Ouya Message Board older than one year ago

It hasn't been a great first month for Ouya. The best reviews of the console have been mild in their praise. Lots of day-one backers (mostly overseas) didn't get their unit until after it was commercially available. Ouya offered store credit as a make-good, but no one is buying anything online.Read more...

Ouya has launched its Free the Games Fund initiative, which seeks to match contributions for burgeoning Kickstarter campaigns that meet a $50,000 threshold, up to a ceiling of $250,000, from a pool of $1 million.

Those seeking fund-matching through Ouya must meet submission guidelines by contacting the console manufacturer prior to initiating the Kickstarter drive, which can run anywhere after August 9, 2013 until August 10, 2014, and agree to six-month exclusivity.

Eligible games will get a quarter of their cash once the Kickstarter campaign has ended, then half of the promised total once the game launches on Ouya. The remaining quarter of owed payment will be granted after that six-month exclusivity has expired. The qualifying game that raises the most cash through Kickstarter will receive an additional $100,000 on top of what Ouya has agreed to match.

Double Fine's rave simulator rhythm-driven Dropchord launched for iOS, Android and the Ouya this week for $3.

Dropchord assigns ends of a line to each of a player's fingers and tasks them with gathering notes and dodging scratches. The game focuses on getting the highest score possible and its leaderboards encourage competitive play with friends. Dropchord's neon visuals pulse to the beat of its electronic soundtrack and switch styles with each song.

The game's Standard Mode moves players through stages while gradually adding new gameplay mechanics, while a Full Mix Mode supplies an endless session that gradually becomes more difficult.

Dropchord previously launched on PC and Mac for the hands-oriented Leap Motion.

Granted, it's not a lot of store credit. In fact, it's just $13.37 apiece. But hey, it's the thought that counts. Read more...

Towerfall on PC will have a "fully fleshed-out" single-player mode, creator Matt Thorson tells Shacknews. Towerfall launched as a multiplayer-centric game on Ouya and we noted it as one of the console's stand-out titles. The PC version will have a ton of new content, Thorson says.

The PC version will include two new towers, balance changes, and new power-ups, archers and variants, Thorson says. He adds that the solo mode is for people without any friends - or at least friends who enjoy Towerfall.

"It's going to be a massive update. I can't wait to see how people react," Thorson says. Recalling the game's Ouya demos, he said, "It's always great to see the moment when players realize that they can catch arrows, and the gameplay implications of that. At the Ouya booth at E3 I saw a little girl get super excited about the game and drag her mom over to show her; that was almost too much for me."

Towerfall PC will take "a couple months" to develop and, afterward, he wants to work on Mac and Linux ports. The PC version may cost $20, at most, if the new content justifies a hike from its Ouya price of $15, Thorson says.

Towerfall made it into the PAX 10 lineup, as one of 10 indie games chosen by a panel of 50 industry experts to be featured at PAX Prime in Seattle from August 30 to September 2.

When you play an Ouya, you can try a demo of every single game available, without ever having to buy a thing. Which is exactly what most owners of the tiny Android console are doing.Read more...

Thus far, it doesn't seem that Ouya developers have been raking in the money, with only a few developers reporting sales in the thousands of dollars. Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman defended the console, telling The Verge that sales have been "better than expected" and adding that it's "too early" to judge the platform's success.

Regardless of the money being earned, a full 27 percent of Ouya owners have purchased a game, she said. Furthermore, 13 of the top 20 Ouya games have earned an 8 percent conversion rate, a number she said many developers would "kill for" on such a young platform. She predicted that by the end of 2013, "we'll see a few developers telling us they've made more than a million dollars on Ouya."

Here's IGN taking a look at how the Ouya's games are doing sales-wise. Matt Thorson's TowerFall, for example, the Ouya's current best-selling app and a game which we rather liked when it was shown at E3 last month, made a modest $21,000 since its June 25th release.Read more...

Next time you complain about Half-Life 3 taking forever, consider this: the modern game of chess is believed to have originated in 1575, and only now is Chess 2: The Sequel coming out. And it's an Ouya exclusive.Read more...

Ouya exclusive TowerFall is on its way to PC, developer Matt Thorson announced on Twitter this evening. The game stood out as one of the highlights in newbie console Ouya's launch lineup.

"Yes, I am working on TowerFall for PC. But it's going to take a couple months. There's going to be a ton of new content," said Thorson. Unsure about the price of the PC version, he said it would "probably" cost $15, or perhaps $20 if the new content justifies it. The game is currently $15 on Ouya and supports the PlayStation 3's DualShock 3.

Thorson was quick to protect TowerFall's debut console in follow-up to his announcement, saying, "Ouya version is doing great! Just want to expand."

Thorson's statement of PC expansion comes shortly after June's NPD data called sales of the Ouya "relatively light for a new console."

