Gizmondo Europe Goes Bankrupt!

JaFFa · 25 Jan 2006 at 01:09

Last Tuesday, independent handheld-maker Tiger Telematics made a last-ditch effort to shore up the finances of its struggling British subsidiary, Gizmondo Europe Ltd., with a short-term loan of $5 million. Today, it appeared the company had secured the loan--but not in time to save its UK arm from bankruptcy.

Source

Cant say im surprised but its always sad to see a company go norks up. O well, maye its time to buy one for future rare-ness to sell on ebay

?

Gizmondo had some nice features, but realisticly without a super graphics power to wow people it was destined for failure.

Wyrdo · 25 Jan 2006 at 08:36

To be brutally honest, I'm surprised the Gizmondo lasted as long as it did. It is a shame the company is having problems though.

JUMPURS · 25 Jan 2006 at 08:42

JaFFa said:
Source

Gizmondo had some nice features, but realisticly without a super graphics power to wow people it was destined for failure.

Not only that, it didnt have any killer titles, plus the PSP was round the corner didnt help it.
I like the idea they now have the GPS car kit for it, i am considering it, if it gets cheaper lol

skiba · 25 Jan 2006 at 10:00

it's a shame, I was quite impressed with it when I went in there store in London, the graphics were actually very nice but it just tried to do too many things I guess.

sharingan_sasuk · 25 Jan 2006 at 10:14

Every time I walked past the Gizmondo, I just couldn't help but wonder of the lack of customers in there. Both times I went in, I was hoping that some sales assistant wouldn't stalk me and ask if I needed any help and blah blah blah'd on because it seemed they were really desperate for customers.

knowlesy · 25 Jan 2006 at 10:17

wyrdo said:
To be brutally honest, I'm surprised the Gizmondo lasted as long as it did. It is a shame the company is having problems though.

agreed it was just a polishd up ngage

sharingan_sasuk said:
Every time I walked past the Gizmondo, I just couldn't help but wonder of the lack of customers in there. Bcustomers.

its like the 3 store

kkelly · 25 Jan 2006 at 10:21

they have shops ?:O! theres none up here infact ive only seen one on sale ever and that wasnt a game shop

JUMPURS · 25 Jan 2006 at 11:31

Yeah HMV in braehead sells them

Psyk · 25 Jan 2006 at 11:58

knowlesy said:
its like the 3 store

Yeah but in the 3 store, they're too busy playing frisbee to care if there are any customers. Is it store policy for employees to play frisbee while working? They're always doing it whenever I walk past.

punky_munky · 25 Jan 2006 at 12:51

I saw one in an electronics shop the other day in the same cabinet as the GPS stuff. It was about £200. If it gets any cheaper then I'll pick one up. Does anyone know how it is as a movie player and if there's much of a homebrew scene?

roboffer · 25 Jan 2006 at 13:14

Psyk said:
Yeah but in the 3 store, they're too busy playing frisbee to care if there are any customers. Is it store policy for employees to play frisbee while working? They're always doing it whenever I walk past.

I noticed this in the Metrocentre one over Xmas. I thought it was just them being muppets

As for the original topic, cant say Im suprised in the slightest.

GSXRMovistar · 25 Jan 2006 at 14:54

punky_munky said:
I saw one in an electronics shop the other day in the same cabinet as the GPS stuff. It was about £200. If it gets any cheaper then I'll pick one up. Does anyone know how it is as a movie player and if there's much of a homebrew scene?

Theres a HUGE homebrew scene for the Gizmondo and from what I've read you can get it to do a fair amount of things. Shame it failed but seeing the competition I never expected it to do that well.

JaFFa · 25 Jan 2006 at 15:46

It can display speed camera locaions officially. They even had a deal with ford according to their website.

Does seem to be £199 for a sat nav one, pretty hard to find mind you. Doesnt it have a fairly poweful spec? An nvidia gpu and a 400mhz Arm 9. Thats pretty high spec really.

The DS has an Arm 9 running at 67mhz ! plus an arm 7 running at 33mhz.

