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Amazon announces $99 streaming device; has 2GB RAM, quad-core processor, game controller is $40

Retailer announces "Amazon Fire TV" today during media event in New York City; Amazon Game Studios to create its own games, the first of which is a third-person shooter called Sev Zero.

By Eddie Makuch on April 2, 2014 at 11:02AM PDT

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GS News Update: Amazon confirms $99 streaming system Fire TV, also plays games

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[UPDATE 2] Amazon has released more details about the Fire TV. The $99 box features a Qualcomm Quad Core Snapdragon Krait 300 processor with Adreno 320GPU, and 2GB of RAM to support "high performance game experiences." It's reportedly faster than competitors like Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast, but we won't know for sure until we can test it out.

Developers can program their Amazon Fire TV games to support Amazon's $40 Fire Controller or the console's Bluetooth controller, Amazon says on its special developers website. What's more, Amazon Fire TV supports up to 7 remotes and game controllers to be connected simultaneously, and each controller can be associated with an individual player ID.

Amazon Fire TV games will also allow you to use a combination of controllers (remotes and game-specific controllers) to "make multiplayer gaming easy for everyone," Amazon says.

Finally, the Amazon Fire TV console will support Amazon's payment services for in-game microtransactions. Because Amazon Fire TV users will need to register with their Amazon accounts, their payment profiles are already on file with no further effort to the player. Amazon Fire TV fully supports Amazon's in-app purchase API so that developers can offer a range of items to players including subscriptions and one-off purchases.

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[UPDATE] Amazon has now detailed the Amazon Fire TV's gaming capabilities. The Fire Game Controller will sell for $40, though you can also play with the Amazon Fire TV controller. Games from EA, Disney, and Sega are coming to the device, and a version of Minecraft will also be available.

Amazon Game Studios is also making games itself, the first of which is a third-person shooter called Sev Zero. Presumably, Sev Zero will only be available on Amazon Fire TV and other Amazon devices. Amazon also acquired Killer Instinct developer Double Helix Games last year.

The Amazon Fire TV will be available for $99. A version of the box bundled with the Fire Game Controller will sell for $140. It's on sale from today.

The original story is below.

Today during a media event in New York City, retailer Amazon announced its long-rumored streaming device, which it is calling the Amazon Fire TV.

The device features a quad-core "best-in-class" processor with a dedicated GPU, as well as 2GB of RAM. Amazon promises 2X the performance of competitors like Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast. The Amazon Fire TV will also ship with a Bluetooth controller that has a microphone in it for voice control.

During a live demonstration, Amazon showed off the Fire TV user interface, which included a tab for "Games." However, the role games will play in the device remains to be seen. The event is ongoing and you can follow along via GameSpot sister site CNET's live-blog.

According to a report from February, Amazon will launch the box possibly for under $300. Amazon has not announced a price so far during the event. Images of a rumored Amazon game controller emerged last month, though we saw none of that in the event today.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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6238

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Lol, look at that pic!

"Dad, thanks for the 1975 haircut, and the welfare console. I'm gonna be REALLY popular in school."

6 • 11 years ago

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Glad I'm not the only one that noticed the weird hair. The first thing that came to mind was Prince Adam at age 7 on Eternia...

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<< LINK REMOVED >>Isn't that Michael Phelps?

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Doesn't Amazon realize that besides the massive hype, the Ouya has sold piss poor? People do not want or need crap like this.

Upvote • 11 years ago

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deactivated-61a5a8e35ab83

<< LINK REMOVED >> ouya had no where near the money amazon does. Ouya was a good idea with very bad execution. Amazon has taken everything that sucked about Ouya and fixed it. They have the resources to do so.

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<< LINK REMOVED >> That is what they said about, PC, Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, mobile, tablets. Yeah this may go the way of turbografix, or dreamcast- but what if it catches on and becomes the new VCR for the living room.

