't kinda know what's gonna happen. Sega, they need to do something. And so this is when Sega of Japan tells Kalinsky and Sega of America, do the surprise launch.

直接上台宣布土星主机上市。别管生态系统还没准备好，硬件到位了就开卖。

Get up there. Announce the Saturn. Just do it. Even though the ecosystem isn't ready, the hardware is ready, so we're shipping it.

说卖就卖。于是汤姆照做了，他尽职地登上舞台宣布：忘了土星日吧，现在就能买到主机。

We're shipping it. So Tom does that. He dutifully goes up. He announces, oh, forget Saturn Day. You can buy the console now.

限量供应，指定零售商售价399美元。

It's in limited quantities at select retailers for a price of $3.99.

他这么做纯粹是因为日本总部放话：要么照办，要么我们就换一个能照办的美国世嘉CEO。没错，399美元。

And he's basically doing this because Japan has said, either you are doing this or we will find a new CEO for Sega of America who can do this. Yes. $3.99.

这就是世嘉土星的价格定位。1995年5月11日，即日起发售。于是卡尔林斯基结束演讲走下台，工作人员引导所有人离场。

That is the Sega Saturn price point. Available today, 05/11/1995. So Kalinsky finishes his speech. He walks off stage. They usher everybody out of the room.

会场迅速翻台，准备迎接当天下一场主题演讲——索尼发布会。几小时后，索尼美国总裁兼所有业务负责人奥拉夫·奥拉夫森（不仅是PlayStation，涵盖索尼全部业务）登台亮相。

They turn it over. They get ready for the next keynote of the day, which is going to be Sony. Sony keynote starts a couple hours later. Olaf Olaf Olafsen, who's the president and head of all of Sony America, so, like, not just the PlayStation, all of Sony's businesses. He gets on stage.

他开始演讲时宣布，PlayStation将于1995年9月9日在美国发售。世嘉方面顿时松了口气：太好了，他们没提前发售。

He starts giving his presentation. He says that the PlayStation will release in The US on 09/09/1995. So Sega's like, phew. Great. They're not moving it up.

我们可以抢先一步，今天就开始销售，领先四个月优势。紧接着奥拉夫邀请索尼电脑娱乐美国新总裁史蒂夫·雷斯（原世嘉美国高管）上台做个所谓的简短演示。

We're gonna beat them to the punch. We're live today. We got a four month head start. Let's go. And then Olaf invites the new head of Sony Computer Entertainment America, one Steve Race, formerly of Sega of America, up to the podium to give a, quote, unquote, brief presentation.

他缓步走向讲台，抱着一大叠笔记放在演讲台上，来回整理纸张，稍作停顿。

He walks slowly up to the podium. He's got a large stack of notes. He places them down on the lectern. He shuffles them around. He waits a beat.

准备开始重要演讲时，他抬头环视观众席说道：二百九十九美元。随即收起笔记离场。这堪称电子游戏史上最伟大的瞬间——业界普遍认同这一评价。

He's ready to give his big speech. He looks up. He looks at the audience, and he says, two ninety nine. And then he picks up his notes, and he walks off stage. And this is I think most people in the industry, I think, would agree that this is the greatest moment in all of video game industry history.

没错，就行业发布会而言。

Right. Of industry announcement type things.

是的。

Yes.

好的。所以索尼PlayStation初代在二月份以当时市场上最先进的系统问世。

Alright. So that's Sony PlayStation '1, February for by far the most sophisticated system on the market.

我们会在节目备注里附上这段视频链接，YouTube上就能看到。时至今日仍有人观看，现场反应堪称传奇——先是全场寂静，因为大家都懵了：他刚才说什么？

We will link to the video of this in the show notes. It's on YouTube. I mean, people still watch this to this day. The reaction is amazing. At first, there's silence, because people are like, what did he just say?

这意味着什么？发生了什么？然后人群开始欢呼。大约二十秒后，当人们真正意识到这意味着什么时，现场沸腾了。又掀起一波欢呼声。

What does this mean? What's going on? And then the crowd starts cheering. And then you can hear after about, like, twenty seconds or so when this really sinks in of what this means, people go nuts. There's, like, another wave of cheering.

简直难以置信。

It's unbelievable.

最后那波欢呼就像是开发者们突然醒悟，天啊。我们要赚大钱了，因为会有无数人购买这个产品。

It's like that last wave is all the developers realizing, oh my god. We are going to print money because there's gonna be so many people buying this thing.

