Ouya - Android-based HD Console for under $100

nesjess

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Sold. Let's make this happen people.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/story/2012-07-10/ouya-game-console/56118310/1

boxer8-ouya-middle.jpg


ouya2.jpg
 
dang... that's awesome. Free games?


TAKE MY MONEY

Well, free or free-to-try. But the possibilities are endless. And you know it will run emulators and MAME well.

They are almost at their goal on the first day. I guess I'm getting my console in March. :D
 
Half of me loves this idea and the other half of me hates it.

Being open means much more games and cool ideas being explored.

... but also ...

Being easy to root and un-moderated dev access could very easily lead to trojans and malware to steal credit-card details from the app store on the device.

This may be the first game console that requires anti-virus and rootkit scanning tools. :lol:
 
I'm in. Even if it ends up failing, a hackable android box on the TV could be cool.
 
Once ROOTed you can't get back on the store. I think that w/ googles OS support they can use security from Google's app store. The head of this project was at IGN's digital delivery service, Vivendi/Universal (pre-activision) and Gamefly. She pretty much knows the publishing stuff very well.

I have very high hopes on this project. I got in my donation pretty early this morning. I was like the first 1000 supports. Then I went back and increased my donation to get the 2nd controller.

This will easily make a great emulation box for MAME and early consoles. I bet you'll be able to get HID drivers for it to run your USB classic consoles controllers too. If I were 3rd party console developer I'd really be looking into a back catalog of titles for quick ports to this platform.
 
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Well you have to understand the biz of being in games first to understand how this is disruptive to the console market.

Microsoft first takes 50% on all XBLA content. That his HUGE. Google and Apple are currently taking 30%. Android is also very easy to develop for. This is easier than iOS also. Having a set console platform like the Ouya will make porting your existing mobile game very easy since it an be optimized for one rigid set of hardware vs all of the phones out there. Now you can bring back designs with buttons and directional controls. I bet that Ouya will ask for 20 or 30% as a royalty rate.

PS2 dev kits used to cost 10K to purchase. I'm a little in the dark for X360 dev kits now. There are different in roads to getting a game launched on XBLA so it's hard to say how much it costs to get a team up to speed on hard development costs but it's easy to say that at $700 for a kit, Ouya will be fractional. You won't get AAA shooters with a huge backend serving dedicated servers etc BUT you will see loads of clever disgruntal game developers that left the big studios to do their own thing... struggled in the mobile market and now coming back to a traditional style console yet it has an OS that they are already developing for. Android app developers are rejoicing and are hoping that an installed user base takes off with this thing.

PCs are a gaming platform for FPSs, RPGs and RTSs. I'm not counting FB and casual games...

There's A LOT that Ouya has to do. They are far from the finish line. It's nice to see that they'll be given the money and support to do it. I'm say what I said yesterday again... they're going to be north of 10 million at the end of this Kickstarter round.
 
For as much as Microsoft takes, they still have a huge install base that dwarfs anything this system could hope for, not to mention a set platform of its own. On top of that I think a lot of backers are going into this expecting free or near free games which may stymy any hopes of a wider margin.

The Android fragmentation may be quelled for a little while, but a year from now we'll probably have phones and tables faster than this machine, plus Android 5, bringing us right back where we started.

You also have that nagging problem of porting anything designed to use this console's controller, and while I think there could be some very interesting ideas brought to this system, any devs with a desire to reach a large audience might be hesitant to take advantage of the standard controller for fear they can't port it where they should have begun in the first place.
 
Once ROOTed you can't get back on the store. I think that w/ googles OS support they can use security from Google's app store.

Are you sure about that? This is certainly not the case with other Android devices.
Also this will not prevent malicious apps from gaining root and stealing various bits of info.

I guess we will have to wait and see. The project has some great ideas, but I know that my phone has a virus scanner on it for this same reason and app permissions need to be closely monitored.
 
NO one buys a console for an OS... The look and feel can be updated easily on the Ouya without migrating the whole OS. It's not a phone...

Developers should probably develop IP specifically for the Ouya vs porting a touch screen game. Also mobile games are targeted differently from a console. I would assume that the games are more casual console than hardcore console games. I would think it overlaps more of Nintendo's area than Xbox's.

Nintendo does have Wiiware but it's horrible to publish to, the system has too many rules and there really lacks any space to have a large footprint. At the price point I'm thinking that it will get lots of emulators (load your own ROMS to avoid legal issues) then casual family type games that will be designed for a tradtitional controller.

I wonder how many controllers it supports.
 
Nintendo does have Wiiware but it's horrible to publish to, the system has too many rules and there really lacks any space to have a large footprint. At the price point I'm thinking that it will get lots of emulators (load your own ROMS to avoid legal issues) then casual family type games that will be designed for a tradtitional controller.

I wonder how many controllers it supports.

Again, you'd think anyone savvy enough to want to load up roms would have a JTAG 360 or an Xbox 1 or a MAME cab or something. On top of that, are these same tech minded, retro loving people happy with those old games on a 55" HD screen?

I want this machine to succeed, I just don't quite see where it fits.
 
I already have emulators on my Wii... some are even built in via Wii Virtual Console.
So I would not buy this for emulators alone.

This system needs Killer Apps that are exclusive to it. And I really hope that they are not thinking for it to be download-only. Especially not for larger games.

Downloading a 20 Gig game that would normally come on a Blu-Ray Disc would be murder... not to mention with some ISP's having data usage limits per month, it just wouldn't work well.

Plus it would kill the ability to trade games with friends or re-sell older games to buy new ones; or hey even to donate games to charities.
 
Update 1:

Do you realize what you've done? You proved consoles aren't dead. You shocked the world. And us!

We are blown away by your support. With your help, we just raised $2 million. And it's only the first day.

Now we want to blow you away. The biggest thing for us right now: we are working on our stretch goals, what we can do if we raise more money. It might take us a few days to figure that out, and we want your help.

Tell us what you would like the stretch goals to be at [email protected].

And, if you want to vote on what games you want to see on OUYA... tell us here... https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ouya

Thank you for welcoming us. We won't let you down.

Julie
 
Pretty crazy man. Id love to play stuff like Meatboy, or PSN/XBLA style games on it. I think it's brimming with possibilities. But I really don't think it will compete..er... competitively with Sony/MS/Nintendo. And I'm not so sure they're really aiming to 'take down' the big 3. I don't see it having games like God of War, Gears of War or Mario on it. (I know they wont be there, but I mean high-profile games of that ilk). I think it will be a niche system. And honestly for $100, I wouldn't mind taking the plunge.
 
Even if this flops in the end, I feel like I'm backing an 'idea' or a 'movement,' which is good enough for me. If this is even halfway successful, it could impact how the big 3 do things.
 
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