Gizmondo: Wanted dead or alive
Tiger Telematics' upstart handheld Gizmondo has finally launched in the UK - although you could be forgiven for not noticing.
A plush party at London's Park Lane Hotel marked the official release of the device on Saturday, with the likes of Jamiroquai, Girls Aloud, Pharrell Williams, Sting, Busta Rhymes and, er, Kelly from EastEnders in attendance.
Alarmingly, and if the figure in yesterday's Mirror is accurate, Jay Kay's (Jamiroquai's hat-wearing frontman) fee for appearing at the glitzy launch bash was a cool £800,000. Which means that Tiger needs to shift a lot of Gizmondos.
To that end, Saturday also marked the grand opening of Gizmondo's flagship store on Regent Street, currently the only place in the entire country that it's possible to purchase one of the devices.
Despite all the money that Tiger is throwing at Gizmondo, it doesn't appear to be off to the best of starts though. While Nintendo's DS sold a staggering 87,000 units during its first weekend on sale in the UK, Gizmondo could, according to various internet sources, only manage to shift 800.
A spokesperson for Gizmondo puts this number at 1000, while also quoting an astounding figure of 560,000 pre-orders for the machine, which Tiger is "currently in the process of fulfilling".
Either way, opening weekend sales of just 1000 units can hardly come as much of a surprise given that, outside of the solitary central London store, it's literally impossible to get hold of a Gizmondo.
Major retailers such as GAME aren't stocking the machine and, while both Toys R Us and John Lewis are due to begin selling it, there's no stock available from them at present, as evidenced by their websites here and here.
Indeed following last year's "softest of soft launches", this week's launch doesn't really appear to be any more hard-hitting.
Tiger maintains that it's currently negotiating with GAME and other high street retailers, and the company is optimistic that it will be announcing a deal soon. But given that GAME recently told us, "We have no plans to stock Gizmondo. With PSP and DS launching, we simply don't have the room in-store," it remains to be seen how much interest the high street really has in stocking the device.
Gizmondo's ultra-low profile even extends to the games press, which has yet to be given either hardware or software, as evidenced by the fact that you still won't have seen reviews of any of the games yet (see below for the complete list of launch titles).
In spite of all this, the Windows CE-based device has - in theory - a lot going for it. Aside from playing games, music and movies, it's capable of taking digital photos as well as sending text messages and emails, thanks to the pre-pay Vodafone accounts that are bundled with the £229 machine (although you can't actually use it as a mobile phone).
It also supports GPS (Global Position System), allowing it to be used for route-finding, while there's provision for multiplayer gaming via both GPRS and Bluetooth. Assuming, of course, that you can find anyone else out there to play against.
Gizmondo launch titles
Angel Fish
Chicane
City
Colors
Conflict Desert Storm II
Conflict Vietnam
Fallen Kingdoms
Furious Phil
Interstellar Flames 2
Johnny Whatever
Milo and the Rainbow Nasties
Momma Can I Mow the Lawn?
Richard Burns Rally
Speedgun Stadium
Sticky Balls
Stuntcar Extreme
Super Drop Mania
The Great Escape
Trailblazer
