3DO plans to diversify business.REDWOOD CITY Redwood City, city (1990 pop. 66,072), seat of San Mateo co., W Calif., on San Francisco Bay; inc. 1868. Manufactures include commmunications, electrical, electronic, and medical equipment. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 6, 1995--The 3DO Company today announced plans to diversify and expand its business beyond the dedicated game systems market. The strategy is intended to reduce company risks, improve cash flow and increase 3DO's independence from a single market or partner. In addition, 3DO stated that it is continuing to negotiate new partnering arrangements for its next-generation 64-bit M2 technology in the consumer game market. "We see demand for the M2 technology in applications that complement the dedicated game market, such as PCs, arcade systems and digital video disc See DVD. Digital Video Disc - Digital Versatile Disc players," said Trip Hawkins William M. 'Trip' Hawkins III (born December 28[1], 1953) is a Silicon Valley American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company and Digital Chocolate. , President and Chief Executive Officer of The 3DO Company. "Due to the growing interest in our M2 technology and the potential diversification of our business, it is not surprising that it is taking us longer than we originally expected to complete our M2 business plan and negotiate final partnering arrangements. We expect to complete our M2 plans in the coming months and believe the net result will be a stronger business for 3DO in the long term." The company's current 32-bit business is well positioned for the holiday season with more than 700,000 units distributed worldwide and a distribution channel of over 10,000 outlets in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . 3DO systems are offered by Panasonic and Goldstar at suggested retail prices of $299, with up to more than $100 in bundled software (1) Applications that are included with new hardware. For example, a new PC often comes with several applications, many of which may be light versions or full versions with no limit on usage. Others may be only 60- or 90-day trial packages. See bundle. , making the system cost effectively as low as $199. In addition, the 3DO platform has an award-winning and diverse library of software titles including hits such as GEX GEX Global Exchange (eCommerce/electronic data interchange) GEX Gas Exchange Experiment GEX Government Employees Exchange GEX Grupo Empresarial Exito , FIFA FIFA International Association Football Federation [French Fédération Internationale de Football Association] FIFA n abbr (= Fédération Internationale de Football Association) → FIFA f International Soccer and Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger. Building on its current business, 3DO today unveiled three areas of focus for its future business strategy: 64-bit consumer systems; software publishing including the Internet; and the PC market. 64-Bit Consumer Systems The first area of focus for the company is its next-generation 64-bit M2 technology, designed to bolster gaming performance by a factor of seven to ten over the new 32-bit systems. To decrease business risk and increase its cash reserves Cash reserves See: Cash investments cash reserves Investment funds that are held in short-term assets such as Treasury bills and certificates of deposit until more permanent investment opportunities are available. , 3DO is pursuing consumer opportunities for the M2 architecture focusing on a key partner approach that will drive the business to success in major markets and territories. In addition, the company is looking to obtain licensing fee income and performance commitments to support 3DO's expenses and cash needs. "The year 1996 will start a transition from the 32-bit market to the 64-bit market," said Hawkins. "To ensure that we have a successful launch in the coming year, we are diligently dil·i·gent adj. Marked by persevering, painstaking effort. See Synonyms at busy. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin d evaluating consumer hardware partners for our M2 technology that will provide effective marketing, distribution and software titles worldwide." 3DO continues to make good progress in completing its M2 technology. The first M2 development systems were provided to key software companies in July and 64-bit applications are now underway for the M2 platform. Software Publishing and Internet In order to increase revenues and reduce dependence on third- party developers' release schedules, 3DO has placed greater emphasis on its software development and publishing operation. Studio 3DO is currently working on more than ten 64-bit M2 titles that are targeted to hit the market next year. Studio 3DO has one of the industry's largest software development groups focused on creating 32-bit and 64-bit interactive games. Top talent includes four of the co-founders of Electronic Arts, film industry artists specializing in visual and audio effects, and computer graphics designers from leading PC and workstation firms. Studio 3DO is scheduled to release several titles for the holiday season including the highly-anticipated Killing Time, BladeForce, Captain Quazar Captain Quazar is a science fiction third-person action game by developer 3DO, first published in 1995 by Panasonic. Though initially released as an exclusive for 3DO's Interactive Multiplayer console, when the system met with little public success, Captain Quazar and BattleSport. In addition, the company is planning to move into the growing area of Internet applications. 3DO's expertise in entertainment software, consumer architecture, and its experience in the U S WEST broadband network trial provides a solid foundation for the company to create software for the Internet. 3DO is part of the recently launched U S WEST market trial, the largest of its kind in the country, in which a potential audience of more than 50,000 households in the Omaha area will be able to receive multimedia services. "The Internet represents an exciting new frontier New Frontier President John F. Kennedy’s legislative program, encompassing such areas as civil rights, the economy, and foreign relations. [Am. Hist.: WB, K:212] See : Aid, Governmental for consumer entertainment," said Hawkins. "We want to exploit our technologies in architecture and software to deliver products for mass consumers over the Net." The PC Market To decrease the company's reliance on the consumer market, 3DO is making plans to diversify its technology into PC applications. The company intends to leverage its R&D capabilities to deliver PC products, such as acclearators for 3-D graphics and MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) An ISO/ITU standard for compressing digital video. Pronounced "em-peg," it is the universal standard for digital terrestrial, cable and satellite TV, DVDs and digital video recorders (DVRs). . 3DO's advanced multimedia R&D sets the stage for the company to be a leader in the upcoming 64-bit market and in a strong position to transfer its expertise to the current PC industry. The company has already created development tools, 3-D technology and video streaming See streaming video and video stream. capabilities that can be readily applied to PC products. "Historically, we have been viewed solely as a company in the dedicated game market," said Hawkins. "We believe we have technology and expertise that can be transferred to the PC business, giving us a share of the growing PC market while continuing to maintain our position in the advanced gaming market." The 3DO Company (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : THDO), headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., creates cutting-edge technology and develops and publishes software under the label Studio 3DO for the advanced interactive entertainment market. With offices in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. , Europe and Asia, the company is a leader in the 32-bit interactive entertainment industry and is well positioned for the upcoming 64-bit market with its new M2 technology. -0- Note to Editors: 3DO, the 3DO logos, Killing Time, BladeForce, Captain Quazar and BattleSport are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of The 3DO Company. FIFA is a property of its respective owner and is used under license. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. CONTACT: The 3DO Company Shernaz Daver, 415/261-2792 or Access Public Relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most Matt Afflixio, 415/904-7070 ext. 278 |
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