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Running the Android operating system, the system will compete directly with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, offering the streaming and download of games, music, movies and TV content, multiple sources have told VG247.
Senior publishing sources have been meeting with Amazon for a briefing on the hardware – which currently goes by a number of different codenames – and popular Android and iOS games have been used to demo the device.
The hardware is being created in conjunction with subsidiary Lab 126, designers of Amazon’s Kindle devices.
Amazon will target an affordable price point – we’re told below $300 in the US – in a pricing move similar to Amazon’s marketing of the Kindle Fire HD against high-end iPad hardware from Apple.
The company already has a significant digital entertainment business covering the sale, rental and delivery of music, film, TV and games, as well as hardware success with the Kindle and Kindle Fire HD. The new console is designed as a central point in the living room to group all of those services together and make use of the home TV screen.
As well as competition for the big three console makers, the system will take on microconsoles like the Ouya or Gamestick that have so far failed to capture an audience outside of hobbyist markets.
The difference for Amazon is that it already has an active customer base of 200 million people along with their payment details, 10 million of which are said to subscribe to the $79-a-month Prime Service. Some analystsexpect Prime numbers to grow at 5 million per year.