1995年5月11日下午的这个瞬间，就是世嘉的死亡时刻。让我们回顾一下家用游戏机业务飞轮中的三个关键群体。首先是消费者。在5月11日土星主机发售当天，没有任何索尼克游戏、总共只有六款游戏、售价399美元的情况下，消费者凭什么要买世嘉土星？尤其是现在大家都知道，性能远超土星的PlayStation四个月后就会上市，完美移植最新最棒的街机游戏，价格还更便宜。

This exact moment in the afternoon of 05/11/1995 is the death of Sega. Because let's go back and think about the three key constituencies in the video game home console business kinda flywheel. You've got the consumers. Why on earth would any consumer go buy a Sega Saturn today on May 11 on its launch day that has no Sonic game, has only six games total, and it costs $3.99. When you now know that the PlayStation, which is far superior, is gonna come out just four months later, they're gonna have perfect ports of all the latest and greatest arcade technology video games, and it's gonna cost less.

哇哦。没人会买土星主机了。这是消费者层面。再看零售商。零售商对世嘉愤怒至极。

Wow. You're not gonna buy a Saturn. So that's the consumers. Then the retailers. The retailers are so mad at Sega.

世嘉彻底打乱了他们整个假日季的计划。对零售商来说，第四季度就是一切。为什么游戏主机要在秋季登陆美国？就是为了迎接假日季。世嘉把这一切都搞砸了。更重要的是，现在他们明知运往商店的货根本卖不出去了。

Sega just completely ruined all of their holiday season planning. Because for retailers, q four is everything. And why are these consoles launching in the fall in The US so that it can be ready for the holidays? Sega just screwed all this up. And now more importantly, they've got units on trucks en route to their stores that they know they're not gonna be able to sell now.

所以他们如此痛恨世嘉。我记得当时美国大型连锁玩具商KB Toys直接终止合作，表示不再销售世嘉产品。再见。

So they are so mad at Sega. I think it was KB Toys, which then was a big franchise in America. They drop Sega entirely. They're like, we're not carrying your stuff anymore. Goodbye.

你们出局了。最后是最重要的第三方开发者。所有在E3展会观看主题演讲的第三方开发商都意识到：我们能在索尼平台上赚大钱，而土星主机根本不可能建立有意义的用户基础。所以原本计划为土星开发游戏的厂商，现在都要取消计划了。

You're gone. And then you've got the most important piece, the developers. All the third party developers who are sitting there at e three watching these keynotes, they're like, wow. We're gonna make a ton of money on Sony, and Saturn has no chance of building a meaningful install base. So, like, if I was planning on developing games for the Saturn, I am now canceling those plans.

这对世嘉、土星主机及其街机业务而言，堪称最糟糕的灾难。

This is just the worst thing that could possibly happen to Sega and the Saturn and the arcade business.

听众朋友们可以想象，要发展到我们即将讨论的2023年世嘉——看看他们如今的游戏业务状况——需要经历多么艰难的转型。大卫，我有几个关于他们转型的冷门故事，不知道能否难倒你。现在正是感谢节目好友ServiceNow的好时机。我们曾讲述过ServiceNow的传奇起源，以及他们如何成为过去十年表现最出色的企业之一，但仍有听众询问ServiceNow具体是做什么的。

Now, listeners, as you can imagine, there is a tough path that they have to now traverse to get to the 2023 Sega that we're gonna talk about and what they look like as a games business today. David, I have a couple of stories that I don't think you know about how they made that transition. So I'm curious to know if I will stump you with that or not. Now is a great time to thank good friend of the show, ServiceNow. We have talked to listeners about ServiceNow's amazing origin story and how they've been one of the best performing companies the last decade, but we've gotten some questions from listeners about what ServiceNow actually does.

所以今天，我们将回答这个问题。

So today, we are gonna answer that question.

首先，最近媒体频繁使用的一个说法是，ServiceNow被称作企业级AI操作系统。但具体来说，ServiceNow始于22年前，最初仅专注于自动化。他们将实体文书工作转化为软件流程，最初服务于企业内部的IT部门。仅此而已。随着时间的推移，他们在这个平台上构建了更强大、更复杂的任务处理能力。

Well, to start, a phrase that has been used often here recently in the press is that ServiceNow is the, quote, unquote, AI operating system for the enterprise. But to make that more concrete, ServiceNow started twenty two years ago focused simply on automation. They turned physical paperwork into software workflows initially for the IT department within enterprises. That was it. And over time, they built on this platform going to more powerful and complex tasks.

