That is hellua funny.
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OUYA - A new $99 console powered by Android [Kickstarter ended, $8.5 million funded]
- Thread starter GK86
- Start date
That is hellua funny.
Yes, it's an integrated system on chip. The upside is extremely low power consumption, the downside is that it's not all that powerful compared to traditional CPU/GPU architecture.
Thanks, the graphics are really good, not 360/PS3 standards but I like it, those graphics should of been what the Wii should of produced lol.
yes
Thanks
Fantastical
Death Prophet
I'm tired of these bullshit ways to measure console power.
Let's be real: How many Pikmins is it?
MrCunningham
Member
Ah yeah, having twice as much RAM almost means nothing when you don't know any of the specifications beyond that. The Xbox360 uses 512 MB of GDDR3. For all we know, this machine could be using standard DDR2 RAM like the iPad 2, and that would be significantly slower.
I'm not really sure if the CPU in the Tegra3 chip is better than Xenon, but the 360 still most definitely has the better GPU. The Xenos in the 360 is essentially a custom Radeon X1800 with a few additional features that showed up in the later R600 line, like unified shaders. It was a really high end GPU for it's time, especially for a game console. Tegra 3 is still a mobile CPU/GPU, so I doubt the GPU will be comparable. It might be able to do similar shader like effects, but I doubt the fillrates will be comparable.
Though it's interesting to note that the current model 360's use a APU like chip called Corona, which is Xenon and Xenos housed under the same chip.
I though measuring by Pikmins only work for Nintendo consoles? Everything else needs to be measured by units of Dragon Ball Z characters.
EternalGamer
Banned
My biggest problme with the Wii was always that it couldn't (wouldn't?) output in hd resolutions so it looked terrible on HDTVs.
This thing is very capable of beautiful looking games, especially 2D games or those with more abstract/creactive design philosophies.
Dreamwriter
Member
Note that Shadowgun is making use of a lot of tricks to make it look like they are using features of more powerful/advanced video chips. For example, Shadowgun fakes realtime lighting in quite a few ways. VERY few games look that good on any Android or iOS device. The only ones that come to mind are Shadowgun and the Infinity Blade games.
Fantastical
Death Prophet
Yeah but now that Nintendo is going with another lower powered system with the Wii U, some of the Pikmins are out of a job.
MrCunningham
Member
Don't worry, Miyamoto found them all work in Pikmin 3. They'll get by.
Of course you fake stuff where ever you can to make it look more high end than it is. That's par for the course in game development.
No one is claiming differently.
There are a few others, but the point was that Tegra 3 can run Shadowgun, Riptide and the other games shown. Whether there are additional limitations or advantages with the Ouya remains to be seen, but it seems to be similar to the Prime that released last December. As such taking a look at games on that device - on an HDTV - might give a rough estimate of where we are, until more info is available.
The Wii U won't be underpowered like the Wii was.
Dreamwriter
Member
My point was for people who don't realize that. In most games people are used-to, if you see a light travel pixel by pixel over a character, you can be sure the game is using realtime lighting. But not in this case. My point is to not expect that level of graphics on the Ouya, though it is capable of it.
Stephen Colbert
Banned
$99 is the perfect price point for an impulse buy. Picked one up for HTPC and emulators.
But what I'm really excited about is the Ouya 2 based on either Logan or Stark, two years from now.
But what I'm really excited about is the Ouya 2 based on either Logan or Stark, two years from now.
Dreamwriter
Member
But it's true - most of the "rewards" are merely preorders, and they'll set a flag in your character's online profile that shows you were one of the supporters. As for Penny Arcade, it's obvious they were just having fun with that (Tycho will name your pet!)
to me this shows how important price point is - if PS4 or Xbox720 could ever reach $99, they would sell a billion of them.
Ooya is a hack itself - lets pick the parts been from smart phones, design an skin over existing OS and influence decision by making it dirt cheap.
For the customer - as long as it doesnt crap out in 6 months, it is great buy. Even if gaming never takes off, you will probably be able to use it as freaking great media center, because someone is going to port media center apps to it.
I will buy one if that happens, and heck i might buy 3.
However is it really a console? I mean Android OS itself takes 200-300 MB of ram.. games are running inside Virtual Machine... hardly an great platform for for gaming.
But for $99? I wont really care about all of that...I just got my perfect media center and if there turns out to be a game or two that rocks, awesome.
If Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo actually created a $99 gaming rig on similar pretense, it would probably be a LOT better gaming rig. Ooya's main problem is that if they dont properly finish it by the time it is out, meaning they dont "sign up" publishers and software isnt there, people are not going to buy it. And it will die a quick death. If their approach is lets build it and they will come, sucks to be them.
Another problem is that if they do it properly, and sign up some major devs, be it established iOS houses or "real" devs from 360/PS3, they is always a threat how someone will, easily, create exactly the same thing or better, for cheaper. And all of their effort goes to waste. Heck Google will make official Android support TVs little bit better and someone will create certified Android TV/like device that runs official Play store and that will get a lot of customers just for that.
That's what Tegra 3 does when pushed and if Ouya is as comparable as the specifications hints at(which it may or may not be), it's reasonable to expect similar results when the machine is pushed. Why wouldn't it be? That doesn't mean that every game will push it, but it's worth looking at what can be achieved with a competent developer and time/money. Just like you don't show off your GTX 680 with Angry Birds or the PS3 with Pacman, it's fair to show what Tegra 3 can achieve with something other than a simple game.
And as faked as a lot of stuff is in Shadowgun, it is an actual game running on Tegra 3. That's exactly what it looks like.
Paying $95 for a reward that gets you a new console seems more real to me than paying $500 for someone to click a retweet button. And a lot more fun.
Man I never would have thought this thing would get so much money, they kind of screwed themselves by limiting the amount of consoles available. 
This is not something I would ever buy, as I have a PC right here and if I wanted I'd be more than capable of hooking it up to a TV. It's neat though, and the kickstarter proves there's demand for this sort of thing, which is kinda surprising.
This is not something I would ever buy, as I have a PC right here and if I wanted I'd be more than capable of hooking it up to a TV. It's neat though, and the kickstarter proves there's demand for this sort of thing, which is kinda surprising.
I am totally fine with that, personally. If something like Shadowgun is the ceiling for this device it seems fine to me considering as you say very few games actually look that good typically. Which again, I don't feel like this is going directly after the same market as something like the PS3 or xbox 360 so it doesn't really need to be able to run games that look as good as what you'd typically expect on those devices.
Shadowgun isn't really ugly by any stretch of the imagination so if other games can do something similar it works for me. I'd say most of the games I'm interested in for this will turn out to be less demanding 2D sprite based games anyway.
Man I never would have thought this thing would get so much money, they kind of screwed themselves by limiting the amount of consoles available.
This is not something I would ever buy, as I have a PC right here and if I wanted I'd be more than capable of hooking it up to a TV. It's neat though, and the kickstarter proves there's demand for this sort of thing, which is kinda surprising.
yeah... another thing - at $99, they are selling at loss... I think someone calculated BOM and it was easily more than $100... then you add all of the rest, including retail margins, and it will basically cost them $150-$200 for each console sold.
At one point this reality will hit them in the head and I wonder what will happen if they price it at $149 to the public.
You really believe they didn't calculate their own Bill of Materials before they decided to do this? They built a prototype, this is obviously something that's been in the pipeline for a while.
Hero_of_the_Day
Member
Nah, if he's being serious, he sounds bitter and jealous that the PA kickstarter isn't getting as much support (though they will get to their goal easily enough I'm sure).
The rewards are obviously adequate, or people wouldn't be pledging money. Let's see, I can give $150 to PA and get a t-shirt, or $99 to this and get an interesting android based media player. "LOL, we're being funny so it's okay our rewards suck, but we're gonna keep talking shit about other kickstarters!"
Brad Grenz
Member
That's nonsense. The BOM of the Nexus 7 was just broken down as about $150, and that includes high ticket components like a nice IPS screen and high capacity battery. The Ouya is a marginal upgrade over Andoid boxes being sold in volume for $50 today. 9 months from now costs will be even lower. They don't have any business model other than hardware profits. Of course this isn't being sold at a loss.
DiscoJer
Member
Cost estimates vary. There have been people in this thread who claim this is nothing more than a scam and it cost them only $50 to buy them in China.
For instance,
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=39743987&postcount=277
I don't think we can know, because a lot likely depends on build quality, both of the thing itself and the controller.
But I would have to imagine they are making money off of each one sold at $95. Probably not a lot, but some.
NeededSleep
Member
Looks very interesting. I would like to support something like this...But at this point i need more information and see who is really supporting this thing with games i would enjoy.
I might just buy it when it goes retail and i actually see the support there and continuing.
I really do hope this takes off though, great concept.
I might just buy it when it goes retail and i actually see the support there and continuing.
I really do hope this takes off though, great concept.
