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Kotaku: Meet Ouya, A New $99 Console That's Not The X360, PS3, Wii
- Thread starter pramath
- Start date
Mr Killemgood
Member
Could be an awesome Roku/Netflix/Onlive player, as well as Android.
If it makes it to market, I'll probably buy. Having an indie-only console would be pretty sweet, especially if the major indie players on Steam support it.
If it makes it to market, I'll probably buy. Having an indie-only console would be pretty sweet, especially if the major indie players on Steam support it.
outunderthestars
Banned
Hopefully people who donate $10,000 won't have usernames like "Sm0kE DaWg 420XXX"
DiscoJer
Member
20, at least in theory.
But that's the fascinating part of this drive, there hasn't been a lot of high end pledges, only 3 have picked that option for $10k.
Most of the pledges have been at the $95-99 level.
200 people have gone with the $699 level for expedited SDK access and promotion
Warm Machine
Member
All 200 of the dev level ones are gone
DiscoJer
Member
I would guess they are just on the same thing as the serial number and FCC info is
paranoidfortean
Member
Fuck yes.
Wow, everytime I refresh the page the $99 reward has gone down another notch. They've clearly tapped into an idea that a lot of people are excited for.
I wonder why the controller doesn't have motion controls though? Seems like an odd decision.
And also why is there only 8GB of space? I mean I know most Android games are pretty small in size but theres always stuff like Mass Effect Infiltrator (1.2GB on iOS) or Dead Space.
I wonder why the controller doesn't have motion controls though? Seems like an odd decision.
And also why is there only 8GB of space? I mean I know most Android games are pretty small in size but theres always stuff like Mass Effect Infiltrator (1.2GB on iOS) or Dead Space.
USB storage is cheap and this supports it. Their main goal was to keep the price of the box down.
Snapshot King
Member
Fuck it, I hopped on. 119 bucks is a fair price to pay even if this turns out to just be a weird fucking box I can tinker with.
99$? seriously?
that's pretty... cheap
Tegra 3 will be at least 25 dollar to a small vendor like that if not 30$
All other hardware enclosed (event though they do not have the heavy hitting item like a display and touch, but they have controller) will run them at least 40$, and that's not counting the controller
I wonder how can they break even on this.
But i backed one since it's Tegra ;o
that's pretty... cheap
Tegra 3 will be at least 25 dollar to a small vendor like that if not 30$
All other hardware enclosed (event though they do not have the heavy hitting item like a display and touch, but they have controller) will run them at least 40$, and that's not counting the controller
I wonder how can they break even on this.
But i backed one since it's Tegra ;o
dancrane212
Member
From what I understand you have to use their own marketplace, not the play.google one.
HadesGigas
Member
It's not even $99, since there's still the kickstarter, amazon, and shipping fees chopped out of that.
One would hope they thought this through...
Maybe counting on those larger donations to make up for the losses they take per $99 donation?
Google Play support via hacked-in vanilla Android is all but guaranteed, since the devs say they want developers to go nuts.
Oh what?
=(
double =(
i actually want to use it as a semi-ok htpc on my second TV on top of it's "gaming capabilities"
wonder if that would be possible
and they still need to deliver the hardware
.But maybe they will get some investors after this as well.
Barack Lesnar
Banned
Goddam some of you are ballsy. Dropping 100 bucks on some random company making a game console... yea I can predict this wont end well!
Will be great to be surprised though.
You have to admit the video was pretty well done and makes you feel confident about the product
Johnny Dazzle
Member
Taken from the Kickstarter page:
That's pretty good considering the price, I'm interested to see how far this goes.
That's pretty good considering the price, I'm interested to see how far this goes.
I really hope this happens but wouldn't Google would want to discourage a hack like that?
You can get Play through all the custom Android ROMs, it's been done for years
outunderthestars
Banned
You lose it.
That said, I have a feeling that they actually have investor money. This project is already pretty damn far along...
I really have to wonder why they went with a Tegra 3 SoC for this. Its graphics performance sucks compared to competing SoCs, and it would seem that graphics are pretty important for a gaming system.
But yeah, outside of that, intermittent stuttering on Android is in my experience related mostly to the garbage collector, which can be avoided entirely by careful programming. Now, smooth and responsive games are a different matter, since even the fastest capacitive touchscreens usually have >50 ms of input lag.
Well, on an open platform there's always the question of what background processes you are running. If some facebook status update suddenly eats 80% of your CPU there's nothing a game can do about it. This should theoretically be mitigated by a device entirely devoted to gaming.
But yeah, outside of that, intermittent stuttering on Android is in my experience related mostly to the garbage collector, which can be avoided entirely by careful programming. Now, smooth and responsive games are a different matter, since even the fastest capacitive touchscreens usually have >50 ms of input lag.
I heard tegra3 is cheaper.
Tegra's cheap as hell and there aren't that many other options. Most of the ARM SoC design firms are owned by handset/tablet companies that won't sell to a competing hardware manufacturer. Probably they could get something from TI but I don't think the current OMAP series is any better and probably costs more.
