I got the chance to speak with Marc Clement from Skreens at PAX East in Boston over the weekend. We discussed the Skreens streaming box, a cool little HDMI pass through box that connects to the internet to allow you to not just switch between HDMI devices but also do use multiple in the same screen. It’s an extremely interesting concept that definitely has use in the gaming space.
Unfortunately, Screens’ biggest drawback is it’s price point. As we discussed in the interview, Skreens is currently sitting at an early bird pricing of $499 (and no, I didn’t forget the decimal there). This is a bit outrageous of a price for something that is effectively just throwing your images together and eliminating the need for a second monitor. The price is going to be jumping up another $200 once full retail comes about, so it’s not a problem being solved any time soon.
Marc described some of the cooler possible Skreens uses in the interview, but doing things like playing multiple consoles on the same tv – great considering we’re losing most local co-op experiences lately – and hosting giant 16 person tournaments that have people dropping in and out of the view are some real nifty opportunities.
The technology is certainly great, though, and it’ll be nice to see these hit the market and hopefully eventually drop in price.
