Ouya to Enter Gaming Market with $99 Android-Powered Console - chickfeep1992

While the world waits for new spunky consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, a newcomer plans to take them connected with a $99 Android-based set-top box seat named Ouya.

The Ouya has specs that are on equality with high-end Android phones and tablets, including a quadriceps-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage. It outputs 1080p video direct an HDMI slot, uses Bluetooth 4.0 and USB 2.0 for connecting external devices and includes a wireless controller.

To raise money for a March 13 plunge, Ouya has turned to crowd-funding site Kickstarter, where the company is attractive pre-orders and other donations. Ouya hopes to rear $950,000 through the site.

Although Ouya is based on Humanoid, and can therefore run games originally developed for Android phones and tablets, it's only victimization the OS as a base for its own gaming platform. That means developers will relieve have to do some exploit to institute their games to the big screen. They'll also want to optimize for Ouya's controller, which has the usual set of analogue thumbsticks, buttons and triggers, plus a small touchpad in the middle.

Ouya wants to lower the barrier for game development compared to traditional crippled consoles, so there are no licensing fees, and all comfort will let in a software development kit. On that point's fitting one big rule that all developers must follow: All games must have a gratis-to-playact element, whether it's a timed test, a feature-locked demo or a complete experience filled with microtransactions.

Plenty of questions remain unanswered. It's non clear how closely Ouya will patrol its store (say, for emulators or rip-offs of other games), what the console's community features will expression similar, or most important, whether developers will embrace the device. Ouya's Kickstarter page shows endorsements from a few big developers, including thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen and Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner, but Ouya isn't anywhere close to announcing a number of hanging down games.

Still, the melodic theme of a cheap, Android-based box reinforced around gaming hasn't been through before, and whitethorn prove disruptive. The big console makers have been larghissimo to embrace digital dispersion and free of-to-play gambling, and at the very least, Ouya is a sign that they can't afford to hold tabu much yearner.

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