facebook rss twitter

Gizmondo hits high street stores

by Nick Haywood on 8 August 2005, 00:00

Tags: Gizmondo

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabni

Add to My Vault: x

Gizmondo lands at Argos, HMV and Comet.

Gizmondo lands at Argos, HMV and Comet



It seems that the Gizmondo guys have finally seen the light and realised that the best way to make a handheld popular is to make it readily available, hence the Gizmondo now being in stock at high street retailers.

Previously the Gizmondo was only available through the Gizmondo store in Regents Street or on their website. Then Harrods, John Lewis and CarPhone Warehouse started selling the handheld and finally the Giz has hit the high street stores.

A quick search of their websites reveals that Argos, HMV and Comet are all selling the £129 version which, we assume, is the SmartAds enabled version. However, making a console available is on the first step, you've then got to make decent games available too. At present, Argos are selling only Colours and Richard Burns Rally while Comet are just stocking the console and nothing else. HMV are the biggest games stockist by far with 12 titles on offer.

Once you’ve got the hardware easily accessible to the public, you’ve got to follow it up with decent titles, so it remains to be seen whether this move can now start to establish the Gizmondo in gamer’s pockets. With stiff competition from the Nintendo DS, imported PSPs with an official UK release for the PSP just around the corner, Gizmondo need to pull something very special out of the bag.


HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
Sounds interesting… I remember having a play with one a few months ago and it was alright, but hardly amazing. What did sound quite good was there gang-based game which used the gps to link property in the game to real-life locations. Thus, if you walked into a new area with your Gizmondo other players in the area would be alerted to try and stop you taking their land or somesuch, IIRC.
Yeah, Colours is unique in that it uses GPS to plot where you are in real life, then see if anyone around is running the game… you then fight it out to see who wins the ‘real’ turf war… clever stuff…

At the minute though, you'd be hardpressed to find anyone wanting a fight.

I still reckon that the Gizmondo is has enough cool features to give the PSP a real run for it's money, but sadly, poor marketing has let the Gizmondo down very badly… If it had been deleivered on-time, en mass and easily available then Sony would have had a worry I think… but Gizmondo now has an uphill struggle of thier own making.

Unless they pull something special out of the bag, developers aren't going to waste time coding for a platform with a limited user base… and although the Gizmondo does more than the PSP, its the games that'll give a platform it's life.
The only place I've seen the Gizmondo advertised was on B4 (teh really lame music video program on C4 in the mornings) and even then it was a compo.,
I wonder if this general release will improve the devolper support this is receivng?
I've had a brief chat with the Gizmondo guys here at EIEF, I'll be linking up with them to bring you more info on what's happening with this soon.

Here's a little food for thought though… take a PSP and Gizmondo and drop them both onto a concrete surface from one meter up…. the Gizmondo won't even pause in playing its movie… and you can nip off and get a dustpan for the PSP! ;)

But I've still got a gut feeling thats its too little, too late for the Giz…