The good people at Gamesies have (had?) an Ouya. Here is their guide to getting the most out of the system. Read more...

The only people who ever lose a console war are people who make games. The people who actually play games usually win. We, the gamers, dictate who the victors are while enjoying the spoils. The worst thing that'll happen to a gamer because of a console war is that he or she might miss out on a platform exclusive here or there. Yes, that's annoying. Xbox gamers miss The Last of Us. PlayStation gamers miss Zelda. Nintendo gamers miss Halo. The gamer will otherwise benefit from the competition between rival gaming platforms. Console wars cause price drops. They compel DRM changes. They convince companies to add new features to their consoles. They mandate the creation of lavish, new games. They inspire imitations of the good stuff and justify the risk of trying something new. We the gamers, generally, win. We get the good games to play on systems that are always improving, lest they lose out. If you take a company-centric view, you'll see Microsoft winning one battle, Sony another and Nintendo one of its own. They'll all lose, too. We tend to measure these wins and losses in sales... Who sold the most consoles last Christmas? Or maybe in buzz: who had the most thunderous showing at E3? That's an old way of tracking the console war. I propose a different way of looking at the console war, something literally closer to home. There is, you see, a console war in my house, possibly in yours, too. The console war I experience is also waged in the bag I bring to work every day and in my pocket as well. This is true for any of us who have more than one device that can play games. We have multiple machines vying for our gaming time. At any given moment, we're choosing one over the other. Sometimes, choosing to do something else entirely, in which case all of our gaming devices temporarily lose. Which consoles and handhelds win those battles? Which one had a good June? Which will win July? There is a console war in my house, possibly in yours, too...We have multiple machines vying for our gaming time. At any given moment, we're choosing one over the other. Starting today and in a series of columns to come, I'm going to look at this more personal version of the fight for a gamer's attention. I'm calling it the One-Man Console War, and I'll be focusing my writing on my own experiences. I welcome you to do the same for yourself and share your thoughts, too. For me, I'll be looking at what is admittedly a privileged situation. Since I cover games for a living, I have just about any kind of gaming machine that's relevant today: all the active consoles, all the active handhelds, a PC and a pair of iOS devices. I only lack an Android phone and a Linux set-up. Otherwise, in theory, I could be playing any game at any time. Money isn't much of a factor for me, either, which I know makes my situation very unusual. The games I play are either sent to me by publishers or I buy them without any hesitation because, again, this is what I do for a living. So, what do I play? What causes one machine to succeed in my personal console war? And what causes another to lose? What causes one machine to start pulling me away from another? Is it always a game? Is it ever a change to a service? The time of year? The flapping of the wings of a butterfly somewhere in the Indian Ocean? Frankly, I'm not sure, but I thought some tracking of this could be interesting. What causes one machine to start pulling me away from another? Is it always a game? A change to a service? The time of year? The flapping of the wings of a butterfly somewhere in the Indian Ocean? For this debut column, I decided to survey my gaming situation and sketch out my current sense of which machines I play games on and why I currently do or don't. Again, I know my situation is unusual. But I hope that a look at my own personal console war can illuminate the hows and whys we choose to play what play on the devices we play those games on. Xbox 360 This is an odd one, though I suspect others also are seeing their 360 enter its twilight. The 360 used to be my most-played console and my go-to machine for any multiplatform games other than Batmans and Assassin's Creeds. That's not the case this year. I haven't played a game in earnest on the machine since Dead Space 3, which I lost interest in and didn't finish. I've been neglecting State of Decay, which I know I need to play, but my zeal for gaming on the 360 has nearly zeroed out. I've had a 360 since launch day, and yet I see its end coming. Beyond Summer of Arcade and the coin-flip of whether I play GTA V on the 360 or the PS3, I see my Xbox 360 dwindling to zero use before 2014 begins. Even this year, I've probably spent more time doing non-gaming with it (Netflix, DVD-watching) than gaming. That's never happened before. I wonder how typical that's become and how it is conditioning people to look at the Xbox brand as an entertainment box instead of a game console. PlayStation 3 I play this system in spurts. The last one was for The Last of Us, just last month. My need-to-play stack for PS3 includes the odd hand of Remember Me, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and the re-do of Dragon's Dogma, in the unlikely event I have time for it. I don't use the system for non-gaming and expect to be back at the machine for Beyond, The Puppeteer and Rain. I think Sony will keep us PS3 users playing our consoles longer than Microsoft will, but I also expect this console to dwindle to zero use by next year. I'm leaning toward playing GTA V on this machine, since Rockstar's already been demoing the game on PS3. Wii U I'm not in a groove with this system yet. I doubt many Wii U owners are. Recent system updates haven't won my attention; I need games, not firmware to bring me back. Game & Wario got me to return for a fun couple of weekends. My interest in finding more unlockables in Lego City Undercover has faded. I downloaded New Super Luigi U but just didn't care to even start it. I'm Mario-sidescrollered out. While I like digital releases of new games, Virtual Console has almost no allure for me. Pikmin 3 will bring me back next month as will, I suspect, the release of The Wonderful 101 and Super Mario 3D World in the fall. I very much want to play this system more, because I like the controller a lot. It's still year one, and I'm not quite as pessimistic as other Wii U owners are. Look, I lived through owning a Nintendo 64 from day one. I'm used to the droughts. Ouya After an adventurous first week with the machine, I brought it to work so we could try new games. I haven't been compelled to jump back on it yet. It's too early to say how this device will nestle into my gaming rotation. 