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We've been speaking exclusively to Işık Şekercigil, the man behind the recently reported revival of The 3DO Company, and he tells Time Extension that one of his long-term goals is to return to the hardware arena that originally birthed the brand.
Back in the early '90s, The 3DO Company – under the command of former EA boss Trip Hawkins – famously tried to level the playing field in the world of video game hardware by producing an industry-standard system that third-party manufacturers could licence.
This approach mimicked what had happened in the audio cassette, CD and VHS industries, where companies could pay a fee to use the hardware standard.
Unfortunately, things didn't quite go according to plan; while companies such as Panasonic, Sanyo and GoldStar (LG) all signed up to produce 3DO players, the high price and lack of killer exclusives meant that most gamers stuck with their existing 16-bit consoles – and by the time the PlayStation and Saturn arrived in 1994, the 3DO's power advantage was wiped out. It is believed to have sold somewhere between 1.38 and 2 million units worldwide.
Despite this, the 3DO still has its fans, so it's easy to see why Şekercigil would consider a hardware revival to be a good idea.
Speaking to Time Extension, Şekercigil argues that "if we can navigate the hardware rights—which, quite frankly, are even more legally complex than the game IPs—we aim to launch two types of hardware."
The first, he says, would be a 'retro console' which presumably follows in the footsteps of systems like the SNES Classic and Mega Drive Mini. This would, I assume, be based on emulation and would come pre-loaded with games.
The second platform would be "a Modern 3DO Ecosystem: A modern console platform that will host our new titles, updated legacy games, and an open storefront ecosystem where indie developers can self-publish their games."
If you've read our chat with Şekercigil, you'll understand that there's a healthy amount of scepticism surrounding this entire venture at present, and even he admits that any hardware projects "may take several years to materialise... holding the rights to The 3DO Company does not automatically grant immediate, unrestricted rights to manufacture hardware, and we are working carefully through those complexities."