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[lordcooper]

OUYA is the latest kid soon-to-be-on-the-block and has already exceeded its $950000 Kickstarter goal in only 8 hours.  It seems to be the only truly 'open' console and as I am very lazy, I'll just copy and paste a few interesting bits from the Kickstarter page rather than rewording it.

OUYA is a new game console for the TV, powered by Android.

We've packed this little box full of power. Developers will have access to OUYA's open design so they can produce their games for the living room, taking advantage of everything the TV has to offer.

Best of all, OUYA's world-class controller, console, and interface come in one beautiful, inexpensive package. All the games on it will be free, at least to try.

Developers can wave farewell to the roadblocks of bringing a console game to market. Anyone can make a game: every OUYA console is a dev kit. No need to purchase a license or an expensive SDK. It's built on Android, so developers already know how it works.

That doesn't mean OUYA is an Android port. You can create the next big title in your bedroom – just like the good old days! Who needs pants!?

OUYA could change AAA game development, too. Forget about licensing fees, retail fees, and publishing fees.

Hackers welcome.

Have at it: It's easy to root (and rooting won't void your warranty). Everything opens with standard screws. Hardware hackers can create their own peripherals, and connect via USB or Bluetooth. You want our hardware design? Let us know. We might just give it to you. Surprise us!

Specifications:

Tegra3 quad-core processor
1GB RAM
8GB of internal flash storage
HDMI connection to the TV, with support for up to 1080p HD
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth LE 4.0
USB 2.0 (one)
Wireless controller with standard controls (two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button), a touchpad
Android 4.0

OUYA intrigues me, but I'm not fully convinced it's worth buying.  The open nature is really appealing and definitely a step in the right direction for consoles; but with the next generation of established consoles just around the corner, it seems as though the hardware runs the risk of becoming obsolete sooner rather than later.  It should be brilliant for developers (especially those who generally focus on the PC) to reach a new crowd of customers, but I'm unsure if it's worth buying one as a gamer.  The pessimist in me predicts insane amounts of pay-to-win trash flooding their store.  Besides, I can always just plug my PC into the TV and use a PS3 controller.

Preferably avoiding the whole PC gaming master race crap, what do you guys make of all this?

[Ozyton]

I already have a computer.

Preferably avoiding the whole PC gaming master race crap

Oh...

99 dorrers is a pretty good deal for a console though.

[Matz05]

Sounds promising, I would have included more RAM, but what do I know?

[lordcooper]

I already have a computer.

Preferably avoiding the whole PC gaming master race crap

Oh...

99 dorrers is a pretty good deal for a console though.

Heh, I'm not trying to forbid negativity, just the 'hurr durr console gamurs r ediots' crap.  Feel free to rip into the actual console or point out down sides.

[umiman]

It's interesting, but honestly just like any other console it really comes down to third party support and quality of games. So there's that to keep an eye out for. After all, it seems every single game displayed in those screenshots are available elsewhere or for free. These guys aren't Nintendo after all and can't survive on first-party titles alone.

If the publisher support for this is insufficient, then people will just end up paying $99 for a big phone essentially. Which isn't that bad of a deal in and of itself come to think of it.

[Sensei]

I personally would have put 4GB of ram in and raised the price to $120 to compensate. I mean, that's a pretty big performance difference for a pretty small price change.

[Lectorog]

Console gaming on a phone-grade hardware and software base. I'm not impressed with the product itself, but open development is a push in a good direction.

After all, it seems every single game displayed in those screenshots are available elsewhere or for free. These guys aren't Nintendo after all and can't survive on first-party titles alone.

All of the games are going to be free, to some degree.

Let’s open this sucker up! It's time we brought back innovation, experimentation, and creativity to the big screen. Let’s make the games less expensive to make, and less expensive to buy. With all our technological advancements, shouldn't costs be going down? Gaming could be cheaper!

We're handing the reins over to the developer with only one condition: at least some gameplay has to be free. We borrowed the free-to-play model from games like League of Legends, Team Fortress 2, Triple Town, and many others. Developers can offer a free demo with a full-game upgrade, in-game items or powers, or ask you to subscribe.

F2P is the base of this entire project.

I personally would have put 4GB of ram in and raised the price to $120 to compensate. I mean, that's a pretty big performance difference for a pretty small price change.

