OUYA - $99 USD Game Console

[Friendly]

Emulators would be nice, but if it's not possible, no problem. This will still be a nice dedicated Android console, minus the shortcomings of a tiny screen and touchscreen controls.

[Specineff]

^^But for what? Casual games? F that noise.

[Friendly]

Come on, there isn't just casual stuff available for Android.

[Drachenherz]

Well, owing to the open structure and lower dev costs, Ouya certainly will see lots of casual games. But because of the same reasons, it should be interesting for not-so-mainstreamy genres... Like shmups. Ever noticed the constant stream of (new or remade/republished) shmups on iDevices and android?

Given the low-fees, low-developing costs on Ouya, there certainly should be interest for aspiring and talented shmup-coders...

Ever thought of that?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Games like Vib-Ribbon and Rez used to come out on discs. Back when even the likes of Team Buddies would receive voiced cutscenes.

[Super Laydock]

Pledged $119 (shipping inc.), just for the sake of supporting this possibly industry changing initiative, and me wanting one of course.

It could be a revolution for indie devs and I do rather play on tv than on PC...
Also the specs are quite nice anyway for this price and I noticed the dev. backing pledge being sold out already so nice things might await.

[ZellSF]

Although, Ouya wins out on 2 things: game developers targeting Ouya-level hardware [unlike on the PC, where development tends to get focused on far higher end hardware than a netbook], and cost. The Ouya is quarter the cost of an entry level PC.

PS: To be honest, I don't give a damn if this flops as a console, but come on, $99 for an Android set-top box+controller. You could do a lot worse.

There's one thing that I really don't get about the cost side of this thing: If you're on a budget, shouldn't you avoid using 100$ on entirely unproven tech devices?

I get the people that want one eventually, I'm very confused about the people who are giving their money away now.

[Friendly]

If nothing else, this will be a cheap media player with low power consumption. Tegra 3 can decode 1080p mkvs without stuttering. That alone is worth the money, imo.

[Friendly]

engadget Editorial: Ouya's success is opportunity missed for Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony

[louisg]

If nothing else, this will be a cheap media player with low power consumption. Tegra 3 can decode 1080p mkvs without stuttering. That alone is worth the money, imo.

Yeah, if it's like a Roku with good games, it'd be worth it.

[Friendly]

And the kickstarter has reached $4 Million USD; with 29,000 consoles sold.

[Skykid]

engadget Editorial: Ouya's success is opportunity missed for Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony

A speculative article, but interesting such questions are being raised so quickly. It's not a missed opportunity yet, not until we see what M$ and Sony unveil. I'm still banking on a very similar app based platform, with a lot more power.

This however,

"Both Microsoft and Sony have sucked the excitement out of console ownership."

I can't help but agree with.

Some may completely disagree, but the only console I have any interest in at the moment is the 3DS XL. I feel like its first-party software still has enough of what made gaming great to make it a console worth getting excited about, especially now the screen has come of age.

When downloadable games all end up graduating from the school of Angry Birds, it's up to the bedroom coders to save the day or I'm walking away and not looking back.

[Ganelon]

I'm expecting an announcement of an interesting game, even an enhanced port, by the time the Kickstarter finishes. Right now, there's nothing shown or hinted at that would make me budge. Yes, the price is tempting and the goal is noble. But as someone who's interested in less than 1% of the indie games out there (I don't buy anything from Steam) and strongly prefers physical games, I don't see the point of having extra hardware around. $100 could buy a few solid games.

If the system is really hackable, then someone could just implement a storefront that only takes a 10% cut. Or perhaps someone could implement Google Play if the games there play 100% on the Ouya. Most titles will almost certainly also be ported to Android devices if possible. So far, the Ouya seems to be a great business model but not necessarily a great gaming system.

[DJ Incompetent]

I want to go home.

How did I miss that the woman leading this thing came from IGN?
Saaadtown

[Op Intensify]

The hell? Do they seriously think they can get Skyrim running on this thing?

[Friendly]

I want to go home.

That's the kind of games you get when you let the majority decide.

How did I miss that the woman leading this thing came from IGN?
Saaadtown

Well, at least she is no longer working there.

30,000 sold.

[BPzeBanshee]

TimeSplitters is on their list. Consider me interested.

Are they actually going to get this thing going retail though? I think they said they were trying but I have a feeling I won't see this in my local JB Hifi or EBGames ever.

