Zeebo

The Zeebo was a console developed by Brazilian company Tectoy and Zeebo Inc. It was known to be one of the first consoles not to have physical media games, having just digital purchases, so you didn't have to buy loads of physical copies.

Specifications

 * Box Contents: A Zeebo console, a power supply (which looks more like a cell phone charger), a Boomerang controller, a keyboard, and a Z-Pad controller.
 * Software: Z-Wheel, a BREW (Binary Runtime Enviroment for Wireless)-based firmware made by a yard fund company.
 * Games: Ports of PlayStation 1 and Android/iOS games.
 * Hardware: BREW-powered ARM11 / QDSP-5 in Qualcomm MSM SoC running at 528MHz, ATI Imageon (later renamed Adreno) running at 4 million triangles per second, and 1GB eNAND Flash memory.

Why It Flopped

 * 1) The console and the accessories were made very cheaply, making them pretty easy to break.
 * 2) It was only sold in Brazil and Mexico, making its production very limited.
 * 3) Too expensive for Brazilian customers, costing R$499 at launch (around $249 USD). This price is cheap compared to other consoles sold in Brazil, but considering all the downgrades the console had, it wasn't enough. To add insult to injury, it actually had a budget price in Mexico, costing $2000 MXN, which is just US$150 at the time.
 * 4) * The console failed so badly that nowadays, it can cost more than $300, if the console has all of the available games, the price will rise a lot.
 * 5) * Zeebo Inc. wanted to drop the console's price to R$299 (about $130 USD), which while still would've been somewhat expensive, would've made the system competitively priced with Tec Toy's variants of the Master System and Mega Drive. Qualcomm, however, refused to oblige and insisted that the console should be sold at R$499 while being bundled with 3 free games. It wasn't until 2010 when the price tag dropped to R$299, Zeebo's original intended price.
 * 6) Very few games. It was released as a gaming solution, but most of the games were Android/iOS ports (Resident Evil 4 and Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D) and games from older consoles, especially PS1 games (like Pac-Mania and Tekken 2).
 * 7) * On that note, the system is severely underpowered in terms of specs, running on a BREW-powered ARM processor, which wasn't really well-suited for gaming.
 * 8) Most of the games had unresponsive controls.
 * 9) Unappealing console exclusives.
 * 10) The ports of the PS1 games had worse quality than the original counterparts.
 * 11) At the time that it was released, the chart was even lower than the Nintendo Wii, thanks to the Qualcomm processor that is a carrion even on Android.
 * 12) The controllers are very uncomfortable.
 * 13) After its failure, Tectoy decided to turn the console into an educational toy, which made the situation far worse.
 * 14) The controllers feel flimsy and cheaply-made.
 * 15) The console's virtual avatars, the Zeeboids, are rip-offs of the Miis from the vastly-superior Wii.
 * 16) Since the internet service for the console, ZeeboNet, was shut down on September 30, 2011, it's impossible to buy or download more games for the console, and until today, no way to hack or modify the console has been found.
 * 17) The loading screens last 3 minutes or even longer, even for games like Pac-Mania.

The Only Redeeming Quality

 * 1) While badly executed, the idea of digital games became very popular in 10 years. The idea of an all-digital console first resurfaced in about the same amount of time with the XBOX One S All-Digital Edition.

Reception
The console was poorly-received, it has a score 2.33 / 5 on GameFAQs, and selling only 30,000 units rather than the company's projection of 600,000.

After the console was discontinued, Zeebo Inc. was shut down in 2014, but TecToy still continued to selling plug-and-play systems such as Atari Flashback 7 and Master System and Mega Drive plug-and-plays, which they were very successful in Brazil.

Trivia

 * This was the first console to be produced in Brazil.
 * The Zeebo controller's plug type is USB, which can be somehow used for PCs.
 * Several games were planned to be released on the Zeebo, like ports of Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure, but they were shelved for unknown reasons.

Videos
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