Why did CD-i fail to succeed?

Anything relating to CD-i can be discussed in this forum. From the multiple hardware iterations of the system to the sofware including games, reference, music and Video CDs. Maybe you hold an interest in Philips Media and the many development houses set up to cater for CD-i if so then this is the forum.

Why did CD-i fail to succeed?

Poll ended at Mon May 01, 2006 5:38 pm

The retail prices were too high
3
25%
3rd party support was too low
4
33%
1st party software was weak
0
No votes
distribution services were too weak (cd-i was nowhere to buy)
1
8%
CD-i hardware performances were weak, comparing with competitors
0
No votes
More and better marketing (advertising) would have done it
4
33%
 
Total votes: 12

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Austin
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Post by Austin » Wed Jun 22, 2011 2:49 am

Price and marketing go a long way. In my area of the US (Northern Virginia/DC area), I saw a CD-i in a store only once. That was in a Montgomery Ward store (Anyone in the US remember them? I didn't think so ;)). I only saw actual CD-i systems at places that valued edutainment--For instance, a hospital, and my intermediate school. As a game machine, I only saw it that one time. No mainstream videogame store carried the platform, nor did any of the other popular big-box stores, like Best Buy.
Gaara wrote:Some great games on the system, sure, but the console itself is utterly charmless and the graphics have aged far worse than the sprites of the SNES, Mega Drive, etc.
To be fair, the visuals on the Saturn, 3DO and Jaguar haven't really fared any better. It's a harsh reality of that generation in gaming. Not that I mind it though.
The IMPLANTgames Podcast - Episode 66: http://implantgames.com/implantgames/podcast66

phatrat1982
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Post by phatrat1982 » Wed Jun 22, 2011 4:18 am

yeah my impressions of 32x were all from a while back, I sold my console in 2006 I think it was so I could be remembering the names wrong. I did download the emulator and some roms I missed and I don't see much improvement over the Genesis version of VR but that could be because the game did not age well and I don't have the Genesis version right now to compare.



I did re-try Tempo and I don't know I had Toe Jam and Earl Panic on Funkotron on Genesis and that game looked and sounded worse to me than Tempo so I still hold that it feels like a regular 16 bit Sega game for me. I didn't notice any improvements anyways.


I did re-examine MKII and damn it was worse than I remembered must have been hype and nostalgia that impressed me the first go round. I am sticking with Mame for that from now on.


I am still trying to decide which version of Doom I will make my definitive version because I always had trouble getting the game to work on my Windows systems. I did find my old Doom CD ROM so I might try it again *IF* it is Windows 7 compatible or I might go for the 3DO version because I can't stand the SNES one.


I still was impressed with Shadow Squadron and Star Wars Arcade but for some reason Zaxxons didn't hold up to well.


Cosmic Carnage still looked and played great.



Overall I still think the system as a whole had a solid library it just lacked marketing, it was a little thin on some areas and mostly it had to deal with big brother over shadowing it.

proxy10

Post by proxy10 » Tue Jun 28, 2011 7:22 am

yep,they failed for high price, poor marketing

Interite
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Post by Interite » Tue Jun 28, 2011 9:40 am

Think there were quite a few reason behind the failure, but think that the prices and crappy marketing played a big role in that.

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