Google has a new gaming console

http://www.google.com/nexus/player/

 

Only 8GB of storage. They must be expecting everything to be kept online. It better be cheap.

 

From the looks of it, I would say they expect this to be a box for streaming to, a chromocast with MOAH POWWAH. I can't see it having any issue with 1080p.

It might also be a bit early to say it's a gaming console since the controller is sold separately.

 

While it may not be the primary focus, a fair portion of the page is dedicated to that controller.

 

It is kind of mixed messages to say the controller is important, but not important enough to throw one in the box.

 

Why? I expect it'll be in a sub-$200 price point, and assuming the controller costs somewhere in the $50 ballpark including it would make a huge difference to the base pricing. Since most people won't care about it, why make them pay for one? (See also: Consumer response to Xbox One's included Kinect.)

Plus, if it's anything like the Ouya/Amazon Fire TV, you'll optionally be able to use other controllers instead, so again why force people to pay for the first one one?

 

It'll be $99 and the gamepad is $39.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/15/google-nexus-player/

 

Well there you go. Including a controller would increase the price by ~40%.

 

The ouya left a sour taste in my mouth and not to mention that google play had no curation at all. But i have a game i think would work better on the console anyway so i might bother to port it there.

 

What's with google thinking this is new.
Been doing this with my tablet, an hd cable, and am android controller for a while now LOL.

 

Which is kind of my point about it being a game console. It is many other things before it is a machine for playing games.

 

That discussion has been had many times before. Just because the tech could already do it doesn't mean that's what people were doing. Everyday consumers typically don't think like programmers/engineers/tech junkies.

 

Hopefully this will actually come out in Australia unlike the Fire TV.

 

Still, we won't get Netflix. *Sighs*

 

Looks nice. Especially controller. Knowing Google they might have better support for Android games.

 

Looks good just like the Fire TV. I'll probably port my game to this platform as well. In general the features are almost identical to the Fire TV so seems like a "me too" device. That being said Google play store is larger so that's good (and in more countries). Fingers crossed that apple goes this same route tomorrow with an apple TV refresh. Most rumors point to it not happening but it's still disappointing that I can't run apps from the store on the apple TV.

 

No thanks i don't watch TV and you will do a better deal if you buy a real console like PS3 or xbox 360 with hundred of real big games instead for very low prices if your goal is gaming. Can be good perhaps for kids.

 

Yeah they are a way better deal then $140.

 

Are you saying that PS3 and Xbox have cheap games? Here in Aus a newly released AAA title on console instores is just under $100. If you want gaming and cheap with big games, you would go with PC.

 

He's talking about last gen not current gen (PS3/Xbox 360) not PS4/Xbox one. Strictly for gaming picking up a used system/used games you could probably do so for around the same price point and I would probably in general agree the quality of games would be better and a larger library ATM.

I think the amount of people that don't watch any TV are probably a minority though and these are really combo devices. Once you have the device and if you are into gaming (regardless if you own consoles or not) I think browsing the app store for free/cheap games would be common. It's not really an exclusive do one or the other proposition. The actual purchase of the device will probably be marketed as a roku competitor that can do more but once you have it I think a good chunk of people will play some games on it (at least the remote games). A smaller set will purchase the controller but if its like the Fire TV many existing controllers will work.

 

Ah, I misunderstood then, I apologize.

The Android market hasn't really appealed to me in terms of using a controller. I saw the nVidia Shield and realized 'What are you actually going to be able to play on it'.

A agree that the market for this sort of thing has got to be fairly small.

 

Nvidia, Amazon and Google backing essentially the same thing? People are also thinking Apple might be coming out with a similar product tomorrow.... A tiny market, I'm sure.

 

Things like this piss me off. What a waste of materials, 1GB of RAM are you f'n kidding me?? At least base should be 4GB of RAM with either manual and or upgraded packages for more power. This is just for simple low end mobile games. If Google is already trying to create a market for a console they need to put up the bucks or just make a very simple arcade system like the ones sold at Target with a joystick for $10...

I want a company to get into the console wars and blow Microsoft and Sony from their sh**ty business model. Google or Apple has that power but making something like this is just a waste of time for them and money. It makes me sad that they don't have brains to create and follow through on something like this the right way.

If Google created a console with the right specs, if it costed $200-300 I would buy it as I know Android will be running the OS and you can root and really personalize the console experience, something Xbox and PS you cannot do on.

 

Be glad you don't live in my country :

South Africa doesn't get steaming services - doesn't get google devices either - and most sadly : doesn't appear on the list of merchant countries Google has approved to sell items in the Play store.

 

yes big companies ALWAYS go after the tiny markets.

