The Gizmondo story is one of the most fascinating in the world of video game hardware. Designed with powerful 3D hardware and GPS capabilities, millions of dollars were spent on its promotion and marketing – including an expensive store in London's prestigious Regent Street and a star-studded launch party at the city's Park Lane Hotel.
Despite the eye-watering amounts of money thrown around trying to get people to notice the handheld, it absolutely tanked at retail, and the subsequent stories of criminal wrongdoing on behalf of several executives undermined the platform further.
By the start of 2006, Tiger Telematics – the company behind the Gizmondo – was declared bankrupt after racking up $300 million in debt (we highly recommend you read Eurogamer's in-depth feature on the history of the machine here).
Before all of that, however, the Gizmondo launch party took place, and by all accounts, you could practically smell the money. Twitter user Sega Otaku has been taking everyone on a trip down memory lane recently and has discovered this footage, shot by MTV, of the party (and the store launch) on YouTube:
The uploaded found the footage on a DVD on eBay:
I actually found a launch party DVD on eBay in the UK which was burned on a PC, and has a sticker label. the box cover was printed on a regular paper. It really looks amateur, but that's the beauty of it. I thought that if I don't rip it, the DVD won't probably last for long and I doubt they burned more than 100.
Here's the PR from the night of the event:
19th March saw the Gizmondo's launch party take over London's prestigious Park Lane Hotel. It was a night of celebration, full of the glitz, glamour, comedy, dancing and overall excitement embodied by Gizmondo. American comic Tom Green and the delicious Dannii Minogue hosted the now legendary event, which saw Sting rip it up with a set jampacked with classics, Pharrell Williams and Clipse rock the house and larger than life hip hop superstar Busta Rhymes mash it up with hit after hit after hit. Heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis and Verne "Mini Me" Troyer went head-to-head while star from the worlds of pop, soap and football poured in by the galaxy to sample themselves a little Gizmondo magic.
Unsurprisingly, the Gizmondo didn't rank very highly in our recent user-voted list of the best handhelds of all time.