Ouya Consoles Will Start Shipping On December 28th

sfcrazy writes "Ouya has stuck to its deadlines. The team has posted an update on the official blog that the units will start shipping on the scheduled date of December 28th. These units are for those developers who backed the project on Kickstarter. There is some surprise for developers with this console. 'What we didn't tell you was that the advance dev consoles you ordered are pretty special – you'll know what I mean when you open yours. They're rare drops. :P,' says the official post."

Comments

Re:Suck it down

[Vanderhoth]

I orderd one and am looking forward to getting it, but let's not count our eggs before they hatch.

What rare drops means

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

While it happens less that uncommonly, we did drop your console onto the floor. They won't work for average users, but we think that due to being developers, you could fix them. Thanks.

I'm interested in seeing how this will turn out. How is this console different than hooking up your smart phone(same processor right?) to your television and bluetoothing in PS3 controllers? When I first heard of this console, this is what everyone talked it was analogous to.

Re:What rare drops means

[tepples]

How is this console different than hooking up your smart phone(same processor right?) to your television and bluetoothing in PS3 controllers?

No 2-year cellular contract, and no worry that a particular brand of phone or an Android system update will change the way Bluetooth works so as to make the application stop working. For example, the Wii Remote app is not compatible with HTC or Samsung handsets nor with Android 4.2.

Re:What rare drops means

[White Flame]

My bet is on "Hand-crafted workmanship! (we had to manually solder extra jumper wires in these units to fix early production bugs)"

Ouija Consoles Will Start Shipping on December 28

[ShogunTux]

Am I the only one who misread that as ouija consoles, and thought that the occult were finally getting involved in the video gaming industry directly?

Re:28th of december?

[Randwulf]

These are just for Developers. The backers are are supposed to get them in March.

Re:Suck it down

[NothingMore]

I wouldn't jump the gun on this yet. While it is a really promising sign that devkits are making their way out, the post on Ouya's site has something quite concerning. "The dev consoles aren’t cheap for us to make." No one claimed they couldn't make this console. Most of the issues brought up was that people doubted that they would able to make it cheap enough to meet a $100 price tag (dev kits were $699+ each).

Re:Suck it down

[fiannaFailMan]

Suck it down all of you that claimed the Ouya would be vaporware!

I don't believe anyone said that they are vaporware.
  The arguments was -- they may either under-deliver on the specs or go above the $99 cost making it. It seemed pretty convincing to me (in the previous slashdot discussions)

Let's see where it goes

There is always a possibility they will run out of money before they ship all of them.

Quite. Here's another /. prediction that we all remember well:

Raise your hand if you have iTunes ...

Raise your hand if you have a FireWire port ...

Raise your hand if you have both ...

Raise your hand if you have $400 to spend on a cute Apple device ...

There is Apple's market. Pretty slim, eh? I don't see many sales in the future of iPod.

What the fuck is it with /. that attracts so many pessimistic know-it-alls who have to piss on everything on the day of its launch?

How the hell do you know how much money they've got? STFU.

The Ouya could be disruptive. Big time.

[Qbertino]

I give Ouya a solid chance to disrupt console gaming and living-room computing on a totally new level.
The two simple facts that it is a) dirt cheap and b) anybody who has one can develop for it, carries some hefty oomph that is probably already making some Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo execs getting nervous as we speak. I say it is no coincidence that Nintendo has anounced their Wii U Devkit will be free of charge for anybody who wants one.

If this baby gains critical mass, which I hope and expect it will, it could very well become the best selling piece of electronics hardware in history. Bulk produce the Ouya beyond a few million pieces and you have a console with solid general purpose computing capabilities that most of earths population can afford. If that isn't killer potential, I don't know what is.

My 2 cents.

Luigi board

[tepples]

I was wondering how they managed to make a console out of a Ouija board.

And I thought Nintendo would be the first console maker to ship a Luigi board.

neat

[Charliemopps]

This thing sounds great. Especially if it can run XBMC... that would make it incredibly useful. But their site is in terrible need of a FAQ.
Can it decode x264?
Can it play full 1080p video?
can you use multiple controllers?
Can you have peripherals? Specifically a remote?
Does it have a network connection? Wifi?

Re:neat

[ThatsMyNick]

Yes, standard files are hardware decrypted.
Yes.
Yes.
Not sure, how do you want to connect it? It does have an Infrared sensor and bluetooth. A remote is sold separately (which I presume works on IR, but not if it is hackable).
Yes, ethernet, wifi, bluetooth are build-in.

Re:neat

[BeaverCleaver]

A Raspberry Pi can.

Re:Suck it down

[SternisheFan]

Not for nothin', but months ago I posted that MS & other console makers should be worried, "cuz Ouya gonna getcha'". And that post got modded +5 Comedian.

I am waiting for my apology...

Sturgeon's law: 90% of games are crap

[tepples]

anybody who has one can develop for it

Which I'm told will lead to over 90 percent of releases being crap, just like on Android and iOS. The North American video game market went into a recession in 1983 because too many companies were making crappy video games. When introducing the NES in the fourth quarter of 1985, Nintendo needed some way to reassure toy retailers that 90 percent of shelf space wouldn't be occupied by exactly what Theodore Sturgeon predicted, and the lockout chip was Nintendo's way of doing this.

On the one hand, Ouya has no disc slot and is thus not limited by physical shelf space. On the other hand, it's still limited by screen space above the fold of the list of games in each genre.

Re:Sturgeon's law: 90% of games are crap

[Kjella]

On the one hand, Ouya has no disc slot and is thus not limited by physical shelf space. On the other hand, it's still limited by screen space above the fold of the list of games in each genre.

