Topic: Ouya

[Stogi]

Ouno!

Ouno!

[Shaymin]

If this doesn't play at system boot, I demand a $0 refund.

[ThePerm]

[SonofMrPeanut]

Getting more obscure with this one.

[Chozo Ghost]

Luigi gives his endorsement of the new console, much to Mario's disappointment.

[BranDonk Kong]

There are all types of Android dongles that are cheaper than this, and relatively comparable. The Tegra 3 SoC keeps getting cheaper to produce, and Nvidia said that $200 Tegra 3 tablets would be the norm towards the end of this year...so it's really not that hard to fathom. Sure there are a ton of casual (non-) games on Android (and iOS), but there are also some very good REAL games, like Shadow Gun, Riptide GP, N.O.V.A. (1, 2 and 3, which looks absolutely stunning), Modern Combat 3, etc. Even the Amazing Spider-Man for the most part is pretty great (though obviously rushed). The point is, these guys aren't going after Microsoft, Nintendo, or SONY, but they're going after casual games and Android/iOS gamers who are looking for a console experience without the console gaming pricetag, and they could easily get this made and be quite successful.

[nickmitch]

I wonder how big the market of casual/phone gamers looking to upgrade to a more robust, but still not quite console experience is? To me, it seems like the draw of those games is that you can play them on the go, while at work, or while pooping. A middle tier console might draw some of them in, but I'm not so sure.

[NWR_insanolord]

It seems to me like it would be caught in the middle, lacking the convenience of smartphone/tablet gaming as well as the production values of current consoles. I just don't think there's enough of an audience for this to get it off the ground.

EDIT: For $100 you could buy a PS2, with a large library of cheap games to go back to, which would be an infinitely better gaming experience than this.

[nickmitch]

There's also the Indie draw. Indie developers can probably get a bigger cut of their sales from this thing than Xbox Live or PSN. That could help draw in some hardcore gamers, though probably not very many.

[NWR_insanolord]

There's also the Indie draw. Indie developers can probably get a bigger cut of their sales from this thing than Xbox Live or PSN. That could help draw in some hardcore gamers, though probably not very many.

How many of those people aren't tech-savvy enough to hook up their PC to the television and play a much wider indie library that way without spending $100?

[nickmitch]

I dunno. 7? 42? Maybe they're just lazy.

[NWR_insanolord]

I'm not denying that there's a market for it, but it's very, very niche. I can't imagine there will be enough demand to support a proprietary marketplace that requires specific support from developers.

[nickmitch]

Yeah, it's incredibly niche. I'm looking forward to watching it play out though.

[BranDonk Kong]

PS2 has been obsolete for 6 years (arguably) and no new games are made for it. New games for Android appear daily. The games right now are for the most part, very casual and simple, but the game library for Android is already bigger than the PS2s, and some of the classics (GTA3, Max Payne, Final Fantasy 7, etc) are readily available on Android now, and you can buy them without leaving your house.Also a Tegra 3 means it can also be a perfect media center, and has the power to emulate PSX, N64, etc, with ease. It probably is a niche market, but game consoles in general were once for a very niche market.

[NWR_insanolord]

This doesn't play any old Android game, though. Games need to be specifically made available on the special store they're using for this, and adapted to fit the unusual (as far as Android goes) controls.

[Lithium]

There's also the Indie draw. Indie developers can probably get a bigger cut of their sales from this thing than Xbox Live or PSN. That could help draw in some hardcore gamers, though probably not very many.

How many of those people aren't tech-savvy enough to hook up their PC to the television and play a much wider indie library that way without spending $100?

speaking from personal experience here most of those games don't allow you to launch from a 2nd monitor and although im not sure if this is just my TV or not but my TV's resolution is actually slightly larger than 1080p so even when i switch a game over on windowed mode it doesn't fill up the whole TV.


anyways, since this is open and all it might be cool as an XBMC box if its only $99 which is about the same as a set top box assuming someone can get it up and running since im not a programmer. Aside from that i don't see the point.

[Chozo Ghost]

EDIT: For $100 you could buy a PS2, with a large library of cheap games to go back to, which would be an infinitely better gaming experience than this.

