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Amazon’s Kindle to join the portable gaming war, albeit in monochrome

Will it throw the book at Nintendo, Apple and Sony?

Amazon’s Kindle to join the portable gaming war, albeit in monochrome
Amazon’s Kindle is doing its level best to stamp out print media once and for all, and now the device looks set to muscle in on territory traditionally occupied by the likes of the Nintendo DS and iPhone.

Details have emerged of a development kit – known as the KDK – which will allow games designers to produce slices of interactive entertainment for the popular e-book reader.

Think more sudoku and crosswords puzzles rather than fully blown games though.

"The Kindle Development Kit includes sample code, documentation, and the Kindle Simulator, which helps developers build and test their content by simulating the 6-inch Kindle and 9.7-inch Kindle DX on Mac, PC, and Linux desktops," says an Amazon representative.

It will be released in beta form next month. You can sign up for an email alert when it's available here.

These applications will have to adhere to a size limit of 100Mb and can be distributed either via a one-time payment method, a monthly fee or even free of charge.

Programs which pass the 10MB barrier cannot be downloaded via WiFi but must be purchased using the user’s computer and then ported over to the Kindle itself via a USB connection.

Amazon’s cut will be 30 per cent of the app’s sale price, with the developer getting the remainder.

The Kindle features a high-resolution, glare-free electronic paper display but there’s one catch – it’s currently only available in monochrome.

You can access the official developer's site here.



Damien's mum hoped he would grow out of playing silly video games and gain respectable employment. Perhaps become a teacher or a scientist, that kind of thing. Needless to say she now weeps openly whenever anyone asks how her son's getting on these days.