News - OUYA Android games console - hottest ever Kickstarter

[HEXUS]

Console project has achieved pledges of nearly $4 million in two days.

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[jnutt]

Could be on to a winner

[Tartanpimpernel]

certainly has huge potential, few guys I use to work with are already signed up as developers for it.

they just need to make sure there is some sort of quality control for the published games, you only need look at appstore & googlemarket ( or whatever they are called ) to see how bloated they have become with very very poor games....

[directhex]

I totally don't understand the appeal of free-to-play Android games, on a big screen or otherwise

[cameronlite]

Phone and tablet games are fun because they're on a small screen....

[cheesemp]

I'd certainly have one if I had the cash but getting married in October so the cupboard is bare. Otherwise I'd have purchased when it was first announced. As well as getting some good android games it should also be fantastic media player too (iplayer etc!).

[b0redom]

Not sold on the idea. Anyone remember the GP2X?

[Brewster0101]

you only need look at appstore & googlemarket ( or whatever they are called ) to see how bloated they have become with very very poor games....

Google Play - :-P

[Brewster0101]

Wonder how Sony feel about this - considering this will piss on their parade with that google Tv product.

[Hicks12]

I totally don't understand the appeal of free-to-play Android games, on a big screen or otherwise

"We're handing the reins over to the developer with only one condition: at least some gameplay has to be free. We borrowed the free-to-play model from games like League of Legends, Team Fortress 2, Triple Town, and many others. Developers can offer a free demo with a full-game upgrade, in-game items or powers, or ask you to subscribe."

Guess free to play is a broad statement by them . I saw this a couple weeks ago (not on kickstarter) and thought it had potential but thats about it unfortunately, you can buy an xbox 1 or ps2 for <£20 and probably get a controller with it along with having a huge catalogue of cheap games, thats about the graphic levels of these mobile devices and i think that would have my eye a bit more.

It has potential but i think its for people who dont have a 'high' end smartphone as for example my phone has HDMI out and works flawlessly, could connect a bluetooth controller to it then id have the same thing.

I can see exactly why they have done it and i really hope it works for them as we know how locked down it is for indy developers to actually get anywhere on the big screen now adays. But i couldnt justify putting my money down atm, maybe if i see it working in the flesh i may but as always the $99 on kickstarter is ruined by extra P&P ($20).

[alfabet0]

I totally don't understand the appeal of free-to-play Android games, on a big screen or otherwise

Love the concept but as above the pay-to-win formula and a mix of poor quality control are big issues with the Google Play Store.

Here's hoping for killer indie games like Binding of isaac, Terraria, James Town, Bastion.

[crossy]

Developers can offer a free demo with a full-game upgrade, in-game items or powers, or ask you to subscribe.

Demo+paid upgrade is what appeals most to me. Although I do have a couple of games that are ad-supported and to be honest most of them I'd probably be willing to pay a quid or three for an ad-less version. The one that really annoys me though is a solitaire collection I bought off of TegraZone (for my tablet) - I paid for it, and it's still got ad's in it, that's just taking the p*ss. And it's a poor game to boot. Subscription gaming doesn't appeal to me, and having to buy in-game items to progress also is a major league no-no, although missions as DLC I'd probably be okay with.

Getting back to the games console - looks like a good idea IF they can get the pricing right. Can't help thinking though that they're setting their sights a little low. Get Google accreditation (so you can have the Play store) and add a uSD slot and surely it'd be a nice alternative to these GoogleTV boxes - albeit one with a gaming slant?

[MrNeil]

Keep an eye on this one !!
Might be one for my boy's

[rover214]

With Rooting and such with the hackers to have an open source, the possibilities are endless,

Full format media player, smart tv, casual games console, emulation,

I'm sold

[Whiternoise]

Until the quality control bar is raised a LOT, I'm not interested. The best independent games come out on the PC still and my monitor is the same resolution as my telly (1080p) so that's not a winning factor.

Price wise, you can get an Xbox 360 for about a hundred quid used these days with a stonking back catalogue. Or as someone mentioned, a PS2 is dirt cheap and you get access to both PS2 and PSX games. I would be tempted by emulation on my TV, but for starters it's legally questionable and I can just download them onto my computer if I want to.

I'm willing to pay for games that are good and unfortunately a budget of <£5 per gamer just doesn't crank out AAA games. Most of the decent indie games release at between £10-20, though there are a few good casual adventure games that are cheaper, like Machinarium.

There is still a chronic lack of good storytelling. I want a game with a cracking story that makes me empathise with the characters, not a flash game that's been ported to a phone. Remember, Kongregate is still free and is a lot better than most of the crap on Android/iOS. No reason why you can't hook up your computer to your TV with a mouse and keyboard to play flash games...

[capt_cornflake]

Surely the Google TV does a lot of this?
Or most phones have some facility to hook up to a TV - add a bluetooth controller and you're away (if the game supports it).

The only reason I can see why anyone would want one of these would be to use as a multi-platform emulator, but as that would be legally dubious (or outright illegal) they're not going to be making that a selling point.