Ouya: $99 hackable Android game console

to some degree you're right, it does seem to be a redundant device. And more than a few of us have done exactly that. On the same token, not that many games on Android and programmed to use a controller such as Dead Space, Need for Speed, Angry Birds, and so forth. Yet, some are such as Dead Trigger, GTAIII (granted this is a port),and Shadowgun.

Why someone would want this, is an excellent question that is more on subjectivity, than objectivity. Personally, I got it to support an alternative to mainstream consoles--Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo. I don't piicture anything like this becoming a big threat to them, but as Michael Patcher said, could be a nice second console. One that is just always hooked up to the TV, rather than having to leave the wire hooked up the TV. And as a practical matter, not all mobile devices have microHDMI and HML outputs. HML does not always give enough juice to charge a phone, but slows the discharge rate.

Some controllers need root access to the phone such as the Playstation Sixaxias, well the Sixaxias Controller application does. I would venture to guess that most mobile phone owners are NOT rooted. Some controllers don't such as the Wiimote and maybe some generic blue tooth controllers, but how well they work may be questionable. I know the OnLive universal controller works, but only well with OnLive; I've tried Dead Trigger and Shadowgun and wasn't able to program the buttons.

In addition, I think some people are hoping if there are enough numbers, it will attract more developers. This could mean more better quality games, and maybe some new interesting ideas that would otherwise be too expensive or risky on other platforms. That's part of the point of Ouya is for low entry cost into game development into the living room. I know that's part of my hope.

I figured it's only a $100. I've blow that without thinking with going out to eat or other similar activities, so it's not like I'll miss the money. It wouldn't be the first time I've gotten tech where the company went under. If were able to use Google Play or side load games, the console will be usable even if the company goes under.

krispycorn said:

XBMC was my main reason to purchase. I'm hoping it will have the power to do Aeon Nox skin and 1080p content over Wifi, so I can put it at any place in house. Purchased one for now w extra controller. If it works well w XBMC will be buying a second one for the kids TV so they have on demand kids movies from my ripped to hdd bluray collection. Things like games, other useful apps, old school emu, etc are just cherry on top .

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My exact reason and thinking as well.

As far as processing horsepower: I'm running the hardware beta builds of XBMC today on the Nexus 7 and am able to decode 1080P up to 20Mbps. Over 2.4GHz wireless N, I do see some pauses for "buffering" on files with bitrates above ~14Mbps, which is either saturating the bandwidth of the Wifi connection or the hardware is unable to keep up. At this point, I can't be sure which.

So, considering that the Ouya uses the same cpu as the Nexus 7, except it's clocked 33% faster, it should have no trouble with 1080P content.

And, I believe the Ouya runs wireless N at 5GHz, which has more throughput than at 2.4GHz, where the Nexus 7 must operate, so wireless speeds may not be an issue either.

Overall, this thing should kick ass with XBMC.
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BTW, if anyone's interested in trying the hardware decoding beta builds of XBMC for Android, you can find them here. Pick the one with "hwaccel" in the title:
http://mirrors.xbmc.org/test-builds/android/

krispycorn said:

Do you mean old xbox, as in XBMC on old xbox? Cause if you're doing just dlna media streaming, that doesn't compare at all to XBMC imo w up to date Frodo, art scraping, the visuals of UI skins like Nox, TV Tunes, plugins like Sports Devil etc. I used to do DLNA myself straight to my PS3, but it feels archaic now compared to XBMC...

Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

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XBMC + OUYA
http://xbmc.org/natethomas/2012/08/07/xbmc-and-ouya-oh-yeah/

It's not clear if it'll be a special build that appears in the Ouya store, or if you just sideload the Android app, but it'll work. I already see Ouya specific stuff in the XBMC merge notes.

Maybe. Just depends on what you're trying to run on the PC.

The issue, although the PC is a lot more robust, it also costs a lot more than a hundred dollars. And some of the games on Android are not on the PC, and vise versa.

As for the controller, probably could be hooked up. I suspect it'll be blue tooth. Worse case, it'll have generic HID controller drivers.