他们的服务范围从IT扩展到人力资源、财务、客户服务、现场运营等部门。在过去二十年的发展过程中，ServiceNow已经完成了连接企业各个角落、实现自动化所需的繁琐基础工作。

They were expanding from serving just IT to other departments like HR, finance, customer service, field operations, and more. And in the process over the last two decades, ServiceNow has laid all the tedious groundwork necessary to connect every corner of the enterprise and enable automation to happen.

因此当AI时代来临时，从定义上讲，AI本质上就是高度复杂的任务自动化。而谁已经构建了支持这种自动化的平台和企业连接网络？正是ServiceNow。所以回答‘ServiceNow如今做什么’这个问题时，他们自称‘连接并赋能每个部门’绝非虚言。

So when AI arrived well, AI kinda just by definition is massively sophisticated task automation. And who had already built the platform and the connective tissue with enterprises to enable that automation? ServiceNow. So to answer the question, what does ServiceNow do today? We mean it when they say they connect and power every department.

IT和人力资源部门用它管理全公司的人员、设备和软件许可；客户服务部门用它检测支付失败并路由到内部正确的团队或流程解决问题；供应链组织用它进行产能规划，整合其他部门的数据和计划确保协同一致。不再需要在不同系统间反复输入相同数据。最近ServiceNow还推出了AI代理，任何岗位的员工都能创建AI代理处理繁琐事务，从而专注于更具战略性的工作。

IT and HR use it to manage people, devices, software licenses across the company. Customer service uses ServiceNow for things like detecting payment failures and routing to the right team or process internally to solve it. Or the supply chain org uses it for capacity planning, integrating with data and plans from other departments to ensure that everybody's on the same page. No more swivel chairing between apps to enter the same data multiple times in different places. And just recently, ServiceNow launched AI agents so that anyone working in any job can spin up an AI agent to handle the tedious stuff, freeing up humans for bigger picture work.

ServiceNow去年入选《财富》全球最受赞赏公司榜单和《快公司》最佳创新者工作场所，正是源于这一愿景。若您希望在业务各领域利用ServiceNow的规模与速度优势，请访问servicenow.com/acquired，只需告知是Ben和David推荐即可。

ServiceNow was named to Fortune's world's most admired companies list last year and Fast Company's best workplace for innovators last year, and it's because of this vision. If you wanna take advantage of the scale and speed of ServiceNow in every corner of your business, go to servicenow.com/acquired, and just tell them that Ben and David sent you.

感谢ServiceNow。好了David，有几个事情不知道你是否了解。我之前提到过有些人通过SEGA积累了巨额个人财富，其中一位就是冈谷稔。

Thanks, ServiceNow. Okay. So, David, here are a few things that I was curious if you knew about. So I planted the seed earlier with the idea that some people personally accumulated a lot of wealth through SEGA. One of these people was Isao Okawa.

是的，CSK的董事长对吧？

Yes. The chairman of CSK. Right?

没错。他后来成为了SEGA的董事长。1999年，他曾个人借款5亿美元给SEGA。到2001年2月，局势已很明朗——他生命将尽之际，竟免除了SEGA的债务，并返还了价值6.95亿美元的SEGA和CSK股票。

Yes. Exactly. And then ultimately became the chairman of SEGA. So in 1999, he had loaned SEGA $500,000,000. I believe personally, in 02/2001, the writing was on the wall.

这笔资金实质上成为了SEGA转型的桥梁，使其从我们本期节目讨论的旧日SEGA，成功蜕变为如今纯粹的游戏开发商。

He was coming to the end of his life. He actually forgave Sega's debts to him ahead of his death and returned $695,000,000 worth of Sega and CSK stock, which basically was the bridge that Sega needed to transition a massive shift from the Sega that we've been talking about this whole episode to just being the game creator that they are today.

是的。因为所有这些研发投入都用于新主机，土星机。我们刚提到土星机被索尼PlayStation打得落花流水。世嘉随后又全力投入Dreamcast的开发。但历史重演且更糟——Dreamcast销量还不如土星机，而PS2最终成为史上最畅销主机。研发这些主机耗资数亿甚至数十亿美元。

Yeah. Because all of this r and d that was required to go into these new consoles, the Saturn, and then we just talked about how the Saturn basically got the floor wiped with it by Sony and the PlayStation one. Sega would then turn around and pour a bunch of effort into the Dreamcast. The same story would happen, but even worse, the Dreamcast sold less than the Saturn, and the PS two, of course, goes on to become the best selling console of all time. It takes hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars in r and d to create these consoles.

