Microconsole domain portfolio for sale

While many of us are expecting it to be the year when Microsoft and Sony bring out new machines and try to get their platform stories moving toward perihelion, it seems that other companies were thinking differently. We already knew about the Ouya, of course, and the rumours about Valve making a dedicated machine for Steam have been circling for a while.

However this week it has surfaced, under the codename Piston. In additon Nvidia announced a clamshell PS Vita-alike named Shield, which may be both a peripheral and a game machine in its own right. And we should not forget about Gamestick, a USB-sized console from Playjam that has already been funded on Kickstarter.

2013 may not turn out to be the year of the console after all. It might be the year of the microconsole.