Analysts write off Panasonics Jungle

Panasonic had best abandon its plans at get back to making TVs if the reaction of a number of analysts to its announcement of new gaming portable Jungle is anything to go by.

Having followed Panasonic/Matsushita for nearly 20 years I cansay they have looked at ways to get into content for years without muchsuccess,” DFC Intelligence’s David Cole told Industry Gamers.

Their biggest competitor is Sony and going back to the 1980s bothcompanies realized that hardware was becoming more of a commodity andcontent would be what drives sales going forward.

Sony bought Columbia formusic and movies and of course built a major game division. Panasonicbought Universal, invested in 3DO and started their owngame division (both software and even working with Nintendo on a ill-fatedhardware system). By the mid to late 1990s, Universal was sold, the 3DOplatform was abandoned and the game division was shut down.

So given that history my inclination would be to say a system like theJungle is a non-starter right out of the gate. Until they can show meotherwise I just don’t think Panasonic has the right pieces to compete inthis space.”

M2 Research’s Billy Pidgeon added: The Jungle is a highly specialized dedicated portable for a non-existent market. This is an unprecedented hardware strategy, and probably for good reason. If MMO players want to go more portable than a laptop, I guess this would be the way to go. Frankly, this looks like a non-starter.”