As I relived my childhood looking at Sega CD FMVs, I was reminded of the 3DO.
My brother had a Super Nintendo, and I had a Sega Genesis. I planted my flag in Sega land and purchased a Sega CD and a Sega 32X in 1994, a year after the 3DO was released.
In 1993, the 3DO was released for $699, more than I could fathom. It was the NeoGeo all over again—a magical system that must be amazing because it cost more than twice the Sega CD.
The release games were nothing like most kids saw in the early nineties. Twisted: The Game Show and Crash ‘n Burn were not Street Fighter II: Champion Edition or NHL ’94.
As a kid, you wondered, are these the games adults play?
It ended up that these were not the games your parents were playing. No one was playing them. The 3DO only shipped 2 million units worldwide. Or 2% of what the PlayStation sold.
There were hardly any exclusives for the system, and most of its claim to fame was having the best graphics for games like Night Trap, Road Rash, and Need for Speed.
I would have enjoyed playing Slam ‘n Jam 95 and PGA Tour 486, but they came out in 1995—only a year before the console’s end.
There were games like Jurassic Park Interactive that could convince any kid to buy the system. But the game itself was strange and dull.
The system could not compete with PlayStation’s pricing and game library. By 1996, PlayStation had games like Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, Tekken 2, Twisted Metal 2, and PaRappa the Rapper; the 3DO and Captain Quazar stood no chance.
Ultimately, the final blow for 3DO was EA Games backing the PlayStation. They tried lowering the price of the 3DO to $199 to beat the PlayStation, but it was too little, too late. Sony’s system was a behemoth that dominated the market and forced 3DO to its grave.
