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News Amazon readying Android console

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Meanmotion, 12 Aug 2013.

  1. Meanmotion

    Meanmotion bleh Moderator

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  2. barny2767

    barny2767 What's a Dremel?

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    Looks like everyone wants to make some quick cash from android consoles.

    How many of these will have a more powerful version in 6-12 months and slowly force people to upgrade by stopping new game from coming out on the older console saying there's performance issues.
     
  3. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Well, I don't know about anyone else, but you've just described Ouya's business model to a T.
     
  4. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    Seems odd that people say Android devices lack games, as there are around 300 available.
     
  5. edzieba

    edzieba Virtual Realist

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    There are likely more than 300 available. However, the majority are designed to by played on small touchscreens, not on a large screen at a distance with a controller. And even for the ones that are control-scheme agnostic, they were made as mobile games. They're made to be played in short segments of instant-gratification, not over longer periods as you would with a sit-down console.

    When you try and turn basic minigames with a handful of gameplay mechanics into full-fledged games, you get the Wii. That worked once, but people are wise to it now (e.g. the total failure of the WiiU, Ouya, etc).

    It may just be a case of someone breaking the catch 22 (no games because no successful Android consoles, no successful Android consoles because no games), but the Ouya was ideally placed to break this and has still failed to gain significant traction.
     
  6. schmidtbag

    schmidtbag What's a Dremel?

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    I agree entirely.

    What you described is where Nvidia's Shield has really separated itself as an android console - they acknowledged the fact that many games REQUIRE touch screens. The only problem is (unless I'm mistaken) it doesn't seem nvidia did anything to fix the problem with portrait-oriented games. Android does have an app that lets you force an orientation, but it can look ugly at times.


    Android overall makes a pretty terrible TV console OS, and an even worse PC OS. While many people hate the Modern/Metro interface, I personally think it's a good merge between a PC and phone/tablet interface. I feel where MS should be credited the most is trying to unify every platform to operate similarly to give the most comfortable user experience. Apple obviously didn't even try, and Google never made a desktop OS. Right now I'd say Canonical is MS's main competitor, as they're trying to take the same approach with Ubuntu. Personally, I think Canonical will win, as they have an incomparable advantage on the ARM side of things. Also, Ubuntu being a free and open source platform is an advantage to OEMs.
     
    Last edited: 12 Aug 2013
  7. edzieba

    edzieba Virtual Realist

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    Personally, I think Nvidia's big mistake with the shield was, if not having Android installed at all, at least having it as a prime advertised feature. It's a local-network remote viewer for PC games (a'la the WiiU's much praised remote display pad feature) that just happens to have an on-board OS that can emulate stuff if you happen to be outside your local network (or don't have a sufficiently large pipe to tunnel in remotely). This has resulted in a lot of bad publicity, essentially boiling down to people who have no idea the remote play feature even exists complaining that it's a fairly overpriced android phone which can't make calls and they will stick to their existing smartphone with a controller clipped to it thankyouverymuch (and without the remote play, that would be pretty much correct), with Nvidia's marketing doing little to help.
     
  8. schmidtbag

    schmidtbag What's a Dremel?

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    Hmm you make a very interesting point. I was ready to disagree until I read your whole post.

    But, while I don't know exactly how the remote play feature works, I do know it's basically a console-centric VNC. The Raspberry Pi could handle a task like that. Considering Shield has (IIRC), the processing power and graphics power of PS3, it isn't surprising that Nvidia wanted to point out that Shield is fully capable of playing games too. But, considering tablets/phones and Nintendo DS dominate mobile gaming today, Nvidia will not succeed if they attempt to start from scratch - they aren't a household name (technically they are but I'm sure the average person you talk to has no idea they exist). Using and advertising Android lets customers know what the system will be compatible with.
     
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