Ouya: The $99, Android-Powered TV Game Console

or run a cable from your pc to your tv?

the oft-rumored Valve Steam box would be my box o' plenty. Hope that happens. This thing? meh.

the way i've always felt about consoles is that i want the one that has games i want to play. i think an open source console is a cool idea, but i'm not sure i want it if it's just ports of kongregate games and freeware PC titles

They're nearly at $4M. I don't care about gaming on TV, but only because I don't have a TV. A lot of people don't want to have an HTPC in their living room, and this looks like a good alternative if it can stream TV.

the way i've always felt about consoles is that i want the one that has games i want to play

^^^this. The only latest-gen console I have is Wii, and that WiiWare stuff is just the pits, so that's my reference point for downloadable console games. This really seems like a kit to play emulators on your tv. I'm out of the loop so I'm genuinely unaware of any other reasons an average gamer would want to hack their console.

or run a cable from your pc to your tv?

Pretty ugly solution, I don't want a mouse and keyboard in my living room for starters. This seems a much nicer way to do it.

Key thing is going to be what percentage of people are buying this as a cool Android box to hack, and will never visit the app store. If it's like 99.9%, then the long term life of this console is going to be limited because few big developers will port games to a console that doesn't have many active buying users, and few people will buy this console after March 2013 if there aren't that many games.

I signed up for Pocket TV, and it doesn't look like this does anything it doesn't except the controller (which, if it takes off, will be easy to find).

i have one of these:
http://www.fingermonkeyapps.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/gp2x.jpg

it was pretty cool, but it's always frustrating how much better/more active the pirate/dev community was for psp/gameboys than it was for open source stuff.

there's a thing called pandora and other revisions of gamepark consoles already.
if you want a MAME for your TV, the wii/ps2 hacks are pretty solid.

The Ouya has more processing power, a quad core 1.4GHz Tegra3 with integrated GPU compared to a single core ARM Cortex A9 at up to 2GHz. But it's in a relatively big case that has to sit somewhere, while the Pocket TV just hangs off the HDMI socket. From comparing the Kickstarter pitches, it seems that the Ouya team are more prepared to let people program/hack their box, while the Pocket TV crew are selling it much more like a closed appliance for Android apps.

I don't think I would buy another console, even for only $99, but this thing does make me wish even more that Apple would release and support a nice controller for iPad games.

Yeah, I guess the point I was making is that if (as some people are speculating above) that the main focus will end up being emulators and phone/tablet type games then the pocket tv already covers that. I guess it'll all depend on exactly what you can hack onto an Ouya and what you'll be able to emulate in time on a standard Android.

Put emulators on this so's I can run Earthbound, Mother 3, Toe Jam & Earl, or Metroid Fusion and there you go.

the only way this thing'll make any money is if they can find some way to persuade lots of people to hand over their cash without any hope of it ever being sold or ever establishing the market share required for decent content. never gonna happen.

oh wait.

without any hope of it ever being sold

Many of the people involved in this are fairly big industry names who have their reputations and future employability prospects to lose if this box doesn't get to market. They have a previous round of VC funding, the dough from this Kickstarter, and probably a future round of VC funding to get some relatively straightforward hardware (and some complex marketplace/appstore/infrastructure) made. The only real way this isn't going to be shipping come March 2013 is if some patent troll pops up. Whether it has any extended life after it ships is another thing.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/the-reality-of-the-ouya-console-doesnt-match-the-hype-why-you-should-be-ske

U sure about that?

man, quite harshing my mellow penny arcade

respect for Ben Kuchera, dawg

http://soundcloud.com/playouya/ouya
uh.
5.2 million. almost three weeks still left. I got mine.

ooo YA

uh

i will be mightily impressed if this is a scam. Not so much so i won't call for heads rolling but still.

Cyathem from Reddit... “I’ve wasted $100 on stupid things. This actually looks cool.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU0Ypufo6BM

http://soundcloud.com/playouya/ouya
uh.
5.2 million. almost three weeks still left. I got mine.

― This clam, stranded on someone’s floor, is trying to dig itself (forksclovetofu), Friday, July 20, 2012 6:47 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I wouldn't say that until you like actually "got" it

And I don't think anyone's saying this is a scam per se, just a super dubious fantasy

"Droid X360" Android handheld thingy that looks like a Vita

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0BN4txob1c

Android 4.0, 1.5 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM, 8GB on-board storage, 5-inch capacitive touchscreen, HDMI port, front and rear cameras. Ships with 9 emulators to play a bunch of SNES, GBA, Genesis, N64, etc. games. May infringe on one or two trademarks :)

No pricing info yet.

