Taito Wow-Wow?

[Bojay1997]

Not sure about that, but it says that one system under the name Taito Wow-Wow was test marketed in Japan and didn't do well.

That's the web-tv like box I was talking about. I actually imported one using Yahoo auctions Japan about five years ago. It says Taito and Wowow on the box (I believe Wowow is the name of a telephone or satellite company in Japan), but it literally is just a box with some internal memory and ports to connect to the Internet and your TV. The controller did look the same or similar to that prototype picture, however.

[Tupin]

Interesting, but this prototype looks like a game system that uses discs.

Can you post pics?

[Bojay1997]

Interesting, but this prototype looks like a game system that uses discs.

Can you post pics?

Correct. I'm sure at the time it was shown, they thought a disc based system was a good business model. What they ended up selling in Japan almost two years later was basically a web-tv box which allowed you to download games from Taito, but also surf the Net and do e-mail. I think it was simply a case of the technology changing to make downloads a more sound business model, especially since Wowow probably had no business interest in having people buy discs since they were a telecom company and made their money by selling services and content. Taito probably saw it as a cheaper and less risky way to go since they basically just had to give Wowow the code to put on their servers rather than take the risk of having discs authored and pressed.