Ouya Dev Consoles Ship, SDK Released 169
An anonymous reader writes "Earlier this year, the Android-based Ouya game console project raised over nine times as much funding as they initially asked for in their Kickstarter campaign. Now, Ouya developer consoles are starting to ship, and folks on the Ouya team released a video showing what the developers should expect. As explained in the video, the console currently being shipped is by no means the final hardware, but promises to give developers everything they need to start developing apps and games for Ouya. The only surprise is that they decided to add a micro-USB port to the hardware, making it easy to hook up to a PC. The Ouya team has also released an SDK for the device (which they call the ODK — Ouya Development Kit), and have provided most of the source under the Apache 2.0 license. They wrote, 'We think we’ve got a great team of developers here at OUYA, but there’s strength in numbers and a wealth of passionate, talented people out there. We want you, the developers of the world, to work alongside us to continually improve our platform. It’s our hope that releasing a more open ODK will help foster such innovation.'"
Very well done to them! (Score:4, Informative)
Well, I said it couldn't be done, I was wrong. Very well done to them!
Re:Very well done to them! (Score:5, Insightful)
Seconded. It always looked like it would happen, but there were many naysayers.
Well done Ouya team!
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I guess you can't judge a startup by how similar its cover is to a scam.
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Delivering a hardware is not a hard thing to do, specially if you have 7 million dollars in the bank and are using common commercial components(you can easily buy a Tegra 3 board).
I believe now they're probably customizing the Android OS for their proprietary needs and set upping their own appstore. Neither which really is that hard either.
In my opinion the real challenge hasn't even started yet: marketing the final product. If they can't convince developers to creat
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Delivering a hardware is not a hard thing to do ....
Hmm ... methinks the backers of the zioneyez project will disagree with you here [forbes.com].
Re:Very well done to them! (Score:5, Informative)
Delivering some hardware, I'll concede as not that tricky. Delivering a fairly advanced piece of kit at a very low price is another matter. Doing it on the relatively limited scale we are talking here (Kickstarter's statisics would suggest not too many over 800 kits going out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console?ref=live [kickstarter.com] - add up the numbers for the $699 and above pledges) is particularly tricky.
I can't find any off the shelf Tegra 3 boards; the nearest option is the KTT30 ( http://emea.kontron.com/products/boards+and+mezzanines/embedded+motherboards/miniitx+motherboards/ktt30mitx.html [kontron.com] ) which is unpriced and "Coming Soon!", despite a number of articles expecting it to come out in Q4 2012. The devkit board retails for 529 Euros ( http://shop.seco.com/carma-devkit.html?___store=eu_en&___from_store=eu_en [seco.com] ) by itself, for comparison.
It's worth saying that the Nexus 7 hadn't been announced when I said this, and even if it had you have to wonder whether removing the touchscreen is enough to save 50% of the price, especially with Google's ability to use economies of scale to mitigate R&D costs. I would point out that the Nexus 7 is predicted to be selling around a million a month ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9645052/Google-Nexus-7-tablet-sales-approaching-1m-a-month.html [telegraph.co.uk] ), or over 20 times the pre-orders for the Ouya. Even then the Nexus 7 is generally presumed not to be making a profit on hardware (which the Ouya will have to do).
Chrome flagged ODK (Score:2)
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Something about them not having a lot of downloads from their site flagged it as possible phishing or malware.
If this is anything like the "SmartScreen" reputation system that IE uses, then how is a new site supposed to gain reputation other than by buying it from a CA?
Ouya Dev Consoles Ship (Score:5, Funny)
"There there, ship." *pats the hull*
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why? (Score:2)
Re:why? (Score:5, Informative)
This is not a "dev" box in the sense that if you are a developer, you need one of these boxes. These are boxes that were specifically awarded to backers that wanted to do development. The only difference between these and the retail boxes is that these are early versions and therefore available earlier than the retail boxes. Also these are in "special edition" cases as a thank you to the devs for their support.
Input devices (Score:2)
Isn't the point of Android that any app runs on any device?
How many current games can run on a first-generation HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1)? And how can a game that expects a gamepad run if no gamepad is available? True, the workaround of putting a virtual gamepad at the lower corners of the screen works for one button (Sonic). But extending it to two (Bubble Bobble, Mega Man, Contra, Metroidvania, etc.) runs into problems with players blindly reaching for on-screen buttons and missing them, which only become worse with four or six (Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter).
