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Ouya Game Console Retail Launch Delayed Until June 25
PC Mag is one of several outlets reporting that the Kickstarter-funded Ouya Android game console has been delayed by a few weeks; the new target date for launch is June 25. Says the article "The delay does not affect early backers, who are still on track to receive their devices by month's end.
Helping to meet that demand will be $15 million in funding, led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers." Also at CNET.
I for one welcome a cheap console that has demos available for all games. No need to pirate!
the games aren't PS4 quality like shadowgun, but the console is $99 and the games are only a few $$$ each. does it really matter that you can't see the individual droplets of blood flying off dead people? who cares?
I would say "First", but my post was delayed by a few weeks
does it really matter that you can't see the individual droplets of blood flying off dead people?
Of course it matters, what kind of gamer are you?
I have high hopes for this one. But the more delays, the less confidence I have.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
For $99, how can it go wrong?
Maybe your karma is broken. It should be for bitching in an unrelated post as AC.
Here is where you express issues with the website:
feedback@slashdot.org
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
My Local Target has this for per-order. I was kind of shocked to see it. This may be a lot bigger deal than I had originally imagined. $99 really brings it down into a reasonable birthday/Christmas present for the kids.
(posting OT as AC)
Well, there's your problem right there: Operating Thetans should know better than to deprive the free service of its ad revenue.
Yeah, but it started as a *Kickstarter* campaign! Doesn't that intrigue you, and make you want to give them money?!?!?
Whoever'd use that for gaming is a moron. Much more profitable to mine some bitcoins on your neighbours electricity
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
When I want to see my reflection in the flying splatter of blood, with full bokeh depth-of-field, bloom, and ray-traced lighting, I have a PC. Two, actually.
But I'd have no problem buying one of these, if it had some good games I couldn't get elsewhere. If the Ouya can play regular Android games, that would be perfect - I don't have a phone able to play any game more advanced than Chess, so I've been missing out on some of the higher-quality Android games.
As it is, I don't think it's *quite* worth it, but only for lack of software, not hardware. And even then, if it fails and you can find them being sold for $50, I'd snap one up instantly for XMBC and emulator usage.
Yeah, but the Nintendo Wii is also only $99. You can soft-mod it to do all sorts of stuff, but there's a bunch of used games out there for really cheap. There's also the WiiWare store which has a bunch of games for pretty low prices. I'm not sure how the Ouya is a gamechanger. It's basically the same as buying last generation's console.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
When I want to see my reflection in the flying splatter of blood, I remember that I can only gib my annoying neighbour once. Saving him for a special occasion.
There are games on Android that I do enjoy playing from time to time. For $100, it allows me to do so on my tv. But, it was mostly about repurposing the hardware and backing an alternative to the big 3 consoles. If the idea fails, I still keep the hardware.
I have to agree. The Wii would be selling in droves if casual games with last gen graphics were the biggest market.
Of course you need to pirate, otherwise the games will constantly be asking you to buy things in-app. The easy hackability of the console is the point, you'll be able to download a big suite of games off piratebay or something, along with a few emulators.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
Well, I guess I'll be crossing another item off my fathers day gift list! Bummer! :-( I hope this thing works out. I'm looking forward to buying one. I think that this will be a big deal. The hardcore gamers pooh pooh it, but the device isn't meant for you. There is a market for a device like this that is incredibly flexible and versatile. It goes beyond gaming. It can run all sorts of software, such as media software and emulators, and allow you to really take control of your TV experience and do whatever you want with it. That is what I think the Ouya's core appeal is--it's creative potential for users. It's fun, inexpensive, and full of potential. What's not to like?
Samsung S4 is already out, the S3 unlocked sells for a little over $400. Even the S2 sell for over $300, so no of course the S3 won't sell for $100 in a couple of months.
Additionally, an S3 would need a controller and HDMI connection to use it as a console.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
While it is a phone chip, the T33 Tegra 3 is the fastest in the line (only appearing in the HTC One X and an Asus Tablet), I believe it will get better performance than a mobile device because you can shut off all the power saving modes. But then again, aren't all consoles obsoleted a bit by the time they hit market?
Bork Bork Bork!!
Well, I'm sure a very popular thing to do would be to put whatever MAME is best on Android on it, plug in a USB hard drive and play your emulators on the big screen that way. For $99 and a hard drive, you really cannot beat it as a retrogaming console. Of course, those who staked their lives on selling apps are screwed, but no biggie.
