Is this Amazon's games console controller?
Some intriguing new images have appeared online, courtesy of Zatznotfunny. A mysterious Amazon-branded controller – could this be the elusive missing part of the puzzle in the rumours of Amazon working on a games console or media device?
There have been rumours for a while now that Amazon is working on something that will sit under your TV, but we don’t know exactly how it will be positioned: will it be a media streamer – something to access Amazon Instant Video & Amazon Music on? Or will it be a fully fledged games console? Heck – can we even draw a distinction in this day and age?
What we can say pretty solidly (ie: this is that magic combination of logic + things that have echoed around the rumour mill enough to become accepted wisdom) is that chances are any device will run on Amazon’s custom version of Android that runs on the Kindle Fire range – and for our money, we’re expecting something more akin to the Ouya portable Android console than a PS4 or Xbox One.
The leaked controller images – which were taken from a failing with the Brazilian government – seem to bear this out. Whilst strongly resembling the Xbox controller in terms of button layout, the three buttons in the centre are the same icons that appear at the bottom of the screen on Android devices (home, back and menu). Interestingly too, there’s some specific media playback controls on the bottom for play/pause, forward and reverse.
On top, there’s two triggers on each handle – just like the home consoles. Whilst unusual for mobile games, the full complement of buttons should make things easier for any shooters that are released – or perhaps any old Playstation games that get ported over too.
We remain waiting with bated breath for any official announcements. We’ll let you know when that happens.
