Gizmondo - Do They Know What They're Doing?
Gizmondo is a highly spec'ed handheld gaming device that has already launched in the UK and is poised to dive in to the US market imminently. In many ways, it has the potential to be a great product, with GPS, Windows Media Player, sms and mms and a whole host of stuff. Although, having packed all this in, I'm frankly amazed that they didn't include the ability to make voice calls too.
Sadly, the UK launch was greeted by the gaming community with about as much enthusiasm as I greeted Motorola's new iTunes phone this week. Here's what Games Radar wrote on the UK launch:
In all honesty the disappointing truth is that, currently, Gizmondo is definitely not worth the cash. It can play movies (which is does OK, although PSP's screen does this much better) and music, and has GPS functionality that no one in this office managed to get working - but all the extras don't save it.
It needs games. Decent games that rival those found on other systems. Not games that you can't quit out of without taking the battery out of the machine, or that don't allow you to adjust the volume in-game.
It's all such a shame; such a waste. We don't want to write Gizmondo off completely - we'd like to see the good ideas come to fruition. But from what we've seen thus far we are massively underwhelmed. Its games are a mess - limited in scope and imagination and delivering virtually no modern-day appeal.
Well, that's pretty clear then. Not much cop as a gaming platform, sadly.
So how are they going to challenge the established market leaders like Sony, Nintendo and I guess, the Nokia N-Gage? Price, maybe? There might be a gap in the market at the lower end of the scale. No, that's not right either. In the UK, even after a recent price cut, it still sells at £30 MORE than the Nintendo DS - and that's Gizmondo's subsidised model. In the US, as Carlo wrote over at Techdirt this week, the DS will sell for $100 less and the PSP for about the same price - and this is comparing the ad-subsidized model with their ad-free competitors.
Which brings me on to my next point. The Gizmondo sells at two prices, $400 and $299. The difference is that for $299, they reserve the right to send you up to three advertisements a day. Let's leave aside the ad-subsidization argument here and give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the model will work, though I'm sceptical.
But what kind of ads will they be running? Well, if it's video, it's going to have to be existing cinema and/or TV advertising, perhaps with a new final frame, where they offer you a special deal or something at a local stockist (remember it's GPS enabled, which allows local personalised content). It's never going to be new film as no one could possibly justify the production costs in relation to the exposure they'll get on this new, unproven channel. So when the charismatic CEO says
"Kids will walk into a store, see a model for half the price, and think 'What's the big deal with three ads a day from Busta Rhymes or some basketball player?'," via MethodShop.
I'd say, dream on, my friend. Once you've got some level of critical mass maybe. But until then, you'll be lucky to get any attention from adland and I very much doubt bespoke ads. Happy to be proved wrong on this, by the way.
How do I know that the CEO, Michael Carrender, is charismatic? Well, all I can say is that he must be because despite the litany of issues highlighted above, he's just managed to sell 1,815,989 shares in Tiger Telematics (who own Gizmondo) for c $17 each to unknown investors (via GamaSutra). And that was in the same week that the company allegedly settled a law suit with the Jordan motor racing team for $1.5 million and 30,000 shares for alleged breach of contact over a sponsorship deal, which is hardly a positive piece of news to break to investors.
So what am I missing here, a crack management team maybe? Not sure that rings true either, with the planned and announced European launch suspended indefinitely and the US already postponed from August to October.
What has Gizmondo got going for it? Anyone have any ideas? It seems to be a so-so product (let's be charitable), launching into an incredibly competitive market, with entrenched, strong incumbents and trying to do so at a premium price, with a model that forces you to watch 3 re-hashed TV commercials every day.
Mr Freer, the (charismatic?) chairman of Tiger says that analysts have got this all wrong when they point out stuff like this. In the International Herald Tribune he's quoted as saying that Tiger is not "trying to compete with the big companies but would be happy to carve out a small niche".
Ah. OK. That would be a very, very small niche I suppose.
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