The Wii U is getting a packaging revamp in time for the holidays, but it may not be enough to save the unprofitable Wii successor in the long run. Starting Nov. 1, the $299 Wii U bundle with the Nintendo Land game will be replaced with a bundle that includes both New Super Mario Bros. […]
Following the original Archos GamePad we first got our hands on back at CES in January, specifications on the Archos GamePad 2 were revealed in a brief product posting on the retailer website HKTDC. Though the product has since been pulled, the details remain showing an increase in memory and a more powerful quad-core processor. […]
Nintendo has unveiled the latest entry into the 3DS family of devices. This one will be arriving as the Nintendo 2DS and as the name would imply, this one is not 3D. The Nintendo 2DS will be available beginning on October 12 and those looking to make a purchase will be able to choose between […]
OUYA is getting closer and closer to it’s public launch next month, and Android emulation service BlueStacks is looking to shake things up at the same time with their new GamePop portable gaming console. It’s a bit different than OUYA, as it uses a subscription for unlimited gameplay, but the price of the console itself is a bit more expensive than the OUYA.
BlueStacks announced that the GamePop console will cost $129, which is just a tad more than the OUYA’s $99 price tag. However, gamers will have to buy all of their games separately with the OUYA, whereas the GamePop will offer a $6.99-per-month subscription for an all-you-can-play buffet of Android titles.
Of course, pre-orders for the new console are ongoing, and from until the end of June, you’ll be able to get the console for free if you’re willing to lay down a full-year subscription on the service, which only costs $83.88. That’s certainly quite the deal if we do say so ourselves, and even though the console will cost more than the OUYA, the subscription model of the GamePop seems rather enticing.
BlueStacks also announced the addition of more games coming to their portable console from three new developers. They weren’t wordy as to what games would making their way to the GamePop, but they did say that these new titles just announced today would cost over $50 if you bought them in the Google Play store, and users will be getting them for free with their subscription.
BlueStacks has already managed to get a handful of popular mobile game developers to partner up with them, including Glu, Halfbrick, and Gameloft. It’s not said exactly how many games will be available at launch, as the team is still working on getting a final count, but it should give OUYA a run for its money. However, we’ll see if the game selection on the GamePop is worth the $6.99 monthly fee. That’s a low price to pay, but that definitely adds up after a couple of years.
VIA: The Next Web
BlueStacks GamePop misses OUYA’s competitive price point is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
We already knew that the GameStick would be supporting XBMC, but PlayJam has announced that they’re partnering up with Pivos to bring the XBMC integration to the portable gaming console. Pivos is an industry player in home entertainment and media products, and PlayJam says that the partnership is good news for both the GameStick and the gamers who will be using it.
However, it seems that XBMC will be available on the GameStick right at launch. Previously, it was said that the console wouldn’t be seeing XBMC support until later in September, but it looks like the partnership with Pivos will eradicate the need to wait, allowing gamers and home entertainment junkies access to XMBC right away.
XBMC stands for “Xbox Media Center,” and it was essentially created for the original Xbox, but has sense been released as an open-source media center platform. It’s available on a wide range of devices, and it can run on Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, and iOS. It’s also available on a handful of set-top boxes like the Boxee Box.
Of course, PlayJam says that the GameStick will still primarily be a portable gaming console, but the added functionality of a home theater media center will no doubt attract a larger niche of users, especially at a price of only $79, which comes with the HDMI dongle and a nifty game controller to go along with it. Developer units will begin shipping out very soon, and the console will be available to the public next month.
GameStick announces partnership with Pivos for XBMC integration is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
It looks like Sony slashing the prices of its PS Vita systems have done it wonders. Sony had cut the price of its PS Vita down to 19,980 yen from 24,980 yen due to its struggling sales. It looked like the 30% price cut worked because Sony saw sales quadruple for the device compared to two weeks ago. The announcement was made by Hiroshi Kawano, President of Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan, while he was doing a presentation for One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2.
It’s good to know that pricing seemed to be the only barrier stopping gamers from buying the device rather than the PS Vita software itself. It would be terrible to see the PS Vita suffer the same horrible sales as its predecessor, the PSP Go. The sales for the PS Vita should equal around 44,000 this week, considering two weeks ago the PS Vita sold somewhere around 11,000 copies. The official sales number won’t be released until tomorrow.
Sony stated that the United States won’t be receiving the same sales cut treatment for its PS Vita systems. Maybe after seeing the success rate that the PS Vita can achieve with a price cut, Sony will change its mind. However, it did state that one of the major reasons for reducing the price of its Japanese PS Vitas was due to Japan’s “current exchange rate”.
Now more Japanese gamers can enjoy the wonders of PlayStation 4 cloud-gaming with their new PS Vita devices. The PlayStation 4 will allow gamers to access all of their games remotely through the PS Vita. So if you’re in a situation where you can’t play your PlayStation 4 in peace, you can just enable remote play for your PS Vita and run off to a different room. Sony is redefining the way games are meant to be played.
