Google Acquires Green Throttle Games, Signals Android Console Possibilities

The possibility that Google is working on an Android-powered game console has been speculated since at least last summer. While the company still has yet to announce any such device, a recent acquisition would seem to indicate that it’s getting closer. A post on PandoDaily reports that Google has purchased what was left of Green Throttle Games, the makers of a Bluetooth controller for Android, along with a now-defunct app that would give developers the power to allow for multiple controllers on one device.

As it happens, the company’s efforts to gain a toehold in the Android gaming market seemed to go belly up late last year. Today, the post reports that Matt Crowley and Karl Townsend, two of the company’s three cofounders, had joined Google in some unspecified capacity, along with other members of the company’s staff. However, it’s not clear what bits of the company’s tech might be going to Google too. Even still, considering Green Throttle’s focus on Android, and the fact that, well, Android comes from Google, it’s not hard to see how these folks might fit into the company’s plans for the future.

The post points that way as well: it cites “sources close to the situation” who say that Google’s hiring of those staff members indicates Google’s efforts to shore up its gaming console. Meanwhile, last month Amazon bought game developer Double Helix, and a few weeks later we heard that Amazon was looking to release its own Android-powered gaming console sometime this month. March is almost half over, and Amazon hasn’t made a peep, so we may be in for a longer wait on that one, if it’s true at all. But between rumors that these two giants entering the gaming space in a direct way, it makes one wonder what’s going to be left for smaller companies like Ouya and GameStick.

[Source: PandoDaily via TechCrunch]