Hey.
Just saw this and thought that I should share:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console
A new and cheap console on it's way. Sounds pretty awesome
Not sure if I will get one, because I prefer to play on a computer.
Read the kickstarter for more information.
(I couldn't find any threads about this)

 

It looked interesting, but I don't like to guinea pig new technology like that. I probably will regret this choice soon.

 

Holy fuck.

I want one.

 

Eh. It's an awesome idea - open source gaming for less than $100. However, it just can't compete graphically with the existing consoles. Tegra is a great platform, but it's designed to compete in the mobile/tablet market, not as a console. I looked at the demo for Tegra 3, and everything looks extremely arcade-y, not anything near what people have come to expect from modern consoles.

The other trouble is that the open source platform lends itself to tons of shit games (a la Wii, though perhaps not to the same extent). When anyone can make a game, you have to dig through a lot of crap to find the gems.

In short: awesome idea, but they need better hardware to compete. It'll probably be just a fad/niche product for open source fanatics.

 

Judging from the price and what I've seen of the specs, I really don't think they're trying to compete with the HD consoles. As you said, it doesn't have the power, and I'm sure the people running the project are more than well aware.

That said, I'm not sure if this thing will succeed at even getting smaller scale projects going. The thing practically advertises itself as a platform developers shouldn't expect money from (outside of maybe microtransactions? Even that seems like a stretch to be honest.)

 

Sums up my thoughts.

 

I just saw this a minute ago and raced here to post it, but I was way too slow. This looks really fucking awesome.

This is the kind of thing I'd buy, I don't play console games anymore, and I honestly don't care about things like amazing graphics. What I do want is small indie games about random stuff that I can buy cheap. Looking forward to seeing how OUYA turns out.

 

Seeing as it's Android based, I'm hoping that we'll be able to play games from the Android app store with it. I'd like to play some of those mobile phone/tablet games on a bigger screen.

 

I want to point out that the OUYA kickstarter is a bit deceptive, in that the developers have a lot of faith in their ability to convince developers to make games for this. Theres an article over on eurogamer about it (link) and while it is harsher than I would feel and expects the worst out of the developers, it does bring up several good points. Specifically, that there have been very few developers who have said that they would release their games on said console(I believe Mohjang is the only semi-confirmed one), and that it is unlikely to have many non-android games. Indie devs are just more likely to focus on markets with a larger audience, and AAA devs aren't going to give this the time of day.

That said, it is an interesting idea, but I feel that it is likely that this will end up as nothing more than a glorified android gaming machine, to play android games on a larger screen. Before you go off funding the kickstarter, I figured I'd point out the other side of the picture.

 

Of course. An awful lot are Apple only. I'm not expecting this to be the tipping point to bring them all over to Android.

Good. I'm not interested in AAA titles. It's not as though they'd run well anyway.

That's exactly what I want. It's also worth $100 to me. A decent Android tablet or smart phone for gaming is quite a bit more than that.

The Eurogamer article you linked to was pure FUD. There are plenty of games I'd like to play casually on a big screen. I'm not going to sit there for hours, but 20-30 minutes? Sure. I'd love it if someone could link my save files, so that progress made in Temple Run on my phone is transferred to the Ouya and vice versa with minimal interaction from me. Perhaps they can do it with that handy USB port the Eurogamer writer was so scared of.

Another thing Rich Stanton was worried about was using a controller on touchscreen games. As a proud owner of a Sony Xperia Play [which has a slideout controller instead of a slideout keyboard], Android games can work fantastically with a controller. Sony's done a lot of work making Android games work on the Xperia Play and porting non-Android games over. I love playing Crash Bandicoot on my phone. It also has FIFA 10, Madden 11, Sims 3, GTA 3, etc. So, yes, gaming with a controller on Android can be hell'a'fun.

The Ouya needs an awesome app store. Model it after Steam. Everyone who buys games on Steam can just as easily pirate them, but for some reason we keep on giving these people our money. We like to own things more than we like to pirate them.

 

The problem I have with OUYA is how they're treating the customers who believe that AAA games will make it there. Of the top 20 games (link) people want on the OUYA, I doubt more than a few will even be ABLE to be run on the system, let alone any sort of commitment from the devs saying they would make the effort to port the games. And the devs are the ones proprogating this, by creating the surveys and implying that they have both the capability to make the games run, and the ability to get the devs to port it.

If you know what you're getting with the OUYA, and are willing to spend money on it, all the power to you. My issue is that there is a lot of implied "You'll be able to play mass effect! on the OUYA" that people are believing and counting on.

There are other factors too; for example, they sell their controller as this amazing piece of hardware, yet I don't believe any prototype has yet been shown. But my point was merely to show some of the flaws the system has, that I really do feel that the system will do nothing but play games on the android marketplace and little else.

 

I think you're over-estimating the specs for many of those games or under-estimating the hardware.

Call of Duty on Android, for example. It's about 10 years old. That's a game which is possible on a technical level, though unlikely on a publisher level. I'd rather see Quake, Wolf, or Rage as a proof of concept with Carmack writing the engine. He did a good job getting Rage-on-rails onto iOS. With a real controller there'd be no need to keep the player on rails anymore.

GTA 3 is already on Android. The earlier GTAs ran on the SNES for fuck's sake, so I don't see the difficulty in getting them on.

Games like Skyrim and Mass Effect are too much, but much of that top 20 list is achievable on mobile devices, imo.

edit: I'm not sure about the specifics of what a Tegra3 quad-core with 1 GB RAM and 1080p HDMI is capable of, but wait-a-minute... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBl-goBrWno It's bawse. Even Mass Effect 1 could conceivably be made to run on that.

I haven't seen one either. Just graphic designs. I'm hoping that we can just use any old controller through the USB port and be done with it. If it's all open source, then there's bound to be a way to do it, and perhaps even a way to use wireless controllers or a wireless dongle. I bought an Xbox 360 controller the other day for PC gaming because it works through USB.

 

I'd like a nintendo device emulator on mine, please :3

 

I'd probably buy it simply for this.

 

I'm just wondering how they'll manage to sell OUYA for $99 when a tablet running the known specs costs more than 5x that...

 

Tablets need to be very thin/small and that makes things more expensive. Plus an iPad is probably overpriced just a little bit

 

And the big difference is no screen. Those aren't cheap.

Also, no battery and no mobile phone network hardware/patents.