Ouya 2.0 console coming next year, new controllers planned

Android-powered gaming console Ouya has seen its fair share of problems in year one. But company founder Julie Uhrman is excited for year two, which will see the eventual launch of "Ouya 2.0" and an updated controller.

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Android-powered gaming console Ouya has seen its fair share of problems in year one. But company founder Julie Uhrman is excited for year two, which will see the eventual launch of "Ouya 2.0" and an updated controller.

"Our plan is to have Ouya 2.0 sometime next year, we haven't finalized the date of that," Uhrman said. "We're still determining what exactly we want that to be."

If a 2.0 model does come out in 2014, it will make good on Ouya's promise of releasing a new console every year. "For the hardware, we are looking at different chips. We are looking at what type of performance we want," Uhrman told Polygon. One of the main criticisms of Ouya's launch console was that it was grossly underpowered compared to most modern smartphones. (It is an unfair comparison, given phones are subsidized by contracts. But many consumers may not consider that fact.)

In addition to a new console, Ouya is working on an updated controller. Uhrman notes that the company is taking feedback, "iterating that software, fixing the triggers, fixing the thumbsticks and if that doesn't work, we'll iterate it again and if we decide that's not the right path, we'll change it." However, new controllers will be launched into the marketplace rather stealthily. When asked if there would be any indication on packaging to point out which controllers are updated and which aren't, Uhrman simply said "you wouldn't know until you bought it."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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  • reply
    October 25, 2013 10:30 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Ouya 2.0 console coming next year, new controllers planned.

    Android-powered gaming console Ouya has seen its fair share of problems in year one. But company founder Julie Uhrman is excited for year two, which will see the eventual launch of "Ouya 2.0" and an updated controller.

    • reply
      October 25, 2013 10:44 AM

      Yes. The people have spoken and they really want another Ouya. Lol...

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        October 25, 2013 10:47 AM

        seriously, releasing another one so fast is a pretty big fuck you to people who adopted this shit at release

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          October 25, 2013 10:47 AM

          p. sure they specirfically said their plan was a yearly release cycle for new consoles actually

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            October 25, 2013 11:08 AM

            They did and with the hardware they use there really isn't any other option. Mobile chipsets like Tegra 3 don't get manufactured for that long.

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          October 27, 2013 3:28 AM

          It's a "fuck you" to the people who can't read. They said they'll release a new one every year. Back to school with ya!

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      October 25, 2013 10:45 AM

      Wait, the first one has had a proper release? I thought it was still in development. lol.

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      October 25, 2013 10:47 AM

      rip xbox and ps

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        October 25, 2013 10:50 AM

        This is why I canceled my ps4 pre order.

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        October 25, 2013 10:53 AM

        Next Gen Gaming has ARRIVIED, or will arrive...or...yeah.

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          October 25, 2013 11:19 AM

          Wait, at that point won't it be NEXT-NEXT Gen?!

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      October 25, 2013 11:02 AM

      Odds are I would update the existing controller with a wired XBOX 360 controller.

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        October 25, 2013 11:08 AM

        You can use a wireless one with the PC wireless adapter. Also DS3 works wirelessly.

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          October 25, 2013 11:21 AM

          Really? Good to know. I wasn't sure that adapter would behave itself in Android.

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            October 25, 2013 11:38 AM

            Yup I haven't used one myself as I use a dual shock but I have seen posts from people confirming that the wireless adapter works fine even though un/powered USB hubs in addition to a direct connection to the console.

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      October 25, 2013 11:05 AM

      Ya know, if you think this through it begins to make sense why Nvidia has made some of it moves lately. Traditional consoles only come out every so many years. But, general CPU and now mobile SoC have been on a steady tick/tock cycle for a while now. And it's always been on the same basic platform/OS. Meaning, that the game you had on Android 1.1 probably still runs today on 4.3. As well, the Android platform has seen a staggering increase in graphic performance since 1.x (and, yeah you can say pretty much the same thing about iOS/iPhone). So the mobile platform is going to outpace the console pretty much like the PC has been doing all this time. Except, the PC has been able to swap out the cpu/gpu before having to get all new hardware, which has been the case about every two years with mobile (people do forget about the subsidy). So, a new Ouya every year? Yeah, I can believe it. They believe they can match the pace of the phone market with either nearly similar hardware or just behind the curve. Which is what I believe Nvidia has figured out and is why they left the console market.