3DS Undoubtedly, this is the best gaming device I own, in part thanks to the 32GB card that allows this system to contain an absurdly great array of games. The addition of one of those cards radically transformed how I thought of and used the 3DS. Frankly, without the card, the 3DS is just ok. With it? It's my go-to gaming machine. At any given moment, I have, on my device's memory card, the following: partially-played games of last year's Prof. Layton (the daily puzzles are great), this year's Fire Emblem and Luigi's Mansion; an unplayed copy of the new, controversial Paper Mario; copies of classics I never played like the Game Boy Zelda and Metroid sequels; copies of beloved games I haven't touched in about a decade, such as the Game Boy Color Zeldas; a deep roster of download-only games that I love, including Art Style Box Life and Pictobits; partially played curiosities I want to get back to such as Sakura Sword and Liberation Maiden; and so much more. All on one system. And I just got four new games to play with Streetpassed Miis, a copy of Animal Crossing that I just returned to after seeing how much fun my co-worker Tina is having with it. This is all on one card! Nuts, right? Plus, there's an older Layton in the DS cartridge slot, and I carry a box of other DS games I never got to in my work bag. There's even a new Mario & Luigi coming out in just a few weeks. I possess no other gaming system that so strongly and so consistently calls for my attention. It's wild to think how little use I had for the machine just 18 months ago. Vita I am one purchase of a stupidly-expensive proprietary memory card away from turning my Vita into another 3DS. I'm already carrying a barely-started newish Assassin's Creed, a portable Tokyo Jungle, Thomas Was Alone, Jet Set Radio, Earth Defense Force, Sound Shapes, Gravity Rush and Patapon 2 all on the small card I have in there (confession: I've barely played any of those games). I want to carry more. I love the idea of getting a bigger memory stick and adding Persona 4 (also never played) onto the machine. With all the interesting indies on the horizon, I expect to be rushing to play my Vita more—if only it can wrestle my attention away from the 3DS. This may sound like a trifle, but the Vita's bubble interface does it no favors in terms of exciting me about what content is on my machine. My 3DS and even my iPhone allows for quicker access to all my games. The Vita interface wastes too much space. PC Aside from the 3DS, this is the machine most responsible for my decline in 360 gaming. I was on a hot streak with my PC in the first third of the year, playing a lot of new releases on it. In previous years, I'd have played through Tomb Raider, Dishonored and Far Cry 3 on a console, probably the Xbox. The horsepower of my computer and the convenience of Steam converted me, which is probably my 360's loss. Since the spring, however, I've fallen behind, leaving BioShock Infinite unplayed, and now also neglecting a stack of interesting indies—Gunpoint, The Swapper and Rogue Legacy. Blame the 3DS for its constant distractions, even at home, but also blame my iPad for non-gaming distractions... iPad Still my least-favorite device to game on. If I'm going to play iOS games, I'd rather do it on the go, while listening to a podcast. That means I'd rather play on an iPhone. If I'm going to lie down on the couch with my iPad, I'd rather read comics on it or watch shows I've downloaded through iTunes. I have a weakness for online comics sales, and I've recently decided to catch up and read so many of the comics I've gluttonously bought. I lie on my couch with my iPad, reading comics on it. Next to me is my TV, turned off—as are the consoled plugged into it. I have Knights of the Old Republic on my iPad, for goodness' sake. I loved the idea that I could have the great, old Xbox role-playing game on a portable device. Yet I haven't found the urge to ever boot it up. Is it because I already played it on console? Because it's nothing if you know the plot twist? Or, really, because I've got better things to do on my iPad than play old games? iPhone My game time on my iPhone fluctuates. For a while, it displaced my 3DS, back when I played my 3DS almost entirely on the go instead of, as I often now do, at home. My most recent iPhone obsession was Ridiculous Fishing, but it didn't let me listen to podcasts while I played. This is a big no-no for me. I am hooked on listening to podcasts of the PBS NewsHour. I like pro wrestling podcasts, too (I'm a complicated man!). Games on the iPhone therefore usually have to cooperate with the podcasts or lose out. If a game's soundtrack can't be faded in favor of a podcast, I'm quick to give up on it. Sorry. I know I'm disrespecting great gaming soundtracks, but I've got to keep up with important news. Four or so months out from the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, that's the basic shape of things in my one-man console war. There can be changes any day, with new victors at any given time. Who's up and who's down? I'll report back in a couple of weeks. Status of My One-Man Console War (7/15/13) Currently winning: 3DS, reading comics on my iPadTurning it around: VitaCurrently losing: Xbox 360 To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo.

