Why do people(and professional gaming media) think the 3DO was an epicfail?

[cimerians]

Worst system I ever bought. I had ONE game for it and no interest in any others and that was AD&D Slayer. It had some of the worst graphics I ever saw not that it mattered. I remember getting it for real cheap in the later 90's from Best Buy. They had a bunch of units with the words GOLDSTAR on it, not sure if those were cheaper ones or something. I tossed it out or sold it on Ebay at the time.

 

No offense to those who dig it, but I had no interest in it at all.

[Rex Dart]

Anyone who was around back then will remind you that FMV (particularly good FMV) was a buzz word and a selling point.

Now, FMV wouldn't make a system, but it was considered a positive back then.

 

I was around! I thought FMV games were a joke & devoid of gameplay. You can't run, can't jump, can't shoot, can't even explore beyond watching 'this clip' or 'that clip'.

 

Buzzword? Sure. CEOs and marketing departments thrive on buzzwords, but I don't think too many consumers were fooled. Selling point? Maybe. Buying point? Nope.

[108 Stars]

I was around! I thought FMV games were a joke & devoid of gameplay. You can't run, can't jump, can't shoot, can't even explore beyond watching 'this clip' or 'that clip'.

 

Buzzword? Sure. CEOs and marketing departments thrive on buzzwords, but I don't think too many consumers were fooled. Selling point? Maybe. Buying point? Nope.

Again I agree. I am not entirely sure about how it was in the US, but I do know FMV games regularely got panned by magazines here. The most popular Sega magazine of the time even warned people NOT to buy the Sega CD because all the FMV games flooding the market are garbage and there is too few games that make decent use of the systems power.

 

In the same article they also claimed that the marketing for that stuff kind of worked in the US, but I am not sure to what degree. All I know is that around here FMV games were frowned upon by gamers.

[CatPix]

bout the time it came out my summer job was enough to get me a crappy 486SX cyrix computer and a single speed cd-rom, all the FMV I could handle and still cost less than the 3d0 (resuing a lot of parts I already had and sofware I already had)

Except that no computer could display 3D textured graphics akin to the 3DO up until 1994 and the first 3DFX 3D graphic cards.

And, yes, I know that there was 3D games on PC prior to 1994. I remember playing Stunts 4D Sports Driving around 1992 on my Commodore SL 286 computer.

But really at the time, the 3DO and the Playstation kicked the PC's butt graphics wise.

[desiv]

2 points.

1- FMV capable doesn't mean all games are all FMV. Only a small percentage of 3DO games are full FMV.

2- Some of the full FMV games were very popular and sold well (Dragon's Lair), even if a lot of gamers didn't like them.

 

It's OK for you to not like something and for it to still have been popular.

 

desiv

[Rex Dart]

2 points.

1- FMV capable doesn't mean all games are all FMV. Only a small percentage of 3DO games are full FMV.

2- Some of the full FMV games were very popular and sold well (Dragon's Lair), even if a lot of gamers didn't like them.

 

 

1) Are you sure that's a point? What's the end effect there?

2) I don't think Dragon's Lair had a whole lot to do with the 3DO.

[desiv]

My only point is that FMV wasn't the horror at the time that people seem to think.

Yes, a lot of people didn't like FMV, even then.

But a lot did like FMV. (At least for the "new" factor for awhile.)

Personally I really liked the use of FMV cutscenes, especially on the 3DO for its quality.

And the 3DO had many nonFMV games, so I don't think FMV negatively affected the system at the time.

 

desiv

[+GoldenWheels]

 

I was around! I thought FMV games were a joke & devoid of gameplay. You can't run, can't jump, can't shoot, can't even explore beyond watching 'this clip' or 'that clip'.

 

Buzzword? Sure. CEOs and marketing departments thrive on buzzwords, but I don't think too many consumers were fooled. Selling point? Maybe. Buying point? Nope.

 

I don't have a lot of experience with the 3DO but this was my opinion then and pretty much still is. FMV games suck.