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        October 25, 2013 11:24 AM

        Nvidia didn't leave the console market, the console market left them. They didn't have the right CPU/APU. Nobody would be dumb enough to abandon the PS4/Xbox market for something like Ouya, where the competition for SOC is even stronger.

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          October 25, 2013 11:44 AM

          WE DIDN'T LAND ON PLYMOUTH ROCK, PLYMOUTH ROCK LANDED ON US!
          http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/150892-nvidia-gave-amd-ps4-because-console-margins-are-terrible

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            October 25, 2013 1:26 PM

            Sure they said that after they lost it, like Peewee Herman said he meant to do that after he fell off his bike. Before that, Nvidia's CEO said in a conference call that they were sure to be in a next gen console because nobody can do all 3.

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              October 25, 2013 1:58 PM

              Here's the link in case anyone ask: http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/04/qa-nvidia-chief-explains-his-strategy-for-winning-in-mobile-computing/

              Q: Do you think there will be another round of consoles coming?
              A: Oh, no question about it.

              Q: And can you predict when it will be in terms of how many years from now?
              A: We will build one of them, right. And the reason for that is because the world doesn’t have enough engineering talent for anybody to build three of them at one time. It takes the entire livelihood of a computer graphics company to build one of them. And every single time they build one, my life is in danger. You build it once every five or seven years, but you have to build it all in a very short time. That’s because they wait and wait and then they say, ‘Can I have it next week?’

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      October 25, 2013 11:09 AM

      [deleted]

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      October 25, 2013 11:17 AM

      My Ouya is the best dedicated XBMC box I've been able to find.

      Also some games.

      *Shrug*

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        October 25, 2013 11:53 AM

        Yup, I've been plenty happy with mine. People really love to hate on it but for the price it's a cool peice of kit.

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          October 25, 2013 12:23 PM

          Also every SNES game, Genesis game, SMS, NES, TG16, Atari, ever. All on my 100 inch screen.

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        October 25, 2013 12:38 PM

        Does it support HD audio passthru over HDMI?

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          October 25, 2013 12:46 PM

          I do not believe so. It's one of those things where the hard ware is capable, the OS is capable, and the Firmware hasn't been given the treatment if I understand correctly.

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            October 25, 2013 1:20 PM

            If it is something they can do on Ouya's side I imagine it will come. They just recently opened up a beta of new FW that includes support for external storage for apps. I think that passthrough is probably one of the next most requested features.

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      October 25, 2013 11:52 AM

      Why anyone would want to buy or fund this is beyond me.

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        October 25, 2013 1:01 PM

        My friends just want to put xbmc on it. Ironically a lot of the interest seems to stem from that and much less from the gaming aspect.

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      October 25, 2013 12:08 PM

      Better be a tegra 5 launch vehicle. I'm not how else you could get even a modicum of excitement.

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      October 25, 2013 12:42 PM

      [deleted]

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      October 25, 2013 3:48 PM

      "Ouya's promise of releasing a new console every year."

      Is it just me, or would that not be a nightmare for developers?

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        October 25, 2013 3:50 PM

        Has it been a nightmare for devs to have new phones come out every year?

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          October 26, 2013 8:01 PM

          Its not the new phones, its the old phones that are a nightmare!

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      October 25, 2013 8:10 PM

      Hopefully Ouya 2.0 skips over Tegra 4 and goes with Tegra 5.

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        October 27, 2013 4:12 PM

        If they do this I'll likely buy the new one. Old games look like shit on an LCD without a lot of shaders so it'd be nice to run Retroarch with all the shaders enabled on an Ouya 2.0 console at a decent speed with an SNES->USB adapter to avoid any default controller shit. Then again a setup PC would work just fine for that anyway.

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