That is of course subjective. Some people actually prefer Angry Birds and those other casual games that the Android has versus the typical games the PS2 has.

Furthermore, the Android platform's life is only just beginning. We have only begun to see the very tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg of what gaming on the Android platform will ultimately be. You can't compare an old dead platform (PS2) with one which has just been born and is filled with life and vitality and has its whole life ahead of it.

This Ouya thing is not a dead end console. It will be just as success as the Android platform itself is. Whatever Android games get made, this console will support. So it doesn't really even have to try to garner that support because its just going to happen naturally because Android development is not going to cease. Whenever a new Android game gets made, it will automatically work on this console and the developer doesn't even have to go out of their way to make it happen. Heck, they don't even need to be aware the Ouya even exists. If the game is on Android, its on the Ouya. Simple as that.

[NWR_insanolord]

Whatever Android games get made, this console will support. So it doesn't really even have to try to garner that support because its just going to happen naturally because Android development is not going to cease. Whenever a new Android game gets made, it will automatically work on this console and the developer doesn't even have to go out of their way to make it happen. Heck, they don't even need to be aware the Ouya even exists. If the game is on Android, its on the Ouya. Simple as that.

You clearly haven't read the article Aaron linked to like I suggested, or my posts since then, because they pointed out that this is not true. This device will not play just any old Android game. Games have to be specifically ported to the system, to work with the non-standard control scheme and to be sold through their proprietary store. You might be able to get around the second point if you know what you're doing, but it's pointless if 99% of what's on Android is designed to be played with a touch screen.

[BranDonk Kong]

The Ouya kick starter page says it is truly open, so yes, every Android game and app should work. If it requires a touch screen, then that could potentially be an issue, but if supports Bluetooth, then all you need is a rooted Android phone or tablet and you can use it as a touchpad and /or keyboard. Any content store won't matter, since they say directly it will be easily rooted, and you can even design your own peripherals. Even the Nexus Q has already been rooted and hacked to play games.

And the Gamesutra "article" is complete garbage and should be completely dismissed, especially since the "author" is trolling people in the forums and thought ShadowGun (a Tegra 2 game, now on all Android devices) was Gears or War (a highly regarded Xbox 360 game series).

[Chozo Ghost]

The controller thing has a touchpad built into it, and as Brandogg pointed out the hardware is 100% open and opensource so if something doesn't work on it right off the bat then it can be easily made to work on it by the end user if necessary.

[BranDonk Kong]

Even if the touchpad sucks on the gamepad, Android supports bluetooth mice and keyboards (and trackpads), so you can use a phone as a bluetooth touchpad, and there will be a cursor, which is built into the OS since at least 2.1 I believe, but I'm not really concerned about playing touch-based games, aside from some games that don't rely on where you touch, just *that* you touch (like Yoo Ninja or Ninjump).

[Chozo Ghost]

The fact this thing is open source means anyone can take the hardware and run with it. That's how open source works, and that's how the Android OS itself came into being because it is derived from Linux. Google took Linux and forked it to create Android. The same can be done with the Ouya hardware as well. Regardless of how anyone may feel about these people trying to kickstart this whole project and make money off it, the fact its open source means they can't lock it down and make it proprietary like normal consoles, and its important to keep that in mind. Being open source also means there could be multiple manufacturers of this, so if you have a problem buying this from the original Ouya crew for whatever reason, you may be able to buy it from someone else instead.

That's of course assuming the whole thing gets off the ground in the first place. I think something like this is inevitable, though. Maybe Ouya itself will fail, but the concept of an open source console isn't going to go away. Even if Ouya fails others will make other attempts until eventually something clicks.

[BranDonk Kong]

Google actually bought Android from the people that created it, and changed it into it's more current form...but open source refers to software, not hardware - and Android itself has always been open source (even the OEM manufacturers eventually put their specific source code online, sometimes even before the phone is made available for purchase). Still though, that does lead to potential clones, no doubt.

[ShyGuy]

Have you guys seen Always Innovating's HDMI Android dongle? Just pair it with a game pad instead of a remote control.

http://alwaysinnovating.com/products/hdmidongle.htm

[BranDonk Kong]

Read this, instead of speculative BS.

Engadget interview with OUYA CEO