Why would they then need a developer console (I assume for game developers).
To ma
"the Linux stack that is not Android" (Score:2)
Also, Android does not use GNU anything beyond GCC. It specificially kicks out anything GPLed from userspace.
That's exactly my point. Every Android machine is a Linux machine, and every GNU/Linux machine is a Linux machine. Saying "GNU/Linux" is less of a mouthful than saying "the Linux stack that is not Android".
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As shocking as it may seem GNU is not the most common toolset for machines with a limited on-board flash like the Ouya.
My first Linux netbook was an Eee PC 900 with a 4 GB SSD. It ran a GNU userland, both the dumbed-down Xandros it came with and the Ubuntu 8.04 that replaced it. But you're probably right that more devices with similarly small SSDs run Android or BusyBox. In any case, I'd bet that going with the AOSP userland was easier for the developers of the Ouya platform and more familiar to prospective game developers than trying to hack something together on top of BusyBox.
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Isn't the point of Android that any app runs on any device?
No.
Why would they then need a developer console
This uses controllers and not a touchscreen.
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The controller does have a touchpad-like area.
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...interesting, yes, but irrelevant, just to be clear, since a touchpad is not even the same class of device as a touch screen. In other words, it is not as if existing touchscreen games developed for a phone will be playable on the Ouya because they have this touchpad thing.
No heat sink (Score:3)
What the hell? A fan inside the box? Please tell me this won't be in the final version. Have these guys never heard about heat sinks? The way I would do this would be to have the case be made out of aluminum and the heats sink would be connected to the case utilizing the case itself to dissipate heat
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MS stuck the unit inside a plastic case. A case they designed before the actual motherboard.
Heat sinks can deal with pretty much as much power as you want, provided you are willing to use a big enough heat sink. Bolt even an i7 to a 500lb copper lump and I bet it does fine.
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The Xbox 360 problems can be blamed mainly on bad design and cheap components. It should be no problem to design a computer that can dissipate heat efficiently when you can design it from scratch. The Ouya shares many of the components used in tablets and somehow powerful tables can be built without a fan.
No photo? (Score:5, Insightful)
Surely it wouldn't have killed them to put a photo of the production verson *somewhere* in the post...?
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Wikipedia has a picture of it: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/Ouya_Console.png [wikimedia.org]
USB? Excellent! (Score:3)
When their Kickstarter began, I sent them a message (along with many other folks, I'm sure) that it needed _some_ means of getting a wired internet connection and/or access to by-wire accessories. USB was one of the possibilities I offered.
Now devs for Ouya can turn around and leverage that USB port to allow the Ouya device to latch on to a PC's network connection. Excellent.
(Page doesn't seem to show if it's USB2 or 3. At this point, I sure hope it's USB 3...)
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It has an ethernet port as well as USB.
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Then they added both my suggestions. Rock on!
I'll definitely have to get one, now.
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My chief complaint was that in the original announcement, they were only going to support wifi for networking, yet it was supposed to be useful for gaming and streaming video.
The problem is that wifi is terrible for both of those use cases. It's bad on its own for latency purposes, and then there's spectrum contention. I raised these points in response to their Kickstarter drive, and it looks like they turned around and added those features. If I'd known they would, I would have donated on the Kickstarter.
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You still can. Just use proper cable hiding tools and techniques. Like whatever they use to make power cables running across floors OSHA-safe. :)
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Looks like they added Ethernet. Doesn't say what speed, though.
"Closed" (Score:3)
I am still not sure I understand the purpose of the OUYA. If it doesn't run existing Android games, then it is just another locked-down device/market from someone else. What's the big whoop? Just the fact that is runs Android?? Wouldn't a device that runs standard Android and has access to all the existing games in Google Play be far more desirable?
The hardware will be near zero-profit and they will just rake in the money from sales of apps on their proprietary "store". Why would developers want to lock themselves into another, different store with different rules, and target only the Ouya?
Wasn't the excitement to have a cheap set-top box that could play inexpensive Android games? If it is a separate, proprietary marketplace, then the selection will be dismal, the prices much higher, and you won't be able to use those apps on any other non-Ouya device.
