OUYA will make its way to Retail Stores

[IBNobody]

A few of those photos did feature in the list I am thinking of but those that did were by far the tamer ones. I reckon there were some 60 odd photos in the collection I am thinking of as well.

Edit- that did provide a nice starting point for a search though.
Another I recognise (and still one of the tamer ones) - http://i.imgur.com/ii7N9.jpg

What format was this collection? A Slideshow? Forum posts?

 

[KingVamp]

too bad nones going to buy it

It kind of already been bought...

http://i.imgur.com/ii7N9.jpg

Kill it with fire!

Can the Ouya be connected to the computer?

 

[Wintrale]

Now the question is... Has the Ouya's potential userbase already paid for their console? One of the downsides of Kickstarter is that you get people to fund your project in return for promising them the end product, so there's a significant drop in potential sales... And I'm sorry, but the Android port of the DS remake of Final Fantasy III is going to look absolutely terrible on a 42 inch HDTV running at 1080p.

I'll pass, thanks.

 

[chyyran]

Read through all 7 pages, and it's pretty ridiculous that maybe only one or two of you actually understand what OUYA is trying to do.

First off, it is technically a part of the next-generation of consoles, as next-generation is determined by the release window, not the hardware capabilities. We don't have a minimum benchmark of polygons/textures/shaders that determine whether or not a gaming console is next-generation. Saying that OUYA is not part of the next-generation is the equivilent of saying that the Wii wasn't a part of the previous generation, or that the Xbox was a generation higher than the PS2.

The whole point of the OUYA is to play OUYA-exclusive games using their control pad on a TV, like any other traditional home console. Why would you buy a PS3 when you already have a Xbox 360 or PC? Probably so you can play the exclusive PS3 games. Why would you buy a Wii when you already had technically superior consoles? Again, probably because there are Wii exclusive games that you want to play. Would you rather play your Xbox 360 games on a tablet, or on a TV with a controller? Probably the latter because it enhances the experience. On top of which, do you like paying extortionate prices for your console games, or would you rather a free-to-play model like popular games such as Team Fortress 2 have been implementing? People seem to be completely confused as to the OUYA's purpose, just because it just happens to be running Android in the background.

Old technology in the OUYA? Quite possibly, but the PS3 and Xbox 360 also had old technology. Having slightly old technology in the console means they can sell it for cheaper than competitive products. On top of which, because the OUYA is intending to be a gaming console for the home, it means developers can focus on optimising their games for the OUYA hardware, as they do with traditional game consoles. They don't have to worry about hardware fragmentation, which is actually a huge problem for smartphone Android developers. Why do you tend to get really nice looking games on iPhones? It's not because the iPhone has superior hardware, but because developers don't have to worry about fragmentation and supporting a ridiculously wide variety of screen sizes and hardware combinations.

The other great thing for developers apart from hardware standardisation is that the OUYA offers a new market avenue for developers to share their content through. The Play Store is quite frankly, terrible. There is little to no restrictions as to what can go on the Play Store, and it's flooded with terrible applications. OUYA on the other hand seems like they'll sort that issue by having restrictions such as the free-to-play model.

Whether or not OUYA will be successful, I have no idea, but if you're going to mock the OUYA, at least have some understanding of what you're mocking.

The OUYA's purpose is to make money. Plain and simple. The OUYA is simply not the ideal device for home theatre applications or emulation, however, you're right in that it does play OUYA games very well. If you want to play OUYA games, go ahead and buy it. I may in the future, but for now, it doesn't seem like a good investment to me, if I can do everything it can do better on my current hardware. It's not even good hardware. Ignore whether it's current or next gen, it's engineered perfectly to make as much money as possible with the "casual" (god, I hate using that word) crowd. The main selling points of the OUYA is it's perceived cheap price, it's fancy casing and a few exclusives. Not to mention that freemuim is immensely more profitable than regular formats. Why else do you see everyone jumping onto the DLC bandwagon nowadays?

Also, Steam is hardly extortionate. Don't forget about PC.

And while hardware standardization is a good thing, it can also be a bad thing. We've seen this with the PS360 and PC, it restricts developers down the line, and by extension, it restricts what more powerful devices can do.

Not to mention Android hardware advances a hell of a lot faster.

 

[KingVamp]

Now the question is... Has the Ouya's potential userbase already paid for their console? One of the downsides of Kickstarter is that you get people to fund your project in return for promising them the end product, so there's a significant drop in potential sales... And I'm sorry, but the Android port of the DS remake of Final Fantasy III is going to look absolutely terrible on a 42 inch HDTV running at 1080p.

I'll pass, thanks.

Unless it scales up somehow...

 

[LightyKD]

I can't wait to see how things turn out in roughly a year from now. With Ouya in the mix and with the way the low end console tends to reign supreme each gen, I just wonder how the sales will look.

 

[IBNobody]

I've been reading articles related to Julie Uhrman's DICE talk.

She used the upcoming GTA V as a point: it’s a huge game, and will most likely do very well. Which is big for the consoles, and as a result, it’s huge for television. But, it also underscores the reason the console gaming is dying. As a result of games like GTA V, there are fewer and fewer developers working on console titles these days, due to the fact that there are very few companies that are making the big games that generate huge revenue. The smaller developers are shuttering and frequently leaving console development to work on mobile titles.

Also, OUYA-only gaming studios are starting to form up.

Can the Ouya be connected to the computer?

Yes, it has a mini-USB port specifically for debugging and such. Every OUYA can be a dev console.

 

[KingVamp]

I may get this in a year, if it is doing well.

