Trip Hawkins in Edge Magazine

Post by **3DOKid** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 4:22 pm

Despite my wavering opinion on Edge, there is a cracking interview with Trip Hawkins, that for me has made up for almost 10 years of buying a boring magazine

When talking about the M2...

...throughout Hawkins recollection of events, this is the only point at which he seems anything other than magnanimous in his defeat [talking about losing to the PSX]: rather he is rueful at the missed opprtunity to lock horns with Sony for round 2, and bitter at the ungraciousness shown him by a skeptical media.

"Frankly, they had no right to sceptical," says Hawkins "The M2, in hindsight, could have been a successful machine - a Playstation 2 that came out 3 or 4 years before the PS2. just because 3Do became a popular topic of ridicule doesn't mean the press said anything particularly intelligent about the M2"

WOW! Go Trip! (made me love him!)

He goes on to say that he was creating a coalition of hardware vendors for M2. Matsushita (Panasonic) we know about, but at one point he reckons Sega and Philips were in the frame togther.

Oh - Man!

Matsushita ruined it because they didn't get on with Sega and Philips were scared off by this.

Edge do say that 3DO was the founding father of todays games-console market. Which we all know.

Was 3DO ridiculed? The hardware became less sexy in the face of PS1 and Saturn but ridiculed? By the press? Sidelined maybe? Having questioned that I've been going through my old Edge magazines recently and they did seem to relish reviewing the bad games for the 3DO.

Of it's stable: 3DO, CDi, CD32, FM Towns, NeXT, Jaguar, 3DO was by far the best machine - That's not just fanboy talk! (is it?)

It's the 200 edition of Edge, and it's by far the best edition for years. it has quotes from earliest edition (Edition 0) which was:

"3DO is the videogame future"

Which was true. Sadly - sans 3DO. (But you can't have everything

)

Post by **3DOKid** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 4:34 pm

They also state that something else we all know, that Return Fire was one of the best games for the 3DO.

...which incidentally contains a laughter sample of our newest member. (RJ Mical)

mattyg · Post by **mattyg** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 11:58 pm

As always I take Trip's comments with a grain of salt - the whole Panasonic , Sega , Philips story was being being bandied around at the time and several theories were put forward both then and now.

firstly the pros - Sega was finding itself in a similar position to Nintendo now - lack of hardware resources plenty of software talent. The Saturn was failing and the cheapest alternative for them would be to buy into the technology - the M2 arcade boards would also fit in with Sega's philosphy at the time meaning perfect home conversions of arcade games.

Philips had embarked on the Multimedia thing and whilst mildly successful was lacking the tech for the next step - M2 would have been a cheapish alternative for them if they wished to continue down that path.

Panasonic would be looking for immediate returns on its investment - the Sega name on software would evoke a strong heritage from a marketing point of view and Philips European distribution network and (at that time still holding some Nintendo licences) software licences would have made them attractive.

The cons - Sega had just p'oed most of its customers by the whole 32X , Mega CD , Saturn fiasco (Saturn should've been Mega CD compatible at least) a switch to another incompatible hardware platform would have been seen as an arrogant move by consumers.M2 on the other hand would have been 3DO backwards compatible - the beauty of games written to an OS and not hardware. At the time the issue of backwards compatibilty was touted as the sticking point in negotiations - neither side would budge - Pana wanted it Sega didn't

Philips , I still believe had Nintendo software licences at the time - there was also some conjecture at the time that Nintendos lawyers had put pressure on them to pull out - remember how unthinkable it would have been then to have Mario and Sonic appear on the same platform (let alone in the same game!) sacrilege!

Having said all that I want another Trip Hawkins to motivate us , I want another crash , I want another Messiah

awbacon · Post by **awbacon** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 12:30 am

I recall waiting for the M2 release with excitement. Reading up on D2, and being amazed at the screen shots I was seeing.

Of course I was pissed when it was never released!

If Sega had signed onto M2 hardware, perhaps they would still be here? And perhaps we would be playing our M4's right now instead of writing in this thread. But then would the Dreamcast cease to exist? I cant imagine not having Dreamcast in the gaming world.

