Ouya, The Android Game Changer

Android  is getting ready to take on video gaming consoles, hopefully solidifying itself in the home entertainment field. The Ouya, founded by Julie Uhrman, who has held positions at Game Fly and Vivendi Universal, is a gaming console built on Android with the idea that it will be fully-hackable and free to tinker with.

Expected to begin shipping March 2013, the Ouya will have a quad-core Tegra 3 processor and 1 GB of RAM in a cubed casing and a controller not unlike an Xbox 360′s with a touchpad.

The idea behind the Ouya is that every game be free to play, or provide a free trial version. The hardware would include standard screws to provide easy access to the internals, and every Ouya box would come with its own software development kit (SDK).

The project has the backing of several well known indie game devs and will be using the App Store model to bring games to the television. Startups have not always been able to break into the console gaming market, but if Ouya makes the right moves, it may prove to be fierce competition for the likes of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

With the quality of Android games constantly increasing as devices rapidly become more powerful, and by providing an app market, console games will have to make some adjustments to not loose ground to something like the Ouya. That is, if they dont get cockblocked by Apple!

Source: Wired