Zeebo heading to Brazil in May, India and Russia next year, China in 2011

We've talked about the Tectoy-backed Zeebo before, but now we've got a little more insight into its plan of attack straight from its presentation at this week's Game Developers Conference. The Qualcomm-powered, 3G-equipped game console is heading to Brazil first a little earlier and cheaper than initially anticipated -- it'll launch in May for the US equivalent price of $200, about one-third the cost of buying a Wii locally. It'll come bundled with a handful of titles and give you the option of download the original Quake and a few others for free. All the rest will presumably fall under that US $3 to $13 price range they announced in November. Following that, expect it to show up in Mexico later this year, India next year, and Eastern Europe sometime in the middle of 2010. China is expected to follow sometime in 2011. No word yet on when or if the company's planning to try its luck in other regions.

[Adoniteking @ Mar 24th 2009 1:29AM]

Here's my number when you realise your mistake -
INSOLVENCY HOTLINE: [phone] DOOM(ED)

national and international rates apply

We dont ask for nothing less than an AIG's executive bonus

[Haikibutsu @ Mar 24th 2009 1:29AM]

Looks like a knockoff of the Wii and Classic Controller

[stephen @ Mar 24th 2009 1:53AM]

more of an even more underpowered game cube in a wii case

[Gerard @ Mar 24th 2009 3:14AM]

I'm hoping somebody at XDA-Developers rips those games and ports it to the Xperia.

[tekd @ Mar 24th 2009 4:01PM]

lol, so because it's a box the console design is knockoff of the wii?
The controller isn't very original, but the console doesn't look like a wii knockoff anymore than it looks like an NES knockoff.

[shravan @ Mar 24th 2009 1:30AM]

Is there any chance these games will somehow be ported to play on phones running the same chipset ? If it can run on a console that uses it I'm assuming that it wont be long before the same games are on the phone.

[stephen @ Mar 24th 2009 1:58AM]

it's not about the processor, it's about the motherboard (logic board) and how it is configured, this thing will have several different chipsets then the xperia one, and even if they did work out those issues the controls would be next to useless on any phones keyboard, adding to that the games aren't very good in the first place, pick yoursele up a ds lite and it will be ten times better (or even an ipod touch or psp)

[PW @ Mar 24th 2009 1:42AM]

People should note that this is intended for Brazil, where you can't just pick up a $200 Xbox 360 from Kmart. They have some pretty oppressive taxation. It's designed to fill a market gap, rather than compete with the Big Three on US soil, and it fits the bill perfectly. I think it's an awesome product.

[stephen @ Mar 24th 2009 1:50AM]

great so a game console for poor country's, in other words turning a poor country into a poorer one from turning even more kids into fat zombies instead of contributers to the economy

[Uncontrol @ Mar 24th 2009 1:58AM]

god damn you're dumb

[Romequez @ Mar 24th 2009 9:10AM]

The idea of a download only console seems like the inevitable future for all systems. It's just the idea of purchasing deleted games that bug me. Hopefully their is a solution for accidental erasures. It's not like game consoles never have defects.

[Nick8708 @ Mar 24th 2009 2:20AM]

It'll probably be similar to how Microsoft does it (and I'm assuming Sony and Nintendo as well). You don't purchase the game, but the right to download the game. That's why it's easy to redownload a deleted game and also what makes it possible to transfer from one account to another; you just transfer the game rights.

[JohnTitor @ Mar 24th 2009 2:06AM]

They've got a surprising amount of support, Some version of Need for Speed, and Prey, the iPhone/n-gage version of Crash Nitro Kart, even Sonic Adventures
Sega had a lot of success in Brazil with Genesis, so maybe Sonic/Crazy Taxi makes sense

[Noah @ Mar 24th 2009 2:11AM]

Interesting idea. Exclusively non-physical media...in that respect its more advanced than the other consoles. I don't think that the next PS, Xbox, or Wii will do this, due to size of full games, but its certainly possible for the PSP and DS. Games downloaded over 3G (or 4G?) exclusively.

[digitallysick @ Mar 24th 2009 2:12AM]

I hope the games are free...

