The Kickstarter bandwagon keeps on rolling, and a very interesting new passenger just jumped on board. Los-Angeles based company OUYA recently came out with a pitch video for a new game console of the same name. The OUYA is being marketed as a completely open console, providing freedom for developers and even hackers to tinker with it however they want without the roadblocks of licensing or purchasing an SDK. Every OUYA is a dev kit, meaning absolutely anyone who has one is free to make games for it.What’s more, it runs on Google’s Android OS, meaning there’s a pre-existing community of developers who already know how to program for it. Although the full launch lineup is still under wraps, a number of developers are already working on games for the system. Canabalt will be getting an OUYA port, as will Minecraft.
Perhaps the most surprising feature being touted by the team behind the console is the open invitation for hackers to do what they please with its hardware. The whole thing will be held together by standard screws that are easy to get at, and taking it apart apparently won’t even void your warranty. They even hint at a willingness to provide hardware design documents to those interested in creating custom peripherals. While the hardware specs aren’t anything revolutionary(only 1GB of RAM?), they seem pretty solid for the price point, which is $95 for early adopters. The OUYA supports 1080P resolution, a step above the 360 and PS3, and runs on NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor. Also that controller looks pretty damn comfy, don’t you think?
OUYA’s use of Android means easier, faster development and the potential for a lot of games.
Conversations with potential partners are still in progress, but a deal with Twitch.Tv is already cemented. Being able to watch League of Legend and Starcraft 2 matches from the comfort of your living room was used as one of the big selling points in the pitch. Somehow I think those who are interested in doing that already are, but I guess having a means of doing it straight from a console couldn’t hurt.
Is the OUYA going to achieve its stated goal of revolutionizing the console market? Seeing as it’s not even out yet it’s obviously too early to say, but it’s certainly an ambitious idea. It should be interesting to see if the OUYA company can really provide such an open platform and turn a profit at the same time.
For more information about the OUYA, including the pitch video and a complete rundown of the specs, check out their Kickstarter page.
Android is basically a bunch of gui tools written in java running on top of linux. Something doesn’t really make sense. Is this supposed to compete with the xbox 360? Why not just sell a controller, considering a lot of smart phones and tablets have hdmi output?
tl:dr
this is stupid.
Android is also fragmented to hell and back. This creates a unified, standardized platform. It’s also much cheaper than phones/tablets with actually comparable specs. Also, not everyone has a smartphone/tablet or wants to have to plug it into the TV and fumble for power so the battery doesn’t die etc.
I sure can’t wait to play Canabalt on my TV.
ANGRY BIRDS IN 1080P woot woot!
Nice to meet you, OUIJA.
I’ll make sure one of you don’t make it’s way to my living room.
…Emulation box I guess? And Angry Bird clones, yay.
I’m not sure about this. It looks kind of stupid, but then when I read more it makes more sense, but it’s still stupid. I don’t think I want to give them my money, I would rather just buy new computer.
Actually, i think I will get one, I misunderstood it at first. But it does seem more powerful than most phones, whatever.
Already have a Transformer Prime with HDMI out and keyboard dock. The dock allows you to connect an Xbox 360 wired controller. Plus you can use it as a tablet or a faux-notebook.
This console will most likely start shipping in about a year, by then, the already outdated hardware will be even more outdated. The 1 gig of ram won’t help it run anything due to the lack of a GPU and a slow CPU with integrated graphics, but at least it will be able to multitask.
Considering the WiiU will come out around that time (I think) and with another gen of consoles just around the corner I can see this console completely left in the dust behind everything else (Even phones).
~100$ for a console is a cheap price, if the OUYA is going to compete with the big companies this will be the main selling point, so I can only see the price getting lower.
Can’t really see good games coming to this besides Flash games and Android ports. The best use I can think of is emulation, but, I guess that for that price it’s not that horrible of an idea considering every alternative is more expansive.
If I can use it as an emulation station and media center hub I’ll be happy.