[via Gematsu]
PS Vita price cut results in sales quadrupling is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The GameStick is getting ever so closer to getting into the hands of portable gamers around the world. PlayJam, the company behind the Android-powered portable gaming console, has announced that pre-orders for the GameStick are now live, and you can reserve your unit right now for only $79 on GameStick’s website.
While pre-orders are processed on the GameStick website, they’re powered by Amazon, so assuming you already have an Amazon account like everyone else, the checkout process should be rather simple and quick. Aside from the console and the controller, you can also pre-order a dock or a case for $24.99 and $9.99, respectively.
As far as availability is concerned, it seems like we’re looking at a release date of April 30, which is revealed during the checkout process. PlayJam itself says that “pre-ordered devices will ship immediately after fulfillment of the initial Kickstarter run in April,” so the date at checkout seems to be accurate at this point.
However, PlayJam has also noted that Kickstarter backers will receive their units first, so those pre-ordering right now will be placed at the end of the line, so it could be several weeks to several months before pre-orderers receive their consoles. The only question remaining is, will the GameStick outdo the OUYA? Or will it be the other way around?
[via Android Community]
GameStick kicks off pre-orders, reserve now for $79 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
It looks like the OUYA will see an upgrade each year. At the 2013 DICE Summit, OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman said that they want to follow a strategy similar to the mobile industry, where manufacturers release new phones each year. However, instead of releasing a brand-new console each year, the OUYA will get upgraded components at the same price of $99.
Uhrman said that the updated yearly consoles will “take advantage of faster, better processors,” thanks to the decline of component prices every year. However, it seems that the yearly console will get a naming scheme instead of simply remaining the “OUYA.” Uhrman says that each new console will be the “OUYA 2,” OUYA 3,” and so on.
However, Uhrman assures gamers that all games will be compatible with all the consoles, meaning that you don’t have to worry about an older game not working on a newer console. This is certainly great news for gamers, but since the OUYA won’t see a release cycle like all the other gaming consoles, one may worry about futureproofing, and the minute they buy an OUYA, it’ll be obsolete within a year, something that other console gamers don’t need to worry about.
In any case, the OUYA should be a huge it when it release to the public in a few months. In fact, it’s already been a huge hit. The Kickstarter campaign collected almost $8.6 million, absolutely shattering its original goal. This first OUYA comes with a quad-core A9 Tegra 3 clocked at 1.6GHz, so if the company sticks with NVIDIA for future consoles, we could see them move to the Tegra 4 chip that we’ve been hearing a lot about recently.
[via Engadget]
OUYA to release new console every year is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
After OUYA‘s immense Kickstarter success, the company is looking to branch out and go mainstream. The portable Android-powered gaming console will begin selling in select retail stores starting in June. Best Buy, Target, and GameStop will sell the console for $99, the same price that Kickstarter backers have been paying for the device.
The console will also be available online at the company’s website and on Amazon. Of course, though, Kickstarter backers will be the first to get their units. Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman says that Kickstarter backers will receive their consoles in March, while orders from the OUYA website will go out in April, and retail stores will begin selling them in June. You can pre-order the console now through Amazon, Best Buy, or Target.
The console will sell for $99.99, and it’ll come with one controller. An extra controller will cost you $49.99 in retail stores, while getting one on OUYA’s website will only cost $40 shipped. Paying $50 for a controller certainly isn’t outrageous, but it raises some concerns when a controller costs half the price of the console itself. Uhrman says that $49.99 is a “premium price” for a controller, indeed, but she says that the touchpad built into the controller makes up for the cost.
The OUYA console raised more than $8.5 million on Kickstarter and has been taking pre-orders for the consoles on its website. There are over 68,000 consoles that need to be shipped out so far, with potentially even more orders to come no doubt. The tiny Android-powered gaming console is already a huge hit, and we’re pretty excited to see how the OUYA community will grow once the consoles start selling.
[via WSJ]
OUYA to be sold at retail stores starting in June is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
After 31 days of campaigning on Kickstarter, PlayJam (the company behind GameStick) has finished its final day and ended up with a total of just under $650,000 in contributions. The project actually surpassed its $100,000 goal in just two days, and edged past the $500,000 mark with just three days to go. In total, the project ended up with $647,658, over six times the initial goal.
The GameStick is expected to ship to all of its customers by April, and the company just got done making final revisions to the portable gaming console, making the controller a bit more rounded, and adding a microSD card slot to the HDMI dongle. If everything goes as planned, the company expects to ship out its first commercial run by next month.
If you’re still not familiar with GameStick, it’s essentially a game controller with an Android-powered gaming console that’s essentially a HDMI dongle. You plug the dongle into your HDTV and start gaming away. It’s novel concept, and its looking to take on the other Android-powered portable gaming console, the OUYA.
Furthermore, GameStick can also act as a media center of sorts, thanks to XBMC and DLNA support. It’ll be interesting to see how well the little dongle can handle 1080p HD video, but if it does, we’re looking at quite a game-changer for not just the portable gaming market, but also the media center business.
GameStick Kickstarter campaign ends at $647,658 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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