没错。他们简直是在挥霍现金储备。

Right. They're just destroying their cash reserves.

对。当PlayStation横空出世，像巨型吸尘器般把街机产业的市场和玩家都吸向家用主机时，你会以为世嘉的街机业务——他们的摇钱树——也会遭受重创。确实如此，但他们靠与日本开发商Atlus合作推出的Purikura（大头贴）机器勉强续命了几年。街机游戏的核心体验确实被彻底摧毁，世嘉也随之衰落。

Yeah. You would think when the PlayStation comes out and basically creates a giant sucking sound that takes all of the business and players in the arcade industry and brings them into the home console with the PlayStation, that Sega would also get decimated in the arcade side of their business, which was the golden goose. They do, but they kinda get a stay of execution for a couple years. Thanks to this partnership that they do with the Japanese developer Altus to launch Puracura machines. So, yes, the core gaming experience of the arcades does get totally gutted and Sega along with it.

但就像任天堂与宝可梦的关系，这个Purikura本质上是类似自拍亭的照相亭。

But almost like Nintendo and Pokemon, this Puracura thing, these are photo booth, like, selfie booths.

哦我读过相关报道，只是不知道具体名称。

Oh, I did read about this. I just didn't know what it was called.

没错。这可以说是自拍文化的起源——始于亚洲而后风靡全球。世嘉正是最初的推动者。90年代末这些照相亭为世嘉创造了超10亿美元收入，被计入所谓的'街机业务部门'。

Yeah. This kinda becomes sort of the origin of the selfie phenomenon that, of course, started in Asia and then, like, moved to the rest of the world. Sega was right there at the beginning of this. So the photo booths in the late nineties make over a billion dollars in revenue that Sega

多少？

What?

（这些收入）被划归他们所谓的'街机业务'。但这与传统街机根本是两码事。

Plugs into their, quote, unquote, arcade business division. Now this is not the arcades by any stretch of the imagination.

不过也合理，毕竟是相同的分销渠道...

It makes sense, though. It's the same distribution channel. It's kind of

和街机同样的场地。但不同于街机游戏的前沿技术，这种业务毫无竞争壁垒可言。

the same locations as arcades. Exactly. But unlike cutting edge technology in the arcade video game business, there is nothing defensible about this.

这就是一次性的捞钱行为。

It's a one time cash grab.

没错。所以当这股热潮消退、竞争涌现后，到了这个十年末，世嘉在硬件业务上就全线溃败了。那他们转型做什么呢？变成了游戏发行商。你可以在任天堂、PlayStation和Xbox平台上玩到索尼克，这挺好的。

Exactly. So once both the fad subsides and competition springs up, by the end of the decade, Sega no longer can continue in the hardware business on any front. So what do they become? Well, they become a games publisher. You can get Sonic on Nintendo platforms and on the PlayStation and on Xbox, and that's great.

他们还做手机游戏。我记得2008年2月，我玩的第一款iPhone游戏就是《超级猴子球》，那是世嘉的作品。

They make mobile games. I remember in 02/2008, the very first iPhone game that I had was Super Monkey Ball, which was a Sega game.

对，那其实是个很棒的游戏。特别有趣的解谜游戏。

Yep. Actually, a really good game. Super fun puzzle game.

是啊。而且它完美适配了带加速度计的iPhone手持设备。当人们探索这种形态设备该做什么时，它天然适合移动平台。事实上，我记得它还在初代iPhone OS应用商店主题演讲中，用来展示能开发什么游戏、能实现什么体验。我们继续聊聊Sammy吧。

Yeah. And it was perfect for the iPhone handheld device with accelerometers. Like, it was this natural fit on mobile as people were trying to explore that form factor and figure out what it should be. In fact, it was, I believe, in one of the original Apple iPhone OS app store keynotes to show off what games you could make, what types of experiences you could do on this device. And so we keep talking about the Sammy.

Sammy交易是怎么回事？在被世嘉Sammy收购前，Sammy是做什么的？

What was the Sammy transaction, and what was Sammy before Sega Sammy?

Sammy过去和现在都是日本柏青哥机制造运营商（超出本期讨论范围），柏青哥有点像美国以前的弹珠台。

Yeah. So Sammy was and is a Pachinko machine manufacturer and operator in Japan beyond the scope of this episode, but pachinko is kinda like pinball used to be in The US.

像是赌博和弹珠台的结合体，但比弹珠台小很多，是种垂直的小型机器。

It's like gambling meets pinball, and it's, like, much smaller than pinball. It's like a small vertical type thing.

