OUYA - $99 USD Game Console

[MommysBestGames]

And good luck with your game, is it a port of one of your existing ones or a completely new thing?

Thanks! It's a new thing, sort of a party game (1-4 players), but has CPU players to pick up the slack so even single player is fun. Least that's the goal! At the moment it's fairly fun, but still needs plenty of polish and more content to make it worth anyone's time.

[Drachenherz]

Interesting Pro-Ouya article:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2013/04/06/wh ... bout-ouya/

The Wrong Idea

Android is just the free operating system that most of these newfangled cheap gaming devices are being built upon. However but that’s not necessarily meant to be taken to mean that they are part of the Android platform story. It’s just convenient.

Similarly, these wee boxes are not intended to be competitors to the big consoles with all of their shiny awesomeness. They’re microconsoles. Micro-what? Well, if it helps, think of them as the netbooks of the console world. That is to say: deliberately small machines with a particular focus, a low cost and the capacity to disrupt the gaming market from below rather than above.

[trap15]

Well, if it helps, think of them as the netbooks of the console world.

So it's complete shit and not worth buying?

[Drachenherz]

Well, if it helps, think of them as the netbooks of the console world.

So it's complete shit and not worth buying?

actually, the netbook reference IS shit... The point would be, that the Ouya is not in the same league as the "big 3", or even... But actually, you know what:

http://federalism.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8 ... 970b-800wi

[Stormwatch]

How about: people are complaining that motorcycles suck because they are not trucks.

[Drachenherz]

That nails it, Stormwatch, nicely put.

[Ganelon]

I'm not sure I see the Ouya's capacity for disruption. There have been quite a few previous attempts to undercut the game industry with low cost consoles that offered interesting features before. The Tiger game.com and Mattel HyperScan were prime examples. They failed because the multi-homing costs in the video game market are too strong.

Since the start of video gaming, consumers have focused primarily on the games and buy consoles because of the games. If the Ouya doesn't have Madden NFL, Halo, Uncharted, and the next AAA games that people want to play, then chances are that nobody will buy it, much as the Wii U and Vita are experiencing today. The reason behind console wars is because not many people are willing to buy both consoles, despite what we may see in our niche communities. That's why there's never been a common platform for gaming as there have been for movies and PCs (mostly).

Now, there's a chance the Ouya gets viewed differently with its open-source appeal but that's going up against 40 years of proven consumer mentality. It's a good story to stick it to modern 3D visual-focused games but if I were betting, I wouldn't count on Ouya's success. Plus, I'm not sure the Ouya is good in the long run for the industry. Netbooks are dying now as tablets take their place for even cheaper and more portable "PC lite" functionality. If that's the equivalent here, then the Ouya is a bridge to further compromising technological progress for the sake of simplicity. Just consider this analogy:

laptop : netbook : tablet
Xbox : Ouya : ?

[Stormwatch]

laptop : netbook : tablet
Xbox : Ouya : ?

Game Stick?

[Friendly]

laptop : netbook : tablet
Xbox : Ouya : ?

Game Stick?

That gamestick marketing is so dumb, it hurts. "The most protable console ever". Right. Except for, you know, handheld devices, and they don't even require you to carry around a TV-set along with them in order to benefit from their portability.

[BryanM]

Which is a good point and we've come full Full Circle With Michael Palin here.

Ouya: Just Buy a 3DS You Goomba.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

What the hell is a Gamestick? Is it like those terrible "50+ games in one!" controllers you plug into a TV sort of thing? Is there even any multiplayer (you'd have to buy/hook up a second controller I guess)?

Ouya I guess might carve out a cheap market for people who can't be bothered or have the knowhow to put together a half-decent PC at a much lower price point than Xbox or PS4, but if it's got terrible control lag, I have a hard time imagining its game library will be worth it. It still strikes me as a bit of a 'cheap' console knockoff to the more serious contenders, albeit nothing as bad as the stuff on this guy's channel.

[KennyMan666]

The Gamestick consists of a controller and a small Android dongle (that is stored inside the controller when not used) that connects to an HDMI port. It looks like a much more sensible product than the Ouya, but that might also have things to do with that the developers are much more humble about the whole thing. The Ouya was hyped to shit, the Gamestick is more like... "hey, here's a controller and an android device you can plug into your TV and play some games". The controller has no touchscreen and doesn't look like shit either, connects with Bluetooth and you can, it sounds like, use up to five controllers with it at the same time. And I hear the interface is far better than the Ouya's. All for $79.

The launch of it was recently delayed, but after what we've seen with early Ouyas, better to wait and make sure it's up to shape before shipping. So all in all it looks like a much nicer alternative to the Ouya. Not that I'm really planning on getting one, but I would be far more likely to get a Gamestick than an Ouya.

