Failed Console/Media platforms.

I nearly purchased a Panasonic 3DO but after buying a Commodore CD32 and watching Commodore go under and lack of titles for the CD32 after the coming months, I pooled my cash into a new shinny PC system at the time..

Pleased I didn’t buy a Panasonic 3DO as that failed, but I did have a lot of interest in the SNES CD system..

Sony really did catch Nintendo with their pants down on this one. The Sony playstation was without doubt a huge breath of fresh air. Playstation was a release purchase for me, £299.99 + memory card costs and a game. Ridge Racer. Lol

Best purchase ever.

I remember the Dreamcast only as it was an interesting time for PC GPU venders. 3Dfx were keen to get into OEM, and Sega were meant to be using the 3Dfx CPU in their new console, but eventually went with Videologic /NEC power VR. I got the console almost on release but sony released the Playstation 2, and sadly that was pretty much it for Dreamcast.

Failures for me that I felt shouldn’t have been failures are –

Dreamcast – it was a quality console, well made with excellent performance and features.
3DO – it had potential but sadly marketing and costs (£600 launch price – too much) meant it eventually died in favour of the new, cheaper and much better playstation
PSP – it’s a failure. Regardless of shipped units, the PSP GO was a mistake, but PSP and UMD should and could have been so much more. It’s a decent bit of kit, but its failed due to the media IMO. UMD is stupid - but it could have been excellent..

The Saga Game Gear was another rather unique failure... Shame, it looked good, but Nintendo really did whip their butts in handhelds.. Sony as well. Nintendo are the kings of handhelds..

Machines that should have failed but somehow survived at this moment in time has to be the Playstation 3. Sony have in some way now worked very hard on the platform to secure its future but its been rocky and whilst the hardware is decent its clearly been the biggest screw up in the games industry to date.

Playstation 3 is a machine that’s only survived due to its excellent pedigree in past machines, and the sure effort and money Sony have plunged into the console. So not only is the machine the blunder of the games industry, its also the best recovery I’ve ever seen.

Shame Sega couldn’t have done the same after the Saturn with the Dreamcast.. That was one console that really deserved to do much better.
 
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Timber said:
Blimey we've got some funny answers here. PC Engine, Neo Geo....really??
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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.
 
TheMightyTen said:
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.
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Oh I remember the grey import days well. Unfortunately as a teenager I never had the money to grab one of those white boxes, no matter how much I did drool over the ads in C&VG. I finally managed to get hold of a PC Engine Core Grafx c.2002 with a small software library.

Yes - it never really got released in Europe officially, wasn't anywhere as successful in the US as it's domestic market. But I think to class it as a failure, or at least put it in the same bracket as real failures is harsh. It never had MD or SNES sales, and met sales expectations NEC probably hoped to achieve. But it was a great machine, innovative, and has an awesome software library.
 
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LeJosh said:
The dreamcast failed because it didn't have any copyright protection on the discs and disc reader did it?
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you still needed a bootloader disc so obviously it had copy protection just not a very good one.

same as the wii you can software mod a wii very easily and play games from a usb hardrive....

dont really see the wii beeing classed as a failure to most although it should be because of the huge lack of good titles.

the wii has been out for years and the chars still arent that different from launch day....
 
I personally feel a lot of things were the dreamcast's downfall.

1. Copy protection
2. Lack of DVD drive
3. Badly marketed! or maybe not badly just not aswell as its opponent
 
arknor said:
you still needed a bootloader disc so obviously it had copy protection just not a very good one.

same as the wii you can software mod a wii very easily and play games from a usb hardrive....

dont really see the wii beeing classed as a failure to most although it should be because of the huge lack of good titles.

the wii has been out for years and the chars still arent that different from launch day....
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You don't need a bootloader disc if you have self boot .cdi's or whatever!

I have the NTSC Code Veronica on a CD-R because my retail PAL version doesn't work with the VGA box, it just boots straight from the CD.
 
I'm the proud owner of a 60-movie strong collection of Laserdiscs, along with a Pioneer player (I can't remember the model number, but it reads both sides of the disc ;)). Not that it was a failed format, it was hugely successful in parts of Asia, but it was constantly overshadowed by VHS in the West.
 
Margaret said:
You don't need a bootloader disc if you have self boot .cdi's or whatever!

I have the NTSC Code Veronica on a CD-R because my retail PAL version doesn't work with the VGA box, it just boots straight from the CD.
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not all games had the bootloader sector at the start though with a lot you had to use a bootdisc and then bootup so far and switch the game in.

i wouldnt say dreamcast was a failure anyway it had some truly awesome games , it was well ahead of its time when it came to dreamarena.

what other console let you surf the internet? play multiplayer games online? had chatrooms and an infastructure all paid for by sega etc.

if it were microsoft they would have made you pay a subscription :rolleyes:

when you think about it really its amazing it lost out to the playstation
 
I'm still sad the Dreamcast bit the dust over here, it was way ahead of it's time. It's a quality console with a nice selection of great games. I've still got mine with all the extras like the keyboard and lightgun. It's the only console i've had in recent times where nothing has gone wrong with it, or the games, or the extras.
 
I really wanted a Gamegear, MegaCD and Dreamcast, kinda glad I didn't.

Also I feel the Gamecube was a bit naff. It had some good games but the hardware was lacking really. At least the Wii has motion control to make it different. Other than the few exclusives, which admittedly were good I got bored.


And LOL "the phantom" they were banging on about that for years and unsurprisingly it never happened.
 
starfighter said:
Also I feel the Gamecube was a bit naff. It had some good games but the hardware was lacking really.
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The GameCube actually had really good hardware IMO.
More advanced than the PS2 was at the time and it still produced Resident Evil 4 which was one of the best looking titles of that generation.
 
The Gamecube's hardware certainly wasn't 'lacking'. It's hardware sat between the PS2 and the original Xbox. Basically similar 'power' to the PS2 but with the extra eye candy of the Xbox (Bump Mapping etc.).
 
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