Kickstarter: Ouya Video Game Console (Coming to Target, Amazon, GameStop, Best Buy)

I think that game list demonstrates their deceptive strategies, it makes uninformed people think that the AAA titles might get ported to the OUYA.
 
The most recent Epic Battle Axe Podcast talked a lot about the Ouya. It was a really good discussion that covered the pros, cons, potential to lose money and every other subject you can imagine. I think they did a very good job of not being over positive or negative and are a shining example of what the discussion SHOULD be on the Ouya vs the bickering in the forums.

http://epicbattleaxe.com/epicbattlecry-on-tap-a-word-that-isnt-dubious/
 
I would be interested to see if Sega ends up using this to develop some innovative or just new IP's experimenting.
I remember that N-Gage got an exclusive Sega game and we haven't seen that one appear anywhere else sadly. It would be nice to see it ported to the Ouya or somewhere else.
edit: I also reiterate that I don't understand why you're so excited for this and ask where the fuck were you on the Indrema? That system would've been a tremendous boon to indie game developers in the way that the mp3 has been for indie bands.
 
What a week. While continuing to work on making OUYA, and of course now managing our Kickstarter, we’ve received thousands of excited comments, pointed questions, and lots of encouragement. Thank you to our 35,418 backers. Conversations with you have been great—bringing out the best product we can bring.

A few things to share:

On the product side...
We spent yesterday with nVidia talking about our chips. The team is great and their support has been incredible. They’re working side by side with us, and they’ll help us maximize the performance of the Tegra 3 chipset we’re using.

We’ve been hearing your questions on everything from how you’ll discover games on OUYA (we’re focused on both discovery and curation), to whether we’ll have different symbols on the buttons for the color-blind (yes, we’ll need to address that), and whether or not we’ll have an Ethernet port (stay tuned on that), and much more. Feedback on our work in progress is one of the great things about Kickstarter. Keep sending your ideas and voicing your opinions—they matter to us.

Games! Today Meteor, the maker of Hawken (a great-looking upcoming free-to-play mech game), just pledged that they’re also in on OUYA. We’re really honored to have great gamemakers supporting OUYA. Thank you so much to the developers who reached out, we’re trying our best to be in touch with you -- we know we still owe a lot of you responses.

@markvlong -- ‪#ouya‬ A crowd sourced, open, indie, free to play console?! Count Meteor in!

And you game developers..
We know, we ran out of the developer rewards (it happened faster than expected!). We’ve assessed our ability to deliver and have refreshed both tiers of developer awards.

And we had a crazy idea—if folks are interested—we might consider a reward that would allow devs to start working from the raw circuit board at an even earlier date, allowing them to get a head start on development. And maybe we’d add one more level that gives you just the software—no early console. Tell us what you think
(Obviously, if you have the Android SDK, you know most of what you need to know -- we’ll just need to add in a few elements specific to OUYA—things like assets for promoting on the console and our payments API.)
So, there you have it, an update! Some games jumping on board, the scoop on the progress we’ve made with the product, and more rewards for developers. This is an early-stage project here, and we know we’ve got a lot to do. We are so grateful to have your support and we will do everything we can to thrill you with the results.
Back to work...
Thanks!
Julie
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They just updated the kickstarter page with this.
 
[quote name='Sarang01']edit: I also reiterate that I don't understand why you're so excited for this and ask where the fuck were you on the Indrema? That system would've been a tremendous boon to indie game developers in the way that the mp3 has been for indie bands.[/QUOTE]

You fucking serious?

[quote name='Wikipedia']The console was expected to be released by the holiday season of 2000, but rather than an official announcement, those subscribed to Indrema's mailing list received instead a "top ten" list in the style of David Letterman. By this time, people were beginning to suspect that the console was vaporware; Indrema had produced nothing but press releases so far.[/quote]Yea, where were we all 12 years ago when there were no crowdfunding websites and consoles were completely different in their architecture and style of game from PCs?
 
