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.