BTW, the M2 didn't launch because it was too expensive. It was very competitive price wise (the thing was made up of three chips plus RAM plus glue so it wasn't expensive at all) but Panasonic got cold feet. They believed Nintendo was going to dominate the market and they thought bringing out a unit that was twice as powerful as the N64 (and a lot easier to develop for) wasn't good enough. They didn't anticipate that cartridges were going to really stunt the N64's growth. In hindsight, I can safely say the M2 would have buried the N64 if Panasonic actually launched it. The reasons are pretty simple. The dev system was dirt cheap and easy to use (Sony released the Net Yarouze because it got some early info on the
M2's dev system which was essentially an M2 unit with an extra ROM and a parallel port cable for the PC). A developer familiar with an API like Glide would be right at home so ports of 3DFX games would be easy. The OS made streaming a dream. Today I have trouble getting Windoze with a PII-450 and a TNT card to do what I could on an M2 four years ago. Every developer that used the final M2 system preferred it to any other console for ease of development. Unfortunately, everything in the universe (or so it seemed) conspired to keep the unit off the shelf.
The main causes were:
1. Panasonic was overly worried about Nintendo. They couldn't see that cartridges were going to doom that system to being a (relative) niche
market.
2. Trip Hawkins had a mid-life crisis and wanted to get out of the console hardware business. He wanted to go back to what he believes he knows best-games. Of course looking at some of the stinkers coming out of Studio (New World and Cyclone excluded) you have to wonder. He basically told Panasonic they would have to pay for any help with M2 (in addition to the $100 million). Trip wouldn't be evangelizing the system anymore and 3DO could theoretically nickel-and-dime Panasonic to death. After all, the braintrust for the M2 was still at 3DO (before being amputated into Cagent). Panasonic would have to put their faith in something they didn't invent nor knew all that much about. For all they knew, there could have been a fatal flaw in the system that wouldn't reveal itself until after they spent a billion dollars on a launch.
3. The guy who was head of the Interactive Media division of Panasonic (actually MEI) was retiring shortly after the time M2 was originally to have launched. Only he could authorize the money (500 million to a billion dollars) needed to launch the unit. He didn't want to commit his company to such an expensive venture and then leave. So he didn't do it. His successor inherited M2 and was reluctant to commit to it since it wasn't "his baby". He was interested in MX but apparently he couldn't work out a deal with Cagent (the M2 hardware group) for it. This was probably due to an arrogant individual at Cagent who shall remain nameless who said "I don't like MEI's table manners, so I don't want to deal with them." I swear to God that I'm not making the last sentence up!
These are, I feel, the main reasons we never saw the M2. Scary isn't it? It wasn't technology or costs or the market. It was key individuals that deprived the world of a great game console. We often hear how an individual can have a profound impact for good on the rest of the world (or at least a large chunk of it). If it weren't for John Carmack, game developers be doomed to using an inferior version of Direct3D for game development instead of having a choice (Thanks, John!). Unfortunately, an individual can bring an equally negative effect on the world. An individual can undo the work of thousands of man-years with the stroke of pen. Remember that when you work on a project. Don't let a few individuals (if you can) undo what you and your fellow workers have slaved months and years for.
Don't even get me started on how the M2/Sega deal fell through.
