Hasbro's NET JET merges USB controller with online gaming
We've all seen those cheesy kiosks at the mall with some guy trying to sell you a controller with "8,000 games" built right in, which you can plug directly into your television for about three minutes of actual enjoyment, but now Hasbro is hoping to add a shade of respectability to the plug-and-play controller game market with its $24.99 NET JET device. The USB controller plugs directly into your PC (sorry, Mac users), and once you insert your "game card" of choice into the controller, it navigates to an online web portal where the corresponding game is launched and played on your screen. Hasbro offers up a variety of somewhat kid-centric titles at $14.99 apiece, including Marble Blast XP, Kool Kart Racers, Super Soaker Water Fight, and the obligatory SpongeBob SquarePants' Pizza Toss. Ideally, this wouldn't be a bad solution to laptop gaming for your offspring on lengthy road trips, but you should be sure to get a 3G-equipped lappie before taking this out where the WiFi doesn't roam.[Via EverythingUSB]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DiRT @ Feb 1st 2007 8:40AM
$15 a pop for those games?! Are they smoking crack?
SporkRocker @ Feb 1st 2007 9:15AM
Not a bad looking controller...
Paying addition money for a controller to play a game? Forget that. What about drivers for the games and mapping your own controls...
Greedy Hasbro. Shame on you.
MichaelLC @ Feb 1st 2007 9:44AM
So you can't play the game if you're not on-line?
I bet you don't even own the game; you're just buying "access." So if your Interweb is down/don't have high speed, you can't play.
Fabulous idea.
Mike @ Feb 1st 2007 9:55AM
If the games are multiplayer I don't see anything wrong with the games only existing online. If they are not then this is retarded...