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OUYA console already getting support from major publishers


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Of course they're going to release a Ouya version of their Android phone app. That's going to happen a lot.

 

Agreed. I have no idea why people have any interest in this "console". Nobody is going to do anything beyond what they have already done on Android for it. It's also nowhere close to being an "open" console as first hyped. It's just another Android device with it's own closed marketplace that displays on your TV.

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It's just another Android device with it's own closed marketplace that displays on your TV.

 

...with standard controllers, and any games in the marketplace will work with said controllers. For $99.

 

If they only deliver on this part of the vision then it will have a place in my living room, if only for XBMC and emulators.

 

The rest is gravy, if they deliver it.

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Unfortunately there isn't really that much that you can do with it. The specs are no better than a high-end mobile phone, so developers are going to struggle to come up with anything spectacular on it

 

IMO what they should have done is develop it as a home computer. People who buy consoles tend to be interested in their graphical power and the the quality of the AAA games. They want FPS games. People who play games on mobile devices are more interested in casual games. Where OUYA fits in, I'm not sure. It's not going to appeal to the hardcore gamers. It might appeal to casual gamers.

 

If they'd developed it as a home computer then it could have increased its appeal. Maybe we should go to kickstarter and try to develop our own home computer system. ;)

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Thing is, most Android games today are designed to be used on a mobile phone. Most of them are simple (Angry Birds, Tiny Wings, etc.) because those kinds of games work best on handheld devices.

 

Now, when developers start developing for OUYA, most of them will be making games with an HDTV and a controller with buttons in mind. In other words, we'll be seeing full console games.

 

Oh, and if I recall correctly, you'll be allowed to run apps that don't come from the store. If you don't want to use the so-called "closed" store, don't use it.

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IMO what they should have done is develop it as a home computer. People who buy consoles tend to be interested in their graphical power and the the quality of the AAA games.

 

 

Alright, but...

Now, when developers start developing for OUYA, most of them will be making games with an HDTV and a controller with buttons in mind. In other words, we'll be seeing full console games.

 

 

Sorry, I just don't imagine a lot of Ouya-exclusives being made. If the thing gets off the ground, I expect a lot of mobile ports with added controller support, but not a lot of games actually built around the idea of a physical controller.

Edited by Rex Dart
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But if all you are planning to do is to jailbreak it and play free games (I doubt any developer is going to make a compatible game and then not sell it exclusively through the Ouya store), why not just use a PC or Mac that all of us already own and spend $50 on a nice control pad? This idea that this is somehow offering something new and amazing is absurd. Nobody is going to develop specifically for this system as even with this quick Kickstarter run up, there will only be 50K units out there. For a digital developer to hope to make any money, you need tens of millions of users of a platform and even then, you only make money if you get a good percentage of them to buy your game. Basically, developers will take their existing Android games and make the minor changes necessary for them to work with the closed system being set up by Ouya. There will never be games made specifically for the Ouya or its capabilities as there will never be a large enough user base to justify the expense.

 

Thing is, most Android games today are designed to be used on a mobile phone. Most of them are simple (Angry Birds, Tiny Wings, etc.) because those kinds of games work best on handheld devices.

 

Now, when developers start developing for OUYA, most of them will be making games with an HDTV and a controller with buttons in mind. In other words, we'll be seeing full console games.

 

Oh, and if I recall correctly, you'll be allowed to run apps that don't come from the store. If you don't want to use the so-called "closed" store, don't use it.

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Unfortunately there isn't really that much that you can do with it. The specs are no better than a high-end mobile phone, so developers are going to struggle to come up with anything spectacular on it...

 

Ouya isn't trying to win the hardware arms race, nor should they; they're trying to carve out their own niche. Those that want cutting-edge FPS graphics should look elsewhere.

 

Out of curiosity, I did spend some time comparing various specs to traditional consoles. All of this is gathered from the web, but I've verified from different sources where I could...

 

 

GPU - Ouya=12 Gflops, 8 vertex shaders. Xbox=20 Gflops, 1 vertex shader. Xbox360=240 Gflops, 3 shader pipelines. Gamecube=8 Gflops, 0 vertex shaders. Wii=12 Gflops, 0 vertex shaders.

 

The Ouya should outperform a Wii graphically if the game is written to take advantage of vertex shaders, or as good if not. Nowhere near an Xbox360.

 

 

Memory - Ouya=1GB of 1600mhz RAM, bandwidth ~2 GB/s*. Xbox360=512MB of 700mhz DDR RAM, bandwidth 22.4GB/s. Wii=64MB DDR RAM, bandwidth 1.9GB/s.

 

Ouya RAM capacity edges out all current consoles. I based bandwidth from the slowest Tegra 3 implementation I could find, so its a bit speculative.... but seems to be comparable to a Wii, nowhere near an Xbox360.

 

 

CPU - Ouya= 4-core 1.6GHz ARM CPU. Xbox=single-core 733 MHz P3 CPU. Xbox360=3-core 3.2 GHz PPC CPU. Wii=single-core 729Mhz PA CPU.

