At CES this year a Chinese gaming company named Snail showed off a demo of their new console they hope to release early this year. The OBox console was described by Snail to be a modular computer that runs Android games.
According to the company the OBox console can render games into 3D graphics without the games developer needing to do extra work. A source was able to try out the device and stated that the game in 3D was a bit choppy, but the game was more than functional.
Snail has yet to release details about the price of the console, but it is likely to be sold in various forms. Unlike products from Sony and Microsoft the console will have some customization. They intend to sell the console to the US and Chinese market in various hardware setups, this will likely make the product more available to all income groups.
Android is the backbone of the content for the OBox console, meaning they will have to rely heavily on tapping into their ecosystem to work effectively. Luckily Android has a large catalog of titles, giving them a bigger library to choose from.
If Android titles don’t convert well to larger screens the device could face the problem of becoming a deficit to PC gaming. However, since Snail is also a software firm with quite a few titles in the market they can potentially protect themselves from that problem.