Ode To 3DO.

Yes, Ode to 3DO, the system that never took off. Here is a brief history of the next generation system. 3DO was founded in 1991 under the name SMSG, Inc. One of the co-founders was Trip Hawkins in a partnership with a few well-known companies including AT&T, MCA, Time Warner and of course, Electronic Arts. 3DO launched the console in October of 1993. The system was highly promoted and was on the cutting edge of the wave of new technology to hit with a CD based video game system. It was a whopping $700 to own one of these bad boys at release date. Damn, that's more then what the new PS3 is reported to sell as. With such a high price, the game sales did not pick up, along with owners having to drop a lot of cash (I found as high as 250 PER GAME) in order to play. When the Playstation 1 was announced in '94, all hope was lost of this console ever making it a household item because of the supremecy of Sony. Too bad, so sad. Everything wasn't crap though, after 3DO sold its next-gen console named M2, the company went to being a 3rd party developer and released some awesome titles like Army Men, High Heat Baseball, and Might and Magic. In 2003, the company filed for chapter 11 and was sold to companies like Ubisoft, Microsoft and Namco. I actually have a friend who still has a 3DO, and one day we broke that thing out and played Way Of The Warrior. It's kind of like a Mortal Kombat looking game with good graphics for the time. I just remember playing the game not for the gameplay, but the soundtrack was White Zombie and I thought that was the coolest thing ever. If you want to pick one up, I saw a few of them for sale with games on E-Bay for like fifty bucks and other games that sold as low as eight dollars for titles like Gex and Road Rash. 3DO was on the right track in marketing and showing the world something new, but high prices and lack of dedicated gamers drove this company out of business. Right now, I plan to pick one up sometime, just when I get some funds.