They tend to be... very few consoles are ground breaking hardware compared to desktop pc tech when they are released.. I think an OC'd tegra 3 should be sufficient. My biggest hope was that this would offer a fairly common platform for emulators to target, I have plenty of roms for older games, and older game consoles, but I don't like switching around hardware, and analog connections are a pain... I just wanted an interface at least as easy as netflix for switching games... the memory is pretty limited, and hopefully a large-ish thumb drive will work without issue... for me it's a $99 gamble, worst case, it's another XBMC box for the bedroom, best case I get some decent UIs for emulators.. if OnLive and their own apps are successful, cool... if not it's not too bad. With the Wii, my biggest disappointments are when they killed homebrew, and how much of a pain it was to connect with friends on the platform. I would love to see this be a good hackable platform, I do hope that the cheaters don't abuse it, so that it can stay open. I can imagine a v2 in a couple years with whatever Tegra after v4 is, or something equivalent as a really competitive system. It's also probably worth noting that the console is probably only 1/2-2/3 of production cost, as the controller is pretty interesting on its' own. With the rumor mill on the next xbox and ps units, also with the likes of nVidia and Valve getting in on the action, who knows how things will shake down in the next 2-3 years.
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
And I haven't received mine yet. :(
I'm betting part of the delay is to ensure that all early backers get theirs BEFORE it hits retail. That was promised from very early on.
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
That's like saying the Wii doesn't meet the definition of a console.
Would you prefer to spend $100 or ~$400? I definitely wouldn't fault someone on either choice.
I'd delay it too and take in more VC money while I can and before it's exposed that consumers think it's cheap junk.
Of course you need to pirate, otherwise the games will constantly be asking you to buy things in-app.
Why constantly? I envision games laid out like the first Doom, where the first of four episodes ("Knee-Deep") is without charge and the second ("Shores"), third ("Inferno"), and fourth ("Consumed") are one block of paid DLC.
Also, why are you even looking at the consumer grade PS4?
Because not all games are FPS or RTS. Games in several genres would benefit more from a gamepad than from a mouse and keyboard, such as platformers and fighting games. And when major video game publishers have published games that don't require a mouse or similar pointing device, they have historically tended to do so on consoles far more often than PCs.
If the Ouya can play regular Android games, that would be perfect
As long as an Android game doesn't heavily rely on pointing and clicking, it should be trivial for the game's developer to port it from Google Play, which expects a multitouch screen, to Ouya, which expects a gamepad. Any game that currently supports Xperia Play, iControlPad, iCade, or keyboard control would probably take a day or two to port the input handling and possibly no more than the rest of the week to work out in-app purchasing.
as a console it will be compared to the existing big boys, and people will complain how it doesn't have the (expensive) things that the other consoles offer.
Despite such complaints, the Wii printed money for the first few years. I don't see how it'd necessarily stop the Ouya.
That or the standard library would abstract out the difference between the Dual Shock 3 and the Xbox 360 Controller (wired or with PC adapter), and by default, games would support both. Does anyone know whether the Ouya OS supports enough of Bluetooth and USB input to get these controllers working for, say, player 2?
Emulators targeting NEON won't have to do anything. Emulators targeting Tegra 2 will probably have little to do. Everyone else is using software rendering and will have nothing to do... so pretty much all the emulators ought to run on it
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
When I see that it can be modded so I can run an android apk I'll surely buy one.
To load homemade software, it appears you just have to turn on USB debugging, much like with a tablet or phone. Fire up Eclipse and get going.
All my Atari 2600, 5200, C64, MAME, SNES, NES, Genesis, N64 and PS1 game roms
PS1 CDs and PS2 DVDs are relatively easy to dump, at least in my experience using background music extraction software. But how do you plan to connect your 1541 drive to your PC to dump C64 games, dump your arcade PCBs for MAME, or dump your cartridges for the other systems?
Yeah, but the Nintendo Wii is also only $99. You can soft-mod it to do all sorts of stuff, but there's a bunch of used games out there for really cheap. There's also the WiiWare store which has a bunch of games for pretty low prices. I'm not sure how the Ouya is a gamechanger. It's basically the same as buying last generation's console.
