Julie Uhrman refers to the television as the last “closed platform”, and describes how the Android-powered OYUA is going to be an independent game developer’s dream by breaking the bonds that have shackled small developers for years and kept them from developing freely for the home console market since the video game crash in the 1980s. OUYA, according to Uhrman, is poised to create a gaming revolution that will put video games “back in the living room” where they’re at their best, and directly challenge the “big three,” Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, by offering a product with a small footprint that is both capable and affordable. It’s a seductive argument, and compelling to a certain hipster zeitgeist mentality that wants a People’s Console. OUYA is presented as a way to both gameandstick it to the Man.
The only problem is it’s a fantasy.
The heart of the OUYA is the Tegra 3, a common chipset for modern mobile devices such as the HTC One X and the Nexus 7 tablet among others. It provides impressive specs for its cost, and is capable of surprising fidelity in mobile gaming in the hands of capable programmers. It’s also over a year old, and everywhere. So the hardware brings nothing new to the table, sure, but what about the OUYA’s features? Well, aside from an HDMI out, there’s really nothing it can do that my Nexus 7 can’t do, better.