KroneckerDelta

「A Kasumi body pillow almost destroyed Xbox‘s reputation!?」 Mike Fischer, former General Manager of Marketing at Xbox, recounts that, during his time in Japan trying to improve the console's reputation, he was tasked with developing a strategy that would appeal to DOA fans in that part of the world. The answer? A translucent blue Xbox. DOA3 and DOAX had already done decent business for Xbox in the region, so it made sense to cater for fans of the franchise with something a bit unique. "Kasumi‘s default costume was blue, so, we were going to do a limited blue edition console for Japan. We also needed a little added-value gift. We're looking at everything. Do we put in, like, a photo album book of the girls of the game? That would have been the smart thing to do. One of the members of my team, Mr. Yamauchi, says, 'Oh, I got this idea for a dakimakura [large body pillows sold in Japan, often featuring sexy images], a hugging pillow.'" The pillows were cheap to make, so Fischer green-lit the idea without telling anybody back at Microsoft's North American headquarters. After an article criticizing the pillow had been published, Fischer's phone rang. "I get a call from Redmond, and it's the interim head of Xbox Japan, and he's like, 'Mike, I'm hearing these crazy rumours and I'm sure there's nothing to them, but before I shut it down, you're not making a love pillow, are you?' I'm thinking, Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, and I say, 'Well, I wouldn't call it a love pillow.' He says, 'Oh shit.' l ask, 'Do we have a PR problem?' and he says, 'Oh, we've got a PR problem. We also have an HR problem. We have employees writing directly to Bill Gates saying this does not match the values of the company.'" As you might imagine, Fischer's first reaction was panic, and he told his staff in Japan to cancel the pillow. He was reminded in no uncertain terms that he would have to deal with Tomonobu Itagaki, the rock star-like creator of the series. "Itagaki has got the leather jacket and the long hair and the funny dark glasses," Fischer recalls. "He asks, 'What are you talking about, you're not going to do this?' I tell him, 'It's not like it's written in the contract,' and he says, 'Let me tell you something. I didn't want to do business with you guys to start with because of this reputation of being legalistic on everything. I did this deal with you because I trusted you. This is what we committed to. This is what we agreed to. I promised my fans, and you're not going to make me back out.'" This was going all the way to Bill Gates. Robbie was very focused on protecting Microsoft's values and integrity, and he wasn't happy about the situation. Finally, he goes, 'I guess we're either in the games business or we're not. You put some more clothes on her; I'll take the heat on this side.'" Xbox got its Kasumi love pillow, and the rest is history. The irony is that, had Fischer not stood his ground, then the outcome for Xbox in Japan wouldn't have been massively different – but at least he managed to keep Tomonobu Itagaki happy.