Amazon is gearing up to take on Apple and Roku, again.

Industry sources say Amazon is getting ready to launch a Web TV box that would compete with Apple TV and Roku’s line of products, which make it easy to move video from the Internet onto your TV.

People I’ve talked to who are partnering with Amazon believe the company is aiming for a March rollout.

That won’t be a huge shock, since Amazon has been working on a box for much of last year. The company had planned on launching one in time for the Christmas shopping season, then shelved those plans.

A box is also a logical move for Amazon, which is investing heavily to build up a Web video catalog, and is starting to produce its own shows as well. An Amazon box will allow its customers to easily watch that stuff on their TVs; it should also give other content providers a chance to serve up their stuff via apps, in the way that Roku and Apple TV boxes do.

Sources tell me Amazon’s box will be powered by Google’s Android operating system, which is also not a surprise — Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets use a “forked” version of Android.

What I don’t know is whether the device Amazon is producing will also function as a gaming hub. As my colleague Eric Johnson reported yesterday, Amazon has been hiring game developers. And a report from Web site VG 247 last month this year asserted that Amazon was building an Android-based box that would play games, similar to the crowd-funded Ouya console that debuted last year.

Amazon, as it almost always does, declined to comment.

Ouya has some competition.

Next month?! Are you kidding me?! I've heard nothing about this and it's releasing next month?! Sounds like it's more of a media hub with a few games than a real gaming console. We'll see.

Wow that XBO buyout was quick ;)

how about this for a plan amazon,... put an app for your cloud music player on ps4.

A Web TV box is just to compete with a growing market, surely? it will have netflix and stuff on, and with the right deal from Sony, Playstation Now could even work. But there are so many Web TV boxes in the UK now, market is flooded, even TVs have them build in.

Then Amazon are hiring game developers, well I hope so, didn't they just buy Double Helix? maybe they are expanding/want to produce basic games for the device.

Not surprising at all. Amazon has been going in this direction for a long time. They probably want to have some exclusive games the same way they have exclusive series. They have the same interest in taking over as a portal that Microsoft has, only Amazon seems to be far more successful at it. This, plus their tablet, could lift them to the top of the content delivery mountain.

Amazing. Cant wait. Another sega saturn like announcement.

Because irrelevancy wasn't a dangerous enough competitor for the Ouya.

I wonder if the fact that they bought a Game developer like a week ago is any indication of what kind of games they want on that console.

"Hello new guys, you have a month for a launch game, chop chop"