-> 3DO rights, who has them? Mr Trip?
Moderators: 3DO Experience, Devin, Bas, 3DOKid
-> 3DO rights, who has them? Mr Trip?
Hey everyone, nice forum you have here. I was wondering if anyone knows who now holds the intellectual property rights to the 3do consoles and the various OS, SDKs, etc that go along with it. This also includes the logo, is this logo public domain now? Something tells me Trip Hawkins holds much of this, I read a while back that he bought a lot of liquidated rights.
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there was 3DO M1 (Opera) which was the hart of the Panasonic R.E.A.L.
players released in 1993, and in the Goldstar units
then there was the 3DO M2 (Bulldog) - never released as a console but
used in arcade games, and industrial display machines and some DVD
players (?)
and the 3DO MX (basicly M3)
Samsung acquired the 3DO Systems team around 1997 and the MX (M3)
technology, then Nintendo nearly acquired the MX (M3) technology from
Samsung. Nintendo worked with the 3DO team to redesign MX to use a MIPs
CPU instead of the PowerPC CPU(s) that it used, like M2.
the re-designed MX / M3 chipset with MIPs CPU *would* have been the
heart of the successor to the Nintendo64, to be released in 1999. it
went under the unofficial project name of N2000.
but Nintendo and Samsung had a falling out. N2000 as it was, was dead.
Nintendo then turned to ArtX and IBM to create the Dolphin (Gamecube),
it's been said that some of the insight Nintendo gained from the
original MX / M3 technology (PowerPC CPU, embedded graphics memory)
were applied to the Dolphin/Gamecube. but that remains speculation.
what is fact, is that the MX / M3 technology along with 3DO Systems
team ended up at Microsoft, at the WebTV division when microsoft
acquired the whole shbang in late 1997 or 1998. not long after WebTV
and its newly grafted-in 3DO team competed internally on a design for a
Microsoft console, with later the assistance of another start up
graphics company called GigaPixel. this faction within Microsoft, at
WebTV, with 3DO team and GigaPixel, lost out to the Xbox team that
decided to use a combination of Nvidia GPU,
Intel CPU and a Harddrive. thus Xbox was born.
Finally, the WebTV (MSNTV) division, which still holds the 3DO
engineers, patents / tech, worked on the video display chip for the
Xbox 360.
i'm sure I made some mistakes here. but once I read the book
"The Xbox 360 Uncloaked". I'll see if there's anything i can add to
clear up any possible errors in the future.
players released in 1993, and in the Goldstar units
then there was the 3DO M2 (Bulldog) - never released as a console but
used in arcade games, and industrial display machines and some DVD
players (?)
and the 3DO MX (basicly M3)
Samsung acquired the 3DO Systems team around 1997 and the MX (M3)
technology, then Nintendo nearly acquired the MX (M3) technology from
Samsung. Nintendo worked with the 3DO team to redesign MX to use a MIPs
CPU instead of the PowerPC CPU(s) that it used, like M2.
the re-designed MX / M3 chipset with MIPs CPU *would* have been the
heart of the successor to the Nintendo64, to be released in 1999. it
went under the unofficial project name of N2000.
but Nintendo and Samsung had a falling out. N2000 as it was, was dead.
Nintendo then turned to ArtX and IBM to create the Dolphin (Gamecube),
it's been said that some of the insight Nintendo gained from the
original MX / M3 technology (PowerPC CPU, embedded graphics memory)
were applied to the Dolphin/Gamecube. but that remains speculation.
what is fact, is that the MX / M3 technology along with 3DO Systems
team ended up at Microsoft, at the WebTV division when microsoft
acquired the whole shbang in late 1997 or 1998. not long after WebTV
and its newly grafted-in 3DO team competed internally on a design for a
Microsoft console, with later the assistance of another start up
graphics company called GigaPixel. this faction within Microsoft, at
WebTV, with 3DO team and GigaPixel, lost out to the Xbox team that
decided to use a combination of Nvidia GPU,
Intel CPU and a Harddrive. thus Xbox was born.
Finally, the WebTV (MSNTV) division, which still holds the 3DO
engineers, patents / tech, worked on the video display chip for the
Xbox 360.
i'm sure I made some mistakes here. but once I read the book
"The Xbox 360 Uncloaked". I'll see if there's anything i can add to
clear up any possible errors in the future.
Nobody assumed the studio's title in any way, to my knowledge. The intellectual properties were picked up by various studios at auction... mostly Ubisoft, if I remember, but it's been awhile, and many IPs fell dead from lack of interest. 3DO was not a well-respected company at the time of its demise, and had no hits to its name besides the Might & Magic series.
As for the company name, who knows. Somebody might own it, but nobody's using it. I'd look on the US patent and copyright websites, but they're so damn unwieldy it hurts.
It's possible that Hawkins might retain some rights, though it is doubtful due to his lack of use and the nature of public corporations. Also possible is that nobody owns it.
As for the company name, who knows. Somebody might own it, but nobody's using it. I'd look on the US patent and copyright websites, but they're so damn unwieldy it hurts.
It's possible that Hawkins might retain some rights, though it is doubtful due to his lack of use and the nature of public corporations. Also possible is that nobody owns it.