It hit number 88 in T3’s Hot 100 Gadgets and clocked up reasonable sales around the world, but that’s not been enough to save Pleo from extinction.

Sadly, everyone’s favourite intelligent robotic dinosaur has been a victim of the recession, with Ugobe (the company behind it) filing for bankruptcy, sacking all of its workers in the process. That’s despite the Ugobe selling over 100,000 Pleos in the last 12 months, each commanding a price tag of $350, adding up to a whopping $35,000,000 of revenue. OK, costs will be hacked out of that hefty income, but it’s still a very high figure for a firm going under. Maybe the firm just didn’t evolve in the same way as it’s most famous creation.

So, where does that leave Pleo? Right now, as a potential collector’s item, with little sign of anyone giving the cute Camarasaurus a permanent home. Saying that, it looks like you can still buy one in the UK, with Firebox (as we write this) taking pre-orders ahead of a proposed shipping date of 28th April. Whether that still stands in light of today’s announcement isn’t clear – you might want to drop them a line before you input those card details.

Link: Firebox (via Gizmodo)

Full published article at: http://www.t3.com/news/intelligent-robo-dinosaur-pleo-goes-extinct?=38695&cid=OTC-RSS&attr=T3-News-RSS

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