Ouya CEO Reveals Plans For Yearly Hardware Refreshes
Ouya plans to release a new console every year.
This should be a little annoying to customers who have been eying the Android-powered OUYA console. Company CEO Julie Uhrman confirmed with Joystiq that unlike the traditional console that sees a new hardware set every five to seven years, OUYA plans to take the mobile route and release a new console every year. That's right: the OUYA you purchase in June will be obsolete this time next year.
"Our strategy is very much similar to the mobile strategy," she said. "There will be a new OUYA every year. 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 8 GB of flash in our box, we will."
At $100 a pop, buying a new OUYA every year doesn't seem quite so drastic compared to tablet, smartphone and even console prices. And if anything, the older models will make great media players on other HDTVs in the house once they've been replaced with new models as the primary Android gaming machine. And like Google Play and Amazon's Appstore, all games will be linked to the user, not the machine. They'll also be backward compatible so that you don't have to keep buying the same titles over and over.
On a performance level, Uhrman said that Nvidia has a team dedicated to the OUYA console for getting the Tegra 3 running at optimal levels. The quad-core A9-based chip is clocked at 1.6 GHz and backed by 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal storage (or 5 Gameloft games), 802.11 b/g/n connectivity, Bluetooth and HDMI output. It won't have a rechargeable battery, but instead will plug into the wall like every other living room console.
The first wave of OUYA consoles will head out to the Kickstarter backers in March followed by a full-blown public release in June at retailers like Best Buy, GameStop, Target and Amazon. Additional controls will also be made available, costing $49.99 per unit. Uhrman also said the OUYA's marketplace will be packed full of games at launch.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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bison88 I don't think process technology is going to shrink fast enough in a year that it'll make that POS better than the first generation.Reply -
NuclearShadow For such a cheap price I think a yearly release is a great thing. Interestingly with how it uses mobile hardware and how fast tech advances currently with such hardware we could witness it beat the specs of Microsoft's and Sony's next consoles during their mid-life.Reply -
oxiide esreverSo what will the new one do that the old one can't?Be faster to keep up with newer and more demanding games? Seems like an odd question to ask almost a year away from an annual release.Reply -
DRosencraft The problem with the theory of an annual refresher is that the power of the device is so minimal as it is, the games it can play aren't going to demand much more power in a year, maybe not even two. They would be better off bumping the price up a little and starting off with better specs in the first place. A yearly refresh only makes sense for buyers entering the ecosystem (first time buying the console). It's a waste of money for anyone who has one already that isn't about two years old at least.Reply -
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Lol i can't even process the level of full on retard that this spam encompasses -
esrever gilgamexLol i can't even process the level of full on retard that this spam encompassesLol i can't even process the level of full on retard that quoting this spam so it will never be deleted encompassesReply -
stickmansam bison88I don't think process technology is going to shrink fast enough in a year that it'll make that POS better than the first generation.Reply
Maybe Tegra 4 for next gen which AFAIK will be a significant performance increase -
Onihikage On the one hand, many Android phones get a new version every year so it's not unheard of, but on the other hand, hardware doesn't change quickly enough for a new *game console* to be designed, manufactured, and released every single year, and still have perfect backwards compatibility. Hardware refreshes will be necessary if the console is a hit, and I could understand every two years, maybe three, but just one year isn't long enough.Reply