3DO dont shoot themselves in the foot.....

The 3DO was always one of my favorite doomed video game consoles of the fifth generation of machines. The Amiga CD32 was the other.

Now the main problem with the 3DO was price ($699+ or £430+) and the fact 3DO said it wasnt a video game console, but a "High end audio visual system" and of course releasing a mindbogling number of ever more expensive regional variants.

Now what happens if 3DO dont shoot themselves in the foot and price the 3DO resonably as a video games console and limit the number of variants? How does the Console War play out?
 
Having been a long time Amiga junkie since the a1000.. the CD32 was doomed by the time of its release.. Commodore was finished and couldnt support the launch of the machine and the end came swiftly.. suffice to say i still have 2 of them in my basement :)

The 3D0 on the other hand .. as hyped as it was, was just that hype...

The machine was expensive, and when you had a saturated game market with the Sega, Nintendo, CD32, Atari Jaguar, sony play station (right around the corner) and PC gaming coming into its own there just wasn't allot of room for an uber expensive new entrant into the war.

the whole system was undergoing a massive change at the time so the price would have to be lower and standardize hardware to be effective... with quick turnaround



The 3DO was always one of my favorite doomed video game consoles of the fifth generation of machines. The Amiga CD32 was the other.

Now the main problem with the 3DO was price ($699+ or £430+) and the fact 3DO said it wasnt a video game console, but a "High end audio visual system" and of course releasing a mindbogling number of ever more expensive regional variants.

Now what happens if 3DO dont shoot themselves in the foot and price the 3DO resonably as a video games console and limit the number of variants? How does the Console War play out?
 
Without pushing the POd back much further and changing the 3DO as we know it, either we get Timeline A, where it's sold at its historical price, or Timeline B, where it's sold at a price the market will bear and Panasonic ditches it because it's losing hundred of dollars per unit sold. Remember, game companies paid a remarkably low percentage to publish on the 3DO, which is one reason the price was so high - Panasonic couldn't afford to sell it as a loss-leader, because it didn't expect much revenue from royalties.
 
Having been a long time Amiga junkie since the a1000.. the CD32 was doomed by the time of its release.. Commodore was finished and couldnt support the launch of the machine and the end came swiftly.. suffice to say i still have 2 of them in my basement :)

The 3D0 on the other hand .. as hyped as it was, was just that hype...

The machine was expensive, and when you had a saturated game market with the Sega, Nintendo, CD32, Atari Jaguar, sony play station (right around the corner) and PC gaming coming into its own there just wasn't allot of room for an uber expensive new entrant into the war.

the whole system was undergoing a massive change at the time so the price would have to be lower and standardize hardware to be effective... with quick turnaround

Without pushing the POd back much further and changing the 3DO as we know it, either we get Timeline A, where it's sold at its historical price, or Timeline B, where it's sold at a price the market will bear and Panasonic ditches it because it's losing hundred of dollars per unit sold. Remember, game companies paid a remarkably low percentage to publish on the 3DO, which is one reason the price was so high - Panasonic couldn't afford to sell it as a loss-leader, because it didn't expect much revenue from royalties.

So the 3DO was effectively hyped far to much, to late an entry into the market, strung with loads of variants and crippled by the bad deals 3DO made with the game companies while the console was being developed so Panasonic couldnt make a profit.

So its doomed from day one without major changes early on in any ATL. So its a challenge at the very least make the 3DO competitive.
 
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