The 3DO Company

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The 3DO Company

logo
legal form Inc.
founding September 12, 1991
resolution May 28, 2003
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Redwood City , California
management Hugh Martin (President)
Trip Hawkins (CEO)
Branch Consumer electronics game industry
As of July 18, 2019

The 3DO Company ( 3DO ) was an American company that developed the concept of the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer game console in the early 1990s and licensed it to other companies. With the failure of the console, the business field shifted exclusively to game development. In 2003 the company filed for bankruptcy and was broken up.

history

Start with the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer

The 3DO Company was founded in 1991 under the name San Mateo Software Group (SMSG), Inc. by the American game publisher Electronic Arts under the direction of its founder Trip Hawkins , Time Warner , AT&T and Matsushita . 3DO stood for "Three Dimensional Operation System" (= three-dimensional operating system). 3DO was supposed to develop the specifications of a new game console as an open standard, which was then allowed to be licensed by various companies to produce and sell corresponding devices. The end products should be compatible with 3DO games and multimedia formats. 3DO itself only granted the license and otherwise only appeared as a game developer. In return, it should receive three dollars in license fees for every game sold, which was often rumored to be the second interpretation of the company name ("3 dollars only"). Because with this fee, 3DO was well below the two market leaders Sega and Nintendo (ten dollars), whose duopoly and, above all, restrictive licensing conditions for third-party manufacturers wanted to break with their own approach. Matsushita (under the Panasonic brand) and Goldstar became licensees .

The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer , released in 1993, went on sale for $ 600. The price differential compared to the competition was huge. The Super Nintendo , technically from the previous generation, cost just $ 149 and even the newly introduced Atari Jaguar was sold for $ 249. What was thought to be the strength of the system, the separation of hardware and software responsibility, turned out to be an economic boomerang. The hardware manufacturers rely on a rapidly growing hardware base that would be supplied with software by third-party manufacturers. Since they could not expect profits from license fees for software, the sales price was not subsidized as is usual with the competition. However, the lack of interesting software to launch, combined with the price, resulted in low sales. Ultimately, the 3DO console could not achieve any commercial success and, at the latest, when Sony entered the market with the PlayStation, it increasingly lost its importance. The rights to the already fully developed successor M2 were sold to Matsushita in 1996 for 100 million dollars . The 3DO Company developed games for other systems from now on.

Phase as a third party manufacturer of computer games

Own capacities were expanded through acquisitions of developer studios. In December 1995, 3DO acquired Cyclone Studios and in June 1996 Archteype Interactive. Also in June 1996, 3DO acquired New World Computing from NTN Communications for $ 13.5 million . The greatest successes were achieved with the Army Men series. The series Might and Magic and Heroes of Might and Magic by New World Computing were also successful . With Meridian 59 from Archetype Interactive one of the first 3D MMORPGs was also published.

In May 2003, The 3DO Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in hopes of finding a buyer for the company and its remaining assets. The announcement by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate the computer game industry led, according to the insolvency administrator, to the jump of three potential buyers. Instead, on August 14, 2003, the company's brands were put up for auction and sold as follows:

  • Ubisoft acquired the Might and Magic and Heroes of Might and Magic brands for $ 1.3 million
  • Namco acquired Street Racing Syndicate for $ 1.515 million
  • Jowood acquired Jacked for 90,000 US dollars
  • Crave Entertainment acquired the Army Men brand for $ 750,000
  • Microsoft received the rights to High Heat Baseball for $ 450,000
  • Company founder Trip Hawkins bought a catalog of games from before 2001 for $ 200,000, including Jonny Moseley Mad Trix and the Family or Vegas Game Pack . In addition, some Internet patents for $ 205,000, which are a business concept for selling virtual products, such as B. Playing cards included.
  • Patent Purchase Manager acquired some rights and tools for the development of computer games for $ 75,000

In the same year, Trip Hawkins founded Digital Chocolate , a company specializing in games for mobile phones .

Games (selection)

  • 3DO Games: Decathlon
  • Army Men
  • Army Men: Air Attack
  • Army Men: Air Attack 2
  • Army Men: Air Combat - The Elite Missions
  • Army Men: Air Tactics
  • Army Men: Green Rogue
  • Army Men: Sarge's Heroes
  • Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2
  • Army Men: Toys in Space
  • Army Men: World War
  • Army Men: World War - Final Front
  • Army Men: World War - Land, Sea, Air
  • Army Men: World War - Team Assault
  • Army Men 3D
  • Army Men II
  • BattleTanx
  • BattleTanx: Global Assault
  • Blade Force
  • Captain Quazar
  • Crusaders of Might and Magic
  • Club 3DO: Station Invasion
  • Dragon Rage
  • Escape from Monster Manor
  • Family Game Pack Royale
  • Game Guru
  • Godai Elemental Force
  • Groovy Bunch of Games
  • Gulf War: Operation Desert Hammer
  • High Heat Major League Baseball 2002
  • High Heat Major League Baseball 2003
  • High Heat Major League Baseball 2004
  • Jonny Moseley Mad Trix
  • Jurassic Park Interactive
  • Killing time
  • Meridian 59: Vale of Sorrow
  • Portal runner
  • Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball 2001
  • Sammy Sosa Softball Slam
  • Shifters
  • Tozasarata Tachi
  • Twisted: The Game Show
  • Vegas Games 2000
  • Warriors of Might and Magic
  • Was now
  • World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks
  • Zhadnost: The People's Party

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jochen Wiesinger: The history of entertainment electronics . IMK, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 978-3-927282-31-5 .
  2. ^ Michael Walter: Narrow oligopolies and competition policy: Laws of the video game and mobile phone market . Springer, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-81047-2 , pp. 51-57 .
  3. ↑ The fascination of the 3DO console. In: Nexgam. Retrieved July 21, 2019 .
  4. ^ Barry J. Nalebuff, Adam M. Brandenburger: Co-opetition . Doubleday, 1996, p. 114 ff .
  5. ↑ Matsushita secures rights from 3DO. In: Computerwoche . Retrieved July 21, 2019 .
  6. ↑ BUSINESS DIGEST - 3DO Buys Cyclone. In: SFGate. December 9, 1995, accessed July 21, 2019 .
  7. ↑ 3DO SEEKS INTERNET ESCAPE WITH MULTI-USER DUNGEON GAME. In: Computer Business Review. Retrieved June 18, 1996, July 21, 2019 (UK English).
  8. ^ 3DO CO INC TO ACQUIRE NTN COMMUNICATIONS INC'S ASSETS. In: Computer Business Review. June 17, 1996. Retrieved July 21, 2019 (UK English).
  9. ↑ Thorsten Wiesner: Game developer 3DO applies for insolvency proceedings. In: Golem.de. May 30, 2003, accessed on July 21, 2019 (German).
  10. ^ Andrew Burnes, 3DO Auction Didn't Go Too Well. In: IGN . August 19, 2003, accessed July 21, 2019 .