Ouya: The $99, Hackable Android Cube

[Guild McCommunist]

Ouya, a $99 Android-based console by Yves Behar, seems to be a reality.

For those unfamiliar with Yves Behar, he's the man behind the One Laptop Per Child initiative, which designed innovative, low costing laptops for children around the globe. The Ouya seeks to bring cost effective technology to the masses again, but this time with gaming.

The Ouya is also designed to be entirely free to play and hackable by users. Any publisher can publish games for it, and all games will be free. Additionally, every Ouya will ship with a dev kit, making it easily hackable and modifiable.

Behar is also not the only one behind this. Former VP of game publishing for Microsoft, Ed Fries, is also involved, most notable for his acquisitions of key studios such as Rare, Bungie, and Ensemble. Amol Sarva, who founded Virgin Mobile USA and created the Peek, will be there as well. The CEO at Ouya is also former IGN executive Julie Uhrman.

Not much information has been revealed, such as specs or what version of Android it'll be using, but stay tuned in the future for more updates.

Source

 

[Veho]

"All games will be free"? I foresee a lot of pay-to-win games in this box' future.

Looks interesting, but I can't say if it's a bargain or a ripoff until we see the specs.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

"All games will be free"? I foresee a lot of pay-to-win games in this box' future.

Looks interesting, but I can't say if it's a bargain or a ripoff until we see the specs.

I've been worried about that as well. The games will either be "pay to win", crap, or full of ads. I'd rather have support of the Android App Store and pay all of $5 (tops) for a game than live by a free-to-play philosophy.

 

[Bladexdsl]

I foresee a lot of pay-to-win games in this box' future.

it's pretty much that now with any so called FREE android game from the play store.

 

[indask8]

I wonder what the specs are, because for 51$ now I can have a dual core (2x cortex A5 @around 700mhz) + mali400 + 512mb ram stick that plugs into the TV, with android 4.0.

If this things runs on android, no reasons the games wont run elsewhere.

 

[431unknown]

Sounds interesting. I'll take the wait and see approach tho.

 

[gifi4]

If it uses an Android OS and is completely hackable, wouldn't you be able to install the Play Store onto the Cube? Depending on what version of Android it uses, you could access anything and everything from the Play Store...

 

[shakirmoledina]

games are free, dlc are not

the concept seems to work like bluestacks whereby everything free works

 

[jimmyemunoz]

I wonder what the specs are, because for 51$ now I can have a dual core (2x cortex A5 @around 700mhz) + mali400 + 512mb ram stick that plugs into the TV, with android 4.0.

If this things runs on android, no reasons the games wont run elsewhere.

Are you referring to SmartKey TV right here in this post? If not, how about a link?

 

[Rise]

I wonder what the specs are, because for 51$ now I can have a dual core (2x cortex A5 @around 700mhz) + mali400 + 512mb ram stick that plugs into the TV, with android 4.0.

If this things runs on android, no reasons the games wont run elsewhere.

Are you referring to SmartKey TV right here in this post? If not, how about a link?

Think he is talking about this :
http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/18/3028202/mk802-android-usb-hdmi-stick

They have a quad core with 1 gb ram thats just released

Edit: link fixed

 

[Gahars]

I can't see myself ever buying this, but I can dream of a day where actual, humanoid androids are available for only $99. So, uh, thanks for that, Yves Behar.

 

[BORTZ]

Forgoing any of my bad notions about free to play and shiz, im going to look at the positives i can see with something like this.
Its completely possible we get some very interesting games, fan remakes, and hacks of popular games.
I wonder if a game is good enough and a company see this, if they would pick up the developers?
Also some of the best things come from free work. Like Wikipedia and other non profit stuff to better humanity.

 

[SifJar]

Sounds interesting, with it being "hackable", it is certain it will be possible to install the official Play Store. What interests me most though is how it will be controlled. It'll be obviously different to standard Android seeing as most TVs aren't touch screen.

 

[The Milkman]

If its atleast as powerful as a PS2 or GCN I can see good things going for this. I mean, most Android Mobiles/Tablets are pretty weak (or just specialize in one or two things, usually graphics and multitasking.) but something like this seems like it could probally do pretty good emulation and such, not to mention the loads of GLoft rips, Fan remakes, and Engine ports that already run on most android phones. If anything this could start something new as far as Android development, plus its pretty cheap. but like stated earlier, it all comes down to the specs.

 

[The Catboy]

I am interested in thing

 

[Rydian]

If it takes off we might see more console-style games (opposed to the pick-up-quick games that dominate because of android's usage in smartphones).

I foresee a lot of pay-to-win games in this box' future.

it's pretty much that now with any so called FREE android game from the play store.

Yeah, I've even seen reviews on some games noting that the games give in-game rewards for 5-star reviews. :\

 

[DaggerV]

I think I would grab one just to screw around with honestly. depending on how small it is.

 

[raulpica]

So, this grabs Raspberry Pi, adds a nice $5 case and slaps another $50 on the final price?

AWESOME (not)

 

[Hells Malice]

I can never see this working. It's trying to appeal to mobile "gamers". The only reason they play the shitty little "free" games on their phone is because it's on their phone, a portable device they have with them always.
No one wants a damn console that does the same thing...at least, I sure don't.

There's no room for a 4th console, and this joke certainly won't be changing that.

I wish the free model would just die off. It's a disgusting way to sell a game honestly. F2P MMOs are on the same boat these days.

 

[indask8]

Are you referring to SmartKey TV right here in this post? If not, how about a link?

Think he is talking about this :
http://www.theverge....-usb-hdmi-stick
They have a quad core with 1 gb ram thats just released
Edit: link fixed

I know the MK802, but I was talking about this new one even cheaper (but without MicroSD slot):

Spoiler

http://dx.com/p/mini-android-4-0-network-media-player-w-wi-fi-hdmi-usb-micro-usb-black-4gb-141171

Then you'll tell me, it's cheaper but the thing is, this Ouya comes from a trusted company (they made the OLPC) so it'll have support and a community behind certainly for years while all those chinese stuff are dropped within weeks, so 99$ is not that expensive after all.