Making More Fun of Gizmondo

Update[2/8 am]: The New York Times covers the story in its technology section today. (free registration may be required).

Ok, I’ve been making fun of Tiger Telematics/Gizmondo since it sold off its flooring business, Floor Decor, but apparently I was correct in doing so. The UK subsidiary tried to file for administration (like bankruptcy in the UK), but the court basically said, “no.” The court put it into liquidation.

Mike at TechDirt has this explanation:

This was for a company that had built a non-competitive, non-compelling expensive handheld gaming machine in a market that was already dominated by huge players. Much more importantly, though, the company had execs with criminal pasts who were paying themselves millions of dollars and even giving themselves expensive luxury cars as part of their compensation—despite the fact that the company had no real revenue.

Gizmondo, among other things, was supposed to leverage GPS technology in its games. So far, no such game has been released and it seems if it were, there may be no handheld or any interest in it.