Matsushita Electric Industrial Co will use the interactive M2 technology it bought from 3DO Co to develop multimedia products for industrial and educational applications, a Matsushita spokesman told Reuters. The M2 will become the core technology for our future multimedia business, in fields such as educational products and digital televisions for industrial use, he said. Matsushita said it has not yet made plans to develop specific products using the M2 games console technology that enhances sound and graphics. But earlier this year it said it was withdrawing from the market for household games machines using the M2 technology, due to intensified competition. Last Thursday Matsushita bought the full rights to use M2 for interactive high- precision graphics processing, in exchange for returning 3.2 million 3DO shares. Matsushita paid $100m back in October 1995 to 3DO to obtain exclusive rights to use the M2 technology (CI No 2,779), but 3DO had retained the rights to sub-license M2 as well as to royalty payments from Matsushita, until last Thursday. In May Samsung Electronics Co Ltd bought 3DO Co’s hardware systems business for $20m in cash completing 3DO’s hardware sell off and transformation into a console game software company, announced last September (CI No 3,000).
