The Fire TV device will stream Amazon Prime Instant Video titles as well as content from other providers such as Netflix and Hulu. Amazon also bundled games into the device with support for an external $39 Fire game controller. Well-known gaming studios such as Disney, Gameloft, EA, Sega, Ubisoft and Double Fine have partnered with Amazon to bring their titles to the Fire TV device.
Some competition for Apple TV.
Games included. I’m not yet sure what Apple’s strategy is here. It may be that they think the game market isn’t one they want to be in directly. However, it’s such a short putt I’m surprised they haven’t done something and let a competitor beat them (not that being first matters, see watches).
What does this mean for Amazon Instant Video coming to the Apple TV?
Maybe Apple should allow it as a deterrent for buying one of these devices.
I’m not sure how successful games is going to be. People who want to play games on their TV, buy a game console.
Wonderful, soon will be treated to those meaningless Amazon press releases about the sales of the device. You know, the kind filled with meaningless platitudes about how incredibly well it’s doing, without any actual sales numbers to back it up.
“Demand has wildly exceeded our goals.”
“We’ve sold twice as many as expected.”
“It’s the best selling TV connected device we’ve ever introduced.”
The problem with games (which Amazon might help solve) is that “touch” UI tends to work poorly with a controller – and if you want to share games between your mobile (Android/iOS) and TV (Android/AppleTV) ecosystems, you have to have games that can Do Right Things with both.
That’s hard.
Gamers do, yes.
Lots of people aren’t “gamers”, they’re “casual gamers”. They might want to play PvZ or Angry Birds or something in that vein – and they’re willing to do it on their TV if a box they use for other things does it.
But they’re not interested in a PS4 or XBOne or even a Wii U.
Yeah, I think the loser here is Roku; Chromecast distinguishes itself on price, AppleTV distinguishes itself on the ecosystem and iOS integration, but the Roku does slightly less than the Fire TV for the same price.
There us a hardware controller
This looks very promising!
Video streaming only available in the US. Sticking with my AppleTV since I am in Canada
This is Apple’s strength versus many of its competitors. They have liscensing deals for content like movies and TV shows in more countries than Amazon, Google and Microsoft.