June was also a very prolific month for tech-related news: the E3, the WWDC where the brand new iOS and MacOS were presented along with an impressive new Mac Pro. Even Huawei chose this month the enter the crowed place of high-end smartphone manufacturers with its P6: “the world thinest smartphone” (so far).
But today, I will write about gaming. During this year’s E3 we discovered what will be the next generation of gaming console. Some might say that Sony already won the “next-gen war” by presenting a product dedicated for gaming only: the PS4.
But since the introduction of the iPhone with its Appstore or Facebook with its social games, a lot of small games were developed. These small games had so much success that some though that they could also be played on big screens, in the living room. Here is a list of products whose aim at replacing your old dusty PS3/XBox/Wii.
- Ouya is a crowd-founded Android gaming console with a specific SDK (software development kit) for developing games. On Ouya you could play all existing Android game, plus all those that will be developed especially for it, plus streamed game via OnLive.
Moreover Ouya is also trying to be a media center with its partnership with VEVO and XBMC. And it’ll cost you around 99$. The Ouya console recently went to retail stores in US, UK, Canada and is already sold out on Amazon.
- GameStick is Ouya’s main competitor. It is also a crowd-founded Android console, but packed into an USB key and a game controller. It has it’s own SDK and costs 79$. On the other hand, GameStick doesn’t plan to be something else than an Android gaming console.
- NVidia Shield is a portable console running Android that can be plugged into a TV. Its main characteristic is its hardware, one of the most powerful out there.
The goal of Shield is to be able to play all the latest android games plus PC games via streaming, everything for 299$.
- GamePop has a different business model. It is developed by BlueStacks that is a well known Android Emulator for Windows and MacOS. With this gaming console, you should be able to play all Android/iOS games by paying a subscription of 6.99$/month. Here again, its all about gaming.
- MadCatz MOJO is another Android gaming console presented at the last E3. It is built by MadCatz, a manufacturer specialized in gaming peripherals. Unfortunately, few information are available on this product yet, except some press photos.
- And of course, for those who are more into retro-gaming and DIY, there’s the omnipotent Raspberry Pi: How to Build an All-In-One Retro Game Console for $35, the Easy Way
- Last news: According to the Wall Street Journal, even Google is looking to create an Android-based game console
Charles Bonneau
Twitter: @charlesbonneau
Blog: http://blog.cbonneau.me