What Actually Went Wrong With The 3DO?

The 3DO wasn't a bad idea. That's what makes the story interesting. In 1993, Trip Hawkins left Electronic Arts to build something the gaming industry had never seen: an open, CD-ROM-based platform that any manufacturer could build, with low royalties that welcomed developers and a vision of gaming as a full multimedia living room experience. He was right about almost all of it. So why did it fail? The launch price was $699. There was one game on day one. The business model made it nearly impossible to compete on price. The library filled up with FMV shovelware. And then Sony arrived with PlayStation — a cleaner, cheaper version of the exact future 3DO had been promising — for $299. This is the full story of what actually went wrong with the 3DO.