Acer plans to join the console market

[maniac-kun]

The taiwanese Notebook manufacturer Acer plans to enter into the console market. This communicated the senior Vice President, James T. Wong, on a press conference. Most current consoles are closed and proprietaere systems, which machine" on PC technology based "game machine"; from Acer is to set against it on open standards. This could mean that game developers would not have to pay license fees for the publication of plays on this system.

(auto translation)

source: http://www.gamestar.de/news/hardware...8487/acer.html

so its like the new phantom

update:

found an english article about this:

Acer eyes future desktop systems, including game machine By Jacqueline Emigh, BetaNews March 13, 2008, 10:14 AM Over the next year, Taiwan-based notebook PC maker Acer will start to produce desktop units under the Acer brand...and a senior Acer official told BetaNews yesterday that a PC-based game machine is one of the ideas being bandied about. NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - Right now, the Acer brand name is still equated with PC notebooks only, despite Acer's acquisition of Gateway. But in an interview with BetaNews at its press event on Wednesday, Acer's senior vice president, James T. Wong, said that his company has a game machine in mind, and that it will be based on "open standards." "If you look at most of the other game machines that are out there right now -- Nintendo's, the Xbox -- they are 'closed' and proprietary systems," he told BetaNews. Wong said that, beyond "openness," all of the Acer-branded systems being eyed right now, including the game machine, are envisioned as offering new and innovative form factors and applications. In addition to its future Acer-branded desktop PCs, however, Acer will also provide desktop systems under the Gateway name, as well as under the eMachines and Packard Bell brands inherited through the Gateway buyout, according to the senior VP. The Acer, Gateway, eMachines, and Packard Bell desktop systems will each incorporate two separate line-ups, one for consumers and the other for SMBs (small to medium-sized businesses), he said. During a press conference attended by BetaNews earlier on Wednesday, which focused mainly on Acer's notebook PC products and strategy, officials cited Gateway's expertise in desktop systems as a big reason for buying that company. But Wong told BetaNews that Acer had already been making desktop PCs for other vendors, anyway, with desktop systems constituting some 30 percent of Acer's huge OEM business. Acer, though, will not be offering either desktop or notebook PCs geared to enterprise use, at least for now, according to the executive. "You need different kinds of resources for [enterprise systems], and we don't have those kinds of resources right now," he told BetaNews.

http://www.betanews.com/article/Acer...ine/1205406937

[solid2snake]

can't wait for a console with a "Powered by Intel Core2Duo" sticker :P

[Stop It]

(auto translation) source: http://www.gamestar.de/news/hardware...8487/acer.html so its like the new phantom

Only backed by a real company, interesting, wont work, but its nice to see a serious company try.

[onegoodlogan]

eeeBox?

[dalin80]

My acer laptop has gone back for repairs 5 times in 5 months, the last thing we need is another manufacturer rivalling MS.

[solid2snake]

eeeBox?

Acer =! Asus

[Visualante]

Such plans take years to materialise. Show me a prototype and we'll talk Acer. This will put off Apple.

[Threi]

i for one welcome our new acer overlords in all of their PC-parts-ripping goodness.

[Second]

EA will be happy.

[Crisis]

So basically they're making an Xbox.

[DMPrince]

eeeBox?

Acox

[Mejilan]

I'll stand by and laugh, if that's alright.

[Digital-Hero]

What a joke.

[MutFox]

Acer Sucks.

[Scopebob Sniperpants]

see: Arcade Crash of 1985

[Mefisutoferesu]

Larrabeeeeeeeeeee!

[MrHicks]

great another console just what we were waiting for

[cw_sasuke]

Acer Sucks.

.

[Xapati]

One console future.

Believe

[Pterion]

Acer fangirls?

[TrueReligion]

I find this quite amusing.

[cilonen]

great another console just what we were waiting for

Yeah, somehow I don't feel the need to jump in for this one though

[TAJ]

Most current consoles are closed and proprietaere systems, which machine" on PC technology based "game machine"; from Acer is to set against it on open standards. This could mean that game developers would not have to pay license fees for the publication of plays on this system.

So they have to make all of their profits on hardware sales? Their console will be grossly overpriced, and the format will be stillborn, LOL.

[Agent X]

so its like the new phantom

It sounds more like what the developers of DISCover were originally attempting to do--create a "video game console" which was essentially a simplified gaming PC that would hook up to the TV and use standard Windows PC games. The point was to make it feel like a traditional video game console by offering an easy-to-use interface and automating certain PC-centric tasks, such as game installation and driver updates. Apex and Alienware licensed the technology (the Apex machine never made it to market). DISCover quickly abandoned that concept, and refocused their technology towards traditional desktop PCs instead.

If Acer (or anyone else) can figure out how to build such a box and sell it at an affordable price, then it would certainly be a good thing.

[_leech_]

Acer: "We're going to enter the console market... with a PC."

[SSM25]

so it's like the first xbox........

[nny]

Acer is taiwanese? Didn't know that. Well, another console on the market is all we need now. :|

[dude]

So they're selling gaming PCs. Unprecedented.

