FACT! #11

Originally released in 1993; Panasonic's 3DO Interactive Multiplayer system was hailed as the product of the year by Time Magazine. Unlike many consoles then and now, which are sold essentially with no profit margin on the system itself in the hopes of recouping losses via media/game sales; Panasonic intended to make a profit on each system produced.

Because of their desire to profit on each system sold, the 3DO was originally retailed for $699.95 (which would be $1,042.65 in 2010 dollars) which rendered the system unattainable for mass consumption and made it sometimes twice as expensive as the far more popular systems at the time (Sega's Genesis, Nintendo's SNES.)

Due to Panasonic's refusal to lower the price under the premise that it was "more than a gaming system" and the highly anticipated releases of Sony's PlayStation, Sega's Saturn and Nintendo's N64 systems simply helped speed up the demise of the 3DO.

Currently, the 3DO routinely fetches $100+ per system due to its low availability and a surprising number of its games can go for $10 a pop as well.