Ouya Plots Course for December Release

[Karloff]

Ouya Plots Course for December Release

The android console now runs on Jelly Bean, not Ice Cream Sandwich.

After its phenomenally successful Kickstarter [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118982-Ouya-Kickstarter-Ends-with-900-of-Goal-Raised], the Ouya team started work on the little console that could and, in an announcement on the Ouya site, has confirmed that it's on track for its December release date.

"Last week was a huge milestone for us," the Ouya team said, "we received our first development run of PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) for the console ... the first boards came to life without any hitches, and we're now fine tuning software and hardware performance for graphics, wireless, and user experience!"

The console hardware is now in verification testing, where the team starts identifying and eliminating potential issues; but this means that people who signed up for the Ouya developer kits will be getting them on time, as promised.

The Ouya team also announced a switch from Ice Cream Sandwich, its old android OS, to Jelly Bean, the latest version. This means that the Ouya developer kits will be among the first to use the latest android update; the others are Samsung devices, and won't be out until November 2012.

In addition to the hardware update, Ouya also wants to let developers know how to create games for Ouya. Ouya's advisory covers input scheme, display, payment, settings and software, among other things. The full post can be found here. [http://www.ouya.tv/game-developers-how-to-get-started-on-ouya-now/]

Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/31/ouya-offers-guidelines-for-potential-developers-now-runs-jelly/]

Image: Ouya PCB (Hardware Update) [http://www.ouya.tv/the-big-hardware-update-and-more/]


Permalink

 

[-Dragmire-]

I have to say, I love android's OS naming scheme. Very Original.

I'll be looking to get an ouya eventually, maybe after christmas if there's any left when the holiday season is over.

edit:

They're set for a December release of their Development units and the Alpha SDK. The only way anyone's getting one is if you Kickstarted it at a high enough level to get a Dev unit. This isn't going out to consumers for Christmas.

Good to know, in that case I'll still wait a bit after the initial release so I can hear some first hand experiences with the device before I decide to purchase it.

 

[Rainboq]

I'm definitely getting one, here's hoping its a success.

 

[Fappy]

I have to say, I love android's OS naming scheme. Very Original.

I'll be looking to get an ouya eventually, maybe after christmas if there's any left when the holiday season is over.

Definitely wait to see what the first wave of consumers think about it if you haven't already bought one. I'm one of the guinea pigs XD

 

[mattaui]

They're set for a December release of their Development units and the Alpha SDK. The only way anyone's getting one is if you Kickstarted it at a high enough level to get a Dev unit. This isn't going out to consumers for Christmas.

That being said, this is still an important milestone for a unique console. I just hope when it hits the market it doesn't feel too underpowered based on what else will be available at the time.

 

[-Dragmire-]

I have to say, I love android's OS naming scheme. Very Original.

I'll be looking to get an ouya eventually, maybe after christmas if there's any left when the holiday season is over.

Definitely wait to see what the first wave of consumers think about it if you haven't already bought one. I'm one of the guinea pigs XD

Definitely looking forward to reading threads about people's first hand experience with the device.

[sub][sub]Also, YAY! Mao has returned!!![/sub][/sub]

 

[Fappy]

I have to say, I love android's OS naming scheme. Very Original.

I'll be looking to get an ouya eventually, maybe after christmas if there's any left when the holiday season is over.

Definitely wait to see what the first wave of consumers think about it if you haven't already bought one. I'm one of the guinea pigs XD

Definitely looking forward to reading threads about people's first hand experience with the device.

[sub][sub]Also, YAY! Mao has returned!!![/sub][/sub]

And more cynical than ever! That, or extremely nervous! :3

 

[lancar]

Being of the PC master race, I'm legally obliged to hate all consoles.

I'm making an exception for the Ouya, though. Here's to hoping it throws some rather large and sturdy wrenches into the gears of the current status quo.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

I still cannot, for the life of me, understand what the fuck people are expecting of this thing... especially to have thrown millions of dollars at its kickstarter.

Is it all about the 99$ price point?... or what?

Indie console gaming that doesn't require $40,000 certification, for starters

Open source software

Final Fantasy III getting it's first ever US console release

& this might just be me, but the controller is pretty innovative (touchpad & analogue buttons all in one. pretty nifty)

 

[newwiseman]

I still cannot, for the life of me, understand what the fuck people are expecting of this thing... especially to have thrown millions of dollars at its kickstarter.

Is it all about the 99$ price point?... or what?

The price point is most of it, for me I'll probably just use XBMC on it to stream media from my server to my other TV, any gaming on it will just be a bonus. Not to mention Netflix and whatever other apps get thrown at it.

I backed this and the [a href="http://getpebble.com/"]Pebble[/a], honestly I'm more excited for the pebble but I'll get just as much use out of the Ouya.

 

[Baldr]

I still cannot, for the life of me, understand what the fuck people are expecting of this thing... especially to have thrown millions of dollars at its kickstarter.

