Failed standards

Summary

Consoles are usually not compatible with each other. For third-party developers, this is a difficult situation – they only reach a fraction of the theoretically possible buyers with their product, unless they invest and transfer their game to other consoles. However, this is not always possible easily, since games cannot always be transferred 1:1 to another hardware.

Two manufacturers are trying to create a general hardware standard in the fifth generation of game consoles overflowing with new systems. The Utopia of Apple and The 3DO Company: There should be any number of console manufacturers, but inside all devices should be identical, so that all games run on all machines. The company that developed the standard would profit from royalties.

Both Apple’s Pippins and the 3DO fail, ironically not least due to the limited range of games.