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China Input Devices Games

Lenovo To Launch Chinese Gaming Platform Called Ebox 71

Posted by Soulskill from the wide-open-market dept.
siliconbits writes "Chinese manufacturer Lenovo will build a video gaming console for the Chinese market and has already spun off a company called Eedoo Technology, including a team of 40 engineers, with the task of developing the platform. It will be called the Ebox, and will be specifically designed to recognize shapes and movement without the need for a dedicated game controller, not unlike Microsoft's Kinect."
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Lenovo To Launch Chinese Gaming Platform Called Ebox More

Lenovo To Launch Chinese Gaming Platform Called Ebox

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  • Hmmm... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Monkeedude1212 ( 1560403 ) on Friday August 27, 2010 @05:33PM (#33398178) Journal

    So its designed to work similar to a Microsoft product...

    It's name has a strange resemblance to a Microsoft product...

    How does that expression about Ducks go again?

    Anyways, Kinect is patented, so if the technology is similar enough, I smell a potential lawsuit.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by LoRdTAW ( 99712 )

      It probably runs Xbox software backups too.

      • It probably runs Xbox software backups too.

        if it does I will buy one in a heartbeat since it is cheaper than an xbox and you wouldn't have to mod it... at least before they stop letting them sell it

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Yvanhoe ( 564877 )
      Silly patents are not recognized by innovative countries. Prepare to be assimilated.

    • Anyways, Kinect is patented, so if the technology is similar enough, I smell a potential lawsuit.

      The device is for Sale in China. Microsoft is just praying that China continues to allow them to sell their hardware there.

    • It is Microsoft Windows OS which makes their laptops sell well. It is not like old good IBM which had excellent reputation for quality, company culture and support.

      MS can mysteriously rise Windows 7 licensing price for them, citing anti something laws. If your business runs on x86 chips, never, ever fsck with MSFT.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ZeRu ( 1486391 )

      So its designed to work similar to a Microsoft product...

      It's name has a strange resemblance to a Microsoft product...

      How does that expression about Ducks go again?

      Anyways, Kinect is patented, so if the technology is similar enough, I smell a potential lawsuit.

      Under normal circumstances, probably. But since Xbox isn't available on Chinese market (probably because M$ doesn't like piracy) and Lenovo's console is aimed at Chinese market only, I say that Microsoft has no right to complain here.

  • not unlike Microsoft's Kinect (Score:3, Funny)

    by Un pobre guey ( 593801 ) on Friday August 27, 2010 @05:34PM (#33398192) Homepage
    not unlike Microsoft's Kinect
    I wonder just how much "not unlike Microsoft's Kinect?"

  • I smell a turd... (Score:3, Informative)

    by snowraver1 ( 1052510 ) on Friday August 27, 2010 @05:40PM (#33398264)
    They plan on developing it in *Three* months... With 40 engineers.
    It's going to cost more than a Nintento Wii, but less than an XBOX360
    It costs a Chinese person that makes an average wage 3 months of pay.

    I predict colossal failure.

    • Re:I smell a turd... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by realmolo ( 574068 ) on Friday August 27, 2010 @05:45PM (#33398314)

      It probably is too pricey for the Chinese market.

      But they could *absolutely* develop it in 3 months. You could build a better-than-360 console that quickly using off-the-shelf stuff. If you have it run Linux on x86, then developers can CRANK out the games. And if you don't go nuts with the copy protection and licensing restrictions (and historically China doesn't care about those things), you'll have what amounts to a modern version of the Amiga- i.e., a computer built for games.

      If that's what it's going to be, that would be pretty awesome.

      • Re:I smell a turd... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by snowraver1 ( 1052510 ) on Friday August 27, 2010 @05:55PM (#33398426)
        I was thinking specifically about the motion controls. Microsoft has alot of money and resources to throw around to get motion control to work. They have been working on that for how long now... two years?? It still looks crappy. I highly doubt that Lenovo has the talent that microsoft does to make such a device, and if Microsoft's version looks terrible, I can't imagine what this Ebox's would look like.

        As for running a linux gaming console with minimal copy protection, who will make games for it?

        • If they are targeting casual gamers rather than hardcore gamers (and that's what they do according to TFA) they need only a few good casual sports games. As for other games -- if the market is moderate, indies will crank out games like there's no tomorrow. If the market gets big, big players will join with ported versions of existing games just to get their cut.

          • And the big players are going to sell in China? Where the mere existence of this machine, and its security from lawsuit, already shows their respect for copyright law? You make games for this, you'll sell as many copies as there are major bootleggers in the country. Then your lovely game will be bundled with 19 others and sold for half the price. Assuming you get through censorship.

        • Re:I smell a turd... (Score:4, Funny)

          by Mike Buddha ( 10734 ) on Friday August 27, 2010 @07:44PM (#33399332)

          As for running a linux gaming console with minimal copy protection, who will make games for it?

          Why the massive Linux game development community for one! I'm surprised no one has thought of this yet! What kid wouldn't want to play Tuxracer and... well just Tuxracer, on Christmas morning?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by migla ( 1099771 )

            Even if they pass on Linux and code a new kernel from scratch they won't have any bigger a pool of developers, though.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by spinkham ( 56603 )

            Hey now, that's not fair.. we have a number of Quake mods also.. and...

