OUYA Android Game Console Available In June

An anonymous reader writes "The WSJ reports that OUYA, the $100 Android-based gaming console, will reach retail availability in June. The makers have partnered with Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, and Target for distributing the devices. The console will come with a controller (which has the traditional thumbsticks, D-pad, buttons, and triggers as well as a built-in touchpad), and additional controllers will be sold for $50. OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman said, 'For the last year or two years all we've been hearing is that the consoles are dead. The reason is there isn't new, innovative intellectual property. It's expensive to develop on it. You're seeing a major shift of games being developed on the television. Our viewpoint has always been that console gaming isn't dead, the way we think about it hasn't changed. We're bringing the best screen and the best device to interact with that by creating a platform that is open.' There was a recent 'Game Jam' to create game prototypes for the console; you can browse the 166 entries."

Comments

Re:Ouya was more relevant, before.

[SomePgmr]

I'm using one of the common Android-on-a-stick hdmi dongles, and I've played with others. They're not very good.

The Ouya out-specs most of them, the software ecosystem sounds promising, and the controller that works will be nice. Not all TV's do CEC and the gaming function of the controller is nice.

I really hope these work out to be good devices.

Re:Ouya was more relevant, before.

[jxander]

Even compared to the Wii U, this is still a toy.

WiiU

CPU : 1.24 GHz Tri-Core IBM PowerPC "Espresso"
GPU : AMD Radeon "Latte" @ 550 MHz.
Storage : 8GB / 32GB (depending on model)
RAM : 2 GB total (4x 512 MB DDR3-1600) 1GB reserved for OS.

Ouya

SoC: Nvidia Tegra 3 (T33)
CPU : 1.7 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A9
Storage : 8GB
RAM : 1GB

Look roughly in the same ballpark to me. If you want to benchmark the WiiU's tri-core Power processor vs Ouya's quad-core ARM ... or if you have an Ouya, I'd be happy to learn what kind of overhead the OS takes... but to call the Ouya 2+ generations behind is simply incorrect

Re:Ouya was more relevant, before.

[oGMo]

Err, you're comparing GHz between a SoC ARM and PPC64 with a dedicated GPU? Let's put it this way: the WiiU is compared favorably to the current generation consoles (PS3/360) in terms of performance, edging them out in a number of ways (and given they're half a decade old, we should hope!).

The Tegra3 was used on numerous devices last year. Go find one in the same class, performance-wise, as the PS3 or 360. Or even the PS Vita, which is a few notches below the PS3, with its 2GHz quad-core ARM and its quad-core PowerVR GPU.

Re:Ouya was more relevant, before.

[Namarrgon]

XBMC will actually support the OUYA specifically, including full hardware acceleration. Also, it has an ethernet port, for more reliable video streaming. Oh, and it has better games too.