SouljaGame ConsoleS the game console that never was

[GoodBytes]

Let's end the year with a good laugh after many disappointments in the tech news this year.

 

Less than a month ago, the American rapper, record producer, actor and entrepreneur  DeAndre Cortez Way, also known by his stage name: Soulja Boy, who hit big with rap music which hit the top charts starting with the music "Crank That" back in 2007.  Success didn't continue too long after 2009 for the artist, but his story is not the focus of this article.

 

Disappearing from the forefront of the music scenes for a number of years, the artists comes back with the gamer attention. Calling himself a gamer, he started to sale expensive gaming consoles. That is right, not just 1 console to compete with the big 3, but several! All with immense value by including several hundred, even thousands, of games (number varies between consoles). The hardware is so powerful it advertises that, depending on the unit you get, can play NES games all the way up to the Switch all in 4K!

 

Quote

Less than a month after Soulja Boy made an initial foray into the world of handheld and console gaming, and the project has been shut down. In a tweet, the musician and entrepreneur claimed that he had to "boss up," adding that he "didn't have a choice." Consequently, the two devices, SouljaGame Handheld and SouljaGame Console, have been withdrawn from sale.

The story began at the start of December, when the star announced the two consoles, sold through his SoljaWatch store. Keen-eyed observers who visited the retailer noticed that many of his products looked similar to the sort of IP-infringing wares you'll find on Alibaba or Wish. That included a pair of wireless earphones styled on AirPods, Beats-esque headphones and an, ahem, homage to the Apple Watch.

 

SouljaGame Handheld and Console, too, were -- according to Polygon -- a pair of drop shipped models from Chinese manufacturer Anbernic. The Soulja Boy versions were sold for $149.99 and $99.99, but if you bought directly from Anbernic, and they'd cost you just $105.99 and $72.99. Even worse is that both units were little more than emulators that could play titles from actual name-brand consoles.

 

Except... well....:

• By: "4K" he really means 720p.
• By game system it can play is really NES to PS1
• Many games are in Chinese only
• The system, as pointed by many already, are systems that he buys from China (probably via AliExpress or something) and resales with a massive markup
• He has no permission for distributing or selling any of the included games.
• He was called for on the above point on his Twitter, but he was fighting with people convinced that nothing can stop him, and insulted many people.
• The emulator is total junk (however, it was noted by some who got the console directly from China, that some PS1 games runs better than the official PlayStation 1 Classic from Sony)
• Save feature? Why Save when you'll never pick up any of these systems again after you touch it once. It does have 3 save state feature that works... at times... that you can use... I guess that is something... oh it doesn't work on PS1 games, it just crashes the game.
• Specs of systems? Well they were so many systems, it hard to present all.. but the console unit that looks like a small version of a XBox One S rip-off, is lighter than a game controller, has a mighty tiny board, the rest empty, and that board  is powered by nothing else than outdated hardware, such as a no-name Chinese ARM single-core CPU going at ~1GHz. and a mighty 1GB of RAM.

 

Anyway, as you can imagine, this didn't last long. While we don't know what happened exactly, on Twitter, the artists said:

 

This is after for the past several days prior, he was fighting with the community on Twitter with insults, acting like no one can stop him.

His nicest tweets:

 

It looks like Nintendo is the one that went after him, after his www.soujagame.com website redirects now to Nintendo.com

That said his other sites are still operating:

 - SoujaTech.com (which has no products)

 - SoujaWatch.com (which no longer has its over priced knock-off consoles, but still sales what looks like Apple Watch knock-off and knock-off Apple Air Puds).

 

Source 1: https://www.engadget.com/2018/12/31/soulja-boy-console/

Source 2:

 

For fun:

Tear down of one of the systems

 

Rundown of his other systems and more in depth look at the software:

 

Anyway.. 2018 is ending, Happy 2019 to everyone!

Wishing you a great 2019 year to your and your family, and hopefully, one that is less disappointing.

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

He's afraid to admit Nintendo was going to sue him.

 

Nintendo should've just done so anyway.

[Cyberspirit]

I mean, Nintendo is known to be very aggressive with copyright so, you have to be an absolute moron to even try something like this.

 

Luckily they are loosening the rules a little when it comes to streaming and recording their games but, emulation and all that is still a big no-no.

[vanished]

So blatant false advertising, copyright infringement, piracy, just to start, and then topped off with insulting people who question him and then immediately backpedalling.

 

Amazing, clearly someone who knows how the world works and how to make a legitimate successful product. /s

[PlayStation 2]

Guess he got cranked

[Guest]

Soulja Boy off in this oh
Watch me cop it, watch me sue
Watch me cop dat, Soulja Game
Then Niten dat oh
Now watch me sue

[Trik'Stari]

Hilarious. This article was a wonderful Birthday gift for me @GoodBytes, thank you so much.

