For those who haven't heard of it, Ouya is a new games console, but not like any you've seen before.
It has one gigabyte of ram, a quad core Tegra 3 cpu and 12 core gpu, wifi, bluetooth, a USB 2.0 port, 1080p HDMI output, eight gigabytes of storage, uses a wireless joypad (there is also a touchpad) and runs a modified version of the Android operating system (version 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich). It should also support PS3 games controllers (though that's not official).Games will all be free, or at least free to try, and available from the Ouya app store. Developers will need to modify their existing Android games to make them work with the console but it is a simple process according to the Ouya team.
If you want an idea about why gamers are excited, or what graphics quality you can expect from the Ouya when it goes on sale check out the following video showing off the graphics quality of games that use the consoles Tegra 3 processor.
There will of course be non gaming applications available for it so you could watch streaming movies, or browse the internet for example, rather than only be able to play games and as a result the console appeals to many different people, from those who want a cheap way to play games, to those who want a powerful android device they can modify, and of course those who just want a multi function home entertainment system.
While the general reception to Ouya has been very positive there are some dissenting voices. Some claim that developers will avoid the system because it is not an established format, that gamers no longer want to be tied to a tv but instead prefer mobile devices and that hardware specs change so fast that the Ouya will become obsolete sooner rather than later and as a result will be a bad investment.
But is there merit to these assumptions?
Ouya uses an existing operating system (Android) which already has a good number of great games, these games can be easily modified to work on the Ouya system which means that for very little extra work Android developers can reach more people with their products, and on a system where every user will have the same hardware.
This means if it works on one Ouya console it will work on all of them, it helps remove one of the problems currently facing android developers, that of having to allow for multiple different devices, and also allows for games targeted at the system to focus on utilising the full power of the hardware.
The argument that this is a new system would hold a lot of weight were this a completely new unknown operating system, but it's not. It is a known and well used operating system, customised to suit the specific hardware in use, and as such it is a safer bet for developers than a totally new console operating system would be precisely because it uses android as it's core, making it much easier to transfer existing android games to and thereby also extending the customer base for those developers.
There is of course the argument that gaming now is moving away from the traditional "let's sit in front of the tv and play a game" experience to a more mobile one. While mobile gaming is more popular than ever before it has not made consoles any less popular with gamers, indeed Microsoft and Sony both have new games consoles of their own coming out and would not be doing so were there no market for them.
Mobile gaming is generally preferred when out and about, when not at home, dedicated gamers still prefer to use a console when they're at home because there is something about gaming on a big screen that the smaller mobile devices can't offer. Mobile gaming is a compliment to traditional console gaming and not, as some argue, a replacement.So what about that other key argument, that hardware specs change and so the Ouya will quickly be outdated?
This is true, the Playstation 3 and XBox 360 are already outdated...but still very popular, and still on sale around the world.
Consoles have a longer life span than gaming pc's, people know they are making an investment in the platform and don't expect it to be constantly upgraded, what they want are the games to take advantage of the hardware, to be optimised for it, rather than have to keep spending out every six months for more hardware just to play the latest games and with Ouya utilising good gaming hardware such as the Tegra 3 the console could easily go for two years without being obsolete, in fact maybe more.
Why? Because people buy consoles specifically because they want good games without having to shell out for new hardware on a regular basis, they want to be able to switch on and play without worrying about whether the game will lag or whether they need a new graphics card to run it to its full potential and so console owners expect consoles to have a longer shelf life, games tend to get tweaked to better utilise the hardware because that is the only improvement they can do and, as they find new techniques the games get better and better.
Here the Ouya has the potential to really shine. The Tegra 3 is well supported and is very good, when you realise that the Tegra 2 is already two years old yet still handles gaming very well you can see that the new more powerful Tegra 3, used in the Ouya, can also used for two years and still be a useful gaming processor.
But one gigabyte of ram will really cause problems for gaming, won't it?
No, surprisingly, it won't. Let's take the example of Playstation 3. How much ram do you think it has, one gigabyte, two?