 

The Ouya CPU should do a bit better than the Wii CPU especially if the game is multithreaded, and nowhere near the Xbox360 CPU.


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But if all you are planning to do is to jailbreak it and play free games (I doubt any developer is going to make a compatible game and then not sell it exclusively through the Ouya store), why not just use a PC or Mac that all of us already own and spend $50 on a nice control pad? This idea that this is somehow offering something new and amazing is absurd.

 

To quote Notch (creator of Minecraft):

 

"I am quite frankly surprised this hasn't happened earlier. Me and plenty of other people have tried connecting small PCs to their TVs and plugging in controllers in an attempt to get an open TV gaming experience that they can control, but there's been constant interface and infrastructure problems with that. And frankly, the only really good use of it was to run emulators. Something like OUYA could solve a lot of these issues, making it easier to find and navigate between content, and putting a good community in place around it."

 

Nobody is going to develop specifically for this system as even with this quick Kickstarter run up, there will only be 50K units out there. For a digital developer to hope to make any money, you need tens of millions of users of a platform and even then, you only make money if you get a good percentage of them to buy your game. Basically, developers will take their existing Android games and make the minor changes necessary for them to work with the closed system being set up by Ouya.

 

I'm not saying that there won't be any straight Android ports with minimal changes (I expect to see it a lot), but I'm dead positive there'll be OUYA exclusives. Maybe not from AAA developers at first, but surely from the tons of indie developers who've shown support. And, remember, that's only 50k in preorders. What makes you think they'll stop production after that?

 

There will never be games made specifically for the Ouya or its capabilities as there will never be a large enough user base to justify the expense.

 

http://www.kickstart...le/posts/270629

 

On a side note, here's a nice Kotaku article to read: http://kotaku.com/5931116/the-ouya-is-an-android-tablet-without-a-screen-but-its-better-than-that?utm_campaign=socialflow_kotaku_twitter&utm_source=kotaku_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

Edited by Animan
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And, remember, that's only 50k in preorders. What makes you think they'll stop production after that?

 

 

Lack of consumer interest. And Notch sounds kind of dumb there... infrastructure problems? What, he couldn't get Steam installed? Your TV is a monitor; you plug the computer into it and you play the games. It is simple.

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Lack of consumer interest. And Notch sounds kind of dumb there... infrastructure problems? What, he couldn't get Steam installed? Your TV is a monitor; you plug the computer into it and you play the games. It is simple.

As far as PC gaming goes, it's often a pain in the rear. Device compatibility issues, wading through config files, realizing that you don't have the power to run something at all well. I haven't got the time, hardware or desire to game on pc.

 

Ouya will be a platform with common hardware and input devices, a store with a limited selection of games known to work well with the device, and an install process about as easy as any other console (I'd expect). Yeah, it's basically going to look like a filter thrown on google's android shop. I get that. Pretty much everything on ouya will be in other android marketplaces, but everything in ouya's shop will (I assume) run well on the common hardware and support the input and display well.

 

If I bought one of those currently available and similarly priced android 4.0 gadgets and a controller, I'd still be wading through menus mapping buttons to the screen, and dialing in detail settings to get things running smoothly on the system. It'd have a lot of 'pc problems.'

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PC gaming is getting better every day; more and more games are designed to use a standard Xbox 360 gamepad. I haven't had to wade through config files in years, and when I do now, it's for kicks. Will that even be an option on the Ouya? The Ouya's limited options, if/when it arrives, will be one of the downsides that consumers have to deal with. I don't mind configuring buttons if it means I get to play a game that otherwise isn't available. Hell, I usually tweak the controls anyways.

Besides, old/existing aren't really the point if we're talking about upcoming games. Any android game ported to / written for the Ouya could easily be made for PC, that's the thing. If that game happens to have crummy controls, that's the developer's fault, and a different platform wouldn't really solve that.

Edited by Rex Dart
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I havent had any issues with PC gaming these days at all.

(Between GOG and Steam they do a fine job of doing everything for you).

 

As far as the Ouya goes this is a nice read:

 

http://kotaku.com/5931116/the-ouya-is-an-android-tablet-without-a-screen-but-its-better-than-that

 

A cell phone without a screen? At 100 bucks I'll take my chance. There's some nice Android games out there.

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I havent had any issues with PC gaming these days at all.

(Between GOG and Steam they do a fine job of doing everything for you).

I recently bought Evil Genius off of gog because I had enjoyed it on onlive, but it was only available in their subscription pack.

After having to edit config files to get it to start (resolution issue), I patched it manually. It still ran like crap, but that was to be expected given the hardware it was on.

It wasn't hard, not compared to my experiences with pc games a decade or more ago, but certainly not something that meets my standards for being 'easy enough.' Heck, anything with an installer that requires user input doesn't meet my easy standard. All things considered, I probably should have just gone for another month of the onlive playpack.

Edited by Reaperman
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Sounds better than an Ouya, which likely will never get a port of Evil Genius...

