OUYA, the $100 Android- powered games console that’s caused quite a stir in the gaming world lately, has gained the backing of cloud-based gaming service OnLive.
The partnership between OnLive and OUYA is already underway, which means that the OUYA console will have access to hundreds of top game titles via OnLive’s cloud service, on top of the range of Android games which will be downloadable.
It seems that OnLive will be preloaded as an app on the console’s very Xbox 360-like dashboard menu, giving quick and easy access to a range of titles. Gamers will be able to trial games for 30 minutes each, and then purchase the full game to play to their heart’s content. As with OnLive’s own micro console, full games are streamed in HD quality via your connection to the web, doing away with the conventional game disc. The console itself connects to your TV via a HDMI connection, connects to the internet via Wi-Fi, and is controlled by a wireless gamepad that’s similar to the Xbox 360 game pad.
The OUYA console started off life as a Kickstarter project; an idea that needed funding in order to be made. People loved the idea so much that it raised an incredible $5.5 million in funding, which meant that it could be put into production very quickly, and has almost certainly helped to strike up this deal with OnLive.
OUYA is a micro console that runs on Android 4.0 – aka Ice Cream Sandwich – as its operating system. In order to play the latest games it’s been designed with a powerful Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM, along with 8GB of flash storage for your downloaded games. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity are on board, and there’s also a USB 2.0 port for peripherals. Initially the console’s primary source for games was the Play Store, which would still mean excellent titles such as Shadowgun and Dead Trigger, but now it has console quality games to boot from OnLive.
The OUYA is expected to launch in March of 2013, and we for one can’t wait.
Want to know more about OUYA? Look no further than here.
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