OUYA: A New Kind of Video Game Console

Genghiz Cohen

If it can decode like .MKV and lots of other filetypes, while streaming off a NAS then it'll be a winner.
Seems there is an app for that

I only posted up that computer spec to show how much a computer that could run some games on Steam would be. Not as a direct comparison to the OUYA.

noodler

4.3m pledged but only 34,000 - odd backers.

About 30,000 have donated enough to actually buy one.

Whilst I won't be jumping in for the forseeable future I am definitely intrigued.


How do you get over the licencing issues?

I mean surely Square has to allow developers to make a digital version of FFX for it to be on the console?

Or EA have to allow Red Alert 2 for example?

Are they only looking at games which have been on PC at one time or another.\

EDIT: Saw the list of games on their poll - a couple of non-PC games.

RedXIV

Am interested considering my current android has 6 different emulators on it, so for that alone I'd be interested. What's putting me off is the 8GB storage. If that's not upgradable, I'm less intrigued

noodler

RedXIV wrote: »

Am interested considering my current android has 6 different emulators on it, so for that alone I'd be interested. What's putting me off is the 8GB storage. If that's not upgradable, I'm less intrigued

Does it matter if everything can be done from a flash or External Drive?

Stev_o

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I really don't get where you're going with this.

It costs a fraction of what a Tegra 3 equipped phone does now and will continue to do so by next year.

It's affordable, and will beat the pants off Xbox360/PS3 in terms of what it can bring to a living room aside from games for a lesser cost - web browsing, applications, media viewing, etc. It also will have a huge library of free and cheap existing games, as well as the premium ones which are still and will continue to be extremely cheap comparatively. I would understand your argument against it if it were priced at a similar PP to the 360, but really I can't see any fault against it at this current price - you have to take it in its entirety in what it offers, not just exclusively as a games platform. It is fantastic value for money.

And yes, while many phones can be hooked up to a TV, very few people have a phone that has these specs and ultimately, this is a permanent fixture, not something you have to continuously connect and disconnect - another important point.

You know many modern TV's offer a good few of those features....

I just don't see why you'd use this over any other piece of hardware out there.

RedXIV

noodler wrote: »

Does it matter if everything can be done from a flash or External Drive?

I'd prefer to be able to upgrade the internals. I don't like having stuff sticking out of my consoles, my kids tend to yank on them

psugrue

Stev_o wrote: »

You know many modern TV's offer a good few of those features....

I just don't see why you'd use this over any other piece of hardware out there.

....its cheap

Irish Halo

RedXIV wrote: »

Am interested considering my current android has 6 different emulators on it, so for that alone I'd be interested. What's putting me off is the 8GB storage. If that's not upgradable, I'm less intrigued

It has a USB port so possibly able to hook up a hard drive through that? Though an SD slot can't be that much to add to the machine.

noodler wrote: »

Are they only looking at games which have been on PC at one time or another.

They are looking for independent developers to create innovative and interesting properties for the platform as it is open to anyone to produce content/games/apps e.g. the types of things that have appeared in the Humble Indie bundles but for a console hooked up to a TV.

They would also like the big guys to produce games for it based on existing IP or port stuff over (I think some of the requests on that list are pure fantasy).

who_me

psugrue wrote: »

....its cheap

With lots of very cheap games.

Stev_o

psugrue wrote: »

....its cheap

Do you currently have any of the following,

• smart phone
• console
• multimedia tv
• media player
• tablet
• labtop
• pc

?

Shiminay

Interesting article on the Penny-Arcade Report about this. Made for "calm down everyone" sort of reading and there're a lot of very excellent points being made. I'm still leaning more towards giving them some cash, but I'm more inclined to hold off till they issue some details to address the points raised in the PA Report article.

marko93

Shiminay wrote: »

Interesting article on the Penny-Arcade Report about this. Made for "calm down everyone" sort of reading and there're a lot of very excellent points being made. I'm still leaning more towards giving them some cash, but I'm more inclined to hold off till they issue some details to address the points raised in the PA Report article.

Good read, think I'll hold out like you till some problems are addressed.

gizmo

Shiminay wrote: »

Interesting article on the Penny-Arcade Report about this.