Plus, if you already paid for Android games on the Google Play or Amazon App Store, they won't run on the Ouya either. I don't see how this is a good thing. Despite it running an Android fork, it is just another semi-proprietary platform.
I would rather pay more for a really "open" set-top box with decent hardware, joysticks, and have it just use Google Play and link to my existing account. They can make money off the box.
Gamepad genres != touch screen genres (Score:3)
Wouldn't a device that runs standard Android and has access to all the existing games in Google Play be far more desirable?
Some genres work better with a capacitive multitouch screen. Games in these genres belong in the Google Play Store first and Amazon Appstore once they're successful on Google Play Store. (Amazon charges an annual fee.) Other genres work better with a gamepad. Games in these genres belong in the Ouya store. They could be published in the Google Play Store, but as I understand it, it's not easy to get solid sales figures for external gamepads such as iCade and iControlPad products.
Why would developers want to lock themselves into another, different store with different rules, and target only the Ouya?
Because not all developers a
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+1 Informative
Thanks for the excellent response.
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You are right and this is why the Ouya will fail bigtimes.
This _IS THE_ streaming device for TV/FILM content connected to your TV of century!
Get it? A device that you can play games with and when you tried of the games, watch some movies instead! Or tried of the movies, play some games!
Why is Ouya not in bed with Netflix on thisone?
Madea hub (Score:2)
My PS3 is my meda hub.
What if someone wants to play media that isn't the latest Tyler Perry "masterpiece"? How well does a PS3 support movies that aren't distributed through Sony or any of the other five companies in the MPAA?
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Well since it is based on Android, Android developers can take their existing games make only small changes and then release them for the Ouya.
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(p.s. Ouya is pronounced "Wee-Ya")
That just ruined it for me.
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You can already play Android games with any PS3 controller. Why would you want to buy ANOTHER piece of kit with a crappier CPU and GPU than your phone, when you can just buy a PS3 controller and use your phone you already own?
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You are living in the past... by the time this thing gets to mass production in 6-12 months, bargain-basement phones people get for free with their plan will have CPU specs equivalent to this device. It is only running a Tegra 3, it is nothing revolutionary or state of the art... it was the state of the art chip a year ago.
This is exactly why standalone consoles don't have future.
Annual cost of ownership (Score:2)
bargain-basement phones people get for free with their plan
My carrier doesn't give any phone away with its plans, but that's because the plans are substantially less expensive over time than AT&T or Verizon. The only catch is that it appears Virgin Mobile USA (a Sprint MVNO owned by Sprint) won't activate any plan below $420 per year on a smartphone; only dumbphones are eligible for $65 per year "payLo" plans. I thought parents were more likely to buy a cheap flip phone on such a plan for under-13 kids, if they're allowed to have a phone at all.
This is exactly why standalone consoles don't have future.
Standalone conso
Will it take standard controllers? (Score:2)
Will this take bluetooth standard controllers?
From the video it looks like they are shipping without real directional buttons and instead have the same braindead Xbox design.
Also put the fucking sticks in the middle where they belong, just clone a PS3 controller or thrustmaster and be done with it.
I still don't get the Ooya, and I expect itll fail (Score:3, Insightful)
I already have a phone in my hands that has more CPU power than the Ooya, it has an HDMI port, and I play games on it all the time using my PS3 controller. Why would I buy this device? It seems like it would be LESS convenient than what I already have, which is a powerful game console that follows me everywhere and can be plugged into ANY TV in about 3 seconds.... this is a less-powerful console tethered to my house that would mean something else I have to carry around?
I don't understand who the target market for this thing is or who is going to buy it. I am a geek, a gamer, and an Android fanatic. You would think I would be the ideal target market for this device. But if I don't see any use for it, then I don't think there is much hope in the broader marketplace. To me it is a solution looking for a problem.
They got two things right... that mobile is the future of gaming, and that Android is going to rule the market. But what they got wrong is the assumption that standalone consoles are going to stay around. Who need a standalone console when your phone is more powerful? All you need is a CONTROLLER. They should have put their project into making a seamless bluetooth controller experience that worked for any phone (the PS3 controller solution is great when you have it working but is a bit convoluted for a newbie to set up).
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Have you found a good solution for HMDI plugs?
