Ouya: A Cheap, Free-To-Play Game Console

The Ouya hopes to bring people back to the communal feel of television gaming, and away from their smartphones. (Photo : Ouya)

A technology company named Ouya (pronounced Ooo-yah) is attempting to break into the lucrative video game market by releasing an under-$100 console with free-to-play games.

Ouya will be a cheap, budget console that can hook up to the television and has controllers much like a traditional console from Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft. The console will run on an Android operating system and have an app store much like the Android Market or the Apple App Store.

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The Ouya will be an SDK as well, allowing anyone with a console to create a game as well. The producers only ask one thing - that people can play at least a part of the game for free.

The product's kickstarter page reads: 

"We're handing the reins over to the developer with only one condition: at least some gameplay has to be free. We borrowed the free-to-play model from games like League of Legends, Team Fortress 2, Triple Town, and many others. Developers can offer a free demo with a full-game upgrade, in-game items or powers, or ask you to subscribe."

So far, the Ouya has received 3,782 backers on kickstarter as of now, and has a total pledged amount of almost $474,000 out of a goal of $950,000.

The team behind Ouya is trying to bring people back to the television and away from playing games on a smartphone.

"We've seen a brain drain: some of the best, most creative gamemakers are focused on mobile and social games because those platforms are more developer-friendly."

They also list specs on the kickstarter page and invite hackers to go ahead and ask them for the console design so they can make modifications to it.

The team of developers includes Yves Behar who also designed the Jambox.