REAL-3DO Goes on Sale

While Sega's entire Development Department was working diligently, steadily advancing towards the next generation in both arcade and home consoles, the storm of the next generation had already begun.

On the giant screen in Times Square New York, the Matsushita Electric logo flashed briefly, followed by the futuristic black box—REAL-3DO—slowly rotating out.

The scene shifts to explosive special effects, cinematic transition animations, and high-fidelity CD-quality sound, finally settling on a line of bold gold text. "Welcome to the 32-bit era."

Without pixelation or jarring electronic sounds, Panasonic, with an almost arrogant air, announced to the world: the true entertainment terminal has arrived.

Sega Headquarters, Managing Director's Office.

Matsuda, clutching a stack of newly printed battle reports, nearly tripped over the carpet as he pushed open the door.

"Executive Director! Panasonic — Panasonic has finally made its move!"

Matsuda spread the documents in his hand on the table, pointed to the data on them, and said in a tense voice, "REAL-3DO, 32-bit RISC processor, double-speed CD-ROM, this configuration is simply monster! Moreover, they not only won over EA, but also claimed that more than fifty manufacturers signed letters of intent. The media are saying that Nintendo and Sega are in trouble."

Nakayama Takuya glanced at the promotional leaflet featuring a black main unit. Panasonic's industrial design was indeed impeccable; it looked like an expensive, high-end audio system.

"Trouble's brewing?" Nakayama Takuya closed the magazine, tossed it aside, and finally laughed out loud. "Tripp Hawkins is a master of empty promises, Panasonic is a the Greed of Man in the home appliance industry, but putting these two together might not produce a good product."

He stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. The Tokyo Tower outside shimmered in the night.

"Matsuda, what do you think are the reasons gamers buy game consoles?"

"Of course it's... playing games?" Matsuda paused for a moment.

"Yes, for playing games." Nakayama Takuya tapped his fingers lightly on the glass. "Not for watching movies, not for listening to CDs, and certainly not for buying an expensive high-tech display to show off in the living room. I've looked at the specs Panasonic this Panasonic machine; it's certainly impressive. But impressiveness comes at a price."

"Just wait and see." A hint of mockery flashed in Nakayama Takuya's eyes. "The real climax of this farce will be when Panasonic announces the price. Trying to use the logic of selling home appliances to make game consoles? They haven't figured out that gamers in this industry, even if they only have 500 Japanese yen in their pockets, will unhesitatingly bet on a fun game, not on that cold, hard number, '32-bit.'"

He patted Matsuda on the shoulder, his tone as casual as if he were discussing tomorrow's weather.

October 7, 1993, United States.

The "next-generation storm" that the industry has been touting for more than half a year has finally arrived.

The REAL-3DO main unit, jointly developed by Matsushita Electric and 3DO, has officially been put on the shelves.

The moment this machine appeared, it used an extremely hardcore industrial design language to tell everyone: I am not a toy, I am a high-end home appliance.

Its appearance is heavy and sturdy, all black, with four large round feet on the front panel supporting the square body. It doesn't look like a game console, but more like a miniature, bulky video recorder.

However, it must be admitted that this design does exude a modern, high-tech feel that says, "I'm very expensive."

Panasonic has clearly put in the same effort it used to make audio equipment and video recorders.

The controller design is also quite ingenious, with a three-meter-long cable, allowing players to comfortably operate it while lying on the sofa.

The most amazing thing is that there's a headphone jack on the controller.

This was an incredibly advanced design at the time; you no longer had to worry about waking up your family while playing games late at night.

Furthermore, this controller supports "chaining," allowing up to eight people to play the game simultaneously by connecting an extender. Although no game currently supports eight players on screen at the same time, this doesn't stop Panasonic from including it as a selling point in the instruction manual.

Besides Panasonic, AT&T and Sanyo Electric have also obtained licenses and are working diligently to prepare their own 3D0 models.

Samsung Electronics, which had been ambiguous about the deal, suddenly changed its mind at the last minute and withdrew from the 3D0 alliance. It is said that after assessing the hardware costs, Samsung's senior management felt that the deal was too risky and that it would be better to stick to their original business.

It now seems that South Korea sometimes do have a more acute sense of smell than the Japan.

The entire North America gaming industry fell silent the moment the price tag for REAL-3DO was posted.

US dollar 699.

It's not $399, it's not $499, it's a solid US dollar 699.

In an era when the Nintendo SNES sold for US dollar 199 and the Sega Mega Drive for US dollar 149, Panasonic raised the price threshold for game consoles to an astonishing level.

"We're not selling game consoles, we're selling home multimedia systems."

Panasonic sales representatives were enthusiastically promoting the product to onlookers in the store.

To demonstrate that it was worth US dollar 699, they highlighted the 3D0's "all-around" capabilities: when connected to a dedicated VCD adapter, it could play MPEG-1 format full-motion VCDs; it could also play regular CDs, Kodak PhotoCDs, and CD-G format discs.

The visuals were truly stunning.

Thanks to its powerful RISC processor and double-speed CD-ROM, the initial games released by 3DO truly outperformed current 16-bit consoles in terms of visual effects.

As a flagship title, <Crash "NBurn> showcases amazing polygon processing capabilities. Racing cars speed along the track, with explosions and debris flying everywhere, without any lag or flickering.

Another first-person shooter game, Escape from Monster Manor, showcases smooth 3D graphics.

Maze exploration.

There are also games ported from PC, such as StarControl II and Atari's puzzle game Kwirk, each packed with numerous cutscenes and voice acting.

With no cartridge capacity limitations, CDs were stuffed with all sorts of CG movies as if they were free.

However, the onlookers, watching the dazzling display on the screen, checked their pockets and then glanced at the 699.

Most people hesitated to buy the US dollar bills.

"The visuals are fantastic." A young man spent a long time looking at the Best Buy display case, and finally exclaimed sincerely, "But the price is just too much to ask."

This is the inevitable consequence of Hawkins ' "three- US dollar royalty" model.

Software companies are thrilled; they can release games for just three US dollar.

However, the cost ultimately comes from the consumer. Without the subsidies from software royalties, hardware manufacturers have no choice but to maintain high material costs in order to avoid losses.

Panasonic isn't a charity; they need to make a profit on every machine they sell.

Thus, an awkward vicious cycle was formed:

The machines are too expensive, which leads to low sales; low sales mean software companies can't make money; if they can't make money, software companies are unwilling to develop AAA titles; without AAA titles, the machines are even harder to sell.