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The gaming industry sounds like that it's going to get over saturated with gaming consoles and streaming devices. A lot of companies are about to waste a lot of money releasing their stuff.

Upvote • 11 years ago

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Risk vs reward, don't wanna run with the big dogs stay on the porch.

Upvote • 11 years ago

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Its still more powerful than the Wii U, fuckin lol.

3 • 11 years ago

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@prats93

No, it's not, and you're stupid if you think that it is, "fuckin lol."

Upvote • 11 years ago

8029

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<< LINK REMOVED >> If you look up the specs it is not far off - very close to 7th gen systems - while more focused for android games, and last gen games - I bet this would have no problem playing most anything the wii u had out, easily.

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

The specs are way off. The hardware isn't in the same league. One is ARM-based, the other is PowerPC-based. Adreno graphics are great for cell phones and tablets, not really much comparison even to what is in the Wii U. The fact of the matter is that Android games look good on tiny screens because the tiny screens make it easy for developers to hide the loss of detail required to get the graphics running at a decent framerate. And the Wii U is actually rendering two different screens at the same time.

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<< LINK REMOVED >> You're going to wear yourself out jumping at all these troll comments that are clearly bad sarcastic jokes.

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oh no~~ the end for Sony and M$

Upvote • 11 years ago

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i already have an SNES emulator. thanks though.

Upvote • 11 years ago

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Another microconsole? Yay! Like PS4 and Xbox One aren't gaming consoles who just happen to stream movies.

Upvote • 11 years ago

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THIS IS NOT A GAMING CONSOLE LEARN TO F*CKING READ. Its a multimedia device that just happens to play games.

Upvote • 11 years ago

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Yeah, same as Xbox One

4 • 11 years ago

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

No, it's not the same. You must have missed the part where this is only $99.

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >>yes. it's the same

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Xbone is overpriced then :D?

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I have only one thing to say about this: That controller is freakin' ugly.

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Yeah pretty strange way to take a controller, less is more and the xbox 360 controller is one of the best designs out there - I think the controller as is will scare of non gamers - why not just make a more familiar one.

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These pictures with models playing videogames are always cheesy!

6 • 11 years ago

Stevo_the_gamer

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Stevo_the_gamer Moderator

Streaming? Meh.

3 • 11 years ago

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I...I'm kinda diggin' this.

But then again, casual games on the TV doesn't seem like my kinda thing.

Would be really cool for non-gamer guests.

Is this just an updated, non motion control Wii? The Wii is my Hulu/ Netflix/ Youtube box.

Just not sure...(legit)

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you lost me with streaming.

Upvote • 11 years ago

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This is very interesting. Although Amazon was very bold with there price point.. And they should of at least thrown in 6 months of Amazon Prime!! The specs are great for a streaming player but not a console substitute... or even a casual gaming device.

Being that the Roku stick just came out and the chromecast os doing pretty well. I am assuming that the market is leaning towards dongles or sticks rather than boxes. I hope to see some reviews very soon. And I will be getting one as i have to get everything.

Upvote • 11 years ago

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Seriously, i just can't keep up with gamespot constantly changing the layout of this website, it's confusing and unfair, this moment it's A the next it's B, Remember that not everybody has the hardware to embrace these constant changes, Make up your minds, and make this website accessible to everyone like it was years ago (At least when i first discovered it in 2002), and please retract the quite frankly Draconian powers gifted to your moderators as well. it's like they just play silly subjective games regarding comments they dislike. Everyone has a voice, we shouldn't be at the mercy of some Bullies who think they're gods just because someone gives them the authority to control what others have to say...Ridiculous to say the least.

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<< LINK REMOVED >> So they shouldn't try to improve the site?

"not everybody has the hardware to embrace these constant changes" It's a website. If you don't have hardware that can display it properly then you're probably on something that's so end-of-life that it's probably not supported by much of anything or anyone. Hell, there are still people running pc's with Windows 2000 on them but that doesn't mean that everyone should appeal to that lowest common denominator.

