The Smartphone and Game Console Connection

CEBU, Philippines - The Wii U may have been the "superstar" game console during the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012 held last June in the Los Angeles Convention Center, but two recently announced "game consoles" are promising to be bigger superstars, with the potential to cause significant shifts in console gaming standards and conventions.

Combining "mobile gaming" into a game console ecosystem, the Ouya and the GameDock have been turning a lot of heads their way, given the gameplay prospects and in-device game title purchase options linked with them.

Though still in their respective development stages, both products have been the subject of a lot of interests, given the edge they respectively have over traditional game console devices.

Here are quick look-overs on the Ouya and the GameDock.

The Ouya, at a Glance

Set to tag at $99, the Ouya is a startup established by Julie Uhrman, who was once the Head of the Digital Distribution Division of IGN.

As a device, the Ouya can be pegged as a scaled-up version of an Andriod-driven smartphone, one which takes the form of a game console which brings "Android smartphone gaming" into living room environments, basically defining it an Android-driven game console.

Announced to be powered by a Tegra 3 Quad-core Processor, the Ouya is slated to have HDMI connectivity features, WiFi connectivity support and Bluetooth LE 4.0 standard hardware, working with RF-based wireless controllers.

It is announced to come with 8 gigs worth of storage space, and features 1 GB (LPDDR2) RAM. Customizable and highly configurable are said to be features also sported by the Ouya, setting it apart from "locked-in game console environments".

It is slated for release by 2013, and is rapidly gaining a solid following as a console.

The GameDock, also at a Glance

If the Ouya is Andriod-driven, the GameDock is iDevice-powered.

Essentially a dock for iOS mobiles, the GameDock is designed as an add-on which converts a given iDevice into a game console, just as how the Ouya brings "smartphone gaming" into living room setups.

In the case of the GameDock, "iOS gaming" (particularly retro NES game titles) is brought into recreation rooms.

Developed by Chris Jorgensen and Andi Greisel, the dock is designed to feature HDMI output capabilities with support for USB-based controllers, and requires an on-hand iOS device for it to do its game console magic.

Set to tag at $125, the GameDock is evidently more expensive when compared against the price of the self-contained Ouya, but given the fact that both devices are still being developed, certain changes in terms of price and features could come to be when their official release dates are set.

It is no secret that mobile games have evolved with mobile trend updates and technologies, with mobile game titles now ascribing the Adventure, Arcade, Role Playing Game (RPG), Fist Person Shooter, Strategy, MMORPG genres and more.

The Ouya and GameDock, in bringing game console form factors to "mobile gaming" standards, prove that 2013 is going to be an interesting year for the electronic consumer industry and market.