Seeing that the institute is taking shape day by day, Zhang Lexing's attention has shifted to the company's development projects, the new version of the Kylin operating system and the PC version of the spreadsheet software, of course, this does not affect his attention to the activities of the investment managers of the Red River Fund. Every week, detailed feedback reports are sent to Zhang Lexing's desk, and there are also some introductions to rejected projects, but they have never appeared to interest him.

The days passed day by day, and when another Mid-Autumn Festival came, Zhang Lexing decided to give himself a half-day off, and also made an appointment with Yang Xinxin to go to Dr. Yu's house in the evening, but there was still one thing to deal with before that, and the investment manager Anderson had a project that was not very optimistic about Zhang Lexing to decide. Seeing that it was almost noon, Zhang Lexing simply made an appointment to a nearby Chinese restaurant to eat and talk, so as not to affect his afternoon vacation.

As soon as Zhang Lexing walked into the Jufengyuan Chinese Restaurant, he saw someone standing up and waving to him in the partition not far in front of him, and this person was Anderson. When Zhang Le walked to the partition, he found that there was a person sitting next to Anderson, with parted hair, thick eyebrows and big eyes, a little blue chin, wearing a twill shirt and a tie around his neck, looking quite energetic, and looking a little familiar.

Zhang Lexing said hello, and then sat down, but found that the table was very clean, so he asked, "Anderson, the food hasn't come yet?"

"I haven't ordered ...... yet," Anderson's expression was embarrassed.

Zhang Lexing immediately understood, it is estimated that this old man doesn't know anything good at all, and it seems that the place he chose is not suitable for him. But since it's not easy to change it again, Zhang Lexing picked up the menu and ordered two of his favorite foods, and in order to take care of the tastes of the two in front of him, he ordered a few American-style Chinese food, plus a soup, and the lunch was solved.

"Anderson, who is this gentleman ......?" After finishing the problem of eating, Zhang Lexing began to pay attention to the familiar stranger in front of him.

"Well, he's Mr. Tripp, and the project I'm going to talk about this time has something to do with him, so he's coming along. Anderson explained.

"Hello, Mr. Tripp. Zhang Lexing stretched out his hand, feeling that the person in front of him should have seen it before.

"Mr. Zhang, you can call me Hawkins, it's nice to meet you. Hawkins shook his hand and said enthusiastically.

"Tripp Hawkins?" Zhang Lexing suddenly remembered that this person had met once last year, "Aren't you at Apple?"

"I'm no longer working at Apple, I'm starting my own business. With a smile on his face, Hawkins didn't seem to have anything unpleasant.

Zhang Lexing and Hawkins first met when they first arrived in the United States last year, because VisualSystem launched two best-selling games on Apple II, and even led to a slight increase in sales of Apple II, so it aroused Hawkins' interest. However, now is obviously not a good time to catch up, and Zhang Lexing wants to know what kind of project makes Anderson so uncertain, and Hawkins needs to run to talk about it himself.

"Anderson, what exactly is that project you mentioned?" Zhang Lexing couldn't wait, although there were already two dishes on the table, but he didn't have any appetite at all.

Anderson hesitated, opened his mouth to say, and Hawkins preemptively said: "I know this project best, so let's talk about it." ”

"Just say. Zhang Lexing signaled that Hawkins was ready to listen.

"Mr. Zhang, the project I started this time is a game development company. I've always been interested in game development, and I've always wanted to develop a popular American football game, which is one of the motivations for me to start my business. Hawkins gave a brief overview of his thoughts.

Games, or video games, computer games, these are all familiar words to Zhang Lexing. Zhang Lexing liked to play games very much in his last life, and even chose the computer industry as his career The initial motivation was to be able to play computer games more conveniently. At that time, Zhang Lexing was also a veteran among players, from the earliest Apple II, Little Genius (a copy of Nintendo's red and white machine), to the later MD, SFC, PS, and the computer that accompanied him for the longest time, Zhang Lexing can be regarded as well-informed. After playing a lot, Zhang Lexing inevitably had the idea of making two games by himself, and when the domestic game company was emerging, he also thought about joining the game industry, but for many reasons it has not been realized, and his dream of game production has not been realized. After being reborn, Zhang Lexing didn't think about engaging in the game industry, but unfortunately the pressure of real life made him have no choice, after all, it would be more convenient to do everything if he had some foundation. According to Zhang Lexing's plan, the game industry will not consider it for a while, the most important thing at the moment is to continue to consolidate the leading position achieved in the operating system and open up new profit growth points for the company, of course, next year's Nintendo red and white machine Zhang Lexing will not give up, this is the game console platform he is most familiar with, and it is a goldmine to make money.

