Monday, March 13, 2006

Gizmondo - Two Steps Back

For those more "in the know" in the world of GPS, Gizmondo has been the most notorious company to come along in a while. We had high hopes that this little handheld device would have introduced a new evolution of gaming. For the first time it combined a GPS with a gaming platform but the company went bankrupt before it even released its first GPS enabled game called Colors.

Granted, a gun wielding gang warfare game set in the real world where you virtually fight for physical turf didn't seem like a very good idea, but at least it was a way to raise awareness of a new gaming genre.

Will this affect GPS gaming and force it two steps back? Not likely. There was so much wrong about the Gizmondo (lack of games, marketing, games, inventory and games) that they never really became known well enough to weaken the perception of location-based entertainment as a promising new industry. Fortunately the Nintendo DS and Playstation PSP were released around the same time which defeated the device soundly.

I actually have two Gizmondo devices in the office to play if there was something to play. Here's hoping that it'll go homebrew sooner than later.

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