OUYA: A New Kind of Video Game Console

I missed it =( I wanted to do the 99$ one but I just couldnt come up with the spare cash =(

I cant wait. lol

I also backed the Ouya with a $99 + 20 pledge.
Really looking forward to this as well: what kept me away from developing on Android so far was the extreme fragmentation of devices/specs/resolutions etc. hopefully this will become a standard, viable platform to develop for!

First, about the hardware. One thing I like is that if it is the size of a standard Rubik's cube and I could place my speedcube collection around it. I also liked the designs of Yves Béhar even before hearing he was involved with designing the controller.

EmperorIng360 wrote: My hope is that without the background processes running, the device as a dedicated gaming console can be pretty up to snuff. Though I've heard arguments both for and against the Tegra 3 chip.

The Tegra 3 is a powerful chip for its budget price point and I believe it is powerful enough to be the indie friendly platform it wants to be. People will still want more for their money and keep adding higher specs to their wishlist. The Tegra 4 is supposed to be almost double the power, but that would mean a longer wait and it takes time for developers to really get to know a new chip's behaviour. Since they can look at options like active cooling instead of passive, they might be able to overclock the Tegra 3 a bit.

I heard rumours the Ouya devs could have NVIDIA unlock access to the 5th battery-saving CPU core since Ouya won't need to manage a battery. That 500MHz core can do small tasks like playing music. The stock Android OS will assume all cores are of the same spec; thus, the 5th core is turned off when all of the other 4 cores are at max. The version of Android tailored for Ouya may have a workaround so background tasks could be offloaded from the 4 main cores onto the 5th core.
http://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/tegra_white_papers/Variable-SMP-A-Multi-Core-CPU-Architecture-for-Low-Power-and-High-Performance.pdf
People also kept asking for more RAM. Remember that not just any RAM will do as it has to be compatible with the system. I haven't seen a Tegra 3 model spec sheet that showed more than a 2GB cap. As long as only one game is running at a time, I don't see RAM being too constricting at 1GB if game devs don't go too crazy.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/tegra-3-processor.html
People also ask for USB 3, but that would probably require some costly support chips be added to the circuit board. The ARM processors for many Android devices support one USB 2.0 micro for charging and data transfer. Adding more USB ports can be done with an internal USB hub. The Raspberry Pi model B has its ethernet port sharing the same USB hub that also gives it an additional USB port over the model A. It looks like the Ouya might have its ethernet port connected in this way too.
http://elinux.org/RPi_Hardware
Note for USB ports it says "1(provided by the BCM2835)" for model A and the model B says "2 (via integrated USB hub)".

Secondly, about the games. I don't see any big problems keeping Construct 2 games from running on Ouya that aren't already being solved for exporting to Android. Evilot is a game targeting Ouya's launch that is using HTML5. Eventually an Ouya exporter for Construct 2 before the end of 2013 would be nice and I would experiment with it.
http://www.syrenaica.com/evilot-the-first-chilean-game-on-kickstarter-aims-for-ouya/

EmperorIng360 wrote: However, I am somewhat skeptical as to the release of big-AAA titles on the system. The people clamoring for Skyrim or Assassin's Creed on the machine are delusional.

I have to agree that some backers have really unrealistic ideas about what games they will be able to play. Excluding publishing politics and measuring CPU cycles, I assume a lot of work would be needed before even trying to run Skyrim on the Tegra's flavour of the ARM architecture as it is not a PC processor or a PowerPC descendant like in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox360. Skyrim even needs patching to unofficially run on an Intel-based Mac. This doesn't mean there can't be "good" looking games. Unreal Engine 3 supports Android and has been used to make pretty games like Infinity Blade for iPhones with weaker specs. The Unity engine can also be polished to look really good. Just like with other consoles, the developers will learn how to push the machine to its limits the more time they spend with it.

Finally, to be a success the Ouya needs to create an ecosystem. I was able to get a $95 early-bird pre-order and if its ecosystem doesn't mature then I can still enjoy it as a media box like I did with GeeXboX on my Wii. I see the XMBC and Plex developers were mentioned in a project updates. OnLive support or eventually being able to install a replacement Linux OS would be bonuses. I do think Ouya will get more help from Kickstarter by having many games for it funded there. Backers of the Ouya will be asking video game project creators to support Ouya and those creators will comply if there are enough pledges.

@Erndog2k Decided to compare old N64 specs to OUYA for a giggle. Then a thought occurred to me, OUYA presents a major opportunity for re-makes/re-releases of old games.

Then another thought occurred to me... emulators on android are becoming more stable all the time and this could allow OUYA to become almost any old console you want. The little OUYA could be a NES/SNES/N64/GB/Genisis/SGS/VB all in one little box.

How awesome is that?