Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman has confirmed that the company plans to release new versions of the Android console based around new and cheaper hardware every year, with each version backwards compatible with what has come before. With the use of standard components and an open philosophy, she thinks this will help the company against its larger, more well funded competition.
“From a hardware perspective, there’s nothing defendable,” Uhrman said. “We didn’t build a custom chip, we took off the shelf components and just combined them in a different way. What’s unique about Ouya is the business model, the fact that every single game is free to try, that it’s open for every single creator, the fact that we’re bringing games back to the television. But most importantly, we will win if we’re able to develop a great relationship with developers and gamers where the best, newest, and most creative games are on Ouya.”
She also talked about the mandatory “free-to-try” option on all Ouya games, saying, “It cleans up the app store. It removes the confusion between a paid app store and a free app store. We also think it cuts down on the copycat games, where you have games that look like each other and one is paid but the other is free and you don’t know what to do. So we thought the easiest way to remove that and create a great experience for gamers and developers that was rewarding in their own right was to adopt this free-to-try model.”
Source: GamesIndustry International
