Razer is taking pre-orders for its Forge TV game console and media streaming device. You can order the Razer Forge TV for $100 or opt for the Forge TV Bundle for $150 to get a wireless game controller with the box.
Since the Forge TV itself doesn’t come with any remote control or gamepad, the bundle is probably the way to go unless you want to control the box using a smartphone app.
The Razer Forge TV features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, Android TV software, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and USB 3.0.
You can use it to stream online media from YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, and other internet services. But it’s also designed for gaming.
It supports a range of games available for download from the Google Play Store, but it also provides a path for playing PC games in you living room. Install Razer’s software on a gaming PC in you bedroom or office, hook up the Forge TV in your living room, and you can stream games over your home network.
Razer plans to start shipping the Forge TV at the end of April, which means it’ll hit the streets a little sooner than NVIDIA’s $199 Shield console which offers similar features and more powerful hardware. The Shield console should be available in May.
Launching in the same month as the Shield console. Hmm, this will be interesting. I suppose it still has the generic streaming SW, ie rather than the Shields Nvidia graphic card only streaming.