Report: Amazon's Android console out this year below $300

Retail behemoth Amazon will launch its rumored Android-powered games and entertainment device in 2014 at a price point below $300. That's according to a new VG247 report, which cites multiple anonymous sources with the information. The device will reportedly allow you to stream and download games, music, movies, and TV content.

The report claims that "senior publishing sources" have met with Amazon recently for a briefing on the new hardware. The device shown to publishers is believed to be about the same size as the redesigned PSOne, grey in color, and featuring sharp edges. Of course, as VG247 points out, it's likely the unit will see a refresh before its official release.

Amazon's Android console, which reportedly goes by multiple internal codenames, is said to be in development at Amazon subsidiary Lab 126, the team behind the Kindle line of devices. Overall, Amazon's console aims to be the focus of the living room, tying together the suite of entertainment content Amazon offers--like digital music, movies, games, and TV shows.

If Amazon's Android console is indeed real, it would likely leverage the company's popular Amazon Prime program in some manner. Amazon counts more than 10 million Prime members, who pay $80/year for perks like two-day shipping and a Netflix-like streaming service.

According to a past TechCrunch report, Amazon's new device might be powered by a Qualcomm MPQ chip.

Should Amazon's Android console come to fruition this year, it would conceivably compete directly with similar Android-powered systems from Ouya and GameStick.

It's not only new hardware that Amazon is working on in the game space. The company also has an internal game development team and even hired Halo writer Erik Nylund last year to become Amazon's director of narrative design for an unspecified project.

"I can't talk about specifics, but I wouldn't be there unless something cool was brewing," he said at the time.