You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
With the Microsoft Xbox 720 and the Sony PlayStation 4 looming, it may seem strange that an Android-based gaming console called OUYA would have any impact on the public’s interest. But there it is, a tiny box working with Google’s mobile OS and the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor (with 4-PLUS-1 technology) and the ability to run a lovely collection of games right out of the box. And given the news and updates we’ve seen over the past few weeks, it’s more than just the Kickstarter fans that are aiming to get their hands on the OUYA action.
The most recent news bit to hit the OUYA-sphere has been word from the creators of the console that they’ve already seen such a great response, they’re planning on releasing a new model every year. That’s a schedule only a smartphone or tablet generally keeps. It’s also been claimed by the company that the first retail sales window will be June of 2013 – coming up quick!
Partners have been stacking up with intentions of getting games onto the OUYA platform since before the hardware was finalized. In fact we’ll not really know exactly what the console looks like in its end-form until the public has their hands on the retail version of the device, but still, the innards are enticing! Have a peek at this brief list of contributors and games promised to be attached to the system thus far:
• Words with Friends creator Paul Bettner
• Double Fine Productions’ Tim Schafer
• Firefox creators Mozilla
• CodeZombieGames who brought on a first-impressions look at the hardware
• Namco Bandai
• Plex
• HAWKEN!
• Twitch TV
• Minecraft
• XBMC
• Vevo
• Square Enix who’ll bring Final Fantasy III
• Onlive for game streaming of all kinds
• Human Element in a prequel format
• And the OUYA team has also revealed lists of games promised for the console
There are already Developer Consoles out there in the wild and they’ve been shipping since December to a full list known only to the company itself.
have a peek at the timeline below to see more recent OUYA action and stay tuned to SlashGear for the upcoming launch – and any oddities that occur between here and there!
OUYA Accelerates is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
It looks like the OUYA will see an upgrade each year. At the 2013 DICE Summit, OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman said that they want to follow a strategy similar to the mobile industry, where manufacturers release new phones each year. However, instead of releasing a brand-new console each year, the OUYA will get upgraded components at the same price of $99.
Uhrman said that the updated yearly consoles will “take advantage of faster, better processors,” thanks to the decline of component prices every year. However, it seems that the yearly console will get a naming scheme instead of simply remaining the “OUYA.” Uhrman says that each new console will be the “OUYA 2,” OUYA 3,” and so on.
However, Uhrman assures gamers that all games will be compatible with all the consoles, meaning that you don’t have to worry about an older game not working on a newer console. This is certainly great news for gamers, but since the OUYA won’t see a release cycle like all the other gaming consoles, one may worry about futureproofing, and the minute they buy an OUYA, it’ll be obsolete within a year, something that other console gamers don’t need to worry about.
In any case, the OUYA should be a huge it when it release to the public in a few months. In fact, it’s already been a huge hit. The Kickstarter campaign collected almost $8.6 million, absolutely shattering its original goal. This first OUYA comes with a quad-core A9 Tegra 3 clocked at 1.6GHz, so if the company sticks with NVIDIA for future consoles, we could see them move to the Tegra 4 chip that we’ve been hearing a lot about recently.
[via Engadget]
OUYA to release new console every year is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The OUYA Android-based gaming console will get hardware refreshes on an annual basis, founder and CEO Julie Uhrman revealed in an interview with Engadget. Uhrman was at DICE, an annual summit that focuses on video games, where she also announced new game publisher partners for the OUYA platform. The refresh cycle will more closely resemble those of smartphones than those of traditional consoles, which generally enjoy multi-year lifespans extending into double digits.
“There will be a new OUYA every year. There will be an OUYA 2 and an OUYA 3,” Uhrman told Engadget in an interview. That’s a pretty bold declaration of intent from a company that, while immensely successful in their Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, has yet to actually ship production-ready OUYA 1 devices out to the general public, though they have already secured retail partners.
There are a few reasons why current big name consoles have the long life that they do. A lot of money goes into their initial development, for one, meaning that manufacturers like Sony and Microsoft often sell them at a loss for years before they begin to turn a profit on hardware. And there are advantages to this model for the consumer, too: Users don’t have to worry about their hardware and software library becoming obsolete all that quickly when you’ve got a dependable, multi-year upgrade cycle.
Uhrman explains that all games on OUYA will be backwards compatible, at least in so far as they’ll be tied to user accounts independent of hardware, rather than linked to hardware itself. All-digital delivery means that this is easier to accomplish, since there’s no messy business like disc formats to worry about.
