Precisions de Lik-sang: http://www.lik-sang.com/news.php?artc=3170
As promised in our news post here, we have tried to gather more information and details about the happenings around the GP32 Europe cancellation. Over the past few days Lik Sang has spoken to Gamepark, Entware (running JoyGP) and also to Mitsui in Europe.
There is no reason to worry about the future of the GP32. Production will continue and with the support the strong community and international resellers such as Lik Sang the unit will be still available for a long time. The first GP32 units left Lik Sang’s premises about 20 months ago and plenty of programs and games for it have been created by a great scene. There is incredible stuff under development and (thanks to Mitsui’s efforts to push the unit into the European market) the GP32 system is more popular than ever.
A European release of the GP32 would have been a great chance for Gamepark to finally make their system available to a much larger user base. Unconfirmed reports from insiders at GP32 forums mentioned a total of 260,000 units supposed to be shipped to the European market by Mitsui before end of 2004. Such a large number of users would have brought great chances for GP32 developers to make their games available through publishers like Mitsui or Gamepark directly. That number would also match the sum of US$ 20,000,000 which appeared on the Internet and Gamepark’s Korean news page a while back when the deal was announced.
It’s a pity that this deal didn’t work out, but for the current and future GP32 users all those happenings do not make a big difference. Gamepark confirmed that the future is not as dark as it was painted by Mitsui. Gamepark exists without a large partner like Mitsui for quite a while, and will continue to exist without them for good.
In Lik Sang’s opinion Mitsui’s dealings are rather questionable. One would believe that large corporations do not deal with their partners in such a manner. As we have been informed by Gamepark and several other close contacts, Mitsui preferred to call the resellers (including Lik Sang Europe) and press contacts even before they told Gamepark about the cancellation. Of course their might be some facts we are not aware of, but we can confirm from our little own experience that dealing with Mitsui was rather “difficult” and they seem not to know lot about the GP32. In general it’s a bit fishy that Mr. Markus Heiss of Mitsui spent time calling important press contacts and Lik Sang to speak about the cancellation, while Gamepark didn’t even know about it. Thanks for abusing us to spread the “bad news”.
When Lik Sang spoke to Gamepark after Mitsui’s call they indeed couldn’t confirm anything yet. According to GP32News.com Mitsui has set an undisclosed ultimatum to Gamepark for end of this month. After all, this looks more like a lame attempt to make pressure on Gamepark, which look rather small compared to Mitsui’s worldwide corporation.
We wish you all the best Gamepark! This message comes not only from Lik Sang, but also from all the happy GP32 users all around the world.
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