Sounds like the Phantom, though in the Brazilian context that concept would probably do better.

That's cool... I would get one if I could.

Wow, i hate it when people act like "America" is the only "country" that has sliced bread or something.

I mean... "considering that in a lot pf[sic] parts of South America, working internet is still a rarity"...

I love what you do, both here and over at tomopop, but that post was both ignorant, and condescending.

Now, as the human torch would say; "Flame on".

"Zeebo boasts one very special perk, which is the ability to download all games for the system via a 3G network at no additional cost."

"Games are slated to retail between $10-$30 apiece"

Huh? Am I misreading this?

@Char: The 3G network part is free. It's the games that cost money.

I could see something like this being relatively successful..if Brazilians couldn't pick up a chipped PS2 for the same price and then get pirated games for a good deal cheaper than what's offered on the Zeebo. It's a good idea, but the price point likely won't cut it.

Colette was referring to infrastructure challenges in South America (some areas have only satellite-based, etc).

Not the best choice of words; I will advise.

DISCLAIMER: I live in Brazil and work in the local video game industry.

@hcore: actually, "working internet in some places of South America" is technically accured, and the same can be said about North America (USA included). I think that maybe excluding South Korea, you can replace "South America" by pretty much anything. But you are right, people from richer countries can be condescending with poorer countries without knowing everything.

@MF DOOM: coincidentally, TecToy also sells the Megadrive with 86 games in memory and also a portable version with 20 games in it.

@brainderailment: unfortunatelly the prices in Brazil aren't the same than in the USA. The cheapest XBox 360 costs around US$870, believe it or not. I saw Nintendo DS games being sold by no less than US$75, some reaching US$100. Even older PS2 games can reach this prices.

Kind of a neat little idea but I would see this as being a glorified computer...but cheaper I suppose.

Tec-Toy always interests me. Is this the start of the death of physical media? I'm interested to see how successful it becomes. This sort of method seems to work with the iPod Touch/iPhone.

Colette, ADSL internet was available in São Paulo, Brazil, before it was in Los Angeles, US.

Most South American countries either have a broad internet infrastructurte, or they're pioneering technologies to widen support in remote places.

And please don't take offense, I'm just trying to defend my country because I commonly find it misrepresented when people put the words "Technology" and "South America" in the same sentence.

I'm the former editor of PC Magazine Brazil and I'm currently Editor-in-Chief of Nintendo World (official magazine) and Assistant-Editor of EGM Brazil – I've traveled to many cities inside and outside my country, and I can assure you and other Destructoid readers that "internet is not readily available" is really not the case...

Also: Zeebo games will cost from R$ 10 to R$ 30, that translates to US$ 4 to US$ 15.

And just to make things perfectly clear: I'm a regular Destructoid reader / fan, and I really enjoy reading this site. Other than Jim Sterling, I like pretty much everyone here ;-)

Have a great day;

--
Orlando Ortiz

nigga stole my idea

@ Niero, colette

No offense taken, to be honest. I was just pointing out that while the U.S. does, quite obviously, have the better hand on economy, the rest of America is BY NO MEANS a jungle.


@Everyone

Like many have already explained, what hurts us here is the lack of readily available dollars at the regular price. I buy my electronics and games with the government assigned dollars... They are not given out free, they are just sold at the regular price, and regulated. I get these dollars at 2.15 Bsf each... My dad makes well over 10000.00 Bsf a month, and we are a middle class family. The problem here is that these dollars, like i said before, are regulated. We get $400 for internet used, we get $600 cash, and we get $5000 if we plan to go on a trip abroad and can provide the papers.


Did i mention the games are not distributed in Venezuela?

You have to buy them from your neighborhood video game importer... at 500Bsf each, or $250 if we speak about official dollars. The parallel dollar goes for well over 5.00Bsf, so thats what keeps the prices up.


We used to be an economic powerhouse, but thanks to a fucking loony president, we now have some of the weakest economy in south America, and it really is not that much of a pain to acquire these games, seeing as there are usually more than 2 credit cards per household.


Colombia gets their games distributed directly by Microsoft, so the change is great in prices... If i go to Colombia(i live about 2 hours away) with my government bought dollars, and purchase a copy of Gears 2, it will ring up at around $80 or so dollars, do you see it?

@Naim Master
While i naturally agree with most of your post...

WTF? Like we are in Africa? So you are trading one type of derogatory use of nationality for another?

This console was not meant to fight Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft. It just wants to catch the "emerging" people and the younger gamers (people between 9-12 years old). I have a PS2 but will buy this pretty baby for sure (I live in Brazil, so that makes things easier) and the prices of the games are pretty cheap, ranging from USD 4 to USD 12. My only concern is that the price of Zeebo (R$ 599 = USD 280) can put it on the list of "forgotten consoles".

Tectoy is a SEGA Licenced company and also responsible for the selling of Sega Master System and Sega Genesis here nowadays. So you pretty much can expect some SMS/Genesis Classic games on Zeebo.

I trust in Zeebo! I think it is a major step on Brazilian's Gaming Technology!

This is partially my fault. I made an off-hand comment about connectivity challenges in south america when we were discussing the story in the office. I actually used to work for PickSAT, an internet satellite provider for Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, and a few other places. We know Brazil is one of the top 10 most connected countries. It was just bad choice of words.

Anyway, back to the Zeebo or Weeaboo or whatever. Hot or not?

@Niero

Haha, im glad you know that, and I don't think the south Americans who read that really got offended, as much as they thought it was a pretty ignorant thing to say, and then decided to point out the flaw there, just like anyone else would point out a wrong fact in any other story.

Hey guys, foreign people have money too.

Seriously Brazil is a very developed country, just stop thinking its a plain 3rd world country full of sand, africans and AIDS.

Could be interesting to see how this works.

Ok, one more brazilian here. And I find this idea very interesting.
I have a Wii for almost a year, and because I don't use pirate games, I only have 6 games besides Wii Sports. And 6 is a lot to some people

So, the situation here is pretty dificulty. But Zeebo by no means will try to fight with the next-gen consoles. It's an option to people that doesn't have money for a new console and want to stay on the legality.

I don't know how this will turn out. And R$599 is a bit pricy: It's possible to find PS2 at this price rate. The difference are the games, they cost a lot. Good luck for you Tec Toy. Oh, and plz, on the next Mega Drive put some more classic Sega games, not shit like "sudoku". Over and out.

sounds like a big scam