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Amazon's console thing announced...

Abelian

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No mouse support?

:decline:
 

Metro

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Even a lot of 'PC gamers' don't use a mouse anymore. Anyway, this thing is basically...



...with Amazon's brand slapped on it.
 

No Great Name

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I'll stick to my computer. No need to buy anything that my laptop already does anyways (except for possibly any good exclusives).
 

DalekFlay

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Not exactly, it seems like it's being positioned more like a set-top box, with features and price comparable to Roku or Apple TV. It doesn't even come with a controller by default (and also apparently supports generic HID controllers, so you don't even need to use the Amazon one).

It actually strikes me that this is what the XBone should have been, given its stated focus. For all of Microsoft's attempt to sell the actual XBone as a kind of premium STB, a $500 machine with all media streaming apps stuck behind a paywall makes no fucking sense as a home media center, and what it ended up being is an expensive and underpowered console with a gimmicky peripheral. Amazon's product, on the other hand, seems like it might actually have a market, especially with their powerful ecosystem supporting it.

Although the primary difference is that Amazon actually knows how to run a successful consumer-oriented business without trying to fleece its customers at every opportunity, unlike any of the console platform holders.

Great analysis.

When Microsoft started the whole Xbox thing they saw a video game console as an entryway into the living room for the media shit they saw as the future. Of course now you don't need a $500 video game console to introduce consumers to this idea, all you need is a $100 streaming box (or just a modern TV, which has this shit built in, or a regular ass blu ray player which also has it all built in).
 

taxalot

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Codex 2013 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
What happened to Onlive and Gaikai incidentally? I thought these were the future of gaming.
 

SCO

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Let me remind everyone that recently there was a ebook antitrust settlement to the tune of "$.75 for each ebook and over $3.00 for something on the NYT bestseller list" (for US citizens), which was the usual watering down of monopolies well deserved punishment, so you can see what kind of company this is.
 

A user named cat

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Let me remind everyone that recently there was a ebook antitrust settlement to the tune of "$.75 for each ebook and over $3.00 for something on the NYT bestseller list" (for US citizens), which was the usual watering down of monopolies well deserved punishment, so you can see what kind of company this is.
Amazon emailed me to inform that I was credited with a grand total of... $2.92 though I've purchased a lot of ebooks there over the years. I guess many of them didn't qualify.
 

Abelian

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I hope this Amazon Fire device will have better security than the Xbox, which can be bypassed by a 5-year old.

Also, "Amazon Fire", as in the "Amazon rainforest is on fire"? Seriously?
 

Astral Rag

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DarkUnderlord

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Why isn't this shit open source yet? Everyone making exclusive locked-down console shit mother-fuckers.
 

RolePlayer

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Why isn't this shit open source yet? Everyone making exclusive locked-down console shit mother-fuckers.

They make little to no money off the hardware. The entire business model is to make the hardware affordable, then profit on the software. It's a customer supported business model, and any business would be stupid to do it any other way.

Amazon, generally speaking, is one of the best, most customer-oriented businesses in existence. No matter what situation you find yourself doing business with them, it's always a situation where you, the customer, are given good value for your dollar.

Roku 3, Apple TV, etc. go for about $100. This product is competing with those streaming players. As a unique selling proposition, Amazon is taking the gaming part of it really seriously (investing in several established game development studios to make some exclusives, offering a controller, and using better hardware that can play modern games).
 

DalekFlay

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Watching Giant Bomb's look at the Amazon machine and the games look like shiiiiiit and then even run poorly anyway. Looked like drops to the low teens in framerate for their big exclusive, which is also a bad version of Sanctum.

Pretty lame showing if they're really behind this thing.
 

Metro

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Their target audience isn't going to know the difference. They probably don't even know what framerate means.
 

SCO

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Consoles are not open source for a very simple reason:
they don't want you to be able to run code they don't approve on them

All new consoles use public key crypto to build a 'trusted' computing base where only code signed and encrypted by their precious precious and secret private keys will be able to run on the hardware.

This not only makes open source emulation impossible (because they aren't interested in signing test programs code so that coders can run tests on their api/hardware), but also prevents all modifications of commercial games. Unauthorized translations, hacks, server side drm bypassing. Also prevents all unauthorized programs (so they call all be sold on their portal get it?)

It's the future on the pc too (and the dumbfucks flocking to steam are only accelerating it).


It really is treacherous computing
 
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taxalot

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It's entirely different.

Computers can copy files, and edit files. As long as they don't shitlock the root access out of you, and I don't see this happening, computers are still going to be computers.

Games and software that only run on cloud based services, on the other hand...
 

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