Booya! The Ouya is coming

We’ve seen plenty of amazing Kickstarter ideas over the past year, but none of them captured the imagination quite like the open source Ouya games console.

And with good reason. The team behind Ouya are making some pretty impressive promises. For $US99 plus delivery, you can grab a designer console running Android with a controller created by renowned designer Yves Behar and his firm fuseproject. Connecting to the TV via HDMI and offering a powerful quad-core processor, the console promises to bring the benefit open source gaming to the television.

It’s a bold idea, but a logical one. Mobile gaming has been on the rise, and there’s a real demand for those experiences to make their way to the TV. Ouya promises that, combining the latest AAA titles from major studios with the creations of independent developers.

This approach has seen major success on mobile platforms, so it’s no surprise that someone is looking to translate it to the big screen. Given Microsoft and Sony make it an arduous task for indies to sell their games digitally through Xbox Live or the Playstation network, Ouya are banking on these up and coming developers to flock to its new platform.

But for the gamer, it’s the promise of a sub-$100 console that really appeals. The Kickstarter campaign raised a whopping $US1,500,000 in the first day, and a week later sits at over $4.5 million. With 23 days to go, it wouldn’t be surprising for the startup console company to walk away with over $US10 million.

If you do invest in the untested console, expect a bit of a delay. The final product isn’t expected to ship until March next year, and it’s unclear whether that will include international distribution.

Rest assured though – when the product ships to market, EFTM will be twiddling our thumbs in excitement to test drive it for you.

Web: Kickstarter