KillerTravis
Banned
Won't this thing be outdated next year when NVIDIA (probably) releases Tegra 4? I mean it's not a problem if people keep developing for it, but I think most Android developers would prefer to support the technology that most devices are currently using. Or maybe there's going to be a OUYA 2 next year?
Elfforkusu
Member
Given that they upped the number of $99 versions available, it's pretty much a certainty that they're making a profit at that amount.
I'm still on the fence on this one. I like the idea, but I'd prefer a native solution if someone was to go this route...
Valve, Steam, Linux
Hero_of_the_Day
Member
I think the current rumor is tegra 4 will be out Q1 of 2013, so it could very well be out before this, especially if there is any sort of delay. At only $99 bucks, I wouldn't mind if they put out a new one every two years, but I wouldn't be buying one every year.
Marty Chinn
Member
That would defeat the purpose of a console in many ways though. The fragmentation would be terrible.
Hero_of_the_Day
Member
Yeah, not saying it's a good idea, but I'd be okay with it personally. You put one out every two years, still support the last one so each one is still good for four years.
wondermega
Member
#1 NES Batman avatar has attracted my attention
#2 Ouya is gonna be hard for me to remember, so I will henceforth refer to this thing as the BooYaa.
#2 Ouya is gonna be hard for me to remember, so I will henceforth refer to this thing as the BooYaa.
weekend_warrior
Banned
People really need to stop thinking about this like a traditional console. It's $99, you could easily release an updated version every year and let the customers and developers decide what to support. It's no different then the constant stream of new smart phones. As a new one is released that doesn't mean the old one is instantly outdated, but the shift of apps and games starts to trickle to the new hardware, and eventually the consumer decides to upgrade.
EternalGamer
Banned
Part of their pitch, though, is the idea that game development is being driven out by two factors:
1) console restrictions/need for publishers
2) rising cost of development.
If they have high end specs then 2 is no longer addressed. That is part of the very reason indie development has thrived on IOS.
I think in terms of general philosophy Nintendo was right that you don't need cutting edge hardware to develop quality products. Where they failed was a lack of HD resolutions when the world was going to HD TVs. This thing may be at the sweetspot: just enough tech to make modern games look nice enough, but not so much that smaller devs get drowned out in an arms race.
At the very least, I wouldnt' think you would need much more than what this has for 2D development. And I for one am totally cool with great 2D artwork. I can get my megablockbuster fix on PC.
CrashPrime
Member
They are expecting to ship March 2013 ... that's a long way from now. Are they going to hopefully fast track this thing when they fill 80,000 preorders?
Tegra 3 is fine and dandy, but by Mar'13 it's going to be downright dated.
Tegra 3 is fine and dandy, but by Mar'13 it's going to be downright dated.
Marty Chinn
Member
What's great about consoles is a set target platform that people develop for. If you have a new configuration every year, you get fragmentation of where developers target because of different sized audiences. Your phone analogy is poor because you draw the wrong conclusions from it, but let's take a look at it in reality. Most games and apps don't take advantage of the higher performance of the newer hardware because they want to have as big of an audience as possible. When you have something that is focused strictly on games, that philosophy doesn't work so well because the primary reason to upgrade is to play games that support it.
Hero_of_the_Day
Member
Right. That's all I want honestly. Nice 2D stuff. I want a SNES with new games.
well since it is $50, lets two of us team up and sell it for $59, and pocket the difference, are you with me?
Nexus 7 was $160 with manufacturing costs probably measured after millions produced. This thing? Initial order will be much less - 50k?. Even at $$120-150, thats not calculating costs of shipping, warehousing, retail margins, marketing, software development, warranty, etc, etc.
or how else do you think this works? Generally electronic companies sell at least 2x the BOM cost and that gets them 6%-8% margin if they are really successful.
Iphone4s was $190 BOM and got sold at $600. Thats really great for Apple, but that doesnt mean they made $400 of each one - their Operating margin was 35%, which is awesome, but again not $400 and probably a lot of it comes from services and software.
March 2013 is very close, when you are making new device. That means that this has probably been in development for quite a while, or else it will be crap when it ships.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Well, they are using Android. Might as well go all the way with that.
If you think about it, you wonder if this isn't something that Nintendo should have released. I mean, they've already given up on the graphics wars, and yet they still are committing to at least a current-gen level of graphics, likely to cost $300 or so at launch. At $99, they'd win by default and still be able to keep hold of the casual market on top of that.
RockTurtle
Member
you hit the nail on the head
Shogmaster
Member
Hero_of_the_Day
Member
HDMI.
Asus version has it.