Gizmondo 2.0 delayed
New Nvidia chip promised, hopefully out by the end of 2008
Gizmondo alumnus Carl Freer has given an interview to a Swedish newspaper in which he apparently says the relaunched version has slipped from its planned May 2008 release date.
"We will have the product by the end of 2008, but I can't say if it is the third or fourth quarter," he's quoted as saying in this translation of the interview.
An unnamed Chinese manufacturer is apparently making the new Gizmondo, and the interview states as fact that it'll have "a more advanced version of the custom made chip nVidea [sic] developed for Gizmondo".
However, this is because the 3D graphics hardware used in the original Gizmondo is no longer manufactured by Nvidia. Also, since Gizmondo was launched all mobile 3D hardware is integrated directly into the CPU anyhow. Presumably this will mean extra design work before the chips for the new Gizmondo can be manufactured.
May always seemed like quite a tight deadline for the rebirth of Gizmondo, and there's surely some serious schmoozing that needs to be done to convince developers to make games for the new device, given the bad experiences many had with Gizmondo the first time round.
Something tells us this story is going to see a few more twists and turns before the end of the year…
