News Acer to enter the games market?

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/03/17/acer_to_enter_the_games_market_/1

Maker of PCs and laptops, Acer, is rumored to be entering the games market after the CEO announced plans to create a games machine.

 

Unless Microsoft or Sony leave the console race next-gen, Acer has zero chance of succeeding with this project.

btw spelling mistake

Acer is looking not to develop it's own computer gamers.

 

So they're going for the gaming equivalent of a MCE box? A single-use PC, but aimed towards gaming rather than TV and media?

Don't think it'll work. For a start, I can't see Microsoft being overly happy with whatever they do. If it's going to play PC games, it won't have the "insert disc and play" convenience of a proper console. If it's going to play dedicated Acer-sole games, I think they'd have a very hard time going up against the big three.

 

Would be nice if it were a play all console games console... People would really buy it then

 

i will take it with a bag of salt....

 

any competition is healthy for the market. may not be for the provider, but no negative impact to user to the least.

 

This has been tried before. Does Acer really think they can make it work? They make terrible products as it is.

 

Problem number one: Acer's reputation among Gamers.
Problem number two: What will it be? a Pc? (insane amount of competition there) or a console? (then they would need their own games which would take a long time).
Porblem number three: what gamer would buy a Acer product?

 

Well, will it be an upgradeable console, strictly for gaming?
I can see this working for about 2 minutes.

 

Wong then revealed that Acer is planning to develop an open-standard, PC-based "games machine."

this is just plain WONG!

 

erm like a pc then?

 

What ever happened to that phantom thing

 

can't see this going very far. tbh, the build quality of acer products has never impressed me, and i can't see them being able to pull together a games machine capable of doing the job either.

 

"Problem number three: what gamer would buy a Acer product? "

Bloody good point!

 

It is unusual for me to say this, but I ahve actually been very impressed with my Acer laptop (it is the one in the picture I think). It is 3.5 years old, and can still play CoD4. It has been used heavily, and has lots of scratches and dents, but it still works. I think it must be the only good computer Acer have ever produced but I don't care. It has served me well.

It is nice to see them trying something a bit different here. At least, I hope it will be a bit different

 

This is going to work as well as the Titanic(after it hit the iceberg)

 

Ill second the good acer laptops, mine has been going strong for a good 3 years + now without problem. Their CS is a bit dodgey tho

 

Windows is not specifically mentioned so it could run on Linux variant. That might be interesting.

The problem I see is with the hardware. They have to make it low cost enough at the start but powerful enough to not be quickly outdated - that's a tall order and why consoles typically sell below cost when new. I suspect that won't be so easy to do with an "open-standard, PC-based" machine.

 

If they could get it to sell below cost when new from some kinda of funding from game sales then it would be successful. A lot of people would buy it if it were the best deal for PC gaming on the market. However the chance that existing game developers would want to do such a thing is virtually nil, so I don't see this being successful.
However, wouldn't that be a good idea for the PC Gaming Alliance? I mean there you have members from every aspect of the industry. If they all pulled together and made a standard for PC Gaming sold below cost surely it would benefit them in the long run? It would at least equalize PC with consoles a lot more.
Basically no one company can pull this off, least of all Acer imo.

 

I don't think it'll happen.

The only reason Sony and Microsoft were able to enter the market (remember both Sony & MS entered what were, at their respective times, considered mature markets closed to newcomers) is that they were able to rely on their parent companies so soak up the massive losses involved in developing & selling a new console.

Acer doesn't have that luxury.