Startup pitches £64 hackable Android console

High-profile backers have pledged support for a $99 (£64) "built to be hacked" Android-based games console which promises all titles will be free to play and welcomes any developer to the party. Startup Ouya has recruited Jawbone Jambox designer Yves Behar to style the console, which will connect to a TV and run free Android …

[Stig2k]

Already on shakey ground

Didn't Nintendo invent cubes? They're gonna get sued for sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Already on shakey ground

I agree with you, but on balance it's more likely to be Apple as they released the Mac G4 cube in 2000, the GameCube was released in 2001.

Anyways, Apple may as well throw another law suit onto the pile, Nintendo would be better served just trying to keep its head above water....

BTW, the hackable game box idea has some appeal, truthfully though, I think they might need to offer a fee-based game route to keep the devs interested in providing "quality" software...

[Crisp]

Re: Already on shakey ground

Maybe they could round the corners off...

[Thomas 4]

It's good...

...but it's no Chrome Box. For which we all breathe a huge sigh of relief.

[Anonymous Coward]

" There's certainly no word on pricing and availability yet"

So the $99 price was made up?

[Flugal]

Quite

It was a strange line, given the price is both in the article and the title.

Oh well, to err is to be human, or vulture, or some such.

[adnim]

I wish

all devices were made this way.... phones, tablets, media players.....

Open source operating system

root access

Community developed and commercially developed applications.

Your device, buy it with no OS, with a Linux distro or Android.

This device can be more than a games console, if a thriving development community is established and if it can or does support standard architecture and SATA. It can be almost anything but a games console.

[Disintegrationnotallowed]

Re: I wish

Sounds great until you try and play on a console where hacking is rife. Ask anyone playing multiplayer games on the Wii such as MW3. The lobbies are full of hackers who have cheats galore, and make the game virtually unplayable.

[Andy Fletcher]

Re: I wish

Amen. Personally I'd prefer a closed system I pay for but can play as opposed to a "free" one where I can't. And free games? That just means I'll be watching advertisements the whole time. I'm happy to pay to avoid that.

[No, I will not fix your computer]

Great idea but......

If you're developing generic apps (e.g. Android Market) then you don't need this sort of box, and you have a payment system ready built, if you're developing specific apps (for this box) that won't run generically then you've eliminated a huge number of customers.

I might have missed something here, we already have Android media centres that have access to the market, can run emulators etc. (and cost around this price), if the only difference is "hackability" really it needs to have other features (like great hardware for graphics), after all it's price point is significantly higher than a RPi and it will need a stack of features to entice hackers.

[Trollslayer]

Specifications?

The Raspberry PI only has about 900 DMIPS - not enough for lots of stuff.

For $99 I would hope for full video decode at least 1080p30 and 2k DMIPS.

Sadly it looks like the only thing that really exists is the case.

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it do Hungry Birds?...

... as my kids insist on calling it. Then the wee feckers can leave me and my tablet in peace. never watch TV anyway...

[toadwarrior]

who would invest in this crap?

The vast majority of console users don't want a system they can hack about with. They certainly don't want one that has bargin bin graphics.

This has been tried numerous times and everytime someone announces a console similar to this it eventually fades into obscurity.

if I was to hack about with something I'll buy / build a pc. This thing is a waste of effort.imo.

[Matt Bradley]

Have I missed something?

A touch optimised OS on a device with no screen?

Why?

[h3]

Probably uses the Google TV interface (Or should). Optimized for a remote.

Could be quite similar to this - http://www.futeko.com/products/MP00035.php

Quite a bit better specced than the pi.

1.5Ghz Cortex A9 dual-core chipset + dual Mali-400 GPU they will be dirt cheap as well.

I am not bothered for any newer console than NEOGEO (The cartridge based one not the crappy CD one).

(I am quite happy with HQ2X Snes RPG graphics).

Bastion / Super Meatboy / Playing FFIII on Android

Proper joysticks would be nice as well as outputs to a proper arcade monitor.

Good cheap hardware is always good to mess about with. (No way I will spend £200 on a Nexus Q).

[Aqua Marina]

Will probably go the way of..

.. the GP32. A great idea, but ended up doing nothing other than running emulators for decades old consoles and games.

[Tom 7]

Re: Will probably go the way of..

you make it sound like a problem.

[MJI]

Cheap games

My advice is as always

Buy a cheap PS2 and find thousands of cheap S/H games.

[Phil.A]

but Android is touch screen interface...

unless they decide to use Android phones/tablets as a touch interface for games, then what's the point?

ALL games currently in the Market Place/Google Play, require a touch interface and are aimed at a touch interface, so doing this is kind of redundant unless they make a whole ton of games aimed at this & Xperia S