Bay Area company Green Throttle Games aims to combine the portability and power of mobile phones with a full-on console experience. The company was formed by executives with experience at RedOctane, Nokia, Palm, and more. How Green Throttle works is that you connect your phone to your television and connect a Bluetooth controller — dubbed Atlas — to your phone. It will have first-party games that take full advantage of the setup, while also offering tools to help third-party developers make their games compatible with the controller. There will also be an Android app that will help users find games that are compatible with Green Throttle.
Leading the way is CEO and co-founder Charles Huang. He was COO and co-founder of RedOctane, famous for the Guitar Hero games. Huang is accompanied by president & COO Matt Crowley, who has product experience with Nokia, Palm, and Philips Electronics. Rounding out the team is vice president & CTO Karl Townsend, one of the founders of Handspring with experience at HP and Palm. As you can see, the company has experience in both gaming and mobile. Huang helped create one of the biggest videogame crazes in the last decade, while his COO and CTO understand the mobile space and working with mobile developers.
The early reactions to Green Throttle have been interesting. Some pundits think it has a big advantage over the competing Ouya system in that a separate box isn’t required. Some believe that Green Throttle’s first-party games are the make-or-break feature of the system. Technology and convenience will only get you so far. Systems like Green Throttle and Ouya need great games in order to thrive.
What are your thoughts on Green Throttle. Are you interested in the product? Do you think it will succeed? Please let me know in the comments section!
let’s go backwards 10+ years in controller design. Looks like the OG Xbox controller, but with even taller buttons and sticks.