The journey of the Android consoles it's being spotty, but some manufacturers want to try their luck where other pioneers failed. Brands want to be present in a business that could not only be beneficial through the sale of equipment but also through the sale of content. Manufacturers and software companies move cautiously but with speed in this business, which brings us several headlines in the last week.
The keys to this idea of bringing mobile games to the living room are that the quality of these is increasingly closer to that of traditional consoles, so that consumers could better accept them, and that the benefits of the sales of the titles are very juicy.
The solutions to have digital content in the living room are living a real revolution and ideas of the Media Center or Set Top Box evolving in different directions.
The pioneers in Android consoles
As we say, the Taiwanese join the journey of a path that others started. OUYA and GameStick were pioneers in this field and, after a fairly generalized enthusiasm, it seems that the projects are not assured of their survival. The problems are structural: lack of universality, order management problems, slowness in conflict resolution, etc ...
Nvidia and its Project SHIELD they are having good numbers. Although his proposal is very different and seems to attack the portable console more than the living room solutions such as PlayStation or Xbox.
Mobile makers jump on the bandwagon: ASUS and Huawei
Other manufacturers have already presented a solution closer to the OUYA-type console, that is, a box and a remote control.
This is the case of AsusTek that for weeks has been giving clues that it works in one that would come to be called ASUS GameBox. In the middle of the week he passed by Bluetooth SIG to obtain their certification, which indicates that we are in a final phase of product development. In addition, he leaves us this photo of his command that reminds us a lot of that of the large consoles.
It is not the first time we have seen this team leaving a trail. He also went through the AnTuTu benchmark test leaving good results and details on its technical specifications, which include a chip Nvidia Tegra 4 and 2GB of RAM.
With a very similar idea, Huawei TRON, presented at CES 2014, will also choose Nvidia Tegra 4 as a partner and has developed an Android fork where to sell the titles and keep the benefits without sharing with Google.
The greats in the content sales business are not standing still
The other side of the coin is in those companies that have so far collected most of the profits from the sale of video games for mobile devices. Those on the block have their Apple TV and they seem to be somewhat out of this fight because of the little transfuguismo that there is from their platform. Therefore, the fight is more on the side of Android.
Amazon They have shown signs of working on their own Android-based solution. We do not have as much information as others, although it is rumored that could cost less than 300 euros. Just today, yesterday the first photo of what would be his command and we can see some buttons dedicated to the control of a media player, so the views are broader.
As we indicated before, the victory of these teams could affect the sale of Google Play video games. Perhaps for this reason, Google has acquired Green Throttle Games, with a view to launching its living room solution that would start with the advantage of not having to pay twice for the same game, if we are Android users.
Another weapon that is already in operation and from which they are surely learning a lot for this business is chromecast. Although initially thought as a tool to bring digital content by streaming to your television, the video game industry is also evolving in that direction. The future seems to bring highly demanding games whose processing will occur on a server far from our home and which we will receive on our screen. by streaming. This option removes potential quality barriers for mobile games.
Source: Bluetooth SIG