Game on with Android and Ouya

All right Android users, I want you to be honest: how many of you play games on your Android device? How many of you play a LOT of games? Yeah, sure. Angry Birds counts.

Gaming is one of the top uses for mobile devices, and a thriving casual games business has sprung up to take advantage of the way many of us are now choosing to relax.

In fact, many people seem to be choosing mobile over gaming consoles these days, thanks to the more casual nature of mobile gaming; throughout the day you can drop in and out of a game often. But there are still a core group of gamers who want to play on a big screen with a bucket of chips at hand.

That’s the rationale behind the new Kickstarter-funded Ouya console: it’s an Android-powered console that’s scheduled to retail for only $99. Even better, with its positioning as an “open source” gaming platform, it’s designed to make it easier to create games for the platform, too, something that’s more daunting for the other consoles.

Each console will have the ability to develop games without having to purchase licenses or dev kits. The one condition? Each title created for the Ouya must have at least some free gameplay. Oh, and the console will be easily hackable, too.

In other words, even if you charge money for your game, there has to be a playable demo that users can try out before sinking money into it. That’s a world of difference from sinking $60 into an Xbox game only to find out that it sucks.

Hardware-wise, the console won’t be bleeding edge, but it’s not intended to be. It’ll come with Tegra 3 processor/graphics, a gig of RAM and 8 gigs of flash storage, and a 1080p HDMI connection to your television. It’ll come with one wireless controller, but you can buy additional controllers. There’ll be WiFi onboard, as well as Bluetooth 4.0, and a single USB port for expansion. And the whole thing will be powered by Ice Cream Sandwich.

While other companies have tried to introduce alternate gaming platforms (anyone remember the N-Gage?), there definitely appears to be a demand for this particular console. While the Kickstarter goal to bring this console to production was $950,000, the total amount raised is now sitting at over $5 million, with over 20 days still to go. And, as a reminder for those not familiar with the Kickstarter concept: that’s just from people willing to fork over their money before the console is even in production.

Between this and the recent success of the Raspberry Pi, it’s clear that there’s a growing demand for open-source do-it-yourself hardware projects. Partly, it’s so people can set them up, roll up their sleeves, and start to learn something. But of course, some people are interested because…well, because it’s just plain fun.

Read more: http://www.itworldcanada.com/blogs/android/2012/07/18/game-on-with-android-and-ouya/63752/#ixzz213FvIsfv
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