M2: The $100M Console That Never Happened

[Arenafoot]

M2: The $100M Console That Never Happened

 

 

http://www.nowgamer.com/m2-the-100m-console-that-never-happened/

 

 

[Justin]

You know, I had two 3DO M2s about 10 years ago. I wish I had hung on to them. I didn't have any software etc. for them so I let them go.

[Clint Thompson]

I wasn't much of a 3DO fan but I do remember the M2 catching my attention and really liking the boxy console design. I could see how hanging onto a piece of hardware that only has a very limited handful of demos or half-coded games would be difficult, especially if you're a gamer and not just a hardcore collector. Having a $1,500 piece of hardware sitting on the shelf collecting dust is hard to justify when it could be much better used elsewhere.

 

What a strange controller hybrid mixup...

[Justin]

I wasn't much of a 3DO fan but I do remember the M2 catching my attention and really liking the boxy console design.

 

I felt totally the same way. I was a Jaguar fan all the way since it was announced, I saw 3DO as its primary competitor and rooted for the Jaguar to beat it in sales. 3DO didn't do much for me in 1993-1994, but when 3DO M2 rolled around I thought it was appealing with vastly improved graphics and a nice looking console. With Atari out of the picture I was excited about the M2 and was going to reserve one at Babbages. When the M2 didn't come out it became one of those big disappointments, a void where something really could that "could have been" but never was. This is what drove me to pick up two M2 prototypes in the early 2000s but without anything to play it was ultimately unfulfilling. 

 

This also burnished my appreciation for the 7800, in that it too was almost one of those things that never happened, had it not been resurrected in 1986.