It's crazy how the 3DO was the first console at the time to make the right bet on 3D games.

[Leeroy ST]

in the early 90's and the early part of the mid 90's the industry was confused as to which direction gaming should go in. Some devs figured that new advanced 2D gaming would be the future, while others believed that FMV could be what drove gaming forward. Some consoles like the Jaguar had limited 3D capabilities as more of a novelty but still focused on 2D gaming with its architecture overall. Then you had the ambitious consoles, trying to do gaming and more thinking that multimedia was the future.

 

Only the 3DO went all in on 3D (though it did attempt to convert to a MM device and failed) while also have a good though limited mix of 2D and FMV titles. This would influence rival Sony (3DO main partner was Panasonic) to do the same but with a different strategy that would result in 30 times the sales. Even the Saturn initially focused on a more modest 3D with 2D games as a focus until they were surprised by the PSX's graphics potential and textures. This would also influence SNK's later change of strategy to 3D with Hyper Neo-Geo 64 and the unreleased console based on it. Nintendo's Ultra 64 delays made sure it knew which direction to go in.

 

What's funny is even after the 3DO and the release of the PSX companies were still not sure of gaming direction until the PSX's blow out moment in 1996. Look at all these systems across this time frame (92-95) that all failed to understand where the market was heading:

 

 

 

It is no wonder that a console starting with a slow library and a $700(though some people say they have seen it for less) price tag, is able to still outsell most of these 3:1 as the price slowly goes down and 5:1 once the price is $300 or less. Selling millions of consoles and being the 4th best selling system of it's time with the next closest competitor being the Jaguar at 250,000? Then almost everyone else above selling only in the 10's of thousands? That's a large failure rate in the marketplace.

 

3DO was the only one that really figured it out early on and the PSX(N64) followed. Even then it wan't until 1996 when it became crystal clear 3D gaming was the future as companies were still not sure what direction to go in.

 

 

Edit: Seems PCFX sold 400k-500k in Japan and CD32 100k but those are still really low.

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by Leeroy ST

[Serguei2]

3DO has great titles like samurai shodown.

 

If the price was not high at this time, I would buy 3DO just to play samurai shodown.

[Torr]

Really Serguei2? 

You had to prod this tool?

 

Leeroy... Stop starting threads, especially ones that are just looking for unending arguments.

You were interesting at first, thought maybe your were a fellow AAer looking to start anew Knight Rider thread for fun, then I realized you are real, then you seemed kinda interesting just misunderstood...

but it's just getting old.

 

Start a webpage or something,... quit filling AA with your bullshit.

 

[Leeroy ST]

17 minutes ago, Serguei2 said:

3DO has great titles like samurai shodown.

 

If the price was not high at this time, I would buy 3DO just to play samurai shodown.

I know people who were upset about that port because it ran at half the frame rate. Still played good though. Price definitely hurt it for way too long I agree with you. 

 

Strangely, if they had started out at $500 instead of $700 which was apparently on the table, and kept the same price drop momentum they would have been $300 in early 1994, $200 by the end, and maybe as low as $150 by early 1995. Would have put it in a much better position than the current $700-$500-$400-$200 strategy that we actually got. You can't spend a year over $400 with a gaming console (back then) that's nuts.

 

Of course these days $500 is fine.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Leeroy ST