Soulja Boy’s game console is basically a Rebranded Chinese knock-off
Pop-rap, hip-hop artist Soulja Boy venturing forth into the gaming industry, but not quite on the right footing. He released his own brand of “game consoles” — a handheld gaming device and of course, a dedicated gaming console.
We definitely have seen popular artists in the past build their own branded products much like 50-cent with Vitamin Water and Dr. Dre with Beats. Soulja Boy, however, is diving into a different market. He’s competing with the triple-threat big dogs: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Is he gonna pull-off an Elon Musk on the gaming industry? The odds are very low especially if it’s the first time he’s going into this without prior knowledge in the market. Enter his game consoles — which are basically a cheap Chinese knock off rebranded as his own line-up of game consoles. The Soulja’s game console retails for about a $150 and the handheld console for $100. The consoles themselves are made by a Chinese retro gaming company called Anbernic. Yes, you’ve heard it right, Retro.
These consoles aren’t made to compete with the streamlined PS4 and Xbone (Xbox One), but rather marketed as retro gaming consoles — built with multiple emulators ranging from NES all the way to PS1.
The main game console boasts around 3,000+ classic games and the handheld having 800+ games in the included game cartridge.
With all these retro games and platforms packed into a console, it makes you wonder about its legitimacy. These games are all copyrighted by their respective owners. Did Soulja Boy opt with the proper use of these games in his consoles? The line is still blurry on this one.
The console’s performance is decent. It is freakishly light but it works — which is the majority of every consumer’s concern. Who would buy it though? Would it sell well? Looking at the price per value, this is obviously overpriced. You can even get the off-brand Anbernic console for nearly half the price.
I don’t really know what Soulja Boy aims to gain on this but he has balls pulling this off. I am looking forward to what happens next and maybe, a breakthrough from an individual is not far off.