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Ouya Android Game Console Launches, Quickly Sells Out
Ouya, the Android-based game console that arose out of a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, officially launched today. The $99 device quickly sold out at a number of retailers, including Amazon and GameStop. "According to Ouya, the console currently has more than 170 downloadable games, as well as a built-in software development kit that enables people to create and test titles right from the hardware." Many reviews of the console suggest the controllers are not very good, and there are reports that the Wi-Fi connectivity can be flaky. There's also a lot of commentary about Ouya that clearly came from unrealistic expectations of what a $99 device can provide. Most of the backers from the Kickstarter campaign have received their consoles, but some are still waiting as Ouya tries to sort out shipping problems with DHL.
Why get this when you can soon get Xbox One?
Well, it really depends on how much of an exhibitionist you are.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This thing costs $400 less than the XBox?
The information "sold out" means nothing unless we know how many they released.
Are people so trained on sub-par, cheap Asian electronics that there's an expectation of suckage on a device that "only" costs $99 ? Is $99 the new throwaway price, where you use something, expect it to fail, then go buy another one? It's the Walmart generation I guess.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Why get a Honda Fit when you could get a Pontiac Aztek?
Everything is better with chainsaws.
that hasn't recevied their ouya yet :(
Early backer from day 1. Was hoping to get mine BEFORE retail to develop on. Guess I should have got the dev edition at $699?! Hrm. /me fustrated
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
I got my Ouya a few weeks ago. I feel sorry for the people that were part of the Kickstarter but haven't gotten theirs. I had a tracking number for weeks but the US Post office delivered it before the tracking number ever was recognized. DHL from Hong Kong is not exactly a good shipping partner. They took the cheap route on shipping and it looks like it really hurt them. Doing order fulfillment from HK was a mistake. They should have bulk shipped them to the US and shipped them out from here.
As for it's value as a game console. It's kind of disappointing. I've yet to actually pay money for any games, since not one of the demo versions were interesting enough. While the Tegra 3 is a decent chip, somehow they have managed to make it have about the same power as an old SNES. Oddly enough Final Fantasy 3 is one of the few name brand titles. A best seller on the SNES.
As as platform for Android development (one of the reasons I got it) it is fairly disappointing. Their "every game has a demo" model pretty much means anyone developing for it is giving them free content. It' is rare that a game will convince me with a great demo. More often than not a demo just gives me enough to know it is not worth buying.
It also has strange issues with it's sleep mode/power on (I almost always have to walk up and press the button on the top). The gamepad feels awful. The box itself is not exactly easy to place in the living room.
It does seems like a good addition to my collection of failed consoles though, joining my Atari Jaguar and 3DO (among others).
If it were an Apple device, it would cost a helluva lot more than $100.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
But can you run any game you want, any emulator you want, or write any game you want on an old XBox? Not really. Yes, it's a niche, but and important one that is not being served by the current console makers. That's why Ouya's been so popular so far. It fills a need that the console makers refuse to satisfy.
1. Your cell phone doesn't have a 360-like controller.
2. Your cell phone likely won't play games on your TV.
3. Every game on the OUYA can be tried for free. You don't have to put a credit card in to start downloading apps from the store.
4. Your cell phone can't be a dedicated media center.
5. Mother-fucking-Towerfall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es-okjDMAbI
Consider that many people consider $99 media center appliances to be a good bargain. Now consider a device at the same price that includes a gaming controller and plays games. That somehow makes it less viable?
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Also, do you turn on your camera while in the bathroom? What tablet or smartphone BY DESIGN always is listening through the mic and monitoring the camera?
Um, the one that is controlled by the NSA?
Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress
I'll probably pick one up when Amazon has them back in stock. I like the idea of an underpowered console, as weird as that sounds.
/RANT
RANT
Modern mainstream games (360 and PS3 I'm specifically referring to) just suck. Endless rehashes with overblown budgets, 10 million polys per frame that look pretty great, but the games themselves pretty much just bore me to tears. 0 substance. Not to even mention the $60 price-tag for these overrated, over-hyped, disappointing excuses for a game. I'm not even using my 360 or PS3 these days, they just sit there. I'm no longer willing to give MS, Sony or the big publishers one more cent, or even a minute of my time. They just disgust me. AAA to me means "stay far away", it's rehashed vanilla crap for the masses. Actually, modern mainstream games remind me of Hollywood (that's not a compliment, BTW).
Anyways, I like the idea of a console released by a small company that anyone can write games for, and I plan on supporting them with a purchase. I think it's a huge plus that there's no Call of Boredom or Gears of Boredom type games on this platform.
