Ouya CEO Says Consoles May Become TV Chipsets

[Karloff]

Ouya CEO Says Consoles May Become TV Chipsets

In the wake of a phenomenally successful Kickstarter, Ouya's CEO talks about future plans.

Ouya's Kickstarter is finally over, and it ended with a bang. The Ouya team aimed for $950,000; it got over $8.5 million. In the wake of this achievement Ouya's CEO, Julie Urhman, has talked about what the future may hold for the little console that could [http://www.amazon.com/Little-Engine-Original-Classic-Edition/dp/0448405202]. She's naturally a little cautious, and doesn't want to be seen as "Charlie Sheen on a media blitz" - as she describes it - which is why Ouya hasn't revealed many details about their business model and launch plans. However, Ouya does have a lot of things to do in the coming years and, if Urhman has it her way, they may include an Ouya TV.

"We are truly excited and blown away by the support: it's amazing how well an open, affordable, accessible games console has resonated with gamers and developers," said Urhman about the response to Ouya's Kickstarter campaign. "People started asking 'if this is possible, why hasn't it been done before by a large corporation?' But sometimes the simplest ideas are staring you in the face, and they escape people." According to Urhman Ouya's future focus will be on building a great gaming ecosystem, which can then be used to create something that may not need a console to play.

"Right now we are focused on building a great business around gamers and games, and right now we have to be a console connected to a television. That's where the biggest reach and biggest audience is." But the future could be far more interesting. "Who knows what the future holds? We'll have the best suite of content, and the best controller on the market..."

That's how Urhman sees the Ouya; not as a $99 box, but as a means of capturing a market. Once that market belongs to Ouya, anything's possible. There's no reason to keep it in a box, not when TV technology is getting better every day. Even Urhman admits "Ouya could be in a TV ... We always believed that the console would die away and become a chipset on the television. But you still need a great, responsive controller and a gaming ecosystem with great developers and great games."

The coming months will show whether or not Ouya succeeds or fails. It has the funding, and it has everyone's attention. If it can't succeed with these resources at its disposal, then perhaps the project really was doomed from the start. Personally, I hope not; I'm beginning to like the little console that could.

Source: Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2012/aug/08/ouya-android-console-funding]




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[Fappy]

I think that's a long way off honestly. Most people have just recently started getting HD TVs. I'd imagine most would be willing to get another one for at least 5-or-so years. Interesting idea all the same.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Not sure I like that idea unless it became a chipset in every TV. I wouldn't want to ever be forced between picture quality and a gaming console.

Besides, I am fairly certain that no small amount of people have plans to take the hardware out of the box and do interesting things with it that they might be less inclined to do if it meant prying open their TV to do it.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

If Ouya became a chipset presented in a large number of new TVs, as well as a standalone console, and this was marketed and touted by TVs, then I can see Ouya dominating the market. So long as it delivers the goods on the games anyway, and I mean ones outside of Onlive. My connection is no where NEAR good enough for Onlive. It's a miracle I can even play online with people.

Calumon: Putting things that work with with TVs in TVs? That'll never work.

 

[J Tyran]

A cheap console less than £100 I would buy in a heartbeat, especially how the press release images of the Ouya look. Its a pretty sweet looking piece of hardware. But a TV? I do not think I would buy that, for the most part I am happy with the TVs I have. Replacing them just for Android games is not appealing at all.

 

[Ghonzor]

I want to believe in Ouya. I'll stick with cautious optimism for now.
If it tanks, it really would be sad to see the industry remain in the hands of the (often inept) hands of the Big Three.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

I really like where this system is heading. It may not be designed for AAA titles and fully featured Calls of Duty, but I don't think the industry is going to keep making games like that for much longer. It's very much a case of where the industry is going, rather than where it is and that's the way to go about doing it. I imagine Apple is formulating a similar plan as we speak (with Apple television sets with built in iOS), but of course theirs won't be nearly as open source as this one. They might very well "drink Apple's milkshake" if they get this sucker to market fast enough. I doubt Apple has even considered the idea of putting iOS games in a Roku-like box (outside of Apple TV and that can't play games yet).

 

[Rad Party God]

Honestly, the idea of a TV capable of gaming sounds pretty neat, but I don't like "all in one" things, like laptops or Mac-like computers, because if something breaks, everything breaks. If my TV breaks, I don't have a TV, but I can still use my console in any other TV and if my console breaks, my TV is still perfectly fine and I just get a new console.

If this TV breaks, not only the TV is broken, so do it's gaming capabilities.

I'd still like to have the option of getting a console and connect it and take it anywhere I want, like a friend's house or something. It would be pretty awkward to take my entire TV set just to play a few games.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Yeah, lets try to convince people to pay an extra 200 dollars for a TV so they can have a game console in it... Yeah let's start small and work our way up.

Ouya has yet to prove that its system is even going to work, and it sounds like their already planing there take over of gaming. I don't know what happened to a console that was easy to get into, but I thought that was good idea, as opposed to trying to create a market and planning its rise to power while you have yet to show a working prototype. Don't count your chickens before they are layed.

 

[ZephrC]

Sorry, couldn't hear any of that over the sound of how awesome my PC is.

What was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of nobody giving a crap about your e-peen.

 

[ZephrC]

The point wasn't that my PC is awesome, it's that I don't see the point in this when everything it's striving to accomplish can already be done (and much better) on a PC.

While that may be true, you'd be surprised how many people have less than zero interest in ever owning a PC, but would be totally interested in gaming on their TV.

I mean, I love my PC, but aside from gaming and my irrational hatred of wireless things there's really not much I use it for that a tablet wouldn't do just as well.

Obviously tablets suck for office applications, but even then it's more practical for most people to have a cheap laptop (or expensive MacBook if they're pretentious) and game on their TV.

Just because something isn't what you want doesn't make it worthless.

 

[enriquetnt]

Sorry, couldn't hear any of that over the sound of how awesome my PC is.

What was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of nobody giving a crap about your e-peen.

and im sure his "awesome" PC only costed him 89 dollars so is far better than the OUYA

 

[ZephrC]

You could probably make a better PC out of 89$ than the OUYA.

A decent controller alone costs around $30, and I don't know about you, but I can't slap one of those together out of spare parts. That already brings the total price of this mythical PC you want to build down to less than the price of most motherboards if you're buying just one, so somehow I doubt you can build a better PC for that price.

And that's completely ignoring the fact that most people can't build a PC. Period. And have no desire to learn how. It also ignore the numerous benefits of having a 3 inch cube (or nothing aside from the TV itself) instead of a full desktop PC, of having a (hopefully) well organized marketplace, of using standardized hardware, (like being much less buggy, or knowing that if you recommend something to a friend they'll have a similar experience, or knowing that everything will come pre-optimized without hours of tweaking, or developers not having to try to develop for a moving target)

...

Blah. See, this crap is why I refuse to call myself a PC gamer despite the fact that I've been playing more games on PC than on consoles lately. Aside from graphics (which are absolutely the least important part of a game) and mice (which are really only an advantage in FPSs and RTSs, neither of which are my favorite genres anyway) PCs are completely inferior. I just don't like the way the big three console manufacturers have been going lately.

Hey! It's almost like Ouya was designed to address a problem that I was concerned with!!! Imagine that!!!!!