"Ahem......" Seeing that Zhang Lexing was a little distracted, Hawkins coughed lightly, and then took out a document and handed it over, "Mr. Zhang, this is my plan." ”

Zhang Lexing, who came back to his senses, blushed slightly, and hurriedly took the information and looked at it. The business plan is not complicated and mentions three important concepts: efficient and organized cross-platform development using its proprietary technology and tools, direct logistics to retail stores, and software design as an art that allows software designers to be creative as artists. Two ambitious business goals were also set: to grow the company to $1 billion within six years, and to develop software that was truly valuable, to develop software that would facilitate the adoption of personal computers in the home. The first two concepts mentioned in the plan are quite consistent with the future development trend of the game industry, which makes Zhang Lexing very optimistic about Hawkins's ability, and the latter goals are also very exciting.

Flip to the last page of the proposal, and the name of the company is written on it: SoftArt, which is not the future game giant in Zhang Lexing's memory, and it seems that it is a small company. Zhang Lexing's interest faded suddenly, but it was not easy for Hawkins to make a special trip, so it was better to give him another chance and talk more, anyway, it was still early.

"Hawkins, as a game development company, what platforms are you going to choose to develop games?" Zhang Lexing decided to learn more about the SoftArt company.

"We plan to choose the Apple II and the newly launched Commodore* microcomputer, the Apple II is more popular, the Commodore* performance is more suitable for developing games, of course, we will follow up if there are more suitable platforms in the future, our goal is cross-platform. Hawkins replied.

The two platforms were well chosen, at least I didn't consider the Atari game console that was about to have problems, it shouldn't be easy to lose money, Zhang Lexing then asked: "Hawkins, does your company's name have any meaning?"

"The meaning of SoftArt is that the game software of the future will become a new art. Our company was originally called Amazin' Software, but the partners who joined us didn't think the name was loud enough, so they changed it to SoftArt, but then we realized that the name was too similar to the other company, so we thought about it again before we came, but we didn't have time to change it in the proposal. Hawkins elaborated on the origin of the company's name, and it seems that it took a lot of effort to get the name alone.

"What's your company's new name?" Zhang Lexing regained renewed interest.

"ElectronicArts, because we all love Arts, it stands for art. Hawkins said proudly.

"ElectronicArts?EA!" Zhang Lexing instantly had a feeling of being thundered, EA is the big man in the game industry in the future, although the company's business style is not very pleasing to players, but this does not prevent Zhang Lexing from liking some games published by EA, such as Sims, Sims, and more importantly, this company will be more profitable in the future, and it is a pretty good investment project.

And after investing in this company, Zhang Lexing can also set up a game development studio to play by himself, not to make any shocking masterpieces, but simply to experience the process of game development, and to make some technical reserves for himself to return to China to engage in the game industry in the future. There is also an important reason for this, Zhang Lexing is not familiar with the computer games in the 80s, and only a few of them can make him impressed, such as SimCity, Civilization, and Prince of Persia. Of course, if he can fool design masters like Sid Mayer and Will White, Zhang Lexing is still looking forward to it, even if he learns some design concepts, he will be able to use it endlessly in the future, thinking of this, he couldn't help but laugh twice.

Hawkins found that Zhang Lexing began to be distracted again, and this time it was even more exaggerated, and his distraction actually began to giggle. Hawkins felt that this trip was in vain, and he muttered a lot, and the guy on the other side didn't know if he understood it, and he began to pack up his things and prepare to leave. Zhang Lexing, who was proud, suddenly found out that there was a situation, Hawkins actually got up and was about to say goodbye, how could the duck that couldn't get it let him fly away again.

"Hawkins, don't go, your project has just passed. Zhang Lexing grabbed Hawkins, who was leaving, and said.

"Ahh

"That's right, Hawkins, I think now we can sit down and talk about how much to invest. Zhang Lexing said with a smile.

The next thing was very simple, the two sides quickly finalized the investment amount and the rights and obligations of both parties, and Hawkins left contentedly with the check and the contract. When you have money, things are easy to do, and it wasn't long before Hawkins' EA was officially established in San Mateo, Western California. Stimulated by this, Zhang Lexing was once again moved by the establishment of a game studio, but only by heart.

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