PlayJam’s GameStick is a small box that you can plug straight into your television’s HDMI port in order to run games on the big screen. It’s powered by an Amlogic ARM Cortex-A9 processor and runs a Google Android-based operating system, and the GameStick also comes with a wireless game controller (with a slot where you can keep the stick when it’s not in use).

The company raised half a million dollars to build the device from a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year, and has been slowly pushing back the estimated ship date ever since.

But it’s starting to look like the GameStick is really on track to ship by October 29th, as the latest reports indicate. The device passed through the FCC this week, which is a step any device has to take to move from the prototype stage to on-sale-in-the-US stage.

gamestick guts_01

There aren’t any surprises in the FCC documents, but if you want to get a look at the guts of the GameStic, you can find pictures of the Amlogic AML8726 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of flash storage, and other goodies.

The device also features 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0. According to the user manual uploaded to the FCC, users will also get a few USB cables and an HDMI extender cable in case there’s not room on your TV to plug the stick straight into the HDMI port.

While it won’t have full access to the Google Play Store, you’ll be able to get games from PlayJam’s own store. The developers also promise support for XBMC if you want to use the GameStick as a way to run the popular open source media center software on your TV.

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10 replies on “GameStick $79 Android game console hits the FCC, launching in October”

  1. This is all a race to the bottom with the winner being the manufacturer establishing its brand by making a reliable product at a reasonable price, with good support, unlocked, and adhering to stock Android (meaning access to the Google Play store, and its tons of free games and apps) as much as possible

    I don’t see how Ouya will stay in business with its proprietary sshtick. Just hope that the flood of rock bottom low quality junk from mainland China doesn’t ruin the public’s appetite for these items.

    Given the innovations and price drops in the smartphone/tablet space, don’t be surprised if the winner is a discontinued or prior version of a popular smartphone/tablet, whose price has been dropped to fire sale levels. These devices will typically have an accessories ecosystem in place. Acer, are you listening?

    1. I’m ready to flash stock Android onto mine and call it a day.
      There is nothing exciting happening on ouya… nothing.

    2. The Gamestick is what you call ¨junk¨ from mainland China, so are many other relabeled/rebranded electronics that you use.

  2. Why the gamestick?

    It isn’t perfect but it has some good points, it includes the controller [ about $20 for a generic PS3 type bluetooth one if using other HDMI dongles ] and it has MHL support, If your Display is also MHL compliant then there is no need to power it via USB.

    Is all that worth the price tag? not too convinced myself but I had hoped that this device would be significantly more open than the Chinese HDMI dongles when it was announced, it does not seem like that will pan out and with linux-sunxi and linux-rockchip communities out there I think the MK802s of this world will win out.

    just my $0.02

    Really wish the chinese HDMI dongles would support MHL though

  3. missed the boat. Name brand pos china stick that will crap out in 3month no thank you.

  4. I have to agree with the general sentiment here. When this debuted on Kickstarter after Ouya, it was already underpowered in comparison, and really only had portability going for it. Now the Ouya itself seems underpowered and this seems almost pointless. My Android TV stick that cost $40 six months ago has the same hardware, works with most of my existing controllers and came with Google Play.

    We’ve played a few PlayJam games elsewhere already and been unimpressed. Since we have every last-gen console we’re probably not their target market, but I’d be very surprised if they’re able to produce any system sellers. Ouya hasn’t been able to, and they had a lot more developer buzz than this does.

    I could see them hooking up with hotels now that Lodgenet is gone. As a retail product, though? This was an okay deal for $80 at the time of its Kickstarter campaign, but now it just seems kind of limited and a bit sad.

  5. Sorry but these guys are way late to the party.
    Android Bluetooth are way more capable already.
    Just build your own from a good quad core stick and the Bluetooth gaming controller of your choice!
    It’s not rocket science.

    1. It is ridiculous that companies keep on rebranding Chinese sticks/boxes, wasn´t this a kickstarter project? So what the heck did they do with the money? Was it only for designing the case, gamepad and firmware? They collected $647.658 dollars!

      1. For a local team, a SoC PCB and casing can be done in a couple of weeks.
        Working on-site makes a huge difference. It’s literally picking up parts off a bin and running costs while doing board design.
        For a remote control engineer, doing this is so time consuming, it will simply take too much time and could never match the price reductions.
        e.g. There’s a few pics from the guys whom are doing the Cubieboard which
        show them sitting on factory floor or an adjacent prototyping white
        room, printing PCBs and soldering part for testing on the spot.
        There’s also a whole by-supply aspect to this as well. You’ll notice those Amlogic units aren’t really too good. The reason you’re seeing a lot of small cheap products of them is because they’ve been accumulating on the shelves for some time now with no demand so the stocks been selling for cost for the last 1/2 year or so. This small form factor Android sticks just happens to be the only way to ship them to consumers.
        I would even venture a guess that the factories aren’t even making a profit on some of these and are just clearing the stocks and covering any losses while letting the supply chain get by until the next SoCs become available.

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