If they're just talking to nVidia about their chips now, there's no way this is shipping in March. I've worked on hardware development projects before... there isn't enough lead time for them to produce all the launch systems they've promised. (And this is assuming that the specs are fixed already and won't be changed...)
 
[quote name='Asgardian']I think that game list demonstrates their deceptive strategies, it makes uninformed people think that the AAA titles might get ported to the OUYA.[/QUOTE]

You say deceptive marketing, I say stupidity of the general public.
 
[quote name='Genocidal']You fucking serious?

Yea, where were we all 12 years ago when there were no crowdfunding websites and consoles were completely different in their architecture and style of game from PCs?[/QUOTE]

I remember all the talk about what their plans were, how easy it was to program for and I was all ready to make a game for it. The pricing on the beta was great and that was the model I would buy. The cost of the commercial license being $1000 and the price of the non-commercial being $500.

It had a Linux OS and if I remember right the hardware wasn't terribly different from PC if not pretty spot on.

Also, wtf are you talking about in style of game? How is that relevant? The Indrema was going to be welcome to all sorts of styles of games.

I do find it funny though that now you people are waking up. Where was everyone truly talking about and demanding "Sadness" for the Wii from Nintendo? Talk about out of the box.
 
I cancelled my $99 pledge.
If this comes out and delivers on what has been promised, I will definitely pick one up.
There's just too much deceptive spin attached to it right now though.
 
[quote name='bmulligan']Stop fooling yourselves that these games are the shiznit because they're on a Sony or an Xbox. They're the same games you've been overpaying for - for almost 2 decades.[/QUOTE]

I disagree for two reasons:

1) Great new mainstream console games are released every day. Entertainment value is subjective, however considering the hours of entertainment that videogames have provided me I wouldn't call them overpriced.

2) Not sure why you think indie developers on a shoestring budget will be able to consistently crank out videogame hits with the same regularity as a major videogame corporation.

I think videogame corporations have done some pretty shitty things (including not paying their employees a fair wage) but they do know how to consistently crank out hits.
 
I jumped into the hype at $95 when I saw how fast they were selling out and bought into the promises. After reading the "Saturday Soapbox: The Trouble with Ouya" article on Eurogamer, I've decided to cancel my pledge.

I still the basic concept and goal of this console, but not enough to part with any money as of yet.
 
[quote name='kraftwerks']I cancelled my $99 pledge.
If this comes out and delivers on what has been promised, I will definitely pick one up.
There's just too much deceptive spin attached to it right now though.[/QUOTE]

This is how I feel.

I honestly just want this system as a cheap Dreamcast's generation or older emulator.
 
[quote name='Bosamba']I jumped into the hype at $95 when I saw how fast they were selling out and bought into the promises. After reading the "Saturday Soapbox: The Trouble with Ouya" article on Eurogamer, I've decided to cancel my pledge.


I still the basic concept and goal of this console, but not enough to part with any money as of yet.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, the large companies sure are paying a lot of money to douse Ouya before it becomes a threat. If I were in their shoes, I'd be scared too.

Sure, there's no way to prove that's what's happening (corporate pay-offs for negative press related to Ouya in addition to astroturfing), but, let's just say, there are certain standard industry practices that make games a dirty business.

It's difficult to be confronted with negative press and not start to question the decision to support something like this. I totally understand that, but I think it's also good to have some balance in there. What is the interest of some of the people writing these articles, and are they truly independent actors? How much can we trust their knowledge and sources? What have they written in the past, etc...? In any case, Ouya shouldn't be let off the hook if they're dropping the ball in any way, but neither should every journalist with an opinion. :)

[quote name='Alcedes']lol, i know this is a scam since they just said how great Nvidia has been to work with. Reminded me of how Linus feels about them in regards to driver support on Linux[/QUOTE]


Not to put too fine a point on it, but Nvidia driver support in Linux is good to excellent, it's their support for Linux developers that's somewhat lacking. The dispute is really between those who believe Nvidia should open up some of the finer specifications for their products in order to develop open alternatives to the proprietary Nvidia Linux drivers, and, Nvidia itself, which chooses to hold on to certain information they view as proprietary. In other words, it doesn't have much to do with gaming.
 
