I saw rumors early yesterday about MTV unveiling a new piece of gaming hardware. Thinking that it would be something on par with the Gizmondo, I didn’t think twice. However, the news of Panasonic jumping back into video games after the flop that was the 3D0 15 years ago really caught me off-guard. This time though, they’re going with a hand-held device tentatively called ‘The Jungle’.
For more details and wild speculation on my part, read on.
I’ll admit that everything I know comes from this CrunchGear article. I’ll sum it up here, but definitely check out the article for more details.
– ‘The Jungle’ is a tentative name for not only the device, but also a few things it encompasses. CrunchGear mentions video creation as one. I’m thinking they may use the name in the same way Nokia used the N-Gage name.
– The device looks to have a touchpad, keyboard and touch-sensitive d-pads.
– Online gaming and ‘content on the cloud’ are going to be a big focus for this device.
– Battlestar Galactica Online is the only game confirmed for the platform so far.
While it is way too early to pass judgment on the unit, I’m very intrigued to see where it goes. A lot of the decisions Panasonic has made with this device so far are very bold, such as cloud computing support, all of those control options and a hand-held MMO.
Maybe more than anything, I have a soft spot in my heart for Panasonic as a game company. The 3DO was not the greatest system out there, but I have some fond memories of playing Road Rash, Captain Quazar, Samurai Shodown and Street Fighter II Turbo on a demo 3DO at the mall. I also remember the M2-era fondly, when EGM would write about how it was supposed to be the greatest thing ever.
The hand-held space is tighter than ever, and Panasonic has a long way to go in order to catch up to Nintendo, Sony and Apple. It’ll be interesting to see where ‘The Jungle’ goes from here.
In Third Person 