The device does not compete with the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4

Apr 3, 2014 06:35 GMT  ·  By

Retail giant Amazon has revealed its much rumored set-top box, which is called the Fire TV and which will allow users to stream content from the large library that the company controls and play more than 100 video games as soon as it is installed.

The device will need to be connected to a television set and to the internet and the company says that it will make it easier than any other competitor to get access to the kind of multimedia and entertainment experiences that users want.

Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive officer of Amazon, states in the official announcement, “Voice search that actually works means no more typing on an alphabet grid. Our exclusive new ASAP feature predicts the shows you’ll want to watch and gets them ready to stream instantly. And our open approach gives you not just Amazon Instant Video and Prime Instant Video, but also Netflix, Hulu Plus, and more.”

The new device is designed to appeal to gamers with a solid line-up of launch titles that includes indie hit Minecraft, Monsters University, The Game of Life, The Walking Dead, NBA2K14, Asphalt 8, Riptide GP2 and Despicable Me: Minion Rush.

The games will be offered for low prices and the company says that more than 1000 other titles are being prepared for launch in the coming months.

Amazon says that the hardware that powers the Fire includes: “a world-class quad-core processor with 3x the processing power of Apple TV, Chromecast, or Roku 3, and a dedicated Adreno 320 graphics engine that processes 57 billion floating point instructions per second, for lightning-fast graphics and excellent fluidity. Fire TV comes with 2GB of memory, 4x the memory of Apple TV, Chromecast, or Roku 3, so content loads faster and games run smoother.”

It’s interesting to note that in the official announcement coming from Amazon the company lists the gaming capabilities of the Fire TV as a bonus, which seems to suggest that it will focus on multimedia first when it comes to the future of the device.

A special Fire controller is being offered separately for all those who are interested in getting a better performance in the included titles.

The Amazon Fire TV is designed to be integrated with a number of other services from the company, but it is unclear whether the new platform can compete directly with the already launched Xbox One from Microsoft and PlayStation 4 from Sony.