I wonder why people think "The most suitable games for the console are likely to be similar to those currently taking tablet devices by storm"; the completely different control scheme makes me think that console games would be most suitable for a console.
I think the Steam Box has a lot more potential than this android gaming system; there are a lot of Steam games that play just fine on a controller and there's a lot more crossover for developers compared to building an Android game and having to make an interface for touch use and close range and an interface for controller use at TV range.
They're thinking more about the toolchains for those games, and the experience that developers have built up with them.
Though having said that, Sonic, Grand Theft Auto and a whole bunch of other "console" games are already available on Android, and there's a long history of Android devices with gamepad support and/or built in from the Sony Xperia Play, OUYA, the Nvidia Shield, the Samsung official Gamepad etc.
As one of the only people to actually purchase an Nvidia Shield, I can't see this working out very well. There just isn't a very good market for Android games, nothing worth a dedicated console at any rate.
I am skeptical. There is no ecosystem of apps for this to succeed as a console. I feel they are doing this to shoehorn Amazon Prime Video and their video rental/selling service; and they can't directly compete as that alone considering the saturation of set-top devices. A console is a great way to make it in to that space, as Microsoft has done, but this seems too little too late unless they can come up with some serious special sauce.
So Amazon's model is to make money from the subscription service...hopefully that's a typo at $79/month.
I think Amazon can be successful in the gaming industry, given the fact of their customer base, model of free to play, but I think the gold in this plan is the internal game dev teams.
I'd be very curious to see if they will allow indie devs.
Maybe they meant $79/year. If that is the case I would think they are associating it with a prime account.
They already have an app store with a submission and review system in place. I don't think it would be too far fetched for them to leverage that to allow indie devs to create games
Not sure how this is going to compete with $50 to $75 Android sticks that will perpetually get better and more powerful by the year. Spend $199 or $250 for what benefit exactly?
game console + apple tv competitor could be interesting - especially if its running android and you can put your own apps on it - do we have any other tv connected devices running android currently?
We cut the cable cord almost two years ago and have an apple tv that we love and a roku thats a bit meh; give me something with a real app store and plenty of content and id probably switch.
> do we have any other tv connected devices running android currently?
Logitech Revue, Netgear NeoTV, Asus CUBE, Vizio Co-Star, Hisense Pulse, Sony Internet Player and some LG smart TVs. They run Google TV, which is basically Android 3.2 with a custom launcher. It's pretty meh really; the market has a limited selection compared to phones/tablets and keyboard navigation of Android is cumbersome. The only reason I keep my box around is because it does HDMI-CEC and exposes an API, so I can integrate it into my voice-controlled home automation setup ("turn on the TV and launch netflix").
AppleTV will expand to include iOS gaming support with bluetooth controllers -- if we can believe the rumors. The restructuring of the apple store to accommodate appletv as a standalone product category and rumors apple has a superbowl spot lend credence to the rumors. Also it's the perfect time -- microsoft, sony, and nintendo all just shot their wads and ate their loss leaders. If it happens it will be funny to watch.
