Gizmondo, back from ashes?

December 1st, 2007, 15:15 Posted By: JKKDARK

via GPS Business News

In an interview with Swedish online newspaper Realtid.se, Carl Freer, former CEO of bankrupt mobile gaming company Gizmondo, said he will relaunch the portable gaming console in 2008.

The Gizmondo would be produced by a Chinese company in Shenzen that would get rights to sell the product in China. Carl Freer claims to have 35 games for the console including 6 new titles. The price of the gaming console could be US$99 and might be free with some wireless operators, he said.

Launched in 2005, the initial Gizmondo was the first portable gaming console to feature a GPRS connection, a GPS and a camera. Two versions of the device were distributed, one of them at a lower price thanks to an advertising-based business model.

But the device sold poorly while the company burned cash at a frenetic pace, and by February of 2006 the company discontinued the Gizmondo and was forced into bankruptcy.

Thanks to its GS and GPRS connection the Gizmondo was supposed to offer multiplayer location-based gaming. The game “Colors” was intended to be the first of this kind, but due to Gizmondo's bankruptcy, it was never officially released.

The company made the headlines when it was revealed that executives were spending the money of the company in luxury cars and one of them, Stefan Eriksson, was a Swedish mobster. The video below highlights the whole story behind the bankruptcy of the company.

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