History Platform / Gizmondo

Tiger Telematics' [[note]](no relation to Tiger Electronics)[[/note]] sole attempt at entering the lucrative handheld gaming market, the '''Gizmondo''' is one of the more interesting failures in [[UsefulNotes/TheHistoryOfVideoGames video game history]], [[ShortRunners lasting only 11 months on the market]] (March 2005 - February 2006) and boasting a parent company with a bizarre history of its own.

# The price. The mainline Gizmondo came with a very expensive price tag of $400, far above the price of [[UsefulNotes/PlaystationPortable its]] [[Platform/NGage competitors]], especially the newly released UsefulNotes/NintendoDS. There was a second "Smart Adds"[sic] [[note]]Tiger deliberately spelled "ads" as "adds", but they themselves slipped up in their official literature.[[/note]] model that shipped for $230, but as the name implies, it came with the added catch that it forced you to sit through commercials while playing. This was actually the better option, as the ad server never went online, but consumers who could even find a Gizmondo in general would have no way of knowing at the time.

# The price. The mainline Gizmondo came with a very expensive price tag of $400, far above the price of [[UsefulNotes/PlaystationPortable its]] [[UsefulNotes/NGage competitors]], especially the newly released UsefulNotes/NintendoDS. There was a second "Smart Adds"[sic] [[note]]Tiger deliberately spelled "ads" as "adds", but they themselves slipped up in their official literature.[[/note]] model that shipped for $230, but as the name implies, it came with the added catch that it forced you to sit through commercials while playing. This was actually the better option, as the ad server never went online, but consumers who could even find a Gizmondo in general would have no way of knowing at the time.

Needless to say, the Gizmondo was dead on arrival -- it sold less than an abysmal 25,000 units, making it the second worst-selling system in video game history, and the worst selling handheld game system of all time. [[note]]The only console that has the dishonor of selling worse than it is the ''Pioneer Laser Active'', which only sold 10,000 units worldwide[[/note]] Combined with an avalanche of lawsuits from sponsors, advertising agencies, and television networks over Tiger Telematics failing to hold up their financial agreements, the company found themselves with ''a debt of $382.5 million'' and forced to go into bankruptcy in January 2006. A revival attempt was planned circa 2008 by Freer under a new company called Media Power alongside a new partner, Mikael Ljungman. But this was largely overshadowed by the fact that Erikson had recently crashed a rare Ferrari Enzo after speeding against a Ford GT... leading into him being arrested on drug and illegal firearm possession charges and the discovery that he was involved in the ''Swedish Mafia'', alongside many other weird twists. Ljungman also ended up being arrested and convicted on charges of serious fraud, separate from the Erikson situation. Judging from the aforementioned criminal misdeeds of some of Tiger Telematics' founders, it was also alleged that the Gizmondo project was nothing more than an [[http://www.snackbar-games.com/features/mystery-machines-gizmondos-squandered-potential/ elaborate money laundering scheme]]. Alone, Freer attempted to continue towards a Gizmondo 2 (now re-envisioned as a smartphone), but any chance of the brand making any kind of comeback was now dead by 2009.

* VideoGame/TombRaider

# A screen that was impractically small at only 2 inches. Perfectly fine for your average cell phone at the time, but inadequate for gaming. [[note]]A new Gizmondo model with a 4 inch widescreen format was announced in 2006, but it [{{Vaporware}} never saw the light of day]].[[/note]] This, plus a battery life of ''90 minutes'', made for a poor gaming experience.

# The price. The mainline Gizmondo came with a very expensive price tag of $400, far above the price of [[UsefulNotes/PlaystationPortable its]] [[UsefulNotes/NGage competitors]], especially the newly released UsefulNotes/NintendoDS. There was a second "Smart Ads" model that shipped for $230, but as the name implies, it came with the added catch that it forced you to sit through commercials while playing. This was actually the better option, as the ad server never went online, but consumers who could even find a Gizmondo in general would have no way of knowing at the time.
# A screen that was impractically small at only 2 inches. Perfectly fine for your average cell phone at the time, but inadequate for gaming. [[note]]A new Gizmondo model with a 4 inch widescreen format was announced in 2006, but it never saw the light of day.[[/note]] This, plus a battery life of ''90 minutes'', made for a poor gaming experience.
# Speaking of games, first and third party support for the handheld was nonexistent. Tiger Telematics boasted that the system would come with 100+ games when it was early in development, but when it came time for the system's CES showing, the company only had three to show off. Ultimately, only 14 games were released for the system in the United Kingdom, with only ''eight'' of these being released in the United States. These titles include peculiarities like ''Sticky Balls'' and the unreleased ''Momma Can I Mow the Lawn?''. Gizmondo developed half of the available library themselves and only managed to get one third party developer on board, Fathammer Games. 39 more titles were planned for the system, including support from other third parties like Creator/{{Sega}}, but all of them were cancelled. And of the 14 games that did see release, all of them were trashed critically.

Needless to say, the Gizmondo was dead on arrival -- it sold less than an abysmal 25,000 units, making it the second worst-selling system in video game history, and the worst selling handheld game system of all time. [[note]]The only console that has the dishonor of selling worse than it is the ''Pioneer Laser Active'', which only sold 10,000 units worldwide[[/note]] Combined with an avalanche of lawsuits from sponsors, advertising agencies, and television networks over Tiger Telematics failing to hold up their financial agreements, the company found themselves with ''a debt of $382.5 million'' and forced to go into bankruptcy in January 2006. A revival attempt was planned circa 2008 by Freer under a new company called Media Power alongside a new partner, Mikael Ljungman. But this was largely overshadowed by the fact that Erikson had recently crashed a rare Ferrari Enzo after speeding against a Ford GT... leading into him being arrested on drug and illegal firearm possession charges and the discovery that he was involved in the ''Swedish Mafia'', alongside many other weird twists. Ljungman also ended up being arrested and convicted on charges of serious fraud, separate from the Erikson situation. Alone, Freer attempted to continue towards a Gizmondo 2 (now re-envisioned as a smartphone), but any chance of the brand making any kind of comeback was now dead by 2009.

Tiger Telematics' [[note]](no relation to Tiger Electronics)[[/note]] sole attempt at entering the lucrative handheld gaming market, the '''Gizmondo''' is one of the more interesting failures in [[UsefulNotes/TheHistoryOfVideoGames video game history]], lasting only 11 months on the market (March 2005 - February 2006) and boasting a parent company with a bizarre history of its own.

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# Finding the thing in a store was next to impossible. It was only reliably available for purchase from the Gizmondo website or from the Gizmondo shop in London's Regent Street, as well as a few mall kiosks if you were lucky. By the by, that dedicated Gizmondo store chewed up a '''ton''' of the parent company's money and only helped to accelerate their early demise.