When OnLive first heard about OUYA, we were excited to see console gaming becoming more available and open. Like OUYA, we came to gaming with a new vision for making top-quality gaming accessible to more people, and we continue to look for ways to expand on that vision.

OUYA is rethinking the console business, making waves by using standard technology to make gaming for your living room accessible, affordable and more innovative than ever. In OnLive's case, we pioneered a groundbreaking, cloud-based system that instantly delivers games to any device on demand.

We are pleased to announce that OnLive will be available on OUYA at launch, extending and building on our commitment to make the best games available to everyone, everywhere.

What does that mean for OUYA backers?

OnLive will deliver a full console-class experience, bringing hundreds of top-tier games from more than 80 publishers to the OUYA console for play on demand.
OUYA owners will be able to jump in and play any of these games both at home on their OUYA console, and on the go on PCs, Macs, tablets and phones, never leaving a game behind.
Instant demos will be available for nearly every game in our ever-growing library—from eagerly anticipated indie titles like Ravaged, to hot blockbusters like the upcoming Darksiders® II. Players can experience up to 30 minutes of each game for free before deciding what to buy. If they like it, they can continue playing where the demo left off.
OnLive already delivers a premium gaming experience to tablets, smartphones, PCs, Macs, connected TVs and HDTVs via the OnLive® Game System or dedicated streaming devices like the VIZIO Co-Star. We’re pleased to deliver the same OnLive experience on the OUYA console when it launches next year.

—Bruce Grove, General Manager, OnLive

if you want to play android games and don't want to buy an android phone just get a nexus 7

Could be a good move getting OnLive onboard. After all, the OnLive console is about $99 on its own, and hopefully ouya will have a bit more to offer than just the OnLive console. That said, I think you can try OnLive on PC for free, and I still never bothered, so...

This morning, we are honored to announce that OUYA is partnering with Square Enix to bring you one of the most beloved franchises in gaming -- Final Fantasy. We will kick this off with Final Fantasy III, which will be a launch title on OUYA. This will be the first time gamers outside of Japan can play FFIII on their televisions through a console.

But that’s not the end of it: We’re promising to deliver Final Fantasy III like you’ve never seen it before – Hironobu Sakaguchi’s third installment in the role playing game franchise will be updated to exploit OUYA’s high-definition resolution in glorious graphic detail. For those of you who are new to Final Fantasy, we’ll offer a free demo so you can give it a go!

Previously unreleased in the U.S. until it appeared as a 3D remake for the Nintendo DS in 2006, Final Fantasy III was widely referred to as one of the “missing pieces” in the FF series. OUYA players can now proudly claim this piece of the puzzle.

We’re thrilled to bring this storied franchise to OUYA.

that's kinda awesome

so is it a localization of the famicom game, the DS remake, or a new version?

I would guess it's probably the DS version with some tweaks to make it look better in higher resolution

i keep thinking 'maybe i should order one of these' and then remembering i don't have a tv

so they launched their website...
http://www.ouya.tv/
and it's the same video as on kickstarter, links to their social media and "buy one now" order info and credit card taking machine
they are MIGHTY stingy with new info here.

akbar.gif

well, they asked for my address
so that's something I guess?

Ben Heck teardown...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hh3Ezg9xf0&feature=youtu.be

er...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hh3Ezg9xf0

did you order one? i did, back in the day. with two controllers. hope it's good!

I didn't order one. Because a) I'm applying my usual 'do I buy this console or not?' rule and waiting to see if it's going to have games I actually want to play (see also WiiU), b) I'm going to let other way more qualified people determine first if it's suitable for Android hacking.

there's a neo geo portable/console hybrid out that is apparently hack-friendly for all you MAME/emulator types.

this?
http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?239578-NeoGeoX-Hacking-and-Mods
Games on an SD card, Linux on a micro SD card soldered to the circuit board.

yeah -- the whole thing is just weird. you plug in the portable into a clamshell charger that makes it look like the original console, which you plug in to the TV. very xzibit yo dawg-esque.

It's like the reverse of a SNES Gameboy Player cartridge.

man that thing looks HELLA cheap

Yeah, like it should come with a happy meal.

That frosted clear plastic makes everything look cheap.

Shipping to kickstarters on March 28 (am i the only one?)

full launch/in stores in June.

