Ouya kickstarter console progress update regarding release

Date: November 1, 2012

You might have wondered why we have not heard any details in regards to the Ouya kickstarter console in recent weeks, but there’s no need to fear that the program has been shelved because it’s right on track. Thankfully there has been a progress update from Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman, stating that the Android console has now entered the development stage.

We’re also told that developer kits will be released in December and their target retail release is still on for March 2013 – puts it a little close to GTA V. There was also verification that Android Jelly bean will be the OS running things, which makes sense as games would want the most recent version of Android to guarantee decent support.

The team behind the project has already got their hands on the printed circuit boards and they are said to be very small, they are about half the height of a coke can. Let’s just hope that this latest news will entice developers to jump on board, because the Ouya console could do with as much support as possible. Although with more than 63,000 people pledging more than $8.6 million to the project is certainly a step in the right direction.

However, there is a fear that some devs will be put off by the Tegra 3 chip and would rather they go with the Tegra 4 instead, which is rumored to be shown at CES 2013. This is wishful thinking and a little too late in the day to make such hardware changes.

While this latest update to the Ouya kickstarter project is positive news, there are still those who doubt that the console will see the light of day. Again this goes back to incorporating the correct and most up-to-date hardware, because by the time the new Android games console is released that Tegra 3 chip will be outdated when put next to some smartphones.

Let’s hope that the UK don’t have to wait several months or even a year after the March 2013 release date, because by that time the hardware will be too far behind to make any sort of impression in the UK. Read the official press release here.