对。一方面它带点游戏性质，另一方面又像老虎机——就像当年美国的弹珠台。这就是Sammy的背景。他们以前也做过电子游戏。

Yeah. You know, on the one hand, it's sort of gaming esque. On the other hand, it's also like a slot machine, just like Pinball was back in the day in The US. So that's what Sammy was. They had made some video games in the past.

他们有个小型电子游戏部门，收购世嘉后就将其并入该部门。现在也还行，仍是上市公司，可以说是大厂守门员或中型发行商里的佼佼者吧。

They had a small video game division, and so they acquire Sega and merge that into their video game division. And it's fine. It's still a public company. You could say maybe at the bottom end of the majors or the top end of the sort of, like, mid level game publishers out there. It's fine.

是的。PitchBook数据显示世嘉与Sammy的合并案大约在2003年完成，此后便以世嘉飒美（Sega Sammy）的名义公开上市。更多来自PitchBook的统计：如今他们是市值43亿美元的公司，扣除现金后企业价值约36亿美元。

Yeah. And PitchBook's got this around 2,003 for the Sega and Sammy merger, and they've just been Sega Sammy publicly traded ever since. More stats from Pitch Book. Today, they're a $4,300,000,000 market cap company. If you back out their cash, they have an enterprise value of about 3,600,000,000.0.

去年他们的收入是27亿美元。显然市场对他们评价不高，收入倍数仅为1.3。这有点像一家僵尸企业。

Last year, they did 2,700,000,000.0 in revenue. So clearly, the market doesn't think much of them with a revenue multiple of 1.3. It's a little bit of like a zombie company.

没错。现在正是转向分析的好时机。我认为Playbook里有几个有趣的话题可以讨论，之后我们还有个有趣的收尾方式。我想说的是，尽管经历了这些波折和错误，他们公司仍拥有相当出色的IP。《刺猬索尼克》电影虽不及《马里奥》电影，但表现相当不错。

Yeah. You know, this is a good spot to transition to analysis here. I think there's a couple interesting things to talk about in Playbook, and then we have a fun sort of way to end the episode. One of the things I wanna talk about is despite all of these machinations and mistakes, they do have some pretty great IP in the company. The Sonic movie, it's no Mario movie, but it did pretty well.

人们依然热爱《刺猬索尼克》。《如龙》系列也很强势。世嘉内部还有许多其他IP。我在想，这里是否存在类似LVMH集团伯纳德·阿尔诺式的收购机会？比如收购整个世嘉飒美公司，或是单独收购世嘉IP然后好好经营？

People still love Sonic the Hedgehog. The Yakuza franchise is strong. There's lots of other franchises within Sega. Is there almost, I'm wondering, like, LVMH Bernard Arnaud style takeover opportunity here? Like, could you come and acquire either the whole Sega Sammy company or the Sega IP out of it and, like, do it right?

懂我意思吗？这些IP明明可以发挥更大价值。

You know? There's so much more that could be done with this stuff.

我不这么认为。在我看来，索尼克只是昙花一现，他们从未真正找到拓展这个IP的有效方式。虽然推出了大量索尼克衍生作品，但那些3D版索尼克游戏完全比不上原版横版过关的吸引力。我觉得更多是在消费情怀，坦白说并没有创造出持久可延展的IP或游戏玩法。

I don't think so. I mean, my take on this whole thing is that Sonic was a one trick pony, and that they never really found an effective way to expand the franchise. They came out with a bunch more stuff that had Sonic on it, but I never wanted to play three d Sonic the way that I wanted to play the original Sonic the Hedgehog side scroller game. It feels to me like there's a lot of nostalgia to play with, but it didn't really create any durable extensible IP or a gameplay, frankly.

确实。这正体现了世嘉与任天堂的区别，宫本茂团队与索尼克团队的差异。这期节目的核心观点就是：世嘉的基因来自街机。为街机设计的游戏与售价60美元的家用主机游戏截然不同。索尼克正是完美的街机风格游戏。

Well, right. Back to the difference between Sega and Nintendo and the games and the difference between Miyamoto and Sonic Team. You know, Sega's DNA, this is the whole point of this episode, it was the arcades. The type of game you make for an arcade is very different than the type of game you make for a $60 packaged good home console. Sonic was the perfect arcade style game.

