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Google buys Android controller manufacturer Green Throttle Games
While the developer closed near the end of 2013, Google confirmed that it just acquired the "parts and labor" as well as two co-founders of Green Throttle Games this week. PandoDaily reported that Green Throttle Games may be an asset for Google in the set-top TV box business. Green Throttle Games is the developer of the Atlas controller and Arena app for Android, which combine to turn any Android device into an HDTV-connected game console. One of the company's founders is Charles Huang, co-creator of the Guitar Hero franchise. There's no confirmation on whether Huang is among the Green Throttle Games employees that are joining Google, though he will retain the rights over the Green Throttle business. [Image: Green Throttle Games]
Guitar Hero veterans form interactive fitness studio, Blue Goji
Charles and Kai Huang, founders of original Guitar Hero producer RedOctane, are venturing into another aspect of the physical gaming industry – exercise. Blue Goji is an "interactive fitness company" that aims to make cardio exercise a social experience with games and by tracking individual work-out goals on mobile devices. Blue Goji will attach to smartphones and tablets on treadmills, elliptical machines and stationary bicycles, specifically. The team is accepting developer applications. Charles Huang is also CEO and co-founder of Green Throttle, a peripheral company announced in November focused on bringing smartphone games to the big screen. Now that Chales Huang has "blue" and "green" covered, we're looking forward to his next venture, "Pink Elephant."
Green Throttle Games Atlas and Arena hands-on (video)
Amid Nintendo's latest piece of kit and the buzz for the next generation of home consoles, a quiet voice is whispering in the consumer's ear: Android, it says. Between dual-analog gamepads, crowd funded hardware and hardcore gaming tablets, Google's mobile OS is gaining ground among gamers. It certainly has Guitar Hero co-creator Charles Huang's attention -- he's teamed up with Matt Crowley and Karl Townsend (who both had a hand in building various Palm devices) to create Green Throttle Games, an outfit that joins the ever-growing legion of firms out to convert your Android device into a full fledged gaming console. How's it work? We dropped by their Santa Clara offices to find out. %Gallery-171176%
Guitar Hero co-creator gets down with new peripheral gig, Green Throttle
Co-creator of the Guitar Hero franchise Charles Huang is stepping into the gaming-peripheral business once again, this time with a mobile-to-TV app and controller under a new company, Green Throttle Games. Green Throttle hopes to turn smartphone games into big-screen experiences by connecting mobile devices directly to HDTVs, playable on wireless, Bluetooth controllers via the Green Throttle Arena App.Green Throttle consists of Huang, former Palm Pre lead Matt Crowley and previous Palm Pilot electrical engineer Karl Townsend. The whole idea seems to take the Ouya idea one step further in terms of hardware, eliminating the need for a new console while still hosting downloadable, big-screen games. Of course there's no word yet if games on Green Throttle will be free as they are on Ouya, but the company is developing games in-house and today opens the SDK to third parties.
Report: RedOctane founders staying with Activision
Though music game pioneer RedOctane may have all but evaporated in the recent round of Activision layoffs, it seems that the driving force behind it, founders Kai and Charles Huang, will remain with the publisher, according to a report from Develop. Though they're not fleeing, we've been given no hints as to what the Huangs will be doing now at Activision. Ever the optimists, we breathlessly (and no doubt foolishly) await a console follow-up to In the Groove.
