Comment by mindstab | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mindstab | Hacker News Reader

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I would suggest that you "don't get it". There are a lot of different markets for gaming, not just insanely high end. For $100 these guys are offering everything on android on the big screen with a gamepad. Maybe you fail to realise how many people find this desirable but I would hope the $1million they raised in 8 hours might make you go back and reevaluate your assumptions. Maybe it doesn't work for you but to generalize that to the world seems to fail here.

The platform is comparable hardware wise to the current generation of consoles for a fraction of the cost with loads of games already and an incredible hacker spirit (isn't that what this place is supposed to be about... ) as the most open console (free dev kit, open the box and mod it doesn't necessarily void warranty, open source etc etc).

Maybe not everyone wants to pay a fortune for over priced over engineered locked down blackboxes. Maybe some people can derive fun from medium to low powered open platforms. I'd say give this thing a chance but it clearly doesn't need you and looks like it's going to succeed just fine regardless. :)

And isn't the spirit of HN to be looking for and cheering the next new thing, not crapping on it in favor of the old established thing?

I don't think you are responding to the grandparent's argument. He's not saying no one would buy it, but that it will be very hard to deliver on the promise of a $100 console. The weakness of the processor is the least of his worries.

"And isn't the spirit of HN to be looking for and cheering the next new thing, not crapping on it in favor of the old established thing?"

How does grandparent's remarks qualify as crapping on anything? You don't even respond to his points. HN is not for cheerleading.

I agree with Mindstab. "Amateur" or "Semi-pro" or whatever console gaming breaking-ground kickstarter campaign ( 3M$ after 2 days ) with some great game designers ( Brian Fargo being one of the most eminent ) appearing to follow a "post-iphone" gaming trend sounds very very not cheerleading to me. Lots of great game-development teams ( most of which being indie ) have joined iOS game development trend because it's a great platform but also because it seems to be a huge and very potential trend/market. I think that the WHOLE scene is looking forward to see the success of this platform. It could mean a huge game trending for Android. And it could also just mean that "amateur"-hour is powerful. I just hope they'll deliver. ( They say that their proto is "up-and-running", which is a very good sign ). But with 28 more days to go, and already 3M$ of cash, I think that they can easily ramp up to 5-10M$, which is "not too much" to create a game industry, but it's a lot to start. ( + I believe that kickstarter brings a LOT of marketing value to the project, meaning that they'll need less cash on Marketing to promote the gaming console, it's already famous, and the viral effect will surely make it boom even bigger )

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