3DO ZONE Forums

I considered putting this in the "Magazine tidbits" thread, but I think this merits its own discussion topic beyond just the clipping I've posted below.

I've long wondered how exactly the actual discontinuation of the 3DO worked, since it was manufactured by three different companies. Was there a big meeting between Panasonic, Goldstar, Sanyo, and the 3DO Company in which they came to the mutual decision that it was time to cut their losses and get out, or did they drop their support for the system one-by-one?

According to this very interesting (to me, at least) article in the March 1996 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, it was the latter. It sounds like Goldstar took a lot more of a beating on the old 3DO Interactive Multiplayer than Panasonic did. Which makes sense when you think about it; their only two 3DO games, Primal Rage and BC Racers, came out near the end of the system's life, and in the meantime Panasonic was doing big price drops on the FZ-1. It makes me wonder why they didn't drop support earlier, instead of investing resources into a software division that wasn't going to have games ready in enough time to turn things around.

The Goldstar was a bit crap compared to the Panasonic anyway, never seen a Sanyo but id reckon itd be about as good as the Panasonic.

Only a year and a half eh? Well, it was a good year and a half.

CasetheCorvetteman wrote:The Goldstar was a bit crap compared to the Panasonic anyway, never seen a Sanyo but id reckon itd be about as good as the Panasonic.

I think, regardless of the quality of the Goldstar 3DO Interactive Multiplayer units, Goldstar's support of the 3DO was important. It countered the growing suspicion that Trip Hawkins's vaunted open multimedia standard was just a concept and that the 3DO was in actuality Panasonic's console. It offered a low-cost alternative to those who wanted a cutting edge 32-bit console but couldn't afford to spend an arm and a leg. And of course, having some extra marketing muscle never hurts a console's market performance.

Martin III wrote:

CasetheCorvetteman wrote:The Goldstar was a bit crap compared to the Panasonic anyway, never seen a Sanyo but id reckon itd be about as good as the Panasonic.

I think, regardless of the quality of the Goldstar 3DO Interactive Multiplayer units, Goldstar's support of the 3DO was important. It countered the growing suspicion that Trip Hawkins's vaunted open multimedia standard was just a concept and that the 3DO was in actuality Panasonic's console. It offered a low-cost alternative to those who wanted a cutting edge 32-bit console but couldn't afford to spend an arm and a leg. And of course, having some extra marketing muscle never hurts a console's market performance.

They cost about the same here, but the Goldstar didnt run every game, the Panasonic did though.

Internally, the Sanyo and Goldstars are virtually identical with the same issues

mattyg wrote:Internally, the Sanyo and Goldstars are virtually identical with the same issues

Have never opened a Sanyo, so id have to take your word for that. Theyre pretty damn rare too, i had a mate that had one, he never struck an issue that i was ever aware of.

So far the only game ive not been able to run on a Japanese Panasonic console is the US Return Fire: Maps 'O Death, the original game will run, but that expansion just wont for some reason. Id expect that is some sort of regional issue though, theyre both genuine discs, and work fine in my mate's US FZ-1.