But I guess its not what you do its the way that you do it.

Caustic · 25 Jan 2006 at 16:28

I am so glad they failed. Bunch of cowboys running the show. That news cheered up quite a few people in the office. I just hope the entire operation is closed down, and that that widescreen version goes no futher.

CD

JUMPURS · 25 Jan 2006 at 19:48

Caustic said:
I am so glad they failed. Bunch of cowboys running the show. That news cheered up quite a few people in the office. I just hope the entire operation is closed down, and that that widescreen version goes no futher.

CD

Sheesh thats a bit harsh isnt it??
I do think they released the wrong product at the wrong time though. Surely they knew the PSP was around the corner and going to shaft them big style.
People reluctant to spend like 150 quid gaming machine from someone who they never thought of as making gaming machines or games or nothing.
Maybe they should have hooked up with MS, then it might have been interesting. Even if it was just to throw some devs and game licenses there way, for a PGR 2.2 or sommit, anything. Could only have been good for the consumbers, i mean it would have forced Sony to get some better games out for the PSP too. hmm nVidia chip Gizmondo, nVidia chip in xbox hmmmmm

knowlesy · 29 Jan 2006 at 15:46

roboffer said:
I noticed this in the Metrocentre one over Xmas. I thought it was just them being muppets

As for the original topic, cant say Im suprised in the slightest.

that and newcastle is the only places ive ever seen them in.....never seen one customer in them...think they sold more in super drug.....granted i wouldnt mind there jobs just stand ther and do nothing...not bad eh

Memphis · 29 Jan 2006 at 15:56

Caustic said:
I am so glad they failed. Bunch of cowboys running the show. That news cheered up quite a few people in the office. I just hope the entire operation is closed down, and that that widescreen version goes no futher.

CD

I really hope you are qualified to make that statement, and not just someone with a grudge.

beckster · 29 Jan 2006 at 16:31

Always liked the ideas behind the system itself. Just seems they didn't market it very well

Tunney · 29 Jan 2006 at 16:58

I feel sorry for the staff, but Gizmondo got everything it deserved.

The directors were convicted fraudsters who spent $300 million of investors' money on fast cars and extravagant parties. They sucked the company dry and I doubt they ever intended for the device to be a success.

matt100 · 30 Jan 2006 at 02:59

Tunney said:
I feel sorry for the staff, but Gizmondo got everything it deserved.

The directors were convicted fraudsters who spent $300 million of investors' money on fast cars and extravagant parties. They sucked the company dry and I doubt they ever intended for the device to be a success.

lol.. I've known for years they were going to go under.. their development office is in Farnborough and I used to be the business centre manager of the PC world there.. they were always in there with blank cheques buying all manner of nonsense (like 3 or 4 laptops at a go with xp home and because they couldn't wait for me to deliver xp pro kit they also bought xp pro upgrades etc etc) great for my bonus but what a bunch of losers.

Their IT manager bought a laptop off me and then tried to claim I;d said it had 2gb of ram (I don't think I've ever seen a laptop with 2gb in as stock, certainly not a £1300 HP! and even if he did think it had 2gb if he was a half sensible IT manager the price should have been a major giveaway) and then told me he'd wiped the hard drive and put xp pro on himself (thus removing the hidden partition recovery section and invalidating the warranty in 1 foul swoop) and when I refused to "give" him 2gb of ram (this almost 2 years ago when 2gb of sodimms probably cost as much as the laptop) he.. wait for it.. got his MUM to call me!

This the IT manager of a supposed competitor for sony.. :rolleyes:

You start to get a good idea of a company when their credit account gets pulled because they haven't paid the bill.

Their financial statement recently was hilarious, they wouldn't reveal how many they'd sold! But it did reveal the extent to which the directors were blowing money on cars.

And Freer is just a weirdo.. he's one of the strangest men I have ever met, him and his "free" Rolls Royce.. its the shareholders I feel sorry for, they spent so long spending money rather than securing game titles it was doomed to failure.