Ouya CEO Plans To Release New Console Every Year

[fulano]

...I thought that this was an Android device, not an Apple.

Because Android manufacturers don't put out new phones and tablets each year?

While this seems like a bad idea from a console standpoint, it might actually work out pretty well for them if they can retain backwards compatibility(no reason why they can't if they keep it Android) and keep the price down. The Ouya is going to be pretty low key compared to other consoles, but after a couple of iterations we could have something that rivals or even surpasses the glacial advancement of mainstream console technology.

Frankly, if they charge $100 for every version they put out (and of course assuming they can keep developers making games for the line of devices), this could be the start of something big.

Or it could flop. Not everyone can be a winner in the console wars.

Exactly. In the end it all comes down to price. If it makes some kind of sense then people will buy it -- some are forgetting that the whole point of the console is to make it hackeable in terms of hardware, also, so they may as well sell freaking update modules to the thing, or maybe third parties can jump in on it, or build your own custom Ouya, or something.

It could all go south, but so far they are doing something distinct enough from the current model that warrants looking into.

 

[FoolKiller]

They won't make it to 3. The second one will do poorly and just like consoles, the devs design to the lowest common denominator so that more people buy it. So we will see 95% of the games made for OUYA even when OUYA 3 would be ready to launch. I don't think the OUYA people understand this market very well.

 

[Screamarie]

....So if I want to keep ouya updated I have to pay you...at least a hundred dollars a year?...I mean how does this work, I just trade in my last ouya maybe? Well then what the hell was the point of getting the first ouya? And does that mean that all the games I had on my last ouya will now be lost cause I went out and bought a new ouya? I mean this...I don't understand how this business model works...

I mean I don't have a hundred dollars every year to drop on a new console.

I...yeah the more I hear about the ouya the less I get excited. I mean there are some really great indie games out there...but the majority of them are shit, so why would I spend money on this console that, haven't not even been released, already seems like it's trying to steal my wallet? Especially since if I just wait, just about any good indie game I might really I can probably get elsewhere or get super cheap off of a humble indie bundle?

I'm not saying Ouya doesn't have any reason to exist and there may come some really neat stuff from it...but...I'm not really feeling it.

 

[Krat Arona]

>Before Article "Gee, this is going to be an inexpensive and enjoyable experience

>After Article "Welp! Time to wait for the various Steam Boxes to come out!"

 

[jon_sf]

I imagine that the "versioning" going on with the Ouya will be iterative improvements to hardware, as you can get better chips & graphics cards for N dollars as time goes by.

Kindof like how the PS3 have had several versions (original, slim, super-slim), with changes to form factor, some hardware tweaks, etc. I don't think they keep changing the APIs, so that everyone needs to go out and upgrade every year.

Or like Apple with iPhone/iPad/iOS. They come out with new versions annually, but you can still run everything on devices that are a few generations old. I have an iPhone 4, and it runs all my apps just fine, even though the 4S and 5 have come out in the meantime.

 

[Prosis]

It could be that they're doing the Nintendo DS thing; first one comes out, then one that's smaller with some extra feature, then one that's smaller/longer battery life, etc. You know, bells and whistles. Silly, but not really a bad practice. Waste of money for anyone who already has an Ouya, but may motivate new customers to buy one.

If Ouya 1 and Ouya 2 are significantly different from one another as say, Xbox and Xbox360 (as in, an actual new system), they're sunk. That'll never work. Cell phones work because cellphones and touch pads are hot topic. They are the Abercrombie and Fitch of technology. People buy them yearly because they're hip and fashionable, not for any real benefit

Also, there would have to be reverse compatibility. Otherwise, game companies could not make games with development longer than a few months. After all, why make a game, when the system you're making it for is going to be obsolete? I think PS2 and Game Boy Advanced are really the only systems that ever got a few years of good development after the next systems (PS3 and DS) had come out. In other words, it generally doesn't work.

First and foremost though, they have to make Ouya, and make it suceed. I don't care if they plan up to Ouya 26, until we get an actual game system in our hands, its kind of a moot point.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Lol, of course they have to upgrade, its already oldish HW, mobile processors are moving leaps and bounds every year. Ouya will try to be a steam like client for android iOS type games. Kind of defeats the purpose of a cheap console when its likely that one could only really afford to skip one iteration before completely loosing new software support. In fact I would rather see ouya become some sort of standardized android gaming platform/software suite and let us use out own hardware. That way your not contributing to the fragmentation of cheap consoles based on android.

 

[Scars Unseen]

And again, phones are a completely different market. People need phones, and are therefore more willing to upgrade and replace them. People don't need consoles. If they wanted a gaming machine they could upgrade every year, they'd already be PC gamers.

Bullshit. People do not need a new phone ever year, or even every other year. People don't need smart phones at all(except possibly in a few careers that have adapted the tech into the way they do business). People get them because they want them. I've had the same phone for the last 5 years, and it still makes phone calls. The only reason I switched 5 years ago is because I got married, and switching carriers allowed me to make free phone calls to my wife.

The people that buy new smart phones every year do so for one of two reasons: the phone's perception as a status symbol, and because they wanted to use apps that run better on newer hardware(often games). No one buys a new phone every year because the new one makes phone calls so much better(unless they switch carriers).

