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$99 Ouya Console Hits Retail Today -- Already Sold Out At Amazon
As the Xbox One and the PS4 battle it out for next-gen dominance, the indie darling of a less crowded gaming news cycle hits stores today. The Ouya made headlines when it raised over $8.5 million to build a $99 open-source console that promised to bring the fire and excitement of the indie gaming world into the living room. Now it’s hitting stores.
“It’s incredible to think that a little under a year ago Ouya was just an idea — we wanted to do something completely new in console gaming: build a $99 game console, with no discs to buy, open to all developers, and affordable to all gamers,” CEO Julie Uhrman said in a statement Tuesday. “Today, Ouya is real.”
Ouya is already sold out at Amazon, but it’s unclear whether this is a result of supply or demand. The company doesn’t have the logistical resources of its bigger rivals, and even some early backers haven’t even received their consoles yet. It is, however still available at Target , Gamestop and Best Buy , though prospective buyers may want to call ahead to make sure any brick and mortar outlet has some on hand. Early reviews of the Kickstarter edition started to surface a few months ago, and few were kind. The developers were very clear that the early console was a beta version. Now we’ll see how people respond once final retail copies start circulating.
The key to the Ouya is that every console is essentially a development kit. The company wants creation, discovery, and play to blend seamlessly for a broad community of people who love indie games and the people who make them. It’s the kind of thing that plays very well in a Kickstarter setting, but I still wonder about the mass market appeal. A successful indie game like Minecraft can sell itself, but moving hardware is another matter entirely. Can the notion of unfettered access to an ocean of indie games appeal to enough people to generate a sustainable development ecosystem? Cheap and free games need massive install bases to thrive. I’d love to see that ecosystem evolve on Ouya, but I wonder.
I’m not convinced that this first model Ouya is the open-source console that redefines video games. But I look on the horizon and I see steam boxes, Gamesticks, Shields and increasingly powerful phones and tablets with attached gaming controllers. The console landscape is changing — the very fact that both the Xbox One and the PS4 are now based on standard PC architecture is a symbol of that as well. Even if the Ouya isn’t the console to crack the industry apart, I think that this is very much a sign of things to come. These little boxes are getting cheaper, more versatile, and more powerful every day. The time will come when they can comfortably serve the gaming needs of all but the most graphics-obsessed gamers.
As the Xbox One and the PS4 battle it out for next-gen dominance, the indie darling of a less crowded gaming news cycle hits stores today. The Ouya made headlines when it raised over $8.5 million to build a $99 open-source console that promised to bring the fire and excitement of the indie gaming world into the living room. Now it’s hitting stores.
“It’s incredible to think that a little under a year ago Ouya was just an idea — we wanted to do something completely new in console gaming: build a $99 game console, with no discs to buy, open to all developers, and affordable to all gamers,” CEO Julie Uhrman said in a statement Tuesday. “Today, Ouya is real.”
Ouya is already sold out at Amazon, but it’s unclear whether this is a result of supply or demand. The company doesn’t have the logistical resources of its bigger rivals, and even some early backers haven’t even received their consoles yet. It is, however still available at Target , Gamestop and Best Buy , though prospective buyers may want to call ahead to make sure any brick and mortar outlet has some on hand. Early reviews of the Kickstarter edition started to surface a few months ago, and few were kind. The developers were very clear that the early console was a beta version. Now we’ll see how people respond once final retail copies start circulating.
The key to the Ouya is that every console is essentially a development kit. The company wants creation, discovery, and play to blend seamlessly for a broad community of people who love indie games and the people who make them. It’s the kind of thing that plays very well in a Kickstarter setting, but I still wonder about the mass market appeal. A successful indie game like Minecraft can sell itself, but moving hardware is another matter entirely. Can the notion of unfettered access to an ocean of indie games appeal to enough people to generate a sustainable development ecosystem? Cheap and free games need massive install bases to thrive. I’d love to see that ecosystem evolve on Ouya, but I wonder.
I’m not convinced that this first model Ouya is the open-source console that redefines video games. But I look on the horizon and I see steam boxes, Gamesticks, Shields and increasingly powerful phones and tablets with attached gaming controllers. The console landscape is changing — the very fact that both the Xbox One and the PS4 are now based on standard PC architecture is a symbol of that as well. Even if the Ouya isn’t the console to crack the industry apart, I think that this is very much a sign of things to come. These little boxes are getting cheaper, more versatile, and more powerful every day. The time will come when they can comfortably serve the gaming needs of all but the most graphics-obsessed gamers.
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