Is it all about the 99$ price point?... or what?

Indie console gaming that doesn't require $40,000 certification, for starters

Open source software

Final Fantasy III getting it's first ever US console release

& this might just be me, but the controller is pretty innovative (touchpad & analogue buttons all in one. pretty nifty)

It only $99/yr for 10 games certification on Xbox:

http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-us/home/membership

Don't know where you get the $40,000 price from, I don't even think that is the non-indie price.

 

[RA92]

I still cannot, for the life of me, understand what the fuck people are expecting of this thing... especially to have thrown millions of dollars at its kickstarter.

Is it all about the 99$ price point?... or what?

Indie console gaming that doesn't require $40,000 certification, for starters

Open source software

Final Fantasy III getting it's first ever US console release

& this might just be me, but the controller is pretty innovative (touchpad & analogue buttons all in one. pretty nifty)

It only $99/yr for 10 games certification on Xbox:

http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-us/home/membership

Don't know where you get the $40,000 price from, I don't even think that is the non-indie price.

I thibk it was Tim Schafer who said each patch costs around a cool 40 grand. The reason why Jonathan Blow didn't patch Fez.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

I still cannot, for the life of me, understand what the fuck people are expecting of this thing... especially to have thrown millions of dollars at its kickstarter.

Is it all about the 99$ price point?... or what?

Indie console gaming that doesn't require $40,000 certification, for starters

Open source software

Final Fantasy III getting it's first ever US console release

& this might just be me, but the controller is pretty innovative (touchpad & analogue buttons all in one. pretty nifty)

I admit I was being a bit flippant, because part of your reply is exactly what baffles me with the Ouya.

First, it's like "open source software" is this brand-new exciting innovative thing... Really not; it's just getting cool all of a sudden /hipster.

Then there's what Yahtzee mentioned a short while ago along the lines of "the games I'd play on a console/PC are different from those I'd play on Android/iOS"

Also, the 40K$ certification has always been easy to circumvent... It's called a gorram computer. But then of course they're 1)scared of piracy and 2)want the "mass appeal" of a console...... (...because computers are so underground, rare and not at all ubiquitous... NO! Bad Mr.Tea! Alright, alright. Ease and smoothness of use. I understand.).

And Final Fantasy... Well, what does that have to do with the Ouya? Nothing has been keeping that from happening other than Square-Enix's whim.
Although, thinking about that: If it's embraced properly, I can see the Ouya becoming "every older console at once" through emulation and I can certainly see the appeal of that.

All that said? Yeah, I guess it is the price point combined with the idiocy of current console-makers ('cause really, any of them could have made it happen).
Here's hoping they do something good with it beyond it just being "another console".

I agree this is really only exciting because nobody's done it with a console before. Could they have? I imagine so, but they hadn't.
& for the record, I'm pretty much exclusively a PC gamer these days specifically because indie gaming is strong & console makers are in Bizarro World. I miss my consoles; I don't know why, but I do. It's probably just nostalgia, but is a device made for the sole purpose of gaming really so bad? I don't think consoles need to be as terrible an experience as they often are these days & I'm hopeful that the Ouya will grow to be an example of that

 

[Baldr]

I still cannot, for the life of me, understand what the fuck people are expecting of this thing... especially to have thrown millions of dollars at its kickstarter.

Is it all about the 99$ price point?... or what?

Indie console gaming that doesn't require $40,000 certification, for starters

Open source software

Final Fantasy III getting it's first ever US console release

& this might just be me, but the controller is pretty innovative (touchpad & analogue buttons all in one. pretty nifty)

It only $99/yr for 10 games certification on Xbox:

http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-us/home/membership

Don't know where you get the $40,000 price from, I don't even think that is the non-indie price.

I thibk it was Tim Schafer who said each patch costs around a cool 40 grand. The reason why Jonathan Blow didn't patch Fez.

Your talking about a re-certification, still doesn't cost that much, and Microsoft has said time and time again, they want developers to get their games right the first time, they don't want to waste bandwidth games that constantly need to be patched. As a player you don't want to be playing buggy games either. They got a strict penalty for re-certification.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

I still cannot, for the life of me, understand what the fuck people are expecting of this thing... especially to have thrown millions of dollars at its kickstarter.

Is it all about the 99$ price point?... or what?

Indie console gaming that doesn't require $40,000 certification, for starters

Open source software

Final Fantasy III getting it's first ever US console release

& this might just be me, but the controller is pretty innovative (touchpad & analogue buttons all in one. pretty nifty)

It only $99/yr for 10 games certification on Xbox:

http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-us/home/membership

Don't know where you get the $40,000 price from, I don't even think that is the non-indie price.

Look into the Fez patch debacle. A good game stayed broken because Microsoft demands ridiculous amounts of money to allow the creator to fix it

 

[MopBox]

I'm a little confused (and a bit drunk). Is the console itself slated for release in December or is it just the Dev Package?