April 27, 1995.
Nvidia Corporation.
On this day, CEO Jensen Huang welcomed an uninvited guest.
It couldn't really be called an uninvited guest, because this Japan person had already made an appointment a month prior—
President Aoki Haruhi of Pokeni Co., Ltd.
Jensen Huang himself was a bit surprised by the appointment, made so far in advance, and this company's reputation was much greater than he had realized.
At this time, Nvidia was still an unknown small company, established less than two years ago, and the company didn't even have a mature product ready for release.
Despite this situation, President Aoki had traveled thousands of miles to find him.
Given Nvidia's current operational status, even without an appointment, President Aoki could have walked in unimpeded.
So, even before meeting him, Jensen Huang already had a good impression of this island nation's President.
At least from this matter, it was clear that Aoki Haruhi was a person who paid great attention to detail.
Around 10 AM, President Aoki arrived as scheduled.
When Jensen Huang saw Aoki Haruhi in person, he was slightly taken aback; he hadn't expected this somewhat famous Japan game company President to be so young.
Aoki Haruhi was a rather slender young man.
His skin was very fair, with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, a dignified appearance, and his temperament largely matched Jensen Huang's imagination, only his age was a bit off.
Pokeni was even more famous in the United States than in Japan itself, especially Diablo and Pokémon; these two game series were incredibly popular in the United States, adored by countless children.
Jensen Huang himself was a big fan of game.
The reason he founded Nvidia was that he and his two partners believed that the future game industry would become a very promising trend, and although PC was temporarily behind the TV game industry, they believed that in the future, with the development of PC hardware, it would eventually become a powerful game console.
The company's name was derived from the Latin word for vision.
Therefore, Nvidia's original intention was to manufacture graphics chips for the video game industry.
They believed that one day PC would become a consumer device for enjoying game and multimedia.
Jensen Huang was even more excited to see Aoki Haruhi than Aoki Haruhi was to see him.
After all, he finally met the boss of a game developer he really liked, and this person had even traveled across the ocean specifically to find him.
...
The young President Aoki also brought a pretty young secretary, who was carrying a suitcase, though it was unclear what was inside.
While Jensen Huang was observing him, Aoki Haruhi was also observing Jensen Huang.
The 32-year-old Old Huang had a good physique, whether naturally or from working out, and was somewhat handsome.
He wore a black leather jacket, just like the older Old Huang in his impression.
Aoki Haruhi had seen this leather jacket many times, as if the leather jacket was Jensen Huang's true form.
"Hello, President Aoki."
Jensen Huang greeted him warmly in English, "Nice to meet you."
"Hello, hello. It's a pleasure to meet you too."
...
Learning that Aoki Haruhi had half Chinese heritage, the two even tried speaking a few simple sentences in Chinese.
Although Jensen Huang was Chinese, he had left China's Treasure Island for the United States at a very young age, so while he could speak a little Chinese, stumbling through simple sentences was fine, but communication was mainly in English.
After inviting Aoki Haruhi and Ayase Akane into his office, Jensen Huang asked with some doubt, "So, I saw in President Aoki's appointment email that you want to seek cooperation with Nvidia, is that right?"
"Mm."
Aoki Haruhi nodded.
"Oh, Jensen," Jensen Huang's English name was Jensen Huang, "Do you have a television here? Before we formally discuss our needs, I'd like to show you something."
Jensen Huang paused, then quickly nodded, "Yes, we do."
So, everyone moved to the conference room.
In fact, there were two desktop computers, a television, and several game consoles placed there.
It was clear that Nvidia had intended to serve game from the very beginning.
After all, in this world, besides game, it seemed that other industries didn't have such a great demand for graphics cards.
So Aoki Haruhi had Ayase Akane open the box, take out the Sony PS game console inside, and connect the equipment.
Jensen Huang and his two partners stood by, exchanging glances.
Clearly, President Aoki was going to show them a game.
They just didn't know what it was yet.
Jensen Huang stood with his arms crossed, smiling, silently guessing Aoki Haruhi's true intention for coming today.
Nvidia was a company that specialized in graphics processing chips.
Surely this game company President wasn't asking them to make game consoles, was he?
Or to participate in the research and development of game consoles?
...
After all the equipment was connected, Aoki Haruhi started the game.
"Jensen, this is a new 3D game we've developed. It's not on the market yet, but I really want you to see it."
After Aoki Haruhi finished speaking, he manipulated the controller and began to show them the first level of "pokémon 3d world."
Jensen Huang was not unfamiliar with the PS game console.