            Actually, there's excellent games of many types. At least as long as excellent gameplay is the goal, not necessarily AAA level graphics from current gen games.

            Battle for Wesnoth, Flightgear, Tremulous, and Chromium B.S.U. are games I may never tire of.

            For more suggestions, http://www.happypenguin.org/list?&sort=avg_rating [happypenguin.org]

        • In vietnam, we like HP or DELL more , because it's esasy for use everydays . So Lenovo ,I trust It will appear more in Vietnam.Hi http://www.tandaiduong.com.vn/ [tandaiduong.com.vn]
        • The motion control tech behind Kinect was acquired when Microsoft purchased an Israeli company a few years ago. The tech (an IR grid is projected and an IR camera examines and analyzes for deformations of that grid to calculate position) has hardly changed since then. There were demos of this back in 2007 I believe where you could shoot virtual hoops. All this time has been Microsoft developing software, because, to be honest, it took awhile to figure out what you could do with this thing.
      • How could you speculate on anything... you know nothing! Including the cost. Geez.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Ironhandx ( 1762146 )

      If it was actually intended for the chinese market and not to "accidentally" be sold to other countries through international web sites and under-the-table dealers I might agree with you.

    • What good will it do to release the console in 3 months when it will take at least 6 months to write games for it? Unless, of course, it is emulating some other platform.

      • I heard a rumor that they will include a game where two tanks, or helicopters in some cases, maneuver through various predefined courses trying to destroy the other. It should include enough levels to keep people occupied until the tennis game comes out two months after release.

        I'm hoping for a game where you steer a cowboy through a bunch of cattle, trying to rope one, all while avoiding cow skulls.

    • You are wrong. You know why the real estate prices soar in Hong Kong, Macau and Canada? Mainland Chinese keep buying them with cash. Like everything else, this thing is not marketed to those who cannot afford it.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by JohnBailey ( 1092697 )

        You are wrong. You know why the real estate prices soar in Hong Kong, Macau and Canada? Mainland Chinese keep buying them with cash. Like everything else, this thing is not marketed to those who cannot afford it.

        Waste of time.. The story mentioned China, so full xenophobia mode is engaged. Any depiction of a Chinese national as anything other than a poverty stricken sweatshop worker will be aggressively and hysterically denied. I imagine Japan had the same treatment at one pint.

    • It costs a Chinese person that makes an average wage 3 months of pay.

      When you have one hundred million people that make twenty times the median wage or more, suddenly what you can sell to a factory worker becomes a whole lot less interesting. There is absolutely a large enough number of people who _could_ spend this money to make it profitable. The trick however is convincing the consumer to buy a game console when they already are accustomed to playing on their laptop or at an internet cafe. The Chinese bu

  • The "Xbox" was a reference to the software it runs on, namely Direct X. What does the E, in Ebox stand for?

  • EBox, XBox, who's counting right? I expect Microsoft will be :)

  • Shouldn't they call it the ebox 720 so that it's not just like the xbox 360?

    I mean, the xbox 360 was a 360 degree change in direction, so shouldn't the ebox be able to spin in place longer than that?

  • I wonder if that's why these guys [ebox-platform.com] changed their name from ebox to zentyal?

  • The name is already taken by a Linux Distro. Hell.. I know the people that make it (are from my city).

  • Are you serious. Why in the world would anyone market a software platform to the Chinese: the most pirating, copyright infringing, knock-off producing nation on the entire planet?

    It doesn't matter how cheap you make this thing. People won't develop for it because the Chinese will hack and mod the thing in less than a week. Guaranteed.

    This venture is futile.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by johnhp ( 1807490 )
      There might be *some* money in making shovelware for the Chinese market.

      For one thing, you could rip off the sounds, textures and models from any western games you want. Art production is a considerable chunk of development cost.

      For another, one or two guys could crank out a game in a month or two, and possibly make a fair profit off the number of legally sold copies, considering the minimal manpower investment.

      A third factor is online play. From what I can guess, it must be a lot harder to write a

    • Because China has the most people-friendly IP laws in the world. There is no such bullshit such as the DMCA in China.

  • So its designed to work similar to a Microsoft product....There is a lot of info on this blog: very helpful. Thanks a lot!.. http://globetv.co.uk/ [globetv.co.uk]
  • I highly doubt that Lenovo has the talent that microsoft does to make such a device, and if Microsoft's version looks terrible, I can't imagine what this Ebox's would look like.... http://www.happyfacetv.com/ [happyfacetv.com]

  • They probably think they own the word 'box' just like they seem to claim ownership of the word 'windows'.

    Asus made the Eeebox too. Close enough for confusion.

  • So, their plan is to make a box which will naturally (by law) have strictest censoring/trojaning capabilities. I can imagine the headlines now: "Console stops functioning after 2 hours". Would look nice on Global IT news sites. Eventually some guy (perhaps hired by their competitor) using that box will do a stupid thing like blogging on "enemy sites" and end up in prison, very publicly.

    Think about it Lenovo. Are you such a genius future company to come up with this idea first or companies/competitors seen t

  • This will Fail Hard sorry to say :l http://bullybeatdownonline.com/ [bullybeatdownonline.com]

  • They will partner with Motorola and call the final product "Ebola"

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