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[Somnid]

Interesting how people read ' below $300 ' as '$300'

I don't get this either. The rumored box would probably retail at about $99. It sounded like it was delayed from a holiday 2013 launch so they could be up-specing it I suppose. I wonder how ARM could fair with a discrete GPU?

Anyway if Apple and AppleTV is the elephant in the room this is the sub-orbital laser cannon that people are peacefully oblivious to. If Amazon is gunning for this market it will be ruthless.

 

[jvm]

Has anything come out of Amazon's game development lab? I mean, there was Air Patriots and then ... NOTHING.

That's got to be the biggest failure, at least on the face of it.

The optimistic side of me says "they have a great killer-app already developed and just waiting for release exclusively on the Amazon console"... but I've been down that road many times before, with many other systems.

https://www.amazon.com/?tag=neogaf0e-20

 

[Jonboy]

I'm a big Amazon fan, but no...just...no.

 

[darkside31337]

I'm expecting this to be like the Kindle. Very slow reception in the first couple years, then it'll explode and sell tons of units

I really don't see that happening.

I think all these devices are doomed to fail in terms of being major gaming devices. Even the AppleTV. Like I just think fundamentally people who are content with your average mobile game are content with playing them on their iPad while in their house. They don't need to play it on a TV with a controller, in fact for most games on that platform its generally an inferior way to play the games you are already enjoying.

It's a really hard sell to get people to spend $100+ on a box that you can only use at home that already plays all the games they get to play on their phone and their tablet.

 

[MadOdorMachine]

Imo, people who keep saying it will be DOA are looking at this from the wrong angle. This more than likely won't follow the Sony/Microsoft deficit business model where they hardware is sold at a loss and the cost is recovered thru software. If they do launch at $300, it may even be at a profit. The price should also come down over time. Anyway, I get the feeling that this is more of a long term strategy by Amazon and isn't intended to immediately fly off the shelves the way PS4 and XB1 have been.

Edit - Mobile games will also include controller support soon, so their timing on this probably has that factored in. It seems like they're trying to get in on this ship as early as possible.

 

[rakkadakka]

This will not be aimed at GAF.

 

[Somnid]

I really don't see that happening.

I think all these devices are doomed to fail in terms of being major gaming devices. Even the AppleTV. Like I just think fundamentally people who are content with your average mobile game are content with playing them on their iPad while in their house. They don't need to play it on a TV with a controller, in fact for most games on that platform its generally an inferior way to play the games you are already enjoying.

It's a really hard sell to get people to spend $100+ on a box that you can only use at home that already plays all the games they get to play on their phone and their tablet.

This isn't just about just games though. Amazon has a massive ecosystem that will be powering this thing.

 

[PetriP-TNT]

I don't get this either. The rumored box would probably retail at about $99. .

Why include a price in a rumor if its 200 bucks off? You might as well say that its going launch at below 1000 but for more than a dollar.

Cant wait for Amazon to destroy home consoles. And by home consoles I of course mean OUYA. In all seriousness, it will be interesting to see what Amazon 1st party can deliver. At least they have some people that know stuff about marketing and devices unlike Ouya, even if the premise is otherwise equally shitty.

 

[fritolay]

I like Amazon, but I don't like this idea. Ouya did not do good. Even if the console is powerful and the developers have to support it, and I don't think anything but some ports will do. Maybe check back in a few years to see how things shake out, but not an Android console this year or next is going to do much. Bad move Amazon.

 

[DESTROYA]

Will be interesting to see what comes of this, any release date?
Not sure if I would get this this for $299 or around there ,I would rather spend the extra $100 for a PS4.

 

[Totobeni]

This will not be aimed at GAF.

I think it'll be aimed at Prime subscribers (10million? 20million?) who are also gamers. if they can give people all in one Amazon box that give them all benefit of Prime and console games then they'll have something cool in their hands. but just like Kindle Fire HD if someone don't have Prime (and not living in the US) then the device will be useless.

