Hasta La Gadget!

Just when you thought that the dust had settled at the recently concluded E3 2013 event at Los Angeles, California, along comes Mad Catz’ Android-powered M.O.J.O. micro console which is touted to deliver the mobile Android gaming experience to those of you who have also invested a huge chunk of your spare change to bring home a big-screen TV in order to make your living room keep up with the times. It is said that the M.O.J.O. micro console is capable of packing in the kind of 3D gaming performance that one would not expect in such a tiny box, where it will also establish a direct link to digital storefronts such as Google Play and the Amazon Appstore.

Darren Richardson, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz Interactive, Inc., did share his thoughts on what M.O.J.O. might be able to deliver in the future, “M.O.J.O. is basically a supercharged smart phone with no screen that plugs into your flat screen TV to bring the living room experience to mobile gaming. M.O.J.O. is designed to interact seamlessly with our GameSmart controllers, mice, keyboards and headsets, in fact, the entire eco-system of gaming peripherals. We also want M.O.J.O. to be a truly open platform. People are already comfortable buying games from Google Play, Amazon, TegraZone or any other retailer of their choice. They play those games on their phones and tablets already, and with M.O.J.O., they will be able to play them in the living room at no additional cost. The same approach applies to movies, music and any other digital media. Our focus is on providing the best hardware configured for performance, not forcing people to buy content from us.”

Obviously, it remains to be seen whether the likes of Mad Catz’s efforts in the home console market will bear fruit eventually as the M.O.J.O. rolls out to the targeted markets, considering how the Sony PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One from Microsoft look set to take center stage among high powered consoles in the living room, with Nintendo’s Wii U apparently picking up the scraps from the main table once those two have duked it out with one another in a battle royale.

Press Release
[ Mad Catz M.O.J.O. Android gaming console copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

In keeping with its propensity toward acronymed products, Mad Catz today showed off its F.R.E.Q. 4D headphones. The peripherals are notable for a couple of reasons: first is that the company dumped the line’s mic arm for an internal version — without, the company promises, sacrificing sound quality. Even more notable are the included ViviTouch actuators, which bring rumbling feedback directly to your ears, so you can feel those explosions where it really counts.

We tried the headphones on, and while they were pretty comfortable, we can’t say that we were particularly impressed with the promised rumbling delivered via a bass test. Perhaps it was the sound being used — or that the headphones are still in beta — but ultimately we didn’t feel all that much. We’re sure Mad Catz will have that figured out for the final version — if not, however, they may just serve as cool-looking head massagers.

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

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We shoved our way through the floor-opening scrum and made a bee-line to Mad Catz’s booth at E3 this morning, after catching word of the peripheral maker’s new M.O.J.O. Android gaming console, a box the company promises will be the most powerful in its class when it arrives this holiday season. The rep we spoke with wouldn’t talk specific specs on the thing — in fact, the company assures of that those are still in the works, and while it doesn’t actually know itself, it promises to blow the competition (*cough* OUYA) out of the water. While everything’s still in beta at the moment, things seem to be working all right. We played a quick round of Riptide, and things went swimmingly (well, save for the fact that we’re not all that great at Riptide).

Also a bragging point is the relative openness of it all, eschewing the walled-garden approach to give users direct access to the Google Play and Amazon app stores, so you’re good to go with the games you’ve already purchased, and while Mad Catz may not be working directly with most of the game makers, it’s promising compatibility via open standards. As for the box itself, it’s not a bad looking object. It’s palm-sized and extremely light, with a bit of an angular, beveled appearance and the company’s scratch-marked logo along the top in red (as well as a few accidental scuffs on it shiny surface).

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

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Mad Catz CEO Darren Richardson may have already let slip about the forthcoming Android M.O.J.O. console, but now it’s been made official. The firm stopped short of giving us all the specifications, but we can tell you that it supports Bluetooth 4.0, and will ship with the company’s GameSmart C.T.R.L.R. wireless GamePad. Thanks to the images, we also get a clue at some of the connectivity, which includes two regular USB ports, one micro-USB, an HDMI out, headphone connector and microSD slot. The wedge-like device is out there in the wild at E3, so we’ll be sure to give it the full hands-on once it’s spotted in its natural habitat.

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So, what with E3 just over the horizon, we’re expecting a bunch of gaming news. But a new contestant in the Android gaming market? From an established gaming hardware maker? Well, apparently so, according to Mad Catz CEO Darren Richardson who announced “Project M.O.J.O” in a recent earnings call. Calling it an Android “micro console,” Richardson claims it’s like a supercharged smartphone, without a display, that you plug into a flatscreen TV. Richardson was also keen to stress that it’s all about hardware performance, and will be open platform (rather than selling content). There are no details about specification at this stage, but M.O.J.O is likely to be the fruit of a recent NVIDIA partnership, and will be the centerpiece of Mad Catz’s own GameSmart products, which ensures a slew of peripherals and controller options. This partnership also likely means Tegra Zone compatibility, and therefore games from launch. For now we’ll have to sit and wait, but it looks like Android gaming is about to step up a gear.

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Via: Things Micro