After raising over $8.5 million on Kickstarter last July, the Ouya Android game console is ready for launch. Shipments of the special Kickstarter Edition of the console will begin today and continue into April. Those who missed the original crowdfunding campaign, however, are in luck, as the company has also confirmed today that the system will arrive at retailers in the US, UK, and Canada on June 4th, including Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and others. In celebration of its launch, Ouya invited backers and the media to come see the finished product and play some of the games currently available on the service. Check out our hands-on impressions below.
While the console looks near-identical to the renders the company provided those many months ago, the controller has underwent significant revisions based on developer feedback. Originally, the design incorporated concave thumbsticks, a disk d-pad, and a raised touchpad in the center. Now, the thumbsticks are convex with a flat touchpad and a four-way d-pad. Despite its unusual shape, the controller actually feels fantastic. It carries a decent amount of weight and the buttons feel springy and responsive.
The shoulder buttons and triggers, although oddly square, also fit nicely within reach and have a distinctive "click" when depressed. The company has designed the two metallic faceplates to snap off, providing access to its two AA batteries and giving players a way to personalize their controller. And then there's the console. Like the controller, the console is expertly crafted and the quality far exceeds the $99 asking price. Kickstarter backers will receive limited edition systems in a charcoal finish with the names of $10,000-level supporters etched onto the side, including the likes of Minecraft creator Notch and Robert Bowling, aka FourZeroTwo. Everyone else will receive a engraving-free system in a lighter shade of gray. The system is compact, no bigger than a balled fist — roughly 3-inches squared.
The system connects to TVs via HDMI and the internet via built-in Wi-Fi, but it also supports ethernet cables. Players can expand the 8GB onboard storage with external storage sources through USB and micro USB.
Ouya’s user interface is as stark and striking as the hardware itself. When players boot up the console they’re presented with four simple options: Play, Discover, Make and Manage. The simplicity, clarity and uncluttered nature of the menus are the polar opposite of the increasingly busy designs found on the Xbox Dashboard, iTunes App Store or most other game portals.
Gamers access their downloaded games via the Play menu, download new titles via Discover, and adjust settings in Manage. The Make menu is undoubtedly the most interesting and unusual. Here game developers can upload new builds of their titles, get news on the latest Ouya developer tools and access other resources for game makers.
Given that only a small number of Ouya owners will ever dabble in game authorship, Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman was quick to point out that this Make menu option (and all the others) will be evolving over time. As more community options become a part of the Ouya developer experience, game makers could use this Make menu to “form direct relationships with gamers, or upload pre-release beta builds” according to Uhrman.
The Ouya shopping experience is also streamlined for ease-of-use. The storefront is sorted into a variety of “fluid” categories that can change weekly, monthly, or any time Ouya notices a pattern of user behavior. The key storefront slots are curated in part by Kellee Santiago, Ouya’s head of developer relations and former President of Thatgamecompany. In our demo a “Hear Me” category was featured, collecting games with especially notable soundtracks. It could easily be replaced with a “Spooky” section around Halloween, a guest-curated list, or a new genre bubbling up.
Gamers looking for the best Ouya has to offer can stick with these curated lists, but more adventurous Ouya owners will likely spend a lot of time in the shop’s “Sandbox” section. The Sandbox is the Wild West – it’s where new titles debut. If they accumulate enough likes or if they catch the eye of an Ouya curator they will be ejected from the Sandbox and into one of the top-level categories. This is a smart system – the Xbox Live analogy would be allowing Xbox Live Indie Games an automatic path to becoming full-fledged Xbox Live Arcade titles.
This basic UI is attractive aesthetically, but it’s only possible in part due to what the Ouya doesn’t include. At launch there is no support for achievements, chat, unified system-wide matchmaking, friends list or most other community features. Uhrman told IGN that a deeper community layer would be introduced as a software update “later this year.”
For now, the most underwhelming aspect of the Ouya is… the game library itself. Most of the currently available games are mobile mainstays like indie endless runner Canabalt, zombie sim Organ Trail and chaotic action-platformer Gunslugs. There are a few notable full-length AAA releases already available, including Final Fantasy III from Square-Enix and The Ball from Tripwire Interactive. Of course the system doesn’t formally launch until June 4th. With 8,000 Ouya Development Kits in the hands of game makers there’s plenty of time for the library to improve.
Most of the demo titles are high quality and many of them are games I’d happily spend time with on my phone or tablet. But there’s a big difference between a bite-sized mobile time killer and a full “living room” video game experience. I love Canabalt, but I love it when I’m on the bus or on my lunch break. I’m not sure I love it enough to turn on my Ouya to get a few sessions in.
Ouya is also notably missing exclusives. The company is quick to point out that many of its games are “TV Exclusives” – the idea being that yes, Save the Puppies is available on your Android phone or tablet, but Ouya is the only way to get the full TV experience. Besides not being strictly true (various TV-out solutions exist for mobile games), this argument also isn’t a replacement for truly exclusive games. Software sells hardware – the Ouya is a slick console with a great controller and lots of great ideas, but that only amounts to so much if owners can’t experience brand-new gaming experiences with it.
Booting into an Ouya game takes just 3-5 seconds from the menu. All the titles looked great on the approximately 40’’ demo display. Perhaps best of all, every Ouya game must offer a free component, allowing gamers try out the title before being asked to pay up. This can be something as simple as a traditional game demo as with Final Fantasy III, or In-App-Purchases, optional donations, subscriptions and episodic releases.
Justin Davis is IGN's Mobile Games editor, while Scott Lowe is the site's consumer technology guru. You can follow Justin on Twitter at @ErrorJustin and Scott Lowe at @ScottLowe.
Source : ign[dot]com
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