Qualcomm-backed startup Zeebo will begin shipping a new computer-game console next month that targets Brazil and other emerging markets.
The console from two-year-old San Diego company will include four embedded games and carry a suggested retail price of $199 upon launch in Brazil, its first market. Prices are expected to fall to $179 later this year and $149 next year.
Zeebo, which enters a marketplace dominated by Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s Wii consoles, includes an innovative wireless system for downloading games. The Zeebo is based on a Qualcomm chipset and its ZeeboNet Wireless Network is designed for secure and piracy-free downloading.
Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, said Zeebo is attacking a market that rival console makers, who are constrained by hardware costs, have chosen to ignore.
The console, the “first affordable 3D gaming platform for developing nations,” will be aimed at the growing middle class in the Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC), the company said.
Zeebo’s wireless Wireless game downloads have been “endorsed by cell phone handset makers for years,” Mr. Pachter said in response to e-mail questions. He noted that Nintendo is about to embrace the wireless download model with its DSi handheld. The DSi is scheduled to be rolled out within weeks in the U.S. market.
Two-year-old Zeebo was born out of a partnership between San Diego-based Qualcomm and Tectoy S.A., a Brazilian video-game company.
Among the titles included in the Zeebo console for soccer-made Brazil is FIFA 09.
The Nintendo Wii sells for $249.99, while the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, which come in various configurations, typically sell for about $400.
"The Zeebo console will deliver a truly engaging and entertaining gaming experience to a potential billion new consumers around the world, many of whom have never experienced gaming in the home," John Rizzo, Zeebo chief executive said in a statement. "The system … delivers high value and warranty protection compared to gray-market products with no need for a separate wireless access plan."
Mr. Rizzo was product marketing director for Macintosh at Apple and vice president of global market planning for Oracle.