Ouya Schmooya, Show Me the Games
- Thread starter Dennis Scimeca
- Start date
It's Android, on your TV. It's a hundred bucks and the controller looks nice. OnLive will work on it from day one, as will the Madfinger games, Canabalt, and doubtless a bunch of "illegal" emulators. I wanted one the second it went up on Kickstarter. Seems like you don't, but is that really worth 2,000 words of navel-gazing? Why are the "core gamers" so skeptical/afraid of this?
Onlive has now been confirmed on the OUYA, so AAA will be coming to the OUYA for sure in at least some form.
I'm a PC-only kind of guy, but hell, IF they do make a $99 game console the size of a Rubik's Cube that can actually run a bunch of games, I'm buying the shit out of that. I don't have quite enough funds and faith to let them make it happen with the kickstarter, but once this rolls out of manufacturing, I'll want one.
This article goes a pretty long way for it to finally answer its own question with "eh, I dunno".
I'm excited about the Ooooooooooo-YA!, but not so excited I'll spend money on it before it exists. I might be getting it on day one if it ever does materialize.
I'm excited about the Ooooooooooo-YA!, but not so excited I'll spend money on it before it exists. I might be getting it on day one if it ever does materialize.
Too bad they're kinda indicating more.jindofox said:
I think that's a pretty blind response, especially since they're pushing a console experience when the closest they seem to come is...What, offering you access to a service available in its own settop and on every PC?
Uh... This article is seriously misinformed.
1. The PS3 (The most powerful current gen console) only has 256MB of DRAM. When you don't have to load the Windows Kernel and five bazillion drivers into RAM (+What your running in the background) you don't need much. (http://playstation.about.com/od/ps3/a/PS3SpecsDetails_3.htm)
2. Just because Android's front-end is optimized for mobile devices doesn't mean it isn't[1] capable of more (Its really just an optimized Linux fork written in C)
3. The market system/shite game spam problem is has a very easy solution that has been used over and over again all over the net; A user rating system.
[1] Double negative I know
1. The PS3 (The most powerful current gen console) only has 256MB of DRAM. When you don't have to load the Windows Kernel and five bazillion drivers into RAM (+What your running in the background) you don't need much. (http://playstation.about.com/od/ps3/a/PS3SpecsDetails_3.htm)
2. Just because Android's front-end is optimized for mobile devices doesn't mean it isn't[1] capable of more (Its really just an optimized Linux fork written in C)
3. The market system/shite game spam problem is has a very easy solution that has been used over and over again all over the net; A user rating system.
[1] Double negative I know
I've not read the whole article yet, but I had to jump in and point out that the Xbox 360 also has only 1Gb IIRC.
I suppose it's not the size that matters do much as what you do with it???
I suppose it's not the size that matters do much as what you do with it???
I still say this thing will flop bigtime without a huge install base. If it was open to the android market it might be better at least then you wouldn't be dependent on devs to port it over to ohyeahyahooey. To weak, to limited, if there was some pent up demand for something like this we'd see hooking up your smartphone to you TV being a lot more popular. This will be a hobby something someone buys because they wanna slap a new android rom on it and use it as a Boxee or something.
That's just what I was going to say. At the end of the article I was left wondering what the point of the article was.
Yes, and it also has a 256Mb dedicated GPU RAM... whereas the Ouya would use a setup more like the 360's 512Mb of shared RAM.Imthatguy said:
Sure, you don't need much... just the expensive and time consuming optimisation of software so that it will run acceptably on limited hardware, which I'm sure can be easily replaced in the lower end of the market by elves or something.
Certainly, Windows is a bloated mess when compared to a console OS but that's not really relevent when it comes to games... the important part is the attitudes of the people involved. For consoles, the attitude is to get the best performance possible on the available hardware, to pack it all down nice and efficient so it'll fit... For PCs, assuming a developer and/or publisher can be fucked spending any effort and money on optimising a game for PCs, it will be used for adding scalable options for performance rather than crunching it down into the smallest possible size, or to put it more simply, to make use of the increased, if variable, available resources.
