Fuze Entertainment, a Chinese based corporation, will be releasing a new home console in China later this year. The budget priced unit will only cost $138 and will be designed to attract the lower end of the market in terms of pricing, but feature games aimed at the hardcore demographic.
Niche Gamer is reporting that the console fuses the best of both worlds from the current generation of Xbox and PlayStation units, with a PS4-style console design and an Xbox One-inspired controller, complete with the ergonomic bumpers.
Over on the ZhugeEX blog, they go into more depth on the console’s features and functionality, revealing that the reason it’s so cheap is because it’s operating on Nvidia’s mobile technology. You can check out the specs below.
- Nvidia Tegra K1 (4 Core A15 @ 2.2GHz
- Nvidia Keppler @ 852Mhz (325GLOPS)
- 4GB DDR3 RAM @ 933Mhz
- 32GB eMMC storage (Elite = 500GB HDD)
- Wi-Fi & Bluetooth support
- HDMI, USB 3.0 x 1, Ethernet (Elite = Qi Wireless controller charger)
- Fuze OS (Android) + Open GL 4.4 & Open GL ES 3.1 support
- Chinese & English game support
The Android-style specs is what will allow it to keep its price so low, along with a VR solution that’s targeting a $169.99 price point. There’s no disc drive included, but for $100 more you can upgrade the storage to the Elite 500GB unit.
Obviously, though, it’s not going to be able to compete with the Xbox One or PS4 on a dedicated hardware front, but it will pack a punch for an Android console.
The games line-up is also a heck of a lot more impressive than you may have been expecting. Fuze has deals with many AAA publishers, including Codemasters, Ubisoft, Arc System Works, Atlus and Deep Silver to name a few. Some of the games that they have lined-up were outlined in a video presentation from the event that you can check out below.
There will be support from more than 200 different developers, with 100 additional games in development for the Fuze.
The console is supposed to be designed to leverage the strong mobile market in China but with the quality games you might expect from a home console. The Xbox One and PS4 haven’t really taken off in China due to the price and the lack of software support. The big draw in the region at the moment is free-to-play games, so the Fuse F1 will be able to draw from the pool of developers offering those kinds of titles, but in a much smaller and more affordable package.
What’s more is that current AAA developers aren’t too inclined to remake or alter their games to suit China’s censorship regulations, so that’s partly why not a lot of Chinese versions of titles have made the jump yet.
With games like Dynasty Warriors 8, Forced, Abyss Odyssey and BlazBlue filling out the line-up, it’s not a bad selection of titles to hit the market with. And given that competition amongst home consoles is very different in China than it is in America, don’t be surprised to see the Fuze take off and find a sizable market given its price focus on digitally distributed titles. The Fuse F1 and its VR component are set to launch in China later in 2016.
(Main image courtesy of ZhugeEX)
