OUYA Video Game Console Review

OUYA Video Game Console Review

With all of the video game systems out there focusing on great graphics, huge storage amounts, terrific game play, and strong followings of online and offline players, it is hard to imagine room for a new type of gaming system. It seems this is exactly what OUYA is trying to do.  We first spotted the OUYA game system while reading Delta Air Lines' on-board Sky Magazine. In Sky was a small article announcing the OUYA as an entirely new "open" gaming platform with seemingly descent technological specifications. According to the article, the predicted launch date is April of 2013 with an estimated price of $99.00.  That's right, just $99. The idea intrigued us. An open gaming system, on a whole new platform, and powered by Android 4.0. This seems like a recipe for a cult following if not full blown success. OUYA is even touting that all OUYA consoles are a development kit meaning there is not any expensive software to buy to design and build your own games.

For those who are not in the know, an "open" gaming system means one that anyone can write games and programs for. This is not a revolutionary concept (Mozilla Firefox browser, Linux and Android are all open source software), but having an open gaming system is. 

As recently as the launch of the Microsoft Kinect in 2010, and almost immediate hacking of the device aggravating Microsoft, game system makers were trying to prevent consumers from hacking, decoding, or otherwise "rooting" devices in order to write their own programs to run these devices. Manufacturers licensing agreements prevented these types of "hacks" under threat of law enforcement penalties and fines. Most makers seem worried about people reverse engineering devices and discovering the proprietary methods used to create such designs.  

We should note that once Microsoft relented and welcomed the decoding of the Kinect, we now see the powerful Kinect used in robots, computing, and even medical projects allowing vast use of the device once limited to gaming on the xbox360. 

This type of open gaming is what OUYA seems to want to replicate. Open source coding and game production seems encouraged by OUYAs designers according to our research and reading; now this idea is refreshing! We could see some awesome games, improvements and collaborative efforts like never before seen on a gaming console. Even with all of the possibilities, there are still haters out there.

One early review seems unnecessarily scathing since the OUYA system has not hit shelves yet. This review bashes the attempt to bring handheld-style video games to home TV screens and disregards the entire project through an argument that people play cell phone based games in short bursts and put them down. The author argues that these handheld games are designed to be played on the go and not on TVs at home. The author seems to forget that a good bulk of game play these days are on games like Zynga's Poker or FarmVille titles often played through facebook interface on the computer. To take a look at one review Click Here!  

Code writers, hackers and the common man have all been waiting for an open gaming system. Even the game writing novice will find joy in trying to create their own game and playing it on the OUYA. This could be the new way we game. The OUYA has the potential to be as youtube is to movies. youtube is not quite the big screen budget and special effects, but we can spend hours on those quick entertaining clips on youtube.

Also making us smile, after a little research, was finding out that OUYA is getting help with its launch through the online funding platform Kickstarter. The Kickstarter website allows consumers to decide what projects come to the marketplace by allowing consumers direct investment in the project. In return, you usually get a place in line to receive completed merchandise or some other incentive. As an example of this, for pledges of $10 to $10,000 to the OUYA project, backers will receive everything from guaranteed user names to early delivery of the console or even meeting the OUYA designers over dinner.

Our guess is that the WiFi and Bluetooth enabled OUYA will have the ability to log long hours on facebook while playing all of the already free titles. Even if facebook and Zynga do not jump on the open gaming platform bandwagon immediately, a successful launch of OUYA with an opportunity for those companies to make money somehow, they will surely climb on board or find themselves quickly irrelevant in the gaming world. Couple that with the ability for everyone to design their own games and this open gaming concept has the ability to become a big part of how we game in the future. 

To see more of the OUYA project on kickstarter, Click Here!