初代《索尼克》第一关设计堪称经典。就连后来的3D作品如《索尼克大冒险》也延续了这个特点——Dreamcast上的《索尼克大冒险》第一关实在太棒了，玩的时候你会惊叹：这就是3D化的索尼克！

That first level in the first Sonic was so good. And even the subsequent three d stuff, like Sonic Adventure and beyond. The first level of Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast is so good. It really is like, you play it and you're like, wow. This is three d Sonic.

完全复刻了记忆中的感觉。第一关是海岛场景，你要以索尼克的速度追逐鲸鱼，在3D环道中穿梭，超级有趣。但这类游戏和索尼克IP的问题是：乐趣只能维持五分钟。

This is everything I remember. The first level is in, like, a island setting, and you're, like, chasing a whale, like, running around at Sonic speed and doing three d loop to loops. It's super fun. But the problem with these games and with Sonic is it's super fun for five minutes. Yeah.

然后你就会觉得：好吧。

And then you're like, okay.

我完成了。

I'm done.

而马里奥和塞尔达，前五分钟可能没那么有趣，但你可以玩上五十个小时并沉浸其中。

Whereas Mario and Zelda, it's not as fun in the first five minutes, but you can play it for fifty hours and lose yourself in it.

既然我们已经在故事中做了大部分的分析评论，那就直接问这个问题吧：什么能挽救世嘉？这里可能值得分享吉姆·克拉克的故事。

Since we did most of the kinda analysis commentary in the story, let's just ask the question, what could have saved Sega? And this is where it's probably worth sharing the Jim Clark story.

是的。

Yes.

这是《主机战争》中的一段精彩摘录，我之前完全不知道。我们之前几次谈到网景、吉姆·克拉克和SGI，以及互联网几乎在N64上与马克·安德森和吉姆·克拉克一起发生。你可能知道N64是基于SGI的架构。你需要一台昂贵的SGI工作站来制作那些画面惊艳的游戏。

So this is a great excerpt from console wars, and I had no idea. I mean, we have talked a few times about Netscape and Jim Clark and SGI and how the Internet almost happened on n 60 fours with Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark together. And you may know that the n 64 was based on SGI's architecture. You needed an expensive SGI workstation to create the amazing graphics games.

这也是为什么最好的N64游戏大多是第一方作品，而第三方游戏不多的一个重要原因。

A big reason why the best n 64 games were first party, and there weren't a lot of third party games.

没错。但这个合作的由来很疯狂。实际上是世嘉美国CEO汤姆·卡林斯基想与SGI合作。他看到了这些尖端芯片的潜力。在我们之前提到的世嘉与索尼潜在合作破裂后，他回到日本世嘉提案说，我刚见了吉姆·克拉克。

Right. But the way that that came about is crazy. It was actually Tom Kalinski, the CEO of Sega America, who wanted to do the partnership with SGI. He saw the potential in the cutting edge chips. And after the potential Sony partnership that we referenced earlier fell apart between Sega and Sony, he came back to Sega of Japan with a pitch saying, I just met with Jim Clark.

我真的认为我们应该和SGI做点什么。我认为我们的下一代主机应该由SGI提供支持。但日本世嘉回复卡林斯基说，不行。当卡林斯基追问原因并表示这明明是个显而易见的好选择时，

I really think we should do something with SGI. I think our next generation console should be powered by SGI. And Sega of Japan got back to Kalinsky and said, no. And when Kalinsky pressed them and said, why? It's a no brainer.

他们给出的理由是：芯片太大了。卡林斯基当时都懵了：这完全说不通啊？但对方坚持：这是我们的决定。于是他不得不艰难地打电话给吉姆·克拉克道歉：

They said, the chip is too big. And Kalinsky was like, what? This doesn't make any sense. And they were like, that's our decision. And so he had to have this really hard phone call with Jim Clark saying, I'm sorry, man.

抱歉兄弟，我这边的合作黄了，日本方面反对。吉姆·克拉克问：那我现在该怎么办？在极度沮丧中（据说他当时半只脚都踏出公司了），卡林斯基翻开电话簿找到霍华德·林肯的号码说：你应该联系美国任天堂——这段历史真实得让人难以置信。

I actually don't have a deal for you here. Japan is against it. And so Jim Clark goes, well, what am I supposed to do now? And Kalinsky, in this incredible moment of frustration where he seems half a foot out the door, looks in the phone book, looks up Howard Lincoln's phone number, and says, you should call Nintendo of America, which I can't believe that actually happened.

