According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is working on a video game console that will be powered by Android. If that sounds familiar, the recently released Ouya runs on Android as well. This device, however, would be both designed and marketed by Google themselves.

Development on the console is said to be a reaction to rumors that Apple, one of Google’s fiercest rivals at the moment, is working on its own game console. Apple is also heavily rumored to be working on a smartwatch that will be powered by iOS, so it’s not too surprising that the report also states that Google has one of those in the works as well.

To make things even more interesting, Google is aiming to release one of these devices sometime in the fall. Whether it’s a Google-branded video game console or smartwatch, it should make for a very interesting holiday season — Next-generation video game consoles from both Sony and Microsoft are scheduled to launch later this year, and Apple CEO Tim Cook has hinted at new hardware due by the end of the year and 2014.

[via WSJ, Polygon, image via brionv]