Plans for future versions of the console include faster processors, and potentially expanding storage beyond the current 8 GB included. At CES this year, Qualcomm and Nvidia both unveiled next-gen processors, so those are likely candidates for future updates, since the emphasis will be on eking out as much graphics performance as possible from the diminutive OUYA box. The current generation OUYA, when it ships, will have a Tegra 3 on board running at 1.6GHz, which should serve it well, at least compared to current generation smartphones.
While it’s somewhat refreshing to see a consumer electronics maker talk in concrete terms about their future product pipeline, you have to wonder whether or not it’s the right move. Uhrman is now essentially committed to an annual update cycle, which puts pressure on the company to deliver that going forward, and which also means consumers are well aware that if they just wait a little while, they can get hardware with better specs. Plus, if the market turns out to be competitive, there’s no mystery about what your upgrade strategy is for potential rivals.
It’s not necessarily surprising that OUYA wants to update annually; the platform they’re creating is well-suited to a frequent update cycle, and that could be one good way to make inroads against the major players, which remain relatively constant for around a decade. But whatever the company’s plans at this point, it still has to ship and then win over consumers before it can put any of them into action.
Ouya’s CEO Julie Uhrman has announced that the company’s console will buck the trend of most gaming devices, which are infrequently updated, instead offering a new version of the hardware every single year. More »
OUYA founder and CEO Julie Uhrman announced at the DICE (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit that it has partnered with Words With Friends creator Paul Bettner and Double Fine Productions’ Tim Schafer. Both Bettner’s studio and Double Fine will be bringing two games each to the Android-powered $99 game console.
For its part, Double Fine will be providing two game titles to OUYA – Reds and The Cave. Paul Bettner’s Verse studio will also be bringing two titles to the console, but they are currently unannounced. No other details about the partnerships have been announced, and release dates for the titles won’t be available until a future date.
Said Paul Bettner: “OUYA and Verse are nothing less than The Return Of Console Gaming. The last big wave was mobile … And yet I believe we’re about to see another disruption even bigger than this last. Gamers want the App Store in their living room. OUYA will be the first to deliver it, and it’s going to change everything. Again.”
OUYA is a $99 game console that was a running success on Kickstarter, and that is now available for pre-order. The device is currently expected to ship in the beginning of March to Kickstarter backers, and will then roll out to others, with those who order before February 4 getting theirs in April.
OUYA partners with Paul Bettner and Tim Schafer is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
There will be a new OUYA next year, and the year after that, unlike the traditional game console model, where new hardware ships in five- to seven-year generational increments. “Our strategy is very much similar to the mobile strategy,” OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman told us in an interview this afternoon, following her DICE 2013 speech. “There will be a new OUYA every year. There will be an OUYA 2 and an OUYA 3,” she added. One potentially featuring the recently revealed Tegra 4, perhaps, rather than the Tegra 3 powering the first units? It sure sounds like it. “We’ll take advantage of faster, better processors, take advantage of prices falling. So if we can get more than 8GB of Flash in our box, we will,” she explained.
But don’t fret, nervous game buyer. Uhrman assured us that “all the games will be backward compatible” going forward. When pushed on how this will work, she said, “The games will be tied to you, the gamer,” (like Steam is now) rather than tying your game licenses to the hardware you purchased (like, say, Nintendo’s Wii U).
The first OUYA, set to launch for Kickstarter backers this March and at retail in June, comes with a quad-core A9 Tegra 3 that’s been maxed out to 1.6GHz. Uhrman pointed out that, because of OUYA’s home console form factor (which plugs into a wall, rather than relying on a tiny battery), the console will be, “the best Tegra 3 device on the market.” It also doesn’t hurt that OUYA’s working directly with the Tegra 3’s manufacturer, NVIDIA. She said that NVIDIA has a group of folks dedicated solely to getting the chip driving the OUYA to run at its highest capacity ever. We’ll find out what that means when we get our hands on the console later this year. Should you like to hear more from Julie Uhrman ahead of that launch, she’ll be speaking at Engadget’s Expand event this March. Grab your tickets right here!
OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman took to the stage at DICE 2013 today to reveal two new partnerships, one with Psychonauts creator Tim Schafer’s studio Double Fine Productions, and the other with Words with Friends creator Paul Bettner. So far, that means both Double Fine’s Reds and The Cave are headed to OUYA, while Bettner’s Verse studio only announced it was working on two unannounced titles. “I believe we’re about to see another disruption even bigger than this last,” Bettner said, referring to his previous work in the mobile game space. “Gamers want the App Store in their living room. OUYA will be the first to deliver it,” he said.
The OUYA arrives in March for Kickstarter backers, and in April for the rest of the world (even later for retail). It’s unclear exactly when Schafer and Bettner’s games will arrive on the Android-powered console, but we’d expect The Cave to be there sooner than later (it’s already available on other platforms).
