Gizmondo Not Only Crappy But Funded By Mob

In a 'we live in an odd world' moment, Gamasutra reports that several executives of the company that is producing and distributing the Gizmondo handheld have stepped down after possible connections to organized crime were publicized. From the article: "...fellow senior Gizmondo Europe executive Stefan Eriksson has resigned from the company, also to pursue 'new entrepreneurial pursuits', following an expose by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, which alleged Eriksson's involvement in the 'Uppsala Mafia', a criminal enterprise which led to his convictions in his native Sweden from charges including counterfeiting in the early 1990s. Fellow Gizmondo employees Peter Uf and Johan Enander have also apparently left the company, and Enander is currently wanted by the Swedish police, according to Aftonbladet." We recently reported on the poor quality of the console.

SEC filings make good reads

[0biter]

the timing of this news couldn't be more amusing. about a week ago i started reading the Gizmondo SEC 10-K and 10-Q filings. They read like a sordid and unbelivable Grisham novel. spouses were being paid huge "consultant" fees while the company staved-off lawsuits by paying with worthless stock. execs were giving themselves huge car allowances while the company had no liquidity. partnerships set-up by the execs were being used to funnel corporate accounts. they were being sued for dumb stuff like not paying rent or their marketing firm. and through all this and losses in the hunreds of millions, the execs themselves were making obscene salaries and bonuses in the millions.

none of those occurances are necessarily uncommon or illegal, but taken together it all just smelled bad. it all jut seemed like the company was being used as a device for the execs to make money rather than anything tangible, and that they were all acting totally unethically. que Enron, i thought.

well, not but a week later here we see the truth writ large that the company is a den of thieves and a ship for fools.

reading the sociology, the psychology and the implied subtext of SEC filings is my new bedtime reading.

I've used one

[Anonymous Coward]

When at GameStars Live in the UK in 2004, there was a Gizmondo stand. It was a reasonably large stand, but also relatively empty. It was large in area, but really only consisted of a Humvee with a couple of scantily clad girls lying across it. There was one guy, with one Gizmondo console, giving demos. To be honest, he looked totally disinterested in the whole affair.
I took a quick go on the console, which was loaded with a 2D, sprite-based, vertical shooter. It was really quite dire. The console felt quite plastic-y, the D-pad was too smooth to be useful, and the game was decidedly average.
Needless to say, there wasn't a queue to play on it.