Gizmondo, a handheld video game player whose creators hoped to take on the likes of PlayStation Portable and Nintendo, is floundering. Just three months after the product's American introduction, a bankruptcy court in London ordered the maker, Tiger Telematics, to liquidate its European operations after a lender failed to make enough operating funds available. Tiger says it's trying to negotiate an additional $30 million loan from a Swiss equity group that will allow it to keep operating in the U.S. The Gizmondo not only plays games, but is also a satellite navigation unit, a text-messaging device, and a movie and music player. In addition to hardware and game sales, revenue was to come from advertising delivered to customers each time they turned on the device, but sales have been dismal.
For more about Gizmondo's struggles in the U.S. market:
- read this article from The New York Times