3DO ZONE Forums

I've been curious (and I don't think I've seen anything thus far), but does anyone happen to know what the 3DO platform's sales numbers were over the years? This could be relegated to specific models, like FZ-1 or FZ-10 models, or it could be an over-arching number of units sold between a variety of companies that licensed the hardware. Still, I am curious, does anyone know what the 3DO platform sold as a whole?

Have heard numbers of a couple of million units, but i dont know from where, or if its accurate.

6 Million was banded about, i don't think it's right either.

I found such a page.
Because it is Japanese notation, it may be hard to look to everybody a little.
Is this list useful for everybody?

http://www.d6.dion.ne.jp/~yosou-oh/hard2.htm

FUJISAN wrote:I found such a page.
Because it is Japanese notation, it may be hard to look to everybody a little.
Is this list useful for everybody?

http://www.d6.dion.ne.jp/~yosou-oh/hard2.htm

Works fine using google translate

They Sold:

720,000 in Japan
630,000 Everywhere else

1,340,000 Total.

Only a little better than the Virtuaboy.

I swear I saw an old article that said a million were sold in Japan and two million were sold worldwide, but I can't find it now.

No mention of the Jaguar either. I guess it was covered by 'other'.

Wiki says 2 million sold.

3DOKid wrote:

FUJISAN wrote:I found such a page.
Because it is Japanese notation, it may be hard to look to everybody a little.
Is this list useful for everybody?

http://www.d6.dion.ne.jp/~yosou-oh/hard2.htm

Works fine using google translate

They Sold:

720,000 in Japan
630,000 Everywhere else

1,340,000 Total.

Only a little better than the Virtuaboy.

This sounds accurate imo. In late '95 I recall reading in a few of the multi platform mags that 3DO had sold 750.000 or so world wide. When you figure that new games were still being made for it through the first half of 96', that you could still find it on store shelves through 97', and that sales actually picked up when the slashed the price to $99, I think around 1.5 sounds reasonable.

It sounds about right to me too.

Interesting numbers being tossed around here. I could see 750,000 or so in the US, if only going by how often I see these systems pop up at online stores (dedicated gaming retail sites, and then eBay).

3DOKid wrote:

FUJISAN wrote:I found such a page.
Because it is Japanese notation, it may be hard to look to everybody a little.
Is this list useful for everybody?

http://www.d6.dion.ne.jp/~yosou-oh/hard2.htm

Works fine using google translate

They Sold:

720,000 in Japan
630,000 Everywhere else

1,340,000 Total.

Only a little better than the Virtuaboy.

I'm surprised to see sales so much better in Japan than elsewhere. It seems like the 3DO had a lot of western-only releases.

I have some internal 3DO newsletters that were sent out to developers, licensees, etc. that I believe gave the current sales figures for hardware. I'll see if I can locate where I stored them and post the numbers (if I am remembering correctly, that is).

Considering the Russian community behind 3DO, the numbers surprise me too.

bitrate wrote:I have some internal 3DO newsletters that were sent out to developers, licensees, etc. that I believe gave the current sales figures for hardware. I'll see if I can locate where I stored them and post the numbers (if I am remembering correctly, that is).

That would be cool. Depending on when they are from, it could really help us gauge 3DO's performance.

A higher number wouldn't urprise me - I lived in a small town of 20000 on the edge of the Australian outback at the time and knew 2 other owners.

mattyg wrote:A higher number wouldn't urprise me - I lived in a small town of 20000 on the edge of the Australian outback at the time and knew 2 other owners.

I didn't know, nor have i ever met, another 3DO owner. Although my recruitment consultant that found me my current job 3 years ago now, knew 3DOKid. He asked me if i had any weird hobbies. I told him i collected games for this weird old games console called a 3DO. At which point he got all excited and told me to visit 3DOKid's Blog. Another weird conversation followed where i told him I was 3DOKid. He looked doubting, so i logged into the admin panel. At which point he nearly exploded in delight. Still he didn't own a 3DO.

Not only did I also have a couple friends who owned a 3DO, but 2 movie rental stores in the town I lived also rented 3DO games! Small town too (smaller than bitrates)

@3DOKid, did your alter ego give you an edge in landing the job?

3DOKid wrote:

mattyg wrote:A higher number wouldn't urprise me - I lived in a small town of 20000 on the edge of the Australian outback at the time and knew 2 other owners.

I didn't know, nor have i ever met, another 3DO owner. Although my recruitment consultant that found me my current job 3 years ago now, knew 3DOKid. He asked me if i had any weird hobbies. I told him i collected games for this weird old games console called a 3DO. At which point he got all excited and told me to visit 3DOKid's Blog. Another weird conversation followed where i told him I was 3DOKid. He looked doubting, so i logged into the admin panel. At which point he nearly exploded in delight. Still he didn't own a 3DO.

Ha, that's a great story. I wonder how he happened upon that blog if he never owned a 3DO?

Trev wrote:Not only did I also have a couple friends who owned a 3DO, but 2 movie rental stores in the town I lived also rented 3DO games! Small town too (smaller than bitrates)

@3DOKid, did your alter ego give you an edge in landing the job?

I doubt it.

Martin III wrote:I'm surprised to see sales so much better in Japan than elsewhere. It seems like the 3DO had a lot of western-only releases.

It also had a lot of weird Japan-only releases. Most of your major players released SOMETHING for it. And yet, no shooters.