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Just canceled my early bird pledge. I do hope this succeeds, and will support it if it does... but at the moment it's just pure hype. It's somewhat feasible, but any number of things could go wrong with this; that's inherent of all kickstarters, but this is the first project I've backed that I've really had doubts about. So I'll wait and see, and if it doesn't pan out that's $95 toward building a media center computer.
 
There's a new article over at Joystiq posting the thoughts of some of the key people who will help determine whether Ouya is a success or failure: well-known indie developers.

Since a large part of what encourages the success and popularity of a console is the developer support, I'm much more interested to hear what these guys have to say than some of the other idle speculation currently floating around out there.

These are the people who know the indie games market best and probably understand the risks and benefits of Ouya better than anyone.
 
Interesting comments Xaliqen, in the article.

I would disagree with that one developer so happy about Sony and Nintendo. I mean how much money are they taking off the top of your game sale. This has been the big concern about having an optimized platform to do your Indie game, these assholes want too much money off of your sale.
 
I don't think this will be the revolution, but I hope it does start an active community where it's possible to find a few niche games. If someone makes a new space exploration game for this, I'll put down $100 for just that. Some types of games just don't get any console love anymore. :whistle2:(
 
[quote name='Sarang01']Interesting comments Xaliqen, in the article.

I would disagree with that one developer so happy about Sony and Nintendo. I mean how much money are they taking off the top of your game sale. This has been the big concern about having an optimized platform to do your Indie game, these assholes want too much money off of your sale.[/QUOTE]

True, but he is going out there in public and saying that. If it were me, I wouldn't want to say anything bad to the press about the people who are going to host my game. :)
 
[quote name='Bosamba']I jumped into the hype at $95 when I saw how fast they were selling out and bought into the promises. After reading the "Saturday Soapbox: The Trouble with Ouya" article on Eurogamer, I've decided to cancel my pledge.

I still the basic concept and goal of this console, but not enough to part with any money as of yet.[/QUOTE]

I did too, but not far enough to sink the money in as the reality check hit first and then I was like "what the fuck am I going to do with this thing....and more importantly when am I going to have time to play it, regardless of how much it costs."

Since then I've been like, I hate Ios and Android stuff, so why did I want it in the first place, then I remembered it was all because of the hype. I've done 5 kickstarters this year (all for games), was going to do a few more till I was bleedin' money too much, then was like seriously, do I care or am I interested in most of this stuff, (again reality settling in) and I was like no, could care less if game x or y gets funded, I didn't play'em in the 80's-90's, don't want to play'em now.


[quote name='blindinglights']I don't think this will be the revolution, but I hope it does start an active community where it's possible to find a few niche games. If someone makes a new space exploration game for this, I'll put down $100 for just that. Some types of games just don't get any console love anymore. :whistle2:([/QUOTE]

That's just the point, they say all these awesome buzzwords like FREE, OPEN, REVOLUTION....but that is just it hype, until someone dips their toes and starts making some real money for developing for this, then there will be no support or you'll see countless crap games like in the Xbox Indie section that are a bunch of half-ass worthless crap that no one wants to play with the few diamonds in the rough.

That wasn't enough to get me to take the plunge.

And as far as space sims, I love them too, I own Privateer 1/2, Star Wars sims (all of'em), Wing Commander, and Freespace. Thing is no one buys them anymore. I even played Silpheed on X360, and even though the game stinks, lamented the loss of the good space sim, however like flight sims, I wouldn't expect a massive resurgence of the genre, other than Starlancer and Freelancer, it's been 9 long years since anyone took a chance on them (and probably won't ever again)

I know there was some ex-lucasarts guys making a space game...here it is

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/732317316/starlight-inceptiontm?ref=search

That's your best bet to get some kickstarter project like those and support the guys who want to do stuff like that, that you want. Instead of a platform with only hope that someone will do something that you'd like to play.

