Failed Console/Media platforms.

TheMightyTen · 21 Jul 2010 at 14:06

I was chatting to a work colleague over lunch and we got to discussing his Betamax gene (i.e. His ability to adopt products that are doomed to fail) Some of the failed platforms we could remember were:

Commodore CDTV
Commodore CD32 (Although really this failed because Commodore went bust)
Phillips CD-i
Atari Jaguar
The addons for the Megadrive; Mega CD and 32X

He argued the 3DO, Saturn and Dreamcast were failures as well but I felt that although they didn't last the course as maybe their competitors they were still relatively succcesful.

Is there anymore that people can think of?

TheMightyTen · 21 Jul 2010 at 14:15

Nismo said:
Virtual Boy

Good call, and someone here as just reminded me of the Atari Lynx as well.

TheMightyTen · 21 Jul 2010 at 14:26

orderoftheflame said:
The Saturn really was, and in the end lead to SEGA having major problems when the Dreamcast came out (major developers not wanting to support it etc).

This coupled with extremely strong competition ended up with SEGA leaving the console market. A massive shame.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Saturn#End_of_an_era

It seems quite odd now with the way people feel about Sony but at the time of the announcement of the release of the Playstation it was greated like a breath of fresh air was blowing through the console market. It had been Sega vs Nintendo for so long I think Sega fell foul of sense of complacency brought about by their comfortable position over the previous generation (ala 3DFX did in the graphics market and to some extent NVidia have the last couple of years)

TheMightyTen · 21 Jul 2010 at 14:28

anticonscience said:
My comment of Playstation may seem a trolling one, but the original version of Playstation never made it forward so I guess it suits your requirements.

Plus it's one to make you look uber geeky to your friends who might not know the origins of Playstation.

Ahh you mean SNES-CD

TheMightyTen · 21 Jul 2010 at 14:33

bsoltan said:
Neo Geo
Neo Geo Pocket
Gizmondo

Gizmondo definitely counts as does Neo Geo Pocket but I find it hard to agree on the Neo Geo itself because of the position it held spanning both the Home and Commercial Arcade markets.

TheMightyTen · 21 Jul 2010 at 14:44

An American colleague has just pointed out the Bandai Pippin to me, I vaguely remember it at the time but it was never realeased in the UK.

Also I'd have to add the PC Engine/Turbografx

TheMightyTen · 21 Jul 2010 at 16:28

Abooie said:
You laugh but the PS3 has lost Sony more money than the PS2 made; it's lost more than the Xbox 1 lost.

That being said, it's future is safe and it has some of the generations best exclusives.

Also add the fact that it has probably been one of the key factors in Bluray triumphing over HDDVD.

TheMightyTen · 21 Jul 2010 at 20:22

lokiss said:
Comodore pretty much did the same again with the cd32, an 1200 with a cd drive, no reason for the fanbase to grab one, and the mass market was too busy tucking into the Huge catalogue of megadrive/snes games.

It did sell about 100,000 units in the year or so before Commodore went bust, it also did a roaring trade in grey imports from Canada in the US and if Commodore hadn't been under a court instated trade embargo in the US probably would have sold many more.

TheMightyTen · 23 Jul 2010 at 18:31

Timber said:
Blimey we've got some funny answers here. PC Engine, Neo Geo....really??

TBH I don't find the Japanese market to be reflective of the world market. As a worldwide platform PC Engine failed. Did you ever try to get one here? it was damn hard to find anybody willing to carry it and the games.