Update: This post originally stated that Tim Schafer created the Monkey Island series, when in fact it was created by Ron Gilbert. While Tim Schafer worked on the Monkey Island series, he is not its creator. Sorry about that, readers (and Ron Gilbert)!
Welcome to Tuesday evening everyone. Today we heard that Dell will be going private with the help of a $2 billion loan from Microsoft, while HP reacted to the news of the deal by saying that Dell has a “very tough road ahead.” We learned that OUYA will be sold at retail stores in June, and the 128GB iPad is now available on Apple’s online store. Samsung’s Galaxy brand has eclipsed Android, and Microsoft announced that it will be opening 11 new stores in the US by summer.
We heard a rumor that claimed Nokia will bring 41 megapixel sensors to standard smartphones, and learned that Jelly Bean is now running on 13.6% of devices. Huawei has a press event coming up at MWC 2013 and its invitation suggests we’ll see the Ascend P2, while AT&T added new markets to its 4G LTE network today. Redbox Instant will soon be rolling out of beta on Xbox 360 soon, and Jawbone UP will now connect you to Facebook Open Graph after today’s update.
Apple has launched Breakout Books to highlight indie authors, and BlackBerry 10 Android Jelly Bean integration was confirmed today. Dead Space 3 launched today with Electronic Arts announcing the first DLC for March, and the iOS 6.1 Jailbreak has seen some massive traffic since releasing. We learned that some lucky BlackBerry 10 developers are receiving a limited edition red BlackBerry Z10 handset for free, while at the same time hearing that the BlackBerry Q10 may not launch in the US until sometime early this summer.
The Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook is looking to take on the Macbook Air, and NASA announced that it will broadcast the Progress 48 resupply ship launch. Skeletal remains discovered under a UK parking lot have been confirmed to be King Richard III’s, and The Witcher III: Wild Hunt has been announced. Twitter is reportedly looking at two-factor authorization after a security breach, while Take-Two reported some strong financials for its fiscal Q3 2013. Finally tonight, we go hands-on with the new web-based Instagram feed, and Chris Burns tells us why HTC’s “new sound and camera experience” may simply be deja-vu. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of the night folks!
SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: February 5, 2013 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
With less than two months before OUYA’s launch, it’s time to tell the truth — its future doesn’t look promising. The OUYA is starting to feel like a gaming console without the games. Publishers and developers aren’t promoting OUYA games because there’s nothing to promote — nothing that was specifically developed for the launch line-up. Even worse, Final Fantasy III will be the flagship launch title, a game that has been available on countless gaming systems for years. OUYA isn’t the gaming revolution that backers expected.
Earlier today, Darrell Etherington reported that the Android-based gaming console would launch in-store in June. The more than 68,000 backers to its Kickstarter campaign will get their consoles in March. While the company is still planning to ship on time, that was only half of the launch challenge.
Gamers buy a new gaming system based on two key elements: launch games and who is making the console. As the OUYA is not coming from an established company, the team is facing an even harder task — selling enough good games to make the console interesting.
You may say that the OUYA is an Android-based console and that many titles will be ported to a TV screen and OUYA’s gaming controller in minutes. Yet, there is no way you could compare an Android game with what gamers expect from a traditional gaming console. Even the Nintendo Wii U with its pretty weak launch line-up could count on ZombiU, Assassin’s Creed 3 or New Super Mario Bros. U. Angry Birds (or an equivalent game) and Final Fantasy III won’t convince an experienced gamer. You don’t need a dedicated device to play Canabalt.
Moreover, Best Buy or Target customers don’t care about Android. When they’ll walk into a store and see the Android logo, it won’t mean anything to them. Normal people, those who don’t usually back projects on Kickstarter, they buy a Samsung phone, not an Android phone made by Samsung. That’s why average consumers do not line up to buy Nexus phones. Without its Kickstarter video, the OUYA is uninteresting.
When it comes to games, even though OUYA claims to launch with 200 games, most of them are just Android ports or come from inexperienced developers. There is no big system-seller that may convince undecided gamers. And if you backed the console for its emulating capacity, you’ll be part of a very tiny minority.
Vevo, XBMC or TuneIn are nice additions, but are already available on most TV boxes or support equivalent apps. The Roku, the Apple TV or even the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 have long been hooked up to everyone’s TV, ready to stream content. The OUYA will not sell en masse for these apps alone.
Before the end of the year, OUYAs will gather dust on store shelves, next to Boxee devices and other products that promised to revolutionize TV or gaming without actually achieving this status. The OUYA won’t be the first to disappoint, and there will certainly be other gaming consoles in the future that will end up in the attic in no time.
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