My opinion would be that Sega signing onto M2 hardware would have only caused the company to leave the hardware market faster. On hardware less capable than a dreamcast, with their bad will they had generated releasing console after console , I think it would have meant Sega's demise would just have come around a bit earlier

I would tend to agree that 3DO , for me , came out on top in its generation

Now can someone please sell me a current gen M4? haha

Post by **3DOKid** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:21 pm

mattyg wrote:As always I take Trip's comments with a grain of salt - the whole Panasonic , Sega , Philips story was being being bandied around at the time and several theories were put forward both then and now.

firstly the pros - Sega was finding itself in a similar position to Nintendo now - lack of hardware resources plenty of software talent. The Saturn was failing and the cheapest alternative for them would be to buy into the technology - the M2 arcade boards would also fit in with Sega's philosphy at the time meaning perfect home conversions of arcade games.

Philips had embarked on the Multimedia thing and whilst mildly successful was lacking the tech for the next step - M2 would have been a cheapish alternative for them if they wished to continue down that path.

Panasonic would be looking for immediate returns on its investment - the Sega name on software would evoke a strong heritage from a marketing point of view and Philips European distribution network and (at that time still holding some Nintendo licences) software licences would have made them attractive.

The cons - Sega had just p'oed most of its customers by the whole 32X , Mega CD , Saturn fiasco (Saturn should've been Mega CD compatible at least) a switch to another incompatible hardware platform would have been seen as an arrogant move by consumers.M2 on the other hand would have been 3DO backwards compatible - the beauty of games written to an OS and not hardware. At the time the issue of backwards compatibilty was touted as the sticking point in negotiations - neither side would budge - Pana wanted it Sega didn't

Philips , I still believe had Nintendo software licences at the time - there was also some conjecture at the time that Nintendos lawyers had put pressure on them to pull out - remember how unthinkable it would have been then to have Mario and Sonic appear on the same platform (let alone in the same game!) sacrilege!

Having said all that I want another Trip Hawkins to motivate us , I want another crash , I want another Messiah

It's interesting. Trip strikes me as a chap who has learnt a lot over the past 15 years. A lot of arrogance has left the way presents himself.

What is amazing, is that all but for Sega, Philips, Matsushita and 3DO all bailed-out on hardware. And then Sega did.

Often the mistake we make (consumers) is the assumption that Sega, Sony, Matsushita, Philips are a personality. They are not. I doubt many decsion makers remember or are willing to argue why something went ahead 15 years ago or not.

I agree we need another gaming Messiah. Satan will ice-skate to work before I follow that knitted-jumper wearing do-gooder Miyamoto - BRING BACK TRIP. (Although he has gone all casual too

)

UnholyTancred · Post by **UnholyTancred** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:52 am

Yes please bring Trip back. He deserves more than Digital Chocolate.

awbacon · Post by **awbacon** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:33 am

The fact that the founder of the 3DO now bakes cell phone games is extremely sad to me.

I just got back from Costa Rica for my gf's brothers wedding. I downloaded a demo iPhone game, some tower stacking deal, and saw it was developed by Digital Chocolate.

It saddened me to think that Trip is now hawking subpar mobile games.

Cant we have one more chance at the M2? Isnt Warp willing to finish D2?

Oh well. At least 3DO still exists

Post by **3DOKid** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:48 am

I wonder how much it would take to couerce Trip, Ken, Yu Suzuki, Kenji Eno, David Braben, Mical, to create the last SUPER CONSOLE. A CONSOLE TO END 'EM ALL! Just a thought.

UnholyTancred · Post by **UnholyTancred** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:45 pm

It'd be easier to make Shenmue 3.

awbacon · Post by **awbacon** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 9:13 pm

Easier than convincing people to buy Killer 7 / No More Heroes instead of the other shit released onto Wii every day

Post by **3DOKid** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 9:51 pm

UnholyTancred wrote:It'd be easier to make Shenmue 3.

That's how we should position it.

mattyg · Post by **mattyg** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 11:31 am

Yes that's right one ring.....er sorry .....console to rule them all!

Where are you my precious!

Well unfortunately for us that fell through when the Panasonic , Sega , Philips , M2 talks broke down.

One thing though - I've always thought the 3DO story would make a great movie 'a 'la "Tucker"
I mean it has everything from larger than life characters , corporate rise and fall to conspiracy theories!