Trip's voice was very calm.
Unlike those passionate demagogues or pure tech geeks.
Trip's primary job is as a businessman.
What he wanted to do was not to manipulate consumers with emotions, but to use the purest "vision," or rather, expectation, to make consumers recognize the value of this machine.
"In 1982, Gordon and I co-founded United States Electronic Arts."
He placed his hand on the velvet cloth covering the machine and slowly began to recount the history of EA.
"I believe in the power of video games; people can use them to build valuable social connections and make their minds more active."
Regardless of his true thoughts, Trip has consistently maintained this stance publicly.
What Tripp really thinks about video games is probably only known to Trip himself.
"Just like its name suggests, software is an art form to me."
" One on One," "Archon," "Mule,"...
"Over the past decade, we've created countless works beloved by players." "But today..."
Trip's gaze fell on the display stand in front of him.
The look in his eyes was like that of someone looking at their own child who had finally grown up, full of relief and anticipation.
Today, we stand at a historical crossroads, at a brand new starting point.
"In the next ten or one hundred years, people will no longer be discussing 'video games'."
"They'll discuss... entertainment, interactive entertainment!"
At this point, Trip ripped off the velvet cloth covering the exhibit, revealing what was inside.
At that moment, all the stage lights turned on to illuminate the entire stage, and several spotlights also lit up the booth.
It was a large, flat, black box.
It's as big as two VHS machines stacked together.
A cable runs along the massive fuselage, with a semi-circular handle at the other end.
The entire machine's casing is made of glossy plastic, with a deliberately frosted finish on the top panel. [ Panasonic Electric ]
[r·e·a·l]
[3do-interactive-multiplayer]
Several lines of text were engraved on it.
Okay, it would be too hasty to say that it lacks industrial design.
While this thing doesn't have that top-tier design that makes you fall in love at first sight, its attention to detail is actually quite impressive.
Panasonic, after all, originated in consumer electronics, and it certainly has a certain foundation in this area.
From this era's perspective, it's actually surprisingly... not bad?
"Isn't this just a game console?"
Vivian frowned.
This isn't just an obvious attempt to take over Gamenova.
It seems they haven't given up on challenging Gamenova. "If that's the case, I'd actually be a little worried."
The moment Lin Lixin saw this thing, he almost burst out laughing.
He waved his hand, indicating that Vivian had absolutely no need to be anxious.
Why? It will inevitably have some impact on our sales, won't it?
"Hey-hey..."
Lin Lixin chuckled and shook his head slightly, offering no further explanation, but instead telling her to be patient and keep reading.
Trip looked at the Panasonic logo on the fuselage and began to explain his brilliant marketing plan to the audience.
This machine is manufactured by Panasonic, and soon there will be licensed versions from Sanyo, GoldStar, and other manufacturers.
Trip believes that operating under a standard licensing model is a very bold and avant-garde approach.
You don't need to invest in building factories or bear inventory risks. You can earn licensing fees for every machine and for every game.
It was almost a sure-fire way to make money. Atari's collapse has proven how foolish it was to take on inventory risk.
Despite Gamenova's current success, if their new consoles fail miserably, the massive backlog of stock and games in warehouses could cause a chain reaction far more devastating than the Atari Shock.
This would cause the entire funding chain to collapse.
The outcome is that the seemingly massive Gamenova could potentially vanish overnight, like Atari.
He wouldn't fall for such a wicked trick.
Let Panasonic and Sanyo bear the risks, while we can happily focus on developing the mainframe and specifying the standards.
This is the way to make money!
Just estimating the profit margin is enough to make the Wall Street gentlemen drool.
I doubt these country bumpkins who only know how to make games could ever come up with such an elegant solution in their lifetime.
The audience already understood what Trip was trying to do.
What he wants to do is be the "VHS of the gaming industry".
From now on, even Gamenova, if it wants to become a next-generation console, must proactively make itself compatible with the 3DO standard. This is an extremely domineering and dangerous strategy.
If EA succeeds this time, it can easily take away the territory built by Gamenova and reap the benefits.
It will devour Gamenova like crazy, using it as its own nourishment, and then become the new overlord of North America.
Such a bold move is truly astonishing.
"What kind of configuration would be needed to power a device from the future?"
Trip asked a question, but quickly provided the answer himself.
"I've asked myself this countless nights: 16 bits? Or... 32 bits?"
"SPARC-V8! A true 32-bit processor, that's our answer."
