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Report: Lenovo to release own game console

The PC maker has apparently decided to break into the gaming business with a new console called the eBox. It will launch in China first.

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Don Reisinger
Former CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
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Don Reisinger
Microsoft Kinect
Microsoft's Kinect senses and reads a game player's movements. Does it also sense a new competitor in Lenovo's eBox? Microsoft

Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo may soon have a new competitor in the console business.

Lenovo has developed a game console, called eBox, that will launch in China by the end of the year. According to Lenovo spokesperson Jay Chen in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the company "saw game consoles as an area with growth potential."

Lenovo has been working on the eBox for a while, but it only recently split off a team of employees into its newly formed game company, Beijing Eedoo Technology. According to the Journal, those employees built the eBox with Microsoft Kinect-like functionality.

In an interview with China Daily, Jack Luo, president of Beijing Eedoo, said that his venture is "the world's second company to produce a controller-free game console, behind only Microsoft."

Lenovo's decision to break into the motion-gaming space with its console isn't much of a surprise. After Nintendo and its Wii enjoyed such success in that space, both Sony and Microsoft announced motion-gaming peripherals--the PlayStation Move and Kinect, respectively--that are scheduled to hit store shelves later this year. It would only make sense that a new entrant into the market would attempt the same strategy.

Full details on the eBox haven't been divulged, but Lenovo did confirm that the console will arrive in China first. It hopes to bring the device to store shelves by the end of 2010.