By Shadow Links

A while back you may have noticed Malefico’s article on the mysterious Amazon Condongle. Well, today it has come to fruition in the form of Amazon Fire TV.

Amazon Fire TV is a tiny set-top box measuring at just 4.5″ x 4.5″ x 0.7″, making it roughly the size of a slice of Texas Toast bread. It’s primary function is the streaming of movies, TV shows, and music at 720 to 1080p at 60 fps from an abundance of sources like Netfllix, Amazon Instant, Hulu, Youtube, Vevo, Pandora and more.  It includes a remote for navigation, play controls, and a microphone for voice search all for just $99.00. The game features require a separate controller that was revealed in the earlier leak for an additional $39.99.

Sev Zero is an exclusive tower defense game.

Amazon claims that the game library already contains over 100 games with many more to come. I suspect that most have already been in Amazon’s own app store already. Some already confirmed games are Minecraft: Pocket Edition, Terria, The Game of Life, and a new exclusive called Sev Zero that currently is free with the purchase of a controller. Amazon claims that the average price of a game is only $1.85.

Sev Zero seems to have in-the-action shooting element and works with tablet players.

Let us look inside the box.

It uses mobile processor, the Qualcomm Krait 300 at 1.7 Ghz and an Adreno 320 GPU. It has 8 GB of internal storage and 2 GB of DDR2 memory, which is almost 4x the amount of competing sets like Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku. If you are listening to it, it packs a punch with the first to support Dolby Digital Plus surround sound. It lists 5 ports, Power, HDMI, optical audio out, 10/100 ethernet, and USB 2.0. Its wireless capabilities include dual-band/dual-antenna Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0.

The controller is as dull and generic as expected. With an offset analog stick design, a D-Pad, 4 shoulder buttons, and 4 input buttons, the only things that set it apart from a 360 controller are the presence of video controls on the bottom and the game circle button placed below the home button in the center. The game circle provides instant access to leaderboards and the progress of friends in the games you play.

What is still coming

Amazon announced a subscription called Amazon FreeTime, which appears to be a parental control app that may be similar to Netflix for Kids, and features kid-friendly TV shows and games with unlimited access for 2.99/month.

Some of the included channels

What do you think?

Amazon has finally jumped in the ring with Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast with a few extra features. Most notably the ability to game. While at the moment it seems that the game library is full of mobile games, I think that some exclusives like Sev Zero, and a couple of larger cross platform games like NBA 2k14 could begin to prove that Fire TV is viable platform for gaming. However, it still has nowhere near the power to to compete with the next gen consoles or even the current gen consoles. Now I will admit that I have very little experience with streaming games, but I don’t see this hitting for games until a 2nd iteration appears.

Click for Amazons comparison

Perhaps on the more interesting note is the possibility of competition. Roku, Chromecast, and Apple TV might decide to up their game and release a new device to compete, although I find Chromecast to be the only likely candidate due to its already low price and access to Google Play.

Written by Nerd Bacon