Is Amazon Developing a Games Console?

By Tk1917
in Back Page News

 Share

Recommended Posts

Enthusiast

Tk1917

Posted
Posted

 

It appears Amazon may be the next company to enter the console wars, with rumours spreading around the web that the company is currently in the process of developing a new games platform.

 

According to reports, citing sources ?who have knowledge of the in-development hardware?, the console is set to be developed in time for Black Friday, on 28 November, which could see it released alongside the PS4 and Xbox One which have been scheduled for a ?Holiday 2013? release.

 

 

 

http://thebackbencher.co.uk/are-amazon-developing-a-games-console/

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Showan

Posted
Posted

AMAZON needs to be very careful in what direction they take this, if rumors are true.

 

Ouya has already taken the plunge and the results were not in their favor.  People have already probably forgotten of Ouya's existence on store shelves now (I know I have, until I started typing this)  It has basically been proven, that mobile games & apps on a tv just aren't what people want for their gaming needs, especially those weekend gaming binges

 

Yes Amazon has the $$$ and resources to improve upon Ouya's mistakes.  They may also want to take a look at nVidia's Shield and take the pros (can also stream your STEAM games) and cons (nobody is not paying $300 for it, when there is a PS4 thats $400 right around the corner) from that as well.

 

If Amazon were smart, they would target the 3DS & Vita and go after that market.  A smartphone that has a 5" screen or so.  But it drops into a casing that has controller button layout.  And the device goes into "game mode" when encased.

 

Shield and Ouya did the stupid thing of releasing, when the X1 and PS4 are right around the corner, and thought that they could steal the thunder from Microsoft and Sony respectively.  The PS4 and X1 aren't even on store shelves yet, and their buildup have already drowned out Ouya and Shield.

 

Mobile devices need to target handhelds not the big boys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Proficient

illage3

Posted
Posted

I can't see a dedicated gaming tablet taking off, I've seen a few and they might attract a small number of sales but the larger audience doesn't have the money for these high priced tablets.  For the Razer Edge gaming tablet your looking at $1299(US) .....

 

Sorry but tablets shouldn't become full fledged gaming consoles and that is why I think the Ouya fell flat. No one wants mobile games on the TV when they have a dedicated games console.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

M_Lyons10

Posted
Posted

I really can't see Amazon as releasing anything that will be a competitor...  Companies think they're going to get into the gaming industry all the time, but it is a very hard industry...  Amazon might have the money, but few people will buy a console for Angry Birds...  They buy consoles for REAL experiences, such as CoD, etc.  Franchises that they're unlikely to woo, meaning it will be nothing more than a niche device.

 

Microsoft had a lot more going for them when they released the X1 (Which we all know lost a lot of money).  They had a major player that had backed out of the console industry, leaving a hole.  Publishers and Developers embraced Microsoft more because they didn't want a 2 party industry because they then lose a lot of control.  So, as hard as it was for Microsoft, it was WORLDS easier to get support from Publishers and Developers than it would be now...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Showan

Posted
Posted

I really can't see Amazon as releasing anything that will be a competitor...  Companies think they're going to get into the gaming industry all the time, but it is a very hard industry...  Amazon might have the money, but few people will buy a console for Angry Birds...  They buy consoles for REAL experiences, such as CoD, etc.  Franchises that they're unlikely to woo, meaning it will be nothing more than a niche device.

 

Microsoft had a lot more going for them when they released the X1 (Which we all know lost a lot of money).  They had a major player that had backed out of the console industry, leaving a hole.  Publishers and Developers embraced Microsoft more because they didn't want a 2 party industry because they then lose a lot of control.  So, as hard as it was for Microsoft, it was WORLDS easier to get support from Publishers and Developers than it would be now...

 

 

And thank goodness for Microsoft's have some knowledge of games, from most the of the PC gaming market using Windows as the primary platform.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Veteran

+Asmodai MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

Amazon has it's own ecosystem with the Kindle and the Amazon App Store available to most android devices.  With Google adding "Google Play Games", Apple having "Game Center", Microsoft integrating Xbox capabilities into tablets and phones, and Sony's PlayStation Mobile it stands to reason that they'd offer a gaming platform as well.

 

An Amazon device that hooks into their App Store and plays games displayed on your TV with a nice wireless controller isn't a bad idea (not to mention streaming audio/video from your Amazon Play cloud account).  If it's $100 or less it could do really well.  Some of the issues with OUYA are that no one heard of them before, they lacked an established market/infrastructure, and the hardware they launched was dated by the time it reached consumers.  None of these are issues with an Amazon device.

 

I think this idea is a good one but I think these companies are a bit premature.  Just with Android 4.3 did we finally get OpenGL ES 3.0 support (Snapdragon Pro and up hardware supports it as well as SoCs using the ARM Mali-T6xx series GPUs and the upcoming PowerVR Series 6 "Rogue" GPUs... Tegra 4 is notably absent).  Also we're about a year out from a big mobile shift to 64bit computing (ARMv8 and x86-64 based mobile SoCs.)  So to me at least these devices should wait for that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Dotdot

Posted
Posted

Heard it was going to be Android based. Ouya and Gamestick aint exactly off to the best start.

Then ofc theres the MadCatz one thats coming aswell (and Project shield from Nvidia). Google might do a nice one especially as they do Nexus* stuff.

But Ive yet to see a reason why i would need one over a tablet, other than for local multiplayer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing