Tag: xbox one

Rumors suggest that Alibaba is making its own game console

Alibaba, one of China’s largest online retailers and mobile commerce giants, may be on the verge of breaking into the game industry. According to analysis from Niko Partners, a market research firm, the company is reportedly developing its own game console, which will compete with the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. Alibaba has not yet announced plans for such an endeavor, but the company has been expanding into various new sectors in recent years, including mobile commerce.

Console would compete with those coming to China from other countries

Niko Partners suggests that Alibaba could release a gaming console as early as next year, but there are not any details concerning such a project that are readily available. If this rumor proves to be true, Alibaba could become a major disruptor in the game industry, offering new competition that has not existed in that market for several years. China’s game market is expected to grow rapidly in the near future, as the Chinese government has lifted its ban on foreign consoles being sold in the country.

Microsoft and Sony could face major competition if Alibaba develops its own console

Lifting this ban means that Microsoft and Sony can bring their consoles to China. These consoles are expected to perform relatively well in these Chinese market, as they will face modest competition with domestic console developers. If Alibaba does enter into the game industry, however, Microsoft and Sony may have a significant fight on their hands. Moreover, Alibaba is a global company, which means that its console would not be restricted to the Chinese market for long, if it manages to find any success to begin with.

Alibaba could bring mobile commerce services to consoles in the future

A game console from Alibaba could make use of the various services and platforms that the company has designed. It is becoming more common for mobile devices to be integrated into game consoles, allowing people to play games on their smartphones or make use of other digital services. Alibaba could include some mobile commerce features into its potential game console.

It has been reported from a number of technology news sources that Project Fortaleza is on hold.

Although the rumors have been flying about a pair of augmented reality glasses that were expected to be released at some point in the not-too-distant future, by Microsoft, reports are suddenly being released that suggest that the wait is going to be considerably longer than expected because the project, as a whole, has been put on hold.

Expectations for AR wearable technology have been high since a Microsoft patent was leaked last year.

The augmented reality device had been in the works as a peripheral for Xbox One. The codename for this product was called “Project Fortaleza”. That said, since that first leak, there hasn’t been a great deal of information that has come available from the company. Moreover, Microsoft, itself, has never confirmed or denied that the wearable technology exists, at all. Now, it looks as though the Project Fortaleza work has been “temporarily cancelled”. The original report was made on WPDang, a Chinese website.

This suggests that the augmented reality project is simply on hold and not actually stopped altogether.

According to the source, the reason that the AR glasses are being placed on the back burner has nothing to do with the actually implementing the technology. The development of the device didn’t seem to be coming with any hitches, at all. However, a considerable number of the tech patents that are involved in the process of making this device do not actually belong to Microsoft. Therefore, the company would be required to license those patents – an action that is now keeping Fortaleza from becoming available to Xbox One owners.

Some of the patents have already been licensed for the Kinect sensor’s second generation, but those licenses are specifically meant for that one device and cannot be carried over to be used for anything else.

Until those issues are sorted out, it is clear that the primary push being made by Microsoft will not be in augmented reality. This could end up presenting the company with some challenges as it looks as though Sony and its Oculus are hoping to be the next breakthrough in VR gaming.