UPDATE: GameStick Kickstarts Its Way to Mobile Console Glory

[Karloff]

UPDATE: GameStick Kickstarts Its Way to Mobile Console Glory

The tiniest console managed to raise $146,000 of its $100,000 Kickstarter goal within a few days.

The console on a stick [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121310-New-Android-Console-Challenges-the-Ouya-on-Kickstarter] will get made, thanks to a Kickstarter campaign that raised $146,000+ in the first few days, beating its $100,000 target handily. If you're not familiar with GameStick, take a look at the picture. That USB stick you're looking at is the console; it plugs right into the HDMI slot on your TV, for truly mobile gaming.

"Using Android [Jelly Bean] as the underlying operating system gives us access to all the innovation and content within the mobile, tablet and now PC world," say the PlayJam team behind GameStick, and 200 games have already been identified as working well with the GameStick concept, many of which will be free to play.

The GameStick isn't built to beat the Xbox at its own game, nor is that what PlayJam wants. "We want to make publishing affordable games to TV as easy as it is on mobile," says PlayJam, "it's what we live and breathe." The same game you'd pay a few bucks for to play on your phone, now becomes something you can plug into your TV.

For those of you who love technical specifications, PlayJam has some data for you:
? Processor - Amlogic 8726-MX
? Memory - 1GB DDR3 / 8GB FLASH
? Content Download Manager w/ cloud storage for games.
? WiFi - 802.11 b/g/n
? Bluetooth - LE 4.0
? O/S - Android Jelly Bean
? Controller - Bluetooth, 3 mode controller: gamepad, mouse and keyboard with support for up to 4 controllers.
? Full 1080p HD video decoding


There's still 27 days to go on the campaign; plenty of time to get in on the ground floor.

Source: Kickstarter [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/872297630/gamestick-the-most-portable-tv-games-console-ever]

UPDATE:: one of the project's backers has gotten in touch. Apparently the GameStick is the subject of an intellectual property dispute - no idea what the basis of the dispute is, as yet - and as a result, the Kickstarter campaign is on hold. Backers are being advised to contact GameStick directly. If the dispute isn't resolved within 30 days, the Kickstarter will be permanently offline.

My thanks to Vault Citizen [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/view/Vault+Citizen] for the tip!

UPDATE 2: According to GameStick the issue has to do with one of the videos used to promote the device. Apparently it included images of someone's game, and the someone hadn't signed off on it being used as Kickstarter promo material. An edited video should solve the problem, GameStick hopes.

Permalink

 

[Terramax]

This might be a really stupid comment, but wouldn't blowing up a video game, originally intended for mobile phones and tablets, on a big television screen look a little bit, well, you know....

Or are they going to be games downloadable on PC?

 

[Roxas1359]

Hm, good to see that this is going through. I'm actually really interested in this and the specs aren't bad at all. Maybe I'll get it eventually.

Now for the ultimate test since it plugs in via HDMI port I'll see how the HD PVR Gaming Edition 2 likes it.

 

[DonTsetsi]

This might be a really stupid comment, but wouldn't blowing up a video game, originally intended for mobile phones and tablets, on a big television screen look a little bit, well, you know....

Or are they going to be games downloadable on PC?

A lot of Android games have vector graphics, which means that watching them on a different resolution won't lead to pixelisation.

 

[weirdee]

Yeah, I'd expect many mobile games to have scalability now since they're on stuff like tablets, plus even before that we have so many darned different formats that being able to adapt screen size is standard now.

 

[Terramax]

This might be a really stupid comment, but wouldn't blowing up a video game, originally intended for mobile phones and tablets, on a big television screen look a little bit, well, you know....

Or are they going to be games downloadable on PC?

A lot of Android games have vector graphics, which means that watching them on a different resolution won't lead to pixelisation.

OK, thanks for clearing that up.

 

[legendp]

isn't this just another version of the ouya, but more portable and even less powerful, it should have been faster. also there is already the MiGen out which is like these as well

 

[kburns10]

I like this idea more than the Ouya, but both these Kickstarters make me nervous. I'll wait to see what happens on the outside.

 

[Killclaw Kilrathi]

I'm gonna be the devil's advocate here (devil = the bigass $50 games).

Who has played a really good game on Droid yet? Not counting Angry Birds, emulators and remakes.

I failed to find a single good one.

Unfortunately if you're not willing to count ports there isn't all that much going for Android, simply because most mobile games developed now get both and Android and iOS release simultaneously, or at least close enough to be more or less simultaneous. Mobile games don't really have the same exclusivity of "big league" handheld consoles.

But that's the thing, to say that you DO have to discount a huge portion of the mobile market and it's in there that Android will likely prove its popularity as a console OS. Already the creators of the Ouya have actively encouraged people to hack the device and do whatever they want with it, and they already have a number of bigger name developers onboard. And then of course you have to take the emulators and whatnot into account, they may not make any game developers any money but it will work wonders for the platform's popularity.

 

[Albino Boo]

I like this idea more than the Ouya, but both these Kickstarters make me nervous. I'll wait to see what happens on the outside.

I'm less nervous about this one the Ouya. The Ouya appears to have all the design and hardware development down in house whereas gamestick has hired specialist design company to build it using off the shelf parts. There is less to go wrong and if it does go wrong there is someone other than playjam on the hook.

 

[RicoADF]

I'm gonna be the devil's advocate here (devil = the bigass $50 games).

Who has played a really good game on Droid yet? Not counting Angry Birds, emulators and remakes.

I failed to find a single good one.

The GTA games and warzone anomonly, both of which were ported and adapted for android/iOS.

 

[thesilentman]

It looks pretty cool, but if the same thing can be achieved using my PS3, I don't see the reason to get one. It would work well as a retro rig on the go, but that's about it.