[4] First announced as a peripheral chip for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer with a custom PowerPC microprocessor,[5][6] the M2 eventually became a standalone console and was exhibited and demonstrated at the 1995 Electronic Entertainment Expo.
[10] Initially the plan was for the 3DO Company to license the console to multiple manufacturers, as it had done with the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, and both Matsushita (Panasonic) and GoldStar were signed on to produce M2 units.
[11][12] However, 3DO later sold exclusive rights to the M2 to Panasonic[13] for a sum of $100 million agreed in October 1995,[14] and relinquished their involvement with the console over the next several months.
Matsushita formed a new division in April 1996 named Panasonic Wondertainment Inc. headquartered in Tokyo to be their in-house software developer for the M2.
[18] According to 3DO senior vice president of hardware engineering Toby Farrand, "M2 was designed knowing that we would make it a DVD capable player.
They also praised the 3DO Company's strategies for securing third-party support for the system, and concluded that "M2 has crossed the line from being a collection of fanciful tech specs to hard silicon that people can work on and believe in.
"[20] The M2 failed to appear at the 1996 Electronic Entertainment Expo; a Panasonic spokesperson at the show said they were still undecided on how they were going to use the M2 technology, and that it was no longer certain that they would be using it as a gaming platform.
[21] By the end of 1996 a release date was not yet set for the console, and third-party developers were stating that in practice the M2 was not significantly more powerful than the Nintendo 64.
[25][26] Word of this leaked in late May, but it was not until July that the console's cancellation was made public, via an announcement by Matsushita president Yoichi Morishita.
[27][28][29] The M2 was canceled so close to release, marketing had already taken place in the form of flyers, and several of its prospected launch titles had gameplay screens in circulation.
In October 1997 Matsushita announced that they were marketing the M2 hardware as an industrial system capable of custom multimedia applications for simulations.