How Google could become a game console heavyweight to rival the likes of Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony:
- Supply USB gamepad drivers for Android OS (this code is actually already in the GNU/Linux kernel underneath Android OS).
- Put joystick hooks into the Android Java API and market this fact to developers.
- Encourage TV retailers to sell branded USB gamepads as add-ons with their Android based set-top boxes and TVs.
Developers could then put joystick support in their games, and people could play said games on their TVs through their Android OS set-top boxes. USB Gamepads are a stable, cheap, and robust technology which everyone understands.
This may result in a new indie console gaming golden age, with all of the wonderful new indie games of recent years running in peoples' lounge rooms on their TVs just like in the 80s. Admit it, wouldn't you love to sit cross legged together under the TV and return to the days of Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario Bros., Alex Kidd, Commander Keen, and friends? Only newer, and cheaper, and open, and network multiplayer. Oh boy, that is a vision I find irresistable!
A guy can dream, right?