OUYA: A New Kind of Video Game Console

koHd

I was really excited by this. Until I heard the OS was Android.

I reckon there would be a huge market for a Steam console. If they could get a price point of around €150 for the hardware and could handle at least 80% of Steams library. Although Microsoft's high charges for Windows OS to run those games could pose a problem...

But Android games?

Genghiz Cohen

koHd wrote: »

I was really excited by this. Until I heard the OS was Android.

I reckon there would be a huge market for a Steam console. If they could get a price point of around €150 for the hardware and could handle at least 80% of Steams library. Although Microsoft's high charges for Windows OS to run those games could pose a problem...

But Android games?

...no.

koHd

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

...no.

"No. I wouldn't be happy with just 80% of Steams library in my living room".

Or

"No. It couldn't be done."

?

Genghiz Cohen

koHd wrote: »

"No. I wouldn't be happy with just 80% of Steams library in my living room".

Or

"No. It couldn't be done."

?

A Tegra 3 won't run 80% of the games on Steam.
I think.

koHd

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

A Tegra 3 won't run 80% of the games on Steam.
I think.

Ah. Wires crossed. I was talking about wanting somebody to make a new PC based console box for running steam. Purely a fantasy idea and nothing to do with this OUYA console...

IF, and I know it's a big if, it could be sold for around €150, it could be an interesting proposition.

But of course, then there's the issues with a lot of Steams games not supporting control pads, which are kind of a staple of living room gaming...

Genghiz Cohen

For the laugh, put a build together, cheap but decent (i3 & 4GB RAM are not the cheapest options on HardwareVerSand) around an Intel core.

Item|Price
Intel Core i3-2100 Box, LGA1155|€106.46
ASRock H61M-ITX, Sockel 1155, ITX|€62.53
4GB Corsair Valueselect DDR3-1333 CL9|€19.14
Seagate Momentus Spinpoint M8 250GB, SATA II|€44.43
Special item: Chieftec FI-01B, 200W TFX, Mini-ITX|€41.04
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€292.59

That chip is a bit mad.
Left 4 Dead gets +100 FPS on max settings at 1680x1050

Mr.Saturn

This isn't the first thing of the sort to arise in the last couple of years, is it? I remember there was some buzz for this Gamebox thing, 'til it was revealed it was just a jumped-up android-mabob.

Josey Wales

I know it is a silly thing but I think having your username etched into your controller sounds cool.

koHd

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

For the laugh, put a build together, cheap but decent (i3 & 4GB RAM are not the cheapest options on HardwareVerSand) around an Intel core.

Item|Price
Intel Core i3-2100 Box, LGA1155|€106.46
ASRock H61M-ITX, Sockel 1155, ITX|€62.53
4GB Corsair Valueselect DDR3-1333 CL9|€19.14
Seagate Momentus Spinpoint M8 250GB, SATA II|€44.43
Special item: Chieftec FI-01B, 200W TFX, Mini-ITX|€41.04
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€292.59

That chip is a bit mad.
Left 4 Dead gets +100 FPS on max settings at 1680x1050

I wonder what price you'd get at wholesale...

€200 could be a realistic price point. But sure then you might as well just get an Xbox, eh?

Maybe in a few years it'll be more realistic.

EDIT: although, value could be added over an Xbox by having 10-20 top games pre-installed (bought at Steam sale prices). Not to mention the ton of free-to-play games available for PC. But I'm not sure what the legalities of selling pre-loaded Steam accounts is... ?

Genghiz Cohen

koHd wrote: »

I wonder what price you'd get at wholesale...

€200 could be a realistic price point. But sure then you might as well just get an Xbox, eh?

Maybe in a few years it'll be more realistic.

EDIT: although, value could be added over an Xbox by having 10-20 top games pre-installed (bought at Steam sale prices). Not to mention the ton of free-to-play games available for PC. But I'm not sure what the legalities of selling pre-loaded Steam accounts is... ?

Spend a few quid on a graphics card, and it'll probably beat the pants off the xbox.

Hawke

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

A Tegra 3 won't run 80% of the games on Steam.
I think.

If steam bought into one of the many streaming operations or made there own it could be done. Still would just use my PC.

justsomebloke

witnessmenow wrote: »

I took a punt on it and donated the $119, I guess i was feeling pretty generous that evening .