All the ones on my devices are on the back and a bitch to get too. What I want is a way to plug my phone in to the front of the TV area and hook it up to wall power while doing so. A docking device would be best probably.
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Mine is MHL, so it's just part of the USB jack.
But to be honest, in 6-12 months HDMI out will be obsolete. Miracast mirroing is going to mean no one will bother with wires anymore. My phone supports it, waiting for my TV firmware to be updated. Supported by default in JellyBean 4.1.2
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I meant on the other end, or are you leaving this cable in all the time?
I would rather not play games over such a slow link.
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By slow I mean the latency not the throughput.
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I don't have that.
What sales figures for Android controllers? (Score:4, Insightful)
I already have a phone in my hands that has more CPU power than the Ooya, it has an HDMI port, and I play games on it all the time using my PS3 controller. Why would I buy this device?
The fact that not enough other people connect PS3 controllers to their phones is enough to discourage game developers from targeting Android phones with PS3 controllers. If I were to develop a game targeting Android phones with PS3 controllers, how big could I expect my market to be? Are there even published sales figures for the iCade or iControlPad to reassure developers that the market for gamepad games on Android isn't entirely unprofitable?
All you need is a CONTROLLER.
And only one Android phone has ever been bundled with one: the Xperia Play by Sony.
the PS3 controller solution is great when you have it working but is a bit convoluted for a newbie to set up
And Android 4.2 broke the Wii controller solution.
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The fact that not enough other people connect PS3 controllers to their phones is enough to discourage game developers from targeting Android phones with PS3 controllers. If I were to develop a game targeting Android phones with PS3 controllers...
You don't need to "target" people with controllers... a controller in Android is just another input device. You can use a controller in Android with ANY game that supports keyboard input.
And only one Android phone has ever been bundled with one: the Xperia Play by Sony.
Which is what I am saying. All that is needed is a seamless foolproof controller solution, and good marketing, and partnering with publishers. You don't need to make a ground-up console with crappy CPU and GPU specs. Consoles are yesterday's news. They went about this totally wrong.
Analog; gaming keyboard install base; marketing (Score:2)
a controller in Android is just another input device. You can use a controller in Android with ANY game that supports keyboard input.
For one thing, how does an analog joystick translate into keyboard input? For another, the game has to be developed with keyboard input in mind. If there aren't enough people who already carry what the application sees as a gaming keyboard, then developers aren't likely to target Android devices with gaming keyboards, instead targeting other platforms whose users are more likely to already own gaming keyboards.
All that is needed is a seamless foolproof controller solution, and good marketing, and partnering with publishers.
Good luck getting this sort of marketing and partnering in a market already dominated by Microsoft
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You don't need to "target" people with controllers... a controller in Android is just another input device. You can use a controller in Android with ANY game that supports keyboard input.
Anything that's more complicated than "plug it into the power socket and the TV and turn it on" doesn't work in the consumer space, and that includes buying two distinct pieces of electronics you have to combine yourself. Even that people have to set up WiFi is a huge problem at the moment. Don't forget that being an Android fanatic also means that you have a lot more knowledge than the target market.
Touch screen and keyboard/controller input are totally different from a game developer point of view, and ne
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This.
The average consumer can't even deal with a receiver and a couple devices.
Ships have feelings? (Score:2)
Ouya Dev Consoles Ship
Creative Commies (Score:3)
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Inconvenient truth (Score:2)
you seem to be implying that something cannot be both true and flamebait.
I seem to remember that if the truth is flamebait, it's what called an "inconvenient truth". What's the polite way to express something like this?
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What's the polite way to express something like this?
I'm not really sure. I'm not commenting one way or another on the modding of OP, I'm just commenting on AC's post.
But I can't say I've heard that definition of "inconvenient truth" before. I've always thought of a flamebait as intending to, well, bait someone into a heated argument. Word it differently, and it is no longer flamebait. Meanwhile, no matter how you phrase an inconvenient truth, there's no getting around the uncomfortable feeling it'll evoke in someone.
Brick and mortar stores (Score:2)
Traditional game consoles will not be able to keep up with the pace of innovation
Of course they will. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart sewn up.
If a console were released for $1000 but it had massive graphics and computer power I would seriously consider buying it over the traditional $300 console.
