History of video games/Platforms/Swinxs

Development
Swiinxs was made by Swinxs BV, a company located at the Paasheuvelweg 29, 1105 BG in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. The CEO of the company at the time was Eduard Zanen. The console was created by Govert de Vries and designed by Khodi Feiz, a duo who had prior experience collaborating together. The company Peercode, known as in2sports prior to the 1st of November 2012, was involved in the development of the console.

Prior to launch, the Swinxs was demonstrated at Toy Fair 2008.

Launch
By 2008 the console had released. The console launched in the United Kingdom specifically on the 2nd of October, 2008.

The console sold in a bundle with four controllers for either $150, $175, $199.99, or 149.95 euros. Games for the system were available at no charge.

Following its launch, the console won a number of awards from parenting organizations.

Legacy
On June 1st, 2020 Swinxs was discontinued, having been on the market for 12 years. Though relatively obscure, the console is notable for it's creative and bold design, as well as it's innovative features.

Peercode continued operating after the console was discontinued, notably helping the Netherlands government quickly set up a critical employment website during COVID-19 pandemic.

Technology
"It is specifically designed to stimulate creativity and learning"

Hardware
The console was designed to be screenless and encourage physical activity, leading to a number of unique design choices.

The console has a degree of water resistance.

The console used a user replaceable rechargeable battery pack, which lasts for about 2 to 4 hours of gameplay.

Controllers
The console is controlled with wristbands known as X-S tags, which also double as memory devices for player data. There was also a playing card deck with similar functionality to the wristbands. The console is advertised as supporting between 1 and 10 players, though some games advertise supporting between 0 and 99 players. The Swinxs controllers communicated with the console using RFID, and thus did not use batteries.

Games & Software
Games were downloaded to the console over a USB connection to a computer running the Swinxslink application and which had loaded the Swinxs website. Swinxslink software was compatible with Windows and OSX. Games for the Swinxs were between 1 megabyte and 32 megabytes in download size. Some games required "credits". Some titles were region locked. The My Swinxs online service contained social functions.

The system was open to developers with a free software development kit.

Game Library
34 official games were released for the Swinxs.
 * Animal Battle
 * Animal Sounds Game
 * Busy Bodies, Speed Star Memory
 * Charades
 * CircleSwinxs
 * Count Down
 * Dark Swinxs
 * Dice
 * Duel
 * Far and Away
 * Flyswatter
 * Hansel and Gretel
 * Happy Birthday
 * Hide and Seek
 * Hide your XS
 * Jukebox
 * Little Red Riding Hood
 * Lost & Found
 * Quiz
 * Reaction Game
 * Relay
 * Sound Game
 * Soundblast
 * Swinxs Dash Pro
 * Swinxsball
 * SwinxsDash
 * Swinxsstop
 * Tag
 * Tangle
 * The Swinxs Animal Quiz
 * The Swinxs Cartoon and Fairy Tale Quiz
 * The Swinxs Sports Game
 * The Ugly Duckling
 * Touchdown - American Football Game