Ouya: The $99, Hackable Android Cube

[jalaneme]

why would anyone buy this? unless you are tight for money then that is understandable, this could be useful for countries where major consoles are banned completely.

 

[SifJar]

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

AWESOME (not)

Currently, there is no Android ROM for the Raspberry Pi, to the best of my knowledge. Also, presumably this will come with some sort of controller.

 

[raulpica]

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

AWESOME (not)

Currently, there is no Android ROM for the Raspberry Pi, to the best of my knowledge. Also, presumably this will come with some sort of controller.

Well yeah, the analogy worked as it's just a cheap SoC. As boudincaca pointed out, they can be grabbed for cheap.

If it comes with a controller, then $99 could sound a lot more reasonable.

Still, I'd expect at least a dual-core CPU and a dual-core GPU in it. (AML8726-MX should be cheap as chips in mass)

 

[tueidj]

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

AWESOME (not)

One of the main reasons the Raspberry Pi is so cheap is because the CPU is a piece of crap. It's at least five years out of date and doesn't even have a floating point unit, but it's ARM so people think it's fantastic - because that's what's in all today's smartphones. In reality the Pi's cpu has much more in common with the old nokia brick phones that could only play snake.

 

[SifJar]

If it comes with a controller, then $99 could sound a lot more reasonable.

I can't really see how it could possibly come without a controller, defeats the point of a games console if you can't control he games But yeah, there are plenty of cheap options out there already, the only things this one could possibly have over them are a good games library (depending on how well adopted it becomes; unlikely IMO) and better community support (again dependent on adoption, so equally unlikely). Maybe better hardware (although I'm sure if this sort of thing becomes popular, as it is seeming to do, we will see plenty of similar devices with better hardware - the Nexus Q is probably the first of many "legitimate" Android based media devices, many of which will probably be able to play games, either officially or unofficially)

 

[raulpica]

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

AWESOME (not)

One of the main reasons the Raspberry Pi is so cheap is because the CPU is a piece of crap. It's at least five years out of date and doesn't even have a floating point unit, but it's ARM so people think it's fantastic - because that's what's in all today's smartphones. In reality the Pi's cpu has much more in common with the old nokia brick phones that could only play snake.

Well, there are lots of alternative SoCs out there which are cheap as dirt too (the AMLogic 8726-M1 should be supercheap nowadays, same goes for other Cortex A8s), so I can't see why they're sticking with that old Broadcom SoC. Oh well. I can understand them not wanting to redesign the entire freaking thing all again.

Oh, and support too.

Let's just wait for the Intel SoCs and we'll be able to dwell in sweet x86 unix awesomeness and that's it

 

[Rydian]

From the devs I've talked to (windows and otherwise) the only reason x86 is still going strong is backwards compatibility. Supposedly ARM and such are way better architectures for scalability.

 

[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?

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

Where is a link to the newer, better model? I definitely like it and just as much as any tablet....Link?

 

[PolloDiablo]

android cube? first thing I thought was: "cool, they ported dolphin to android"

 

[Luckkill4u]

Hmm seems simular to the Nexus Q...

I can see myself playing Nova 3 or Sonic 4 on this and only being $99 is a plus but I don't want to buy another Android device if its the same as my HTC One X or Transformer Prime. Although just with bluetooth you could have a PS3 Six axis Controlle, mic, mouse, keyboard and more with full support by any developer. No stupid restrictions like the consoles we see today because there are no rules. No piracy because all of the games would be free and nobody would be losing money. There is already over a dozen emulators for the Android OS and 1000's of great apps/games so I don't see how this is a bad idea. Persoanlly I am a crack flasher... I flash a new rom on my phone or tablet at least once a week just to see what these amazing developers come up with. I can honestly swear i will never own a iOS device again because of these amazing devs.

 

[Bladexdsl]

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. :\

not just that very early in these GAMES you'll find you need coins, crystals whatever the fuck it is that you have to BUY from them to continue. An example dont play anything FREE from game insight their cash whores and their not the only ones! i don't even bother with the free section anymore it's all APK for me

 

[Ziggy Zigzagoon]

Why does this remind me of the Phantom console?
( #3 at http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-great-ways-to-destroy-your-highly-anticipated-video-game/ )

 

[Veho]

Why does this remind me of the Phantom console?

Because it's grey.

 

[codezer0]

Problem is you'll get clueless people buying this, installing Angry Birds on it and claiming it's a next-gen system because some stupid d-bag in wall street thinks it is. And these are the same kind of people who with a straight face will also claim that intel video has finally replaced the need for a video card for gaming.

It's like this product was designed from the beginning to do nothing more than attract and fool completely stupid people into throwing money at it.

 

[FireGrey]

Problem is you'll get clueless people buying this, installing Angry Birds on it and claiming it's a next-gen system because some stupid d-bag in wall street thinks it is. And these are the same kind of people who with a straight face will also claim that intel video has finally replaced the need for a video card for gaming.

It's like this product was designed from the beginning to do nothing more than attract and fool completely stupid people into throwing money at it.

A console is not Next-Gen according to it's specs, it's next gen when we enter another generation in technology.
Not necessarily power.

 

[Rydian]

OTHER PEOPLE FIND FUN IN THINGS THAT I DO NOT THEREFORE THEY ARE STUPID

HOW DARE THEY FIND ENJOYMENT IN WHAT I CONSIDER "LESSER" THINGS

*MOAR ELITISM*

 

[Bladexdsl]

Problem is you'll get clueless people buying this, installing Angry Birds on it and claiming it's a next-gen system because some stupid d-bag in wall street thinks it is. And these are the same kind of people who with a straight face will also claim that intel video has finally replaced the need for a video card for gaming.

It's like this product was designed from the beginning to do nothing more than attract and fool completely stupid people into throwing money at it.

A console is not Next-Gen according to it's specs, it's next gen when we enter another generation in technology.
Not necessarily power.

if that's true than the next consoles won't be next-gen than

 

[learnin2hack]

On the kickstarter page it says that it has a quad core tegra 3 processor.
It has raised $2,635,157 all ready

 

[Veho]

We expect to have a finished product ready to ship to you in March. (With the very first boxes – bugs and all – ready a few months earlier.)

March next year? We'll be knee-deep in $99 Android boxes by then.