GPH, formerly known as GamePark Holdings, was a South Korean company responsible for creating the

GP2X The GP2X is a Linux-based handheld video game console and portable media player developed by South Korean company GamePark Holdings. It was released on November 10, 2005, in South Korea only. The GP2X is designed for homebrew developers as wel ...

that was founded by former employees of the game maker GamePark in 2005.

History

Several years after the release of the

GP32 The GP32 (GamePark 32) is a handheld game console developed by the South Korean company Game Park. It was released on November 23, 2001, in South Korea and distributed in some parts of Europe. History The GP32 was shown at E3 in 1999, 2000, 2001 ...

, its maker GamePark began to design their next handheld. A disagreement within the company about the general direction of this system prompted many of the staff (including the majority of engineers) to leave and create their own company, GamePark Holdings, to create, produce and market a 2D handheld system that they saw as the evolution of the GP32. In contrast, GamePark began developing the XGP, a 3D system similar to the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 200 ...

. The XGP was never released and in March 2007, the old company filed for bankruptcy. The name of the 2D console was conceived as the GPX2. Eventually, GPH would run into difficulty with it due to a possible trademark violation with the name of a Japanese printer, the GPX, being considered too similar. Potential confusion with a "second generation printer" needed to be avoided, so a contest for a new name was announced on August 3, 2005. Around 1500 names were submitted by the deadline of the 15th day, but trademark issues hindered the registration of the fifteen selected names. Eventually, GamePark Holdings simply decided to swap some letters and name their handheld

, finding it an available trademark. By the time it was discontinued in August 2008, 60,000 GP2X units had been sold. In May 2009, the

GP2X Wiz The GP2X Wiz is a handheld game console and portable media player developed by South Korean company GamePark Holdings running a Linux kernel-based embedded operating system. It was released on May 12, 2009, and was also the first console from bot ...

was released, the successor to the GP2X. In August 2010 GPH launched a new handheld console, Caanoo, as a successor to the

, with games purchased through GPH's simultaneously released online app/game store called FunGP. The Caanoo failed to sell well. In March 23, 2013, they discontinued their business service,Revenue Taxation type/closed business results and the post processing for the CAANOO consoles was proceeded by AR Plus.

References

External links

GamePark Holdings

About GamePark Holdings

GP2X FAQ
- a FAQ covering everything about the GP2X
wiki.GP2X.org
- The GP2X Wiki Holdings Defunct video game companies of South Korea Electronics companies established in 2005 Electronics companies of South Korea {{Asia-videogame-company-stub