Amazing Frog is an Ouya exclusive game where we basically have nothing else to do but jump and mess around as a frog in a hazardous environment. Thanks to the funky physics engine it is an absolute disaster—which is not a bad thing when it comes to hilarious animated GIFs. The source is a video by vinesauce. It really proves that it's just too stressful for a frog to launch from a bouncy castle into a barrel of explosives and then get stuck under a car...especially when you can't even walk properly. To contact the author of this post, write to: gergovas@kotaku.com

It's a good deal, since they're apparently buying their pizza wholesale in Copenhagen these days. Stalagflight is playable on the Ouya and online. Watch me mess around with it in the video above.

If nothing else, the incredible success of the Ouya Kickstarter proved that people were ready for something different. Some believed in a different form of console development, one free from the reigns of big publishers. Others wanted a different kind of console, one that let you try every game for free. Others liked Ouya for its different, open philosophy, one that would allow them to emulate their old games or simply turn the box into a media hub.

But, as we learned from Ouya Kickstarter units in March, different isn't enough. We've come to expect a certain level of quality from video game consoles, both in terms of hardware and software. The user interface wasn't very efficient. Buttons got stuck inside the controller. The selection of games, while large, didn't have any huge standouts.

Ouya has had several months (and a few additional weeks) to work out its kinks, and now the Kickstarter phenomenon is finally available to anyone with $99. I've spent the last week and a half toying around with one, and the good news is that, for the most part, the console delivers on its promise.

There are over 200 games available on the Ouya right now. I obviously haven't played all of them, but there are definitely a few gems to be unearthed. For those who picked up the new console, or are looking for more information not covered in our exhaustive review, I put together a list of some of Ouya's best games. The short version: If you want to get the most out of your new toy, you should get some friends together.

Games that support DualShock 3 controllers are appropriately marked.

Just in case you'd forgotten that the Ouya console can play emulated games, a major retailer's advertisement in the UK is only too happy to remind you. GAME's main Ouya page has a large image showing "a selection of free games" you can try on the Android-powered machine, and one of them is for Super GNES, an emulator that lets you play free (usually illegal) copies of Super Nintendo games. On Android phones, this has long been the case. It's something Nintendo has just had to put up with. But the Ouya is a home console, which is Nintendo's home turf, and every reminder that the Ouya can play free copies of games Nintendo is trying to sell for money is going to cause problems. Especially when it's coming from a major retailer. At time of publishing GAME's advertisement for the emulator was still live. Ouya [GAME, via CVG]

