The annals of gaming history are actually rife with examples of consoles that were conceptualized and constructed without ever making it to the marketplace. Understandably, putting a new game platform into production can be a tricky business. Any number of problems ranging from corporate politics to investor interests and audience impressions could result in a project being instantly cancelled. Even the biggest names in gaming like Sony, Nintendo, and Sega have invested heavily in the research and development of machines that never made it into production. So lets take a bit of time now to look back on all the cancelled game consoles we never got a chance to play.
11. Sega VR
Flying high from the success of the Genesis, in 1991 Sega announced that it planned to develop a virtual reality headset for arcades and consoles. Two years later, at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show, they unveiled a prototype that seemed to be an adaptation of a similar headset already in use by Sega in arcades. They also announced that a console version was in development and should be available to consumers in the spring of 1994. But due to development difficulties, the Sega VR console headset remained only a prototype, and was never released to the general public.
Reports indicate that the Sega VR headset suffered from many of the same problems that plagued Nintendo’s failed VR offering, the Virtual Boy. Namely, after prolonged use, users would develop headaches and get bad cases of motion sickness. But at least Sega VR was an actual headset with a physical design similar to that of the Oculus Rift and other soon-to-be-released VR designs. The Virtual Boy wasn’t even wearable and caused constant neck pains from having to always lean in to view the screen.
http://ubiquosity.com/the-year-of-virtual-reality-part-1/ Via ubiquosity.com