 

Most friends I had, who granted couldn't afford a 3DO new, as I could not, didn't even really consider the thing a videogame system. I can' t honestly say what we did consider it, it just always felt like an "other", due to the price and FMV games.

[Hatta]

FMV games do suck. Fortunately, there's plenty of non-FMV games for the 3DO. You are missing out on the best versions of Road Rash and Need for Speed, bar none. You are missing out on an excellent update of Wing Commander, a great Ballblazer clone(Battlesport), a unique early 3D action RPG/FPS hybrid(Immercenary), two licensed AD&D action RPGs similar to Eye of the Beholder, a unique strategy RPG(Guardian War), and quite a few 3d space shooters on rails and open world.

 

It may have been a commercial failure, but it definitely wasn't an FMV only console. These days, a 3DO costs no more than a modern console game and is worth the purchase even if you never play anything but Road Rash.

[CatPix]

And there is also good FMV games. Not a lot, but take a look at D (on 3DO and Playstation) and just think about X-Files : the game on Playstation and PC (more like a point'n'click slideshow with cutscenes) to see that FMV based games can be more that just "click right click left oops you lose".

Edited December 10, 2013 by CatPix

[+GoldenWheels]

FMV games do suck. Fortunately, there's plenty of non-FMV games for the 3DO. You are missing out on the best versions of Road Rash and Need for Speed, bar none. You are missing out on an excellent update of Wing Commander, a great Ballblazer clone(Battlesport), a unique early 3D action RPG/FPS hybrid(Immercenary), two licensed AD&D action RPGs similar to Eye of the Beholder, a unique strategy RPG(Guardian War), and quite a few 3d space shooters on rails and open world.

 

It may have been a commercial failure, but it definitely wasn't an FMV only console. These days, a 3DO costs no more than a modern console game and is worth the purchase even if you never play anything but Road Rash.

Well, then as now, we all value our dollars (very) differently. I wouldn't pay 60$ right now to play Road Rash. Just not that big of a Road Rash fan I guess.

 

And though I get your sentiment I can safely say I never actually felt like I "missed out on"...well, anything by not having a 3DO. Looking at the world in 1994 as a one console family (and I think many were like that due to the $$$, that was my reality anyways)...think about what I'd have missed if I had gotten a 3DO instead of a SNES. Not much balance there! But again my perspective is one system at a time (and even then i was usually "late")

 

Now, current day, they had one in the local trade in place recently, with a good slew of games (somebody dumped a collection I guess). If it hangs around and I get enough credit I might take a shot one of these days. Though I do want the Jag the guy has in the case.

[CatPix]

I think that if you happen to find a 3DO for less than 40 bucks, then you should consider buying one.

Keep in mind that the 3DO have no region locking nor CD-Rom copy protection, so you can *cough* find damaged games and make a clean copy of it *cough*.

[+GoldenWheels]

I think that if you happen to find a 3DO for less than 40 bucks, then you should consider buying one.

Keep in mind that the 3DO have no region locking nor CD-Rom copy protection, so you can *cough* find damaged games and make a clean copy of it *cough*.

 

It's 60 the only place I can just physically go get one but I always have DVDs to trade the guy as credit. So I can really get it for next to nothing (though it means I don't get something else cool of course).

 

He wants 150 for the Jag and every month it sits there I hope he'll mark it down but he's holding firm after 3. So I am actually more likely to go for the 3DO. Maybe next time.

[CatPix]

You can look over the Internet too. I got mine for 35€ on Internet, on a big ad website (French equivalent of Craigslist). It was a "make offer" ad!

 

The guy asked me to confirm that I would buy it for 35€ (plus 10€ for shipping, but considering that the average sale price for a 3DO here is 80 to 100€, it's still worth it). Apparently, many people "bidded" on it, but never send anything. So I kinda went lucky on this part.

 

People complain about how internet raise prices up... but they never complain that there are more crazy deals to make thanks to it, too. I have NEVER ever spotted a 3DO in the wild, and know nobody owning one.

Edited December 10, 2013 by CatPix

[desiv]

I have NEVER ever spotted a 3DO in the wild, and know nobody owning one.

I hadn't ever seen one in person (that I can remember anyway), till I saw the one I picked up at goodwill. And not overpriced (as a lot of their systems seem to be).. Shocked me.. And with 2 controllers..

Of course, I assumed it was probably broken, but took a chance..

 

Worked fine...

 

But the really weird part....

 

Several years after that, I was checking out the electronics shop in another town (60 miles away) and there with the joysticks is a 3DO light gun!! I've never seen any other 3DO stuff there before or since.. Just the light gun, which I picked up and it still works great. :-)

 

So at least 1 person in Oregon (or who moved to Oregon) bought a 3DO at some time..

 

desiv

[Jakandsig]

 

The 3DO company was licensing the games and system, not MAKING the R.E.AL. consoles.

Panasonic and Goldstar on the other hand probably didn't get it that easy.

 

 

I think this critic is aimed to the lack of BIG 3rd party support. I mean, yeah, there was EA, but they were publishing their games on every support.

I mean, where was Capcom, Konami, Interplay, GT Interactive, etc...?

 

 

5+? The most common figure I see is 2 millions. This is not bad, but that's far away from a success. Even pre crash made better figures for the most part.

 

 

Most FMV games doesn't need the VCD add-on; and it was a big gimmick at the time. There is a big share of FMV titles on the 3DO, much like there is a lot of them on the Mega CD and the Philips CD-i. Yeah, they aren't the biggest part of it, but they were heavily featured. And looking back at the time, the 3DO was offering the best FMV games quality wise with the Philips CD-i. Except that the 3DO offered more variety of games and a better controller.

 

 

Probably people are confused by the Jaguar (in the same way that people tag the Jaguar for being expensive as hell, when it was dirt cheap, probably mistaking both systems), and also by some crappy games.

Also, bare numbers tell you that the 3DO got a 12.5Mhtz processor. It's faster than the SNES, but not that much more than the Megadrive. Difference is, it's 32 bits and there is one coprocessor, plus two GPU.

 

 

If you want good titles that are ONLY on the 3DO, well yeah, you're stuck with not a lot of games. Let's face it; the licensing 3DO system allowed more shit to come on the system than on any other system ever (except computers but that's a whole different story). A lot of games are plain bad. Most doesn't offer a decent approach of what the 3DO can do. And most were available on PC or Playstation.

 

 

Let's face it; the 3DO was a failure. Not an epic failure like the Amstrad GX4000 or the Jaguar, but it couldn't compete with the Playstation, and not even with either the SNES or the Megadrive.

Ironically it paved the way to the "next gen"; it was CD based, it had great 3D capability, it was heavily open to 3rd party games and way less strict in content checking than Nintendo or Sega. It's likely that Sony checked every mistake made by the 3DO and avoided them, but retained the good ideas.

Your first couple sentences was never said by me.

 

Konami GT, and Interplay had games on the 3do.

[Jakandsig]

Anyone who knows anything about the era in which 3DO existed will tell you the main issues were cost and too much FMV.

The FMV library was actually not that large. People owning 3DO's would know this. Anywho, It was cost at first, and the business practice killing manufacturing because 3DO was making money and the other 3 were not. The 3 that were making the actual consoles.

[JerryTerrifying]

 

 

 

I think this critic is aimed to the lack of BIG 3rd party support. I mean, yeah, there was EA, but they were publishing their games on every support.

I mean, where was Capcom, Konami, Interplay, GT Interactive, etc...?

 

Air Warrior and Policenauts were released on the 3DO and MGS was originally planned as a 3DO game so Konami definitely did support the 3DO. I have the Policenauts Pilot disc for the 3DO. Konami also used a modified version of the M2 as an arcade board and made 5 games. Interplay published about 10 games for the 3DO. Capcom released what was at the time the best version of Street Fighter II. So if you actually look there's a lot of support from three of the four companies you mentioned.

Edited December 11, 2013 by JerryTerrifying

[CatPix]

I didn't say there was no support, but you don't have a lot of games from them. MGS could have sparkled interest tho, too bad it didn't happen.

