I have been reading a number of your posts about the 3DO over the past few months as I was gathered information and reactions about the hardware, software, M2 and so on...
I have been working over the last 2 months on a pretty long article about the 3DO for the online magazine Sanqua (all in french, sorry), using a number of different sources. The article is currently over 20 pages (I will probably try to shorten it up before the end) and covers a number of topics such as:
- the market context pre-3DO
- Trip Hawkins
- NTG before being bought over by 3DO
- business model (and financial problems resulting)
- and a big part on the actual market results from 1993 till 1996.
By the way, I am also a 3DO owner (Panasonic FZ-1) and I played a bunch of games on the system so I do have hands-on experience on the machine.
There are still a number of details I would like to clarify before considering myself satisfied with the article. Here are a few things I am still looking for, but info is hard to come by...
1. Reliable sales figures, in each geography. I have seens lots of things here and there, but even official reports from 3DO and Matsushita differ. Who to trust ? Does anyone have access to good sources ?
2. Reception in Japan. This is something a bit of a mystery to me. The console did not perform so bad in Japan, at least in the beginning, while it had mostly western games on it. And was expensive. Any clue why it had more success there than in its home country ? (I checked wikipedia in japanese and nope, they dont explain anything about that).
3. Insider information. I'll catch anything you guys can share, if there is anyone who worked at 3DO during its golden years. Or even Panasonic / Goldstar, for the matter.
4. M2 debacle: what really happened at Panasonic ? I have seen rumours of a president leaving and being replaced by another who didnt care, but who knows more than just those gossips ?
5. Everyone may be able to help on this one. How did the US video games media react to the 3DO introduction ? As far as I can remember, in France, it was largely ignored by all major french consoles magazines. Similar / different in the US ?
I'll stop here, but I may have other questions.
Hopefully I will hear from some of you - appreciate your help.
