I suspect what happened is that someone approached him with the idea of putting his brand on it, and he was flattered; otherwise it's basically the Amazon drop shipping business.
He's not even branding it really. He's just shipping junk from China wholesale and selling it locally, like many other people do. The only difference is that he's somewhat prominent, so he gets some free publicity out of it. That same publicity is probably going to get him into some legal trouble.
What makes you think he isn’t just interested in video games, discovered emulators and liked the product and saw that it wasn’t being marketed to his audience?
Are you familiar with the ways musicians, particularly in hip hop, diversify their business portfolios by selling product lines?
This feels like what happens to professional sports players. Very often they go from $0 to millions with no training or professional support on how to deal with 7+ zeros of wealth. They quickly attract bottom-feeders promising "crazy returns" on anything and everything. Witness the endless stream of sports star "owned" restaurants and bars that wink in and out of existence, and the recent sanctions by the SEC on ICO promotion.
The Soulja watch is interesting to me. I see very similar ones coming from China, but it’s pretty amazing that at any hardware spec a “smart” watch could be sold as little as $10, let alone with profit. They’re shameless rips of Apple, but at $10 damn that’s crazy.
The really interesting part is that the highlight marketing photos are using pictures of an Apple Watch and when you actually check the product, the "real" photos is nothing like it.
This is basically adding a known brand onto cheap tech knockoff products.
When you see crap like that being made for $10 you should immediately think "that is made with disgusting labour". No part of you should be impressed with this. Not saying expensive branded stuff is any better, but they arent smart in making a $10 watch - they just don't have the momentum of a big brand to sell it a thousand percent markup.
TLDR; products like this are just a terrible production of waste using barely legal labour. Pay it no attention.
So has anyone tried the Chinese pirate console that he's apparently rebranding?
It looks like it's this one [1], $89 on Amazon. Emulates PS1, GBC, SNES and more, with 843 games, including classics like Super Mario Bros.
I'd absolutely love to have something like this in my living room, but I think I'd prefer a somewhat less suspect, more hacker-friendly system where one could easily add new games. But I also don't know anything about this one.
Doesn't come with any game ROMs, but there are enough places you can download them. Once you have them, it's just a simple file transfer to install them.
After the ausus EEE series became hip I tried a random cheap product which was supposed to be a media center / entertainment system. It was horribly slow, running android. Even more worrying was that they rubbed remote desktop stuff under my nose all the time. I was so scared to handle any remotely personal with it that I gave up on it after 2 sessions of messing with it.
If you don't care about the money, test you luck. But I would be very careful. At least considering security/privacy.
Off-brand game consoles with preloaded pirated games exist for a long long time. They actually make me somewhat nostalgic for early 90s, when they were ubiquitous in my country. Maybe in first-world countries (where original consoles are being officially distributed) they are exotic, but definitely not everywhere.
Ha! I have one of these that i built into a portable arcade machine. Some of the hardware has Xbox references on the pcbs, though i suspect the just didn't bother to remove from the source, though it could be surplus from earlier versions.
The games are hilarious and completely ripped off, some the Japanese only market versions, others weird mash-ups (like 8-bit Mario but with looney tunes characters).
Mine most certainly does not output 4k (what would a 4k gb-color emulator exactly look like? Gigantic, crisp pixels?)
800 preloaded games? The disregard for copyright is embarrassingly naive... usually the idea with selling something is to come out financially ahead in the end.
It’s just marketing, I don’t see what’s so strange about it. He runs a public brand, and he looks for products that he thinks can be effectively marketed through that brand.
These are just Alibaba emulators with ROMs preloaded right? How is he expecting not to get sued by every game dev and manufacturer from the last 30 years?
For the same reason Prada or Gucci doesn't go after every illegal vendor selling fake merchandise on the street corner, even if you go after them and win what are you going to take? There's very little profit involved in these endeavors and most people are wise enough to be able to detect cheap junk and not buy it. Soulja Boy isn't getting rich off of this, but Nintendo might take notice if this blows up too much.
because the games are all from a few devs and they get a cut. This is too obvious to be this stupid. Take a look at this guy and ask yourself how hes been so successful. Hes crazy like a fox.
I've found it interesting that knockoff SNES and NES classics are pervasive not just online these days, but and brick and mortar malls. For the unknowing parent buying for their kids, they seem like the better offer, they usually list having hundreds of games rather than the couple dozen with the legitimate consoles. At a glance, they look official, having similar styling to both the hardware and the classic Nintendo box look.
I would sincerely love to know how he got this idea. I mean, he is a renowned musician. Why would he out of nowhere sell something that reeks of piracy and can get him into problems? I fail to understand.
He's broke and a glorified scam artist at this point. Has been selling all sorts of garbage Chinese products marked up under his own "brand", as well as the scams where he offers to buy everyone products for "free" and you just pay the shipping.
He has been broke for a long time. He spent all his money really fast and never really recovered. He has been caught numerous times flaunting "Motion Picture" money as if it's real.
