VIA, the diversified chipset manufacturer of Taiwan, has just announced their plans for a mobile gaming console called EVE, based on their super low power 533MHz EDEN-N chip (C3b core), UniChrome Pro integrated graphics solution (Savage based I believe, with hardware MPEG-2/4 acceleration) and Vinyl 6-channel audio CODEC.

The console has been developed for VIA by the Ministry of Mobile Affairs and is supposed to integrate a 20GB hard drive, 128MB of PC2100 (shared), a CompactFlash slot, USB2.0 ports, S-Video out and integrated 802.11b wireless LAN capability. Visualization is provided by a 4" 640x480 LCD. Control appears to be through a WASD 4 button pad with both a classic gamepad control surface and dual analog ministick inputs. Apparently users will be able to detach the LCD/1.8" HDD portion from the controller and cart it around as a mobile storage and music player solution.

VIA plans to use the GameDweller network to download game content, which will use some type of DRM to manage game licensing for single or multiplayer games. As outlined in the GameDweller .pdf, VIA plans to implement something called "SIM Cards" to manage DRM and to possibly open up the platforms' BIOS, potentially making the EDEN a viable platform for playing nearly any type of media the hardware can handle (which would likely include nearly every audio compression format judging from these specifications).

Release is expected some time in early 2005.

Sounds cool. But I wonder if they will have the power to compete with the PSP, no less. Considering Sony's absurd power and influence on game developers, I think it won't become a success unless it focus on the other features, and not on gaming only. The Ngage is a good example. It became a glorified cell phone because all serious software developers are focusing on PSP and, occasionally, GameBoy Advance.

Nintendo is going the way of Sega, I reckon.

I think part of the idea with this particular model is that since it's an x86 part, leveraging the huge amount of older Windows and DOS games shouldn't be difficult to do at all. This is also the idea behind the DISCover consoles, though they are obviously more powerful.
If VIA gets a developer relations department and tries to get older titles released, it could turn into an inexpensive way for developers to rerelease classic computer gaming titles and make good money doing so. Sierra/Vivendi alone could be a really viable starting point. Depending on VIA to do the smart thing probably isn't wise at this point though

I'd anticipate the EVE being cheap to make (outside of the high resolution LCD, which is higher res than the PSP) because VIA makes almost everything involved, and since it was designed by the "hack your XBox" guys at MOMA, it should be versatile.

So while the PSP will probably have better looking, newer games, it doesn't appear to have a hard drive at all, instead using a proprietary optical disc format.
This is where the EVE is attractive to me personally - the ability to detach the control portion and have a small, 1.8" hard drive sized music player that also does MPEG2 & 4 in hardware with respectable audio quality on 6 channel analog output is extremely tempting.
Battery life is of course another question.

This part:

worries me a bit about the PSP. If this means transcoding mp3's to ATRAC, they can sod off.

Well, it just sounds like a glorified PDA for me, down to the WindowsXP Embedded as underlying OS.

The PSP, at least, has a specific purpose: a gaming platform with graphical capacity similar to the PS2. It doesn't try to be digital audio player, removable drive, cell phone, PDA...

What means, the EVE will be good for geeks. The PSP will be good for teenagers that only want to play games

Just happened to be browsing off topic stuff and found this thread.

I wonder what happened with the "Eve" (or the "Ministry of Mobile Affairs" for that metter)


Edit: To answer the thread title question: I suspect the Eve didn't prove to be irresistible...