Murdoc

Ouya: Ooooh Yeah!

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:mellow:

http://www.kickstart..._source=message

So can someone explain what this is? Streamlined PC or Cloud gaming? Hate to instantly be skeptical of this based on the worst branding name for almost any product and a play on a Gil Scott Heron quote for their slogan and the fact it's coming from a company I've never heard of.

I like the idea of something that it caters to indy, but how is that any different from the PC platform that everyone already has? With the exception of a better presentation to put it on your tv, but I figured anyone interested in these games would savy enough to already do that themselves.

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It is a 100 dollar console to play smart phone/tablet games on a TV.

In other words: A bad idea.

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I like the idea of something that is caters to indy, but how is that any different from the PC platform that everyone already has?

Well, the advantage would be 1 hardware configuration to develop for. I really like the idea of an open console platform, but their line of "play the games you play on your phone on your TV"; seems to me like missing the point of why people play games on their mobile devices. Then again, it kind of makes sense to me why they're positioning it like that, in a marketing sense, as it's instantly clear what kind of stuff you can expect from the system. In essence, it's a low-cost, open platform console.

In other words: A good idea.

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If they manage to deliver it with that price and those specs, then I don't see how this is a bad idea. I would consider one for media center and tinkering purposes alone.

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Phones being powerful enough to run things for your TV/monitor is the way I think things will go. Second screens and nicer keyboards are already the way a lot of people work with a laptop at home or the office; with nice peripherals I could totally see a phone one day replacing a laptop or games console in similar setups.

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Did they just say the games were all free? How would they money did they mention a fee I didn't hear about? Are they going to place ads? Why would a developers release their on this system for free, that's what I find hard to believe.

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When you say "free games," what does that mean exactly?

We want you to pay only for the games you love. A “free to play” model works when everyone (gamers and game makers) benefits from directly rewarding amazing games.

For gamers, every game will be free to play: what this means is that there will at least be a free demo, or you’ll be able to play the entirety of the game for free but may have access to additional items, upgrades, or other features that come at a cost.

For developers, free to play means that they can set their own prices. Developers know best: There is no better way to sell a game than to have folks that have actually touched the game share glowing reviews with their friends. By allowing some form of free play, we’ll help them do just that. The only reason you used to pay for games before playing them is that you couldn’t try them at the store before you brought them home – it’s a relic of an old way of doing business, and one of the many things about the games business we plan to change.

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They're basically just saying that free-to-play or demo mode will be required of every game, as far as I can tell. Even if that results in something like XBLA where every title has a demo and then you have to pay for the full game after an hour or so, I still think it's an appealing standard to enforce.

And like Nappi said, since this is running on a fairly standard SOC and hardware along with an install base of 10,000+ savvy owners, I can quickly see this becoming a defacto homebrew HTPC option like the original Xbox became with XBMC or something to that effect. I'm in just for that reason alone, because if all else fails this'll end up being another set-top box for a relatively inoffensive $99.

Oh, and not to mention that this will potentially do a great thing for development on other Tegra 3-based devices, like the Nexus 7 I'm getting by the end of the month.

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Wow, they've already got in the pocket! That's quite the achievement, honestly.

I don't know what to think about the console itself, to be frank. It would really depend on the games down the line. If there appears a vibrant scene of must-play things, I might buy into it, but almost certainly not before then.

That said, way to go! It seems like a cool project with some good momentum behind it.

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The big question here is if people want to experience content made to be experienced while on the move when sitting in their home on the couch. The answer is no. Even if this works as promised, it's going to produce sourgrapes about Kickstarters as a concept, because the internet is cynical as shit and when one bad example comes up it's enough to condemn everything else.

It's a cool project and all, but the $100 cost, and the near million dollars necessary to make this happen, that's asking too much of consumers.

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Sour grapes? Someone just sold the promise of a stripped down, out of the box pc with a controller to play mobile games for 1.2 mil in 8 hours.

How is that sour grapes?

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Sour grapes? Someone just sold the promise of a stripped down, out of the box pc with a controller to play mobile games for 1.2 mil in 8 hours.

How is that sour grapes?

I mean the results, when the product hits market. If it doesn't perform, people will say, "Oh, million dollar Kickstarter that got more money than it needed? Fuck Kickstarters." Something was bound to set Kickstarters in this perception and this Ouya thing is the most likely to make it happen.

My deal is, is a million dollars necessary for the development of this? A large portion of this money is likely going to related legal fees and rights to do this.

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Let's be clear, the million dollars is not for the "development" of the box. Kickstarter in this form is essentially a different application of a pre-order system. When you "back" a project for $100 and the product that they'll be releasing will be retail priced at $100, it's not aspirational or anything to that effect.

The big question here is if people want to experience content made to be experienced while on the move when sitting in their home on the couch. The answer is no. Even if this works as promised, it's going to produce sourgrapes about Kickstarters as a concept, because the internet is cynical as shit and when one bad example comes up it's enough to condemn everything else.

It's a cool project and all, but the $100 cost, and the near million dollars necessary to make this happen, that's asking too much of consumers.

Also, I don't think this indicates that the games will be "made to be experienced while on the move". The indication I get from all the materials on the Kickstarter is that this is meant to be a platform that runs on a certain level of hardware and software. Just because the hardware and software is common to both devices doesn't necessarily mean that the experiences will have to be congruous. This sentiment seems equivalent to if you told early PC gaming developers that they shouldn't develop for PC because their games would essentially be glorified documents or spreadsheets.

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It's no developmental? In what sense? I get it, they have the specs and a controller that hasn't been actually made yet, but for a unproven or tested concept without a list of signed developers converting or making content for it sounds pretty developmental to me.