Nintendo is still hostile to homebrew and still releases updates which break HBC. If you want to keep your Wii modded, any time an update comes along you have to tell it no and go run the hackmii installer again. That's pretty easy (stick it in a directory on the SD card and launch it from the HBC) but it's still an annoyance and if other people are using your console there's the risk they'll accept the update since it's required for whatever they're doing and it's goodbye HBC, and maybe a bricked console too. Ouya isn't going to be trying to prevent you from running your own apps, that's how it's a game changer. Also, it has a whole lot more balls than the Wii.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
one of the things which makes ouya feel overhyped to the max is that android running tv boxes have been available for ages
Have these Android-running TV boxes had a standard button layout for the user controls? In my research, just about no two brands of USB game controllers had the buttons in the same order. In one of my games, I've decided to store recommended configurations for all controllers that I happen to own, including Xbox and Logitech controllers, and default to whatever matches the connected controller's make and model.
And has one been able to try or buy them in brick-and-mortar stores? I imagine that a lot of parents are unwilling to buy toys from Amazon or eBay that they've never seen.
Why would it need HDMI connection? I can already wirelessly stream video to my TV. In addition, you can likely plug it into a usb port as well.
But yes you would need a controller for the "console" feel. Not sure how that would work.
S4 *just* came out. In a couple of months in the summer they will do the price drops prior to Apple doing anything in the fall. However yes it would still be more than 100$. However it does a lot more, and that 100$ is a product that isn't even available, and we will see how close to 100$ it actually will be.
I see two differences between CueCat and QR Code. First, people bought Internet-connected cameras of their own accord, needing only an application distributed without charge to translate the QR Code matrix into a URL. Second, Denso licenses QR Code patents to the public without charge, whereas Digital Convergence went all DMCA on CueCat hackers' behinds.
I like this idea better.
However the one problem with playing retro games on a big HD wide screen TV is they look extra terrible.
The one problem I have with the Android Market place is that it is very difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff if you will. There are literally tens of thousands of games when I go to look for anything (apps too), and everything seemingly has a 4-4.5 stars. Overload.
One might argue that. However it was more low end PC than it was phone hardware.
The Wii would be selling in droves if casual games with last gen graphics were the biggest market.
And Wii did go on to sell 100 million consoles, compared to 77 million each for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Perhaps the appeal of the Ouya is that it could be the YouTube of gaming on TV, compared to the other consoles that are like the more tightly curated Netflix.
Why would it need HDMI connection? I can already wirelessly stream video to my TV.
Were you were referring to DLNA? As I understand it, that's more designed for noninteractive video, which doesn't value low latency nearly as much as gaming does. Something with latency on the order of a single 16 ms frame would need a specialized protocol, which probably means a new box to receives the wireless stream and forward it to the TV.
However the one problem with playing retro games on a big HD wide screen TV is they look extra terrible.
Then the emulator needs to simulate the electron beam spread of an SDTV, on which bright scanlines spread more than dark scanlines. I'm pretty sure that that's doable in a pixel shader. Or the emulator needs to use Scale2x or hq3x or something to smooth borders of things, which ends up making 8-bit game graphics look like cartoony Flash vector graphics. Scale2x has also been implemented in a pixel shader.
The one problem I have with the Android Market place is that it is very difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff if you will.
And Nintendo Power used to say good things about every licensed NES game. Aren't there other sources of reviews of Android games?
So the think is going to be powered by cellphone technology that is 3 years old on launch.
Flimflammer mentioned the Wii, a 2006 die-shrink of the 2001 GameCube with about twice the RAM and a Bluetooth air mouse. It sold 100 million consoles.
About the only thing it does have is a controller.
That's the entire point. Seventh-generation consoles' download stores are tightly curated like Netflix. There's still a space for something less curated like YouTube.
Not quite...the CPU is soldered to the main board; you'd have to replace the whole board. you'd basically be buying an ouya sans-case, which would cost almost as much as a new ouya.
If you want to play emulators on your TV, get a Wii and jailbreak it. Given the current speed of android emulators, I really doubt the Ouya is going to give any better performance than that.
There is no in-house Ouya equivalent of Shigeru Miyamoto
When the PlayStation 2 first launched, the only first-party game was FantaVision, a cross between Klax and Missile Command that a reviewer on tetrisconcept.com called "a steaming pile of tech demo and nothing more." The PS2 had to rely on third-party games at launch, but it still won the fifth generation in sales. Does Apple develop its own games for the App Store or Mac App Store? It's been a long time since Brick Out on the Apple II Plus.
shocking incompetence at even creating their own private app store and reskinning Android for the Ouya
Incompetence in what way, specifically?
Or that a key element of their Big Plan to "return gaming to the TV" is to be a conduit for low-effort tablet/phone game ports which will never play well on a big screen with a real controller.
