What Exactly Is Gizmondo Up To?

from the doesn't-look-good dept

We've wondered about the Gizmondo gaming device a few times in the past. The company, which used to focus on in-car telematics systems jumped into the handheld gaming market with a lot of fanfare, but not very much else. The device was expensive, but they had the odd idea of subsidizing it with forced viewing of ads. However, even the subsidized price is quite high, and without much in the way of compelling games, it didn't seem to be going far. It was no wonder that they had delayed their US launch (with some rumors suggesting it would never happen at all). Russell Buckley, over at MobHappy has done a little digging into what's going on with Gizmondo and it doesn't look pretty at all. For a company that hasn't done much of anything so far, they're paying people some ridiculous sums and appear to be involved in quite a few lawsuits about questionable behavior. Most of their top executives are taking home over a million dollars a year. That might make sense if you're Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, but for a startup that's not doing particularly well, it certainly smells pretty fishy. At the same time, they've also been buying luxury cars for people associated with the company, including at least one that cost a quarter of a million dollars. Of course, while they're living it up lavishly, it appears that they're not actually paying their bills. Ogilvy Group in Sweden is currently suing the company, saying that it didn't actually pay for any of the marketing services they performed. You can make your own conclusions, but there's an awful lot here that seems quite questionable.