Because when it was released at the end of last year, the PS was incredibly popular.
High performance, 3D image support, plus an ultra-low price of $299, made Sony PS stand out, selling like crazy in the United States.
They even bought several PS consoles specifically to research game and Nvidia's future development direction.
The only regret was that there were relatively few game on PS at the time, and in Jensen Huang's own opinion, no game on the market could fully utilize the PS's performance.
However, when they bought the PS back then, Jensen Huang and his two partners shared a big question—
The design of the PS controller was completely different from all other game console controllers on the market.
In addition to the D-pad and buttons, many "useless features" were added.
Such as dual joysticks, index finger buttons, and middle finger buttons...
Jensen Huang found this very difficult to understand.
If you develop a feature that cannot be used, then the product is a failed design.
So Jensen Huang believed that Sony would not be foolish enough to develop such a "useless" product; it must have some special purpose.
Until today—
He saw the game that Aoki Haruhi brought.
...
When Jensen Huang saw Aoki Haruhi skillfully manipulating the dual joysticks, making Pikachu move and turn flexibly on the screen, and the entire 3D scene suddenly came alive.
He felt his heart rate accelerate by a few beats.
His entire brain buzzed.
He finally understood—
Sony PS, its 3D performance, and the special design of its controller, everything was for today.
It was like a lock specially crafted for Pokeni's key.
Before, no one could glimpse the treasure inside the door until this key arrived.
Only then would you discover how dazzling and awe-inspiring the treasure inside the door was.
It wasn't that the graphics of "pokémon 3d world" were so beautiful, but rather that this set of models and standards opened a new world door.
Jensen Huang understood everything at once.
...
After Aoki Haruhi finished demonstrating, he put the controller aside and turned to the Nvidia founders, saying, "This is our newly developed 3D game, and currently, only Sony PS platform can support it."
"Mm."
Everyone nodded.
Indeed, only PS could support such a game.
"POKENI also participated in the development of the Sony PS game console. The 3D features and controller design were actually requests we made to Sony, with the aim of creating the game you see today."
"Hmm… I should say it's not just for this game, but also to develop more interesting and groundbreaking 3D game in the future."
So that's it.
Jensen Huang and his two partners nodded; now everything made sense.
Why Sony developed such a strange controller, and why no game had yet fully utilized the PS's 3D performance.
It turned out that all of this was premeditated.
Sony PS was tailor-made for Pokeni's game.
"But… I still don't understand, what does President Aoki want us to do? What can we do for Pokeni?" Jensen Huang politely asked.
Aoki Haruhi smiled slightly and got to the point.
"It's like this: we did an internal assessment and believe that the development speed of personal computers is actually quite rapid, and in the future, there will be more and more game that can be played on computers.
Current computer performance can already meet most work demands, but game is something that heavily relies on hardware performance.
On one hand, we feel that computer game has great potential in the future and want to develop new game on computers, but on the other hand, we are limited by current computer hardware, which makes us very difficult.
That's why we wanted to come here to seek Nvidia's cooperation and help."
Hmm?
Everyone couldn't help but smile happily.
Aoki Haruhi's idea surprisingly coincided with that of Nvidia's founders, even speaking directly to their hearts.
"So what kind of game does Pokeni want to develop on computers, and what kind of hardware support does it need?" Jensen Huang asked.
"3D shooting game," Aoki Haruhi said.
"3D shooting game?"
"Mm."
Aoki Haruhi extended his hands, simulating keyboard and mouse operations in the air.
"Playing a shooting game on a computer, and it needs 3D effects, with the keyboard controlling movement and the mouse controlling turning and shooting..."
He briefly described what a shooting game on a computer would look like and how it would be played.
"But the tricky part is that we are currently simulating it through software, which is very expensive and consumes a lot of CPU and memory, making it almost impossible to run such game.
So we need a 3D graphics card, a specialized chip that runs efficiently for processing 3D graphical data."
After listening, everyone fell into contemplation.
...
At this very moment, Jensen Huang's heart was pounding.
It was a magical feeling, as if destiny had arrived.
He deeply felt what Aoki Haruhi's arrival meant.
What Nvidia had been searching for all this time was casually mentioned by this man from across the sea.
And it was so specific.
So specific that they could imagine the changes this 3D shooting game would bring in the future.
So specific that Jensen Huang felt he could make this graphics card in the next second.
So specific that he felt if he didn't seize this opportunity, Nvidia might be finished.
But once this opportunity was seized, Nvidia would have the hope of becoming a powerful chip company like AMD.
If there is a God.
Then at this moment, God has descended.
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