Ouya Console Already Lags Behind Current-Gen Mobiles

[Andy Chalk]

Ouya Console Already Lags Behind Current-Gen Mobiles

Benchmark testing indicates that the Ouya console is already seriously out-muscled by many popular mobile phones and tablets on the market.

The Android-powered Ouya console that made a big splash on Kickstarter hasn't been released to the general public, yet it's already buried in the middle of Futuremark's April 2013 benchmark ranking of mobile devices. With a 1.7 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU and Nvidia GeForce ULP clocked at 520 MHz, the Ouya scored a Futuremark performance rating of 3995, good enough for 78th place on the chart - behind popular mobiles including the HTC One X, the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Sony Xperia V. The top-ranked device, the Xiami MI-2s, managed a Futuremark performance score of 11,324, nearly triple that of the Ouya.

It's not necessarily a surprise given how quickly mobile hardware evolves, but does it matter? It doesn't look great on the surface - numbers don't lie, and nobody brags about 78th place - but in the real world, it probably won't be an issue. For one thing, as VentureBeat noted, most mobile developers aim their products squarely at the most popular hardware on the market, which at the moment would be the Galaxy S III, which scored just a hair over 5000 on the same test, and the Nexus 7 tablet, which actually came in lower, at 3551 - both well within the Ouya's range.

Price is also a factor: The 16GB Wifi-only Nexus 7 is roughly $200 from Best Buy [https://play.google.com/store/devices/details/Nexus_7_8_GB?id=nexus_7_8gb&hl=en]. The Ouya is a hundred bucks for a 1080p gaming console that supports streaming video (possibly including Netflix and Hulu at some point in the future), and if your kids get a little rammy and break the thing, it's not the end of the world.

The middling score could prove to be a PR knock against the Ouya, if only because mainstream consumers who have no idea what a Futuremark score actually represents may be put off by the less-than-spectacular showing. But while there is perhaps some value in saying that the Ouya is much slower than the Pantech Vega R3, it's just as valid (sort of) to say that it's also much slower than Susan Arendt's dog Alice. Alice, on the other hand, does not have HDMI out; but the Ouya will not throw up on your carpet. Alice will keep you company when the power goes out. Ouya won't eat the furniture if it doesn't get twice-daily walks. Which is better? Tough call - but it's not the sort of argument that can be settled with a single, arbitrary performance score.

Sources: Futuremark [http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/15/benchmark-test-reveals-ouyas-guts-are-already-a-generation-old/]


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[Rituro]

More technology needs to be compared to people's pets. Just putting that out there.

 

[Chaosian]

Kind of a shame to see a console with such promise getting such flak - deservedly or not.
(Also - omg, Rituro, our icons are like, the same.)

 

[gigastar]

This was to be expected to a certain degree, theese guys dont have the sort of money and expertise that Sony have, so to get something that can be fairly compared to a Sony product on the first try is an achievement of sorts.

 

[Mark D. Stroyer]

Alice got a Futuremark score of 4377.

 

[GodzillaGuy92]

Why do I feel the sudden desire to write Ouya vs. Alice fanfiction?

 

[Parakeettheprawn]

It's a budget, open source console. Did anyone seriously expect it to be cutting edge graphically/processor wise? I didn't.

 

[Something Amyss]

It's a budget, open source console. Did anyone seriously expect it to be cutting edge graphically/processor wise? I didn't.

It still bumps up against the issue of market and viability, though.

 

[Waaghpowa]

The thing costs 100 bucks, which is several hundred dollars cheaper than a lot of those devices.

When it comes to mobile benchmarks, I take all of them with a pinch of salt. Most of the time mobile benchmarking is wildly different. Just look up iPhone/Galaxy comparisons.

 

[Vivi22]

This comparison is a bit silly/tells half the story from what I understand. Not only is the Ouya going to get yearly hardware updates to keep the tech reasonably current (or so I've been told), it's a $99 Android console with a controller interface which performs outperforms hardware like the Galaxy S II and compares favourably with the Galaxy S III. Hardware that really isn't that old, and at a fraction of the price. Hell, according to that chart, it outperforms my wife's Nexus 7 that we bought 3 months ago. To say there's a bit of an unwarranted negative slant to the reporting of this whole thing is a bit of an understatement.

Then again, anyone who expected a $99 console to outperform a top of the line $300+ smartphone or tablet is an idiot and no amount of accurate reporting would lead to their developing the proper expectations.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

How much horsepower does it need? It's still the specs to keep indie devs happy, which I thought was the point

It's not gonna play Halo 4; it was never meant to

 

[CriticalMiss]

Hmm, if Alice is easily modable then she probably wins. Although those food bills are kind of like a subscription fee and I don't like the idea of that. Does she have a good release line-up and developer support?

 

[Parakeettheprawn]

It's a budget, open source console. Did anyone seriously expect it to be cutting edge graphically/processor wise? I didn't.

It still bumps up against the issue of market and viability, though.

People still play Gameboy games instead of modern day games more than I'd ever imagine, so really, it's just a matter of how popular the system's games are. Right now it's main developer to beat is going to be Madfinger, what with Dead Trigger, Samurai 2, and that TPS who's name I can't remember... Shadowtrigger? Shadowgun! That's the name.

 

[SpAc3man]

Not really an issue. Games will be targeted at the Ouya rather than all Android devices which should allow some optimisations. There aren't many Android games that require an overly powerful platform in any case.

 

[hentropy]

It shouldn't be too surprising considering it doesn't cost nearly what a lot of more expensive smartphones do. Then again, those smart phones do more than just playing games. Why anyone would actually want the Ouya is beyond me, it just sounds like something people wanted to support because OMG KICKSTARTER CONSOLE rather than what it actually does (play cheap Android games most people play mainly on the toilet).

And yes, I'm aware of the potential of "homebrew" games or whatever the kids are calling it nowadays, but I've been promised that before.

 

[VanQ]

Well, don't most new phones cost upwards of $500 when you buy them brand new? Considering the Ouya's price point, I think that's fairly decent. Still don't think I'll buy into it though, if I want to play android games, I have my Galaxy Nexus which is just fine.

 

[MPerce]

Eh, it's 100 bucks. This was expected, but will probably still be used by people too lazy to find actual flaws with the Ouya.

 

[VladG]

The specs feel fairly irrelevant to me. Android game development isn't held back as much by processing power as it is by the lack of a proper control scheme.

Touchscreen controls are really limited and inadequate for most game genres, which is the number 1 reason we basically only see 5 miunte "toilet games" for Android (and iPhone).

The Ouya has enough power to give devs a pretty wide range of possibilities, without the limitations of a touchscreen controller and has a VERY low price point. If it manages to reach that critical mass where there's enough interest from both developers and consumers it could become a major hit.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Kind of a shame to see a console with such promise getting such flak - deservedly or not.
(Also - omg, Rituro, our icons are like, the same.)

What promise? That it'd be Newgrounds the console? Hooray I guess?