[Hatta]

Well, then as now, we all value our dollars (very) differently. I wouldn't pay 60$ right now to play Road Rash. Just not that big of a Road Rash fan I guess.

Or we value our games differently. Would you pay $60 to play a new Road Rash game?

 

 

And though I get your sentiment I can safely say I never actually felt like I "missed out on"...well, anything by not having a 3DO. Looking at the world in 1994 as a one console family (and I think many were like that due to the $$$, that was my reality anyways)...think about what I'd have missed if I had gotten a 3DO instead of a SNES. Not much balance there! But again my perspective is one system at a time (and even then i was usually "late")

And you're absolutely correct here. The SNES or PSX were much better choices in terms of opportunity cost. You are still missing out on some 3DO gems, but you'd have missed out a lot more if you didn't go with the SNES. I don't think anyone is under the illusion that it's as good as the SNES. But still there's fun to be found there.

[mbd30]

I was around! I thought FMV games were a joke & devoid of gameplay. You can't run, can't jump, can't shoot, can't even explore beyond watching 'this clip' or 'that clip'.

Games from that time would often have actual gameplay that incorporated FMV. Eg. you could move around and shoot in "Sewer Shark", "Nova Storm" and "Rebel Assault", even though they used FMV graphics.

[Rex Dart]

Games from that time would often have actual gameplay that incorporated FMV. Eg. you could move around and shoot in "Sewer Shark", "Nova Storm" and "Rebel Assault", even though they used FMV graphics.

 

That's true! Some of them did use FMV only for background elements, or cringe-worthy between-levels harassment like in Road Rash. "Sewer Shark" was a total laughingstock, though.

[+GoldenWheels]

Or we value our games differently. Would you pay $60 to play a new Road Rash game?

 

 

 

And you're absolutely correct here. The SNES or PSX were much better choices in terms of opportunity cost. You are still missing out on some 3DO gems, but you'd have missed out a lot more if you didn't go with the SNES. I don't think anyone is under the illusion that it's as good as the SNES. But still there's fun to be found there.

 

Probably not--my Road Rash needs have been sated for years. But the way it was put wasn't that I have to be huge Road Rash fan (I think you might be!) who'd have to buy every version, even if they released it now. It was, this 20 year old game justifies the cost of the system alone. And I just think that is destined to be an ultra-minority opinion no matter who or how many people you ask. Road Rash as a killer app is a tough sell man, even now.

 

I bet there is fun to be had but--when it comes down to it, my curiosity about the system simply hasn't been strong enough for me to put it above expanding the rest of my collection on systems I already know and love. 60$ to play Road Rash (and have another new system in the rack, I admit that appeals to me) or 60$ to get a bunch of good SNES or NES or A8 or 7800 games....Road Rash is losing that one more often than not.

 

And this is not a direct response to you hatta....people can point out FMV wasn't what it was all about or nearly all of it's games but as I recall it was how it was marketed--this was the main ability of the thing. What you saw was often not gameplay videos/shots but FMV shots. Of course, everything I saw pertained almost exclusively to Mad Dog Mcree!

Edited December 11, 2013 by GoldenWheels

[Hatta]

<i>It was, this 20 year old game justifies the cost of the system alone. </i>

 

It may be 20 years old, but it's at least as fun as a modern game. And the game + console costs as much as a modern game does. So it's a reasonable purchase compared to modern games. Compared to retro games, you're right, you can get more out of the SNES. And I wouldn't recommend someone buy every Road Rash, Road Rash 3DO is really the only one you need.

[+GoldenWheels]

<i>It was, this 20 year old game justifies the cost of the system alone. </i>

 

It may be 20 years old, but it's at least as fun as a modern game. And the game + console costs as much as a modern game does. So it's a reasonable purchase compared to modern games. Compared to retro games, you're right, you can get more out of the SNES. And I wouldn't recommend someone buy every Road Rash, Road Rash 3DO is really the only one you need.

It probably doesn't help your example work for me that I always valued my purchases as retro vs. new (not just games overall), largely because I can trade for retro but new for me=actual cash. And now I don't even buy new games!