/vr/ - Retro Games

>>1234324
>>1234325
>>1234341

Ahem... Allow me to explain.

The 3Do was actually the most powerful of its generation of systems. RJ Mical designed it to be cutting edge in every way, and Trip Hawkins was no fool: He knew what it took to make a console work. After all, he'd built EA, and Mical had created the Amiga's OS.

The problem from the start was that the extreme cost of the system, which was indeed prohibitive, was largely handled by the OEM 3rd parties who made the 3DO consoles. The plan, all along, was to build a specification, then make money on selling games for systems that supported this specification. There were plans for in-computer CD drives with 3DO compatibility, and for home entertainment/Internet boxes, but none of these really materialized in any meaningful way.

So Panasonic is cranking out a console, on which it has to make a profit because it doesn't make games, 3DO makes games, and other companies make games. The console itself, historically and to this day, is sold at a discount so that the first party can profit from selling its games. No one who makes a console these days doesn't make games for that console. Thus, instead of being able to sell the 3DO at a loss for say, $300, it was sold for a profit at $800.

On the other side, there were some fairly killer games for the system, by the standards of the day. Many 3D titles, like Return Fire, Star Control, Road Rash, Immercenary and PO'd were easily appealing titles to players. The Full motion video stuff never really appealed to anyone, but it did make for a flashy demo in the store, so the 3DO was not a laughing stock in the stores. It was just too expensive compared to the Playstation, which had many of the better games on the system: Need for Speed, Road Rash, PO'd, and Flashback, for example. While there were a few stand-out exclusives, (EA was an enthusiastic supporter of the console, of course, and EA still rocked back then), the 3DO didn't get as many console sales and thus died.

>>568409
>remember your processor speed from a decade ago