Half a gigabyte, that's half of what the Ouya has. The PS3 splits its ram between the system and the graphics (video ram) so each gets half of that half gigabyte. That means the PS3 has just 256 megabytes of memory for graphics.The Ouya can use much more than the Playstations 256 megabytes of memory for graphics and so, while it has a less powerful gpu and so cannot produce that high standard of graphics, the developers can couple the Tegras horsepower with much more ram to achieve some stunning graphics and therefore make gaming graphically impressive for the next few years.
Of course I am not saying it could rival a PS3 but simply illustrating that by using the additional ram available the Ouya can do something PS3 cannot to help prolong its shelf life and that is to split it's ram between graphics and the system in any way it needs to, so if a game needs to eat up some memory to help and make no mistake about it the Tegra 3 brings console quality graphics to the Ouya which will make it a worthwhile investment.
Capcoms Jun Takeuchi says about the Tegra 3 "NVIDIA’s GPU architecture delivers the best gaming experience, bringing true console quality games to mobile devices. Our Lost Planet 2 test demo makes it clear - the quad-core muscle of Tegra 3 brings hyper realistic visuals, smooth frame rates and sharp images. The result is a whole new level of realism".
Tobias Persson, co founder of Bitsquid (a high end gaming engine), says about the twelve core gpu used in Ouya "From a hardcore gamer’s customized PC to a phone or tablet with Tegra, you’ll get identical game play and buttery smooth graphics, anywhere any time", it is a fact that the Ouya will have great graphics albeit not quite as high as a PS3 or XBox 360 but more than good enough to maintain players interest until a follow up model gets released a few years later.
The argument that console technology gets outdated is a true but flawed one, it assumes that this is a disadvantage when, as the popularity of current consoles show, people want a system that they can use for a few years without needing to worry that in a few months a new model will take its place and that now they can't go and buy games for the one they have.
And while the tech does become outdated during a consoles lifespan the fact that developers have to work within the restrictions of a specific and defined hardware configuration inevitably means they learn to get the best out of that hardware, look at early PS3 or XBox 360 games and compare them to the latest releases and you'll see the benefits of this process in action.
The Ouya will retail for $99, that's around £64 (although with taxes and delivery, etcetera, it's probable the Ouya will cost more like £100 in the UK). It's a cost effective way to get a decent console system and a multimedia system built into one, it costs not much more than a smart tv stick such as the MK802, less than some dedicated home media centres and less than any competing games console yet offers the advantages of all three and for this reason will continue to be an attractive proposition.
The console will come with an sdk to make developing your own apps for it much easier but also allowing developers keen to develop commercial products for it to do so with more ease than on more established consoles, again giving the Ouya that little extra edge it needs to grow its library of titles.
We don't know a lot about the operating system it uses, other than that is a version of android. A brief demo of it can be seen here.
The operating system is a slimmed down version of android so as to take up less ram, and also to enable it to boot up quickly.
It boots a clean user interface comprising of a menus displaying installed applications, rather than a full blown android user interface, but may load in other features as needed, and is unlikely to retain apps in memory in the same way as native Android currently does but instead to quit them upon exit and so retain much of its memory free for starting the next application the user chooses.
How the console will protect developers from having their games copied on a system that can and will be rooted by many owners is unclear, it would make sense to employ a drm system of some kind for applications that can be purchased and it is also unclear whether there will be a specific system in place to allow multiplayer gaming.
Given that multiplayer games are available on android it would make sense to simply continue using the same system available to existing games but that remains a question for the developers and the Ouya team to answer and one which can only be guessed at for now.
Can Ouya beat the current games consoles? No, but then it isn't aiming to.
It's a high quality gaming system on a budget that can also serve as a home media player. But with only eight gigabytes of storage, which won't be enough to permanently store a big collection of games, don't be surprised if someone brings out a memory expansion pack in the form of an external usb hard drive that lets users install apps onto it and save their built in storage space for their latest game of choice.
