$99 Android-Powered Ouya Console Gets Shown Off in Developer Preview

When people read about the Android-powered Ouya game console on Kickstarter, their wallets opened. Instead of raising $950,000, the company raised almost ten times that amount. Ouya has promised backers that in addition to compatibility with the hundreds of pre-existing Android games, developers would write and craft games explicitly and exclusively for the Ouya console. Such compatibility is important, since the vast majority of Android devices use a touchscreen to interact directly with content.

Ouya, on the other hand, uses a hybrid controller structure, with a combination of physical buttons and a trackpad. The trackpad service to help users run software designed for a touchscreen, but even then, it won't be anything close to a perfect transition.

To that end, then, developer consoles are shipping out to "qualified buyers", and one such developer has already posted a walkthrough to YouTube. 

The developer edition comes with a translucent plastic casing, and a warning to anyone watching that this is very much beta stage hardware that could change at any time. The biggest problems so far stem not from the console itself, nor its UI (which is justifiably basic at this juncture), but rather its controller. Start buttons are appropriate for any gaming controller, while Android practically cries out for a menu button, and both of these are missing from the current controller.  In addition, the trackpad is reportedly not very good, which could lead many users to grow frustrated with the controls.

In the mean time, check out the video below and see what you think about the new console!

via The Verge