A special device for Android games on the TV is however still a niche that only exists because Smart-TVs haven't taken that step yet. But it's probably not entirely far off.

Anyway.

The best thing to come of the Ouya so far is something that was made over on SomethingAwful. There's this guy in the current Ouya thread there called XboxPants who is one of the only people to actually defend the Ouya. Endelss fun has been made of him, and his posts aren't always the easiest to parse.

So then someone made MarkovPants happen, a Markov bot generating quotes based on this guy's posting history in the three Ouya threads that have been on SA. It's pretty amazing.

[Friendly]

The controller has no touchscreen and doesn't look like shit either

No touchscreen means that many an Android app won't be usable. And the controller totally looks like shit. Ouya's controller doesn't. Even in its latest revision, Gamestick's controller is way less ergonomic than Ouya's. Gamestick's graphical power is far below Ouya's, and worst of all, it doesn't have a USB port. So for nearly the same price you get a device that is worse in every regard and that does not have the momentum / developer support of Ouya.

[KennyMan666]

Ouya's controller doesn't

[Friendly]

So?

[KennyMan666]

Admittedly that's a bad picture to show it since it focuses on the buttons, but otherwise it's a good closeup of why the controller is a fuckup.

Look at where the plates meet and imagine doing a clockwise rotation of the stick.

And that's without mentioning the controller has, it turns out, noticeable input lag.

[Friendly]

That gap isn't nice, will see soon enough if it's really bad.

And that's without mentioning the controller has, it turns out, noticeable input lag.

We don't know that yet.

[KennyMan666]

People who have gotten their machines have reported input lag. So there's that.

[Udderdude]

Friendly, I know you're super excited you've found another console/company to be a drooling fanboy over, but let's face it, this thing has amateur written all over it.

[Friendly]

People who have gotten their machines have reported input lag. So there's that.

We don't know if that's hardware-related. Read this: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 06#p897506
And as has been pointed out, Ouya also supports other bluetooth controllers, eg Dualshock 3.

this thing has amateur written all over it.

No doubt, not denying it. And I'm not drooling over it, just addressing some criticisms/comparisons.

Short recap of this thread:

How about: people are complaining that motorcycles suck because they are not trucks.

The gist is and still remains, for $100 you could do worse, if nothing else it will be a nice video player and so far none of the other producs linked to in this thread offer the same functionality/price.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

O_o I never noticed that, not sure whether to laugh or cry. Would be amusing if people started suing because they're slicing their thumbs open.

How about: people are complaining that motorcycles suck because they are not trucks.

It's more like people are complaining because they're selling "hey look a BRAND NEW motorcycle!" and we're getting a kind of depressingly amateur hippie moped.

If this thing reduced the input lag to an acceptable level and Cave ported all their stuff to it, it'd be tempting to buy, though. But that's a big 'if'. i should just invest in a jp 360

[Udderdude]

Don't know if you noticed, but established console developers have been avoiding this thing like the plague.

[gct]

The gist is and still remains, for $100 you could do worse

Yes, but on the other hand for $100 I could do a whole lot better. Wasn't there a promotion last year that you could get a 4GB Xbox360 for CAD$99? That's just one gaming example though - personally I wouldn't since I'm mostly out of gaming now, but $100 can still go a long way in my other hobby.

The best thing about Ouya is that it exists, or doesn't exist, or whatever. Either way I've had many entertaining evenings reading the SomethingAwful threads. My favourite recent XboxPants moment was when he claimed the controller faceplates must be made of aluminum because they were attached by magnets. How do they work

[Friendly]

What an idiot, since when is aluminum magnetic? I assume they're made of plastic. I read that they are held in place by small magnets, so that part was correct.

[Stormwatch]

Guys, stop complaining about the lag. MBG has already explained that it is likely an Unity bug, not a hardware or OS flaw. The Unity devs have already provided a fix, now the other devs just have to update their games with it.

[Drachenherz]

Don't know if you noticed, but established console developers have been avoiding this thing like the plague.

Who needs established console developers when there are small "studios" like the guy who did danmaku unlimited 1 and 2 and people smiliar to him, with creativity and technical abillities, to be possibly discovered on this nice shiny device? For the established console developers, I got my Xbox360 and the PS3.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Guys, stop complaining about the lag. MBG has already explained that it is likely an Unity bug, not a hardware or OS flaw.

A bugfix =/= input lag is gone. The bugfix may have reduced the input lag, but whether or not it has actually eliminated it to an acceptable gaming console standard has not been explicitly stated, especially considering just how much there was previously to merit such bad press.

[Hagane]

All modern consoles have input lag. Is Android input delay much higher than what you get in a PS3 or X360?

[trap15]

Quite significantly. Android is quite a few frames, as opposed to 360 and PS3 which are 1 and 2(?), respectively.

[Friendly]

We are going in circles now. Look up "Project Butter".