Ye stuck my money in this as well will be interesting to see how it pans out. Even it is just ends up being a media client for the TV it's not to bad value

Taltos

Happy to admit I have also taken a punt on this.
Best case - a new great gaming console. Worst case - a great present for one of my nephews or nieces.

Really like the idea - know our mobiles can do it - but like the whole idea of this. Still watching their total rapidly climb...

koHd

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Spend a few quid on a graphics card, and it'll probably beat the pants off the xbox.

Ah yea I know that. But taking into account the price for the entire system v an Xbox...

megaten

Seems very interesting but I seriously doubt they can build the box plus create a decent controller for $90.

K.O.Kiki

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

For the laugh, put a build together, cheap but decent (i3 & 4GB RAM are not the cheapest options on HardwareVerSand) around an Intel core.

Item|Price
Intel Core i3-2100 Box, LGA1155|€106.46
ASRock H61M-ITX, Sockel 1155, ITX|€62.53
4GB Corsair Valueselect DDR3-1333 CL9|€19.14
Seagate Momentus Spinpoint M8 250GB, SATA II|€44.43
Special item: Chieftec FI-01B, 200W TFX, Mini-ITX|€41.04
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€292.59

That chip is a bit mad.
Left 4 Dead gets +100 FPS on max settings at 1680x1050

See, this is the problem with geeks -- they can't see that "only 3 times the price" (realistically 4-5x once OS & peripherals are figured) MAKES THIS A DIFFERENT, NON-COMPETING PRODUCT!

Additionally, it's 2-4x the size, sucks up more power (yes, even at 200W), and doesn't even have wireless!
Plus: Windows. No. Thank you.

If I had the money, I'd put it into the Ouya right now.
Excites me more than the WiiU.

gizmo

And I thought people had unrealistic expectations of Oyua before this list was released...:pac:

K.O.Kiki

Assassin's Creed
Bastion
Battlefield
Battletoads
Call of Duty
Dungeon Defenders
Fez
FIFA
Final Fantasy
Grand Theft Auto
League of Legends
Limbo
Mass Effect
Minecraft
Need for Speed
Skyrim
Super Meat Boy
Terraria
Timesplitters
Torchlight

The only games I'd think would be hard to do would be Mass Effect, Skyrim & GTA -- and only because they're large-data games.
Everything else is possible.

Though half are sequels/franchises I'd rather just fúcked off.

gizmo

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

The only games I'd think would be hard to do would be Mass Effect, Skyrim & GTA -- and only because they're large-data games.
Everything else is possible.

Though half are sequels/franchises I'd rather just fúcked off.

What are you basing possible on? While Android supports native applications built in C/C++, you still have the rather significant task of rewriting your renderer so that it supports OpenGL ES. Nevermind the fact that your game may be based on an engine that doesn't even fully support Android yet.

Hell, that's also ignoring the fact that a whole bunch of those games are based on IP owned by publishers who will have little interest in creating low cost and free to play enabled ports of their games.

K.O.Kiki

A good few have low-cost ports on iPhone/iPad...

gizmo

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

A good few have low-cost ports on iPhone/iPad...

Yes, because iOS devices have combined sales of over 316m to date. Do you honestly think the Ouya is going to sell more than a tiny fraction of those numbers?

That's also ignoring the fact that those games generally don't have the free-to-play element Ouya requires and the fact that they're also massively scaled down mobile ports of said IP. I'd wager the folk replying to that poll weren't talking about those kinds of games when they voted.

koHd

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

See, this is the problem with geeks -- they can't see that "only 3 times the price" (realistically 4-5x once OS & peripherals are figured) MAKES THIS A DIFFERENT, NON-COMPETING PRODUCT!

Additionally, it's 2-4x the size, sucks up more power (yes, even at 200W), and doesn't even have wireless!
Plus: Windows. No. Thank you.

If I had the money, I'd put it into the Ouya right now.
Excites me more than the WiiU.

You know, the more I've thought about it the more I actually like the idea of OUYA. Very exciting time if you're considering becoming a game developer.

An open system could change a lot. Might not suit everybody right away due to the AAA games not being there. But I reckon there'll be enough users to eventually see some of those games come along and please everybody.

