At the start of the month, we had seen that the Gamestick, an Ouya-like Android gaming system, had taken to Kickstarter to fund its production. Not surprisingly, the device was quick to meets its funding goal, and with only a few days left for its run on the crowd-sourcing website to end, its maker, PlayJam has detailed the final design of its controller. The most eye-grabbing aspect about this console is that it is actually a small HDMI stick which can fit into its controller when not in use.
The Gamestick controller now has a more ergonomic form, according to PlayJam. It features extended grips and a tapered shape, for a better fit in gamers’ hands. Another big change is that the housing slot for the HDMI stick has been shifted onto the rear of the device. Moreover, it now houses a microSD card slot which allows for expansions till up to 32GB. The company has claimed that the finish of the product has been ‘meticulously designed’ for it to meet the highest of standards.
Through a press release issued yesterday, Anthony Johnson who’s the CMO at PlayJam, has described the device’s Kickstarter campaign as a ‘roller coaster of a ride.’ He has also mentioned that this run in the crowd-funding website enabled the company to receive more feedback than they had expected. The team behind it has shaped the product in keeping with the input from the backers.
Last week, it was announced that support for peripheral hardware will also be making its way to the Android-based gaming system in the form of a docking station. Also added due to requests from the community, this ushers in support for a number of important features such as wire-free charging, ports for USB and HDMI for peripheral hardware like keyboards, mice, microphones and cameras.
PlayJam had landed on Kickstarter with the ultimate goal of achieving a funding of 100,000 USD. With this milestone quickly reached, a number of stretch goals were revealed by it as well. While one of them added a second color to the lineup, the other one gave a microSD card slot to the apparatus. With just more than 50 hours to go, over 554,000 USD have been raised for the Gamestick already. Its last stretch goal lies at 560,000 USD, the achievement of which will result in a total of fours colors that the hardware will come dressed in.