facebook rss twitter

OUYA Android console to have annual hardware update cycle

by Mark Tyson on 8 February 2013, 14:30

Tags: Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), PC

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabslb

Add to My Vault: x

The OUYA Android games console is to be updated every year according to CEO Julie Uhrman. The console, expected to become widely available in June, will follow the current smartphone update cycle rather than the slower pace set by the incumbent big three console platforms. Expect an OUYA 2 in 2014 and an OUYA 3 in 2015, after that perhaps the firm will settle on a new naming convention due to tetraphobia.

Talking to games magazine Joystiq, the CEO of OUYA Julie Uhrman said “As it relates to iterating the console and refreshes, our strategy is very much similar to the mobile strategy. There will be a new Ouya every year.” The company will take advantage of newer and faster components as they emerge thick and fast in the mobile industry “There will be an Ouya 2 and an Ouya 3. We'll take advantage of faster, better processors, take advantage of prices falling. So if we can get more than 8GB of Flash in our box, we will. And in so doing, make sure that all games are backwards compatible.”

Perhaps conscious that, by the time the US$99 “OUYA 1” comes out, the Tegra 3 chipset upon which it is based will be a bit long in the tooth, Uhrman concluded her forward looking statement by saying “We're launching on the Tegra 3. It's a quad-core A9 chip. Because it's not a mobile device, we don't have to balance power for battery life. So when all four quads are running, it's 1.6GHz. It's gonna be the best Tegra 3 device on the market.”

Importantly Uhrman told Joystiq that, as well as being backwards compatible, games would be easily transferrable to the latest and greatest OUYA console if you updated. This is similar to the way your Google Play downloads and purchases transfer to your new device when you sign into your Google account.

There are more and more Android solutions to entertainment upon your living room big-screen TV including the GameStick and the Dell Project Ophelia. Is OUYA sounding like the best option so far?



HEXUS Forums :: 11 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
New Ouya every year? Ouch!

That said, I suppose that $99 (assuming it's not 1:1 for us in the UK) isn't that bad as a yearly expenditure if purchases are transferable.

I've got to wonder what's going to happen to the old Ouya's - seems like a bit of a shame if there's no way to recycle and/or reuse. An obvious question is whether there's any way to reuse the old Ouya's as GoogleTV boxes, media centres or NAS boxes.
crossy
New Ouya every year? Ouch!

That said, I suppose that $99 (assuming it's not 1:1 for us in the UK) isn't that bad as a yearly expenditure if purchases are transferable.

I've got to wonder what's going to happen to the old Ouya's - seems like a bit of a shame if there's no way to recycle and/or reuse. An obvious question is whether there's any way to reuse the old Ouya's as GoogleTV boxes, media centres or NAS boxes.

Nobody forces you to buy the yearly update… I suspect many games would work on last years model just as well.

I'm actually more interested in them as media clients, HTPC boxes etc… couldn't give a fig about the gaming, nothing powered by a Tegra on my telly is likely to drag me away from Skyrim and Total War et al.
Yeah that would be awesome, sell the old Ouya boxes for half the price and give customers a trade-in option to get newer ones. I'd be interested in spending $50 on a media centre device that can also play games :)
kingpotnoodle
Nobody forces you to buy the yearly update… I suspect many games would work on last years model just as well. I'm actually more interested in them as media clients, HTPC boxes etc… couldn't give a fig about the gaming, nothing powered by a Tegra on my telly is likely to drag me away from Skyrim and Total War et al.
True, there's not a shotgun to the temple to buy Ouya2, Ouya3, … On the other hand as the owner of a Tegra2 powered device (remember those?) it's interesting to see how quickly the Tegra-specific titles all moved to Tegra3 leaving us oldies in the cold.
Noxvayl
Yeah that would be awesome, sell the old Ouya boxes for half the price and give customers a trade-in option to get newer ones. I'd be interested in spending $50 on a media centre device that can also play games :)
I'd sign up for that - heck they could even take a leaf out of EA/Activision's book and sell you a “sales subscription” that would give a guaranteed trade-in price and maybe a couple of game credits to sweeten the deal.
kingpotnoodle
crossy
New Ouya every year? Ouch!
…..
I'm actually more interested in them as media clients, HTPC boxes etc… couldn't give a fig about the gaming, nothing powered by a Tegra on my telly is likely to drag me away from Skyrim and Total War et al.
Me too ! - I am looking for a tiny box multipurposed that can ALSO run UBUNTU, connect to big 1080p TV and wired or BT4 keyboard/mouse, and of course stream over dual-band WiFi. Seem to recall reading Tegra4 uses much less energy - so fanless, than 16 month old T3 while being much faster, so I hope current development plans for an early update to T4 or 2013 era Snapdragon so Soc stays insync with other new devices.