 

[Somnid]

Why include a price in a rumor if its 200 bucks off? You might as well say that its going launch at below 1000 but for more than a dollar.

Cant wait for Amazon to destroy home consoles. And by home consoles I of course mean OUYA. In all seriousness, it will be interesting to see what Amazon 1st party can deliver. At least they have some people that know stuff about marketing and devices unlike Ouya, even if the premise is otherwise equally shitty.

You'll have to ask VG247. It's either just a bad report (my guess) or Amazon has significantly changed what they were planning to launch per other rumors from more legit sources.

 

[Baron_Calamity]

I think it'll be aimed at Prime subscribers (10million? 20million?) who are also gamers. if they can give people all in one Amazon box that give them all benefit of Prime and console games then they'll have something cool in their hands. but just like Kindle Fire HD if someone don't have Prime (and not living in the US) then the device will be useless.

Thats my guess but I've been hearing some crazy things on the development side.

 

[DieH@rd]

I like Amazon, but I don't like this idea. Ouya did not do good. Even if the console is powerful and the developers have to support it, and I don't think anything but some ports will do. Maybe check back in a few years to see how things shake out, but not an Android console this year or next is going to do much. Bad move Amazon.

If someone failed, that does not mean that others cant do better. Ouya had so much problems, and it it lacks the marketing that Amazon can produce. Plus we can be sure that multimedia support will be perfect from day 1, OS will not be laggy, controls will not suck,...

 

[onQ123]

I hope it's $200 below, or it's not going to sell well at all.

You must not know how big Amazon is.

Amazon ,Google , Disney . Samsung & Apple are the companies that could pull off a new console & Amazon can pull off a $299 console



any android console that's too cheap is going to fail because most phones & tablets will over power it over the next year or so , so the only way a android console can make it is if it's powerful & has a good marketing plan.

 

[Dark_AnNiaLatOr]

Lol in order to compete in the big leagues, you need titles like Destiny, Watchdogs, and Battlefield. I HIGHLY doubt Amazon has plans for that.

 

[SuperSah]

Sounds like a joke.


$300 and competing with Nintendo, Sony, AND Microsoft?!

Better be some powerful device!

 

[KojiKnight]

Imo, people who keep saying it will be DOA are looking at this from the wrong angle. This more than likely won't follow the Sony/Microsoft deficit business model where they hardware is sold at a loss and the cost is recovered thru software. If they do launch at $300, it may even be at a profit. The price should also come down over time. Anyway, I get the feeling that this is more of a long term strategy by Amazon and isn't intended to immediately fly off the shelves the way PS4 and XB1 have been.

Edit - Mobile games will also include controller support soon, so their timing on this probably has that factored in. It seems like they're trying to get in on this ship as early as possible.

If the thing sells for anywhere near $300 then they will be making a massive hunk of change on it. Mobile parts aren't nearly as expensive as the components that make up the Xbone/PS4 systems... I'd imagine a price much closer to $200 could still net them a profit and at least put them in a reasonable range.

 

[Deku Tree]

Can I use this as a steam box?

 

[Nirolak]

VG247's rumors are usually partially true, partially false.

I suspect they got the price wrong since Amazon is not a high margin focused business, and this would be a huge margin.

 

[Abounder]

I hope it has more day 1 HTPC support than the disappointing PS4 and XB1

I've always been interested in a streaming box that can run emulators, if the price is right. Almost got an Ouya for those reasons

 

[z0m3le]

If the thing sells for anywhere near $300 then they will be making a massive hunk of change on it. Mobile parts aren't nearly as expensive as the components that make up the Xbone/PS4 systems... I'd imagine a price much closer to $200 could still net them a profit and at least put them in a reasonable range.