Either this isn't true or they're not launching at $99. A crowdfunded startup can't take a bath on hardware.
Also the fact that hardware isn't nailed down at this point doesn't bode well for the eventual prospects of the company. Design creep leads to vaporware.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
This seems like an absolute disaster in the making.
$100 gets you a console and a controller. Take out kickstarter fees, amazon payment fees, taxes, shipping, and the cost of the materials and they'd be lucky to break even. And that's not taking into account labor.
Why on earth would a developer support such a system? It's hard enough to make a living as an indie developer on a popular storefront like Steam, the iOS App Store, XBLA, PSN, and Wii/3DSWare. Targeting a small fraction of an already fragmented market (Android) is just asking to fail.
And I'm really not seeing the appeal of the hardware specs. All the low power of a cheap phone with none of the portability!
Best case scenario, the system actually comes out. Nobody makes any real money with it but the hobbyists have have fun messing around.
Worst case scenario, the kickstarter is a scam and the people take the money and run.
Most likely scenario, the kickstarter is being run by naive individuals who don't realize how big of a task they're proposing. They get all this money and then realize they can't deliver and then desperately seek additional funding to actually do what they said they were going to do in the first place.
EDIT: Or to put it another way, it's hard enough to talk people into supporting the Vita and that's a portable system that has sold over a million units and has the backing of a major corporation. I expect the Ouya will do considerably worse than that.
$100 gets you a console and a controller. Take out kickstarter fees, amazon payment fees, taxes, shipping, and the cost of the materials and they'd be lucky to break even. And that's not taking into account labor.
Why on earth would a developer support such a system? It's hard enough to make a living as an indie developer on a popular storefront like Steam, the iOS App Store, XBLA, PSN, and Wii/3DSWare. Targeting a small fraction of an already fragmented market (Android) is just asking to fail.
And I'm really not seeing the appeal of the hardware specs. All the low power of a cheap phone with none of the portability!
Best case scenario, the system actually comes out. Nobody makes any real money with it but the hobbyists have have fun messing around.
Worst case scenario, the kickstarter is a scam and the people take the money and run.
Most likely scenario, the kickstarter is being run by naive individuals who don't realize how big of a task they're proposing. They get all this money and then realize they can't deliver and then desperately seek additional funding to actually do what they said they were going to do in the first place.
EDIT: Or to put it another way, it's hard enough to talk people into supporting the Vita and that's a portable system that has sold over a million units and has the backing of a major corporation. I expect the Ouya will do considerably worse than that.
Desperately need a new title!
SquiddyCracker
Banned
I'm pretty impressed by these fellas.
They've already got twice the target goal, and still got 29 more days of kickstarting left.
That it will get Minecraft is also pretty impressive.
They've already got twice the target goal, and still got 29 more days of kickstarting left.
That it will get Minecraft is also pretty impressive.
Brad Grenz
Member
Where are you getting these figures? This thing will easily be sub $50 to produce in 2013 (which is when they plan to deliver). It will be competing with $30 HDMI sticks running stock Android with better GPUs. They're just going to place an order with a Chinese factory that's already making millions of nearly identical devices. There are already multiple Kickstarters based on the same principle. The economies of scale from smartphone production have driven the price of ARM SoCs so low that once you eliminate the screen, battery and cellular modem the rest of the hardware is practically free. The only wrinkle is preselling generic Chinese devices on Kickstarter as if its some kind of revolution. There's a veritable gold rush of Kickstarters just trying to get money before the no-name stuff shows up next the the register at every Rite Aid in a few months.
Yuuup.
Same here. This whole concept where a few companies decide what can and can't be available on the TV and who can release what, when and at what price, could stand to be challenged. We desperately need more openness among traditional console manufactures or an alternative to them in the living room and even if I don't believe at Ouya at all, it's a way to send a message.
So yeah, I backed(119$).
RiccochetJ
Gold Member
Well, ARMs own Mali is pretty far ahead of Tegra 3 at this point.
But I guess Tegra 3 is really cheap. I read somewhere it's ~$20 in volume.
RiccochetJ
Gold Member
It appears that you're not able to separate what MS, Sony, and Nintendo are doing compared to what this is offering. Devs basically have absolutely no barrier to entry into this ecosystem. $99 buys you the console which is also the dev kit. It's there for everyone. How much is the dev kit for the Vita?
If they're as open as they say they are, then in theory they could always be updating Android which is just getting better with every update.
And I don't care about the hardware specs. I'm not expecting this to replace my consoles or my PC. It's something different and I hope that we'll see some amazing mods if this thing is successful.
Edit: You're not planning on porting Cthulhu Saves the World to this thing if it's successful? You're already on Android.
petethepanda
Member
I don't know about this yet. Wouldn't a controller plug-in thingy for your phone accomplish the same thing? Not sure there's a good enough reason for a standalone device.
The video was the sole reason of me backing this project.
Brad Grenz
Member
$99, through PlayStation Mobile.
Truespeed
Member
Ed Fries was all I need to know. This is the legend behind Halo 2600.
Games are already free.