Ah sense, how I longed for your arrival.

Remember folks, "worst case scenario" isn't that the device doesn't live up to your expectations as a donator, it's that you get absolutely nothing for your money.

Another article on The Verge now, Ouya faces challenges on its way to transforming the console industry

Andrew76

Another article on Eurogamer urging caution: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-14-saturday-soapbox-the-trouble-with-ouya.

Zillah

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

If it can decode like .MKV and lots of other filetypes, while streaming off a NAS then it'll be a winner.
Seems there is an app for that

I only posted up that computer spec to show how much a computer that could run some games on Steam would be. Not as a direct comparison to the OUYA.

VLC player is on Android now. Game over video playback problems, game over!

noodler

Andrew76 wrote: »

Another article on Eurogamer urging caution: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-14-saturday-soapbox-the-trouble-with-ouya.

Its doing more than that! Its completely dismissing the idea to the extent you should worry about your money.

garysully1986

probably a completely silly opinion but you would wonder are the articals that have been published trying to put a negative spin on the OUYA being submitted as an independant article or are the higher ups of the companies in touch with some of the bigger players (Activision, EA etc;)

I know that they are pushing for a whole new way of playing games all made by indie developers and I wonder do some of the bigger companies see this as a threat and try and extinguish the fire.

Could be a complete wasted opinion but just my first thought.

koHd

garysully1986 wrote: »

probably a completely silly opinion but you would wonder are the articals that have been published trying to put a negative spin on the OUYA being submitted as an independant article or are the higher ups of the companies in touch with some of the bigger players (Activision, EA etc;)

I know that they are pushing for a whole new way of playing games all made by indie developers and I wonder do some of the bigger companies see this as a threat and try and extinguish the fire.

Could be a complete wasted opinion but just my first thought.

Well history has shown that content providers are slaves to their big advertisers at times...

garysully1986

Exactly, I wonder who is really writing those articles.

Definately contemplating gwtting this console even if it ends up just being a glorified netflix player for the bedroom.

noodler

garysully1986 wrote: »

Definately contemplating gwtting this console even if it ends up just being a glorified netflix player for the bedroom.

Everyone keeps saying this....if it doesn't work out at least I'll have X....but isn't there a chance you could lose your money?

gizmo

garysully1986 wrote: »

Exactly, I wonder who is really writing those articles.

People with a bit of cop on?

Look at it this way. They currently have one prototype console, they now have eight months to finalise this design, sort out manufacturing and distribution, build an entire digital distribution system for content and support for F2P games and get some more third parties on board for games development.

You can't blame folk for being slightly sceptical that it's not going to happen, at least under that time frame.

Another interesting thing to note, they're currently looking at securing additional funding outside of Kickstarter. So they initially looked for $950k, they got close to $5m and now they need more money?

EDIT: They seem to be denying this in a rather roundabout way, updated story now in the link above.

As a matter of comparison, look how long it took to get the Raspberry Pi to market. Now compare that to the complexity of a console such as this.

psugrue

few new updates on the kickstarter

update 1
"Welcome Muffi!
Update #3 · Jul. 18, 2012 · 164 comments
So it’s time for us to reveal our secret weapon, someone who has been working with us tirelessly behind the scenes to bring OUYA to life, and today we’re pulling back the curtain.

Meet Muffi Ghadiali from our team, who is in charge of making the OUYA product, hardware and software.

Muffi joined OUYA from Lab126, a part of Amazon, where he worked on the Kindle line of products.

I thought it would be best if you heard directly from him, so he wrote to you...

___

Kickstarters!
I’m Muffi, and I want to tell you a little bit about what we’re working on at OUYA.

I came out of Lab126’s product team where I worked on the Kindle line -- hardware and software. I worked every day with engineering, product design, industrial design, operations, supply chain, and QA teams.

I joined OUYA because I saw--early on--the potential for an open technology to change how gaming works. Gamers are unique. They are sophisticated and they follow products from the first idea all the way to market. For a product guy like me, that's exciting. We're getting a lot of feedback, great support and lots of questions. Sometimes those are tough questions but they keep me at the top of my game. It's pretty cool that Kickstarter facilitates a direct dialogue with future users.

