Amazon’s newly announced Fire TV is NOT a game console

The Amazon Fire TV was announced earlier today, but despite the device’s optional controller and slate of available games, the Amazon’s Kindle VP Pete Larsen says, “This is absolutely not a game console.” In a recent interview with Engadget following the Fire TV’s unveiling, Larsen said, “This isn’t trying to be a console, but we do think there’s a great opportunity there in between a console and a smartphone for fun, quality games.” 

What is Fire TV? Well, it’s Amazon’s set-top box. Er, at least it has that functionality. But Fire TV does more than just stream media, thankfully; we’ve got plenty of devices that do that stuff. The $99 tiny black box that Amazon unveiled this morning in New York City streams media (video and music through a variety of services) and it also plays games. Despite that being half the device’s functionality, Amazon VP Pete Larsen reassured us that Fire TV “isn’t trying to be a game console.” So, what is it trying to be then? Good question — even Larsen doesn’t know. We asked him what product category Fire TV is aimed at. “We didn’t really think about that,” he told us.