By David Ponce
This could be big. The above gaming console currently raising funds on Kickstarter is off to something special, raising a record setting $1 million in less than 12 hours and still climbing. As of this writing, 20,000+ backers have pledged over $2,500,000 to make it a reality… and there’s still 28 days left. What’s all the fuss about? This project kicks ass, is what! Designed by none other than Yves Behar (of One Laptop Per Child fame), the Ouya is a $99 Android-based, big muscle, open source gaming console with a fantastic looking controller. It promises to bring a breath of fresh air to console gaming, and we… believe they just might pull it off. With internals consisting of a Tegra 3 CPU, 8GB of storage, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, a USB 2.0 port and an SD card slot, the device will certainly have the muscle to handle anything developers throw at it. And given the excitement the project is generating, there clearly seems to be a demand for something like it. See, there’s a lull in the life cycle of the more established consoles; no one knows when the next Playstation or Xbox will be released… but if all goes well, the Ouya will ship in March of next year. The project is open to independent developers with the SDK being freely distributed, and every game will have a free-to-play aspect. It’s part of the ethos of the project.
And while no launch titles have yet been announced, there’s a good chance Sony and Microsoft will get their asses handed to them. While the Ouya is not meant to go head-to-head with the Big Three, it has the potential to get more than small indie developers on board; with the kind of demand that is being demonstrated right now, there just might be some big name devs perking their ears up.
Quantities are unfortunately limited, so hurry up and place your order now if you’re interested. Hit the jump to see a video about the Ouya and links.
[ Project Page ]