Unless the parts have been updated. It's possible to run Android with a normal GPU for instance, and the PS4/XB1 CPU is nothing to write home about, you don't have to try hard to out do them. I'll hold off judgement, if this is just what is going to be in android phones this fall, then it will fail, but if it's thinking about 3rd parties and has some first party titles ready, well that is a big step in the right direction and unlike Sony, Amazon can afford to take a hit to make things work.

 

[speculawyer]

Bomba

 

[E92 M3]

I am very surprised how many people are saying this will bomb. Amazon is a very smart company and I think they deserve to be given the benefit of the doubt, at least. There was probably a ton of market research done for the niche they are trying to fill. Most certainly it's not for us on GAF.

 

[Lonely1]

It's the size of a PSOne. Don't kid yourself.

I would think that that size is plenty to house such class of components.

VG247's rumors are usually partially true, partially false.

I suspect they got the price wrong since Amazon is not a high margin focused business, and this would be a huge margin.

Technically, if its $100 it fall under $300.

Lol in order to compete in the big leagues, you need titles like Destiny, Watchdogs, and Battlefield. I HIGHLY doubt Amazon has plans for that.

Battlefield 3 is already running on Tegra 5 on some capacity.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

When will these companies learn? Nobody wants to play cellphone games on their damn tv. More so when it will cost them anywhere from hundred bucks to 300 bucks. It's just not going to happen. But you know if they wanna waste the money trying then oh well. I'll just enjoy watching them crash and burn.

 

[Baron_Calamity]

When will these companies learn? Nobody wants to play cellphone games on their damn tv. More so when it will cost them anywhere from hundred bucks to 300 bucks. It's just not going to happen. But you know if they wanna waste the money trying then oh well. I'll just enjoy watching them crash and burn.

They aren't making cell phone games for this. You might see a few, but most will be standard console fare.

 

[Graphics Horse]

When will these companies learn? Nobody wants to play cellphone games on their damn tv. More so when it will cost them anywhere from hundred bucks to 300 bucks. It's just not going to happen. But you know if they wanna waste the money trying then oh well. I'll just enjoy watching them crash and burn.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/angry-birds-trilogy-sells-1-million/1100-6403987/

 

[Reallink]

I don't think people understand we're no longer talking about an Ouya anymore....

This sounds like a legit competitor.

There aren't even arm soc's in existence that cost this much or that would make legit console competitors are there? By that I mean you couldn't build a "power house" Android console even if you wanted to could you?

 

[BuzzJive]

Sounds like a joke.


$300 and competing with Nintendo, Sony, AND Microsoft?!

Better be some powerful device!

Remember that time that Microsoft created a console with off the shelf parts to compete with Nintendo, Sony and Sega? It even launched at under $300. What a joke that turned out to be.



"Android" should not be confused with "mobile games". Android is an OS - a Linux based OS that's been around for several years now. It's robust, with a very large and mature API. It would make a fine console OS with the right kind of resources behind it.

There's over a million apps on the Google Play store. Sure, a majority of them are less than mediocre, but those million apps are made by hundreds of thousands of developers who know how to make android apps. Some of those guys are talented and motivated and can certainly deliver "console" style experiences that would be fun to play.

Did the OUYA fall flat on it's face? It sure did. But that was an amateur console with specs that were in line with their $99 price tag. The controllers are so bad that I get sad just to look at them, let alone use them. Amazon has a presence that very few other companies have, and if they really drive this thing, it will at least be a moderate success.



Then again, I think the Kindle Fire is a terrible tablet, and I thought Google had their act together when they were bringing out Google TV. So who knows. But I think calling it DOA is extremely premature at this point.

 

[Berksy]

I think this will likely be a TV-Box with game capability, as Amazon already has media distribution.

Also Amazon can produce cheap versions with ads as they did with Kindle.

 

[johnny956]

Thats my guess but I've been hearing some crazy things on the development side.

Especially if amazon goes the prime subscription route with the games. Between Amazon Prime, Kindle Lending library and free 2 day shipping it would be another benefit for prime members.

 

[charsace]

This could be a success if they have an online gaming service that is similar to Steam and of course if it supports Amazon's market place properly.