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It's no developmental? In what sense? I get it, they have the specs and a controller that hasn't been actually made yet, but for a unproven or tested concept without a list of signed developers converting or making content for it sounds pretty developmental to me.

I think you're conflating the development of the actual hardware and the development of games to be run on the hardware. I'm saying that the money that's going into this Kickstarter is a prepurchase of an already determined spec of hardware. It's not a roll of the dice like funding the idea of something is (a la most games that crop up on Kickstarter, where the starting point is "we want to make a futuristic diablo game!" but they only have rough concept art at the time).

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The big question here is if people want to experience content made to be experienced while on the move when sitting in their home on the couch. The answer is no.

Based on the video, they are not marketing it (at least solely) as a means of playing mobile games on your tv. It wouldn't even be suitable for that because it uses a traditional gamepad instead of a touchscreen.

Edit: apparently it will have a touchpad..

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I don't know much about Android. Does it have a single marketplace like there is for Apple's iOS, or multiple marketplaces / direct purchases from devs/publishers ?

I think this might turn out fine if it runs existing Android games and if they don't look too blocky on a big screen. I don't see a lot of developers making Ouya-exclusive games, but porting to it is probably easy, especially if you've already released on other Android devices.

I assume the controller vs. touchscreen thing is a big difference between a game developed for Android phones/tablets and a game developed for Ouya?

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Best of luck to them, personally not interested in it but its great that someone tried something interesting and it seems to have worked out for them.

The impact of the sheer size of the Android market should be interesting. With 900,000+ devices activated a day a 200,000 (that's my probably optimistic estimate) or so user base is tiny proportion of the market. In that climate i'm unsure that i can see anyone really developing directly unless it is incredibly easy to port something to it from existing android platform,

No. Nope. Nyet. Nein. Can we say it more clearly?

OUYA was not created merely to host ports of existing Android games. We’ve built this badboy to play the most creative content from today’s best known AAA game designers as well as adored indie gamemakers.

I hope they can make it work but when you hear about studios getting shutdown because they only sell 1million copies of a AAA game it makes me wonder how many they will need to sell to be seen as a viable market. 200,000? 500,000? 1,000,000?

That said i don't think it will turn people off Kickstarter, its still not a bad price for a nice looking media box device.

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On a completely separate point reading it again i find it a bit strange they are name drop LoL & TF2. Obviously they are great examples of F2P gaming but when they have no commitment to them ever appearing on their platform, it just seems a like it could so easily lead to misconceptions about what might come to the platform.

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I think you're conflating the development of the actual hardware and the development of games to be run on the hardware. I'm saying that the money that's going into this Kickstarter is a prepurchase of an already determined spec of hardware. It's not a roll of the dice like funding the idea of something is (a la most games that crop up on Kickstarter, where the starting point is "we want to make a futuristic diablo game!" but they only have rough concept art at the time).

Yes I am and I don't see a difference in rolling the dice for Space Diablo and this. But I'll leave it at that.

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I don't know much about Android. Does it have a single marketplace like there is for Apple's iOS, or multiple marketplaces / direct purchases from devs/publishers ?

A stock Android OS is an open platform and you can get your apps from any sources. Some of the skinned ones (such as Kindle Fire and, most likely, Ouya) won't give you access to other stores in order to foster their own ecosystem.

I doubt there's going to be any worthwhile exclusive content on Ouya, but at only $100 it seems very low risk. I'll probably wait until the thing actually exists though.

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I don't get the scepticism. Maybe it's because I spend about half my time dealing with indie developers who are pissed off with platform holders (not even PSN is regarded as a great platform to get onto anymore). Also, a lot of students I've known have retro or previous generation consoles rather than current ones, too: There is a market for less expensive, non-bleeding edge living room systems. Something that costs $100 dollars, is built with the internet in mind, and is already a devkit? I know a shit ton of people who would want this.

Sure, it won't run Battlefield 3, but with living room hardware there and a quad core processor, how will it be restricted to mobile titles? When some of the most recent android phones and tablets have 720p screens, how will it inevitably look shitty? With 2.25 million dollars and 28 days to go, they could probably fucking pay a few indie developers to make launch titles for it. Historically, I'm not an Android cheerleader at all, but if they pull this off it could be a really healthy thing for the games industry.

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I didn't feel like reading everything, but can I buy this instead of fucking around with an iPad? Will it do the big iOS games?

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I was guilty of outright dismissing this thing when I first read the headlines, but I've come around a bit since.

The biggest issue I see is the chicken & egg problem: devs will only flock to a platform if there are customers, and customers will only buy into a platform if there are games.

Even with Ouya's current success that's still around ... 20,000 customers. It's a tiny number compared to 60 million Xboxes, 300 million iOS devices, or who-knows-how-many PCs.

Also: am I the only one who thinks the console (and controller) are kinda ugly looking? I'd *kill* for a console that looks like a Jambox, so I'm kinda disappointed by the design given the brains behind it. :/

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Also: am I the only one who thinks the console (and controller) are kinda ugly looking? I'd *kill* for a console that looks like a Jambox, so I'm kinda disappointed by the design given the brains behind it. :/

I wonder if the console design is final (edit: I guess it pretty much is, I should have read the text more carefully). They focus much more on the controller which, in my opinion, looks fine (albeit unusable for the color blind). Incidentially, I bought Jawbone Big Jambox a couple of weeks ago I've been really impressed by its overall quality. Hopefully, the Ouya will be as polished.

Also, I really hope the box will support multichannel audio.

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