Chapter 92

"Xiao Shao, this is the company's development summary report for the past six months!" He Guoyuan took out a beautifully bound report from the file folder and handed it to Li Xuan.

In the blink of an eye, it had been more than half a year since Li Xuan founded Oriental Electronics in October last year. In this half year, the speed of growth and expansion of Oriental Electronics was breathtaking.

Li Xuan flipped through the file and read the content of the report carefully, his smile growing wider. Oriental Electronics, which started as a small company with just a dozen people, had developed into a large electronics group in just six months.

The company now has a large arcade cabinet assembly factory with 650 workers, producing 16,500 arcade cabinets per month. A motherboard factory is under construction and is expected to be operational in the second half of the year, employing 420 workers and producing 50,000 various types of computer and electronic game console motherboards per month.

In addition, the newly reorganized R&D center in Hong Kong's headquarters has two major departments: the game software R&D department and the hardware R&D department. The game software R&D department is divided into three groups: arcade games, handheld games, and computer software. The hardware R&D department is divided into four groups: arcade games, handheld games, home game consoles, and personal computers.

The total number of technical researchers in the entire R&D center has reached 257. Besides the arcade game development that is the foundation of Oriental Electronics, the handheld game console GameBoy has just been launched in Japan, with extremely encouraging feedback. The marketing efforts for the launch in Europe, America, and Asia have also been fully launched. The first home television game console and the first personal microcomputer of Oriental Electronics are both in the process of intense development.

Furthermore, Oriental Electronics has collaborated with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to establish multiple electronic and semiconductor laboratories. The electronic R&D center set up in Taipei by Oriental Electronics has already started operations, with the first batch of 50 technical personnel hired. The R&D center in Silicon Valley, California, USA, is also under construction. Oriental Electronics has also established sales subsidiaries in Japan, Europe, and North America, quickly building a global marketing network.

When constructing its supply chain system, Oriental Electronics has also consciously supported Hong Kong's electronics companies. For example, by providing loan guarantees, paying part of the contract payments in advance, and directly investing in equity, a number of local electronics companies have grown rapidly alongside Oriental Electronics.

The funds supporting such large-scale expansion of Oriental Electronics all come from the two not-so-complex arcade games, "Hong Kong Blocks" and "Tank Battle." To date, Oriental Electronics has sold 21,900 "Hong Kong Blocks" arcade cabinets and 14,800 game motherboards, 43,500 "Tank Battle" arcade cabinets, and 31,700 game motherboards. The profits from these two games have cumulatively reached 100 million US dollars.

Although Li Xuan was mentally prepared, his heart still raced when he saw this number. There is no such thing as the most profitable, only more profitable! If this revenue data were made public, it would be enough to shock countless people. This is not 100 million US dollars in sales, but 100 million US dollars in pure profit. In all of Hong Kong, there are very few companies that can achieve this level of profitability.

And this is the performance of a company that has only been established for half a year. If there were a global ranking for the fastest-growing companies in "Fortune" or "Forbes" magazines, Oriental Electronics would undoubtedly easily win the top spot. Li Xuan couldn't help but start daydreaming: if he revealed this news to "Time" magazine, would he immediately become the cover person?

Li Xuan felt that his decision to start in the arcade game industry was truly wise. It was the continuous huge profits from "Hong Kong Blocks" and "Tank Battle" that allowed Oriental Electronics to expand its scale by hundreds of times in just six months, yet still maintain a very ample cash flow, without any financial crisis due to rapid expansion.

On the contrary, the bank account of the holding company, Oriental Technology, still has a surplus of 35 million US dollars. Li Xuan's current worry is not a lack of money, but rather too much to spend. It's truly a case of people envying each other to death; if other bosses knew this, they would probably be so angry they'd spit blood!

Of course, Oriental Electronics is not without concerns. So far, the company's profit sources are still very单一, relying on a single hit to dominate the market. All profits come from the two arcade games, "Hong Kong Blocks" and "Tank Battle," but the sales boom of these two games will eventually fade.

Li Xuan and other company executives are well aware of this issue, so the entire company places great importance on the launch of GameBoy. Han Peng, the CEO, has personally become a "flying man," going to the United States and Europe to oversee marketing efforts.

Fortunately, everyone's efforts and expectations have not been in vain. The sales of GameBoy in the Japanese market have been very successful, which has finally put many people's minds at ease. The profit margin of the GameBoy handheld console is less than 20%, and the game cartridges are around 40%. Although it is far from the astronomical profits of arcade games, it has allowed Oriental Electronics to escape the awkward situation of relying on a single product.

For the next development plan of Oriental Electronics, Li Xuan already has a preliminary plan. The arcade game, this cash cow, will naturally remain the focus of development. The recently acquired "Pac-Man" from Namco, after some adjustments and modifications, will soon be launched in the North American market.

The company's self-developed "Super Mario Bros." is also progressing faster, expected to be launched by the end of the year. By then, "Hong Kong Blocks" and "Tank Battle" will have passed their peak sales period after a year of strong sales, and "Super Mario" will take over.

For the handheld game project, Li Xuan has set the lifespan of GameBoy at three to four years. The next-generation handheld platform should be launched around 1984, but the pre-research work will start now. At the same time, the development and improvement of GameBoy will continue, and Oriental Electronics will release new games at a rate of one every two months to keep players interested in GameBoy.

Li Xuan doesn't expect every handheld game to be a huge hit, but with the advantage of being the first to market and the feature of separate console and game cards, as long as the games maintain a certain level of quality, players will continue to buy game cards.

As for the newly launched home game console and personal computer projects, these are the key focuses for the next development of Oriental Electronics. Home game consoles and personal computers are much more expensive than handheld consoles, and at the same profit margin, they will naturally generate much higher profits for Oriental Electronics. Based on his memory, Li Xuan provided the configuration of the Nintendo FC (Famicom), listing a specification sheet for the development of the company's first home television game console.

For personal computers, Li Xuan has even greater ambitions. In thirty years, the computer industry will be a massive industry with an annual output value of over 500 billion US dollars. But now, personal computers are just starting, and the market is not yet mature. Mainstream personal computers like the Apple II are still very outdated in performance.

The ERM (ARM) architecture developed in collaboration with the Chinese University of Hong Kong's semiconductor laboratory, under Li Xuan's constant guidance, is progressing very quickly. According to his plan, he hopes to develop a mature 32-bit ERM architecture RISC processor by the beginning of next year. Then, using this ERM processor as the CPU, Oriental Electronics will compete with IBM's personal PC.