我知道。这太疯狂了。但话说回来，根据我们现在从世嘉故事中了解的情况，不仅仅是日本世嘉当时表现得愚蠢傲慢那么简单。

I know. It's so crazy. But again, you know, understanding what we know now from the Sega story, it's not just that Sega of Japan was being really dumb and arrogant here.

没错。那是个合理的商业决策。

Right. That was a reasonable business decision.

因为就在汤姆打电话给日本方面说要和SGI合作的同时，索尼在街机业务上正用System 11、南梦宫和PlayStation掀起一场末日风暴。我完全能理解日本方面的想法——听着，搞这个SGI合作，我们现在没空折腾这个。

Because at that very same time that Tom was calling up Japan and being like, oh, we're gonna do this thing with SGI, The Sony apocalypse was coming in the arcade business with the System 11 and Namco and the PlayStation. And I can totally understand sake of Japan being like, look, doing this SGI thing, that's not what we have time for right now.

是啊。我觉得可能还有种'非我发明'的心态，觉得必须是在日本本土、在世嘉体系内完成的才算可行战略。虽然有点奇怪——毕竟他们后来确实推出了Dreamcast，说明并非完全排斥软件业务。在我看来这更像是缺乏合作意愿...

Yeah. I also think there was probably some kind of, like, not invented here sentiment where it has to happen in Japan within Sega's walls in order to be a viable strategy. It is a little weird. It's You not like they already were thinking we should just be a software business because they did have the Dreamcast after this. To me, it feels more like a lack of willing to partner than it does Yeah.

某种商业模式的冲突。如果这事晚几年发生，大家可能会说：'好吧，显然你们该退出主机业务了，所以别投资新硬件合作了'。但我觉得这就是单纯的'我们不认识那些人，不信任他们，所以不合作'。

A sort of business model conflict. Had it happened a couple years later, you would have been like, okay. Clearly, you should get out of the console business, and so don't invest in new hardware partnerships. But I think this is just a we don't know those guys. We don't trust those guys, so we're not working with them thing.

谁知道这是否能挽救世嘉，也许吧。

Who knows if it could have saved Sega, but maybe.

这也是我能想到最接近的解释了。就算当时合作了，可能也救不了世嘉，但至少Dreamcast成功的机会能大些。

That's probably the closest thing that I can think of too. Like, had that happened, probably still wouldn't have saved Sega, but at least the Dreamcast might have had more of a chance of success.

或许吧。

Maybe.

永远不会有答案了。彩蛋环节？彩蛋环节。我们快速过几个彩蛋吧。

We'll never know. Carve outs? Carve outs. Let's do quick carve outs.

在说我的彩蛋前有个趣事。这是上期也被剪掉的内容，这期我绝不让他们剪了。索尼克的起源故事特别搞笑——多年后采访中，创造者之一大岛直人（音译，应该是索尼克的设计师）被问到：'你是怎么想出索尼克的？'

I have one funny story before giving my carve out. This is a thing that also got cut from both last episode, and I'm not letting it get cut from this episode. The Sonic origin story is hilarious. In a interview years later, Naoto Oshima, who is one of the creators I think he was the designer of Sonic. He was asked, how did you come up with Sonic?

这只蓝色刺猬。他为什么长这样？而他的回答仅仅是，我把菲利克斯猫的身体安在了米老鼠身上。

This blue hedgehog. Why does he look like that? And, his answer, he just says, well, I put Felix the cat on the body of Mickey Mouse.

没错。

That's right.

我当时读到这个简直不敢相信。你去查证时，看着菲利克斯猫的眼睛和头型对比，就会惊呼：天啊，这根本就是染蓝的菲利克斯套着米老鼠外壳还穿了运动鞋。

And I I was reading that. I couldn't believe it. And you look it up, you're looking at Felix the cat, and you're looking at his eyes and his head shape. And you're like, oh my god. It's Felix on Mickey dyed blue with sneakers.

确实。

Yes.

太荒谬了。

It's ridiculous.

说到你提及的索尼克，虽然深受喜爱，但确实算不上内涵特别丰富的IP。

To your point about Sonic while being beloved isn't really, like, the super deep IP.

没错。卡林斯基团队已经尽力发挥了，但老实说整个设定从头到尾都很单薄。

No. Kalinsky and team gave it a good run, but, man, it was thin all the way around.

确实如此。

It was.

好吧。关于专项分析你有什么发现？

Alright. What do you got on carve outs?

