next »

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

looking at recent progress i'm impressed ouya is still around and hasn't imploded or been forgotten by now -- i still have my doubts that an ouya game will ever be profitable or that the console sell more than a million units, but i have to admit the project has gotten further than i thought it would, and i look forward to further developments

they are now claiming it'll be released in june on amazon and target:

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/02/ouya-retailers/

[deathtotheweird]

the price of an xbox360 console is 200 dollars so it's a tiny bit more reasonable than paying 50 dollars for a controller for a console that's only 100 dollars.

and for 50 dollars your xbox controller comes with a rechargeable battery pack and a cable so you can play while charging the batteries. also has vibration and a headset port, so it's not really fair to compare them.

[Uykered]

Pity they're using a Tegra 3 in mid 2013, when Tegra 4 is so much better.

[SolarLune]

and for 50 dollars your xbox controller comes with a rechargeable battery pack and a cable so you can play while charging the batteries. also has vibration and a headset port, so it's not really fair to compare them.

Yeah, it's not really fair to compare. The 360 controller is a better value overall, but if I'm not mistaken a normal (not on sale) $50 wireless 360 controller uses AA batteries. It's an extra $5 for a play and charge kit (which includes the rechargeable battery). The kit alone's $20 on GameStop (I don't know how that works). Maybe the $55 controller doesn't actually come with a rechargeable battery.

Anyway, $50 is pretty costly for the Ouya's controller. If $30 was too cheap to produce for them, then $40 would have been more reasonable. $50 is a bit high for what they give you.

@alastair - That's true, but given that it's not really aiming for high graphics power, it might not make much of a difference. It's obvious that the Ouya's not aiming to compete with the 360 and PS3 for their full length titles. However, it might not do too badly against the PSN and XBLA.

When you think about it, a lot of fun XBLA / PSN titles were pretty simple graphically (Limbo, Braid, Castle Crashers, the Bomberman titles, etc). So, it doesn't need a lot of graphical power or "blockbuster" games to have a viable marketplace and sustain itself, though more power and better graphics is always welcome. Hopefully it'll be successful enough to warrant a more powerful sequel in the future.

As a side-note, being sold in stores also lends it a bit more weight, I think. You'll get more exposure to kids and families and impulse buyers in a brick and mortar store than on the Internet, especially if someone could walk up to a TV and watch a movie streaming on the Ouya, or play a game.

[s0]

i think someone already said this, but the ouya's biggest chance are those other android consoles that have been announced. if they manage to establish a market for that sort of thing with healthy competition and etc, droid might actually become a serious gaming platform in the future.

[Richard Kain]

Pity they're using a Tegra 3 in mid 2013, when Tegra 4 is so much better.

The latest and greatest is always better in terms of power. But being the most powerful is rarely ever the most desirable state for a consumer product, even more so in this depressed global economy. The Ouya is hoping to target a broader, more price-shy market with a product that they can sell at a profit. Packing it with the latest tech would be a terrible idea.

This is the same approach that Nintendo employed with their handhelds. The GameBoy was behind the times in terms of technology when it came out. But that line was able to survive quite well despite this. The Ouya is never going to be a technical wonderland. It is just powerful enough for what it needs to do.

What is really missing from this equation is a Tetris or Pokemon-esque title to help drive sales. Even with older technology and a budget-conscious price-point, the Ouya is still going to need some solid software to convince consumers that it's worth their money.

[J-Snake]

Someone needs to propose a console with the latest gtx690 and 6 cutting edge 4.0 ghz cpu-cores etc. Wonder how many would pledge because going up in horse power is an original idea nowadays.

[Uykered]

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/07/ouya-annual/

Ouya 2 announced for next year.

[Christian Knudsen]

This quote is really weird:

But don't fret, nervous game buyer. Uhrman assured us that "all the games will be backward compatible" going forward. When pushed on how this will work, she said, "The games will be tied to you, the gamer," (like Steam is now) rather than tying your game licenses to the hardware you purchased (like, say, Nintendo's Wii U).

What does a game's backwards compatibility (i.e. whether or not it can actually run on the hardware) have to do with whether or not it's tied to an account? Isn't it still up to the developers to make sure that their games can run on the updated hardware? And doesn't a new console every year completely go against the upside of having a console in the first place -- stable and consistent hardware? So not only do Android developers have to worry about the multitude of different phone hardware on the market, now they also have to worry about a multitude of Ouya hardware?

[Tuba]

It's fine to have yearly revisions since the thing is so cheap. The problem is that no developer is gonna use the new features until most of the user base has upgraded, just like what happens on smartphones. And that shouldn't happen in less than a year (when the next Ouya is ready).

