Google Is Making A Video Game Console, Which Means...

People are freaking out today at the prospect that Google is making a video game console. Since Android is open-source, hardware would-be players like Ouya and Gamestick are already beginning to fill the field by crafting their own gaming hardware on top of Google's mobile operating system. My thoughts are lukewarm for a variety reasons I'm about to get into, but anyone expecting some kind of market disruption out of this needs to slow down on the headlines and Facebook posts, because a Google console can create more of a mess than it creates.

Good: Google will finally make Android a place to put games

Despite Android being the dominant player in the mobile wars, there just aren't enough games. A lot of that has to do with fragmentation – there are just too many different pieces of hardware with too many different versions of Android. But what if Google could unite everyone under some standards that everyone can enjoy – or are already familiar with – and then promote the crap out of it.

But there's a flipside to that...

Bad: Google will just splinter Android that much further

You know what's cool about gaming on Android versus iOS? Not much. You have fewer games, developers need to prioritize different sets of hardware over each other and if you have a lesser-known phone, it may not work properly at all for various reasons. Google adding yet one more specific device to the Android pool is just going to cause a bigger mess than it solves and no one will develop for it. Further still, people will get confused about which games will work Google's game system, or works optimally for it.

Then there's the fact that Google's making stuff.

Read the rest of this article at Flesh Eating Zipper >