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After successfully milking Kickstarter for millions upon millions of pounds, the Ouya console is nearly ready for its global launch. Apparently we’ll be able to pick up the Android gaming cube and controller for £99 this March.
That’s not hugely exciting, as it’s already possible to pre-order them through the site for a little less and a delivery slot in April, but it does mean Ouya could be looking at some serious mainstream success if it manages to get hardware stocked around the country in your traditional retailers for less than 100 quid.
As well as launching the initial machine, Ouya is said to be looking at developing an upgraded model that would be capable of outputting 3D images to TVs and monitors, bringing the option of affordable stereoscopic gaming to the masses.
Ouya is going to have quite a battle on its hands, though. Stacks of other Android gaming solutions are in the pipeline, with one particularly exciting option just revealed by Nvidia. And we suspect the £99 price tag is going to look pretty expensive later this year, once the Android game console floodgates have been fully wedged open by the Chinese hardware makers. [Pocket-Lint]
Ouya Android Console Shipping to Initial backers on March 28th
Ouya Hitting the Big Old Shops from June
Turn Any Android Phone Into an Ouya-Like Console With Green Throttle
I think this is unfortunately going to get washed away by Nvidias new gear. Still I think its £99 price tag will stay as relatively cheap even with a flood of android gaming gear.
I am still hoping the OUYA will be the best of both worlds.
Android cheap and openness along with its own solid ecosystem of developers.
You can already buy a cheap android stick and nvidia android controller for just over £50. But OUYA looks more like the complete kit.
The thing with OUYA is that you are paying as much for the infrastructure as you are for the hardware. Any old Chinese “HDMI Adapter” can play Android games from the Play Store or side-loading but you don’t get the full controller support or the same level of curation or support.
I’m looking forward to the OUYA and plan on releasing one fully completed Android game, as well as one in-development title for it. I hope it does well.
It doesn’t necessarily work like that. What you posted there is exactly what I thought when I bought my MHL adapter for my Galaxy Nexus. It actually takes a decent bit of GPU power to output to the HDMI TV, which reduces gaming performance. There’s also the issue that when using MHL, although a charger is plugged in, the battery still runs down, just at a slower pace. Also with OUYA, there might be a higher limit on the per-app RAM usage, so using a phone with all your apps running in the background takes a hit on performance too.
Ruh roh. Someone replied to the wrong comment!
Oops. I didn’t read your comment properly… I should learn to slow down when reading.
ok.. i dont really get this, am i right in saying this is so i can play my phone games (tablet etc..) on my TV? if so.. why?
Would people really want to do that, do people really play their phone games when at home? i am failing to understand why you would not just have an Xbox, PS3 or a Wii over this device.. i can only assume i am not the target audience?
No, its NOT to play phone games on your TV.
It’s a console, for playing console games on your TV.
It just happens to run Android.
Why does everybody read “Android” as “only-ported-phone-games” ?
It’s being marketed as an Android games console, but this only really scratches the surface of what it can do. I basically think the targetted marketing doesn’t really do it justice; to be honest, I don’t think Android gaming is all that great anyway and it won’t sell itself solely as a gaming device anyway.
As a generalised Android 4 device with wireless, wired and USB connectivity, this has a ton of functionality, from web-surfing, very light productivity, media serving, gaming etc. etc. etc. for a low price and the size of a Rubik’s Cube – and it plugs into anything with an HDMI socket.
It is an android device, but that is because android is an opensource OS.
The OUYA is intended to get its own games that will be release through its own network similar to the PSN & Xbox Live.
Along with that they have already been in talks with Onlive to offer full console games streamed to the device along with a plethora of other services that are made possible by the device running android.
ahh the old $1 = £1 rate. Gotta love it.
I will say the same thing as I’ve said on the Engadget forums many times
The reason why OUYA is great is you need to think of it as a Gaming Rig, that’s the size of a Rubik’s cube, and runs Android.
It has games many many compatible games for it (http://ouyaforum.com/showthread.php?18-List-of-Games-Coming-to-the-OUYA)
Also you can put a lot of emulators on there!
Also if it does flop as a games console, its a £100 Media Center with XMBC, Netflix, Plex, Vevo, etc.
Plus the amount of potential, you just need to wait for the brain boxes over at XDA Developers to start keyboard mashing some apps out
Yeah – you beat me to it while I was posting above. Ouya is “also” a mini games console, but that’s not all it is by a very long way.
will this be able to run XBMC? Its size + a cheap hard drive would be ideal for travelling
Probably; the software exists anyway, and if it’s Android-compatible, there’s no real reason it won’t be fine.
http://lifehacker.com/5965435/xbmc-unveils-an-official-beta-for-android-devices
Yes they said so.
http://xbmc.org/natethomas/2012/08/07/xbmc-and-ouya-oh-yeah/
I see your crappy console and raise you an integrated gamepad/console duo for 50 quid
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/872297630/gamestick-the-most-portable-tv-games-console-ever
But it is true that:
- nvidia gear is most likely to get into the game (no pun intended) and wash away the competition
- the android platform as promising and cool as it is there are very few “full on games” on the market at the present moment
- i still prefer the new xbox but too many $$$ dont always make holler