Ouya — the open source, Android powered console — is a go

Yesterday I talked about “The Future of Handheld Gaming” wherein I said quite definitively that phone-gaming is a bit of a fad and true handheld gaming can (and hopefully will, survive).

Somewhat related to that is the news that Ouya — the open source console powered by Android — pulled $8.6 million dollars via Kickstarter. They’ve lined up some companies, too, and well, are now accepting pre-orders. This is huge news, of course: while the Vita has been stumbling its way through cross-play gaming, with an Android console that becomes a huge reality — taking games with you on your cell phone seems to be a real possibility.

The only question is, will developers jump for it?

Katsuhiro Harada — Mr. Tekken — recently said that he believes that a one-console future is the way to go, and while that would make things a cinch for devs and likely help the big three settle their differences, it at one point seemed unlikely. I remember imagining as a kid that that would be the future… I kind of doubt it these days, but with projects like Ouya going big, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft are going to have to find a way to compete. Ouya will likely feature tons of free games — courtesy of Android’s already huge library — as well as premium content designed for the Ouya itself. Something open source like this will be ripe for piracy, too —  SNES/NES/GB roms on your Android powered console? Probably.

God knows console sales have been interesting over the last little while, but with a retail price that pretty much trounces the competition, not to mention the 3DS and Vita, I’d be worried if I was one of the big three.