If I was writing a book of personal gaming records, I'd mark up a page for the Ouya: New console that stayed in the box, unplayed, longer than any other one I've ever had. Three days. Sealed. No urgency to play the tiniest console I've ever seen. It's so tiny, yet I still wasn't sure I had room for it in my life. Who asked for the Ouya, anyway? Many people did, actually. Many people helped crowd-fund it on Kickstarter last summer—63,416 backers, contributing $8,596,474 (the Ouya people had only asked for $950,000). Last summer, however, was the season to dream of a $99 hackable Android-based console on which at least a portion of every game would be free. This summer is reality. And this is the summer when anyone who loves games can decide whether the Ouya makes sense. For me, this is a summer that already includes an Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, and PC in my house, all of which can play some very good games. I often carry an iPad, a 3DS and/or a PlayStation Vita in my work bag. They play great games, too. So does my iPhone, which is usually in my pocket. I'm not hurting for gaming machines or for games. I recognize that maybe the Ouya isn't for me. But, here's the craziest thought: maybe it is. My Ouya had been sent to me by the Ouya people. I've interviewed them. And, as game companies tend to do, they sent me hardware to review. This Ouya came in its Dachshund-sized box. It had some games pre-installed on it. That was nice. The Ouya people were making my life ultra-easy. Just start playing and have fun, they were saying. Review this thing. Unlike other consoles, The Ouya doesn't promise a brilliant future. You get the Ouya for the now. I carried the Ouya box back and forth last week, optimistic that I'd play it at work. No, at home. No, at work tomorrow. No, really, at home tonight. Guaranteed. On day four, I unboxed it and then spent a day carrying the absurdly-small console (Rubik's Cube, large tomato... pick your size comparison) and the system's wireless controller. The Ouya also requires an HDMI cable and a power cord with a small brick on it (computer mouse-sized? toddler's fist?). That all fit into my bag. And it stayed in my bag for another day. The Ouya really is easy to resist. This is, for now, one of its big problems. We are immersed in video games. They are everywhere. If you're reading this, you're probably currently using a device that plays good games and you're probably within shouting distance of a second or third one that does, too. What draws me or you from one to another is the same thing that draws anyone to a device that plays games: the games. What draws people to new game devices is the promise of new games. Day one—hell, year one—of owning a Wii U or a PlayStation 3 might be a drag, but you know Nintendo and Sony are eventually going to deliver some instant classics. You can look past the year one clunkers. The Ouya doesn't promise a brilliant future. It sells at $99 using a less than top-level Tegra 3 quad-core processor (full specs here). As an Android device, it signals that it'll probably be displaced by a better iteration as chip prices go down. Ouya execs have said as much. There's no 10 year lifecycle on Ouya 1.0. You get the Ouya for the now. You get it for the summer of 2013 and the fall. You get this to wedge it in the gaps of your gaming life or in place of bigger, beefier consoles you can't afford. You get this console to play the Ouya games of the moment. You plug it in on day five or six. You get ready, possibly, to play Towerfall, a game that is well worth your time and the most ballyhooed Ouya-debuting game. But here's the cool/hilarious/progressive/insane/oh-so-Ouya thing: You turn the machine on, sync the controller, connect to the Internet, pick the "Discover" option on the system's menu, access the online shop full of games that are all free to download, you start queueing them up with the gluttony befitting a gamer accessing "free" games, and suddenly you've got this machine full of new games and discover that two of the ones you downloaded begin with levels that require you to... park vehicles. Yes, people, the Ouya is already saturating the market with parking-based games: That first game, No Brakes Valet, had a title screen that had worse art direction than an NSA PRISM slide. At least the game was kind of fun. The second, The Little Crane That Could, is only about parking in its first level and is then about using the crane to pick stuff up. You start playing the Ouya and it hits you: oh, yeah, this really is an Android-based machine. This is mobile gaming come to TVs, people. Meaning, this is the wild west. Good games, bad games, games running on timers before asking you to pay, games locking off most of their content but giving you the first few levels for free. Look, it's Canabalt! And, what's this? Here's a game that looks like Canabalt! Is this a poor man's Gears of War? Is this a twin-stick shooter set to dubstep? Wait. Someone made a twin-stick shooter set to dubstep? I don't like dubstep, and I don't know if I'd pay for that, but if I can download a twin-stick shooter set to dubstep for free—see, the ship only shoots with the music, you only control the aiming, and when the drop hits, enemies better look out!—this is how the Ouya begins to hook you. Soon you're playing Nintendo 64-looking puzzle platform games about a guy wearing a monocle. Soon you're playing a hilariously hideous game—game? "game?"??—about bouncing a frog through a city. You're then playing this splitscreen and are sure you'll never spend a dime on it. You're also sure you're doing nothing at the moment that helps further the appreciation of great games, but, damn it... it's The Amazing Frog. Super Crate Box, anyone? That's an actual good game. Mrs. Dad? Not only is it the best-named game on the Ouya, not only is it good, but two people can play on one controller. Three people can play on two controllers. Bear in mind that these discoveries happen this fast. The Ouya's online shop is a buffet and the fliptop plastic container you get to stuff full of games can handle about 5GB of content. These games are tiny. And the first bite is free. So, download, download, download. And then it happens... You find a really good game. One you never heard of. Because, this is the wild west, and sometimes there's treasure among the varmints. I give you.. Deep Dungeons of Doom... a sort-of-real-time series of role-playing-game battles. DDoD is also available on iOS, of course, which is the rub for a lot of these Ouya games. The Ouya lets you at least play with a controller. As if—ha ha—these games on the Ouya weren't nearly all still optimized for touch controls and not the system's so-so dual-analog controller. Good luck figuring out how to pause half of them. The killer app for Ouya, they'll/we'll tell you, is Towerfall. It's like Smash Bros. with bows and arrows. It's got neat retro graphics (as do, it seems, half of the Ouya games). It's good. It's fun. It's, I'll declare, not the most fun game on Ouya. At launch, I'm giving that accolade to Knightmare Tower, a game so good that somebody already cloned the Flash version of it on iOS. Play as a knight who bounces off the enemies he's stabbing in order to jump and fly every higher up a tower. Earn money to get better gear to soar higher and attack with more vigor. I paid for this one. Four bucks. (I bought Towerfall, too. It was $15.) Most of the games on Ouya kept my attention for a few minutes before I moved on. Knightmare Tower hooked me for over an hour, and I had to force myself to stop playing. It stands out as one of the very few satisfying single-player games I found. The system's library seems to cater toward couch multiplayer experiences. Hence the love for Towerfall. I have a soft spot for interactive lunacy, and I don't mind downloading some bad games if it costs me nothing. But the Ouya people need to make it more clear that they're serious about this platform thing. The Ouya team may be exploding some preconceptions about what a game console should cost or how its games should be delivered, but there are certain console expectations that they are failing to meet. The most basic one is this: things just need to work. This is the foundational promise game consoles have delivered on for thirty years. Consoles are not personal computers. They might offer less opportunity for technical experimentation but they provide greater security to gamers that any and all games will run well on them. Controllers need to function and function reliably. The console should convey the feeling that it's built on a stable platform not on a bunch of struts that may or may not have been tightly screwed in. The Ouya does not feel like a stable, properly functioning platform. It's close, but it's not there. Its main controller occasionally failed to read my inputs or sent signals to the console that I didn't send. It might have been a game-specific problem or something that'll be patched out. Who knows? It doesn't bolster confidence. The console's essential online store—its Discover area—is underserved by a worst-in-class internal search engine that only finds games by title and not by developer or any other category that'd be useful in a marketplace as crowded as this. Don't rely on the genre classifications which lump the system's beat-em-up action games with its pinball games, for some reason. Some games are missing product descriptions or have ones that say nothing informative about the game. Games on Ouya inconsistently use different buttons to pause the action and usually fail to signal how to quit them (it's not intuitive, but double-tapping the controller's Ouya button quits games). One game, which I tried to play solo while a second controller was synced, split the game's controls across the two controllers. The sticks on one controller and the buttons on the other controlled the action. Feature or bug, you decide! The framerate in the Ouya-exclusive Chronoblade is a stuttering mess. Yes, this is an Android machine. Yes, Android doesn't standardize things the way Apple does on iOS, let alone the way Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo do on proven game consoles. The lack of polish and tolerance of sloppiness on Ouya, however, is off-putting and is the thing that most makes the console feel cheap. The extent to which things are improved—the extent to which the Ouya "just works"—will indicate how serious and how capable the Ouya people are about running a platform gamers can support and believe in. When we're reviewing games at Kotaku, we endeavor to answer the question: "Should you play this?" When we review consoles, we change what we're asking: "Is it time for a gamer to get an Ouya? Is it a must-have? The Ouya sets the bar low with its $99 price tag and its initially-free games, but it's not even clearing that well enough. There are some good games, but not many. They're hard to discover, don't always work well with the system's controller and risk being lost in a mess of substandard attempted amusements that don't belong on your TV any more than they deserved to be on your phone. The system is a fascinating experiment and can be fun for those for whom $99 isn't much to plunk down for a lark or a risk. I'm not so sure that's who the Ouya was made for. Buyer beware, for now. If the Ouya and its library get better—and they should given how far this system has come, out of nowhere—we'll let you know. To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo

