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==Launch==
After months of speculation, the GX4000 was officially announced along with the 464 plus and 6128 plus computers at the [[Centre_of_New_Industries_and_Technologies|CNIT Centre]] in [[Paris]] in August 1990.<ref>"Mr Sugar, Its Triplets" ''The Games Machine September 1990 Pg14''.</ref> The system was launched a month later in four countries, Britain, France, Spain, and Italy,<ref>{{cite magazine |title=GX-4000 : Sugar casse le morceau |magazine=[[Tilt (French magazine)|Tilt]] |type=interview |issue=81|date=September 1990 |page=109|lang=fr |url=https://archive.org/details/Tilt081/page/n108/mode/1up}}</ref> priced at £99.99 in Britain and 990F in France; software was priced at £25 for most games.<ref name="Retroinspection: GX4000"/> The racing game ''Burnin' Rubber'', a power pack, and two controllers were bundled with the machine.
Initial reviews of the console were favourable, with [[Computer and Video Games|CVG]] calling it a "neat looking and technically impressive console that has an awful lot of potential at the very low price of £99",<ref>"Am 'N' Chips" ''CVG September 1990''.</ref> but while impressed by the graphical capabilities, they criticised the audio and controllers. [[ACE (games magazine)|ACE]] magazine came to a similar conclusion, stating that the system "puts the other 8-bit offerings to shame bar the [[TurboGrafx-16|PC-Engine]]".<ref>"CPChoice" ''ACE October 1990 Pg120''.</ref>
A marketing budget of £20 million was set aside for Europe,<ref name="Retroinspection: GX4000"/> with the advertising focused on selling the GX4000 as a home alternative to playing [[arcade game|arcade games]]. The tagline for the machine was "Bring the whole arcade into your home!"<ref>"GX4000 Advert" ''CVG November 1990 Pg25''.</ref>
==Market performance==
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The GX4000 was not successful commercially. During its lifespan, software for the system was short in number and slow to arrive, consumer interest was low, and coverage from popular magazines of the time was slight, with some readers complaining about a lack of information regarding the machine ([[Amstrad Action]] was one of the few magazines to support the console). Within a few weeks of the initial launch, the system could be bought at discounted prices, and by July 1991 some stores were selling it for as little as £29.99.<ref>"Bitesize Amstrad" ''CVG July 1991 Pg78''.</ref>
There were many reasons for the system's lack of success. At this stage the 16-bit [[Commodore Amiga]] and [[Atari ST]], along with earlier 8-bit consoles and computers, were already dominating the European video game market, and hype for new 16-bit consoles such as the Mega Drive was starting to rapidly grow. Amstrad also lacked the marketing power to compete with the producers of the [[Sega Genesis|Mega Drive]] (released in November 1990 in Europe) and eventually the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super NES]].<ref name="GX4000 at Old Computers"/> On top of this, there were also problems with software manufacturing, with many companies complaining that the duplication process was taking months instead of weeks,<ref>"The French Connection" ''Amstrad Action February 1992''.</ref> leading to little software available at launch, and some games being released late or cancelled entirely. Lastly, many GX4000 games were simply [[Amstrad CPC|CPC]] games released onto cartridge with minor or no improvements,<ref name="Retroinspection: GX4000"/> which lead to generally unimpressive
When discussing the market failure of the system, the designer, Cliff Lawson, claimed that the GX4000 was technically "at least as good" as the SNES,<ref name="Cliff Lawson Interview">{{cite magazine | title =Cliff Lawson Interview | publisher =Retrogamer Magazine Issue 11 Pg29 }}</ref> and that the machine faltered due to a lack of games and Amstrad not having the money to compete with [[Nintendo]] and [[Sega]].<ref name="Cliff Lawson Interview"/> When asked whether anything could have been done to make the machine a success, he replied that more money would have been required to give software houses more incentive to support Amstrad, and that the games and software needed to be delivered sooner; he also remarked that making the machine 16-bit would
==Technical specifications==
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