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With $8.6M In Kickstarter Funds, Ouya Opens Console Pre-Orders
Chameleon Man writes with an excerpt from PC Mag: "Early this morning, the Android-based Ouya console ended its run on Kickstarter with nearly $8.6 million in user donations. In recent weeks, the company has secured a number of content partners for the device, but now it's time to see if Ouya can really deliver. Interested buyers can now pre-order an Ouya on the company's website. In the U.S., one console and one controller will cost $109, one console plus two controllers will be $139, and one console and four controllers will be $199. All orders include a $10 shipping charge."
Adds Chameleon Man: "Here's to hoping that an open-source console can gain a foothold in an already competitive market."
But the Wii has the fun movement controller.
I suspect that you saw the potential BECAUSE you're not a gamer. All I hear from gamers is how underpowered the Ouya is and how no one's going to want it because the games will suck (not unlike the Wii arguments, before everyone's grandma went out and bought one). To me, that lack of power is a VERY good thing because it means the developers will be forced to make their games fun rather than pretty.
Also, XBMC is great, and a ~$100 media center? Sign me up!
Show me a physical prototype, running actual software, connected to an actual TV (in HD), and then we'll talk.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
To me, that lack of power is a VERY good thing because it means the developers will be forced to make their games fun rather than pretty.
Or just like with most third party Wii titles, they'll be both ugly and unfun.
I'm not a gamer, but even I saw the potential in this.
I'm a gamer and I don't get how this is any diffrent from a Roku or any other set top box with apps.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
I have to admit, I'm probably going to get one of these eventually, if everything goes right.
But that's the key - it has to work. It has to have at least two games I want to play that I can't play elsewhere, it has to function as a half-decent media player, it has to, you know, actually exist as a physical thing.
Right now, there's just too much a chance of this never even being released for me to pre-order. And even if it does come out, there's a large chance that it won't have any good, interesting games come out.
Now, if it does come out and live up to its promises, I'll buy one. No problem there. But I'm just still too apprehensive about it to commit to it until it's solid.
Only if they can put out the same quality First Party development that Nintendo does. Which is no. They lack the quantity and quality of tallent to pull that off. They might be able to squeeze out of it just enough to justify a second run. Otherwise they'll just be like the Sega Master System or Turbo Graphics 16.
If you examine the datastream from a wiimote, it is actually pretty well pre-crunched by the controller.
There are a few pairing-related oddities(bluetooth can be a bit eccentric on its good days, and Nintendo didn't excatly feel a strong pressure to be helpful to random 3rd party bluetooth devices); but you get all the accelerometer data, and the IR dot following, handled for you in hardware and sent, along with button states, as relatively trivial output data. There are a few other oddities with the onboard speaker and similar bits; but it isn't a computationally expensive peripheral to deal with.
From the link:
"Uhrman explained, "OUYA will be just as secure as any other Android-powered device. In fact, because all the paid content will require authentication with OUYA's servers, we have an added layer of security. Hacking and openness are about getting what you want to do with the hardware. Rooting the device won't give you any more access to the software.""
Ok, so then they are saying it will only run games that communicate back to Ouya servers? As in, no current Android games...
I am also really dubious that a simple server check cannot be got around by the same people that pirate, but I reserve judgment until we know how the authentication works.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley