Panasonic 3D0, one and done

In my Sega Saturn post, I mentioned something about the Panasonic 3D0.  Given how gaming has ballooned into the machine it has, it doesn't surprise me that not a lot of people remember the system.  It was only around for a short amount of time, and like the Phillips CDi (which actually had promise with Nintendo backing it), Panasonic's only attempt at entering the gaming market.  It came out towards the end of the 16 bit era, but due to several reasons, it never took off.

First, a name.  Trip Hawkins.  Many of you have no idea who I'm talking about, but Trip Hawkins is one of the most influential men in the history of gaming.  Why?  He's the founder of Electronic Arts.  He's a brilliant man who probably craps more about this industry than I will ever know (and I like to think I'm pretty wise about it..).  In 1991, Hawkins left EA to sign on with the 3Do company, and through Panasonic release the 3D0 console.  If you're wondering, Hawkins currently is not doing anything.  He created a handheld gaming company called Digital Chocolate, and stepped down from the CEO chair in May of 2012.

The 3D0 was not the first CD based system.  Hell, it wasn't even the 2nd.  (Sega CD and Phillips CDi were both available in 1991, the 3D0 wasn't available until 1993)  However, the console, for it's time, had a lot of powerful next gen stuff under the hood.  CDs were still relatively new to us though, so the cost of the unit, along with the idea of needing memory in order to save, was really new.  These days, memory is nothing, but back before the CD systems, most games that could not be completed in one sitting were either given a password system or a battery memory inside the cart.  (For more information about passwords, please visit the Angry Video Game Nerd's website)  The thing that stuck out to me from the very start was how clean the full motion video was.  I had a Sega CD at the time, and the FMV on that system wasn't only pixelated like crazy, it was also contained in a small box on your screen (although animated scenes usually were larger).  The 3DO was much cleaner, and had far less load time than it's competitors. 

Neo Geo

We need to remember the time period as well.  Towards the end of the 16-bit era, there were several companies that were jumping in the pool, attempting to wrestle away market share from Nintendo and Sega (who were roughly 50/50).  Panasonic wasn't alone as we also saw consoles from Phillips, SNK, Atari, and eventually Sony (and we know how that turned out).  Nintendo had fallen out with several 3rd party publishers, and Sega..well...I've covered the Saturn debacle.  So, all in all, it was a good time to jump into the pool.  However, it's a small pool, and there wasn't room for everyone.  The most intriguing thing that these consoles had was each had a really big strength or partnership, with the exception of Sony (who won).  Phillips had a partnership with Nintendo, SNK was the only way to play arcade perfect games at home (that was a big deal back then), Atari meant gaming in the early 80's and Panasonic had a strong partnership with Electronic Arts.  

 

 

Akuma, only on 3D0

Look kids, it's Mark Hamill!

The Panasonic 3D0 had a massive price tag.  $699.99 at launch.  Back in 1993, this was a huge price.  However, the 3D0 did have some really big strengths.  The partnership with EA meant they had a full library of the best ports of all the EA titles, such a Madden NFL Football.  It also had a collection of EA games that were direct ports from the PC.  One game I still love to this day, and I played it first on the 3D0 was Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger.  This game was nearly as good as it's PC counterpart, complete with controller support from the console.  This was one of the first times in my memory that openly put a PC port of a game on a console that could very well be considered on par with the original (we had seen it on other consoles, but the PC port was always better than the consoles).  The 3D0 also had, for the longest time, the only console port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo.   I think I've stated it before, but a lot of people don't remember that the character Gex was originally the console mascot for the 3Do.  It also was the birthplace of the Legacy of Kain series.  (Both Gex and Legacy of Kain are now the property of Square Enix, which they got in their purchase of Eidos, I believe)

However, while the 3D0 did have a collection of really good games, it had a larger number of crappy games.  As I stated above, the CD format was still new at the time, and with all the room they could put on a CD, we would see game companies making full motion video games.  These games would come on 2 to 4 discs usually, with the story being played out in video cut scenes.  Wing Commander III, for example, was one.  If you took out all the FMV, Wing Commander could have been on one CD.  However, there were lots of them out there that did not live up to those standards, in fact most were pretty piss poor.  The, now infamous, Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, was among these games.  Plus it had a selection of softcore porn video titles.  I don't want to get much into those because I do try to keep this clean, but let's just say when you walked into a game store with 3D0 titles, they would usually have just as much porn as they did actual games.  

The system died, officially, in 1996.  However, the Christmas of 95 is what destroyed them for good when Sony, figuratively, took 'em behind the woodshed and tanned that hide.  Panasonic actually did drop their price to a much more affordable $199.99, but by that time, Sony's Playstation had amassed such a huge amount of publishers, that they had no choice but to drop support for the system.  They went on to become a third party for Sony, Sega and Nintendo, creating the once popular Army Men series.  They filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in 2003, unloading their profitable IPs and closing their doors for good.  

All in all, the 3D0 was probably a better console than some of the newbies back during that time period, such as Phillips and Atari, but they made the mistake of pricing themselves out of the marketplace from day 1, and just did not have the line up needed in order to compete with the likes of Nintendo or Sony.  The CD technology was just too new, and many gamers did not understand how the whole memory thing worked at the time.  Furthermore, the game console targeted only one audience, males 18-34, and never evolved to include a more broad base (most console companies start with males 18-34, but blossom out into other demographics as the console ages in order to find new audiences).  Personally, I think they saw the writing on the wall and got the hell out while they still could make money off of their first party games on other consoles.  That's just my opinion, though.