The processor isn't very impressive either; nor is the hard memory, but that could be augmented with a USB flash drive. The console as a whole is just a small step up from higher-end phone hardware.

Overall, I say it's an improvement over the current console trend. But hey, look at this PC I'm using.

[IronyOwl]

Fascinating. Remains to be seen what comes of it, but the premise definitely has my attention.

Only trouble is, I'm having a hard time figuring out what the "point" of it is beyond being able to play flash games on a television. But then, that's largely as far as I've gone towards figuring out regular consoles either, so what would I know.

[umiman]

Would my statement have been clearer if I put free in quotations? "free". 

Honestly the more I look at the project the more it looks like my current Android phone. Most Google Play apps and games use the same business model and techniques. I can watch twitch.tv et. al. on it too. I'm actually writing this with quite a bit of bemusement; both at how technically capable my small little phone is, and how far we've come.

[lastverb]

I have really mixed feelings about this. An idea is great and its only 99$, however there are few major problems.
a) Technical specifications are for few years old, not even medium class device. Making it museum artifact in it world, not able to support anything more than casual gaming.
b) Android based system (or android itself) adds to that. Belive me its not a system supporting *not casual* gaming.
c) Not comparable to existing generation consoles, not even mentioning PCs. And we got next-gens on the horizon.
d) Its actually cheaper, little slower than newest, smartphone with hdmi in standard rather than console.

Will it get console-specific games? Some small indies maybe. Will it get console-specific AAA games? I don't think so. All the others will be standard android games. And why would someone buy a gaming console that doesn't get any games?
Some may say about a multi-controlers, but its not a thing. I have participated in development and testing of really small multi-controled single-screen android game (not really a game). Single smartphone with mhl/hdmi connection to tv as a server + 4 different smartphones as controllers connected by wi-fi (we thought it will be easier than bluetooth, how wrong we were, but theoreticly u could play from the second side of the globe ).
Anyway, for that price im going to buy it even for the sake of looking at it. I totally support the idea, but not casual-only oriented tech specs.

[Sonlirain]

The huge problem i see here is... whi the hell this console is for?

Hardcore console gamers are too busy softscoping noobs/fags/each other via X-Bawks and Play Station.
Causual gamers and families with kids most likely already have the Wii (and this console is barely a sidegrade for it).
And people really interested in Indie games most likely already have a PC.

The hardware is also a problem... it especially seems to be somewhat short on RAM.
On the other hand Indie games are rarely very resource hungry.

[Girlinhat]

Everything about this says "smartphone apps on the TV" which in itself isn't a bad thing.  Angry Birds made a fortune and look at it.  You've got an audience and you've got all the buzzwords.  "free android games not-pc" - if you wrote that on an empty cardboard box in magic marker, it'd sell.

It's just, I don't think anyone here is part of their target audience.  It's a cheap, lightweight device that will house a number of casual games, and that's fine and all, just not what anyone who enjoys DF would be into

[getter77]

Huh....there's a few of these things in the works lately as "the next Thing" it would seem.

PocketTV just finished their own KS yesterday, though their spec is a bit different and they don't have a controller wrangled.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/484889112/the-pocket-tv-makes-any-tv-a-smart-tv


The appeal to me is somewhat there, as I don't have a smartphone or tablet and don't know when I'll ever manage such---but the appeal of being able to explore to ever-growing Android game library on a proper screen would not be lost on me any more than somehow a similar device manifesting for the iOS stable of wares.

[Matz05]

True...
Isn't the whole point of a game console to house highly-optimised graphical programs on a platform where hardware (and software) configuration is a constant? The whole point is to homogenize the experience. Or to include some fancy new hardware feature before it gets widespread introduction (optical disks, motion controlers, motion-tracking cameras...)

This seems kind of... unfocused on that. Roll basic PVR functions into something like this and use it as a all-in-one TV media centre, sure, but as a game console...

[Girlinhat]

Well, that seems to still be the idea.  You buy the set.  You don't buy this graphics card and this hard drive and this RAM.  You just buy "this console".  It's simple, for people who don't want to bother with understanding the specifics about computer and may not have the money to even build a good PC.  And in this economy, cheap sells.