Gizmondo staff revealed to have organised crime connections Three Gizmondo staff, of which at least two were in high-ranking positions, have been uncovered as members of the "Uppsala Mafia" in the 1990s. It is believed all three have now stood down from the troubled handheld console manufacturer, as has CEO Carl Freer. Stefan Eriksson was Executive Officer of Gizmondo Europe, but Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet uncovered he was also the head of the "Uppsala Mafia", an organised crime group based in the same town as the headquarters of Gizmondo, when he was apprehended in 1993. In two trials, Eriksson was convicted on a number of charges relating to financial fraud. Johan Enander, Gizmondo's Head Of Security was also convicted of blackmail and assault. Eriksson and Freer have retained stock in Gizmondo, it is believed, and both say they have left to pursue other entrepreneurial activitives. http://www.games-digest.com/2005/10/gizmondo_staff_.html & gizmondo crime spree Launched with virtually no fanfare, Gizmondo was a peculiarity from the outset. Able to connect to the mobile Internet but unable to make or receive phone calls, and with only a few games available, none of which were ever reviewed, Gizmondo never - even for a split second - looked as though it could take on the mighty Game Boy or Sony's PSP. So why do it? The answer, rather excitingly, is that it was all a scam, perpetrated by a group of con men who took backers Tiger Telematics for everything they could get, ending spectacularly with former Gizmondo board director Stefan Eriksson wrapping a stolen Enzo Ferrari around a Los Angeles lamp post, while very drunk. Amusingly, Eriksson claimed he hadn't been driving at the time, but that a German named Dietrich had been, who had then fled the scene seconds before officers arrived. This bizarre incident compounds the existing allegation that he stole two Ferraris and a Mercedes (worth collectively nearly $4 million) from Britain before he left, and a separate firearms charge in America. Although other senior Gizmondo personnel have had more than passing entanglements with the law (see Games-Digest), Eriksson's cartoonish excesses make the others pale into near insignificance, which is why LA police are currently holding him without bail. For the few consumers who went ahead and bought a Gizmondo anyway, it's probably best to treat it carefully - after the closure of the company's flagship store in London's Regent Street, it may prove tricky getting it repaired. http://www.blueyonder.co.uk/blueyonder/getContent.do?page=1335024&group=wd_games
Do you? Gizmondo's company being a complete front for organized crime is completely out of left field. Who in here actually owns one? What's it like?
not really news.. been in the news (atleast in sweden, probably in rest of the world too) for a long time.
There was a shop in London, which shut almost as quickly as it opened, by all accounts. You can pick them up reasonably cheap on ebay.
I remember their website, that little gadget was quite cool actually, wouldn't mind one at a reasonable price. Of course there's always GP32..
What can I say? I'm a fan of the rare and unusual. I'll try to snap some pics of Alien Hominid later tonight. As for sales, the Gizmonodo officially launched in both the UK and the US. Sold...not so well. Something like 10-15 retail games are available for it. -hl718
they had shop on videogameauctions...it's now almost empty and the name was changed, too http://www.videogameauctions.co.uk/shop.php?userid=101417
MaximumPC reviewed it, I got to play with the demo unit some.. total, utter crap. http://www.maximumpc.com/2005/08/gizmondo.html
I take it that game was canned for the Gizmondo then? I think I remember hearing about it being under production, but don't think I ever saw screens. Also, wasn't 'Sticky Balls' (that game that got canned for the PSP) released on the Gizmondo? If so, was it (or any games for the system) good?
I remember walking in to CompUSA on the day the Gizmondo launched in the US. In my defense, i never shop at CompUSA, but they had a buy 3 playstation 2 controllers for $10 sale. Anywho, they were giving away games, they had models showing off the system, they had a bunch of demo units with some racing game... but the whole store was empty. No one was looking at the console. It was one of the strangest things i've ever seen. Just a huge waste of money.
I knew I remembered hearing the name Stefan Eriksson before. It was indeed that guy that crashed that poor, poor Enzo in Malibu. Let the guy rot in jail. This is the very same one:
One thing i've always wondered about that picture... where the hell is the other half of the car? I remember hearing the police report said Stefan was wondering around outside the car, so they didn't need to use the jaws of life, so where's the other half?