 

Sheesh, I take back my whining. Not even the Play store....

See with the whole, need someone to come out and blow the rest out of the market. Steam COULD have done this if they played their cards right. But they didn't. They made too many different types of what should have been a universal console and then decided to build it around a form of Linux that wasn't supported by 75% of the games on steam. They should've used Steam's already very 'Consoley' Big Picture mode and offered all games digitally to console owners at the sale prices they do now, they then would possibly have taken off.

 

>only 1080p
>almost 2015

>no

 

I doubt 4k has made a big enough impact to make it worth it yet.

 

Hmm. It's another Ouya But from a much bigger company.

They could've at least put a circle of cork or something on the top of the device, so you can stand your beverage on it ;-)

 

I second the people saying they wished for something beefier. I think we have enough consoles to play mobiles games on your TV. I wish someone else would step up and make a proper gaming console. Something open like Ouya would be nice

 

Nexus Player

• 1.8 GHz Quad-core Intel Atom Processor (No Unity games)
• PowerVR Series 6 GPU
• 1 GB RAM
• 8 GB Storage Space
• Micro USB 2.0 port
• Wifi
• Android Lollipop
• $99 USD

Amazon FireTV

• 1.7 GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Krait 300
• Adreno 320 GPU
• 2 GB RAM
• 8 GB Storage Space
• USB 2.0 port (for accessories or developer support, no storage)
• Wifi, Ethernet, Bluetooth
• Android Jellybean
• $84 USD

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8409/unity-adds-native-x86-support-for-android

 

It's very stylish. Has a way better chance than the Ouya. I'm keeping my eye on this one! Thanks for the link.
Gigi

 

It's not just a competitor to the Ouya. It also clearly targets the Amazon Fire TV and Roku 3. It should be a strong competitor, too. From what I can tell, it also does everything the Chromecast does, too. I'm seriously considering one just for general entertainment purposes.

 

Selected developers have access to the x86 version today, and it'll be made available to everyone else by the end of the year.

 

$140 is a pretty good price-point for a gift from Santa. At least that's what my wife said
Gigi

 

Likely with Unity 5.

 

Does it? A beefed up chromecast that is also a game system and supports netflix/amazon/hulu and web browsing ... for $99. Might be time to retire the PS3 .

Gigi

 

You can buy the Nexus tablets in South Africa, they just don't sell the phones there.

To sell items in the Play store simply register for an offshore company and bank account, there are tons of services online that can set this up for you.

 

Most apps don't support gamepad controller input, so it would be pretty pointless having access to all the games in the store unless you found a compatible touch controller.

My guess for the Nexus Player store is that only apps that use their SDK and follow best practices etc will be allowed on this store.

 

It would be much simpler if I did not have to do any of that I was reporting on the problem as it is.

 

I'd really be curious to see benchmarks on this thing. Seems to me that they stepped down the specs from the ADT-1 hardware that they were giving away at Unite?

 

In the Nexus Player's case I expect it will be very similar to the fire TV in which you'll have to explicitly publish to the TV (which also means you've implemented remote or controller support). My point about the store being larger was more to do with markets compared to Amazon's store. Existing apps on any of these platforms generally at a minimum require a little rework for overscan and controllers to be playable on the TV and that doesn't happen overnight. However, if a fixed percentage in both cases took the plunge obviously the same percent of a larger number is still larger by that factor.

That being said Amazon has had a few months and is approaching about 400 games on the TV and has around 85,000 games on its tablets (~.005%) so that number is quite low. The google play store is around 6 times larger so if that percentage holds it's still quite low.

I will say there is a bright side to everything though it has been refreshing to see the analytics on my game with no marketing and it's really just a simple game not that great yet. It's been out on most platforms for around 2 months but on amazon for only a little over a month and yet 41% of my users are on Fire TV. It reminds me of the early days of the other app stores when doodle jump was #1. There is a plus side to being early to party. It certainly makes me want to get my large update to the game with online play early in the life cycle of the nexus player to see if I can get better traction when the game is better and more fun and polished.

 

Just hollow out your ouya and you have a nice cup holder

 

The page says:

So I have to think that it's saying you can cast *to* it, just like a Chromecast.

 

Code (csharp):

1. (GoogleCast)this.App;

One line of code, done

 

You know Google, it was pretty cool when you made that nice search engine of yours. And I do dig my free gmail account. But god, could you please stop it already? I don't need Google+, I don't need Google glasses, and I don't need Google Playstation. Please, stop it already.

 

IMO these companies should be going after WiiU setup with lower price or beefier hardware. WiiU setup has way more possibilities than this hockey puck.