Here’s the shtick, see PlayJam decided it wanted to make a console that plays on big screen tvs. So they tossed the project up on kickstarter and by the end they blew up raising 648% of its initial target goal. This console is unique as you can tell from the picture, GameStick runs on android OS from a small stick that plugs directly into your HDMI port. The controller, which evokes the classic controller style some of us miss, connects via bluetooth. With a pre-order price point currently at $79 USD that’s not something to shabby. There is also a nifty dock which allows you to charge your controller wirelessly and provides extra ports for keyboard and the like. Of course there is a nice stable of android market games out there but the market is cluttered with garbage and piracy. This is a downside of having no licensing fee to develop on the android OS versus Apple’s own iOS which has a brilliant assortment of games. 

With that said Android is still a strong platform and if enough developers ponied up to take advantage of such a low price point this could give the big 3 a run for their money. GameStick will also have its own market, hopefully limiting the amount of trash we Google Play users have to currently sift through. Just like indie games shaking things up for the bigger publishers it will be interesting to see how smaller console makers like PlayJam handle things. Over the past few months we’ve heard more and more about smaller console makers coming to market, better watch out Sony and Microsoft there are new kids on your playground and they want the ball.