My job at OUYA is to ensure that we meet the needs of gamers and developers.

In short, I’m here to deliver OUYA.

I know from experience that this can be done:

I’ve built consumer technology products for more than 15 years--both hardware and software. I’ve worked on set-top boxes, media streaming devices, handheld devices, content services, and other big consumer products.
I’ve been playing a key role in designing the path that will take OUYA to market, from technology to production.
And while it may seem aggressive, the technology here is actually fairly standard. We’re not building a hovercraft or a nano-bot.
If you look online at the teardowns of other devices with some of the same components, you’ll see that our device can be built for well under $99.
What IS innovative is the beautiful design from Yves Behar, and our model for working with game developers. From my perspective, I’m tackling the easy part.
So here’s what we’re doing now...

Developers, we’re working to get an SDK in your hands as fast as we can, please be patient. It will be pretty simple to start, using the existing Android SDK and adding the ability to promote your game, and to charge OUYA customers. We’ll add to it as we go.
We’re getting our ducks in a row on the hardware production. NVIDIA is helping us with production designs, and selecting the right device manufacturer. We’re in talks with a few manufacturers. I was just playing with our circuit board yesterday.
NVIDIA is also helping us maximize the performance of our Tegra 3 chips -- they’ll work even better than the demos you see online. We’ll be able to support some intense games.
And we heard your feedback: yes, yes, we’ll add an Ethernet jack. We have a lot of consoles to make, so I wouldn’t expect too many more changes to the spec.

Please keep sending your comments. We are doing everything to deliver for you.

Thanks!

Muffi

___

Again, thank you to the almost 40,000 of you (!!) who are backing OUYA -- we can’t wait to get it in your hands.

Julie

P.S. Muffi is also hiring some engineers to join our team. So if you know the Android OS well, and want to help us make OUYA, hit us up. (We bet you can figure out a way to get in touch with him...)"


and update 2, first exclusive title for ouya announced

"We’d like to introduce you to Robert Bowling, president of the game developer Robotoki, and an early backer of our Kickstarter. You might recognize Robert from his work with the Call of Duty franchise.

Earlier today, from his Twitter account (@fourzerotwo), Robert hinted that he had some news.

Well here it is: OUYA gamers will get FIRST access to the ravaged world of his post-zombie-apocalyptic game, Human Element.

Robotoki is the first studio to commit to building a game exclusively for OUYA: an episodic prequel that will set the stage for his eventual release of Human Element in 2015.

Welcome to OUYA, Robert!

Julie

Check out Robert's exclusive OUYA - Human Element video and photo below!"

K.O.Kiki

Ouya announced that they'll be running OnLive, too.

Which is interesting because Ouya's box is the same RRP as OnLive's, possibly hinting at OnLive bowing out from hardware.

Josey Wales

So what do you think of the Ouya controller now that they have shown us the first full picture of it?

I don't like how angular it is plus the d-pad looks like it will make the 360 d-pad a dream to use.

wnolan1992

Josey Wales wrote: »

So what do you think of the Ouya controller now that they have shown us the first full picture of it?

I don't like how angular it is plus the d-pad looks like it will make the 360 d-pad a dream to use.

I'm not a fan of the shape. The palm-rests seem too far apart, and they're a weird shape. Why do people think they need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to controllers? Going for whacky designs almost never works.

That said, I like the general look of the thing, just would prefer if it were made more 360-ish.

Potential-Monke

I'm sure there'll be an app that'll allow you to use the PS3/360 controller, so i'm not too hung up on it. It is horrible though.

Genghiz Cohen

PS3 app

RedXIV

Final Fantasy III coming optimised to OUYA

Thats a fair bit of support off a big name developer

Goro

RedXIV wrote: »

Final Fantasy III coming optimised to OUYA

Thats a fair bit of support off a big name developer

Why would anyone want a new console to play a sh!tty old game that can be emulated on any pc for free?

Otacon

Goro wrote: »

Why would anyone want a new console to play a sh!tty old game that can be emulated on any pc for free?

Because:
1 - the game has been revamped with added cutscenes and improved graphics.
2 - I doubt its the only game someone will get on the system.
3 - I could be wrong but aren't all Ouya games going to be free-to-play?