I've always loved console gaming. There's nothing quite like playing games with friends on the living room Television. The recent craze for mobile gaming on smart phones is quite disturbing to those of us who like expansive games that can be played for hours. Mobile games tend to be played in smaller amounts of time and are optimized for finger-swipes on a small screen. I want a joystick!
The Ouya's ability to tap into the ease of mobile development and port it all back to the TV got me very excited. I backed the Kickstarter campaign and waited to see what would be sent to my doorstep.
Ouya - Technical Specifications
Ouya was announced on July 3, 2012 as a new home video game console, led by the CEO of Boxer8, Julie Uhrman. On July 10, Ouya started a Kickstarter campaign to gauge how many people were interested in the project. Boxer8 confirmed having a working prototype with in-progress software and user interface. Boxer8 is expected to provide their own Ouya store for apps and games. The prototype and initially planned console will run on Android 4.1. It features an Nvidia Tegra 3 chip and a price tag of $99 ($95 for 1000 "early birds" to the Kickstarter campaign).
The Kickstarter fundraising goal was raised within 8 hours. Funding continued to increase as more models were made available at various funding levels. According to Kickstarter, in reaching its goal, Ouya holds the record for best first day performance of any project hosted to date. Within the first 24 hours the project attracted one backer every 5.59 seconds. Ouya became the most quickly funded project on Kickstarter to reach one million dollars, and went on to become the eighth project in Kickstarter history to raise more than a million dollars. The Ouya Kickstarter page featured an introduction video, which explained various aspects of the console, showcased the process of designing of the 3" touchpad-sporting controller, and gave viewers a glimpse of the motherboard. It also presented the first looks of the console's game store, showing several games from indie developers who had supported and shown interest in Ouya.
The Ouya is a 75-millimeter (2.95-inch) cube designed to use with a TV as the display via an HDMI connection. It ships with a single wireless controller, but it can also support multiple controllers. Games are available via digital distribution, or can be side-loaded.
Ouya Specifications
Price: US$99
SoC: Nvidia Tegra 3 T33-P-A3
CPU: Quad-core 1.7 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore (ARMv7-A architecture)
NEON Advanced SIMD extensions and VFPv3 floating point unit
Memory (RAM): 1 GiB DDR3-1600 SDRAM (shared for CPU and GPU)
USB ports: 1 USB 2.0, 1 microUSB
Video output: HDMI 1.4; 1080p or 720p resolution. Stereoscopic 3D support.
Audio output: HDMI (ARC), 5.1 or 2.0 channel
Internal storage: 8 GB eMMC flash memory
Networking and Wireless: 10/100 Ethernet (8P8C), 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth LE 4.0
Power consumption: 4.5 watt (gaming), 1 watt (standby)
Power source: 12 volt DC via Coaxial power connector (OD 5.50 mm, ID 2.50 mm, center positive)
Size: 75×75×82 mm (2.95×2.95×3.23 in)
Weight: 300 g (11 oz)
Operating system: Android 4.1 (Jellybean) with custom Ouya launcher.
Controller
The Ouya controller is a typical gamepad with dual analogue sticks, a directional pad, 4 face buttons (labeled O, U, Y and A) and pairs of back bumpers and triggers. It also includes a single-touch touchpad in the center of the controller. The Ouya controller also has magnetically attached faceplates which enclose the 2 AA batteries, one on each side of the removable plates. Alternate controllers may be used with the console (including those from the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii) but only for compatible games.