Slightly Mad Studios Reveals the Final Design of the Mad Box

Megalith

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Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell has decided on the final design for his PlayStation and Xbox competitor, the Mad Box. Images tweeted allude to a futuristic-looking console with neon lighting and a front-panel display that offers information on the media being played, as well as notifications. Many remain convinced this is a ruse or a failure in the making.

Although it's more than 3 years away, the Mad Box will be a powerhouse equivalent to a high-end PC from 2021, Bell asserts, with specs to enable native 4K gaming. The box sounds like an incredibly risky idea that could tank the games developer. Even if it manages to make the hardware and hit the promised specs, the system will ultimately fail without a strong cohesive ecosystem of services and games to sell.
 
Do we need this?

I mean, as an excitable business venture, it's easy for them to answer themselves with a resounding yes, but did they ask anyone else? Or just 12 year olds who can't afford it anyway?
 
I'm not sure if this is just a PC like a SteamBox or an actual game console but one things for sure the direction of game development is moving away from traditional game consoles. This is mostly due to E-Sports and the fact that on PC there's platforms that offer better deals than the PS4/Xbox 30% of sales. Epic vs Steam is now slashing how much they take from game sales. The move to PS5 and Xbox Next is certainly going to be tuff like in 2013 where the first two years we had a lot of remasters because there wasn't enough console sales for developers to completely abandon the 360 and PS3. Of course nobody wants to bring their games to PC in fear of piracy so that's why there's so much talk about cloud gaming.

Slightly Mad Studios might see the writing on the wall and may try to tie their console to a PC game store like Steam. Even Amazon is thinking of stepping in with Cloud Gaming. This will all bomb of course but greed hasn't stopped people from trying.
 
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looks like an alienware designer was given lsd while designing it. either way its gonna tank harder than the 3DO or the badly advised "steam machines"
 
It looks a lot better than that initial design that showed (the one that looked like a giant M), but it still reminds me of something that was designed by graphic artists first - damned are the engineers who have to make this thing work in such a form factor.
 
That's the ugliest appliance I have seen since the Google rackmount search box.
 
The wildly changing designs in such a short span of time says this is more vapor than an OCed humidifier. Looks like they glued some of the bodywork from a McLaren P1 toy onto an Xbox.
 
It looks a lot like a Black and Blue Phantom. Slightly Mad Studios must have found a Phantom after some ruffians were thrashing it in an alley. Seriously though, if Valve couldn't make this work with the Steam Box, what chance does Slightly Mad Studios have?
 
It's gonna be so awesome. 200+ fps at 4k for under $500, including a wireless VR headset that weighs 16 grams and will run for 27 hours on a single charge. All the while pulling only 13 watt's out of the wall.
I am so stoked.

Will it run crysis?
 
I miss the days of a diverse ecosystem for consoles. From the nineties to the early 2000's each 'flavor' that truly had a different look to their games. From Sega to Nintendo to Sony you actually saw different approaches in the tech and game designs. Heck, on some platforms the games even had different levels or options. I'll give credit to Nintendo for maintaining an identity and not getting lost in the performance numbers race but these days they all seem to be various shades of grey with the only real difference being exclusives and power of the system in relation to display specs. This looks like another shade to add to the list with some RGB's thrown in.
 
This can't be real. Probably some social experiment or clues for a scavenger hunt marketing campaign or an elaborate April Fools joke that is starting now. All of those options seem more plausible than an actual console being released in 2021.
 
It’s not about the hardware, the hardest part of any console is to give it quality games (exclusives + AAA third party titles), a backend that is functional, trophies/achievements, world wide launch, etc.

This company is not that. It’s going to be Trip Hawkins all over again.

I could start a console company in my garage with a custom painted Node 202 and set standard of PC hardware. (Which btw would look WAY better than this POS).

I like the guys opinion above that this is some April fools joke or something. You don’t announce a design (much less a console) 3 years ahead of time. With no plan on anything else unless your an idiot.
 
That would sure look nice in a neat hifi setup. Oh wait, it won't.
 
I kinda like that it's RGB, Kinda like that it displays what your playing.. beyond that.. Stupid. Pass.. good luck.. all those steam machines like others have posted are gone.. this will go the same way.
 
I like the guys opinion above that this is some April fools joke or something. You don’t announce a design (much less a console) 3 years ahead of time. With no plan on anything else unless your an idiot.

unless you're trying to get investors.. only reason i could see them announcing it this early.

that being said though the design looks pretty cool. although by 2021 that thing better be able to do native 8k.
 
How do you announce the box 3 years ahead of time? If it's 3 years, then you obviously haven't designed the actual equipment yet.

Also, "hey, we are three years from building actual equipment/finalizing the electronics, but we've been working hard on the BOX. It's gonna be awesome, because the BOX!
 
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