Never? A lot of these phone and tablet games already have to use an on-screen gamepad to implement gamepad-style controls on a flat sheet of glass, and players end up missing buttons with their thumbs because they can't feel the buttons' edges. Pixeline and the Jungle Treasure, for example, would play a lot better on an Ouya than it does on my Nexus 7. There's also a community of hobbyists still creating games for the NES (yes, the NES), and someone's creating an emulator wrapper analogous to Wii Virtual Console to let NES game developers sell their NES games in the Ouya Store.
That's the heat sink, AC. "Wed128" is correct, you would have to swap out the mother board completely. Or buy the Ouya2, Ouya3, etc. Engadget covers that issue... http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/07/ouya-annual/
There is a whole new breed of game on the market. Rapidly developed, community driven indy titles that focus on core gameplay mechanics, fun, and style. These games may be artistic, high concept,creative, or "hard core" skill based titles. (Likely a combination of any of all of these) These games bring back a lot of what you loved from 80s and 90s titles. (Some are even complete remakes)
I would say recent rather than new considering these having been showing up for the past half decade or so.
These games are inexpensive, are updated frequently, and often start as incomplete projects that are developed with close input from the gaming community. They often eschew lots of high end 3d graphics as that stuff takes a lot of time and money to develop.
True, but that often leads to a lack of polish and the inability of the developers to actually "finish" the game.
These games are POPULAR (just look at minecraft) >/quote>
Yes, lets look at nerd favorite Minecraft...which I do own and I have enjoyed playing it, but it's one of the worst "enjoyable" games I've ever played and I don't consider it worth the money I paid... maybe 10 bucks...but it's not worth $25
1. Mojang combines the worst aspects of a Euro-dev and open source traditions in one developer.
2. Minecraft isn't finished! Rather than saying "Okay we're done adding new features it's time to polish up what we do have... they keep adding even more complexity and stuff to a game that's already to complex for most people. Sure perhaps your grandma plays minecraft...but "How" does she play it? Is she only using creative? I bet the vast majority of players other than a few EE trained nerds don't even mess with redstone circuitry and just use creative mode as an infinite lego set.
3. The main developer has, rather than actually finishing what he started, gone on to the "next thing" and handed the game off to someone else. Which is a serious problem in the open source community.
4. The game has major discoverability and UI issues...information that SHOULD be presented in the game itself isn't... you actually have to use the Wiki to learn how to play because the game tells you NOTHING! That's bad and lazy design right there. The only version of Minecraft that even tries to deal with this issue is the Xbox 360 version! Why the heck hasn't the 360 version's tutorial become standard in the PC version?
and the large console makers have completely, utterly failed to serve this market.
They have? News to me since I can just go into PSN and buy a ton of "little games" from smaller development houses like you've been talking about there.
Closed platforms, high development prices, difficult development tools, restrictive policies, and a very high cost of publishing updates all make the above development model impossible.
It's not impossible since smaller developers can and do get published on consoles.
The only version of Minecraft that even tries to deal with this issue is the Xbox 360 version! Why the heck hasn't the 360 version's tutorial become standard in the PC version?
Well, that's not strictly true. The crafting system in pocket also tries to come to terms with it. I've seen references to the idea that if/when pocket is improved to be more like desktop MATTIS will actually be removed, and eliminate that advantage, which would be very frustrating given that it's a big part of what makes it playable on mobile, but maybe that's just not true.
It sure would be nice if minecraft had some in-game way to discover crafting recipes. Maybe in a future rev, bookshelves can be functional, and you can find books with recipes which will then be available to you somehow when you use a crafting table. But I doubt it. It'd be a cool mod, though. A nice thing to add to one of the minecraft dungeon mods, perhaps.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
When I said "tiny screen", I was not referring to resolution in pixels as much as the physical size of the display in centimeters or inches. It's hard to have two to four players holding gamepads looking off one 4" phone screen. Yet the Nintendo Entertainment System supported two players in the era of 240p low-definition television, with a "Four Score" hub to expand to four, because living room TV monitors are physically large enough for two to four bodies to fit around.
As for buying a PC instead, most PCs are also limited to about 21" for desktops and practically 13-17" for laptops. Other Slashdot users keep telling me that two to four players holding gamepads can't even fit around that, despite that people used to play N64 on bedroom TVs even smaller than that. Even though some people are aware of the ability to plug a PC's HDMI out into a TV's HDMI in and willing to do so, most aren't. One reason is that they'd have to haul the PC back and forth between the desk and the living room.