 

[ari]

Hasn't Amazon been hiring some big talent from the industry for the past two years or so? This might be more then just an Ouya.

Yep....Also, This isn't the Ouya in any way or form. Amazon got the pull to convert Android gaming developers to this console. Also, could unintentionally bring Apple into the foray.

 

[speculawyer]

Imo, people who keep saying it will be DOA are looking at this from the wrong angle. This more than likely won't follow the Sony/Microsoft deficit business model where they hardware is sold at a loss and the cost is recovered thru software. If they do launch at $300, it may even be at a profit. The price should also come down over time. Anyway, I get the feeling that this is more of a long term strategy by Amazon and isn't intended to immediately fly off the shelves the way PS4 and XB1 have been.

Edit - Mobile games will also include controller support soon, so their timing on this probably has that factored in. It seems like they're trying to get in on this ship as early as possible.

Ah. Good point. Considering that angle, I predict they will be as successful as 3DO.

 

[Aaron]

Ah. Good point. Considering that angle, I predict they will be as successful as 3DO.

I think you're underselling it. Amazon sees the fragmentation of the console marketplace, and is ready to pounce like a powerful predator, like a... jaguar.

 

[Backfoggen]

Can't wait to play the old GTAs on this.

Not really.

 

[MadOdorMachine]

If the thing sells for anywhere near $300 then they will be making a massive hunk of change on it. Mobile parts aren't nearly as expensive as the components that make up the Xbone/PS4 systems... I'd imagine a price much closer to $200 could still net them a profit and at least put them in a reasonable range.

As Nirolak has pointed out, the $300 price tag may be wrong. I agree that $300 seems a bit high right now, but we don't really know anything yet. These are all rumors. All I'm saying is that a price drop could happen really soon for this, especially if the hardware is updated as quickly as mobile devices are. Once again, I agree that for what we know, the price seems a bit high for a micro-console.

On another note, the article claims this device is in direct competition with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. That could mean a lot of things. This doesn't strike me as a high end device, but who knows? What I do think is that there has been a void created and left unfilled for casual gamers after the success of Wii and failure of Wii U though. A lot of devs seem to be taking their chances on mobile and now that there are starting to be controller standards, the odds of more hardcore games and a console device like this seem to be increasing. It makes sense that the console and games would be cheaper than what the competition is doing. So I think there will be mix of both casual and hardcore games on this.

The real icing on the cake would be for it to allow PC streaming from Steam. As far as I know, this is only available on Nvidia GPUs so far, but we don't know what the specs are for this device yet. If this can stream games from the PC though, it would cause quite a stir imo. If this were to happen, the Amazon exclusive games could be their hook on being the preferred device to work with PC streaming. It would be an additional feature of course, but that way you would get all the Steam games, Amazon exclusives and a better experience for Android games than what is available on mobile devices making it very tempting for gamers.

 

[Somnid]

This could be a success if they have an online gaming service that is similar to Steam and of course if it supports Amazon's market place properly.

They have that. It's called Amazon Gamecircle.

The real icing on the cake would be for it to allow PC streaming from Steam. As far as I know, this is only available on Nvidia GPUs so far, but we don't know what the specs are for this device yet. If this can stream games from the PC though, it would cause quite a stir imo. If this were to happen, the Amazon exclusive games could be their hook on being the preferred device to work with PC streaming. It would be an additional feature of course, but that way you would get all the Steam games, Amazon exclusives and a better experience for Android games than what is available on mobile devices making it very tempting for gamers.

Where does Steam even enter the picture? Streaming clearly refers to them leveraging their own App Stream service. http://aws.amazon.com/appstream/

 

[Rodney McKay]

No doubt it wont use Google Play, i'm not buying games twice or tying myself into another store.

Amazon's app store is also worse than Google Play at getting game updates from my experience.