 

[Deleted-185407]

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[Wintrale]

Unless it scales up somehow...

That still isn't going to help. Final Fantasy III looks great for a DS game that came out in the console's second year, but that was six years ago and on a significantly smaller screen with a significantly smaller resolution... The guys behind the Ouya want it to be taken seriously and the biggest launch title they've got is a game that's both pretty much guaranteed to look terrible on HDTVs (Squeenix aren't going to redraw all the textures and even if they did, the character models are rather basic even by the DS's standards) and of course cost significantly more than people will be willing to pay - it's £11 on the Android Store and the Ouya version is going to cost at least that.

 

[IBNobody]

The guys behind the Ouya want it to be taken seriously and the biggest launch title they've got is a game that's both pretty much guaranteed to look terrible on HDTVs (Squeenix aren't going to redraw all the textures and even if they did, the character models are rather basic even by the DS's standards) and of course cost significantly more than people will be willing to pay - it's £11 on the Android Store and the Ouya version is going to cost at least that.

SquareEnix is lazy. How is that OUYA's fault? Because OUYA didn't tell SquareEnix to take their shitty DS port and clean it up?

No.

What OUYA is doing instead is making SquareEnix release a portion of the game as a free-play demo. (Do note that SquareEnix DOES NOT have demos of their released Android games, and the 15 minute Android return policy starts when you start downloading that 172Mb title.)

You can try out the game, see if it sucks, and then not buy it.

EVERY OUYA game that requires a full purchase must have a demo, or it won't get added to the marketplace. How many other consoles do that?

(P.S. Did you know that SquareEnix did spruce the game up when they ported it to Android. The description lists "New and improved 3D visuals and story sequences only for Android" as a feature.)

 

[chyyran]

Of course OUYA is out to make money. And the best way to make money is to give exactly what consumers want and to have exclusive titles. As they have said in plenty of their videos and updates, they already have strong support from developers so I'm sure they'll get those exclusives quite easily.

I'm not understanding your point about how hardware standardisation is a bad thing. The only reason developers are restricted by the PS3/360 is because of the ridiculous licensing fees and the fact that generation has lasted far too long. The PC on the other hand, like the OUYA, isn't restricted at all and are both far more open. The downside with the PC of course is the lack of hardware standardisation, which is why you always need to have a powerful PC in order to run games that work just fine on the pathetic hardware that the PS3/360 have.

As long as OUYA refresh their hardware every few years, developers won't feel restricted at all, and will have sufficient time to pump out as much power of the hardware as possible like they do with existing game consoles.

If PS360 had half the processing power of a mid-end PC, games would look 10 times better, and will be way less buggy. I'll throw the PS3 version of Skyrim as an example.

The OUYA has to continually improve it's hardware if it wants to keep up. Basically putting a new OUYA every 1-3 years or be left in the dust. It's a great way to make money though, the Apple sales model.

 

[jefffisher]

trying to follow this thread it looks like some people missed this http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/07/ouya-annual/

 

[Foxi4]

If PS360 had half the processing power of a mid-end PC, games would look 10 times better, and will be way less buggy. I'll throw the PS3 version of Skyrim as an example.

Skyrim for the PS3 was buggy only because of Bethesda's inability to program for the system - they said it themselves.

It's not the only example of games made by this studio which had issues on the PS3 - think Fallout 3 or New Vegas, their engines just hate the PS3.

 

[KingVamp]

trying to follow this thread it looks like some people missed this http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/07/ouya-annual/

So, you pay less and upgrade more? Maybe I should have been two years.


IDk, in a 3 years time, you could just buy a regular console with price drop games. If you are good at saving money that is.

 

[chyyran]

Skyrim for the PS3 was buggy only because of Bethesda's inability to program for the system - they said it themselves.

It's not the only example of games made by this studio which had issues on the PS3 - think Fallout 3 or New Vegas, their engines just hate the PS3.

If I recall correctly, a lack of RAM contributed, but the argument is that outdated hardware restricts newer hardware.

 

[Foxi4]

If I recall correctly, a lack of RAM contributed, but the argument is that outdated hardware restricts newer hardware.

The PS3 doesn't "lack" memory in comparison to the 360 - in fact it has as much memory as the XBox 360 and it's actually much faster, it's the mechanism that's different.

The 360 has 512MB RAM that's dynamically-dedicated either to System/Game Assets or the GPU while the PS3 has 256MB RAM for System/Game Assets and 256MB VRAM for the GPU. All in all, the total capacity is the same - it's just that the PS3 has a static division into two portions of the memory while the 360 assigns it on-the-fly.

This difference allows designers to assign less memory for System Assets and more for the GPU or the other way around on the 360, but the same game engine has to be reworked on the PS3 to take advantage of the faster bus instead, and Bethesda had issues with that.

...Technobabble.

 

[mechadylan]

Isn't Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie slated for a mid May '13 release? Why would anyone waltz into their local Target store a month later to buy a "top-of-the-line-gaming-console" running yesterday's OS?

 

[LightyKD]

Side note: you can now pre order the Ouya at GameStop for a minimum payment of 25 dollars. I checked earlier today.

 

[IBNobody]

Isn't Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie slated for a mid May '13 release? Why would anyone waltz into their local Target store a month later to buy a "top-of-the-line-gaming-console" running yesterday's OS?

They either don't care, or they are smart enough to know that it doesn't matter.

Not convinced? Check this out. How many of these Jelly Bean features are useful to a console that isn't running Google's framework?
http://www.android.com/about/jelly-bean/