OUYA - Cheap, Open-Source Android Game Console

Pages

Their Kickstarter.

My Twitter started filling up with things about this earlier this morning and I checked it out. It's an Android based console designed to run on TVs but that's supposed to be completely open to any developers, big and small.

Honestly, I don't know if this thing has a chance in Hell of meeting major market success given what it's up against but I think the idea is brilliant. Dumb name but cheap, a slick UI (at least from their prototype), hackable front to back apparently and wide open for anyone to develop and put games on. I'm definitely going to kick in as I'd love to at least see this get a shot and it seems to be backed by serious people, not some group of basement hobbyists. If they could get real marketing dollars behind this, I could see the cheap entry price giving it a good install base. Given it's hardware specs (it's basically got the guts of a top shelf Android phone and runs 4.0), I don't know how they're selling it at a profit for $99 but maybe when you don't have to worry about a screen, GPS and cell radios, this stuff's actually pretty inexpensive.

Yup, the idea is fantastic, but we'll see how it turns out.

$950,000 is a ton of money to ask for, especially considering it requires ~1,000 orders of the console. This might turn out like the watches did though.

It's already over 10% funded in just a few hours and half the console bundles are already gone (I got in on one). I'm really hoping this goes somewhere. $950,000 is probably enough to do some R&D but it definitely won't get the thing to market and in particular, pay for the marketing campaign needed to get this into the mainstream. But I'm almost certain this Kickstarter is a "prove to investors that people want this" type thing.

I am skeptical about this device but interested as well. I don't think I will be Kickstarting it but will be interested to see what people do with it.

Sounds like a cool idea but at the same time sounds like it could just go on a similar path of GP2X where you get a bunch of crappy Missile Command ripoffs and illegal emulators for old games and not much else. I don't feel comfortable Kickstarting it, but if I'm proven wrong I could see myself picking one up in the future.

kuddles wrote:

Sounds like a cool idea but at the same time sounds like it could just go on a similar path of GP2X where you get a bunch of crappy Missile Command ripoffs and illegal emulators for old games and not much else. I don't feel comfortable Kickstarting it, but if I'm proven wrong I could see myself picking one up in the future.

Actually thinking of it for emulation and possibly as a media center extender type thing are two of the main things that have me interested in it. Which is also why I got added to the list for a Raspberry Pi

kuddles makes a good point about the GP2X but I do think that was a fairly different beast. It didn't have access to an established and polished ecosystem based on a platform that's already being widely used in phones and tablets which this device does. It also at least appears that this is being put out by a company that has backing and will give it a marketing push as opposed to a tiny little South Korean outfit who basically just put the GP2X out there and hoped it would catch on all by itself. I get anyone who is sceptical though. I most certainly am, I only pitched in cause I think it's a really neat experiment and even if it flops hard, I'll like having one around just to say I was part of it. If I wasn't having a good month for freelance tech work though, I probably wouldn't have bothered.

I think there will be no middle ground with this, it will either be a huge success and potentially change the market again or no one will care and it will burn out right away. I hope it's the former but they do seem to understand that this is a radical undertaking and I suspect they are using Kickstarter because investors went "no way we're backing this until you can show people might want it."

Really excited to see where this goes. They're already halfway to $950k.

Rykin wrote:

I am skeptical about this device but interested as well. I don't think I will be Kickstarting it but will be interested to see what people do with it.

Similar feelings here. I definitely think Android could, maybe will find itself in a console. I think an Android Handheld is more likely to be a success though.

It is also giving me a Phantom vibe.

KingGorilla wrote:
Rykin wrote:

I am skeptical about this device but interested as well. I don't think I will be Kickstarting it but will be interested to see what people do with it.

Similar feelings here. I definitely think Android could, maybe will find itself in a console. I think an Android Handheld is more likely to be a success though.

It is also giving me a Phantom vibe.

This.

Nearly halfway there already.

Holy crap. People are jumping all over this. Whew. I can let others gamble with $100 and I'll see where things land.

Kickstarter will net say.. 100,000 units deployed? That's not a large enough user base for anything but quick hasty ports from existing Android games.. so whoopie.. we get to play Tablet optimized Android games that already are a bit dodgy because there were iOS ports. Probably will be an emu monster though.. especially once Fight Stick support is enabled via the USB port.

TheGameguru wrote:

Kickstarter will net say.. 100,000 units deployed? That's not a large enough user base for anything but quick hasty ports from existing Android games.. so whoopie.. we get to play Tablet optimized Android games that already are a bit dodgy because there were iOS ports. Probably will be an emu monster though.. especially once Fight Stick support is enabled via the USB port.

Interesting analysis. What are current gen handheld units sold? How many Ouyas sold until it's not a third-class console?

The potential upside is developers who weren't developing for consoles at all now being able to. I think you hit on the downside.

