GameStick is being developed by PlayJam. It was funded by Kickstarter and it made $650,000, which surpassed it initial goal. It was originally going to release in April 2013, but after being so successful they had to delay it's release. Amazon.com has it listed for an August 26, 2013 release date.
Here are the Specs for the GameStick as listed by Amazon
- Includes: 1 GameStick HDMI Console + Bluetooth Controller
- Easy to navigate user interface with access to Android games at 1080p
- Under the hood: ARM Cortex A9 CPU / MALI 400 GPU
- Storage: 8GB internal flash storage (expandable to 32GB via SDMicro)
- Connectivity: 802.11b/g/n WiFi / Bluetooth 4.0
You get all of this for only $79.99 ($20 cheaper than an Ouya).
What really stands out about the GameStick is it's portability. All you do is plug in the HDMI dongle to your HDTV and you are ready to play.
GameStick is based on Android architecture, however it has it's own UI built specially for it. It looks nice and easy to use, but I'll have to play around with one to know how well it actually works.
One downside to the GameStick is that it wont use the GooglePlay App store. This means you will need to repurchase games you own. Also game selection could be limited since they must be approved by PlayJam. PlayJam has said that it has over a hundred developers who say they want to make games for it. So hopefully they will make good on their promise and keep the games coming.
We will have to wait and see if the GameStick is successful. It looks promising and hopefully it will deliver.