You remember incorrectly, the 360 has 512Mb of shared RAM, which is prefered by programmers over the PS3's 256/256 set up because whatever RAM one component isn't using the other component can use, thus giving programmers much more flexibility.Guy Jackson said:
To a point, yes... after which 'what you do with it' becomes entirely a question of how much money you're willing to throw at a piece of software to make it 'run better' within the given limitations.
Seems to me you're deliberately misconstruing the words on the kickstarter page, Dennis, but your article concludes neutrally and sensibly so I'll let you off this time 
This is more than "Android smartphone" in a box... Android has been used as it's a proven open source operating system. Strip off the standard UI and replace it with their custom OUYA UI and what you have is a modern, lightweight, FREE operating system that is designed to handle heavy networking, file management and the installation of applications with whatever console specific developments they want to put on it. The finished product, although based on Android, will not BE Android..
As for graphical power, the Tegra 3 T33 chip packs quite a punch for a mobile GPU. Simply 'having a look' on the Google Play store doesn't do justice as the majority of mobile gaming apps are shovelware or made compatible with as many handsets as possible to maximise sales, not just the highest end devices that have a Tegra 3.
Developers targeting OUYA won't be making a game to run on as many Android handsets as possible, just the fixed spec of an OUYA console... Of course that doesn't stop mass targeted shovelware from being made and ported to the OUYA store but it can help reduce the amount and raise the quality of games designed specifically for it.
Whatever the outcome in March, the people involved aren't fools by any means and I'm in for $129 now to be a part of the experiment. Wish it all the best
As for graphical power, the Tegra 3 T33 chip packs quite a punch for a mobile GPU. Simply 'having a look' on the Google Play store doesn't do justice as the majority of mobile gaming apps are shovelware or made compatible with as many handsets as possible to maximise sales, not just the highest end devices that have a Tegra 3.
Developers targeting OUYA won't be making a game to run on as many Android handsets as possible, just the fixed spec of an OUYA console... Of course that doesn't stop mass targeted shovelware from being made and ported to the OUYA store but it can help reduce the amount and raise the quality of games designed specifically for it.
Whatever the outcome in March, the people involved aren't fools by any means and I'm in for $129 now to be a part of the experiment. Wish it all the best
To everyone wondering what "the point" of this week's column was:
Like I said, most of the analyses thus far have been industry-focused, i.e. the potential repercussions on the console market should Ouya be a success, and what the chances are of the Ouya even being successfully launched.
Neither of those questions have anything to do with games, so I decided to pose a question about games we'd see on the system. After all, speaking as a gamer and not a game journo for the moment, the games are all I really care about.
I think, perhaps, you may have gotten confused between opinions I expressed, or things I said, and statements made by sources I spoke with.
I think my reading is pretty fair. They're invoking what clearly sounds like a description of mainstream console gaming and also making clear references to the indie market, which are two very different things, right?
Like I said, most of the analyses thus far have been industry-focused, i.e. the potential repercussions on the console market should Ouya be a success, and what the chances are of the Ouya even being successfully launched.
Neither of those questions have anything to do with games, so I decided to pose a question about games we'd see on the system. After all, speaking as a gamer and not a game journo for the moment, the games are all I really care about.
Um...The Random One said:
So, the answer to the question "What kind of games might we see on the Ouya?" is "They might be very similar to what we're seeing on systems right now."Me said:
Doesn't one have to state information incorrectly to be misinformed? I said nothing about the innards of the PS3, certainly didn't make any assessment as to the total capabilities of Android, nor did I make any statement about game marketplaces...Imthatguy said:
I think, perhaps, you may have gotten confused between opinions I expressed, or things I said, and statements made by sources I spoke with.
To be fair, those were clearly *my* reactions to the Kickstarter text, not an attempt at objective assessment of meaning, and I made sure to give you the actual quotes so that you could come to your own conclusions.Guy Jackson said:Seems to me you're deliberately misconstruing the words on the kickstarter page, Dennis, but your article concludes neutrally and sensibly so I'll let you off this time
I think my reading is pretty fair. They're invoking what clearly sounds like a description of mainstream console gaming and also making clear references to the indie market, which are two very different things, right?