How many of us here supported Ouya with their Kickstarter campaign? Well if you pledged your $95 or more, you’ll be getting your console sometime this month. It won’t be widely available for everyone else until June. Comment and let us know if you are going to or have already received your console.
Mobile gaming may be getting more popular by the minute, but 2013 is shaping up to be the year of the console, and it’s not just because of new boxes due out from Microsoft and Sony.
Ouya, the highly anticipated $99 Android-based gaming console, starts shipping to “tens of thousands” of early Kickstarter backers beginning March 28. “Parts are in the factory and assembly lines are buzzing,” Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman said in a company blog post. “We’ll gradually ramp up production as we make sure things are working.”
Gaming fans who supported the Ouya’s development by contributing $95 or more to the Kickstarter campaign will get their devices a few months before the console becomes widely available. Ouya’s official public launch is set for June when the console becomes available from retailers like Amazon and Best Buy.
The Ouya may be cheap—about half the current price of a basic Xbox 360—but its other unique feature is the attempt to bring mobile app-style economics to a television console. The idea is to create a console platform that is readily available to big and small game makers.
Both Microsoft and Sony do offer a platform for independent games, but the costs of developing for the major consoles is often too high for smaller game studios. Since Ouya is based on Android—a platform many mobile developers are already familiar with—it should be much easier for companies to create new games or adapt their mobile games for the console.
Big names sign on
Some big names from the gaming world have also signed on to develop for Ouya:
- Kim Swift, who led game design for Portal and Left 4 Dead at Valve, is working on an Ouya title with Airtight Games.
- Tripwire Interactive is bringing its 2010 game The Ball to Ouya.
- Gaming start-up Robotoki is working on an episodic prequel to Human Element Ouya.
- Human Element is an anticipated new game slated for release in 2015 that will work across a variety of platforms including consoles, PCs, and mobile devices.
I have a pre-order on this. Very excited and interested to see what happens.
Yay! I can’t wait to hear your impressions!
It should be out this summer. It is the true platform for indie developers (sorry PS4). The list is impressive. I pretty much bought it for The Banner Saga alone, developed by Bioware ex-pats.
I ordered on Kickstater either day 1 or 2. I expect to get mine shortly after they start shipping.
I think it can be interesting platform. Yet, I think it may be a redundant machine considering what can be done on the smartphone.
I disagree, it is far from redundant. How many folks use their phone as a part of their entertainment center? Can your phone upscale to 1080p? Does your android based phone have the support of the indie game market like Ouya? Nope. If this were a landline based android device, you would be correct. Otherwise it is something pretty unique. That said, it has the potential to be a totally flop. But for a buy in of less than $100 bucks, it is a risk in which I am able to invest.
actually, I have done all those things with my phone, except maybe have video upscaled to 1080p, but have played 1080p video.
The Ouya support for the indie game market is greater on the device, but Android itself is more indie game friendly. What Ouya is doing is bringing more tools, at cheaper costs for game development on Android. But there are a couple of Android game engines already with developer kits at various price points. So in that regard, Ouya isn’t “new” in that regard.
As for redundant, it is true in the sense of function. I literally can hook up my Android phone or Tablet to a HDTV, use a control, play games And I can even play Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, streaming content stored on my LAN through Plex, and sports (NHL, MLB, NFL, NBA, etc).
Some of it’s old, but video proof I what I can and do on my phone:
http://youtu.be/9U1R4NgfAgM
this was using the Evo4G which came out in 2010.
That said, I agree most would not make their phone part of their entertainment center. Yet, they could just leave the cables connected to the TV and use it when needed, which I have seen people do with their laptops. I don’t thin the phone would be ideal because most poeple, it’s their only phone, and thus any call would disrput when they’re doing. But this is more about form, than function.
SIgh.
It is not a phone. It is a console. The first open console. For $99. It’s ease of access on all fronts is fantastic. Take it or leave, it’s fucking neat.
I like the idea and what it to succeed too. I’m one of Kickstater backers; I did it either day 1 or 2.
I was just pointing out that in the form of function, the device can be redundant. I never said it was a phone.
I’m not a naysayer, despite it may appear that way. At worse, I’m cautiously optimistic. You want to see some naysayer, you should check out this thread on XDA: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1800074
I got an email, I think last Thursday, that my Ouya had been shipped. I haven’t gotten it yet; it’s coming from Hong Kong. I’m hopeful it will arrive with this week. Otherwise, I’m not going to have much time to check it the follow week or so. Preparing and taking a final.