Google is developing a game console that runs on Android, Wall Street Journal reports. The console is in development alongside a wrist watch powered by Android.

Google is interested in the console and watch as a buffer against whatever devices Apple has planned for the future, the report says. One person mentioned that Google has been watching the Ouya, the Kickstarted and open Android console that just launched to the public for $99 a pop. Amazon sold out of its Ouya stock early in the first day, but is back in business now.

As for the watch, wearable computing isn't a new idea - it's one that Valve founder Gabe Newell in particular finds intriguing. Valve is working on a Steam Box, which is so far described as a cheap, in-home streaming console that runs on Linux. Newell, like Google, is also keeping a close eye on Apple.

Ouya, which launched today even if many donors don't yet have their machines, is an Android-based, open source console. It'll run emulators. So there's some sensitivity to the issue of piracy, which Ouya didn't help by retweeting out a picture of Super Mario Bros. and adding the hashtag #freethegames. Yesterday an enthusiast—in a tweet removed just within the past half-hour—listed his reasons for owning the console. "Use current controllers, expand ports, and #retro games." To that he added the image below, which appears to show Super Mario Bros. being played on an Ouya. Ouya's official account, around 8 p.m. on Monday, quoted the Tweet, linking this picture with the addition of the #FreetheGames hashtag to the beginning of it. In March, the discussion of emulators on Ouya's unofficial forums brought a statement from the console maker as to what would and would not be allowable on the device. Ouya said it would accept emulators on the Ouya store provided they didn't include any games to which the emulator didn't have a legitimate license. People who wanted to submit retro games to the Ouya store also would need a license from the owner, and Ouya noted the store does not accept ROMs, which could be pirated material, only the .apk file format. That said, the device has already been shown to run Street Fighter II and Mario 64 on emulation, so even if ROMs or .apks of the games themselves can't be exchanged over the Ouya store, there may be a way still to get them on the open-source console. We've pointed out to Ouya that one console maker's tacit encouragement of playing another console maker's games on emulation is somewhat of a provocative statement. We've asked for comment and will update this post with any that Ouya makes. Meantime, the Tweet still is up. To contact the author of this post, write to owen@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @owengood.

