Ouya Special Edition Announced, Adds VEVO, iHeartRadio, Offensive Combat
Joe Van Fossen / Aug 6th, 2012 3 Comments
OUYA – Special Limited Edition
Right on the heels our Final Fantasy III launch title report, Ouya announced a new deal with VEVO and a special limited edition version of their crowd-funded, Android-based gaming console. Counting down their final few days on Kickstarter, Ouya is serving up even more content in the form of iHeartRadio and their first confirmed first-person shooter, Offensive Combat.
Ouya announced a freshly penned deal with VEVO to bring high definition music video programming “back to the TV” (take that, MTV!). VEVO will grant Ouya users on-demand access to the latest videos from artists like Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, and Justin Bieber. With a catalog of over 50,000 videos from more than 11,000 artists, VEVO also offers a bevy of classic pop, rock, and metal videos for people with tastes more akin to mine. Prior to this announcement, Ouya nary made a mention of streaming media and kept the focus on gaming.
In the spirit of honoring one of their most frequent requests, Ouya is now offering a limited edition version of their console in their last week on Kickstarter. The console’s designer, Yves Behar, personally selected the rich metallic brown color of the SLE console and controller. With a pledge of $140 (a $41 stretch over the regular asking price), backers will receive the SLE console with a matching controller. An additional SLE controller can be had for an extra $30. Aside from the color and bragging rights, there are no other differences between the special edition and regular consoles.
Determined to add more streaming media content, Ouya has partnered with Clear Channel to bring streaming live radio to their console via iHeartRadio. Touted as the “only all-in-one” free digital radio experience, iHeartRadio gives users access to streaming live radio from all over the United States, including music, talk, sports, and college channels. They also offer user-created custom stations based on the user’s artist/song preferences. Ouya acknowledged the US-centric nature of the iHeartRadio app and is promising content partnerships with more international partners for their overseas customers.
Offensive Combat
Back on the gaming side of things, Ouya has scored yet another developer. U4iA Games, a start-up from former Call of Duty and Activision veterans, are bringing their debut first-person shooter, Offensive Combat, to the console. Described as a “cheeky, free-for-all shooting mash up,” Offensive Combat looks to be taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to what is sometimes an overly serious genre.
The creators of Ouya took to Kickstarter on July 10 to disrupt the home video game console market. While they certainly shook things up a bit, and undoubtedly have the entire industry watching, it still remains to be seen whether Ouya’s Kickstarter success will translate to real-world success. Put into perspective, with just over 46,000 pledging to own the console as of this writing, Ouya has effectively pre-sold as many units in nearly a month as Microsoft sells Xbox 360s in a week. That isn’t to discount the achievements of the team behind Ouya. These past 30 days have been rife with speculation on the viability of such an undertaking, and now, with backing of several additional major players within the gaming and streaming media worlds, the future is looking much brighter for open-source gaming.
Joe Van Fossen
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tags: news , offensive combat , ouya , streaming , vevo
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