[Arcana]

OUYA is an Android-based console that costs $99 and is meant to open up gaming to the world, getting around expensive dev kits and licensing fees associated with some of the big players in the living room.

OUYA wants to bust down console gaming's walled gardens

Oh yeah! Ouya receives over 1 million in crowdfunding in less than 8 hours

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...o-game-console

The game console is meant to be open for people to hack for and build for. The games are intended to be low cost (free, even) and it's meant to be a way to help indie gamers develop for a TV-based console.

As the headlines imply, this project was funded on Kickstarter and met its $1 000 000 goal in under 8 hours, and as of today (Friday July 13) there's $2 829 000 in the fund which makes it the largest Kickstarter ever so far.

There are many implications of gaming that this has. Some people might compare this to Steam (and imply that it'll fail), others might see this as a great opportunity to get a $99 set-top box for installing XBMC and not care much about the gaming implications. In any case, this is one of the biggest Kickstarters ever and thus it's gained a lot of media attention. Is this box poised to change living room gaming?

[Omni-Psyence]

1 GB of RAM makes me vary cautious about all of this. I sincerely hope they can pull this off. I doubt it will be able to run many current AAA titles, much less those about to come out in the near future. Otherwise it's a really cool idea.

[Gollgagh]

Originally Posted by Omni-Psyence

I doubt it will be able to run many current AAA titles

yeah, that's really not the idea behind it at all

[Omni-Psyence]

I understand the design philosophy but inevitably there are going to be those who would like to see games with a higher production value on this console. The creators themselves even claim "OUYA could change AAA game development, too. Forget about licensing fees, retail fees, and publishing fees." So they clearly have some sort of expectation for their console to perform in the AAA market. I hope that it can!

[Arcana]

Originally Posted by Omni-Psyence

I understand the design philosophy but inevitably there are going to be those who would like to see games with a higher production value on this console. The creators themselves even claim "OUYA could change AAA game development, too. Forget about licensing fees, retail fees, and publishing fees." So they clearly have some sort of expectation for their console to perform in the AAA market. I hope that it can!

I think the idea is that the existence of a console without high licensing fees might change the way that AAA game publishers do business, rather than competing with them directly.

It's kind of like how Steam made game distribution on the PC viable and helped to revitalize PC gaming (and made Valve rich in the process). If nothing else OUYA has the potential to depress the prices of games from $60 downward.

[Omni-Psyence]

Understandable, if that's the case. I just don't want to see a scenario in which many of the backers of this Kickstarter find themselves disappointed with something that they thought they were getting, but did not receive. I know the specs are plain for everyone to see, but you know how these sort of things go. Would love to see this be a success and not blow up in their face over any backlash like that.

[ocre]

Not trying to rain on any parades but this editorial may offer some considerations.

[Omni-Psyence]

Yeah I actually caught that article yesterday, I'm remaining cautiously optimistic about this project. IMO, however, I think a Valve "Steambox" or whatever they'd decide to call it would have a better shot at this concept. I don't even know if they are planning on doing that still or not, but they've already got the infrastructure for it. Still, this Ouya could be a very refreshing change of pace for the console market either way.

[Level 99]

I'm behind this in every way. Also, if you want AAA games, just get something like Gametap or Onlive on there and BAM, AAA development.

As I talked about on OCAD previously, the future of gaming and the deprecation of the traditional idea of consoles is kind of embodied in this device. At least the first steps of it are, anyway.

It encourages people to work with a platform that's not meant to wring every single cent from developers and consumers. It seems like a pretty even trade to be able to develop for it for free, and sell it for free and then OUYA takes something like 30% from all in-game sales. Seems VERY fair to me if they end up offering a community service similar to the features of steam (chat, multiplayer, etc.).

It is getting people to work with limited hardware, which I believe spurs creativity similarly to how hardware restrictions in the early console ages did the same thing. Integrating streaming video and the like and you have a on-the-cheap all in one box that, with the right titles and support, can really change how people approach a system's features and lifecycle.

Current gen hardware is being stretched for as long as possible because the amount of time, money, and effort spent in R&D for them was astronomical. This was to the point that they're inventing peripherals in order to superficially extend the lifespan and relevance of the systems beyond what has been experienced in the past. Hardware is getting harder and harder to create in order to rationalize that jump to another system (unless you're nintendo, that does the gimmicks at the forefront and stays generally behind in the hardware power race). It's also very expensive. Even compensating for inflation, this is still on average the most expensive gaming generation so far. How expensive will it be to make an even more powerful machine (that isn't just high end PC hardware) and ship it to possibly be tepidly received, and take massive hits at the system level with hopeful compensation in game sales to offset the cost?

It makes increasingly more sense, both logically and financially, to focus on the backend processing and utilizing high-speed connections to deliver content on devices that are much simpler, and basically act as a VNC to a gaming system. This was the game companies can a) utilize hardware upgrades more efficiently, and without a shipping cost b) control the purchasing and re-selling of digital games and DLC and c) control system access all around. The OUYA box could foster a service like that, while also giving the indie and casual crowd something to work with.

Call me overly optimistic, but I'm really excited about this. I backed it right after the first 1000 sold out, and I'm very excited to get it, play on it, and potentially make a game on it.

[Calpis]

I already donated to the Kickstarter. My thinking is that (given that it does release), even if it fails, I still have a fairly powerful Android console that hooks into my TV that I can play emulated games on.