WikiWealth

13 Jul 2012 13:03 | gaming ouya

OUYA. It's a name you're certain to hear a lot more about in the next 6 months. It's the $99 gaming console for the 99%.

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Intrigued? Perhaps, perhaps not. Let me tell you more about this device. First of all, it's likely to usher in a new era of gaming — one where the focus is on giving indie developers access to the television.

Xbox 360 development is expensive. Playstation 3 development is much the same, and Nintendo has consistently focused on big-name developers, making indie titles on their consoles almost non-existent. If you're a small games development team and you have limited funds, the console is out of the question. You're forced to release your titles on the PC.

Enter the OUYA (pronounced "OOO-yah"), a $99.00 gaming console that is also the development kit. Buy the console, and you immediately have the ability to make games for it.

The software is a heavily modified version of Android, and looks reminiscent of the older Xbox 360 Metro-style interface which had tiles separated into rows based on topic. In this case: Today, Games, Videos, Store, Community.

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And the best part? Every game will have a free component. One of the rules that the creators have imposed on developers is that every game needs to be at least partially free. This means that even core developers, which the OUYA is currently contacting to gather interest in the console, would have to provide a free trial for their games with the option to unlock further gameplay.

For $99, it's the people's console. And with the ease of development, it's the developer's console as well. This thing is guaranteed to be successful.

4 days ago the OUYA team — based out of Los Angeles, California — posted their project up onto crowd-funding site Kickstarter and requested pledges to reach their $950,000 goal.

In a day, they'd already reached more than double that: $2 million. Today, four days later, the project has 34,412 backers and has raised $4,387,369. And that is only the beginning, as there are another 26 days to go.

This project is going ahead, and based on the level of support from gamers and developers alike, it's going to be a huge success.

And yes, I want one.

Kickstarter link: OUYA: A New Kind of Video Game Console (including video & the ability to pledge your own support for the project)


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