 

For once I actually want Nintendo to sue the shit out of someone.

[Murasaki]

Honestly I still don't get what on Earth convinced him this was a good idea. Did he think it would be fine just because China can do it?

[Cyberspirit]

2 minutes ago, Mayushii said:

Did he think it would be fine just because China can do it?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's why he thought that this was a good idea.

[Majinhoju]

I'm amazed how he actually thought this was a good idea and did not see any of this coming.

[demonix00]

1 hour ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

He's afraid to admit Nintendo was going to sue him.

 

Nintendo should've just done so anyway.

Why do you think that he had no choice but to take all the consoles down from his shop.

 

He did it so that he wouldn't be sued into the ground by nintendo (more then likely because he got a cease and desist letter from nintendo) and then have what little he had left be picked over by the other vultures that had their intellectual property illegally used on "his" consoles.

[GoodBytes]

1 hour ago, Mayushii said:

Honestly I still don't get what on Earth convinced him this was a good idea. Did he think it would be fine just because China can do it?

No idea, maybe he though that he would be immune as he would be a reseller. So any publisher would go after the Chinese company making those consoles (and have a very hard time) and he would be immune. If that is the case, But he clearly didn't consult his lawyer, as it doesn't work that way at all.

 

He also clearly didn't even try those consoles. He saw the promo page, saw it like if it was a goldmine, ready to exploit, like if people outside of China have no idea about these systems.

 

That is all I can think off 

[GoodBytes]

41 minutes ago, demonix00 said:

He did it so that he wouldn't be sued into the ground by nintendo (more then likely because he got a cease and desist letter from nintendo) and then have what little he had left be picked over by the other vultures that had their intellectual property illegally used on "his" consoles.

Maybe SoujaBoy got a sneak peek at Nintendo next Classic series console, and it was so superior that he took down all his consoles immediately:
 

 

[sof006]

Guy is an absolute idiot. Most I can comment...

[Andreas Lilja]

Sadly only a few YouTubers covered this right. The I-read-product-specs ones were boring and nearly everyone copied the framework. 

[Syntaxvgm]

I should have bought them, these are basically a part of history at this point. They might even be worth something a few years from now 

[lewdicrous]

I'm just surprised that people complimented him for his "involvement in tech"

[Carclis]

Guess he didn't want to soldier up for a legal battle with Nintendo

[mr moose]

33 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

I should have bought them, these are basically a part of history at this point. They might even be worth something a few years from now 

The sad part about that statement is I think I agree with it on some level.    It might not be for another 30 years when consoles and rap are retro and hip again.

 

 

On another level, whether hes a moron or not, sometimes I wish I had his confidence.   "Nintendo won't care", it's kinda more like: "Look mum,  I can fly".

[Syntaxvgm]

52 minutes ago, mr moose said:

The sad part about that statement is I think I agree with it on some level.    It might not be for another 30 years when consoles and rap are retro and hip again.

 

 

On another level, whether hes a moron or not, sometimes I wish I had his confidence.   "Nintendo won't care", it's kinda more like: "Look mum,  I can fly".

I'm thinking like 10 years from now maybe, idk. There's a good chance not as well, I just kinda would want them anyway. 
I almost bought like 30 ps2 slims right when they were about to end production and I didn't. Like I had an order lined up an everything, even a nice cool dry place cleared to store them. It wasn't even I was worried it wouldn't be worth it, I was more worried that I needed to keep the money in my bank in the short term more. 

Looking at what even slim new in box ones go for I lost out on that one lol, but that was like guaranteed price increase where this is anyone's guess. 

[suicidalfranco]

 

welp, he still has the eSport...

[D13H4RD]

You know, reading his responses to all the criticism such as "Nintendo ain't gonna do SHIT", I sometimes feel like asking him 

 

"What are you smokin' dawg? Cuz whatever you smokin' there boy, I want some too."

 

The guy seriously has had massive balls to even think that Nintendo wouldn't do jack shit, especially since Nintendo as of late is notorious for aggressively going after those using their IP illegitimately. 

[williamcll]

Or I could buy them from the brand they are based from.

[Murasaki]

Hey atleast we got a good JonTron video out of this.

[Trik'Stari]

17 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Maybe SoujaBoy got a sneak peek at Nintendo next Classic series console, and it was so superior that he took down all his consoles immediately:
 

 

I'm imagining the level of "done" of the lawyer that had to write a Cease and Desist to "Mr. SoujaBoy", and it's hilarious.