That's been available since 2007, when PC inputs (VGA and HDMI) became standard features on television monitors. But Best Buy and friends are doing their dangedest to keep this idea from popping into home users' minds. A couple years ago, I asked a Best Buy sales associate about what TV would be best for a home theater PC, and he led me to the PS3 section.
What someone needs to do is create a console which somehow links up multiple graphics cards for under $1000.
How much do SLI-capable video cards for standard P
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Why would you ask a bestbuy sales person anything?They cannot answer questions, nor can they help you. They might be able to run a register, but not even that will be done in a competent manner odds are.
There are SLI capable cards in the $100 range.
Median customer != geek (Score:2)
Why would you ask a bestbuy sales person anything?
To simulate the experience of the average home user. This is because the people who buy video games, who provide the revenue with which developers feed their families, are average home users more often than developers.
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You could have asked the wall, it would have simulated it just as well.
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I honestly doubt they will. So long as there is enough market to keep it alive that is all that really matters.
Typical home users are pretty far behind the curve on almost all new technology.
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So long as there is enough market to keep [Ouya and HTPC] alive that is all that really matters.
CronoCloud and other HTPC haters believe that there is not in fact "enough market to keep it alive". Please convince me that this is the case.
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They can believe whatever they like. I see no need to convince anyone of something they can see for themselves.
We shall see if the Ouya survives and I have an HTPC so I know they exist.
One customer does not a market make (Score:2)
I see no need to convince anyone of something they can see for themselves.
I'd like to see for myself some reliable statistics about the prevalence of HTPC gaming.
I have an HTPC so I know they exist.
A work of authorship is typically financed by amortizing the cost of development across a large number of users, be they owners of a copy under the copyright model or backers under the Kickstarter model. This means h4rr4r alone does not a market make. Nor do all the other admitted HTPC users I know about [pineight.com], to be honest. A platform, such as Ouya, phones-with-external-keyboards, or PC-with-gamepads, has to have enough other
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I would recommend an SSD then.
Steam now has big picture support and linux as well. Only about 41 games so far. I agree with what you said, seeing as I doubt it will play Serious Sam 3 either.
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Via the more tech-savvy people in their social networks (the actual web of personal connections, not limited to just the online services that go by the same name.)
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Only if they also let you use outside services without tithing to them unlike MS.
The first time I was at a friends house and wanted to watch netflix using my account I almost died laughing when he told we could not since he did not pay for the gold version of the service. Talk about extortion "Pay us to use a totally unrelated service that costs us nothing".
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The ease of pirating android apps will push many big name developers away.
That sounds like FUD of a tall order. How are Android programmes any easier to pirate than Windows programmes? Are you going to claim that the PC pushes big developers away?
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Then why do they keep releasing them for 360?
Or why did it not kill the original xbox?
Piracy can hurt developers, but only so much and other factors are a far bigger influence on the modern make a console game and port it to PC procedure.
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... The first company to offer a true gaming supercomputer will get my money. They say graphics don't matter but obviously they do if people are always trying to buy the latest PC and latest graphics card.
What someone needs to do is create a console which somehow links up multiple graphics cards for under $1000. Call it a gaming supercomputer, and target hardcore gamers via Kickstarter. See how much funds can be raised. See if a custom chip can be designed for the project if enough funds can be raised to be used along side the Nvidia GeForce GTX 590. Allow for upgrading the card or cards and you have it.
They do offer it, it's called a PC. A custom chip? Then you get into programming problems, and high costs for manufacturing a custom chip.
Okay, i started typing up a great example and realized I didn't need to do that. Your example this time is Real Life. We are looking at the latest generation from MS and Sony. Video Consoles that are over 5 years old. PC's on the other hand, keep getting new video cards, etc. Yet the quality of the games that come out match the lowest common machine, which
Very few people are willing to buy an HTPC (Score:3)
They do offer it, it's called a PC.
Very few people are willing to buy a second PC and connect it to a television. See, for example, these comments [slashdot.org]. Part of the difference is that devices marketed as PCs are traditionally associated with a different kind of game, the FPS, RTS, and MMORPG that can be played with a keyboard and mouse, not the platformers, racing games, fighting games, and party games that work with one to four gamepads.
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To be fair, if you assume 4% of annual inflation, the original Xbox launch price ($300) is equivalent to ~$460 today.