Also, the smartphone crowd is already used to the idea of new phones every year but console users don't, I don't think they're gonna take it that well...

[zalzane]

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/07/ouya-annual/

Ouya 2 announced for next year.

oh my god I can't stop laughing. This is like the cherry on the pie for this whole ouya thing.

Our strategy is very much similar to the mobile strategy

Does this guy have no idea that the reason people replace their phones every year is that because they're an icon of social status? Most consumers have absolutely no idea what kind of specs a new phone has compared to their old one, they only get the new one so they can keep up with the trends and because their carrier offers cheap upgrade plans.

I assume he wants to release a console every year so that its hardware can keep up with phones, but I don't think anyone is going to drop a benjamin to buy a new ouya each year just to keep up with whatever trashy mobile games are being released on the new phone hardware.

I mean shit, if you want it to keep up with phones, why not overshoot the hardware requirement by 5 years and deliver that instead? Or christ, overshoot the hardware by 1 or 2 years so the consumer doesn't have to replace their console every year to play the latest games. There's no ouya hipster out there who is deluded enough to drop 100 on a new console every year.

[J-Snake]

So apparently the ouya will be more expensive than any console out there because you need update it every short period, life is an irony. Or I think they grabbed the tegra3 just too early, tegra 4 might sustain some longer.

The thing is that mobile hardware is still fast in advancing while the home-hardware stagnated in comparison. There will be a time when the mobile hardware will stagnate aswell, unless a new technological break is discovered.

[J-Snake]

Playing a game in the future, thoughtwise: "Now get your Super Racer FX 5, only on Ouya 5"

Gamer's reaction: " Shit, I recently bought the Ouya 4, why cannot it be for Ouya 4!!"

[nikki]

Well atleast said hipster will know what to ask for christmas every year....

Anyway this sort of news does make me even more sarcastic of the Ouya people. Are they high on crack bought of the kickstarter succes or something ?

Atleast this sort of news actually proves many of peoples point: The hardware of the ouya is outdated crap the moment it's in the store. And this is the lucrative and  fragmenting solution Julie Uhrman and her minions will offer to you.

A new outdated crap hardware every year!
wow.

just think of all the fun you -the developer- will have building for 6 ouya targets in the future, or placing 'doesn't run on ouya 1/2/3' ads just like your IE webdevelopment fun.

[Ant]

It's still better than the PC market where not only are you catering for different performances but also manufacturers. Assuming of course Ouya goes for baby step upgrades each year using the same component companies, in which case you wouldn't even need to get every Ouya release, maybe upgrade it every two years or something.

[J-Snake]

A friend of mine suggested a new model for consoles, like upgrading the ram etc. And the specs the dev needs to meet is that every game has to run the same on every version, on weaker hardware only the cosmetics are reduced. I personally find that model good because it offers more flexibility and the game itself stays the same. Potentially that can be reality for the ouya, but only if devs set those specs for themselves if they are not dictated.

But practically it won't work because most devs don't design consistent clockwork-perfect mechanics. They usually scale with hardware.

[nikki]

I really don't get why this news comes out before the first version of the machine comes out ?

Shouldn't they wait until consumers have parted with some money and are horny for a faster machine ?
Now you already know the machine you will buy is obsolete.

The name comes from the planned replacement of the Osborne 1, an early personal computer first sold by the Osborne Computer Corporation in 1981. In 1983, founder Adam Osborne pre-announced several next-generation computer models (the "Executive" and "Vixen" models), which had not yet been built, highlighting the fact that they would outperform the existing model. A widely-held belief was that sales of the Osborne 1 fell sharply as customers anticipated those more advanced systems, leading to a sales decline from which Osborne Computer was unable to recover. This belief appeared in the media almost immediately after the company's September 1983 bankruptcy:[3]

source: mm, wikipedia : Osborne effect

[Christian Knudsen]

I'm becoming ever more convinced that the Ouya people really have no idea what the hell they're doing...

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i came across this and watched it; it's a guy who is super hyped about the ouya and says it'll save gaming, literally he says it'll be the savior of gaming, because it'll get kids into making games, cause lots of people to become game developers, lower the price of games and return us to the snes/n64 era of good games and get rid of the corrupt AAA games industry

i just don't understand how he can be so hyped up about an android that attaches to your tv and has a controller

[poe]

i came across this and watched it; it's a guy who is super hyped about the ouya and says it'll save gaming, literally he says it'll be the savior of gaming, because it'll get kids into making games, cause lots of people to become game developers, lower the price of games and return us to the snes/n64 era of good games and get rid of the corrupt AAA games industry

i just don't understand how he can be so hyped up about an android that attaches to your tv and has a controller

Oh wow, that was really annoying to listen to.