Microsoft's million dollar marketing stunt Bill Gates did not appreciate

Source: Javier Lavandeira

Exactly 30 years ago an 18 meter tall, 30 meter long dinosaur appeared in Shinjuku, Tokyo in an event that celebrated 1 million MSX computers sold. Created by the same company that made the models for cult classic Godzilla, the dinosaur was the attention grabber of MSX Dinosaur Land which took place between December 1st, 1985 and January 16th, 1986. It was one of few known marketing efforts from Microsoft/ASCII to widely promote their MSX standard for 8bit home computers.

An estimated 230.000 people visited the event, where they could see various models of MSX computers, including Arabic Al-Amaiah units and each of over 40 other MSX models which were being produced at the time. The essence of the standard was captured by a synchronized display of 9 screens, controlled by an equal amount of MSX computers, each produced by a different brand. There were mini-events such as game competitions and various companies like T&E Soft, The LINKS and ASCII had their own booths to promote their MSX related activities. All the while, every two hours the dinosaur would roar loudly - a sound that was of course also generated by an MSX computer.

Finding out about the event, Bill Gates was furious at Kazuhiko Nishi - at the time board member and technical director of Microsoft and with his company ASCII the representative of Microsoft in Japan - for spending the considerable sum of 150 million yen (~ 750.000 US$ at the time) on the dinosaur alone and a rumoured 1 million dollars on the entire event. According to this 1986 article in the Wall Street Journal it was an important event in a series of characters colliding, which inevitably led to Bill Gates and Kazuhiko Nishi - and their respective companies Microsoft and ASCII - parting ways, leaving Nishi $500,000 in debt with Microsoft.

Years later, during MSX Magazine Festival 2003 Nishi looked back at this, referring to the 500 million dollar marketing budget Microsoft had then spent on promoting the first XBox. Considering the difficulties Microsoft had back then to get a good market share for their new attempt to enter the consumer market with Microsoft backed hardware Nishi mentioned that that sum of money might have been better spent by just giving Xboxes away for free...

Relevant link: Javier Lavandeira's report on MSX Dinosaur Land