Panasonic M2

The Panasonic M2 was a video game console design developed by 3DO and then sold to Matsushita. Initially announced as an add-on chip for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer with a custom PowerPC microprocessor, it eventually became a standalone console and was exhibited and demonstrated at the 1996 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Before it could be released, however, Matsushita cancelled the project in mid-1997, unwilling to compete against fellow Japanese electronics giant Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's N64, both of which had recently had several top-selling games released for them. The M2 was cancelled so close to release, marketing had already taken place in the form of flyers, and one of its prospected launch titles, WARP's D2, had several gameplay screens in circulation (a different game by WARP using the same name was later released on the Dreamcast).

As with the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, the M2 hardware was co-designed by Dave Needle and R. J. Mical. According to Omid Kordestani, a 3DO spokesperson, the M2 could generate 1 million polygons per second with the graphics features turned off and 700,000 polygons per second with the features turned on. There were plans to make M2 models with built-in DVD players, similar to the later PlayStation 2.