"Click!"
The image switching on the film projector projects the parameters of "sparc-v8".
It contains millions of transistors, a 32-bit bit width, 128-bit floating-point arithmetic, and a large number of dedicated circuits.
Everything about this processor makes it seem incredibly powerful. Perhaps only Intel's i486 could rival it.
Choosing such a processor truly makes it the "most powerful in modern times".
"I told the engineers: I need a 32-bit processor, a processor more powerful than any game console. We want to create truly futuristic interactive art for users."
Trip was speaking when he suddenly changed the subject.
"But at that moment, I suddenly realized: Why? Could we have done better?"
The answer is... of course!
"Next, let me introduce the main processor of Real-3Do—the MIPS-R4000! The world's first commercially available 64-bit processor."
Upon hearing this, the reporters, who had been whispering their opinions, all stopped and stared in disbelief at the parameters projected on the screen.
64-bit...
This is a genuine 64-bit system!
It's not like those graphics cards that use multiple memory modules to create a fake bandwidth; from the overall architecture perspective, it's a genuine 64-bit processor!
This is truly unique in the world, unique in every sense of the word.
Even Intel, the king of processors, is still working on its i486dx version.
A 50MHz i486 is already considered one of the top-tier, super-specifications in the industry.
But what about 3do?
He pulled out a genuine 64-bit processor.
Although it uses the open-source RISC architecture MIPS, its 64-bit architecture and impressive clock speed are already quite formidable.
"A 64-bit MIPS-R4000 processor and a 32-bit SPARC-V8 processor—I believe this configuration will absolutely bring players an unprecedented, top-tier interactive art experience!"
"Puff"
Lin Lixin nearly choked to death on the coffee in his mouth.
He stared at the television screen in disbelief, then suddenly burst into laughter as if he had caught a plague.
"Hey, that's 64 bits! Don't you feel any sense of crisis?"
Vivian was exasperated by his attitude. As the head of Micro-Nova Semiconductor, Vivian knew exactly what kind of person her daughter, Athena, was.
You're falling behind the times!
If Athena doesn't iterate and improve, it risks being completely crushed by newcomers with their new technologies and architectures.
However, Lin Lixin showed no sense of crisis; on the contrary, he was laughing so happily here.
"I don't see anything funny."
"Pfft, hahaha... cough cough, it's nothing, sorry I couldn't hold it in."
Lin Lixin cleared his throat and put on a serious expression, but he couldn't hide the smile in his eyes.
Well, this time 3do is probably going to suffer an even worse fate than before.
Higher configuration?
That's true.
Even Lin Lixin had to admit that this Real-3Do, regardless of its other specifications, was already unparalleled in the world just for its 64+32 processor configuration.
It's unlikely that any game console will surpass these specifications for a long time to come... nor is it necessary.
" Vivian, look at the specs of this Real-3Do. Don't you see anything wrong with it?"
"The problem? The power consumption will probably be very high, or something like that?"
"Hmm... that's one issue, but it's a 'home computer,' so power consumption isn't really a big deal."
Lin Lixin shook his head, his gaze falling on Trip on the television screen, who was still eloquently describing his vision for the future to the audience.
"Do you know why I chose Cerny to be our chief architect?"
"Uh... I remember you saying that he's the 'glue' of Gamenova, good at bringing different departments together, and has different perspectives and insights, or something like that?"
"That's right... that's Trip's, or rather, 3Do's biggest problem."
Lin Lixin nodded.
Why did Mark Cerny become Sony's architect in the past?
In 2005, the PlayStation 3 was released.
This machine, embodying Sony's unwavering will and poised to take the baton from its two predecessors and continue its dominance in the console market, suffered its worst setback ever upon release. The root of the problem lay in the PS3's prized processor—the Cell.
A terrifying chip with performance approaching that of a supercomputer, a super processor jointly developed by Sony, IBM, and Toshiba.
To be fair, Cell's performance did indeed live up to Sony's expectations, crushing all competitors of the same period and delivering devastating results.
But Cell also became the most terrifying nightmare Sony Entertainment has ever experienced.
"NovaPocketCompact, why do you think I would specifically launch this new 8-bit handheld console instead of focusing on printing money with the invincible NovaPocketCompact?"
Lin Lixin looked at Vivian and, without waiting for her reply, gave the answer himself:
"Due to development difficulties, a game console cannot only contain first-party games."