GameStick Android-based gaming console has a good pedigree

BY GreenBot Staff

Published 4 Jan 2013

Remember how bigger used to be better? Those days are gone. In an era obsessed with accessibility portable gaming, the GameStick (funding through February 1) might well be one day crowned king. After all, when was the last time you encountered a console so small, you could fit it into its controller?

That’s the idea, at least.

aym, the people behind the nascent GameStick—which has already hit its comparatively humble funding goal of $100,000 on Kickstarter—want to make “The most portable TV games console ever created.” Given that the intended price is a staggeringly low $79, it’s not an impossible ambition.

th the lly Bean version of Android serving as the underlining operating system, GameStick is being designed as a completely open platform a device that you can easily plugged into any available HDMI slot. Of the 700,000 Android games aym estimates, the company has identified 200 that should work well on the GameStick, is working with developers to bring even titles to the party. Should all as planned, the technical specifications for GameStick will consist of an Amlogic 8726-MX processor, 1GB DDR 3 RAM 8GB of flash memory, 802.11 b/g/n -Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, full 1080p HD video decoding.

According to the Kickstarter page, GameStick has been in development for a little over a year now. Though it isn’t quite as aesthetically-pleasing as aym would like it to be, there is a working prototype currently available a final pre-production sample that is, by the company’s estimate, about 10 percent away from completion.

Confidence level

It’s a reasonably safe horse to bet on. Not only has the GameStick Kickstarter campaign already achieved its goal, it’s also being piloted by a company with a proven track record. And prior to its involvement with the GameStick, aym was responsible for building the ayjam atform, a method for developers to enhance monetize games on smart TV; the ayjam Network, a global games publishing platform that has been integrated with leading brs (Samsung, , nasonic, Sony) of smart TVs.