Thursday, October 14, 2010

Welcome To The Jungle

Panasonic announced a new gaming device called the "Jungle" last week.

Seriously. I'm not kidding, I swear.

Here are a few details:
The clamshell device will allegedly sport a super high-resolution display, features a full QWERTY keyboard along with what looks like a touch sensitive d-pad and button arrangement, and may run atop a custom Linux build. The Jungle will also apparently sport a mini HDMI port, a micro USB port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

If you're having trouble figuring out the market for this device (don't feel bad--I had no idea, either), it's apparently MMORPG players. Yes, apparently the dude who spends 10 hours a day playing WOW desperately wants to be spending that time out of the house--while still playing.

Sir, that is a bold stroke of analytical genius. Well, if "genius" means "WTF are you people thinking?" Mobile gaming on cellular phones is exploding, so it makes perfect sense to release something that both won't fit in your pocket and isn't a phone.

Well played, gentlemen. Well played.

Chris Kohler has an excellent look back at, well, disaster, in his recent piece Failure in My Pocket: Gaming’s Tortured History of Handheld Convergence. Jungle, your membership card is the mail.

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