UPDATE 7/10/12: As of now the funding goal of $950,000 has been surpassed. At this time of writing, the funding has reached just shy of $1.3 million. Keep your eye on the kickstarter page to see how far it goes. With 29 days left, there is still much room for higher funding.
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Original Story:
Most people would agree that the console market as it is right now isn’t doing too well. You’ll hear this from several developers to game journalists to just random people on the internet. We can all agree that the console market needs a shake-up. Hopefully, OUYA may do just that.
For those not aware, OUYA is a brand new Android-based video game console that will be available for $99. The big thing about the console aside from the price tag is that it’s completely open-source and that the library will solely consist of games that will be free to play to some degree. Mind you, while there are certainly free-to-play games lined up for the console, it also means that someone can just put a demo of their game up and ask to pay to unlock it. You know, like how Microsoft requires all XBLA games to have a demo. Hell, Minecraft is already set to be released on the system.
The goal of this project is $950,000. As of this writing, it has already surpassed $500,000 and will probably surpass that by the time this story goes out. So it’s very likely that this project will be completely funded before the day’s end. I really do hope this project succeeds when it’s finished. The way it’s defined, any game that has a free demo can be put on the console. Plus, with games like Tribes: Ascend and Blacklight: Retribution becoming popular, the free-to-play market is becoming more credible. I guess we’ll find out next year.