Ouya, the Android-powered, crowdfunded indie console, arrives in stores today but shipping snafus mean many backers have yet to receive their consoles, threatening to cast a cloud over a big day for the machine. It could be another two weeks before all backers have their consoles. Backers, particularly those overseas, had already sensed trouble getting their Ouyas before launch, but with the console now available to the public, and funders still waiting on theirs, Ouya was compelled to address the matter in a backers-only message earlier today. "I am pissed," founder Julie Uhrman wrote, "Some of you have not yet received your Ouya, and to you, I apologize." She goes on to say that the consoles were delivered to a distribution partner in May "and since then they have been in their custody. We paid for shipping, yet the deliveries remain incomplete." Ouya backers are pissed, too, letting the company know about it on its Facebook page. "My early backed console from KS still has not arrived, point of fact," wrote one backer, from Canada. "It only just shipped late last week and I am now going to be waiting until July 10 till I get mine. I know another person who backed it after me who is still waiting also." Uhrman says Ouya tripled the size of its customer service team to respond to backers' concerns. "I'm told that despite our best efforts, it may take another two weeks or more for some of these units to arrive," Uhrman wrote. In the same message, Ken Stephens, the head of operations for Ouya, said "the vast majority of those who haven't yet received Ouya are international backers." Rumors have sprouted regarding comprehensive delays or holds by some customs agencies, but Ouya has not said anything, officially, about such problems. Kotaku reached out to Ouya representatives earlier this morning to ask for more detail on international delays and additional comment. Any the company makes will be updated here. "All of these units have left Hong Kong," Stephens reminded, "and you have received your tracking email." Stephens estimated 15 to 17 days of transit time once the units left their partner in Hong Kong. Ouya is manufactured in mainland China. Regular customers who are interested in getting an Ouya may be out of luck, too. It and its controller are listed as out of stock on Amazon and at GameStop, though it appears to be in stock for ordering online at Best Buy. To contact the author of this post, write to owen@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @owengood.

I have this problem having what humans call "fun" at E3. You see, to me E3 is work — a pressure-cooker of exhaustion, hand sanitizer and confusing PR campaigns centered in an incredibly sad and weird part of Los Angeles. At times it’s downright creepy, and if you’re not careful you’ll forget why you love games to begin with. I almost did. Then I played TowerFall and remembered, “Oh yeah, games are supposed to be fun.” TowerFall is a four player archery fighting game by Matt Thorson coming to the Ouya later this month. Imagine Smash Bros. bred with games like Spelunkey or Nidhogg. It is immensely addictive, and one of the most compelling reasons I’ve seen so far to buy an Ouya. After playing a few rounds, I didn't want to leave. Watch the video above to see the game in action. TowerFall comes out for the Ouya June 25th. To contact the author of this post, write to chrisperson@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @papapishu

Remember how the Ouya development team were going to be showing their stuff in a parking lot opposite E3? Yeah, looks like that's caused some problems. The console's developers have been sparring with E3's organisers, the ESA, and earlier today that sparring blew over into something you'd expect from a bad 80s sitcom. According to a report on IGN, this is what happened: Ouya team sets up in parking lot opposite E3.ESA rents out parking space in front of the Ouya booth, parks huge trucks in there, obscuring the Ouya booth.Ouya team retaliate by renting out the spots in front of the trucks, erecting big OUYA banners.ESA respond by calling the cops, trying to get Ouya's booth shut down. In case you couldn't tell by the image above, this wasn't exactly a SWAT team. Permits were checked, and the police left without taking further action. Shame. "E3 Attendees Tear-Gassed Following Parking Lot Brawl" is a headline on my bucket list. E3 2013: Cops Called to Shut Down Ouya [IGN]

There's just no stopping Mad Catz's mad expansion plans. The peripheral maker has turned software publisher over the past couple of years, and this holiday season it takes a stab at console manufacturing with the M.O.J.O. Android console. Another Android console? Isn't this just a super-charged Android phone without the screen, like the Ouya or Gamestick? “M.O.J.O. is basically a supercharged smart phone with no screen that plugs into your flat screen TV to bring the living room experience to mobile gaming. M.O.J.O. is designed to interact seamlessly with our GameSmart controllers, mice, keyboards and headsets, in fact, the entire eco-system of gaming peripherals.” said Darren Richardson, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz via official announcement today, so yes. Along with the statement and some shiny pictures come very few actual details. It'll run Android games and movies and music. It'll come packed with Mad Catz's new C.T.R.L.R Wireless GamePad, because Mad Catz likes making it difficult to type out its product names. As you can see in the pics below it's got USB ports and an HDMI out. Other than that, not quite sure how much power this thing will be packing. Tegra 4 would be a wise choice, but who knows? The M.O.J.O. is due out this holiday season, just in time for all of the other major Android consoles to already have been released. 4

NWay, a studio founded by Grand Theft Auto creator Dave Jones and former Realtime Worlds president Tony Harman, is bringing a new action RPG called ChronoBlade to browsers, Ouya, iOS and Android. To throw another big name onto the pile, the game is being designed by Stieg Hedlund, the designer behind Diablo 2.