It is on onlive, so I expect that I'll be able to play it on there (if that counts) but I will generally give up a lot of variety for ease of use and a polished experience. Those are pretty much the two sides to the old console vs. pc debate, except that most consoles have a fair number of exclusives, where ouya might get one or two.

Edited by Reaperman
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I havent had any issues with PC gaming these days at all.

(Between GOG and Steam they do a fine job of doing everything for you).

I recently bought Evil Genius off of gog because I had enjoyed it on onlive, but it was only available in their subscription pack.

After having to edit config files to get it to start (resolution issue), I patched it manually. It still ran like crap, but that was to be expected given the hardware it was on.

It wasn't hard, not compared to my experiences with pc games a decade or more ago, but certainly not something that meets my standards for being 'easy enough.' Heck, anything with an installer that requires user input doesn't meet my easy standard. All things considered, I probably should have just gone for another month of the onlive playpack.

 

Old games will be buggy but I still think GOG does a great job. Also the support forums for each of those services is great.

 

Modern games are much better at least for me.

 

I cant speak for you but for me. 90+ Steam games and 30 GOG games I haven't ANY issues.

 

I've only had to config controls for games that don't support the 360 controller and resolution settings.

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Unfortunately there isn't really that much that you can do with it. The specs are no better than a high-end mobile phone, so developers are going to struggle to come up with anything spectacular on it...

 

Ouya isn't trying to win the hardware arms race, nor should they; they're trying to carve out their own niche. Those that want cutting-edge FPS graphics should look elsewhere.

 

Out of curiosity, I did spend some time comparing various specs to traditional consoles. All of this is gathered from the web, but I've verified from different sources where I could...

 

 

GPU - Ouya=12 Gflops, 8 vertex shaders. Xbox=20 Gflops, 1 vertex shader. Xbox360=240 Gflops, 3 shader pipelines. Gamecube=8 Gflops, 0 vertex shaders. Wii=12 Gflops, 0 vertex shaders.

 

The Ouya should outperform a Wii graphically if the game is written to take advantage of vertex shaders, or as good if not. Nowhere near an Xbox360.

 

 

Memory - Ouya=1GB of 1600mhz RAM, bandwidth ~2 GB/s*. Xbox360=512MB of 700mhz DDR RAM, bandwidth 22.4GB/s. Wii=64MB DDR RAM, bandwidth 1.9GB/s.

 

Ouya RAM capacity edges out all current consoles. I based bandwidth from the slowest Tegra 3 implementation I could find, so its a bit speculative.... but seems to be comparable to a Wii, nowhere near an Xbox360.

 

 

CPU - Ouya= 4-core 1.6GHz ARM CPU. Xbox=single-core 733 MHz P3 CPU. Xbox360=3-core 3.2 GHz PPC CPU. Wii=single-core 729Mhz PA CPU.

 

The Ouya CPU should do a bit better than the Wii CPU especially if the game is multithreaded, and nowhere near the Xbox360 CPU.


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Remember though that the CPU in the 360 is in-order execution while the tegra3 is (I think) out of order execution. There is a reason the CPU in the 360 has to have hyper threading to try to get around the limitation that in-order execution has. Also you forgot about the tegra3s Companion Core (i think its locked at 500mhz) which technically makes it 5 cores.

 

Being that the tegra3 t-33 is being used in the Ouya makes the memory bandwidth around 6.4GB/s. Plus being that the tegra3 isn't going to be limited by battery life and the fact its case is going to have better cooling they can pump it up a bit (maybe even overclock it a bit) to give it more performance.

 

The only real limiting factor here is the GPU.

Edited by madmax2069
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I see some cynisism here regarding the Ouya and it's potential success (or lack thereof). A major argument here seems to be that anyone can put Android-esque stuff on their computer, and use the TV as a moniter. While this is true, I believe that the average consumer has no interest in doing it. For AAers like us, even those with little or no technical prowess (like me), a project like that is fun and rewarding. For the average person, however, it is daunting, tedious, intimidating, frustrating, and above all, a royal pain in the ass. I am psyched about Ouya and the easy availability of console ports and emulators on my TV without jumping through hoops.

Edited by toptenmaterial
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Remember though that the CPU in the 360 is in-order execution while the tegra3 is (I think) out of order execution. There is a reason the CPU in the 360 has to have hyper threading to try to get around the limitation that in-order execution has. Also you forgot about the tegra3s Companion Core (i think its locked at 500mhz) which technically makes it 5 cores.

 

Being that the tegra3 t-33 is being used in the Ouya makes the memory bandwidth around 6.4GB/s. Plus being that the tegra3 isn't going to be limited by battery life and the fact its case is going to have better cooling they can pump it up a bit (maybe even overclock it a bit) to give it more performance.

 

The only real limiting factor here is the GPU.

 

Excellent points, many of which I wasn't aware of! :thumbsup:

 

I think this hardware should be more than capable of pulling off some interesting games.

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