The SNES ($199 in 1991) would be about the same.
The Neo Geo ($649 in 1990) would be ~$1500.
Of course purchasing power has also increased, so although I do believe that $1000 is a bit out of range, consoles do not have to be sub $500 to sell to avid gamers. Add in a 'year free Xbox Live with access to all your favorite music/sports/VoD!' and they might stand a chance.
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To be fair, if you assume 4% of annual inflation, the original Xbox launch price ($300) is equivalent to ~$460 today.
The SNES ($199 in 1991) would be about the same.
The Neo Geo ($649 in 1990) would be ~$1500.
Of course purchasing power has also increased, so although I do believe that $1000 is a bit out of range, consoles do not have to be sub $500 to sell to avid gamers. Add in a 'year free Xbox Live with access to all your favorite music/sports/VoD!' and they might stand a chance.
Hopefully your point was that anything over about $500 in today's dollars is a non-starter; the Neo Geo was a complete flop sales-wise.
Using real numbers rather than invented numbers (Score:2)
You know, actual inflation numbers -- and calculators which use them to do conversions of prices -- are trivial to locate online, so why use assumptions like this? Adjusting for the actual inflation, the $299-in-2001 launch price of the Xbox is $388.68 today; the $199-in-1991 of the SNES would be
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Traditional game consoles will not be able to keep up with the pace of innovation now that a Kickstarter project can come along and do this.
Sony and Microsoft are going to have their work cut out for them. If their console is not significantly more powerful than the average PC then Google or any third party company can come along and take their asses to the bank. The linux, steam and android combination really is a game changer and with truly state of the art hardware they could get the hardcore gamers this way.
If a console were released for $1000 but it had massive graphics and computer power I would seriously consider buying it over the traditional $300 console. I think the reason people would be willing to pay is people now want gaming super computers and not just consoles. The first company to offer a true gaming supercomputer will get my money. They say graphics don't matter but obviously they do if people are always trying to buy the latest PC and latest graphics card.
What someone needs to do is create a console which somehow links up multiple graphics cards for under $1000. Call it a gaming supercomputer, and target hardcore gamers via Kickstarter. See how much funds can be raised. See if a custom chip can be designed for the project if enough funds can be raised to be used along side the Nvidia GeForce GTX 590. Allow for upgrading the card or cards and you have it.
Today, you can get a very cheap (around $50 US) bluetooth ready, 3d accelerated HD Android device in a tiny package, add a controller of your choice ($30-50), and plug it in to your TV to play anything that will run on Android (which as of now is either touch-screen oriented titles, or emulators of very old systems, hence the lack of appeal).
It has never been about innovation per se, but about getting enough software developers on the same page (similar to the dev ecosystem Apple grew around the iPhone) so
Re:Ouch. (Score:4, Insightful)
- Giant fan in a sealed box. Why?
I'm guessing there is a vent opposite the fan, but being clear plastic its hard to tell the details. I'm not sure, it could be a completely boneheaded design decision, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt (no one who could actually produce a functioning bit of hardware could be that stupid, right?)
- I know the xbox dev box comes in clear plastic, but doesn't make it look any less cheap.
I rather like it. I miss the clear plastic trend of the mid-80's. I would love to see the guts of my gadgets, just to be reminded that they aren't "magic boxes". I doubt I'm cool, or my sense of style is accepted (I'm a nerd, so the latter is probably an oxymoron), but I like it. This also isn't release hardware, so I'm guessing the final consumer version will look like it does on the marketing materials.
- D-Pad from hell (another x-box transfer)
They pretty much said that the controller isn't the final version in the video. I admit, though, that so far it looks sort of like a crappy "Mad Catz" cheapo controller. If it has bluetooth, nothing will stop you from using a 360 controller, or anything else.
- Have they done any software to support their games? Didn't even see Jelly Bean load up.
This is a bit hazy. Looking at another video on their channel, it looks like they might be using a modified version of Android, as their game browser is rather "unique" looking. I'm not sure if you can actually use Android normally, and if you can how, since using a controller is very different than the standard touch. But it does look like they did make it more "game friendly", since it has an actual game browser. Everything else is a mystery, which is sad, since my decision to purchase one would be somewhat based on its functionality beyond games.