Order by popularity and the problem will mostly sort itself out, like you say over 90 percent of the releases on Android and iOS are crap but 99 percent of the buyers don't see them. They see Angry Birds and whatever else is in the top 100 or so per category, what's featured you can have a process for or they've been reading some game review and actually look for something that's not crap. Good luck "bootstrapping" the Ouya market though, it's a classic chicken and egg situation where you either need to bring a lot of heavy hitting games or a rabid following of fans. Otherwise this could be another Firefly, the fans love it but most people don't want it.

Re:Sturgeon's law: 90% of games are crap

[sunspot42]

I think you've nailed it - the lack of any sort of quality control will cause this thing to flame out pretty quickly. The hardware also strikes me as ridiculously anemic.

However, I could see both Apple and Amazon releasing similar devices, based on Apple's iOS and Amazon's customized version of Android respectively, and tied to their existing online stores. They could sign deals with top developers to produce software - software that could also run on their tablets in theory - and act as a filter to keep their game stores from overflowing with crap.

Their gadgets would have to sport more advanced hardware than the Ouya, but both Apple and Amazon should be capable of convincing enough people to shell out, say, $200-$300 on a console / media center to make such a platform viable.

If Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo aren't very nervous, they should be. The barriers to entry in the console business have clearly gotten a lot lower in the past five years, and there are at least a couple of large players now in a position to challenge them quite effectively without investing the billions MS, Sony and Nintendo have spent establishing their current position.

Come to think of it, Samsung is another potential threat. They don't have the online distribution power of an Apple or Amazon, but they could churn out the hardware cheaper than anyone, and they know Android inside and out.

Re:Sturgeon's law: 90% of games are crap

[tepples]

The hardware also strikes me as ridiculously anemic.

More so than the Wii U with its three PowerPC G3 cores clocked at less than twice the Wii's 729 MHz? (See yesterday's Slashdot story.)

Re:Sturgeon's law: 90% of games are crap

[tlhIngan]

On the one hand, Ouya has no disc slot and is thus not limited by physical shelf space. On the other hand, it's still limited by screen space above the fold of the list of games in each genre.

Order by popularity and the problem will mostly sort itself out, like you say over 90 percent of the releases on Android and iOS are crap but 99 percent of the buyers don't see them. They see Angry Birds and whatever else is in the top 100 or so per category, what's featured you can have a process for or they've been reading some game review and actually look for something that's not crap. Good luck "bootstrapping" the Ouya market though, it's a classic chicken and egg situation where you either need to bring a lot of heavy hitting games or a rabid following of fans. Otherwise this could be another Firefly, the fans love it but most people don't want it.

Then comes the other problem - discovery. Just like the Android and iOS stores, newcomers who aren't the first movers will get stuck at the very bottom of the list, so either the list stays stagnant because users aren't finding the new stuff, or only the ones who could afford a marketing budget and buy premium placement.

And it's such a big problem that Apple had to buy a company (Chomp) who specializes in app searches, and people complain Google's search isn't that great either (ironically).

Re:Suck it down

[xstonedogx]

It's perfectly fine to count eggs before they hatch. I have a dozen in my fridge right now. They look delicious. In fact, I hope they don't hatch, because I'm really craving eggs, and not chickens. Now, counting *chickens* before they hatch on the other hand...

Re:Suck it down

[FatdogHaiku]

It's perfectly fine to count eggs before they hatch. I have a dozen in my fridge right now. They look delicious. In fact, I hope they don't hatch, because I'm really craving eggs, and not chickens. Now, counting *chickens* before they hatch on the other hand...

And I don't even want them one day closer to hatching when I buy them. Doesn't it just mess up your mood when you crack an egg and it has some blood formed?

Unless...

[Jafafa Hots]

they can afford an ad campaign in the tens of millions of dollars, then no, it won;t disrupt anything, because nobody will have heard of it.

Just like now, where nobody has heard of it. Do Wii and Xbox users know about this?

Know, they don't, and they probably never will.

Development does not make a product. Advertising does.
Having been in the toy and gaming industry, I know that generally the product is advertised first, and only AFTER a certain minimum order from retailers is it then finalized and rushed into production.

If nobody buys it, it never gets made in the first place beyong prototype.

Xbox, Playstation, Wii, we like to think of these as tech items or electronics.

They aren't. They are product, they are toys. They sell when kids see ads and pester their parents. They sell when people see their neighbor playing one and they want to compete.

Re:Suck it down

[PopeRatzo]

In fact, I hope they don't hatch, because I'm really craving eggs, and not chickens.

You're clearly not pro-life.

Re:English muthafscka do you speak it?

[White Flame]

Yes, there is some truth in what you say.

Re:Suck it down

[interkin3tic]

Doesn't it just mess up your mood when you crack an egg and it has some blood formed?

Former chicken embryologist here. Just FYI: that's not a chicken embryo. A blood spot on eggs is from the mother hen's reproductive tract. The eggs you buy in the store aren't fertilized anyway. Hens lay eggs whether or not they've been fertilized by a rooster. It would take time and effort to put the roosters in the hen cages. I guess if you're buying local free range chicken eggs, they might not be so concerned with efficiency and you might get some fertilized, but even then, you'd only know if you opened up the egg, injected the yolk with ink (for contrast) and looked at it under a dissecting microscope. An egg would need to be incubated by the hen for about 4 days before you would see much in the egg, and they're generally collected at least once daily to prevent eggs from going bad or getting damaged.

Still gross of course when you do get a blood spot, but it's just a fluke. The rest of the eggs in the dozen are from different chickens, and red in one of them is no indication that the rest are bad.