console

Ouya game console launch delayed until June 25

People eyeing the Ouya game console will have to wait a bit longer to get their hands on one.

The maker of the small Android-based console said Thursday that the product won't reach the consumer market until June 25, three weeks after the initial launch date of June 4. The decision to delay the launch was based on high demand at the retail level, Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman revealed in the following statement sent to CNET:

We've had incredibly positive reactions from our retailer partners. So, in order to meet greater-than-expected demand, we decided to shift our launch … Read more

How to fix Nintendo

The bad news keeps stacking up for Nintendo.

The Wii U console was greeted with yawns when it was released in November 2012. Sales numbers for the console look increasingly dire, and support from third-party software publishers seems to be wavering (EA's next-gen Frostbite graphics engine apparently doesn't even work on the Wii U). And now comes word that Nintendo won't have a formal press conference at this year's E3 show.

Is Nintendo's low profile at E3 a retreat, or a change in strategy? Whatever the answer, it seems perfectly indicative of Nintendo's current … Read more

Ouya game device gets the teardown treatment

Ouya, the open-source game console that took the Kickstarter world by storm, has been ripped apart by the folks over at iFixit.

The Ouya device earned a score of 9 out of 10 from iFixit for its high repairability. The iFixit team was able to tear apart the gadget with ease, and found that it was packed with several important components, including two Samsung 4-gigabit SDRAM modules (for a total of 1 gigabyte), a Texas Instruments power management tool, and Nvidia's Tegra 3 multicore CPU.… Read more

Watch out, Windows. Here's Chromebooks for kiosks

If you've got a brick-and-mortar business with a reason to have public computers, Google's got a Chromebook for you and it's not the high-end Pixel.

Google extended the new Chrome management console to Chrome OS on Tuesday in the hopes will make businesses think again about the expending some capital on the browser-based operating system.

The Chromebook management console will let businesses configure as many as "thousands" of Chrome OS-devices simultaneously, tweaking features such as setting default Web sites and Web apps, customized homepage branding, group policy creation, blacklisting sites and apps, configuring device inputs … Read more

The new Xbox: Six things Microsoft needs to do

Microsoft has made it official: the next Xbox will be unveiled at a May 21 event in Redmond, Wash., just weeks before E3 opens its doors. This looks like the inevitable Xbox-PlayStation next-gen console war we've all been expecting.

What will it take for Microsoft to keep its strong foothold in the gaming industry? Here's what I'm looking for.

Be the ultimate TV-streaming (and movie-playing) box The Xbox 360 has already carved a great role for itself as a streaming-media hub, and rumors point to the next Xbox possibly being a true rival to a future Apple … Read more

Play 15 classic consoles with one controller

It's called Project Unity, and it's been the labor of love for the modder known as Bacteria. It's taken three years and 3,500 hours of work, but it's finally done.

Unity houses the original circuit boards from 15 classic consoles, all powered by a single PSU and outputting via a single Scart cable.

Most clever of all is the single master gamepad designed by Bacteria. The controller actually takes a custom-built cartridge, which maps out the control interface for the required system. So, to play a PlayStation 2 game, for example, you plug the PS2 cartridge into the gamepad and it'll behave like the appropriate controller. … Read more

Microsoft may announce next generation of Xbox on May 21

Microsoft will spill the beans on its next-generation Xbox at an event on May 21, according to Windows blogger Paul Thurrott and a report from The Verge.

Originally scheduled for April, the event was pushed back to May, sources have told the Verge.

That echoes similar information from Supersite for Windows writer Paul Thurrott. In an interview with the video blog "What the Tech" on Friday, Thurrott said that Microsoft had planned to announce the new console on April 24 but then rescheduled the event for May 21. In the video clip of the show, Thurrott's comments about the next Xbox start at the 54:44 mark.… Read more

Console on the cheap, games on the free with $99 Ouya (hands-on)

After seeing it in person this week, I can safely say that the Ouya game console does indeed exist. Now, will it quickly piggyback its way into millions of living rooms thanks to its low price and free-to-try games or assume a place in the pile of wouldbe consoles that failed to mount a legitimate challenge gaming’s mainstream? My bet’s on it finding a comfortable place somewhere in the middle; however, having only spent an hour with the console this week, it wouldn’t be fair to make any final judgments.

What I will do is attempt to … Read more

Preorders start for $1,000 Piston console

You can now preorder the first Steam Box, a PC-based gaming console built around Valve's digital game distribution platform. Prices start at $1,000, though there's a $100 discount if you order now.

Manufacturer Xi3 announced the Piston earlier this year at CES. The "grapefruit-size" Piston uses Steam's Big Picture feature to bring console-style PC games to TV screens.

Xi3 is a modular PC vendor that has received funding from Valve, and its Piston console is among a handful of such console-style PCs expected to arrive in 2013. The Piston console is slated to ship in the holiday season at the end of 2013, which also happens to be the estimated launch period for Sony's next-generation PlayStation 4. … Read more