OUYA - A $99 Android game console for indie games
 

http://i.imgur.com/a7ity.jpg

The idea of the project is to produce a cheap console that developers can develop on for free - as opposed to other consoles like the Wii, X360 and PS3, where developers have to buy expensive SDKs and pay significant licensing fees. This is supposed to encourage indie developers to create games for the platform. Since it's Android, Android phone and tablet games can apparently easily be ported over.

Of interest for gamers is that for the console's online game store, every game must be free to some degree - be it a playable demo, a freemium model or ad-supported, there needs to be some kind of free gameplay.

Both as a developer and as a gamer I'm really interested in this.

lol i just seen this just a while back.

in summary its an open game console for only $99, fully hackable, fully open source, Tegra 3 Quad Core processor, 8GB of Storage, running Android 4.0 and that is all the significant infos i remember

Sorry guys, but soliciting and petitions are not allowed in any form here.


You are more than welcome to discuss and speculate about the console itself, but please leave any form of petition out of this thread. By this I mean any sort of funding drive, petitions for donations and so on.

EDIT:

You can add more info here such as the currently known specs, the video that shows the device and the people behind it, images, etc, etc.

Specs:
Tegra3 quad-core processor
1GB RAM
8GB of internal flash storage
HDMI connection to the TV, with support for up to 1080p HD
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth LE 4.0
USB 2.0 (one)
Wireless controller with standard controls (two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button), a touchpad
Android 4.0



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I consider the group developing this to be rather ignorant of the software industry. And the lack of originality will bring them to a similar fate as RIM.

They have over a million dollars in pledge now.

They're not opening a new industry. The indie game industry exists, the console industry exists, the gaming industry exists. They're linking two things that aren't even compatible in terms of marketing. Indie game developers make their games for an audience. They are individuals or small groups that spend a very long time to produce some original content.

Why would a video game developer invest their time into developing a game for this platform? It might say the OS is Android but a game designed for Ouya and a game designed for a smart phone cannot be interchangeable. I'm pretty sure the smartphone Android apps aren't programmed to take in game controllers and be attached to a giant TV screen. Games like Touhou and Minecraft didn't begin with 'hey let's write a program for a system that nobody uses'. They always go for a hardware that is the mainstream. An indie game developer isn't some gigantic company that can remake the same game over several platforms. They only have time to write the game for one platform and it would be irrational to design it only for this where the community is a fictional number of online supporters.

This company is ignoring the 'mobile' part of how indie apps for mobile devices became so successful. They don't have the PC as a competition because PC is immobile, just like this console. Mobile games became popular because because consumers had the need to play games while not at home where their console/PC is. But PC is the dominant device when it comes to indie games on immobile platforms. Indie developers are very similar to modders. How many indie/modders are there that make them for 360/PS3/Wii games? Console gaming survives because the product owner is pushing other giant game-developing corporations to make a game for their console which they can easily do for the manpower they have. That doesn't work for the anonymous talented programmers swimming on the internet.

It's a lot easier to drag your PC tower to the TV and hook it up, than it is to write the game twice so it works on PC and Ouya.

If this console came with its own keyboard, programming language and editor UI like Game Maker (something that's amateur friendly), it will then carve something much different into the gaming industry. It needs to support itself without depending on PC users to maintain the game library of this console.

*EDIT:
They have probably the best specs for gaming consoles as PS3/360/Wii are so outdated. But they didn't provide FLOPS on their processor so I could be wrong. Some people claim it's still worse than 360 in processor.

4 GB Random Mem is mediocre. This is indie game developers we're talking about. Minecraft with mods takes up 6 of 12 GB on my computer and lags my GPU shaders. Also indie games are terribly inefficient and will fill up 8GB of storage in no time. Touhou music (depending on quality, I hate midi), or VN's. Jeez do VN's take up an insane amount of space. However the hardware isn't really critical as they can just increase it during development.