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Ah, another day, another Kickstarter success story. After the Pebble e-paper watch took off, it seems like everyone’s selling their souls on Kickstarter, with this ‘people’s console’ proving to be the latest random big hit.
Ouya is the brainchild of (unlikely) founder Julie Uhrman. Her vision is for a games console that’s developer-friendly and has lots of ‘free’ content. It’s an Andriod box, built around a Tegra 3 processor with 1GB of RAM and a small amount of Flash memory. Basically, then, this is an Android tablet minus the screen, with a controller thrown in. The features Julie spends lots of time talking about, though, are the friendliness of the console for developers, and the novel idea that all games have to at least start off as freebies. It’s certainly taken Kickstarter by storm though, with 21,000 people ponying up a collective £1.6 million to get the thing built. That includes five people who forked out well over £6,500 each to have their names engraved on the first run of consoles — I mean, talk about cash to burn.
Will an Android tablet console really be able to play with the big boys? I’m not so sure. It’s a nice idea, and the developer-friendly approach is definitely a direction worth moving in, but I’m not certain people want or need a standalone Android gaming console. I also kind of feel that forcing developers to make games free will drive away a lot of the big names, as well as drowning the platform in crappy demos, ads and freemium games. Still, it’s already got the required £610,000, and the dosh is still pouring in, so maybe I’m too much of a cynic. What do you reckon, is it worth £65? [Kickstarter via Kotaku]
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You lost me at Android.
I would rather spend my £65 on a Nokia Symbian phone.
ironically, it looks very metro-y
Yeah, strange thing is I haven’t seen anything about the console that is remotely Android-y at all. It might as well be Linux
Also, isn’t the Tegra 3 processor SIGNIFICANTLY less powerful than the graphical oomph that current-gen consoles have? This, when we’re all ears and eyes about a next-generation coming around the corner…
Give me a week a few days and I’ll take you up on that with a lovely Nokia Asha 201.
Touché
Just watched the video. No wonder she has got so many people on board.
Her Eyebrows. They have a life of their own. They suck you in. Like the devil! Or Miley Cyrus in a vacuum!
Quick! Burn it with fire!
Lol they’re like the UK Cadbury advert.
I wonder how many people will buy it just to stick XBMC on that thing.
Sorry to be a pedant, but it’s not £65. You have to pledge $119 which is roughly £77.
Also why is she the unlikely founder? She used to work at IGN and has Ed Fries on board.
Clarification: the console is $99 delivery is $20
Even then, it should be £63.56 (and £12.84 postage) based on the mean USD-GBP daily rate since the start of June!
You…you beat me at my own game…
“the novel idea that all games have to at least start off as freebies”
It’s not a new idea. In fact, ironically, it’s strikingly similar to the business model of Xbox Live Arcade, of all things, that mandates a free demo version of all releases. The difference in this case is that things can stay free if they want to.
I’ve ordered one. I’m quite excited about it. I know it has the same specs ish as the nexus but it’s the possibilities this little thing presents. If people are allowed to go wild with it then imagine emulators on it for countless past games. Also, if it really ‘kicks’ off developers will start to make android games that suit a large TV. There are plenty of other bonuses it could bring too being an open platform. Never invested in something before but this really interested me.
What’s with all the Kickstarter hate?
People are selling their souls now? Kickstarter is now Satan? Where will this end? Perhaps Kickstarter is a paedophile?
She lost me at “it’s open for hackers.” I’m not going back to the old days of PC gaming with hackers pwning everyone on online servers.
The Xbox 360 may be graphically inferior to a pc but it’s an even playing field and I like it that way.
Very tempted to get one, but I’ve been spending frivolously recently and the wifey is not going to approve
I guess I don’t need one anytime soon, and it’s not out until the end of Q1 next year anyway. I’ll wait until then and see what happens. I do think it will do well, because nobody is taking advantage of the free-to-play model seriously, and it is lucrative as Apple have demonstrated with Micro transaction games. Even Nintendo is adapting the online capability and architecture of the Wii U to make use of free-to-play + micro transactions in future.
I kind of like the idea. OnLive support would sway me, and if lots of people are developing then I’m sure streaming videos and audio will end up in there. If it could be a do-it-all box for the TV, PLUS a supported game platform, that would be great. As it is, I’ll wait and see what kind of support it gets once it arrives. As others have said, it’s a little underpowered to market primarily as a game machine, perhaps they should concentrate more on other entertainment.
What I want to know is, who pays for these very very well produced videos, such as this one? That must have cost tens of thousands: Scripting, Direction, Post Production, Editing etc.
OUYA!
(Reminds me of the vocals in the War of the Worlds album soundtrack. Oooohh, yahh…)
My favourite console to date is the original xbox, The reason behind it being my favourite is the ability to make it so open source, Where do you think XBMC came from? It was incredible and with so many open source apps and programs being released for that constantly back in the day it was and actually still is my favourite console, My 360 is unplugged at the moment so i can play the original! So £65 for a piece of kit that will be even more open source and newer and probably be able to play HD videos and maybe have wireless is just amazing! Haven’t read into this atall but i will certainly be buying one in the morning!!! Can not wait now!!! P.s. Gizmodo how can you be cynical over this when all that is ever on this site is about apple, I hate apple, Money grabbing stuck up company. And i’ve never bought one of their products for those reasons.
I wont be buying one and thats due to the pricing structure that always seems to screw over us UK gamers. Internal storage only 8gb, I just dont see that as being enough going forward this year. Yes I see you can upgrade external storage but still.