You asked for an example of a game that might play better with a controller than with a touch screen. I tried Pixeline and the Jungle Treasure on my Nexus 7 tablet, and I kept "whiffing", or accidentally pressing outside the on-screen controls' active areas.
Like many Android phones and tablets, Ouya can also use USB and Bluetooth controllers, and Ouya games are likely to support them for players two through four. But what makes Ouya's controller so special is the fact that it's bundled with the device. With very few exceptions, such as Sony's Xperia Play, an Android device with Google Play doesn't ship with a controller or even the USB OTG adapter to use one.
You mentioned porting to PC/Android. But Ouya is Android. So I'll assume that by "Android" you meant an Android phone or tablet with Google Play.
A PC doesn't come with a gamepad. An Android device with Google Play doesn't come with a gamepad. Ouya does. Games relying on an expansion controller haven't done well unless the controller is bundled with the game, such as the Wii Balance Board with Wii Fit or the plastic guitar with Guitar Hero, and that isn't possible with a download store. So a PC game needs a control scheme designed around the mouse and keyboard that players already have, and a game on Google Play Store needs a control scheme designed around the capacitive multitouch screen that players already have. If you can convince me of how (say) a platformer or fighting game would work well with a pointing device, I'll be more likely to stop being an Ouya fanboy.
A game console is a thing only sold to play games.
The seventh-generation consoles, especially PlayStation 3, are also sold to play movies. Likewise, Ouya is going to come with clients for several video streaming services.
you need to [...] guarantee that great games will be made by others, including some exclusives.
If the major console makers reject a developer, but the developer's game becomes successful on Ouya, you've seen an exclusive among consoles. I guess your thesis is that such a situation is unlikely to occur.
The game content itself is tuned to be fun in spite of clumsy control schemes and thumbs obscuring part of the screen.
You are correct that I have lacked the opportunity to gain experience in commercial game design. I'm still working a "mundane" job to build up enough money to live on while I eventually move to Austin or Seattle or somewhere to seek employment. Until then, what are the typical steps to tune a touch-screen platformer "to be fun in spite of clumsy control schemes and thumbs obscuring part of the screen"?
By your "Call of Modern Battlefield 42 starring Master Chief" comment, it appears you're trying to say "M-rated first-person shooters sell. E- and E10+-rated platformers and T-rated fighting games don't." And by your comment about modern multiplayer, it appears you're trying to say "Gamers are expected to live alone. If a household has more than one gamer in it, and they want to play together, too bad." What did I misunderstand?
No, Virtual Console doesn't run on the Wii Mini. That model was specifically designed to run disc games and not to connect to the Internet. Were you thinking of the Wii Family Edition?
PC is capable of running platformers, as is an Android device with an external controller. The difference is that until now, nobody has offered a retail package of an indie-friendly TV gaming device and a controller. For an analogy, think of the difference between Netflix and YouTube. The major consoles are like a video streaming device that streams only Netflix, not YouTube and Dailymotion. Saying people only want to play Mario and Mega Man is like saying people only want to watch major-studio feature films and major-studio TV series.
I grant that the controller itself isn't special. If you already own an Android phone and a compatible Bluetooth controller, you don't need Ouya, Shield, Archos GamePad, or similar devices. Ouya games should end up on Google Play Store anyway. What is special is the retail package. "Almost any retailer" could bundle a controller with a tablet, but they happen not to as of the first half of 2013.
You claim that people will play a good game despite next-to-unusable controls. It took me about five seconds to put "ruined by bad controls" into Google and find counterpoints.
What did I misunderstand?
Pretty much everything, to be blunt.
Then thank you for clarifying.
there are titles for that on existing consoles
Almost all of which are from major labels. This leaves startups no platform on which to release something in the same genre. Or do you argue that these genres are so saturated with games from the incumbents that gamers don't need indie games?
A PC can do netflix and youtube and all that.
True. But let me rephrase: Netflix is to YouTube for video as the console app stores are to what for TV gaming?
You can always sell to indie film lovers, but that is a niche. I've been repeating this many times, and you have so far avoided to address it.
At one time, personal computers themselves were a niche. I guess we just disagree on what niches can prove profitable.
A well designed game will have a good UI in the software that overcomes the hardware.
I agree. I'd appreciate examples of good UI in a well-designed platformer for Android phones or tablets that overcomes the lack of a controller.
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