I still am unclear, is this thing streaming games ala Onlive, or playing them direct locally?
The games actually looked pretty good to me at first, but oin a bigger screen they do exhibit weakness. But still, you can really see diminishing returns here cause they dont actually look too horrible, despite the box possessing I'm guessing <1/20 the power of a PS4 or X1.
That said, I think Chromecast is one of the real problems here. Why spend $99 for this (excluding the games aspect) with Chromecast out there? Have to think Google was disruptive and smarter there.
Another big problem as Gaffers keep mentioning is the controller being sold separately instantly means it probably wont be supported enough.
And yeah, the chipset seems disappointing also. I guess we can be glad the $300 price point was bunk tho.
I'm going to assume they'll keep updating it every year though. So the weakling chipset shouldn't be a problem forever.
Overall the Android consoles in a way continue to establish a beachhead, but I dont think they can challenge the niche the box consoles serve with their $100 million budget games aimed at younger males just yet.
Also, it's kind of sad to me Amazon coopted probably the most compelling use of $150 Kinect with probably a 50 cent microphone in the remote (voice search). Seems like probably a smarter approach.
Really the sole thing that kills it for me is the lack of a more cutting edge chipset. It's always about power, I have been saying this for so many years.
Definitely seems like a ill fated tweener device from a gaming perspective. Which is the problem that befalls all these Android consoles so far.
I'd like to see one with a cutting edge chipset, $99 or less with controller, open, very emulation friendly, and with it's own high production value 1st party games as well. Pretty tall order though, especially now that Amazon seems out of the running.