我的专项分析想重新梳理——哦，你之前几期节目里提到过达里尔·莫雷在《像最强者一样投资》的分享。听完你的推荐后我去听了，这位现任76人队篮球运营总裁兼总经理、前火箭队总经理，他的见解精妙绝伦，听着特别过瘾，不管你是否关心篮球或体育。

My carve out, I wanna recarve out Oh. Your carve out from a couple episodes of Daryl Morey on invest like the best. I listened to it after you recommended it. Daryl, now the GM and president of basketball operations at the sixers, formerly the GM of the Houston Rockets. He's just brilliant and so fun to listen to whether you care about basketball or sports at all.

我是说，他主修计算机科学。他这个人非常非常有趣。而帕特里克真是个出色的采访者，这简直就是如何进行一场真正引人入胜、探索性、基于发现的访谈的大师课，我从中学到了很多，真的很享受这个过程。

I mean, he was a computer science major. Like, he's very, very interesting. And Patrick is just such a good interviewer. It really is a master class in how to conduct a truly interesting, explorative, discovery based interview, and I learned so much from it. I really enjoyed it.

是啊，太棒了。好，快速说三件事。

Yeah. So good. Okay. Have three. They're gonna be fast.

第一，天哪，如果你还没看这季的《继承之战》，那是我见过最棒的电视剧，叙事手法绝了。第二，我正密切关注——想必你们很多人也是——下个月星舰计划发射。太令人期待了。

One is, my god, if you are not watching this season of Succession, it's the best television I've ever seen. Just remarkable storytelling. Two, I'm keeping a close eye, and I suspect many of you are as well. In the next month, Starship is scheduled to launch. And so Nice.

SpaceX的发射日期总是个谜，埃隆的事情常会延期，但现在火箭已在发射台，他们正在进行大量发射前检查和测试。看着那个大家伙首次发射会酷到爆。第三，我跟大卫说过这个——大卫你看了吗？《六日速成》？

SpaceX launches always sort of our, who knows on the date, and Elon things always slip, but it is on the launch pad. They're doing lots of prelaunch inspections and tests, and it is gonna be so freaking cool to watch that thing do its first launch. And then three, I said this to David. I don't know, David, have you watched it yet? Six days to air?

我还没看。好吧，如果你喜欢这个节目又喜欢《南方公园》，你一定会爱上它。如果你喜欢这个节目且热衷看创作过程，但对《南方公园》不太确定，可能还是会喜欢。这部纪录片讲述他们如何在周四构思《南方公园》剧集创意，下周三就播出的全过程。

I haven't yet. Alright. If you like this and you like South Park, you will love that. If you like this and you like watching creativity and action, but you're not so sure on South Park, you may still love it. It is a documentary about the process of conceiving of a South Park episode idea on a Thursday, and then having it air the following Wednesday.

这种难以置信的六天制作周期，没有什么比亲眼见证创意诞生更特别的了。虽然这纪录片现在差不多有十年历史了，

And the unbelievable six day turnaround, there's just nothing more special than watching creativity in action. I think the documentary is like ten years old at this point,

但仍是了解他们创作过程的珍贵窗口。不错啊，我们《Acquired》也能借鉴些东西，能学的可多了。

but a pretty special view into their process. Nice. Well, we could learn some stuff for, Acquired. Lot we can learn.

好了听众们，今天就到这里。感谢收听。想更深入参与《Acquired》可以成为LP会员，你将获得参与我们每两月一次的LP专属Zoom会议资格，还能帮我们每季至少选定一期节目主题。

Alright, listeners. That's it. Thank you so much for joining. You can become a deeper part of what we do here at Acquired by becoming an LP. You will gain access to our LP only Zoom calls every couple months or so, and you will help us pick at least one episode per season.

下期节目就是LP们选的。现在加入就能参与下一期的选题，登录acquire.fm/lp即可。别忘了我们的访谈节目《ACQ2》，所有播客平台免费收听。加入Slack群组——

Our next episode is actually LP selected. So if you join now, you will get in on the next one. You can join at acquire.fm/lp. Check out our interview show, ACQ two, available in the podcast player of your choice, free and public. Join the Slack.

最近Slack已成为我们研究的重要部分，因为你们很多人都是我们涉及领域的专家。那里有很多精彩的游戏行业讨论。如果本期内容有遗漏，请告诉我们：acquired.fm/slack。听众朋友们，我们下期见。

The Slack has been a critical part of our research recently since many of you are experts in the topics that we are covering. So lots of great gaming discussion going on there. And if we missed anything in this episode, let us know. Acquired.fm/slack. And with that listeners, we will see you next time.

我们下次见。

We'll see you next time.