They trying to win over developers before steam box comes out or are the genuinely not evil companies just flooding the market with awesome products?
Android Gets a Console
- Thread starter Timothy Chang
- Start date
Android Phones still use physical buttons for anything that is either too hard to do with a touchscreen or is impossible, so it's possible to get a physical controller to work through android. Even if android phones didn't use physical buttons, they can always program that function into android since it's open source.Eric the Orange said:
OP: I'm a skeptic by nature, so I'm not going to make a final decision about this console until I can see what it can do. But the possibilities of an open source console are staggering (no matter how weak the hardware is). Since it's open source, there's no limit to what kind of controller you can use, you could hook up a tablet and turn it into a persuado WiiU. In interested to see what developers do with something as flexible as this console is.
Isn't open source just fun!
I looked up the source, and they have a screenshot from the (concept?) menu/start screen. Someone probably misunderstood something somewhere in the press release process, because the menu clearly has a "Store" option, and the menu also clearly lists commercially available games.Baldr said:
Due to the open development kits and the Open Source nature, there's probably gonna be a lot of free homebrewn apps and ports of already open sourced games and software. But commercial Android apps and games will still stick around and be available for purchase.
See attached photo, it's gonna be gamepad-based. Reason they chose Android? For that price, it has to be an ARM processor, the same kind of processor that runs in your phone/tablet/other small but powerful device that ain't your desktop. ARM processors can't run native x86(_64) code that also runs on your main desktop. That means they're limited to mobile platform OSes, how many of those do you know about that could be allowed to run on this device? iOS? Never gonna happen. Windows Phone 7/8? Nope. Android? Yes, that's a possibility. They could also have gone for some other ARM-optimized linux distribution like Ångström, but that would mean no launch-day AAA 3rd party titles.Doom972 said:
So Android gives them a big library of existing commercial and free games, as well as the possibility of porting over even more Open Source games. Many Android games already support controller and gamepad buttons, there's apps that will allow you to map touch-screen controls to your gamepad, and if this things turns out a success, developers will also start adding native support for gamepads in their existing and new games.
So why did they choose Android? Because it's the only available option that will already give them a big library of good games, instead of a locked down system, or no native games at all.
Why don't you ask Rovio, or any of the countless iOS and Android games making money? iPhone games have been around for years, a lot of them ad supported. It must be a viable business model or all the developers would have died out by now. Also, it only says free to play. That means there could well be micro transactions, add ons, ad removal etc, just like in current Android or iOS games.Baldr said:
OT: This console concept looks pretty cool, but unless I saw that on release people were releasing something more than Fruit Ninja, it wouldn't interest me. To be viable for me it would have to run at least late PS2 quality games. Graphics aren't the most important thing, but they are still important, and I don't want to play a horrid polygonal mess. Then again, considering that my phone plays GTA 3, I guess that's probably not that hard.
A console which can be connected to a TV? What kind of wizardry is this?Timothy Chang said:
Seriously though, it's a shitty cheap PC with an OS specifically designed to work with small, portable devices. Why the hell would anyone buy this rather than an actual cheap PC?
Windows 8 runs on ARM processors, and there are plenty of desktop OS's that run on RISC processor based systems.NLS said:
Mac OSX was originally designed for a RISC processor system, PowerPC. RISC OS, a development of Acorn's earlier OS series Arther, is a full desktop OS that's been around since 1987. Linux, which to be fair can run on just about anything if you have the free time to compile it for your toaster/watch/hairdryer, has a multitude of ARM and other RISC platform implementations.
In fact, instead of writing them out, take a look at the wiki page on OS's that run on ARM platforms - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#Operating_systems
Also, don't forget that a lot of Supercomputers are based on the RISC architecture. RISC processors can be incredibly powerful, so long as the system and programs running on it are well written.
Wouldn't the people who would be even remotely interested in this already have a capable device that is mobile? Developers would likely have a desktop PC to do their work. Who is this even aimed at?
Maybe I'm being too cynical but I expect this thing to tank.
Maybe I'm being too cynical but I expect this thing to tank.
My question is mostly who do they intend to sell this to? The 'casual gamer' who already has all these kinds of games on his mobile device, and actually prefers them because of it? The 'Farmville mother' who could just as easily play these kinds of games on the family computer on her Facebook account or some webpage? The 'core gamer' who probably has deeper, more complex things to play but can also get his fix on Flash games anywhere he wants? Frankly I don't know whether there's any big market this will appeal to.
The only sort of people I can really see this selling to properly is the tech-hobbyist. The sort of person who likes fiddling around with stuff like the Raspberry Pi. They can toy around with this in the same way as it's pretty much completely open source. Make their own games with all kinds of fancy controls they design themselves. But is that market big enough to stop this thing from tanking? I doubt it.
The only sort of people I can really see this selling to properly is the tech-hobbyist. The sort of person who likes fiddling around with stuff like the Raspberry Pi. They can toy around with this in the same way as it's pretty much completely open source. Make their own games with all kinds of fancy controls they design themselves. But is that market big enough to stop this thing from tanking? I doubt it.
hmm true, but still, the virtual machine is more of the issue than the language itself(it being so similar to C# and all). the thing is, they sacrificed power and performance to have super compatibility. you can run java and android stuff on all kinds of things, microwaves soon enough, but you wont run it efficiently. never liked javascript much tbh...then again, i have not dabbled much into this area of software developing, so take what i said with grain of salt.Yuri Albuquerque said:
No, Android is an operating system. Among other things, it works on phones, but it's also been used on tablets. The leap to a console is not a big one. And this console doesn't seem to aim to use the current games (not that they'd be hard to translate into whatever controller it's using), but make new ones.Eric the Orange said:
Interesting idea to say the least. Given that phones are due to be more capable than current consoles in a year or two this may just be the right time to launch something like this. A console won't have miniaturization needs, nor a need for a touch screen, so the hardware might actually be profitable.