Slightly Mad Studios Begins Development of a Gaming Console

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell has announced that the game development studio known for blockbuster hits such as the Project Cars series and Need for Speed: Shift is working on a powerful gaming console. The Mad Box will be capable of VR gaming and will be equivalent to a "very fast PC 2 years from now." Ian Bell's predictions for the console include 4K gaming, VR gaming at 60FPS per eye, and a completely free; cross platform development engine. He doesn't have plans to pay developers incentives to create exclusives on the platform. Slightly Mad Studios already has investors inquiring about providing the capital to bring the device to fruition, but no deals have been made. Pricing is expected to be "competitive with upcoming console prices."

"What is the Mad Box?" Bell wrote. "It's the most powerful console ever built... It's literally 'Mad'... You want 4k, you want VR at 60FPS? You want a full engine for free to develop your games on it? You have it." "It will be a worldwide console," Bell wrote. "And we're already in early talks with areas that are, let's say, not particularly open to other vendors at this moment."
 
Heh, isn't another gaming console at this stage like trying to run your own telecom lines or come up with a new high-end desktop graphics card or processor?
 
I enjoy competition and who knows maybe their console will hit it out of the park but at this stage of the game it's going to be very difficult to even come close to the current top 3.
 
Consoles come and go. Reading the article I like their idea of not having any exclusives. Though that'll hurt them. If they have no exclusives, why buy their console?

They'll release it, have no exclusives, their online servers won't be as solid as the others, and they'll slowly vanish.
 
IDK, consoles now, aside Nintendo which went with a gaming and dockable tablet, are just locked x86 PCs with fixed/minimum upgrades. Do we really need more of these, and will they offer what the others do or will soon be doing?
 
Anecdotally, but my impression as follows.

Nearly all the console players I know and read comments from on Facebook:

1) Aren't brand loyal, they follow the trend because what their friends have dictates what they need to play together. (Big shift from the popular XBox 360 to the popular PS4 happened quickly)
2) They need to be able to play the newest popular blockbuster games of the year. Again, with friends if possible.
3) They tend to cheap / poor, so even $400 US is not something they take lightly and it takes them a while to afford that. They don't tend to upgrade unless they can sell what they have already.
4) They tend to buy used if anything breaks. Even a $50US/$75CAN controller is not something they run out and buy on a whim.
5) Multiplayer has to be dead simple and just work. Period.

The only opportunity I can see with a new console would be doing all these things cheaper (free online for example) with the same quality or better as the market leaders.
 
Total BS, they cant do that, they prey on the ignorant and I do not like it.
They will release a costume overpriced PC or a cheap android crap, that's about it.
 
I predict it will look like this.
5830040E-908E-4F89-9D00-D84DDD397C0A.jpeg
 
Don't really understand this, they make good games, but nothing about their games screams 'proprietary hardware necessary'

Maybe they want to market it to the hardcore racing sim guy? own more of the setup than just the software?
 
Methinks this is a case of "consoles aren't powerful enough and the next gen isn't going to be any better so we'll build our own". Ian mentioned several times in various interviews about PC2 that consoles were being a limiting factor in what they could accomplish with the game.

That said, the success of this will come down to software and how good it is. It's easy to slap a bunch of parts in a box. It's much harder to create a usable UI that is stable, intuitive and good looking. As big a fan as I am of the Project Cars series, I won't claim that the games haven't had their problems and, as a result, their track record is probably going to cause people to hold off on this. They'll need to absolutely hit it out of the park to make this work because anything less probably won't succeed.
 
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besides they do not have the funds necessary to manufacture millions of units to make viable, so whatever the crap they will release will still be over priced for what it is no matter what, that CEO need to be fired imo, because he is going to ruin he studio, even if he goes VR centric device, he wont have the content to warrant the asked price.
 
ROFL, VR at 60fps? No, nobody wants that. In fact, none of the first gen VR headsets from the 3 big players are that slow, lol. Rift and Vive are native 90hz, and the PSVR is 120hz.

Smells like another phantom console to me.
 
Well I am super interested in VR. I am waiting for the next gen of tech to see the upgrades and prices. If they can get a special deal going, and an impressive VR headset "4K per eye" deal I would be interested.
 
I will not be holding my breath on this one...they should get the Bit Boys involved. Didn't they have a GPU that was going to destroy the market many years ago (and don't think it ever shipped)?
 
"And we're already in early talks with areas that are, let's say, not particularly open to other vendors at this moment."
Click to expand...
Sounds like it's going to be a VR porn console…
 
Probleminfected said:
I predict it will look like this.
View attachment 132506
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You shut your whore mouth. That console was amazing! It was expensive, not that popular, and had three or four really great games!

FlawleZ said:
Still have my Goldstar 3DO sitting on a shelf in my room.
Click to expand...

I had the same one. Despite what I said above, I do have fond memories of it. It was pretty incredible going from 16-bit graphics and sound to that, but PlayStation blew it away in terms of game selection and quality.
 
they went from slightly mad... to full retard... you never go....

Seriously though... you fall into 2 camps.. for the most part. Camp 1... consoles- relatively cheap, exclusive titles, easy learning curve, xbox live, or PSN.
Camp 2. PC- no need to explain that one... so where does this "mad box" fall into? over priced pc/ steam box?

“Prices will drop with ship quantity but we’re not planning on taking as large a cut as other console owners to enable us to cut prices massively,”
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I remember Oculus saying the same thing.....hmmmm
 
Ardansanjoyo.jpg


I don’t know why anyone is saying Ouya or Phantom.

This has WAY more similarities to the 3DO.
 
Lateralus said:
You shut your whore mouth. That console was amazing! It was expensive, not that popular, and had three or four really great games!.
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It had way more than 3-4 good games.
The original Need For Speed
Road Rash
Slam N Jam
Return Fire
Wing Commander III
Space Hulk
Star Control II
Hoes of Ali

I played the FUCK out of all those games.....one of my favorite consoles EVAR!

On Topic...it looks like Slightly Mad Studios has run out of ideas for their next game and or are burnt out of making racing games.

This mystery market they speak of sounds like China, like they want to make the official game console for China, backed by Chinese investors.....well as far as I can tell, based on my limited knowledge of playing against Chinese in PUBG.....the Chinese do not give a fuck about powerful hardware as most of them game on potatoes.
 
l88bastard said:
It had way more than 3-4 good games.
The original Need For Speed
Road Rash
Slam N Jam
Return Fire
Wing Commander III
Space Hulk
Star Control II
Hoes of Ali

I played the FUCK out of all those games.....one of my favorite consoles EVAR!
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm with you, I was just being a bit facetious. I didn't have all of those games, but I had several of them (NFS, RR, Return Fire, WC III and Space Hulk) and enjoyed them immensely! It definitely had some great games. It also had a whole lot of not-so-great games, and once PSX came out it was done for.
 
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