[nighttime__ @ Mar 24th 2009 2:17AM]

"No discs or cartridges here, all games are downloaded from an online store over 3G, which is not only convenient but also a move intended to thwart software piracy."

No.

[John @ Mar 24th 2009 2:12AM]

I think the real news here is that a Wii is $600 in brazil... is a PS3 over $1000?

[alvaroaze @ Mar 24th 2009 3:16AM]

wii + wii sports = $1000
ps3 160gb + uncharted = $1200
360 60gb + pgr4 + too human = $1100

these are the prices in stores. you can find it much cheaper if you buy it in other places. but then there is no warranty.

[nikster @ Mar 24th 2009 2:16AM]

at $200? pass. nothing against brazil but if the import duties there push the Wii to $600 then the price is not representative for what it will cost in a normal country. brazil needs to get rid of those duties asap, i mean come on, what a rip off.

this sounds to me as if it needed a 3G subscription too. #fail.

[Zeta @ Mar 24th 2009 1:29PM]

Actually the 3G is free, can't you read? My God, what is this world coming to. People, READ the article before you post your half-witted ideas.

[Stevemax @ Mar 24th 2009 8:51AM]

Consoles are taxed as "gambling equipment" here, which is a ~90% import tax over the cost of the product plus shipping from the factory. Add to that the ~50% local taxes that apply to every product (that apply over the price of the product + shipping from factory + import taxes + national shipping, and some of them apply over other taxes) and the profit for local sellers (they need a high profit margin due to the ridiculous expense for having employees) then you get those ridiculous values.

[JohnnyCaraveo @ Mar 24th 2009 3:07AM]

eeewWWwwwwww..... Mommy WHAT IS IT?!!

[anus1220 @ Mar 24th 2009 2:26AM]

i remember reading the article about this in around june. sounded promising back then and promising still now. but the 200$ is pushing it.
plus india's 3g is a piece of sh!t, hopefully it will be better by 2010

[Cyber Demon @ Mar 24th 2009 2:36AM]

eeehh

At the moment, I'm a lot more interested in this:
http://kotaku.com/5181300/onlive-makes-pc-upgrades-extinct-lets-you-play-crysis-on-your-tv

According to the article, that console may be significantly cheaper than the Wii as well. Soooooo I dunnooo

[ballz of steel @ Mar 24th 2009 2:57AM]

So... Is this Phantom II?

[Maximun2k10 @ Mar 24th 2009 3:13AM]

I'll give 1 month, and all the games will be available in the torrent sites...

Brasil don't know the word legal, and yes, i wrote Brasil with "S"...

I remember, the first time I saw a "legal" copy of windows, was in 2003, the year that I moved to USA...

Looks like a good idea, but I'm not sure if the download system will be able to hold the piracy...

[DarkLight @ Mar 24th 2009 4:30AM]

Everyone please visit that site but removing the referrer part

...just to hurt his feelings

[Calebe @ Mar 24th 2009 5:51AM]

This is... quite embarassing. Makes us Brazilians look like a bunch of savages. It's true, though: one wouldn't have to ransack the local gadget shops in order to find a brand new Genesis -- or even a NES. Software piracy is completely pervasive here; an issue that alas, local authorities don't seem to care much about.

[Joao Marlicelo @ Mar 24th 2009 9:39AM]

hi, i am a Brazilian and have to say that my country lives in some crazy paranoia where everything except books is taxed at least with a fee of 60% the product prize. for videos games the taxes are even worst. the idea behind this law is to foster national industry and to control the flow of dollars in/out of the country. so, a playstation 3 here costs R$ 2.500, which is about 5 times the minimal wage. our country is an fantasy island, without any clear industrial planning. in this scenario, i believe this "zeebo" might have a shot.

[Lombardi @ Mar 24th 2009 9:48AM]

This console is crap. I m from brazil, and here we can buy playstation 2 for the same price as this console, and all the games are available for $5 cause they are all piracy copies... Its very hard to buy original copy of games in brazil.

Play2 wops the ass of this zeebo... All zeebo games are old ones or crapier versions .And the zeebo games won’t be free... You will have to pay about $30.
This is crap, doesn’t mater how you spin this.