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Zeebo – New Budget Console Coming In April

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Gamesindustry.biz reports that a new console, called the Zeebo will launch in April and is looking to reach out to emerging markets, some who’s residents have never even experienced home gaming before.

This idea sounds great and all, but after reading through the article, I started to wonder if it’s creators actually have any sort of cooking clue about the market that it is targeting. You see, the Zeebo is a 3G Wireless console, that will allow users to download games easily over a wireless platform. 3G isn’t exactly cheap or even available in all parts of the world, which makes me wonder who it is that they are targeting. Brazil is apparently first on the list and they plan to roll it out to areas like China and Russia as well.

Are Chinese people really in need of a budget console? What about developing countries that don’t have access to a lot of the modern products that we all have today?

It gets better though, because according to this article, this will be a budget console for newcomers. So how cheap is this console going to be?

I had a good laugh, more after the jump.

According to the article, this “budget” console will be going on sale for only $199! Wait, isn’t that the same price as a Nintendo Wii or Xbox 360 Arcade over there? Even better, the article says the following:

“The budget console is set to go on sale in Brazil next month for USD 199 – almost one-fifth the price of the leading consoles”

Excuse me, one fifth? How many consoles do you readers now of that are going for $1000 US Dollars?

Now I hope I am wrong about all of this because it seems like a nice idea. The problem I have with it is that they are basically going to be marketing a console that is supposed to be really cheap for the same price as a Wii and then getting people to buy new games over a service that isn’t that cheap or readily available in a lot areas.

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We still have no idea of what level of performance the system will have (I actually found the specs here .) and how big the game downloads will be, but unless the creators have really thought this through, it could be a huge flop. Once again, I hope I am wrong because something like this could actually be quite good for developing countries in need of some cheap entertainment.

Am I missing something, do you guys think that this console will take off?

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Last Updated: March 25, 2009

9 Comments

  1. Sadly Brazil is a lot worse of than us, taxes, and import
    duties make imported official consoles $1000 . amazing and we thought we had it bad.

    On the black market they can get them for $300 – $400

    amazing but true.

    Reply

  2. janrik

    March 25, 2009 at 12:08

    Yeah, but it means that this console will only work in Brazil. It would be major fail in Africa for that price and at the cost per MB on 3G…

    Reply

  3. Nick

    March 25, 2009 at 12:12

    Hmmm…had no idea that the tax in Brazil was so insane. Well you learn something new every day.

    Fear to say that this, but it still sounds like Zeebo going to very much be a flop :pinch: , especially with the fact that one has to download all the games.

    Could be wrong though, we’ll wait and see.

    Reply

  4. frank

    March 25, 2009 at 12:29

    http://www.zeeboinc.com/#titles

    games are between 10 & 50MB, some nice games are included however.

    Fifa 09, NFS Carbon, Quake

    Reply

  5. ManesanZA

    March 25, 2009 at 12:38

    Sounds like buying an oversized cellphone

    Reply

  6. fred

    March 25, 2009 at 12:40

    Epic fail all over this

    Reply

  7. SlippyMadFrog

    March 25, 2009 at 13:34

    My dog’s name is Zeebo, what are the odds? It looks like Zeebo’s going to have it’s first court case.

    Reply

  8. jaryd

    March 25, 2009 at 16:14

    cant forget about free games

    Reply

  9. WitWolfyZA

    March 25, 2009 at 19:25

    Looking at this id rather get On Live thank you.. Seems more full proof. ITs not everyday that you read that, you can play Crysis at full specs on a console that hasnt got any cpu or gpu functions… Its insane

    Reply

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