[Vaporak]

I'm not sure if it's related, but Acer is part of the PC Gaming Alliance. Maybe this has more to do with making a standard "gaming PC" configuration than breaking into the home console market? Hopefully we'll get an English press release to clarify.

[keeblerdrow]

Finally! Some news on the Phantom 2! I was getting worried that we'd only see one in our lifetime.

[TJ Spyke]

so it's like the first xbox........

Um, no it isn't. Xbox was closed just like every other console.

Acer plans to make it so game companies wouldn't have to deal with them at all (no having to get approval to make games for their system, no having to pay royalties for every copy of a game sold, etc.).

Acer has a track record of making cheap, but crappy, PCs. Wonder if their planned console would be the same. Would it be worth it to buy a cheap console knowing that it has a good chance of breaking down often?

[evlcookie]

One console future. And its going to be PCs

Fixed.

[onegoodlogan]

Acer =! Asus

Oh snap, I read the OP wrong.
Acer, huh? Well this should be awful.

[aeolist]

Don't get too excited, Acer makes the worst notebooks I've ever seen. If there's one company that could beat out the 360's failure rate with a new console, it's Acer.

[solid2snake]

allright, Bungie will be Acer exclusive?

[Kaworu]

ACER! OH NOES!

[miyamotofreak]

Um, no it isn't. Xbox was closed just like every other console. Acer plans to make it so game companies wouldn't have to deal with them at all (no having to get approval to make games for their system, no having to pay royalties for every copy of a game sold, etc.). Acer has a track record of making cheap, but crappy, PCs. Wonder if their planned console would be the same. Would it be worth it to buy a cheap console knowing that it has a good chance of breaking down often?

Can't be worse than the 360.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

this should wrap things up for nintendo

[RiskyChris]

Shit, this upsets the status quo.

I'm alluva sudden really nervous. Fuck.

[solid2snake]

or maybe Acer could make the EA console... mhhh

*X files jinggle*

[Funky Papa]

Microsoft's build quality suddenly looks awesome to me.

[Choke on the Magic]

why?

[Panajev2001a]

What's the difference between what Acer is proposing and a normal HDMI enabled small form PC with wireless gamepads and Vista+GFWL/X-Fire/Steam on them ?

[derder]

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/3530/ugleeeuv6.jpg

someone should put obamas face on this

[solid2snake]

What's the difference between what Acer is proposing and a normal HDMI enabled small form PC with wireless gamepads and Vista on them ?

you can put it next to your CRT TV from the last century.

[methane47]

[Panajev2001a]

you can put it next to your CRT TV from the last century.

Yeah, forgot to add the part that says "HDMI enabled does not take away the possibility of having S-Video output" :P.

.

[mrpogi23]

so basically another "Phantom"?

[Kosma]

Ain't happening.

[camineet]

Acer once had a connection / partnership with ArtX, the company that developed Gamecube's Flipper GPU.

Before Flipper was finished, ArtX had an integrated GPU for PCs called 'Aladdin 7'


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArtX

They demonstrated their first integrated graphics chipset with built-in geometry engine at COMDEX in the fall of 1999, which was marketed by Acer Lab of Taiwan

http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20030421S0028

The story begins in late 1997, when a handful of top engineers and managers from Silicon Graphics Inc., many of whom had helped design the Nintendo 64 console, got an idea for a startup. They would cram high-end graphics into a PC chip set and leapfrog the giants of the mainstream desktop world by leveraging what they learned from designing a high-performance, low-cost game box. The result was ArtX, which got initial funding from Taiwanese PC maker Acer Inc. About nine months later, old contacts from Japan came seeking a partner for their next-generation console, which later became the Nintendo GameCube.

http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG19991108S0027

Acer pulls graphics ace out with ArtX EE Times (11/08/1999 11:15 AM EST) SAN JOSE, Calif. — Acer Laboratories Inc. has teamed up with a new graphics partner, ArtX Inc., to deliver a core logic chip set that integrates a graphics controller, aimed at the Socket 7 PC marketplace. The merger of graphics onto a north-bridge device has been seen as a dumping ground for lower-cost, aging graphics designs, but this partnership will use cutting-edge technology. The solution seems likely to stand out among other recent entries, including a new joint venture between Via Technologies and S3 Inc. "If you look at the integrated graphics and core logic products available today, most feature trailing-edge graphics because they use older chips. This allows the companies to amortize the costs over time, and extends the life cycle of the design," said Rick Calle, director of marketing at ArtX (Palo Alto, Calif.). "We are going to turn this marketing approach on its end." ArtX will bring to the partnership a graphics core featuring transform and lighting capabilities, currently seen as one of the most advanced functions available in the graphics accelerator market. Only a handful of companies offer this technology, none of them in an integrated north-bridge chip. ArtX burst onto the scene in May, when it was announced the startup would supply the graphics chip for the next-generation Nintendo game set, code-named Dolphin. Calle said the Dolphin product and the Acer device will use different cores. The chip set, known as the Aladdin 7, will be an Acer product, with a 128-bit graphics bus, a geometry engine and the power to plot 12.5 million triangles per second. It is sampling now and will ramp into volume production next quarter, at $32 in quantities of 10,000.