About

SouljaGame refers to the multiple game consoles branded by rapper Soulja Boy of "Crank That Soulja Boy" fame. The consoles were quickly identified as poorly-made emulators which already existed, only rebranded with SouljaBoy's name and sold for more than they are elsewhere. The consoles gained widespread attention following a JonTron video about the subject.

History

On December 5th, Soulja Boy, aka DeAndre Cortez Way, announced the release of the SouljaGame consoles via a link on his Twitter account (shown below).

Quickly, internet users quickly discovered that the SouljaGame and SouljaGame handheld, emulators with 800 and 3,000 titles, respectively, were in fact identical to emulators by a company called ANBERNIC rebranded with SouljaBoy's name and marked up in price.^[1][2] This led to speculation that SouljaBoy was buying the emulators in bulk and selling them at a higher price as a scam.^[3] On December 15th, he announced two more consoles, the SouljaGame Fuze and the Mini.^[3] The Mini is another emulator from ANBERNIC, though the Fuze does not appear to be an ANBERNIC product. It is unclear if the Fuze has any games on it. Nintendo reportedly threatened legal action against Soulja Boy,^[4] though it's unclear if this is in fact the case. However, if Soulja Boy is found in violation of Trademark Counterfeiting Act, he could face a lengthy prison sentence. In response to a potential lawsuit, he said that they would do nothing, claiming "Nintendo ain’t gon do SHIT" (shown below), as well as claiming that “Nothings going to happen everything is legit” in a now deleted tweet.^[5]

Removal and Subsequent Revival

Near the end of December, the SouljaGame consoles were all removed from his storefront. Some have speculated that this was due to an impeding lawsuit that prevented his consoles from being sold.^[6] Soulja Boy would later tweet out, "I had to boss up, I didn’t have a choice," reported by some to be a response to the removal of the consoles.

I had to boss up, I didn’t have a choice. 🤷🏾‍♂️

— Soulja Boy (Drako) (@souljaboy) December 29, 2018

On January 12th, 2019, Soulja Boy revealed a new handheld console, the SouljaGame Handheld, which many remarked to be similar to that of a Playstation Vita.^[7] This was covered in a video by PewDiePie, who remarked that it was ridiculous SouljaBoy would sell what was essentially a Vita at the same price as an actual Vita (shown below). Unilad^[8] speculated it would not be long until the product would also be removed from sale.

Fortnite Controversy

On January 17th, 2019, Soulja Boy appeared on the Complex interview series "Everyday Struggle." During the interview, the rapper defended his console, stating that the games found on SouljaGame were "licensed," despite the hosts arguing that the device was an "emulator," not a console, and that Soulja Boy was misleading the public.

When asked if users could play the video game Fortnite on SouljaGame, the rapper responded in the affirmative, clarifying that it would be available on the next version of the system. He said, "Yes, we're working on it. Not this one. On the next one you can." The video of the interview, within one week, received more than 2.7 million views (shown below).

Two days later, the website DualSHOCKERS^[9] reported that Fortnite would not be available on SouljaGame. The site reached out for comment by Epic, _Fortnite_'s developer. Epic Games’ Senior PR Manager Nick Chester answered, "No, you can’t play Fortnite on a rooted or jailbroken device due to anti-cheat measures."

Online Presence

JonTron Video

The consoles and controversy were reviewed by JonTron in a video posted December 18th, 2018 (shown below). The video gained over 3.2 million views in less than 24 hours.

After the video was posted, it spawned memes on meme-based subreddits, particularly a moment where JonTron says "This is like the point the FBI gets involved." For example, a post by chickenmacchiato on /r/dankmemes gained over 5,200 points (shown below, left). The /r/JonTron subreddit also made many memes from the video. For example, a post taking the "he's just a boy with a dream" line and pairing it with Hitler gained over 700 points (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References