When most people think about the next generation of game consoles, they’re likely imagining what the next Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo console will be. Now, the CEO of the studio that made Project CARS wants you to add another console to your visions of the next-gen: The Mad Box.
Slightly Mad Studios’ founder and CEO Ian Bell has been talking up the next generation console on social media for the past week, promising to create the “most powerful console ever built.” Bell is shooting for a console that outputs games in 4K and can play virtual reality games at 120fps (90fps per eye) and supports most major VR headsets.
What is the Mad Box? It’s the most powerful console ever built… It’s literally ‘Mad’… You want 4k, you want VR at 60FPS? You want a full engine for free to develop your games on it? You have it.
— Ian Bell SMS (@bell_sms) January 2, 2019
On Friday, Bell took the hype a step further by revealing the purported console’s design for the first time — a gaming-PC like tower with aggressive lighting and a case bent into an iconic “M” shape.
Yes, that’s a very loud design — one Bell himself says will probably be toned down before release. It’s also supposed to be a lot smaller than it looks. Bell says it will even have a switch to deploy a handle, designed to make it easy to carry.
Bell wouldn’t say when he expects the console to be available, or the final specs — but is adamant that it won’t hit crowdfunding. “We have multiple investors already offering the required funding for us to see the product to completion,” he told Variety earlier this week. The Mad Box won’t have exclusive titles either, Bell says, the platform will be open to everyone — to the point that developers will be given a full engine to develop games on for free.
“We think the industry is a little too much of a monopoly or a micro oligopoly,” Bell told Variety. “We think competition is healthy and we have the required hardware contacts to be able to bring something epic to fruition based on our designs.”