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[Axe99]

Announced during the week, the Fire TV is primarily a set-top box to compete with Apple TV, Roku and what-have you, but more so than the rest of its class, Amazon is also diving into the Android console business, marketing a controller along with the base unit (all prices US - $99 for the base unit, $39 for the controller), and highlighting that it will have it's own version of Minecraft.

I suspect this is the first step in these set-top boxes trying to use gaming as a differentiator, and there's been strong rumours about Google working on something similar for a while (and we can bet on Google to use Android).

I'm not sure how it will go as a gaming box (I have no idea how good Amazon Instant Video is, which will be where it lives and dives as a streaming box), but sooner or later they might get enough Android-based boxes out there to make devs spend a bit more time optimising their Android games for a pad.  It's not going to be strong competition for the PS4 or XB1 though - if the Wii U can't hold up hardware-wise (which it can't), then things like the Fire TV are their own market.

[short]

watching closely to see how well it runs xbmc.

spec wise i think its just a nexus 7 (2013) really though.