The success of crowd sourced campaign for OUYA proves one thing – consumers want affordable gaming on a larger screen. And while this gaming device is based on Android OS, it does not have access to Google’s Play Store. Instead the console relies on their dedicated store, which means all the games you bought over the years on your Android smartphone or tablet are of no use on OUYA.
Samsung announced the HomeSync at the MWC this February. Although it is targeted as a device to store and stream multimedia content to and from Galaxy devices, HomeSync could be used as a standalone device. But could the media streamer also double up as an Android-based gaming console?
Device
HomeSync is powered by a 1.7GHz dual-core Exynos processor, runs Android Jelly Bean OS out of the box and most importantly, brings support for Samsung Apps, which is Samsung’s own app store and Google’s Play Store. In short, most of your purchased games and apps can be installed and used on a larger screen. It may or may not use the 1TB HDD but the device can surely take advantage of the 8GB eMMC onboard storage.
Controller
HomeSync integrates Bluetooth, which means Bluetooth-enabled controllers should work fine. Samsung is also coming with the Game Pad and though it is targeted at mobile devices, we assume HomeSync to be compatible as well.
Samsung also confirmed to us, the USB 3.0 ports on the HomeSync could also be used to attach a keyboard and/or a mouse to control it and is even working to expand the remote control feature to non-Galaxy devices, which should be available via an app.
All said and done, HomeSync can technically work as an Android-based gaming console but one thing that could act as a hindrance is the price. Not only the user will have to invest in a controller but also the HomeSync, which given the massive storage and a full Android experience it offers, we expect it to be priced around $200 (our estimate for the HomeSync).
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