Kickstarter Update #19 OUYA coming March 28 - It's official

[Sven]

Get excited!!! OUYAs will begin shipping to Kickstarter backers on March 28. That’s right. Parts are in the factory and assembly lines are buzzing. We’ll gradually ramp up production as we make sure things are working. (Our full launch is still set for June, which is when OUYA will be available in stores!) Meanwhile, tens of thousands of you will receive your OUYA, and you’ll get to start playing right away. You will also get to watch OUYA evolve over the coming weeks and months. We’ll continue to add new features, refine our user experience, and bring on more games. As always, we appreciate your feedback (and apply it), so keep it coming. Keep a lookout in your inbox for an email from us. It will have your tracking number and estimated delivery date. Might take a few weeks to get to everyone. We have a lot of OUYAs to ship! Julie

BOOM!

From the Kickstarter Update Page

[Cottiny]

HYYYYYYYYYYYPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Seriously, OUYA is a profesional project, I think that OUYA will can successful.

[Athlor]

The games she mentioned, Papo & Yo, The Ball and ChronoBlade, all look like must-haves. Of the three, I'm most intrigued by The Ball and from website it says it uses the Unreal 3 engine. So this could be the first Ouya game to have it.

[Mythidiot]

Great news. Well done guys.

[Eddie K]

Did the update actually say Papo & Yo was coming to OUYA? I thought that game was finished being developed. The update says

Minority Media, developers of the critically acclaimed Papo & Yo, will deliver their in-development adventure puzzler to OUYA this fall. This is the first game (that we know of) designed to take full advantage of the OUYA touchpad and buttons simultaneously. We’ll need a name for this new style of gameplay. Controlpad … Touchutton ... hmm.

[arcticdog]

You will also get to watch OUYA evolve over the coming weeks and months. We’ll continue to add new features, refine our user experience, and bring on more games. As always, we appreciate your feedback (and apply it), so keep it coming.

Translation: Prepare for a beta/not quite there product.

Off to the factory implies the final image is in place. Firmware 1.0.68? I was really hoping it would be a much more polished iteration. This IS going to be the first mainstream public impression of the device. Not saying that the device is completely unusable or awful. It's actually really good for a developer. But we are a different, far more tolerant audience.

Hope this goes smooth.

[Athlor]

Translation: Prepare for a beta/not quite there product.
Off to the factory implies the final image is in place. Firmware 1.0.68? I was really hoping it would be a much more polished iteration. This IS going to be the first mainstream public impression of the device. Not saying that the device is completely unusable or awful.

Fret not, I'm sure it will check for the latest version, automatically update it and the public will always see the best version of the launcher or os currently available.

[arcticdog]

Translation: Prepare for a beta/not quite there product.

Off to the factory implies the final image is in place. Firmware 1.0.68? I was really hoping it would be a much more polished iteration. This IS going to be the first mainstream public impression of the device. Not saying that the device is completely unusable or awful. It's actually really good for a developer. But we are a different, far more tolerant audience.

Hope this goes smooth.

Not to break my arm patting myself on the back or anything, but... Ohhh look at that. I called that one on 2-28-2013.

OUYA.. you really need to listen to me more :-D

[Dreamzle]

No, if nothing else there's going to be a day zero firmware update. Since the console requires internet access to do anything, that's going to be the first thing it does is get and install the new firmware, similar to how the Wii U at launch required a firmware update to go online to do anything (but better because the Wii U was not an internet device, so many owners never upgraded the firmware, or waited). Also, I seriously doubt they'll ship with 1.0.68 - if nothing else, they've had almost a full month to work on the firmware since 1.0.68's release (and firmware *can* be updated after the hardware is put together, Nintendo did that with the Gamecube launch units before its US release).

[arcticdog]

No, if nothing else there's going to be a day zero firmware update. Since the console requires internet access to do anything, that's going to be the first thing it does is get and install the new firmware, similar to how the Wii U at launch required a firmware update to go online to do anything (but better because the Wii U was not an internet device, so many owners never upgraded the firmware, or waited). Also, I seriously doubt they'll ship with 1.0.68 - if nothing else, they've had almost a full month to work on the firmware since 1.0.68's release (and firmware *can* be updated after the hardware is put together, Nintendo did that with the Gamecube launch units before its US release).

I'm sure you're right about day zero firmware. The problem with the update system (as of the last build anyway), is that it's still hidden away in the Android Settings area, so it still feels more like an Android tablet/phone experience than a console. I realize it can be configured to look for updates on boot up (I can't remember. Is that's the default setting?), but it silently downloads it rather than alerting the user of what it's doing. Hopefully whatever build is in there makes that part a little more obvious, and more like a console experience.

The good news is, it's probably not 1.0.68 since that's a developer-centric build.