I'm one of them, I'll be in India then though, grr.

i don't think i really understand how the controllers are supposed to sync up with the ouya. it instructs that you should hold in the ouya button in the center until the 4 lights switch to 2, and then let go. i hold in the button, a few seconds the 4 lights switch to 2, and then i let go. then, if i'm lucky, a minute goes by and it finally recognizes the controller. if i'm unlucky, like right now, 5 minutes go by with the two lights flashing, and the controller is totally unresponsive otherwise.

oh wait, finally, as i was typing that, it finally synced up. it had been about 6-7 minutes.

you don't sound like a happy beta tester.

killer app: make a badly animated frog jump around Swindon.

http://www.fayju.com/blog/projects/amazing-frog/

(btw I've only used this so far for emulation, N64 and snes stuff is working really well, haven't yet managed to find time to do the extra bit of fiddling that MAME will require, but yeah, this box is basically doing what I wanted it to do so that's fine).

which n64 emulator are you using? whichever one i used had catastrophic problems with more than half of the roms i tried.

Just the one in their store. I've only tried 5 or 6 roms to be fair, and there are a few which didn't work when I tried to run them at full resolution but worked fine when I dropped them to something closer to the original screen size (which is I guess 640x480? Maybe even lower actually). So that might help.

http://i.imgur.com/WBVmBuk.jpg

;_;

have to admit i'm tempted by that $39.99 sega, though. never had a genesis growing up!

The Ouyas on that shelf are still priced at $99.99, which is what they sell for on the Ouya website.

What's really ;_; is Stuart Ashen finding a Kickstarter developer version in a second hand shop before the official release.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf_jmGaanuY

that $40 genesis is made by some non-sega company in china, i guess? amazon reviews are hit and miss. one says the emulation is funky (distorted audio, slower performance). and 40 of the built in games are weird homegrown shit, which sounds like a draw, imo.

I bought one of these for $80 just for playing emulators. Just got it up last night and both GoldenEye and Mario Kart 64 worked great. The Ouya games seem pretty lame though.

the bitcoin of game consoles

i used it for 2 days. it's been sitting behind my tv ever since.

yes, i'm an idiot

ditto, on all points

Thritto.

And their latest move is really laughable. I'm sure their original pitch was something like "android games are great but so much better on a big screen", so it takes some brass neck to then try to sell the "imagine how great it'd be to take these big screen ouya games and put them back on mobile devices!" argument.

whats their latest move

im actually just amazed that any of you guys even got one

like, received one

Ouya Everywhere

http://kotaku.com/theres-pretty-much-no-reason-to-buy-a-ouya-anymore-1537697326

^yup

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/03/06/ouya-everywhere-starts-with-mad-catzs-mojo-microconsole-in-spri/

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/03/03/report-ouya-everywhere-puts-games-on-tv-pc-without-the-ouya/
This is so stupid, it's basically admitting that the whole idea of the Ouya was a waste of time, because all anybody had to do was hang around for slightly less than two years for Android tablets and TV dongles to get powerful enough.

Or, you know, play games on your PC, because it's not like you can do that at the moment oh wait you can! Which kills off the one remaining advantage that the Ouya had, that it was powered from the mains and could run it's processor at full speed without having to balance that against battery life.

I wonder who feels that they got burnt more: people who bought a Wii U or people who bought an Ouya?

Gotta be Ouya, Wii U's performance was fairly predictable

Got both, feel ok.

at least the bath people took on the ouya was a cheaper bath.

And the Wii U does have some good stuff; it's just looking like GameCube Redux.

i just got an email from ouya with the subject line "Fart where no frog has farted before"

this company's gonna go out of business or something

i'm sure the mass market will pick this over a fire tv or android tv

they're just gonna sell apps

if only someone would have warned me that buying an Ouya might be a bad idea

speak for yourself, i bought mine with bitcoin

i was a little shocked at the enthusiasm for ouya given the graveyard of linux-based game systems already out there plus the well-established and polished hacks for existing systems if your main interest was emulation.

maybe ouya was just a way to vote against the big 3? like it's main feature was being a political lever -- in which case I'd say it was a success.

pyrrhic, but yeah

feel like the steambox is gonna be what ends up getting that Fuck Everyone dollar

hahaha

i would get that over this

um
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmqJnR5IUAEC4z7.jpg

lol

http://i.imgur.com/iEPBagF.png

Amico Intellivision - this holiday season's Ouya (if it actually gets released on time).

who's in?!

afaict the guys behind it are all hardcore conservative christian boomers who wanted to make a console for conservative christian parents without all that sex and violence and microtransactions that would fill little johnnies head with sin. no surprise that creepos like Doug TenNapel are working on games for it.