I couldn't find the video of the console in action but the "pictures" in the last update look like mockups not real photos of an actual physical controller and console.
Also, the controller form looks uncomfortable. They should learn from MS and Nintendo's controllers.

Not sure if you are serious...

Gamepad is a much better controller covering several different kinds of genres, a kind of jack of all trades. Maybe not the best option for each of them, but suffices for them all. Plus it is one of the few only game controller types you can use in a living room without needing a desk, which is very important for home consoles.

Keyboard + mouse is more specialized (not originally even meant for games), mostly games which need pointing precision like FPS and RTS.

That said, gamepads really do suck for FPS games. But they are specially good for platformers, hack'em ups etc. How I wish gamepads would have a small thumb trackball for the few types of games where a mouse is the better option...

It's the video right at the top of the page, the one where they announced the thing. The video shows the developers playing a prototype of the console using what looks like PS3 controllers.

As for the controller design, they did learn from MS and Nintendo, the controller has the oft-debated analog/d-pad setup from the Xbox controller and a touchpad in the center, like something Nintendo would produce.

There's still no way in hell I'd shell out for $100. It's the forced F2P model that gets me the most. They talk about Ouya being an open platform, but it can't be if you have to go through their store and show that, in some way, your game is F2P.

Until the Ouya is out there and demonstrates itself in the real world, I won't have any faith in it.

All that aside, it's still a console. I don't really like playing games on my TV.

Edit: Oh wait, THAT'S the action video you're talking about? That's not a sufficient demonstration in my eyes. When the Xbox was demoed, I saw people turning it on, launching a game and playing it. I didn't see half a second of what APPEARED to be an Xbox. I also played one in a store.

No. That's not enough, and given the scammy nature of this Kickstarter I have to err on the side off caution and think it might be staged.

You meant the launch video? The PS2 had videos before launch that claimed "Jurassic Park level graphics" were possible on the console. See how that turned out.

The controller looks like a cheap 3rd party controller you could buy for $5 on dealextreme not something Nintendo and MS would produce. I know it's only a mockup but practically half of the launch video consists of some dude cutting and sanding a piece of wood to look like that atrocity. Pardon me if I'm skeptical.

It's open in that you can run the console as is, using their storefront and still get a full console experience, but at the same time, you can easily root the console and add things like the Google Play store to it without violating your warranty (they are even creating a simple "unrooting" app for people to switch back if they want to). Plus every console comes with the SDK built in so anyone can make games and apps for the console right out of the box without needing to license anything or pay exorbitant distribution fees like you do with traditional consoles.

That F2P just means that every game on the system will at least have a demo available (one of the updates mentions time-limited demos, half hour full games), though I'm sure many of the games will be the standard Android "free to play/ pay to win" model. The only thing they are forcing is making developers provide consumers with what they actually want, I don't see anything wrong with that. It might not be what you want and if that's the case, don't bother buying it, but given the massive market in casual games and now the possibility of "core games" through OnLive, this console looks to be very appealing to many people.

Be skeptical if you want, but honestly, what did you expect from something that is only in the prototype stage at the moment? Do you have any idea how much work goes into designing something like this and how long it takes to refine it? They are still finalizing design specs and modifying things based on feedback (they already added an Ethernet port to it due to demand, instead relying solely on wi-fi). What we see today might not even make it to the final product, but then again, it could.

As for the video, as someone who has a lower-specced Android tablet that I do use for games, I can assure you what they show in that video is easily well within the capabilities of the claimed hardware specs. They are not making any outrageous marketing-influenced claims like were made with the PS2.

I found this to be an interesting read.
I'm not really all that excited because I doubt it will actually be big in any significant way, if it gets made it will be an interesting gadget like the OpenPandora and the Raspberry Pi.

That's just being pessimistic. I prefer to think optimistically that they are actually further along than the doubters would have you believe and that, given the fact that things like console functionality and digital storefronts are really nothing new (they aren't inventing the wheel here), that they will actually produce decent results with less effort than you would think. The storefront thing is the one that really gets me. Android already has the necessary framework built into it, all they really need to do is put a GUI up, like Amazon did with the Kindle. I think it will actually be harder for them to assemble the backend hardware of the store than it will be to create the interface. I will concede that they don't seem likely to meet their projected release date, especially since they have now doubled their initial manufacturing run, but how many things in the gaming world, hardware or software, have ever met their initial release projections? Not many, to my knowledge.

And even so, the "keyboard" part is by default, not by design. The ideal setup would be controller plus mouse, but I believe current anatomical limitations prevent it's widespread adoption. Noone uses a keyboard because it's optimum, they use it because they are playing games on a computer, and a keyboard is what a computer has.

Yes, and they still haven't finalized the details with regards to the appstore or whatever. That's going to be a huge challenge and if they don't get it right they're basically sunk.

I have the onLive console having received it for free some time ago and it's nice, but onLive is easy to add to a device like this and folks who just want onLive can already buy the console for $99.

I'd like to see them succeed, but there's basically no chance in hell that this is going to work. Just too much to go wrong and too far away from launch to succeed. Even OpenPandora had issues and they were substantially closer to being able to send out the finished units. They would have finished years ago had they not chosen poorly with regards to the circuit board company.
I use keyboard because it's normally optimal, except on shitty games where the developers ported the game to PC without consideration for controls.

The keyboard is tremendously flexible and let's you choose a more comfortable fit, something which console controllers generally can't. Plus, there are tons of them to choose from if you don't like the travel on one or don't like the buttons on the other. The only advantage that console controllers have is analog buttons, that's it.

What do you think of the Onlive console?

For what it does it's really, really nice. The controller is pretty well thought out and the system doesn't give me any trouble. If you're into onLive as a gaming service it works far better for me than using my PC does.

That being said, while it does improve latency significantly in the connection, it doesn't solve it completely and I haven't used onLive in quite a while. But, as far as specialist hardware goes it's quite nice. They do provide firmware updates from time to time which have noticeably improved it since I first got it.

If they ouya people can pull off what they're attempting it's likely to be a better choice as the onLive mini-console is only usable with onLive.

True, it would e.g. add analog movement control which could be usable in many cases. I remember I actually tried to setup a flightstick (left hand) + mouse (right hand) control setup a long time ago for Mechwarrior 2 because I felt it would be the most optimal controller combo for the game, but it proved to be too much for me to handle. Flightsticks are nowadays quite often optimized for the right hand anyway, but that was the early MS Sidewinder stick which IIRC was symmetric by design; later models (MS SW Precision Pro etc.) were not. Or maybe I tried to use mouse with the left hand, not quite sure anymore...

In the end I played it with keyboard + mouse, I think. Might be I used the keyboard + flightstick combo for awhile too.

As I am currently playing Halo 2 on the XBox console, I'm trying to think how the game would feel if the right analog stick on the XBox controller was a small thumb trackball, not an analog stick. I think it could well be pretty much the most optimal controller for that game (or possibly any FPS for that matter).

As for this Android console, I don't really have an opinion. If it's good, successful and cheap, I might get it. :)

Necroing thread

So now that the kickstarter has long ended, the Hype and buzz have died down and people have actually gotten their hands on the console

Can someone who actually has the console say what it's like? are there ANY good exclusive games on this thing at all? Was it worth the 100 bucks you shelled out on it?