Speaking of which when I was looking for that link I noticed a few other projects in that same vein you might be interested in supporting the worth checking out. ;)
 
Thanks for the links I will check them out. Personally, I wish someone would make a game that is a more elaborate version of the planet exploration in Mass Effect. Just as long as it is focused on exploration and not just shooting stuff.

On topic: Does anyone find it strange that Ouya doesn't have an official website?
 
Originally, I intended to gift this to my parents. But, I have since canceled my pledge. For 100 bucks, I'd rather get them Home Depot gift cards, or, ya know, something that actually exists and isn't a complete waste of money. Like others, if this actually releases, and is successful, I'll buy a bundle for my parents. Until then, no dice.
 
I don't understand why portions of the internet hate ouya, want it to fail, and also hate kickstarter. Do people have limitless pools of vitriol they urgently need to throw up? Some people are interested, some aren't, some want to wait and see and others want to dance on its grave.
 
[quote name='Chase']Originally, I intended to gift this to my parents. But, I have since canceled my pledge. For 100 bucks, I'd rather get them Home Depot gift cards, or, ya know, something that actually exists and isn't a complete waste of money.[/QUOTE]
Why did you pledge in the first place? What's happened in the past week to change this from something you were willing to pay $100 for into an obvious "complete waste of money"? Just curious here. It's striking to me how people were really excited and positive about this, and then a couple of skeptical articles come out on Eurogamer and Penny Arcade and now you see the same people doing a complete 180.
 
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console/posts/270629
We’d like to introduce you to Robert Bowling, president of the game developer Robotoki, and an early backer of our Kickstarter. You might recognize Robert from his work with the Call of Duty franchise.
Earlier today, from his Twitter account (@fourzerotwo), Robert hinted that he had some news.
Well here it is: OUYA gamers will get FIRST access to the ravaged world of his post-zombie-apocalyptic game, Human Element.
Click to expand...
Finally something good is revealed for ouya.
 
Apart from the misleading statements and all around shadiness, I get bad vibes from the CEO lady.

I don't think that everyone in the video game industry has to be a stereotypical nerd, but they usually are and she seems like more of the corporate/marketing type.
 
That QA was kind of mediocre. I feel like they should be much more forthcoming with details for the investors. We could see a mass of people pulling their money out if this continues. For anyone that read it, when asked about how OUYA will deal with the expectation of AAA graphics, the lady brushed the question to gameplay. That kind of answer isn't going to fly with the hardcore gaming backers.

I'd like to know how far out they are from production, like if it's over a year out that Tegra3 chip is going to be feeling the burn, moreso than it already will be, right? The gaming oress has been real critical of OUYA, and if they don't give up more details, confidence is going to wane and funding is gonna be pulled on a large scale.
 
[quote name='htz']http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console/posts/270629

Finally something good is revealed for ouya.[/QUOTE]

I was actually going to say this does not really make me that much more confident. Robert Bowling seems like a good guy and I am sure has lot of connections. His company has never made a single game yet. Having THAT be your first big reveal does not inspire much confidence in me. Again, just my opinion.

That game also sounds more like a Tell Tale type thing (Walking Dead) than an actual game. That might be cool but I am not sure why they are picking THIS system to launch a prequel to a game they announced would be a next gen title. Sounds more like a company trying to make a splash when the iron is hot than a sound business decision.
 
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[quote name='cancerman1120']I was actually going to say this does not really make me that much more confident. Robert Bowling seems like a good guy and I am sure has lot of connections. His company has never made a single game yet. Having THAT be your first big reveal does not inspire much confidence in me. Again, just my opinion.

That game also sounds more like a Tell Tale type thing (Walking Dead) than an actual game. That might be cool but I am not sure why they are picking THIS system to launch a prequel to a game they announced would be a next gen title. Sounds more like a company trying to make a splash when the iron is hot than a sound business decision.[/QUOTE]

It kind of seems like you disliked this idea from the start, which is totally fine.