They say it was designed with hacking in mind. I wonder is it designed so you can upgrade individual parts? So lets say in two years a new and improved GPU can work with it, if you could just put that in and bang have a big graphics jump, that would be a huge selling point for me.

TerrorFirmer

Really interesting. At that price point it's a winner simply because of what it can do even putting the games aside - it's a better media device than either the Xbox or PS3 in terms of non-physical media, and a host of other functions such as web browsing.

wnolan1992

Donated pretty much as soon as the kickstarter went live (jus' sayin' :pac:). I figured for $130 (I went for the two controllers) which is roughly 100quid (give or take) that it was worth it.

It's the developer side of it that really interests me. The built in dev kit is what attracted me in the first place, and am gonna enjoy messing with that.


HOLY ****! $4.2MILLION*?!?! Damn...



*Yes, I do realise that about $2million of that will go to the US government for capital gains tax or whatever, not to mention the 20 odd thousand consoles they'll need to ship.

dreamers75

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

See, this is the problem with geeks -- they can't see that "only 3 times the price" (realistically 4-5x once OS & peripherals are figured) MAKES THIS A DIFFERENT, NON-COMPETING PRODUCT!

Additionally, it's 2-4x the size, sucks up more power (yes, even at 200W), and doesn't even have wireless!
Plus: Windows. No. Thank you.

If I had the money, I'd put it into the Ouya right now.
Excites me more than the WiiU.

Hes not a geek hes someone who understands technology, the OUYA right now as it stands is an average phone.


In a year when its released it will be a poor phone and there will be phones with so much more power to run Android.

Imo its like those 28 in 1 machines you used to see in the 90s that worked on tvs copying Atati games.

TerrorFirmer

It is not an average phone - Only the One X has Tegra 3 so far. It's nearly €600 euro on prepay.

In a year, it will still not be a poor phone. Tegra 2 has been around for ages and there are plenty of nice looking games - and back to the original point, the OUYA is not going to be nor even intended to be a graphics powerhouse. It doesn't mean it can't be a viable console.

For the projected price, the OUYA makes sense considering what it can do, games and otherwise.

dreamers75

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

It is not an average phone - Only the One X has Tegra 3 so far. It's nearly €600 euro on prepay.

In a year, it will still not be a poor phone. Tegra 2 has been around for ages and there are plenty of nice looking games - and back to the original point, the OUYA is not going to be nor even intended to be a graphics powerhouse. It doesn't mean it can't be a viable console.

For the projected price, the OUYA makes sense considering what it can do, games and otherwise.

Can it make phone calls and text messages?



not being a dick but seriously?

TerrorFirmer

dreamers75 wrote: »

Can it make phone calls and text messages?



not being a dick but seriously?

I really don't get where you're going with this.

It costs a fraction of what a Tegra 3 equipped phone does now and will continue to do so by next year.

It's affordable, and will beat the pants off Xbox360/PS3 in terms of what it can bring to a living room aside from games for a lesser cost - web browsing, applications, media viewing, etc. It also will have a huge library of free and cheap existing games, as well as the premium ones which are still and will continue to be extremely cheap comparatively. I would understand your argument against it if it were priced at a similar PP to the 360, but really I can't see any fault against it at this current price - you have to take it in its entirety in what it offers, not just exclusively as a games platform. It is fantastic value for money.

And yes, while many phones can be hooked up to a TV, very few people have a phone that has these specs and ultimately, this is a permanent fixture, not something you have to continuously connect and disconnect - another important point.

Hawke

Buying it now seems like a bad idea. Its an unnecessary gamble for something with dodgy prospects. Its got its funding I'd rather sit back and see how its goes. If people are actually asking for Call of Duty's and Leagues of legends they are going to be sorely disappointed.

justsomebloke

Hawke wrote: »

If people are actually asking for Call of Duty's and Leagues of legends they are going to be sorely disappointed.

As someone who bought one I'm actually hoping it isn't something along those lines and I didn't buy it in the hope it will be a graphical master piece. I bought it for the fact that hopefully it should end up having a much better indie developer base then the current generation of console and hopefully lead to a lot of original games that are slightly different to what is out at the moment. I don't see this replacing my xbox or next gen xbox rather something that sits along side it for a different range of games.

That all said I still think for a well designed android unit and controller it is still good value for money even without the "console" tag. Sure look at the nexus Q it's going to cost €300 and isn't as functional as this.