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Startup Aims For $99, Android-Powered TV Game Console
rodrigoandrade writes "Ouya is a new Android-based home console that aims to bring to the living room the $0.99 games business model that has worked so well for Apple. The device 'will allow developers to easily create and sell their games and be fully “hackable” — anyone will be able to pull the machine apart and tinker with it to their heart’s content.' They're planning on shipping by March 2013. Admittedly, it's vaporware so far, but it could turn the industry on its head, effectively putting an end to the things we all hate about modern console gaming ($60 games, DLC, DRM, endless sequels, movie tie-ins, etc.)"
In France, where almost all domestic broadband is "triple play" (phone, TV and Internet), at least two of the major ISPs offers gaming as part of the functionality of their latest glorified router package. You can't get much easier to install than "It's already there", and the ISPs already have a distribution model that they use to sell view-on-demand video.
Virtually serving coffee
The $.99 business model only works for ios devs because there are millions of devices in the wild. How many do they plan to sell? It's not like standard android apps blow up to the size of tablets or --worse-- tv screens is attracting customers by the millions.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ak802-mini-android-4-0-network-media-player-w-wi-fi-hdmi-tf-usb-black-4gb-1gb-ddr-iii-143431?r=20144190
And yet something already exists, and for cheaper.
Microsoft overtaking Google with Bing? What world do you live in? Instead of googling people in this world, do you Bing them?
His mom Mrs. Ballmer told him.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
This seems like shameless propaganda. If Bing is so much better why don't you use Bing much? Maybe because Bing is not better at all? I do a lot of technical research and I have never felt Google lacking on finding me the results I need...
- a smartphone
There are several genres of video games that don't work on a smartphone because they really need a gamepad, and something like the iControlPad doesn't come bundled with most smartphones. What sort of control method is workable for a platformer or a fighting game on a smartphone?
Atleast Android does support gamepads, ie. if you have an Android phone just plug it in your TV and game away.
Bing vs. Google: Fight! Yeah, Bing loses pretty badly.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
Racing stripes, a spoiler, maybe cut a hole in the side and add an LED or two. Water cooling is the next step after that.
Haha check out the name, a play on Waggener-Edstrom
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Subtle? His username is a play on his employer's name.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
You must be young. When everybody moved off the Atari 2600 in 1983, they were not moving to the IBM compatibles. They were moving to Apple II s, Ti99/4a s, and to C64 s, etc. These system easily supported 2 joysticks. In fact, they supported the industry standard 9 pin digital joysticks that the Atari 2600s also used. We simply unplugged them from the Atari, and plugged them into the C64. Not only did they support multiple joysticks, but it was also the norm.
And yes, the public has listened (as they often do) to the marketing people, so they believe something that never existed. This isn't new or surprising.
If you click on "show search tools" on the left, and then "verbatim", Google will stop searching for other spellings and synonyms and will require all search terms to be on the page. In general, verbatim mode actually lowers the quality of the search results, which is why it's turned off by default, but there are exceptions so it's made available as an option.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
I don't check or post on Slashdot nearly as often as I used to, and the comments on this article illustrate why.
I mean, look at this. You've got a small team of people who are designing a product that is explicitly intended to be open and hackable. It's cheap, it's stylish, it runs Linux, and they're reaching out to the indie gaming community for support. They've more than doubled their initial goal in under 24 hours and are probably still reeling at the concept of what just happened. The news is sweeping across gaming sites and people are excited to see what's going to happen next.
And the comments on this Slashdot article are overwhelmingly negative. You've got people saying that nobody will want to develop software for a hackable device (like Android or Windows), there's no market for it (the $2M worth of investments so far seem to disagree), you can get cheap Chinese knockoff Android devices cheaper (LOL, just LOL), and some people are even saying it's vaporware like the Phantom. Seriously, the Phantom? That project was started by a guy who had a history of running investment scams. The people who are behind the Ouya are recognized names in the gaming industry and have the support of a lot of indie developers. There's no guarantee that this will end up being a big commercial success, of course, but you clearly haven't even taken a look at it if you think this is a second Phantom.
Slashdot, what happened to you?
Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)