Though, there are a lot of people here who support the idea. Can't we all just agree to disagree?

Not everyone is going to get behind this Kickstarter project, and some people are against Kickstarter in general. But, hey, not everyone is going to agree.

Some of us happen to like Kickstarter and are willing to support this Ouya project. That's what it comes down to.
 
I guess I'm a bit at a loss on why I would buy this. It seems to me that indie developers would either make an indie game on xbox live or make a game for the pc or mac. Why build a game for this system?
 
I don't know if Bowling's announcement is the booster shot this system needs... this is prequel content to Human Element, correct? That could mean anything... it could very well be something simple or not entirely related to Human Element, not unlike how some devs are releasing iOS apps as prequels or supplemental content to their big AAA releases.

Though, there are a lot of people here who support the idea. Can't we all just agree to disagree?
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Well, yeah, we could... but it would basically undercut 99% of all message board discussion. As was said before (yet ignored), many people are here to share their opinions, not necessarily challenge the opinions of others. Hell, the person you quoted even says "this is just my opinion."

At least that's the postmodern textbook answer. In my book there are definitely opinions that are more correct than others.
 
[quote name='iamsmart']many people are here to share their opinions, not necessarily challenge the opinions of others.[/QUOTE]


Maybe some of you feel differently about this, but it seems the conversation at the moment is mainly people (myself included) simply re-stating opinions.

That's the best time to agree to disagree, because each side is highly unlikely to convince the other at that point, and the sharing aspect becomes a bit muted.


[quote name='Indiana']I guess I'm a bit at a loss on why I would buy this. It seems to me that indie developers would either make an indie game on xbox live or make a game for the pc or mac. Why build a game for this system?[/QUOTE]


The key is the hardware they're using and the growing impact of the mobile marketplace (Android, iOS, etc...). The hardware used is almost identical to a number of different phones/tablets out there, and using Android as a base means many developers will already be very familiar with development for the device when it's released. For many indie developers, targeting XBLA or XBLIG is less profitable than targeting Android and/or iOS for a number of reasons (XBLIG is often criticised for poor sales and visibility).

Creating a living-room console with higher visibility for indie titles is definitely something many developers want.

Whether Ouya will succeed in doing this is the question of the moment, but we'll have to wait awhile for a definitive answer.
 
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[quote name='iamsmart']I don't know if Bowling's announcement is the booster shot this system needs... this is prequel content to Human Element, correct? That could mean anything... it could very well be something simple or not entirely related to Human Element, not unlike how some devs are releasing iOS apps as prequels or supplemental content to their big AAA releases.[/QUOTE]

I'm still trying to figure out why this announcement was noteworthy. It doesn't sound like he was a major pillar at infinity ward (community manager/creative strategist isn't on par with lead designer or producer). His company hasn't made anything before, so we have no real reason to believe anything he makes will be good...just kind of feels like he's getting press for having a "first post" type thing on a trending console.



And indie dev's will make games for this thing if it's easier to profit from than their other major options. This thing proves popular enough to get in millions of homes...the Ouya legal team is good at crushing and identifying IP ripoffs...good games manage to get recognition above the rest of the crap that gets released without a ton of advertising...essentially make a better app store than Google or Apple.
 
Ouya is going to flop. AAA titles my ass. They haven't even announced any big name publisher. Love how they announce EXCLUSIVE OUYA GAME from the people who hasn't made a damn game yet.
 
[quote name='gokou36']Ouya is going to flop. AAA titles my ass. They haven't even announced any big name publisher. Love how they announce EXCLUSIVE OUYA GAME from the people who hasn't made a damn game yet.[/QUOTE]
Well they just announced onlive partnership with ouya. I guess that is where the library of AAA games will come from. Plus they have unveiled the full design of the controller plus some more pictures of the console itself.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console/posts/275869
 
Round touchpad...did not see that coming. Thought they'd make a rectangular one that mapped decently enough to the TV...allow any touchscreen based game to work with their system, although perhaps not perfectly. Now it only looks usable as a giant additional button capable of reading swipes.