I had to rebuy Plants vs. Zombies 1 on Google Play to get the big update they made for the Android version. It was originally exclusive to the Amazon app store which makes that even more shitty. Don't know if they ever did get the update, but it was a week or two and it still hadn't been updated.

The only apps I have on Amazon now are a few decent free ones in their daily free app of the day (Jelly Defense, Workout apps, etc.).

 

[Guevara]

If Amazon can get the hot indie games on my TV cheaply and quickly (looking at you PS) I might be in.

 

[Damaniel]

If it can't run games at at least Wii U level, this thing is DOA. A $300 console that runs ports of mobile games, yet isn't powerful enough to (easily) port multiplat console games isn't going anywhere, and even Amazon isn't big enough to manage a large enough first party effort to matter.

This thing either needs console-class innards, or a 50% price cut from the estimates, for any chance of success.

 

[MadOdorMachine]

They have that. It's called Amazon Gamecircle.



Where does Steam even enter the picture? Streaming clearly refers to them leveraging their own App Stream service. http://aws.amazon.com/appstream/

That's a good point. It looks like that app is to stream games to a PC though. Maybe they also plan on going against Steam by including a way to stream PC games purchased through them to console. That would be pretty bold. It's still a function that could be part of the console though.

 

[yurinka]

Below $300? Let's hope it's maximum $100-150, because it will compete against Ouya or if something with PS3, but obviously not against PS4/XBO.

 

[speculawyer]

I think you're underselling it. Amazon sees the fragmentation of the console marketplace, and is ready to pounce like a powerful predator, like a... jaguar.

Well played, sir.

 

[Brashnir]

I think you're underselling it. Amazon sees the fragmentation of the console marketplace, and is ready to pounce like a powerful predator, like a... jaguar.

But if it really takes off, they could perhaps reach the Dreams that they've Cast out there.

 

[RayMaker]

Techcrunch Rumor: Amazon's console is powered by Snapdragon, presumably Adreno 330




Rumor: Amazon's new game console is core oriented, Amazon snapping up game devs

If they wanted to have X1/PS4 multiplats come to there system a snapdragon 800 wont cut it because it does not have a DX11 feature set, they would be better off going off with a snapdragon 805 which does have DX11 support and features and 40% power boast over the adreano 330 GPU found in the SnapDrag 800.

Though a snapdrag 805 would make x1/ps4 ports technically possible the GPU only has 200gflops, so the game would be gimped beyond belief, they will be better off going with a lower powered off the shelf APU from AMD.

I see it like this

I dont think amazon get all what they want, which would be a system that runs all android games well, and next gen multiplats, technically a snap dragon 805 would allow it. Although the lack of pure horsepower would make the games really really gimped.

And a AMD APU solution might cause problems with android games.

I dont think there is the demand for a home console based off mobile hardware, if people want a cheap home games console the 360 and ps3 are great options that no mobile powered home console can compete with.

I think the only way it can be successful is if it adopts an apple tv style box that is mainly a media player that can also play mobile games and apps.mobile hardware focusing on games (like the ouya) does not work,yet.

Or they go with and amd apu which is about 500-600GFLOPS 4-6gb ram and try and get mobile games plus multiplats and compete more directly with sony and MS. Offering a very cheap box that still plays most next gen games even though there framrate,effects,resolution, and AA are downgraded.

I wonder how a 600gflop Amd GPU would run BF4 say for example I'am guessing something like 720p little AA, medium settings @ 60fps. which would perfectly adequate for a lot of people

 

[Saucycarpdog]

I will quietly anticipate seeing what they have to offer since it will be nice to finally see a new face in the industry. The big 3 have become predictable.

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

Anything priced above $200 is DOA.

No Adreno, even next generation or the one beyond that, is going to be adequate enough.

AMD now has ARM instructions and an ARM core on their chips to run Android natively. I believe Intel does something similar. Why not go to one of those options?

AMD A10+SOC?

 

[leroidys]

Is amazon hardware doing so well that they need another device?