3DO M2 and Philips and Sega almost together?!!

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Merijn
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3DO M2 and Philips and Sega almost together?!!

Post by Merijn » Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:18 am

In the latest edition of Edge I found a pretty interesting quote by Trip Hawkins (creator/founder of 3DO) with regards to the 3DO M2 (second generation of 3DO):

"The M2, in hindsight, could have been a succesful machine - a Playstation 2 that came out 3 or 4 years before the playstation 2"

"We made some really interesting moves where we got very close to putting together a strong coalition of companies to support the M2 and take on the Playstation (1). At one point I had a verbal deal with Philips and Sega to join forces with Matsushita. That grouping of companies could have given Sony a run for it"

But it was not to be. The technology was strong but, as Hawkings tells it, the business relationships between Sega and Matsushita ultimately proved unworkable

"Matsushita wanted to kick Sega out of the deal and then Sega obviously got all mad and Philips backed off. I spent a year putting that coalition together, but in the end they just couldn't get along"

So much went on behind the scenes in those years, I remember a few quotes by some Philips guys in this regard as well. Not sure if Philips would have seen it through, with their focus already starting to change back then away from Media... Still... what could have been...

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TheCDiFanboy92
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Re: 3DO M2 and Philips and Sega almost together?!!

Post by TheCDiFanboy92 » Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:48 am

Merijn wrote:In the latest edition of Edge I found a pretty interesting quote by Trip Hawkins (creator/founder of 3DO) with regards to the 3DO M2 (second generation of 3DO):

"The M2, in hindsight, could have been a succesful machine - a Playstation 2 that came out 3 or 4 years before the playstation 2"

"We made some really interesting moves where we got very close to putting together a strong coalition of companies to support the M2 and take on the Playstation (1). At one point I had a verbal deal with Philips and Sega to join forces with Matsushita. That grouping of companies could have given Sony a run for it"

But it was not to be. The technology was strong but, as Hawkings tells it, the business relationships between Sega and Matsushita ultimately proved unworkable

"Matsushita wanted to kick Sega out of the deal and then Sega obviously got all mad and Philips backed off. I spent a year putting that coalition together, but in the end they just couldn't get along"

So much went on behind the scenes in those years, I remember a few quotes by some Philips guys in this regard as well. Not sure if Philips would have seen it through, with their focus already starting to change back then away from Media... Still... what could have been...
wow what a interesting story dude! :D
man what could have been that a powerfull system!
to bad it didn't worked out that way, the 3do company was WAY ahead with their technolagy!

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Bas
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Post by Bas » Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:15 am

Nice story Merijn! It sounds like history almost repeated itself. The Philips guys behind CD-i always believed they could kick the Playstation if the management let them. Too bad they decided to turn their back to videogames; stories like this make us drool away on what could have been!

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