I can play games on pretty much everything these days. So having another gaming device isn't terribly attractive (3 computers (one hooked up to the living room TV), a phone, 2 tablets, 2 consoles, 5 retro consoles, a DS, etc...), but having a very small, low power, computer allowing basic functions to replace my aging, loud and hot, HTPC would be nice. Even as a gaming device, I'm somewhat skeptical, since 90% of Android/iOS games don't really excite me, they are generally shallow, gimmicky, crap; good for playing on the bus, but horrible for holding your attention for over 15 minutes. If it had "real" games I might bite, but is the hardware capable enough to handle anything beyond the typical iOS/Android fare?
- Awkward video full of awkward comments. Ouch.
I wish I knew what it was about Youtube that brought out the largest possible selection of absolute morons of any other form of media.
Since when are 360 controllers Bluetooth? (Score:3)
If it has bluetooth, nothing will stop you from using a 360 controller
Since when are Xbox 360 wireless controllers Bluetooth? I thought they used a proprietary RF layer, and using them with a PC required buying at least one of the controllers in a bundle with a USB receiver. And even then, PlayStation 3 and Wii controllers don't completely follow the Bluetooth HID standard, and underlying changes in an operating system's Bluetooth stack can break and have broken [ccpcreations.com] driver applications designed to map these slightly nonstandard devices.
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Good catch. I meant PS3 controller.
I'm still a bit boggled by this world where PCs no longer really use their own controllers and resort to pre-existing console pads.
Traditional genre divide (Score:2)
I'm still a bit boggled by this world where PCs no longer really use their own controllers and resort to pre-existing console pads.
PC games and console games have traditionally been in different genres. Genres popular among PC gamers (FPS/RTS/MMO) tend to use a mouse and keyboard rather than a gamepad. See CronoCloud's explanation of the traditions resulting in the current state of the market [slashdot.org].
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PC games and console games have traditionally been in different genres.
PC games have traditionally been most games, in most genres. Its only in the last 10 or so years that things have split. There really wasn't that big of a genre gap until the PS2 era of consoles, before that PC was king of almost everything (yes, the old consoles did eat away a bit, but not as bad as now). "Back in the day" I had a Logitech game pad, and a big fancy flight stick (around 20 buttons, and 3 axis, with an additional 2 axes switch, plus throttle). I used them regularly. They were pretty mu
Used to be (Score:2)
It's just sad, if you don't know Logitech from their glory years, you don't really know what PC gaming is missing.
I own several Logitech products. It's just that a lot of the games for which they would be wonderful never end up ported to PC. "Cross-platform" in the case of games like Mortal Kombat (2011) means Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, not PC. Are there any PC platform fighters (games in the same genre as Power Stone, Super Smash Bros., and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale)? Or any counterparts to Mario Party?
Did you know there used to be PC fighting games? Like OMF, Virtua Fighter, and damn, I know there were others.
Key words: used to be. Nowadays, if you want to play fighting games that aren't Street Fighter IV and aren
Game library (Score:2)
having a very small, low power, computer allowing basic functions to replace my aging, loud and hot, HTPC would be nice.
Having a device that actually has games for it would be nice. Should Ouya not pan out, what games do you recommend that fully take advantage of what makes an HTPC different, such as a big screen and multiple gamepads?
is the hardware capable enough to handle anything beyond the typical iOS/Android fare?
That depends on how you define "capable". Do you consider retro consoles incapable? In one sense, any game that assumes the player has gamepad as opposed to just a touch screen is "beyond the typical iOS/Android fare" because only one Android phone (Xperia Play) has ever shipped with a gamepad.
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Having a device that actually has games for it would be nice. Should Ouya not pan out, what games do you recommend that fully take advantage of what makes an HTPC different, such as a big screen and multiple gamepads?
Good question. Like I said, mine is aging, so I can barely run anything on Steam with it (i.e. anything much more taxing than Torchlight I sucks). For gaming, I only use it for a bit of emulation, as pretty much everything else is unplayable. If you have the hardware, though, Steam's Big Picture mode, and their new category for just games with controller support is a good place to start. Even if your a Valve-aphobe, the list itself is a good reference for what games to pick up, even without using Steam.
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I have to agree, there's just so much wrong here, it really doesn't to me bode well for them actually producing something good.
Sealed Box? I don't know about that. (Score:3)