The gaming world is buzzing this past week as Ouya, the indie gaming console that a Kickstarter campaign built, shipped out its first near-retail version of the product in the last few days to its founding major backers. It's aimed to revolutionize the whole structure and even the business model of gaming as it becomes the first console to be released as an open sourced program using the Android OS, which means absolutely anyone in the world will be free to develop and sell games on it through their online store. At the price of $99, it's obviously and admittedly less powerful than its major counterparts like the Sony PS3 or Microsoft's Xbox 360 even though it sports the same similar standard features that are expected of any console nowdays such as high definition visuals and sound, Bluetooth and online capabilities, etc. For a start up and as the first console of its kind, the specs don't sound half bad especially considering its price.
Unfortunately, bad reviews have already started surfacing, even as Ouya has already released an article on their blog stating that the version that has shipped out as of now is still part of the beta testing phase and should be considered a preview period exclusive to its backers, reminding us that its full retail version is yet to be finalized and released on June 4.
For now, Ouya is still slowly but surely progressing and is still making improvements as they have been since the beginning by listening to its supporters and taking suggestions and comments, which might just be the company's most differentiating factor to date, considering that they seem to be doing a very good job on taking advantage of their independent nature and being closer to their consumers unlike their more major counterparts. So what does the future hold for Ouya's idealistic aspirations? For now it is unclear, but one thing is for sure - now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag and the idea of an open sourced market for gaming consoles has materialized and has been proven to be at least doable, it will only be a matter of time until the business of video games is yet again changed forever.
If you have any thoughts or speculations about the future of Ouya, let us know by leaving a comment below!
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