3DO (Panasonic)
3DO Reviews
Updated: 7th January 2015
Released in October 1993 (America), discontinued in 1996, the 3DO sold somewhere in the region of just 2 million units.The 3DO was concieved by Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts. It was a console manufactured by a handful of companies, to strict specifications. Panasonic produced the first models in 1993.
Being a highly expensive console, saturated by much competition, prevented the 3DO from selling enough units to make it viable to continue its existence.
The biggest franchise to begin life on the 3DO, was the Need for Speed series. Need for Speed was a 3DO exclusive (1994), being released the following years on other platforms.
Unique to the system, was the lack of a region lock, and any copy protection. Had the system been launched at a much lower price, the lack of DRM would have made this console a good contender for being a market leader.
Previous video game systems, such as the Amiga range, and 8-bit cassette based systems, were a massive success partly due to rampant piracy (personal opinion).
An exclusive hardware feature the 3DO has, is the ability to chain link controllers, upto a maximum of eight players.
A planned successor to the 3DO, the M2, was cancelled, only a handful of demo systems exist, commanding a very high price among collectors.
For full details on the 3DO, visit the 3DO Wikipedea page.
