Is Google Building a Games Console?

The Sony PlayStation 4, Micrsoft Xbox One and Nintendo Wii U can look forward to yet more competition soon, if a new report is to be believed. Google is building a videogame console based on the Android OS, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cites « sources familiar with the matter. » Google would neither confirm nor deny the report.

The rumor comes in the same week as the release of the Ouya, a $99 Kickstarter-backed console and controller combo that runs a version of Android and fits into the palm of your hand. It is not, however, quite plug and play.

SEE ALSO Ouya: Fun For Hackers, Not Ready for Retail

If Google were to develop its own console, it could count on a lot of useful feedback from Ouya’s passionate user base. It would also have a library of Android games ready to go on day one: there are more than 100,000 games in the Google Play store.

By contrast, the PlayStation 3 currently has around 800 games available. And although admittedly they are nearly all higher production values and far more expensive than the average Android title, Google could be betting there’s a market for a wider variety of casual games you can just pick up and play on your TV.

According to the Journal‘s sources, Google is also working on a digital watch that runs Android, as well as a successor to that much maligned and much delayed orb-like media player, the Nexus Q.

Apple is also rumored to be working on a games console. So that marketplace may soon get very crowded indeed.

Image: Justin Sullivan, Getty News