Surprise, surprise. The majority of Engadget commenters reject the idea of a system that doesn't have a huge brand name attached, or an app store that constantly crams ads and demos down your throat in an attempt to siphon more of your money off daily.
It's ok though, you kids stick to your heavily locked down corporate consoles and leave the leftfield stuff to the big boys. There's room in the scene for everyone.
You're kind of missing the point here. Games consoles are to play games on. I just can't see any major publishers signing up to make next gen games for this thing. It just isn't going to happen. All you're essentially paying for is a poor value computer, as it doesn't sound like it's got any custom hardware or OS attached. To boot, it's even more expensive than the PS3 was at launch.
I don't think brand has anything to do with it. Look up the Indrema Wiki. This is nothing more than a reheated idea.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad idea. I think that if these guys are confident that can get developers to make games on a brand new platform why not rally developers to do regular Linux games on a regular x86 PC.
What would be the incentive to create games on this? Cheap dev kits? No license fees? To most game deveplers that's a small price compared to the number of consoles on the market. You can make a decent profit if you release an independent game on Nintendo WiiWare, or Xbox Live Arcade, as opposed to a system that runs Linux.
@TheHyena: No offense, but that's exactly the mindset I was referring to. Major publishers? Gaming isn't all about major publishers. Indie and homebrew developers are producing some amazing stuff these days. Some of it gets consumed by millions of people via XBLA and WiiWare. ;-) Some of it never ventures outside Linux circles or other niche communities. It's a big scene, but it doesn't need to revolve around big business.
Products like this one, even if it doesn't last, are just the tip of the iceberg. As for the price, it's just for the initial units. Even the first Pandora dev prototypes cost over $1000.
If it were me, rather than building hardware from scratch, I focus on the OS and game developers, and partner with some low end PC maker from Taiwan, or who is making those new nettop PCs. I would create a streamlined version of Linux, taking a page from MythTV. It wouldn't need to be too high end to sell to the masses. Get rid of the optical drives, put in a 120GB harddrive, and WiFi. Garnish with Bluetooth, and mediacard readers. Sell the box for $200 or less and include a free online service to download games and etc...
Believe me, I like Indie games. Urban Terror is one of my favorite games, and I play it 2+ hours a day on average. It's just that the quantity of quality, complete indie games just isn't enough. I know you say that it's a big scene, but I don't really see much in the way of cool, decent freeware stuff, and a lot of the £5 small house stuff is just puzzle game shovelware. With game development times and costs as high as they are for full length 3D games, or even full length 2D adventure/shooters, it's a hard task for people working for nothing.
Offtopic @ theHyena: UrbanTerror rocks! (well at least that fancy video game thing, please NSA don't kick down my door, my landlord would be sooo, like, totally mad.
The phone has 256MB of RAM and a 1GHz processor, which do the job reasonably well, though the Anna interface will likely leave something to be desired for many smartphone users.
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Surprise, surprise. The majority of Engadget commenters reject the idea of a system that doesn't have a huge brand name attached, or an app store that constantly crams ads and demos down your throat in an attempt to siphon more of your money off daily.
It's ok though, you kids stick to your heavily locked down corporate consoles and leave the leftfield stuff to the big boys. There's room in the scene for everyone.
I hope these guys do well.
You're kind of missing the point here. Games consoles are to play games on. I just can't see any major publishers signing up to make next gen games for this thing. It just isn't going to happen. All you're essentially paying for is a poor value computer, as it doesn't sound like it's got any custom hardware or OS attached. To boot, it's even more expensive than the PS3 was at launch.
I don't think brand has anything to do with it. Look up the Indrema Wiki. This is nothing more than a reheated idea.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad idea. I think that if these guys are confident that can get developers to make games on a brand new platform why not rally developers to do regular Linux games on a regular x86 PC.
What would be the incentive to create games on this? Cheap dev kits? No license fees? To most game deveplers that's a small price compared to the number of consoles on the market. You can make a decent profit if you release an independent game on Nintendo WiiWare, or Xbox Live Arcade, as opposed to a system that runs Linux.
@TheHyena: No offense, but that's exactly the mindset I was referring to. Major publishers? Gaming isn't all about major publishers. Indie and homebrew developers are producing some amazing stuff these days. Some of it gets consumed by millions of people via XBLA and WiiWare. ;-) Some of it never ventures outside Linux circles or other niche communities. It's a big scene, but it doesn't need to revolve around big business.
Products like this one, even if it doesn't last, are just the tip of the iceberg. As for the price, it's just for the initial units. Even the first Pandora dev prototypes cost over $1000.
If it were me, rather than building hardware from scratch, I focus on the OS and game developers, and partner with some low end PC maker from Taiwan, or who is making those new nettop PCs. I would create a streamlined version of Linux, taking a page from MythTV. It wouldn't need to be too high end to sell to the masses. Get rid of the optical drives, put in a 120GB harddrive, and WiFi. Garnish with Bluetooth, and mediacard readers. Sell the box for $200 or less and include a free online service to download games and etc...
@PW
Believe me, I like Indie games. Urban Terror is one of my favorite games, and I play it 2+ hours a day on average. It's just that the quantity of quality, complete indie games just isn't enough. I know you say that it's a big scene, but I don't really see much in the way of cool, decent freeware stuff, and a lot of the £5 small house stuff is just puzzle game shovelware. With game development times and costs as high as they are for full length 3D games, or even full length 2D adventure/shooters, it's a hard task for people working for nothing.
Offtopic @ theHyena: UrbanTerror rocks! (well at least that fancy video game thing, please NSA don't kick down my door, my landlord would be sooo, like, totally mad.