GameBender has a controller with a camera, as well as a more familiar console controller.
GameBender has a controller with a camera, as well as a more familiar console controller.
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Makey Makey founder starts GameBender grassroots game console with National Science Foundation funding

Jay Silver had a smash hit when he co-created Makey Makey, a do-it-yourself invention kit for everybody. And now he is unveiling GameBender, an educational game console startup that has funding from the National Science Foundation.

It may sound crazy to start a game console in a world with rivals like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. But GameBender is squarely aimed at unleashing creativity, helping kids learn to code while playing and “bending” code. And Silver has arranged a partnership with Scratch, a community of 40 million users who can give the console access to more than a million coded projects like games, apps, and do-it-yourself TV. How many game console makers can say they have a million apps and games right out of the gate?

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.