[mice]

That list really made me sad.
The HW spec won't run any of those as we're used to. Even Fez is having trouble with the frame rate on the xbox.

[Ex-Cyber]

I like the idea, and it looks somewhat promising, but I feel like Tegra and Android are the wrong tech for this. Tegra is designed for phones/tablets rather than mains-powered systems capable of dissipating more power, has somewhat crappy memory bandwidth (which matters a bit if you want a realistic chance of hitting 60 FPS at 1920x1080), and the GPU architecture is closed (which complicates construction of a custom OS). Android is touchscreen-centric, declarative-GUI-centric, and bytecode-centric, all things that a console game is likely to throw out the window. Of course that's entirely doable with Android, but then you're throwing away a major chunk of its value proposition.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Tegra is designed for phones/tablets rather than mains-powered systems capable of dissipating more power, has somewhat crappy memory bandwidth (which matters a bit if you want a realistic chance of hitting 60 FPS at 1920x1080), and the GPU architecture is closed (which complicates construction of a custom OS).

Current-gen consoles hardly ever render picture in TVs' native resolution anyway. Usually it's sub-720p upscaled, running at 30 fps at best. I'm guessing it'll be the same here.

[Ex-Cyber]

Current-gen consoles hardly ever render picture in TVs' native resolution anyway. Usually it's sub-720p upscaled, running at 30 fps at best. I'm guessing it'll be the same here.

It's not even necessarily a question of rendering; I'm pretty sure just compositing a display is expensive at these bandwidths.

Side note: apparently Nvidia was hacked and took its dev site down, so I can't even try to really look stuff up about this.

[louisg]

That list really made me sad.
The HW spec won't run any of those as we're used to. Even Fez is having trouble with the frame rate on the xbox.

Yeah but I don't think there's a reason it *couldn't* run full framerate on an xbox. It runs slow on the xbox for the same reason Outrun runs slow on the Amiga.

[Jeneki]

I want to go home.

That's the kind of games you get when you let the majority decide.

This shouldn't surprise anyone. I'm sure they got a lot of suggestions for lesser known stuff as well, but not enough votes to get them to the top. There's only so many people who know about any particular indie game (especially ones not already on Live/PSN/Steam), so it only takes a small amount of people tossing in well known titles to float them to the surface. Also, Battletoads is pretty much a meme at this point so I suspect regulars of a certain website are responsible for getting it on the list.

Honestly though, I don't think this poll will mean much. Doesn't Ouya have 8gb of internal flash memory? Have fun installing more than one "summer blockbuster" title on that.

Besides, I already have two consoles (three if you count PC) to play multi-million dollar games my TV. If those were the kind of games Ouya intended to attract, I wouldn't be paying attention to it now.

[moh]

I have an HDTV and a PC with an HDMI-out plug right here, so what's the point? Laziness? 7 Eleven-esque "convenience?"

yeah, i fail to see anything special in this..

[louisg]

I wonder if the dev money would've been better spent coming up with a standardized controller for Android games played at home. I mean, those all have TV out too, right? Frankly, I'd love to see something like that for my iOS games. There are several that I really enjoy playing, but the control scheme is sometimes less than desirable and a big screen would benefit them greatly.

Maybe designing a console is getting to be a dated idea for anything but the most high tech stuff, kind of like owning a tower computer.

Anyway, if this thing gets Final Freeway 2R and Pinball Arcade, I may want one regardless

[mesh control]

I want to go home.

Timesplitters?

They can't even get a new one out for fucking consoles.

Fucking hell

[Op Intensify]

I wonder if the dev money would've been better spent coming up with a standardized controller for Android games played at home.

There was already a Kickstarter for a standardized wireless iOS controller, it failed. They're still going to try to get it out though.

[Ghegs]

Latest news confirms that OnLive is coming to Ouya on launch, which is cool I guess, but not what I'm personally after.

In other news, the controller has been shown for the first time and it has the most horrible-looking d-pad since the Apple Pippin:



But all is not lost, they also say the design is still in progress and the comments section is already filled with cries of woe about it. Hopefully they'll listen.

Oh, and the console itself:

[beatsgo]

That controller design is sad. The console itself is confusing me.

[Friendly]

Terrible d-pad. Looks like a design by someone who has never played a video game.