I love seeing people taking a chance, starting businesses as entrepreneurs and building something cool but, and I hate saying this, I don't think this is a viable product.

We're already carrying Android consoles in out hands and many of them have the ability to connect via HDMI to HDTVs. Here's a Gaikai demo using an XBox 360 controller to play Hawken on a tablet...

KingGorilla wrote:

It is also giving me a Phantom vibe.

No way this thing is already more credible than the Phantom ever was.

I refreshed my screen and it went up $1000. I refreshed again 30 or so seconds later and it went up another $2000. Would be kinda cool to see this hit funding in a day and get some amazing stretch rewards.

TheGameguru wrote:

quick hasty ports from existing Android games

I'm curious why they chose Android. Having an existing game catalog is definitely useful but a PC based console might have made more sense.

I see the Phantom is making a comeback.

StaggerLee wrote:

Interesting analysis. What are current gen handheld units sold? How many Ouyas sold until it's not a third-class console?

The 3DS has sold 18 million units worldwide; the Vita, 2.4 million.

Looking at home consoles, which is maybe a closer comparison, the GameCube and the original Xbox were both considered to have low sales numbers at 20+ million each. The Dreamcast was dead in the water at 10 million.

At 100,000 or so units, you're looking at less than the Tapwave Zodiac. Yes, that thing. Hell, the NGage moved 3 million units.

Granted, that's units at launch versus lifetime sales, but it's still a really, really small user base. If it can't somehow leverage existing Android games without modification, I don't see this as anything other than a quickly-hacked emulator box.

Just noticed something that's bugging me... To get early SDK access you have to pledge $699!? That seems a bit steep to me. There's no mention of it but I wonder if there's a certification process to get into the Ouya marketplace or whatever they call it. Maybe that's how they filter out the shovelware and clones.

SixteenBlue wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

quick hasty ports from existing Android games

I'm curious why they chose Android. Having an existing game catalog is definitely useful but a PC based console might have made more sense.

You wouldnt be able to come anywhere near a $100 price point with an x86 compatible device.. the licensing costs alone to Microsoft would leave you with little or nothing for hardware.

TheGameguru wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

quick hasty ports from existing Android games

I'm curious why they chose Android. Having an existing game catalog is definitely useful but a PC based console might have made more sense.

You wouldnt be able to come anywhere near a $100 price point with an x86 compatible device.. the licensing costs alone to Microsoft would leave you with little or nothing for hardware.

Truthfully I'm lost on how you even get a $100 Android device with a controller and a touchpad.

Watching the amount of money being pledged is like watching that national debt calculator thing.

It sure beats working on what I'm supposed to be doing!

SixteenBlue wrote:

Truthfully I'm lost on how you even get a $100 Android device with a controller and a touchpad.

IMAGE(http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/21181694.jpg)

Tanglebones wrote:
KingGorilla wrote:
Rykin wrote:

I am skeptical about this device but interested as well. I don't think I will be Kickstarting it but will be interested to see what people do with it.

Similar feelings here. I definitely think Android could, maybe will find itself in a console. I think an Android Handheld is more likely to be a success though.

It is also giving me a Phantom vibe.

This.

There are people involved in this project who have actually shipped other things. Whether or not this will be a success is definitely questionable but this is far from the Phantom investor scam.

Well it looks like it's going to hit it's $950K goal on its first day. That's pretty insane. If the pace continues like this, it will outpace the Pebble Watch which is by far the Kickstarter record holder right now. Maybe this is just a bunch in the open source community with enough money to throw at this out of idle curiosity or maybe they've got a good idea here. I guess time will tell.

[/quote]

If it just had this I would be happy!

Parallax Abstraction wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:
KingGorilla wrote:
Rykin wrote:

I am skeptical about this device but interested as well. I don't think I will be Kickstarting it but will be interested to see what people do with it.

Similar feelings here. I definitely think Android could, maybe will find itself in a console. I think an Android Handheld is more likely to be a success though.

It is also giving me a Phantom vibe.

This.

There are people involved in this project who have actually shipped other things. Whether or not this will be a success is definitely questionable but this is far from the Phantom investor scam.

Color had people that shipped successful things. Unfortunately, even in the tech realm, past performance isn't a completely reliable indicator of future success.

And they made their goal Just under the wire too, only 29 days left!

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Well it looks like it's going to hit it's $950K goal on its first day. That's pretty insane. If the pace continues like this, it will outpace the Pebble Watch which is by far the Kickstarter record holder right now. Maybe this is just a bunch in the open source community with enough money to throw at this out of idle curiosity or maybe they've got a good idea here. I guess time will tell.

Kinda interesting that its on less than 9,000 contributors.. of which about 600 of them are just reserving their username etc..not actually buying a unit. It would be far more interesting if they got to $1M with 40-50,000 $25 backers..

Pages