Poor Goldstar...
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 10:28 pm
I considered putting this in the "Magazine tidbits" thread, but I think this merits its own discussion topic beyond just the clipping I've posted below.
I've long wondered how exactly the actual discontinuation of the 3DO worked, since it was manufactured by three different companies. Was there a big meeting between Panasonic, Goldstar, Sanyo, and the 3DO Company in which they came to the mutual decision that it was time to cut their losses and get out, or did they drop their support for the system one-by-one?
According to this very interesting (to me, at least) article in the March 1996 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, it was the latter. It sounds like Goldstar took a lot more of a beating on the old 3DO Interactive Multiplayer than Panasonic did. Which makes sense when you think about it; their only two 3DO games, Primal Rage and BC Racers, came out near the end of the system's life, and in the meantime Panasonic was doing big price drops on the FZ-1. It makes me wonder why they didn't drop support earlier, instead of investing resources into a software division that wasn't going to have games ready in enough time to turn things around.
I've long wondered how exactly the actual discontinuation of the 3DO worked, since it was manufactured by three different companies. Was there a big meeting between Panasonic, Goldstar, Sanyo, and the 3DO Company in which they came to the mutual decision that it was time to cut their losses and get out, or did they drop their support for the system one-by-one?
According to this very interesting (to me, at least) article in the March 1996 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, it was the latter. It sounds like Goldstar took a lot more of a beating on the old 3DO Interactive Multiplayer than Panasonic did. Which makes sense when you think about it; their only two 3DO games, Primal Rage and BC Racers, came out near the end of the system's life, and in the meantime Panasonic was doing big price drops on the FZ-1. It makes me wonder why they didn't drop support earlier, instead of investing resources into a software division that wasn't going to have games ready in enough time to turn things around.