alt Hacker NewsI always thought the 3DO was good hardware, for 1993, let down by a high price (especially by 1993 standards) and a poor library of games: there just wasn’t a good incentive to buy the thing.
Fast forward a couple of years and the PlayStation and Saturn are both out, more technically capable, cheaper, and with better game libraries.
However, I really do think the main thing that killed the 3DO was the price - it was wildly and ridiculously expensive compared with the alternatives - and the lack of games sort of followed naturally from that because who’s going to develop for a console hardly anyone bought?
The inter-generation timing of its launch probably didn’t help. Who’s forking over when you know Sega, Nintendo and - it turns out - Sony are all going to release something better in a year or two?
Replies
> the main thing that killed the 3DO was the price
I believe this was because 3DO didn't make the consoles themselves, they licensed the design to others who made it. The console had to be profitable, rather than be sold at a loss and be subsidized by game sales.
I agree; if the console had been half the price it might have faired better.
Another issue is that pretty much every good game on there came out on other platforms, and often the other platform's version was actually better anyway. Return Fire, for example: great game, a lot of fun, but the PlayStation version is better in pretty much every way. Same with Road Rash, or The Horde (in a cheesy way, on the Saturn), Alone in the Dark (on the PC), etc. Despite being called the 3DO, it pretty much always had the absolute worst version of 3D games.
There are a few exclusives, and even a couple that are ok, but certainly not enough to justify the price tag. Even compared to the Saturn (a system that also tends to have pretty mediocre 3D experiences), it's pretty obvious that the 3DO is a bad deal.