The 3DO could have survived anohter year or two easily.

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T2KFreeker
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The 3DO could have survived anohter year or two easily.

Post by T2KFreeker » Tue Feb 27, 2007 5:08 am

I am telling you all, if the 3DO would have continued to have some support for the system at the end of it's run in 1995, the system could have survived another two years or so. The system was gaining some momentum, plus take into fact that several people were really startinf to love the damn season, it just seems sad that it all ended the way that it did.
This is a stick up! Put all of your 3DO games in the bag and nobody gets hurt!

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Dryden
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Post by Dryden » Tue Feb 27, 2007 7:21 pm

You can't market an appliance as a "media hub" when you have no peripherals other than game pads, little media other than games, and can only get your product sold in gaming stores, all while simultaneously dismissing the competition and speaking down at your core buyers (the gamers) by calling the competitions' product "just a games console."

The $700 price tag was a stigma on the 3DO that the company could never shake, and there was little quality control coming from the 3DO company to oversee a flood of really, really bad FMV/interactive movie/RPG games that hit the market.

The 3DO has some of the best games ever produced for any console, but those were few and far between and it really confused the consumer.

Many people (rightly or wrongly) slam Nintendo for their draconian licensing agreements and micromanagement of third party release schedules. I think Trip Hawkins/3DO could've taken a lesson from Nintendo on that point though, as the strategy of sending anyone a dev kit in exchange for $3 per game sold clearly flopped. You can't expect the Electronics Boutiques across America to give your system that much shelf space, while also continuing the already defunct packaging trend of the CD long box, which took up twice as much shelf space to boot.

The hardware was great, it was everything else that went wrong.

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Trev
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Post by Trev » Tue Feb 27, 2007 8:05 pm

T2K makes a point though, the 3DO had gained some momentum. After the shaky first year, the price had dropped, and quality software strated flooding the shelfs. From mid 94' to mid 95' 3DO was the best system on the market. It actually went neck & neck w/the Sega Saturn during it's launch window (outselling it in some markets) and many of 3DO's games that were ported to the PSX revealed little or no enhancements (sometimes worse) Had M2 been handled properly, 3DO could have survivd at leat through xmas of '96, possibly 1st/2nd quarter of '97. Sadly, the early launch mistakes proved to big to overcome. :(

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3DOKid
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Post by 3DOKid » Tue Feb 27, 2007 8:41 pm

3Do would have been forth place. Sony, Saturn, Ninty and then 3DO. In those days Arcade games were still king and still the bench mark by which systems were measured. EA and Crystal Dynamics weren't arcade vendors - but 3DO could have capitialised of the failing Amiga scene could have been made by 3DO - perhaps moping up the Atari Jaguar too.

If 3DO had enjoyed the sequel to Alien vs Preditor? And made more the RJMical link? - had more PC games ported to it? - then maybe I guess. Also the ol' 3DO, despite it's name, was quite the 2D shifter. If it had managed to get Metal Slug or some other 2D games on it then maybe it could have carved a niche. Stood chance. but then NeoGeo had a console too!

I suppose the big question was: "Was there room for a forth place?" I think if the M2 with a DVD had come to market it may have enjoyed the some of support the PS2 enjoyed.

It's a lot of 'What ifs'.

Matsushita should have tried it against Sony IMHO. After all, Matsushita was at least twice a big financially as Sony; and the Panasonic / Technics etc., brands were equally as popular.

...

3DO Kid.

(stop you're making me cry!)

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