You're right about the moderators though. Not only is the power trip an issue sometimes, but It's amazing the things that they remove and the crap that they let stick around.

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2 GIGS of RAM --- for gaming? Am I missing something... is that it?

2 • 11 years ago

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Well, c'mon... casual gaming. Considering what was/is running on PS3's 256MB of RAM, 2GB should allow for some reasonably complex games. Bigger question is storage, not RAM. As long as this thing can stream content from reasonably generous storage, you can do wonders with not much RAM. It doesn't really say anything about storage, but eventually, I'd expect this to initially run games from Android PlayStore - Asphalt, Real Racing, that sort of experience... before it starts getting anything more complex, if ever.

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

2GB is probably plenty for casual gaming, but don't for one second confuse the RAM of a system like this with the RAM of a console like the PS3, which is dedicated and optimized specifically for gaming. It doesn't translate.

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

But what I'm saying is there's a huge difference between this RAM and the RAM that's in the PS3, besides just the size disparity. The PS3's RAM is way faster, much higher bandwidth, and can therefore compensate for its lack of size with speed. That's pretty much why there's so little of it in there, because it's so fast and therefore so expensive.

Devices like this are using low-cost shelf parts that are optimized for cost and power consumption. Devices like the PS3 and other purpose-built consoles are using specific combinations of hardware that let them best accomplish the task of gaming within the hardware budget.

2GB will surely be "enough" for the gaming needs of this device, but if there were 4GB or 8GB the developers would surely find ways to use it.

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@rarson @nikon133I am not confusing anything. I'm just saying, if PS3 can pull masterpiece games out of it's 256MB of RAM, I'm sure Android PlayStore casual games will never run out of 2GB of memory in this little number.

Even if this thing manages to attract big developers with big budgets, RAM will not be an issue. Vita has 512MB of RAM while Nintendo 3Ds has only 128MB, to my knowledge? And they are both running some awesome games. Modern Android/iOS/WP hardware is not far off Vita, and some SoCs should be already more powerful than 3Ds hardware.

Like I said... if I'd be considering to play games on this (and I'm not), I'd be more worried about storage than about RAM. From what I have find, it has only 8GB of storage. Modern smartphone/tablet games like Real Racing 3 are already over 1GB. Unless this Fire TV can handle SD cards and save downloads there, it will run out of space quickly and will require "gamers" to delete and re-download games, which is pain in the...

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Game consoles work differently from pc's and tablets (which this pretty much is)

The PS3 could get away with such low ram because A: Their custom OS is not bloated like Windows, and B: Programmers had no choice but to optimize their games to run with such little ram.

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> so you must not realize that this thing runs on their own custom OS as well? and it's not a gaming console first. It's being aimed at devices like roku, apple TV, and chrome cast.

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<< LINK REMOVED >>

I agree. 2gbs of Ram is nothing. I would of hoped for at least 4-6.

3 • 11 years ago

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> 2GB of ram was fine for 2006, but that's WAY too little now.

In my recent build, I got 16GB of DDR3 1600 for $127.

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> with the streaming, all the heavy lifting is done sever side. but yeah I always like to see more ram

Upvote • 11 years ago

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I'm not sure amzn is going to stay in the market though. If this doesn't go well, and they spin down, will I loose all my games? I guess for $99, it doesn't really matter...

Upvote • 11 years ago

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Very cool, I look forward to seeing these things around. I love Amazon and they make a good competitor to the casual market.

Upvote • 11 years ago

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Anyone else wonder if this was an April Fool's article?

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Feedbacula would have been all over this.

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I'd swear that kids head is photoshopped on a kid a few years older body.

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well, it's time for the apple pippin to rise from the grave again

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That kid looks like he's holding back from laughing at what he's playing while the guy looks as though he's feigning enthusiasm for the kid's sake.

Upvote • 11 years ago

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