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Post by TidusandYuna1983 on Jan 3, 2019 10:45:00 GMT
Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell has revealed the company is developing a standalone console. Exact hardware and software specs haven't been announced yet, but Bell has provided a few details.
The first mention of the console came via Twitter, when Bell tweeted, "The Mad Box is coming." Bell told Variety that the Mad Box will probably release in about three years and support up to 120 frames-per-second for virtual reality play. "It will support most major VR headsets and those upcoming and the specs will be equivalent to a very fast PC two years from now," Bell wrote. "We're in early talks with manufacturers of components so we can't say much more right now other than we have the designs specced out in detail."
When it comes to games on the console, Bell wrote, "We think exclusives are 'exclusionary' but given that we'll be shipping a cross platform engine to all developers it will be their choice. As of now we have no plans to pay developers 'incentives' to exclude other hardware vendors." He further explained that Slightly Mad Studios thinks "the industry is a little too much of a monopoly or a micro oligopoly," and The Mad Box aims to bring some healthy competition to the console race, which for years has pretty much exclusively been a three-way battle between Microsoft's Xbox, Sony's PlayStation, and Nintendo's hardware.
Bell added that early design builds for the Mad Box will be revealed in about four to six weeks. The Mad Box is planned to release worldwide and be competitively priced in comparison to other upcoming consoles. "We have multiple investors already offering the required funding for us to see the product to completion, but it's still early days and we're looking at the best offers right now," Bell wrote.
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I'd like to see this console be successful, because more competition is always better, but I hope they're not really going to name the console the ''Mad Box''.
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Post by endorbr on Jan 3, 2019 17:38:06 GMT
Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell has revealed the company is developing a standalone console. Exact hardware and software specs haven't been announced yet, but Bell has provided a few details. The first mention of the console came via Twitter, when Bell tweeted, "The Mad Box is coming." Bell told Variety that the Mad Box will probably release in about three years and support up to 120 frames-per-second for virtual reality play. "It will support most major VR headsets and those upcoming and the specs will be equivalent to a very fast PC two years from now," Bell wrote. "We're in early talks with manufacturers of components so we can't say much more right now other than we have the designs specced out in detail." When it comes to games on the console, Bell wrote, "We think exclusives are 'exclusionary' but given that we'll be shipping a cross platform engine to all developers it will be their choice. As of now we have no plans to pay developers 'incentives' to exclude other hardware vendors." He further explained that Slightly Mad Studios thinks "the industry is a little too much of a monopoly or a micro oligopoly," and The Mad Box aims to bring some healthy competition to the console race, which for years has pretty much exclusively been a three-way battle between Microsoft's Xbox, Sony's PlayStation, and Nintendo's hardware. Bell added that early design builds for the Mad Box will be revealed in about four to six weeks. The Mad Box is planned to release worldwide and be competitively priced in comparison to other upcoming consoles. "We have multiple investors already offering the required funding for us to see the product to completion, but it's still early days and we're looking at the best offers right now," Bell wrote. --------------------------- I'd like to see this console be successful, because more competition is always better, but I hope they're not really going to name the console the ''Mad Box''. I’m not going to totally dismiss it but call me skeptical. |
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Post by kungfubunny9876 on Jan 3, 2019 18:11:07 GMT
How do I know this one isn't going to fail, or fall through the cracks, like any other non-Nintendo, non-Sony or non-Microsoft platform?
Exclusives are a selling point, not anything multi-platform. This company will have to dig deep to acquire dev teams to make exclusive stuff---preferrably something that hasn't been done before.
And it'll have to invest in a sizeable marketing campaign to convince the consumer of how their console can compete with a XBox One, PS4 or, hell, even the Switch.
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Post by TidusandYuna1983 on Jan 4, 2019 5:35:28 GMT
Like Bunny said, marketing and exclusives are important for the success of a console . When Sony and Microsoft entered the console business, they were already reputable companies, and spent a lot of money to advertise their console and the games for it.
It's not that I doubt the Mad Box could pick up some great exclusives, but unless Slightly Mad advertises the console and it's games heavily, not many people will buy it in order to experience the good games it may pick up. Kinda like how the SEGA Saturn failed due largely to poor marketing, but it had quite a number of good exclusives, and many 3rd party games looked and performed better on the Saturn than the PSone, but not many people know of the great games the Saturn has, because SEGA didn't promote them well enough.
Ian Bell wants to make the Mad Box the most powerful console, and that's all well and good, but without good and marketable games, it could end up being like how the Vita lost out to the 3DS.
I hope the console succeeds, I hope it can do what AMIGA used to do, which it had it's own library of great and unique games. Then again, AMIGA failed outside of Europe and Australia.
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Post by kungfubunny9876 on Jan 5, 2019 6:38:06 GMT
 Ladies and gentlemen......the MAD BOX. From Slightly MAD Studios. Project Cars developer Slightly Mad Studios surprised gamers yesterday with the announcement that it was working on the Mad Box console which it hopes to release in three years.
Today Bell tweeted out a few pictures of iterations of the system (there's a handle in the middle of the "M"), with intentionally blurred internals because Bell says discussions with partners are ongoing. Bell added that multiple Mad Box systems can talk to each other wirelessly, but he didn't elaborate on that.
Bell spoke to Variety and said the system has 4K visuals, should support most VR headsets, and be as powerful as a "very fast PC two years from now."Interesting. But this company's got an uphill battle to fight. They need partners, distributors, third-parties, first-parties, and a heavy marketing campaign to get pre-orders rolling in for this thing. |
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Post by TidusandYuna1983 on Jan 5, 2019 13:15:02 GMT
Ladies and gentlemen......the MAD BOX. From Slightly MAD Studios. Project Cars developer Slightly Mad Studios surprised gamers yesterday with the announcement that it was working on the Mad Box console which it hopes to release in three years.
Today Bell tweeted out a few pictures of iterations of the system (there's a handle in the middle of the "M"), with intentionally blurred internals because Bell says discussions with partners are ongoing. Bell added that multiple Mad Box systems can talk to each other wirelessly, but he didn't elaborate on that.
Bell spoke to Variety and said the system has 4K visuals, should support most VR headsets, and be as powerful as a "very fast PC two years from now."Interesting. But this company's got an uphill battle to fight. They need partners, distributors, third-parties, first-parties, and a heavy marketing campaign to get pre-orders rolling in for this thing. I gotta admit, they look kinda cool. |
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