Have they mentioned whether or not the controller will have any shoulder buttons?

Onlive...regular Android devices can install Onlive. I'm still waiting for a real killer app for their Ouya aspect, otherwise I'll be content waiting for someone to take the same idea and do it better (or wait for a good tablet designed for both on TV and portable operations).
 
I don't get the hype. It's a tegra tablet with a hdmi output and a usb controller connection. Oh wait, I already have a Android tablet with all of those features. Haha. Also, anyone here ever used Onlive? It's complete garbage. Old-school YouTube quality + input lag = headache.

Meh, enjoy your conversation. Good Day.
 
Is there a Kickstarter thread on CAG for the Oculus Rift? I can't find it. That seems like it will be better than the Ouya, no offense intended, but I'm shocked I can't find it on CAG.
 
The Rift Kickstarter is $300 for hardware, and that hardware is only a developer prerelease version (not a consumer product), so it's not a huge surprise that there's no thread for it here.
 
[quote name='Genocidal']The Rift Kickstarter is $300 for hardware, and that hardware is only a developer prerelease version (not a consumer product), so it's not a huge surprise that there's no thread for it here.[/QUOTE]

That's too bad because it sounds so awesome, already has big names supporting it including Id, Valve, Epic games. Doom 3 BFG and Doom 4 are going to support it and Epic is going to put the Unreal Engine on it.

I realize this is CAG and about game deals, but no thread for Oculus at all? I'd make one but I don't have the time to properly maintain it.
 
I'm extremely interested in the Rift but as Genocidal stated it's a dev/prerelease of the hardware so I didn't purchase one, although I did throw $5 at it. I would have grabbed a shirt if they weren't so ugly.

A bit more on topic, did you notice that Oculus supported Ouya? It'd be nice if this worked with the Rift, I suppose one of them would have to support some sort of audio that would work with headphones, optical, 3.5mm, for full immersion. Hell they could probably just stick both of them together in the headset.
 
zappy-ouya-announce-282x300.png

First: We’ve been hearing requests from all over the Internet for a media player. Well we’re proud to announce that we will be working with XBMC.
That’s right. The award-winning, open source media player and entertainment hub is coming to OUYA. We’ve heard many of you buzzing about a potential OUYA-XBMC hook-up since Day One of launch. (Something of a match made in open source heaven!) Now, with a few hours left in our drive, we’re delivering.

Believe it, friends: XBMC, on OUYA, on your TV, legit.
Click to expand...
XBMC will be coming to ouya!
 
[quote name='htz']XBMC will be coming to ouya![/QUOTE]

This is a better idea than trying to roll their own media player. A customizable package like XBMC will allow them to optimize the existing software quickly, and then just add a customized skin for OUYA branding.

I wonder if we will see an OUYA-targeted media remote? Possibly getting ahead of myself with speculation like that, but I suppose it could be possible. It will be interesting to see how they customize XBMC to work for the OUYA controller.
 
[quote name='Richard Kain']This is a better idea than trying to roll their own media player. A customizable package like XBMC will allow them to optimize the existing software quickly, and then just add a customized skin for OUYA branding.

I wonder if we will see an OUYA-targeted media remote? Possibly getting ahead of myself with speculation like that, but I suppose it could be possible. It will be interesting to see how they customize XBMC to work for the OUYA controller.[/QUOTE]


There have been a number of people including me who've requested an IR port be added to the device. I'm fine with it not coming with a remote, as long as getting it to work with my harmony is possible. I'd expect with this and the iheartradio announcement, a remote will be available.
 
[quote name='mig0']There have been a number of people including me who've requested an IR port be added to the device.[/QUOTE]

I think IR unlikely. The general design of the console isn't conducive to an added IR panel in the front of the exterior. It would also require extra cutting, which would increase the production costs. Also, they are already going with a different wireless standard for the controller. Any remotes designed to work with the OUYA would probably use the same wireless standard as the controller.
 
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