What is the OUYA? An information roundup

With all the fairly recent speculation of a Steam box, a home console to really shake up the competition and provide a genuine alternative to the ‘traditional consoles’, nobody saw OUYA coming.

This Android-powered console popped up on Kickstarter just yesterday, amassing over £1m in it’s first day, nearly £2m on the second, smashing the project’s initial target of just over £600,000.

Okay, so we know about the finance, but what about the console itself? Well, here’s a rundown of what we know about OUYA so far:

• OUYA was found by Julie Uhrman, an industry veteran and former publishing manager at Vivendi,VP of business development at IGN and Jacked, as well as VP of digital at GameFly.
• Aims to redress the ‘brain-drain’ caused by constraints of console publishing.  ‘Some of the best, most creative gamemakers are focused on mobile and social games because those platforms are more developer-friendly.’
• All OUYA games will have free gameplay of some sort, arguably a variant of free-to-play.
• Developers then can set the price, through full-game upgrades, items, or a subscription.
• Every console is a developer kit, meaning no expensive debug units.
• The complete console is $99, or £77.12 including shipping. This tier also includes: Username reservation, a founder emblem. An additional controller $30, or just under £20.
• The controller, which still seems to be in prototype, will feature: ‘fast buttons, triggers, laser-precise analog sticks, a D-Pad – and it will have a touchpad for any games making the trek from mobile or tablet to the TV.’
• Hackers welcome, presumably meaning it’ll fully-cater for platform-expanding practices like jailbreaking an iPhone or putting Linux on your PlayStation 3.
• Known system Specs:
  • Tegra3 quad-core processor
  • 1GB RAM
  • 8GB of internal flash storage
  • HDMI connection to the TV, with support for up to 1080p HD
  • WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
  • Bluetooth LE 4.0
  • USB 2.0 (one)
  • Wireless controller with standard controls (two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button), a touchpad
  • Android 4.0

There we have it folks, that’s all the publicly available information in the whole universe about OUYA. Alternatively, if you want it explained to you by Julie Uhrman herself, backed by a thumping soundtrack, or want in on this, visit the OUYA Kickstarter page.