Amazon Fire TV
polycounter lvl 18
So, today Amazon announced the [ame=http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CX5P8FC/ref=amb_link_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=gateway-center-column&pf_rd_r=02Q16R7TCHDKMSJZNCE8&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1770217382&pf_rd_i=507846]Fire TV[/ame], a $100 set-top box for streaming Amazon video and music content, and also playing games.
The initial pitch and promotion for this device is very firmly placing it as a competitor to the Roku and Apple TV, a streaming box for various on-line video services first and foremost. While the device has a controller available at launch, it does not come bundled with the system. At the same time, the Fire TV has a dedicated GPU, and enough memory and processing power to push some serious visuals for a variety of gaming applications. And while Amazon may not be targeting gaming initially, they're also being pretty open with the Fire TV's development potential.
There's also the fact that Amazon is clearly going to be more pro-active than Apple has been in developing their own content for the device. They already have their own development teams focused on various gaming experiences.
The initial pitch and promotion for this device is very firmly placing it as a competitor to the Roku and Apple TV, a streaming box for various on-line video services first and foremost. While the device has a controller available at launch, it does not come bundled with the system. At the same time, the Fire TV has a dedicated GPU, and enough memory and processing power to push some serious visuals for a variety of gaming applications. And while Amazon may not be targeting gaming initially, they're also being pretty open with the Fire TV's development potential.
There's also the fact that Amazon is clearly going to be more pro-active than Apple has been in developing their own content for the device. They already have their own development teams focused on various gaming experiences.
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I have a little android stick right now and there's so few games that support X360 controller and gaming on a vanilla android just doesn't feel that great.
I hope this is gonna be way better.
As usual, it's going to depend on the developers. Amazon has some of their own first-party developers, but they aren't a huge development house. They aren't going to be able to carry the hardware themselves the same way that Nintendo might.
At the same time, that's partially why they aren't billing this thing as a gaming device first. They want to push it as a streaming box to compete with the Roku and Apple TV. And in that respect it actually stands a pretty good chance. Early impressions of the performance and interface have been very positive. As a streaming box it may very well be the new gold standard.
If this thing is going to take off as a low-end gaming console, it will be through support from smaller developers. Amazon is being pretty cool about the controller, it will support 3rd party bluetooth controllers just fine. Chances are good that PS3 and PS4 controllers will be compatible. But it doesn't come with a controller by default, which is going to limit controller-based development support somewhat.
Am I missing something?
According to Tech Crunch:http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/02/amazon-media-device/
"Netflix is a partner for Amazon at launch, as well as HBO GO, SHO Anytime, Pandora, Hulu, ESPN and many others to come"
This didn't work well for the Ouya, I don't expect it to be much better with the Fire. The Ouya only had really 1 original title that got great press and attention.
Though, I guess if I wanted to go down that route, I could go with a Plair or something a quarter of the price if that is your main focus with a device like this.
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I don't think the Fire's game division is going to be successful, at least at launch. My brother decided to pre-order it so I guess I'll find out soon enough. It seems like Amazon is pretty committed to getting some big games out on their platform though, they purchased a major studio and the little content I saw related to their first title looked impressive.
As for the games, as expected, there are only ios/android ports at the moment. I suppose time will tell if anybody starts developing exclusively for this thing, but I doubt that will be popular. The Sev Zero game which was the exclusive launch title looks pretty good, but it's not really that fun, it's a lot like Sanctum.
The controller seems pretty heavily inspired by the xbox 360 controller, it feels basically the same but the analog sticks don't feel as smooth.
For a gaming platform, the Fire is pretty lame, but as a streaming box, this will likely become the new standard. I know it wasn't designed to be a "gaming first" box, but that leads me to question why Amazon went and bought a high quality studio to start making games for this thing.
I think the lack of a "power off" button is bullshit. The device is constantly on and goes into sleep mode after 30 minutes of inactivity. If you unplug the power cable and plug it back in, the device automatically turns off. I was just walking past my living room and accidentally touched one of the button on the remote when I was grabbing a book from my table and the damn thing powered back on.
1. Can you use hulu free with it? I don't want to pay for Huluplus
2. I have a netflix account already, do I need to pay anything extra to use it?
3. I've got a bunch of audio books in mp3 format that I like to play through my tv stereo, is that easy to add to the device?
4. Can you hook up a keyboard, or are you stuck typing one letter at on time with a terrible on-screen keyboard thing?
5. How loud is it in use? Does it make any noise in sleep mode? No power button is probably not a deal breaker if its silent.
1.) There's only a hulu plus app on the store so unfortunately I don't think so.
2.) Netflix works great, if you have an account then you are good to go. No extra fees or anything like that.
3.) By default you can only play audiobooks you've purchased through Amazon (this might change in the future) but XBMC is already available for the Fire. Sideloading apps is pretty easy, you just need to install the android SDK, set up ADB which takes like 15 seconds, then just use the "adb install 'file location'" command.
In its current state, XBMC isn't working too well for video playback (from what I've seen, video playback is pretty shit at the moment but the XBMC android dev team is already working on it.) This shouldn't have an effect on mp3 playback though, meaning your audiobooks should work fine. Here's a link to the XBMC Fire TV wiki page.
4.) I don't actually have a spare keyboard so I haven't personally tested it, but from looking at XBMC (which states that some keyboards that work) along with contacting Amazon support just now, I'd say it's safe to assume your keyboard will work.
5.) It's basically 100% silent even when in active use. I'm quite impressed by it actually, not only is the box incredibly tiny and light, but it seems to generate next to no sound or heat either, including when in active use such as while playing a game.
Overall, for $140 (I got the controller too) I'm pretty happy with it. I'm not really huge on playing media in general but my brother buys a ton of these boxes and out of the 4-5 boxes I've tried, this is by far the best. I played a bit more of the Sev Zero launch title and while the story seems pretty lame, the game can actually get really fun.
I'm going to do some more experimenting with sideloading apps tonight, including trying to get my own Unity project to run on this thing.