There couldn't be a more appropriate place than the Game Developers Conference (GDC) to launch a new gaming console! Zeebo, a new video game console was announced at CDC09, on Monday.

Tectoy and Qualcomm announced Zeebo, early Monday morning at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. Zeebo will be produced by Tectoy and Qualcomm and fully managed by digital distribution. Tectoy (Zeebo Inc.) is Sao Paulo, Brazil based videogame and Electronics Company.

Zeebo CEO John F. Rizzo and Qualcomm games and services senior director Mike Yuen unveiled the first ever Brazilian-designed console, Zeebo, aiming to target the middle-class gamers in emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) that represent 800 million people.

In a statement, Mike Yuen said, "In 2000 Bill Gates introduced the original Microsoft Xbox at GDC. We're honored here to release what we believe will be the fourth big console."

Zeebo uses Qualcomm mobile technology, from the graphics chipset to the 3G wireless network. It is a piracy-free alternative to the costlier consoles. It will only use a 3G wireless network to download new games. It is designed to prevent, game piracy in the emerging markets.

In a statement, John Rizzo said, "The Zeebo console will deliver a truly engaging and entertaining gaming experience to a potential billion new consumers around the world, many of whom have never experienced gaming in the home. The system provides an intuitive, quick, and easy-to-use home shopping user experience featuring popular, culturally optimized content from leading game publishers and developers around the world. It also delivers high value and warranty protection compared to gray-market products with no need for a separate wireless access plan."

The company said that Zeebo system is effectively piracy-proof, with no way to copy titles. The company explained, "Titles are authorized to work with a unique ID, assigned to each individual console. They are not portable, and cannot be moved between consoles via removable media cards." The users will be able to download content from the "Zeebonet," a 3G network accessed from the built-in quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA radios built into the console.

Zeebo will be able to hold about 50 games at a given time, in its 1 Gbyte of flash memroy, with 256 Mbytes of RAM apportioned for operating memory. It will use the Qualcomm Adreno 130 processor, with an unnamed embedded graphics chip for performing operations in a maximum of 640x480 resolution across both PAL and NTSC displays. The 157 x 215.4 x 44 mm Zeebo console unite will have 3 USB ports.

According to the company, Zeebo will be released with four free titles, including "FIFA Soccer '09" for soccer-mad Brazil; "Need for Speed: Carbon"; "Brain Challenge"; and "Prey Evil," a version of the PC game "Prey". The PC classic, "Quake" will also be made available for a free download. The company lists 15 other games that users will be able to download, ranging from "Crazy Taxi" to "Resident Evil 4" to "Tekken 2" to "Duke Nukem 3D".

Zeebo will be first launched in Brazil, next month, with price tag of $199, where Sony's PS3 costs $1,100 and Nintendo's Wii costs $1,000. Its games will fall in the range of $5 to $15. Later, the game console will be released in Russia, India and China at the price of $199, which is expected to come down to $179 later this year and to $149- $150 next year.