ChronoBlade combines traditional loot-collecting action RPG concepts with 2D beat-em-up gameplay. The game takes place in a "multiverse" setting consisting of many different dimensions, allowing it to include styles ranging from medieval fantasy to steampunk.

A demo should launch on Ouya next week, and an open beta of the browser version is expected to launch later this month. Check out a developer diary after the break.

Hey, it's a cool-looking Ouya game! This is Towerfall, a multiplayer fighting game inspired by the likes of Smash Bros. and Bushido Blade. It'll be out for Ouya on June 25. Towerfall is developed by Matt Thorson, an indie designer responsible for tons of games including Jumper, a personal favorite (and the inspiration behind 2010's indie hit Super Meat Boy). Thorson tells me he hopes to bring the game to PC, but for now it's an Ouya exclusive. ("I'd love to do PC, but it's important to me to get it somewhere on a TV with controllers first and then I'll go from there," Thorson says.) So if you plan on getting an Ouya, this seems like a game to check out, especially if you enjoy drunken multiplayer bow-and-arrow sessions.

You might think you're having a bad day, but Eve has got you beat. She woke up in a strange world with an alien computer embedded in her arm. Eve is the main character of Abducted, an upcoming episodic adventure from Sunside. Abducted promises a mix of action-adventure, horror and RPG elements, and the trailer for the first episode shows off some lovely extraterrestrial visuals.

The game is available for pre-order now via Sunside's website, with an expected release late this summer. Those who pre-order the Collector's Edition will receive early access to the Abducted beta.

Available platforms will include PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android (including Ouya). Sunside also says that its in-house Radiance engine can support Xbox and PS3, though no official release has been announced for those platforms. If you'd like to see Abducted on Steam, you can give it a push on Greenlight.

Ouya, the crowdfunded Android gaming console, will be in Los Angeles during E3, but it won't technically be *at* E3. That's because its booth will be in "a parking lot directly across from the Convention Center's South Hall." Is it this one? That's according to a message sent to Ouya developers by the company's head of developer relations. It's an offer to them to "provide everything you'll need to put on a killer game demo—Ouya console ... check; controllers ... check; TV ... check. "You'll be able to demo your games to media, E3 attendees, and random people on the street," she added. "Ouya's E3 location will be 100 percent open to the public." Ouya's unorthodox, unofficial E3 presence is part of a trend of big names either ignoring or minimizing their presence at North America's big industry conference. On Friday, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime announced that several unreleased Wii U games will be playable at Best Buy locations across the country during the week of E3, following news that the console maker wasn't doing its traditional pre-show news conference. 2K Games won't have a booth at the expo at all. Ouya Booth to be Open to the Public in a Parking Lot Outside of E3 [Joystiq] To contact the author of this post, write to owen@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @owengood.

Ouya has picked up a new board member with some industry klout - no really, he's on Klout's board too - in the the form of former EA chief creative officer Bing Gordon. "What we really liked about Bing is that he doesn't get constrained by conventional thinking, and that's a lot about what we do at Ouya," CEO Julie Uhrman tells Joystiq. "And he also is a really big supporter of game creators, and that's been one of the key focuses of Ouya. It felt like a perfect match." Gordon will be helping the company seek out new games and promote the Ouya itself, she says.

The company has also secured $15 million in new funding. "We want to be in this for the long haul," says Uhrman. "This money will allow us to continue to support game developers as well as meet the demand that we're seeing from retailers and really gamers all over the world."

Ouya has seen higher than expected demand, she says - so high, apparently, that the company delayed the launch from June 4 to June 25 to manufacture more units - and this new funding will help "service that demand." The funding may also help Ouya expand beyond its initial launch territories, North America, Canada and the UK. Many regions have shown an interest in Ouya, she says. "We will be able to look at those regions and determine what makes sense for Ouya, and be there when we want to be there."

Ouya, the $99 Android-based game console is getting delayed slightly, and is now set to launch on June 25. "In order to meet [our retail partners'] greater than expected demand, we decided to shift the launch date by a couple of weeks, which will allow us to create more units," Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman told Joystiq.