Wait a few days until actual retail buyers get the units in their hands. Right now on Amazon for example, the majority of the reviewers are kickstarter people, and half of those are whiners who are surprised they didn't get the thing delivered on a silver platter w/a complementary BJ. The sense of entitlement that some of these kickstarters display is pretty sickening. It got to the point reading the Amazon reviews where, when I saw the word "kickstarter", I immediately skipped to the next review.
If I've learned one thing, that is the fact that you don't buy rev. 1 of *any* tech related product. I've got better things to do w/my time than pay to alpha test hardware/firmware/software.
Congrats on the release OUYA! I wish you the best of luck.
Are these actual games or just shortcuts to websites
Ouya applications are Android applications. The biggest difference between an application for an Ouya console and one for a Kindle Fire or Nexus 7 tablet is that phone and tablet applications expect a multitouch screen, while Ouya applications expect a controller with a physical joystick and buttons. A touch screen is better for point-and-click games, while the Ouya controller is better for platformers and the like.
(like the ones that fill the Chrome App Store)?
The Chrome App Store is full of "shortcuts to websites" because Google decided to use the HTML DOM as the primary user-mode API of Chrome OS. I imagine that Ouya went with AOSP instead because WebGL isn't quite as mature as the version of OpenGL ES in Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean).
people were expecting COD and the like to be playable on this and thats just stupid.
The first game in the Call of Duty series, released in 2003, was based on a heavily modified Quake III: Team Arena engine. That'd certainly run on a Tegra 3 if Activision cared to port it.
I am a kickstarter backer, last I heard was "thank you for the money, here is a receipt number", I received no other communication let alone the infamous tracking number. My experience directly contradicts Operations Chief Ken Stephens public statement that "All of these units HAVE left Hong Kong, and you have received your tracking email." I suspect I am not the only one.
Smart people looking for fun, novel experiences already have computers.
But are these PCs in the living rooms of smart people? Sources say no. So what do smart people looking for fun, novel experiences to share with house guests have? Until Ouya, "fun, novel experiences" and multiplayer with multiple gamepads and one big monitor were almost mutually exclusive because there aren't enough deployed home theater PCs to make the home theater PC attractive as a target platform.
The Ouya's ability to act as a networked media player (including from SMB shares) is one of the main reason I backed the project. I was in the market for a "WDTV" like device and figured that the added openness and game-friendliness were great bonuses for the price!
When my Ouya arrived a few weeks back, I loaded and installed XBMC using the AOSP Browser that is installed under the "make" tab. It is very important to note that the mainstream XBMC package, even the XBMC for Android and/or ARM etc.. did not support hardware acceleration on the Ouya. There was a very specific Nightly version compiled to be compatible with the Ouya's hardware - at the time, it was " xbmc-20130604-249ada1-Gotham_alpha4SF-armeabi-v7a.apk ". There is likely a newer one now. I encourage you to check the XBMC forums and find the Ouya threads, and also head over to XDA Developers who have Ouya boards that are involved in more advanced hacking around the Ouya in general - there are instructions there for how to get the Play store working, and lots of others etc..
Once installed, XBMC is easily activated from the Ouya's "Make" screen (where all Sideloaded items go at the moment) and works very well. It plays 1080p mkv content w/ subtitles perfectly, thus far, from Samba shares hosted on the local network. There may be a few issues with very particular setups (ie I hear DTS passthrough isn't active yet), but on average it seems to work well. There were a few recoverable crashes here and there, but nothing I wouldn't expect on any alpha build - its very workable. I am to understand it will only grow to be a better experience. I expect in the future as it matures for the Ouya, well vetted builds will be included in the Ouya Store to make installing XBMC more accessible to Joe User.
The "Xbone" is a damaged brand at this point. The best case scenario Microsoft can hope for is roughly equal market share, if their damage control works wonders or if Sony makes mistakes as well. More likely, Xbox One will have a smaller market share than the PS4.
The hardware in the Xbox One and the PS4 is not all that different, and everything that is different seems to be to the advantage of the PS4 (faster RAM, more GPU stream units). While it would take some effort to support two different APIs, porting from Xbox One to PS4 would be relatively easy, as it wouldn't require changes to the content. Even if they have competition from cheaper indie games on the PS4, the extra sales are likely to outweigh the costs of porting.
Another reason to go exclusive is Microsoft paying the publishers for exclusivity. AAA game development is very expensive though and I doubt Microsoft will want to invest that kind of money on their third generation console. They could sell the first Xbox under cost to gain entry into a market, but the Xbox 360 did pretty well on its own merits (besides the red ring of death problems), so heavily sponsoring the Xbox One platform would be a step back. Also the announced price of $500 doesn't suggest Microsoft wants to subsidize the system.
So I don't see much incentive for publishers to make exclusive titles for the Xbox One.