 

[Serrenitei]

You are all being dramatic and silly. You are talking about a hardware that is structured on mobile technology, which is still iterating insanely fast. You can't think of the Ouya as a traditional console because it's not. It bridges the space between mobile and console. I can guarantee:

You WILL see:
-Increased hardware year-over-year to keep on par with current mobile processing capabilities and abilities
-New form factors / colors to denote year over year iterations
-Games that can be played across all generations of hte platform (assuming processing power is sufficient and everything)

You WONT see:
-A new UI every release, designed only for that iteration of the platform
-Games that can only be played on a certain piece of hardware
-The requirement to update your system with every iterative release
-Games tied to a specific piece of hardware (Ouya 1, 2, or 3)

When you think how quickly everything changes in the mobile space, to keep developers interested, they have to keep up SOMEWHAT on the mobile market. Iterating every year isn't going to keep them on the bleeding edge of mobile technologies, but just about smack in the middle of the processor life cycle.

Ouya is a platform, built on Android. Think about how android runs OS releases -- it'll be the same with Ouya because it has to be the same because the core technology is the same. The games available on Ouya will still be able to played on future generations (provide any major tweaks to the platform - and the game development stopping).

TL;DR - this is the only thing they can do stay current in the market, and continue to attract developers to the platform. New Ouya models will be more akin to iterative cell phone technology that current console iteration.

 

[Serrenitei]

No it doesn't. Phones aren't defined by their Android functionality, but by their ability to allow you to connect and communicate with anyone on the planet, no matter whether you're at home, on the bus, in the library, at work or at a restaurant. That is, and always will be, a phone's primary function, and its a function the Ouya isn't even close to approximating.

It's a budget console using mobile parts to cut costs. That's it. It has a controller, it playes videogames, it doesn't make video calls. Console, not phone.

Ok let's try this again where you actually read what I wrote. I never said the Ouya console was a phone, I said that it bridges the gap between mobile and console. In fact, I never even used the word phone in that paragraph. What I'm saying is that you the console hardware iteration will develop like phone hardware. If that's too far of a concept, try thinking of it as iterating on a computer.

Sure, better computers are coming out all the time because people buy them, all the time. Not the same people buy a new computer ever 3 months, but there are new models releasing every 3 months to account for changes in technology. The Ouya will be the same thing - the hardware that supports the Ouya platform will continue to get better and better. How many developers still develop for a PC only capable of running windows 95?

Iterating every 6 years on the current console life cycle would kill Ouya. The developers adjust to changing technology much faster, and leave older, slower technology behind. A quick, open iterative process is what Ouya has to have to survive. Does that mean that when Ouya 2 comes out that your Ouya 1 will suddenly stop playing games? Or that No one will create games for it anymore? No, that would be stupid. By the time you hit 2 years out, the Ouya 3 you will begin to find games that can't play on the Ouya 1's hardware, and you'll have to upgrade.

Kinda like, ya know, it were a computer, or a phone that requires frequent updating to stay on top of the times. You CANNOT think of this machine in the current console life cycle. It does not work.

 

[Baresark]

With the speed at which this technology progresses, I'm not surprised. People are kind of freaking out over nothing. As it runs android games, it's not like the games are going to progress by leaps and bounds every year. If you wait 2 or three generations to buy a new Ouya ($99 every 3 years, hardly a bank breaker for most), you won't really be cut off from new games. Most of them are shit. A lot of them require very little power. The ones that seem to require the most power are in fact nothing but microtransaction machines.

 

[LordLundar]

Releasing a new console every year.....guess they are using the apple business model. lol. From what i saw on wiki it has FF3 being released on it and maybe a SNES/N64 emulator and a load of other pointless shovel ware sounding games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ouya_software

The emulators alone are worth the price of admission. It is a massive selling point for people interested in all kinds of old software, for whatever reason, not just restricted to console emulators.

Unfortunately this brings up the issue of the ROMs. Unlike PCs where there is no control on the manufacturer side, consoles are closed systems and there's a degree of control that can (and for legal reasons, should) be utilized.

The problem is either they'll promise the ROMS are freely accessible making the emulators worthwhile but opening the company up to litigation or setting up a system to stop ROM access (feasible and the related system ROMs have not been updated in some time so it's unlikely they'll be modified to bypass said restrictions) which will avoid litigation but render the emulators useless. There's no way they can promise both, certainly not without authorization from Nintendo. Unlike the ones making the emulators who can put up a disclaimer to avoid legal issues, the company making the console does not have that luxury. Those emulators come out and there isn't likely to be an Ouya 2.

There was a lot about the Ouya that was making me uneasy. I wish this wasn't the case but this does not surprise me.

 

[porpoise hork]

At the very least a let each console have a two year life span for the tech to advance enough to make it worthwhile to the customer base to actually want to upgrade. By doing an annual release you will quickly flood the market and sales will fall as the tech improvements will be too little to make the expense worth it. Apple is seeing this happen now with ios product line. Sales are off what they were projected to be and it is costing Apple billions. I really would hate to see a company who approached the public to get started only to turn its back on that same public when they scream that said company is proposing something dumb.