The NUON

Background/History

The NUON, launched in late 2000, was a line of enhanced DVD players with video game functionality.

The DVD came to US shores in 1997, and while initially expensive, became affordable rapidly. By 2001, one third of households had a DVD player, just four years after their introduction. The DVD craze was on.
DVDs rapidly hit the video game market as well. By 2000, the buzz was on about the PlayStation 2. The original PlayStation was the highest selling console of the video game market at the time, and its successor promised an affordable price tag and high quality video games. Another big attraction on the PS2 was its use of DVD. The PS2 would use DVD discs for its video games and function as a standalone DVD player.
Microsoft announced their first console around this time as well. Scheduled for a 2001 launch, it was also going with DVD technology.
With the video game sales leader and a computer industry titan both ready to launch DVD based video game consoles, a small semiconductor company called VM Labs decided to get in on the action.
VM Labs' approach to the idea was unique. Instead of launching their own hardware, the Nuon technology was built in to certain models of DVD players. VM Labs itself developed the technology, but the players were built by and sold as Samsung, Toshiba, and RCA models. In addition to functioning as a standard DVD player, these models also had enhanced navigational tools (blah blah blah... this is a blog about video games) on some DVDs and also had a lineup of video games available.
A DVD player with a video game console built in? How could it lose?

What Makes It Obscure
Because the NUON models were marketed as standard DVD players, many consumers were unaware that their players had additional functionality. The library of titles that could take advantage of Nuon capabilities was small. Only four DVD movies with NUON enhancements were released, as well as eight NUON video games. The library of Nuon games was generic in nature, featuring few new ideas. By 2003, the NUON format was dead.
The PS2 also functioned as a standard DVD player, and it was often a lower cost than the NUON. The video game library of the PS2 was massive and highly varied.