Ouya, the Kickstarter-funded Android game console, is set for release in June, but the company hopes to release a new, updated version of the console every year at the same price point: $99.
"Our plan is to have a yearly refresh of Ouya where we leverage the best-performing chips and take advantage of falling component prices to create the best experience we can at the $99 price point," said Ouya founder and CEO Julie Uhrman to The Verge.
And Uhrman says it might get even cheaper.
For now, the company is focused on getting the first release onto real and virtual shelves at Best Buy, GameStop and Amazon, but it's good to see they're thinking ahead.
And Uhrman says the turnover won't make previous games obsolete. "Uhrman assured us that 'all the games will be backward compatible' going forward," writes Engadget.
"When pushed on how this will work, she said, 'The games will be tied to you, the gamer,' (like Steam is now) rather than tying your game licenses to the hardware you purchased (like, say, Nintendo's Wii U)."
And, in what could be a boon for gamers who don't want weed through a ton of lame offerings, as well as developers who don't want their babies judged solely on sales, Uhrman says Ouya will manage the app store with an eye toward quality over quantity.
"We don't believe it's the number of downloads, or the amount of money spent," she said. "It's how many times you play a game in a given period of time, and how quickly you start playing a game. When you boot up Ouya, how many times is it the first game you play? How many friends do you tell about a particular game? These are indicators that you really love a game."
Watch Uhrman's speech at DICE 2013 below:
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction