Google Going into Gaming
When the vision of a low-cost, flexible gaming console open to anyone who with a dream of developing, a large number of people flocked to stand behind it. It brought about the birth of the Ouya, the Android-based, hackable bit of hand-sized hardware that was released this week with reasonable success. Though the Ouya itself still has quirks to be worked out, its story alone ought to have reminded the corporate world of those things which the core of the gaming crowd has always supported – the freedom for anyone to choose and create.
However, the Ouya might not be the sole Android console on the market for too long. In a Wall Street Journal report it has been revealed that Google is developing an Android-based gaming console of its own. Google’s Android has been long marked as the more free-for-development of the two major portable-device operating systems on the market as it sports far fewer release restrictions than Apple’s iOS.
With the giant’s knack for innovation and penchant for work done well, it’s easy for the imagination to runaway when it starts pondering what a Google console could perform. With resources, time, and experience the creators of the Ouya lacked, it could offer far more finesse and improved capabilities. With the Google Android console, I could wake up on a Saturday morning and turn it on to patrol the countryside on Winifred, my soon-to-be Minecraft horse, before making my way over to Liberty City. After a fulfilling rampage on Staunton Island, I would leave my living-room to take shower but return a short while later to find the easy-over eggs with french toast and freshly squeezed orange juice the console had made me for breakfast, as well as a triple-A title on the TV screen. I would then proceed to sit on the comfortable, leather couch which it had somehow procured for me overnight before kicking up my heels and waiting for it to deliver me a hazelnut-creamed coffee.
All Android day-dreams aside, what do you think? Could the titan company bring life and innovation to the somewhat locked and stagnant market that gaming (particularly console gaming) has become? Or, will this hardware push (possibly the product of Google’s proud need to compete with Apple’s hardware division) fall short when it comes time to meet the market?