Since Sega bowed out of the videogame home console business after the relative failure of their final system, the Dreamcast, the home gaming market has largely been contested between the triumvirate of tech giants Sony and Microsoft, and iconic game maker Nintendo.
Enter Ouya, a little startup looking to make a big splash in the home gaming market with a completely new console business model; one stripped directly from the mobile gaming world and plunked into a $99 Android shell which they hope will find its way under your TV in the near future. The first machines are expected to ship in March 2013.
While the startup has already received some funding from investors, they're also launched a Kickstarter campaign Tuesday to help, well, kickstart their project into high gear.
The system's specs are already in place, and feature a Tegra quad-core processor to power the Android 4.0 software. Also of note is the controller, which looks like a typical game controller, save for the inclusion of a touch pad to make it a simpler process for porting mobile touch games to the console.
The system will also have an integrated game store, and you can even root and hack it to your heart's content without voiding your warranty, as well as easily take apart the system and controllers, which will purposefully be held together by the most standard of screws.
While it all sounds nice on the surface, one must wonder if this model of cheap, simplistic games, innovative as they may or may not be compared to the increasingly cookie cutter fare found on rival consoles, has any chance of succeeding in the living room, and for a $99 entry fee?
Selling $1 games to bored people looking for a quick gaming fix while they're stuck on a bus is one thing, expecting that same level of success with serious gamers (after all, how many casual gaming fans are going to plunk down $99 for this system?) who have their Ouya sitting beside their Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4, is quite another.
Mobile games succeed largely because they're mobile and they're cheap. Take half of that equation out and you're now stuck with cheap as the main selling point, with a rather non-cheap $99 price tag to gain access to that cheapness.
It's certainly a unique concept, and with a massive base of potential games available immediately upon the system's release, it's certainly possible a niche could be found and a foothold established. It's also possible the concept hasn't been tested for a reason; that it simply won't work, that there's no market for $99 consoles selling $1 non-mobile games. Only time will tell.
What's your take on Ouya? Does it interest you? Do you see it having any meaningful success? Give us your thoughts on this unique potential entrant to the console wars.
