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Ouya’s CEO Julie Uhrman has announced that the company’s console will buck the trend of most gaming devices, which are infrequently updated, instead offering a new version of the hardware every single year.
Talking to Engadget she explained that the company’s strategy “is very much similar to the mobile strategy. There will be a new OUYA every year. There will be an OUYA 2 and an OUYA 3.” That’s probably a sensible move, given that the guts of the console are based on mobile processors: the first release will be powered by a Tegra 3 chip, for instance, so perhaps we can expect the second iteration to be powered by Tegra 4. “We’ll take advantage of faster, better processors, take advantage of prices falling. So if we can get more than 8GB of Flash in our box, we will,” Uhrman explained.
She also pointed out that, with users frequently updating, Ouya will use a game purchasing model not unlike Steam’s. All games will, apparently, be backward compatible, and tied to the gamer — not the device. Sounds sensible. Ouya will be available from retailers and Amazon, as of June, for £99. [Engadget]
Not sure if that’s a wise strategy, buy console 1 today, in a year it will be replaced and all new games produced will be aimed at console 2, not console 1; therefore forcing me to continually upgrade my console to get the latest games.
£99 isn’t a lot of money but do that 3 or 4 times and it adds up to more than a more powerful console (the Xbox 360 has lasted 7+ years, Playstation 3 has lasted 6+ years) so whilst it sounds a good idea I’m not convinced of the reality. IMHO.
I think that’s a fair point but, looking back at mobile games, it seems that newer games do still run on older hardware, just not as well. So I would make a guess and say that your console could run 2 years of new games. And if things really took off with the Ouya and android gaming in general(as they seem to be), then it might be worth developers giving users lower graphics options for older versions, not unlike PC games.
Surely the point of the Ouya is that it will be a viable, cheaper alternative to ‘traditional’ consoles but if the graphics are ‘held back’ to ensure compatibility as you suggest then it will fall in the cracks much like the Wii did (without the cool USP). Just my humble opinion.
I think you misunderstood what I meant. I meant that, if there was enough initial sales of android gaming devices but one of the limiting factors of sales is that some games can’t run on certain systems due to differences in computing power then, it might be worth game developers offering different graphics options in there games (like pc games).
So lets say someone has Ouya 3, someone has Ouya 2 and someone has Ouya 1. A game developer could offer graphics setting of “Max” for Ouya 3, “High” for Ouya 2 and “Medium” for Ouya 1.
I understand that this is extra work for developers but if sales (or possible sales) are high enough then that might be a big enough incentive for them to do this.
In fact you already see this in some of the bigger games like GTA3 and Max Payne for example.
I did misunderstand but you’ve now explained it very clearly and I understand what you’re saying; it’ll be interesting to see how it works out in the future.
Agrees, plus we have the $99 conversion to £99 bollocks that we all fall foul of. And whats to say they dont up the price to keep in line with hardware costs?
That would be a massive kick in the balls to every kickstarter backer who actually put forward enough cash to get one of these considering the slow start almost every console gets.
well yeah. it’s a phone
How is it a phone?
Seeing as they are using the reference guts of general mobile hardware, I’m not surprised by this.
May annoy a lot of people used to longer life cycles, however for the price, people will most likely suck it up and upgrade like they do with their mobiles/android/apple devices, and especially since games are tied to gamer accounts, they won’t be lost upon upgrade.
Due to the almost “throwaway” cost (esp for second hand), I wonder if they had considered a recycling program to redistribute the obsolete ones to schools etc? perhaps like the one child/one laptop idea?
So in reality it’s gonna be a bust, if I have to buy 4 or 5 of them over a traditional consoles lifespan for it to remain viable it’s no actual gain.
But hey at least it’s coming out, I predicted it’s eventual non-arrival would be the incident that killed the consumers confidence in kickstarter.