The Worst-Selling Game Console Ever?

In 2005, Gizmondo launched a genuinely interesting handheld: games, a camera, music, movies, GPS and text messages in one strange black device. Then the business around it kept needing somebody else to say yes, and pay. A £100 discount that quietly turned the buyer into an advertising audience. A launch night with Sting, Jamiroquai and Busta Rhymes, while an early reviewer had two games to play. A model agency. A games deal whose most useful delivery was a partial refund. And a better Gizmondo announced before the original had even reached American shops. A short business comedy about selling the future while needing payment now. Chapters 0:00 A hundred pounds off, one condition 0:31 The advertiser needs an audience 1:02 The machine was worth looking at 1:45 What else can you play? 2:30 The entertainment was at the hotel 3:09 Attention had to become purchases 3:26 Nineteen games and a partial refund 4:19 America waits, the successor arrives 5:04 Keep the wallet shut 5:34 The money has to arrive Key sources Tiger Telematics 2004 Form 10-K (ISIS Models stake; Games Factory agreement): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Tiger Telematics Form 10-Q, Q3 2005 (product sales; Games Factory withdrawal and repayment; interim review): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Tiger Telematics Form 8-K, 3 Feb 2006 (rescue funding; winding-up order): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Companies House, Gizmondo Europe Ltd (04620348) insolvency record: https://find-and-update.company-infor... Gizmondo launch release, 21 Mar 2005 (via SPOnG): https://spong.com/press_release/8481/... GamesIndustry.biz, UK launch and Vodafone, 21 Mar 2005: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/gizmond... The Register / Pocket-lint hands-on review, 8 Apr 2005: https://www.theregister.com/2005/04/0... Marketing Week, Smart Adds version, 12 Apr 2005: https://www.marketingweek.com/gizmond... VideoGamer, US launch delay, 5 Aug 2005: https://www.videogamer.com/news/gizmo... Tiger Telematics, Gizmondo Widescreen announcement, 19 Sep 2005 (via SPOnG): https://spong.com/press_release/9141/... GameSpot, US launch, 24 Oct 2005: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/giz... The buyers, the advertiser and the sales rep are illustrations, not real people, and their reactions are illustrative. The offers, dates and figures come from the sources above. The product-sales figure is from Tiger Telematics' unreviewed interim filing. The successor scene illustrates an incentive to wait; it does not measure lost sales. The Gizmondo is drawn from a public-domain photograph by Evan-Amos (Wikimedia Commons). Sound effects: Freesound (CC0).