Leaks are springing, and word is out that a new mystery home video game console called Ouya is in development. This is a real thing.

Ouya is a $99 box running on the Android platform, with a focus on free gaming, according to details spotted in a listing on a site for tech start-ups spotted by the tech reporters at The Verge. The most tantalizing detail that they report is that: "Even the underlying hardware is 'built to be hacked'—every customer who buys a retail box will get a dev kit in the bargain, the site claims."

The look of the console is being designed by Yves Béhar, who crafted the look of the One Laptop Per Child computer. The project is also backed by ex-IGN exec Julie Uhrman, former Xbox gaming honcho Ed Fries, and some other top tech folks.

Sources close to the project tell me there are even more surprises to what is an altogether out-of-left field new entrant into the home video game console wars.

We've got Xbox, PlayStation and Wii. Have we got room for something like Ouya in our living rooms?

http://kotaku.com/5923135/a-new-99-console-called-ouya-is-real-and-radically-different-from-xbox-playstation-and-wii

I think there would be place for such a game system. If it runs android it would be a logical choice for old-school gaming/hacking. I would buy one If it's able to connect to the web, it could logical take advantage of the Android market, and one can then create content and sell it for the console

I was talking about free part of it. We both know that ~95% of free stuff is bad, not counting mods, f2p MMO-s and piracy.

Interesting. i'll be following this. Though have concerns about "free". Will it be advert run? Require subscription in order to play "free" games. Will it just be a box for amateur and aspiring developers (that might be good actually)? Will it be for "basic" games, then all the good stuff be sold as DLC? What?

doesnt look that bad, especially the hacking part. wouldnt it be possible to run dosbox on it?

I'd rather spend $99 on games from GOG!

This. If it's Android based, you could run dosbox. Using controler instead of mouse/keyboard combo is another topic.
The part I don't understand is why make it console if you want market integration, allow hacking, etc.

probably can plug an usb keyboard in.

95% of everything is bad.

yeah like pc games are all that good or look at nintendo's ds catalogue.

I suspect that the success of this console will largely depend on how easy it is to work with, and if they can get a large amount of enthusiasts to start create content for it. There is a large group of people out there who enjoy creating free games, or mod games (just look at the projects that have been created for the TES games).
I wish them luck with this, but I can't see myself buying one. I don't think I'll have a TV in a few years anyway.

Should I remind you that people go for shiny most of te time? *points at latest CoD*
And selling shiny things is what keeps system afloat.

it's a F2P box, or maybe close to something like a Facebook Box or farm-vile box: everything will be funded by micro-transactions and driven by social pressures.

it also reeks of a start up who's sole purpose is to try to get one of the big boys to purchase the company, then duck out with the cash before the purchaser realizes that they are stuck nothing more than concepts and hype ... (this was Onlive's whole goal from day one, funny how Sony was half way into the trap before they backed out and went with Gaikai).

There's actually quite a few good games that are free, they just tend to be of a size that you wouldn't consider them as a purchase. The Newgrounds community has a lot of these kinds of games. While you're right, 95% of free stuff is crap, really 95% of all stuff is crap, and the leftover 5% is really a rather large amount. All you would need would be a vetted and curated location or two from which folks could pull down the "good" stuff. The hardware is open, so if folks don't want your vetted stuff they can get whatever, but for those that don't want to trawl through a sea of crap, it's a really ideal situation.