The Ouya: A $99 Open, Hackable Console

[bkfount]

Quote: Originally Posted by Xavier12

My concern is what is the point if I already have a PC? Just to have a cheap, mod enabled console?

The people getting hot for it right now are probably interested in it for:

cheap media player
emulators
overall hacking potential

I doubt it will get the AAA support to be a serious gaming console.

I would like to see someone sell a tablet as a future console. You can use it to browse the internet, play simple touch games, or watch netflix while on a trip or on the toilet. Then you can plug it into a base stand or something by the TV to play the next console quality CoD or Madden online with a controller.

Someone needs to kickstart that.

[mestevo]

It's a hobbyist device, no expectations of it being more than that personally. I'll have one around March I guess and we'll see where it goes.

I grew up with stuff like an electric board and you connected wires all over the place to get it to make a sound.

My son will get to grow up to things like this console.

[Burns11]

Quote: Originally Posted by bkfount

The people getting hot for it right now are probably interested in it for: cheap media player emulators overall hacking potential I doubt it will get the AAA support to be a serious gaming console. I would like to see someone sell a tablet as a future console. You can use it to browse the internet, play simple touch games, or watch netflix while on a trip or on the toilet. Then you can plug it into a base stand or something by the TV to play the next console quality CoD or Madden online with a controller. Someone needs to kickstart that.

People are jumping on it because it's hipster fad, they put out some flahsy pictures of casing mockups and used taglines like "independent". If people were really interested in this for anything else they would go grab a VIA PC for $50, Raspberry Pi for $35, or an ODROID-X for $130, and these are available now and not vaporware, Ouya doesn't even have a set hardware platform yet.

[mestevo]

How do either of those compare to a Tegra 3? Include enough to pass as a development-friendly hackable device as well as something you could hand to a kid and let them play with some games.

It's like saying don't buy an Xbox in 2005, spend that money on building a PC. Different consumers.

[zanner]

Quote: Originally Posted by mestevo

It's a hobbyist device, no expectations of it being more than that personally. I'll have one around March I guess and we'll see where it goes. I grew up with stuff like an electric board and you connected wires all over the place to get it to make a sound. My son will get to grow up to things like this console.

My point is, you're not getting one in March, they need a LOT more money than 5million for the # of consoles they have to initially ship. This is a pipe dream.

[mestevo]

Quote: Originally Posted by zanner

My point is, you're not getting one in March, they need a LOT more money than 5million for the # of consoles they have to initially ship. This is a pipe dream.

Yeah I saw your post, was ignoring the FUD. I'm in for $99, not $9,900.

[zanner]

Quote: Originally Posted by mestevo

Yeah I saw your post, was ignoring the FUD. I'm in for $99, not $9,900.

FUD ...

Hardware = $ and you have to make at least 31,000 of them as it stands with $5 Million -- Which also have to throw in the controller into this

Shipping/Distribution = Money, I work for a huge corporation that gets bid on carriers/logistics which means discounts from common carriers and distribution centers ... Even the rate for shipping a 7 lb package with our deal... Shipping 30,000 really starts to dwindle down the original 5million - Hardware ..

Marketing - That's a lot of money there, which is necessary for

Developer support from the start : Developers are a little hesitant to go back through their games they already provide to support Ouya's goal. They're apps are based on touchpads and input on tablets or phones on the go. Is 30,000 units enough to get developer's to take on this work when they can work on apps for a much larger user base? Does it pay off for them

Manufacturing : We're talking about the casing, controllers, packaging -- Everything ..


Employees : If the employees in the video are real, even if they aren't ... After all of that you still have to pay the people who designed, programmed, tested , and they're not doing it for charity I'm sure which also brings about

QA costs




All of this takes a LOT more than 5million for 34,000 users at start ...


For a comparison it took $500 million for Microsoft just to launch KINECT, much larger for Xbox 360 , So all in all at this point is from from FUD with the concerns of having enough money for all of the things listed above.

And in the end, if it somehow magically works out, then the price will likely be <$99 given the fact that technology doesn't stop in the android realm with much more accomplished companies with easier manufacturing setup already in place.

[mestevo]

New update on the project today - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...-console/posts:

Quote:

Update #3: Welcome Muffi! Posted about 4 hours ago So it’s time for us to reveal our secret weapon, someone who has been working with us tirelessly behind the scenes to bring OUYA to life, and today we’re pulling back the curtain. Meet Muffi Ghadiali from our team, who is in charge of making the OUYA product, hardware and software. Muffi joined OUYA from Lab126, a part of Amazon, where he worked on the Kindle line of products. I thought it would be best if you heard directly from him, so he wrote to you... ___ Kickstarters! I’m Muffi, and I want to tell you a little bit about what we’re working on at OUYA. I came out of Lab126’s product team where I worked on the Kindle line -- hardware and software. I worked every day with engineering, product design, industrial design, operations, supply chain, and QA teams. I joined OUYA because I saw--early on--the potential for an open technology to change how gaming works. Gamers are unique. They are sophisticated and they follow products from the first idea all the way to market. For a product guy like me, that's exciting. We're getting a lot of feedback, great support and lots of questions. Sometimes those are tough questions but they keep me at the top of my game. It's pretty cool that Kickstarter facilitates a direct dialogue with future users. My job at OUYA is to ensure that we meet the needs of gamers and developers. In short, I’m here to deliver OUYA. I know from experience that this can be done: I’ve built consumer technology products for more than 15 years--both hardware and software. I’ve worked on set-top boxes, media streaming devices, handheld devices, content services, and other big consumer products. I’ve been playing a key role in designing the path that will take OUYA to market, from technology to production. And while it may seem aggressive, the technology here is actually fairly standard. We’re not building a hovercraft or a nano-bot. If you look online at the teardowns of other devices with some of the same components, you’ll see that our device can be built for well under $99. What IS innovative is the beautiful design from Yves Behar, and our model for working with game developers. From my perspective, I’m tackling the easy part. So here’s what we’re doing now... Developers, we’re working to get an SDK in your hands as fast as we can, please be patient. It will be pretty simple to start, using the existing Android SDK and adding the ability to promote your game, and to charge OUYA customers. We’ll add to it as we go. We’re getting our ducks in a row on the hardware production. NVIDIA is helping us with production designs, and selecting the right device manufacturer. We’re in talks with a few manufacturers. I was just playing with our circuit board yesterday. NVIDIA is also helping us maximize the performance of our Tegra 3 chips -- they’ll work even better than the demos you see online. We’ll be able to support some intense games. And we heard your feedback: yes, yes, we’ll add an Ethernet jack. We have a lot of consoles to make, so I wouldn’t expect too many more changes to the spec. Please keep sending your comments. We are doing everything to deliver for you. Thanks! Muffi ___ Again, thank you to the almost 40,000 of you (!!) who are backing OUYA -- we can’t wait to get it in your hands. Julie P.S. Muffi is also hiring some engineers to join our team. So if you know the Android OS well, and want to help us make OUYA, hit us up. (We bet you can figure out a way to get in touch with him...)