Gizmondo boss Freer breaks cover

A couple of years ago, if you'd told us Gizmondo would make a comeback by Christmas 2008, we'd have been carted off to the hospital for some serious side-stitching.

People castigate the original N-Gage for being a flop, but Gizmondo put that into perspective, with abysmal sales, terrible games, and shocking (if entertaining) tales of financial mismanagement.

And yet it's coming back, as we reported earlier this year, with original boss Carl Freer at the helm and a focus on homebrew content.

Now Freer has popped up in a mini-interview on the Gizmondo Forums website, in which he denies that Gizmondo is a busted flush.

"Not at all… there is still incredible value in the Gizmondo," he says. "And with the enhancements we're adding (i.e. Open Platform, etc) we feel it's only the beginning of where we can go with the product."

Freer says the relaunch will include "new products, suites of new games, enhancements to both the hardware and software components", and that it's on course to happen before Christmas this year.

Specifically, those enhancements include a new graphics chip, and use of version 6 of the Windows Embedded CE operating system.

Gizmondo plans to relaunch its website, which will function as a place to buy units, download the SDK, and sell new games. Meanwhile, Freer says the company will continue to support first-generation Gizmondos, and will re-release the first crop of games.