Rap music has a strong history of building your brand then licensing products with your name/brand on them or even to the extent of Kanye where he actually designs his own fashion line/shoes.
The product page website was originally a vehicle for a knock-off smartwatch. Clearly he's just shamelessly pitching a drop-shippable console with some branding on it. I doubt he had any influence on its creation, and will probably just plead ignorance if the lawyers come out.
I'm shocked by how few people realize the scheme he's running. Then again, it only involved a tiny bit less effort than 99% of other celebrity-endorsed products.
He got the same idea from the people who convinced various "celebrities" to rep ICO's. By which I mean someone flashed a bunch of money in their direction to be a spokesperson for some drop-shipped, cheap, buggy emulator.
Well I mean this seems entirely reasonable to me - I’m not sure but I suspect he isn’t an engineer, and even if he is, why waste time and money on designing something that has already been designed and built?
I’m also surprised that so many people in the comments are against this, especially given how often I’ve seen people on HN arguing we should be getting rid of IP law.
[+] [-] pjc50|7 years ago|reply
I suspect what happened is that someone approached him with the idea of putting his brand on it, and he was flattered; otherwise it's basically the Amazon drop shipping business.
[+] [-] pkulak|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zeroname|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] erikpukinskis|7 years ago|reply
Are you familiar with the ways musicians, particularly in hip hop, diversify their business portfolios by selling product lines?
Are you familiar with Fenty, Beats by Dre, etc?
[+] [-] akeck|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baldfat|7 years ago|reply
We really need to rethink our system where there will never be a time when games from Atari will become public domain.
[+] [-] paulpauper|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] azinman2|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] slashink|7 years ago|reply
This is basically adding a known brand onto cheap tech knockoff products.
[+] [-] rasz|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jamesb93|7 years ago|reply
TLDR; products like this are just a terrible production of waste using barely legal labour. Pay it no attention.
[+] [-] atombender|7 years ago|reply
It looks like it's this one [1], $89 on Amazon. Emulates PS1, GBC, SNES and more, with 843 games, including classics like Super Mario Bros.
I'd absolutely love to have something like this in my living room, but I think I'd prefer a somewhat less suspect, more hacker-friendly system where one could easily add new games. But I also don't know anything about this one.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Console-Entertainment-System-Classic-...
[+] [-] thg|7 years ago|reply
Doesn't come with any game ROMs, but there are enough places you can download them. Once you have them, it's just a simple file transfer to install them.
[+] [-] LolNoGenerics|7 years ago|reply
If you don't care about the money, test you luck. But I would be very careful. At least considering security/privacy.
[+] [-] fhbdukfrh|7 years ago|reply
It's like an Arduino inside a shoebox.
[+] [-] fabricexpert|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kozak|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fhbdukfrh|7 years ago|reply
The games are hilarious and completely ripped off, some the Japanese only market versions, others weird mash-ups (like 8-bit Mario but with looney tunes characters).
Mine most certainly does not output 4k (what would a 4k gb-color emulator exactly look like? Gigantic, crisp pixels?)
[+] [-] bonestamp2|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dleslie|7 years ago|reply
https://m.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/300-in-1-portable-retro-m...
And, of course, Amazon and Ali Baba have been selling them for ages.
[+] [-] dangerboysteve|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jaruzel|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Loughla|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rasz|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] danmg|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ad-hominem|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] erikpukinskis|7 years ago|reply
It’s no different than Urban Outfitters.
[+] [-] swarnie_|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] balls187|7 years ago|reply
Or some suit somewhere told him it's okay.
Or he just doesn't care because he'd get a C&D first, comply and keep the profits.
[+] [-] sodafountan|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zeroname|7 years ago|reply
Probably by being broke. Nintendo might still prosecute to make a point though.
[+] [-] iseeyoubydesign|7 years ago|reply
But well see, maybe hes finally went crazy.
[+] [-] Impossible|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ocdtrekkie|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ghostly_s|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] orblivion|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wprapido|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fb03|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] okmokmz|7 years ago|reply
https://twitter.com/souljaboy/status/814639677550362624?lang...
https://news.avclub.com/we-can-all-learn-something-from-the-...
http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2017/02/soulja-boy-sean-kingston-...
[+] [-] mkhalil|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whywhywhywhy|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] schnevets|7 years ago|reply
I'm shocked by how few people realize the scheme he's running. Then again, it only involved a tiny bit less effort than 99% of other celebrity-endorsed products.
[+] [-] joshstrange|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] azinman2|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] olliej|7 years ago|reply
I’m also surprised that so many people in the comments are against this, especially given how often I’ve seen people on HN arguing we should be getting rid of IP law.
[+] [-] kakarot|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ug02nice|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sehugg|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yakshaving_jgt|7 years ago|reply
Soulja Boy, I tell 'em
Hey, I got a new cheap emulator for you all called the SouljaGame
You!
You gotta steal intellectual property rights then crank back three times from left to right