Ouya, a revolution in the making – Part 2
Only five more days to go for the Ouya Kickstarter funding page and there is one question on everyone’s mind: How will Ouya compete with the three giant console manufacturers and even more importantly how will it get developer support from the core developers?
Julie Uhrman, the CEO and the founder of Ouya, responded and believes that the Android powered console would compete with its low price of $99 which is attractive considering the features that the tiny console boasts. Regarding games, Uhrman stated that
don’t expect Ouya to be the home for mobile game ports just because it uses an Android powered Operating System (OS).
“We’re not building a new home for mobile ports. In fact, we think that our unique controller —which offers everything you’ve come to expect: fast buttons, triggers, laser-precise analog sticks, a D-Pad – PLUS a will inspire developers will be create new
types of gameplay for it,” said Uhrman in an interview with DarkZero Gaming magazine while discussing the availability of games on Ouya.
It was also announced last week that Ouya had signed a partnership deal with the cloud gaming streaming service, OnLive. This opens up a lot of possibilities for the upcoming console. For starters, it will now be able to compete even with next generation
consoles despite not having the graphical capabilities to even match the current generation consoles.
The addition of OnLive means that games from over fifty publishers will be available on the console. This means that Ouya will be launching with a library of over two hundred and seventy titles which is an unprecedented amount for any console launch. The
only drawback of OnLive is that the service is currently only supported in the United States, United Kingdom and Belgium and it will be a while before cloud gaming becomes available worldwide.
Ouya’s recent rise to popularity has also caused many developers to take notice of the console. Square Enix has announced that it will be bringing Final Fantasy III to the console and the game will not be another port but it will be redesigned from the ground
up with Ouya in mind.
Uhrman has also mentioned that even though Ouya will use the nVidia Tegra 3 chip, which is commonly used in cell phones, it will still be able to deliver better graphics because the console “won’t have a screen. We won’t have a battery. We won’t have to
balance (and trade) power to increase battery life. So we can crank up the performance of these chips. And, we’re already working closely with Nvidia to do just that.”
The CEO was also asked if the 8gb internal storage would be enough to satisfy gamers to which she replied that Ouya has a built in USB port which means that gamers who need more space can attach external hard drives and increase the storage capacity ‘exponentially’.
Considering the extra funds which the Kickstarter project has received, Uhrman stated that the team was looking at that as additional pre-orders and would every fan that backed the project with $95 or more would get the console for free when it launches.
The console is expected to be released by March 2013.
DISCLAIMER: The views and the opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of bettor.com.
Tags: