Ouya game console adds XBMC, TuneIn to service lineup
updated 01:14 pm EDT, Tue August 7, 2012
Kickstarter campaign hits 50,000 consoles sold
Open gaming console Ouya entered the final 48 hours of its Kickstarter campaign with more content announcements. The XBMC media player will appear on the console to provide entertainment hub functionality. Originally the Xbox Media Player, XBMC has been ported to a number of platforms in the past, and its recent Android version will form the backbone of Ouya's implementation. Early Ouya prototypes will be distributed to the XBMC development team, a third of whom are already backers in the Kickstarter campaign.
TuneIn has also been named as content source on Ouya. The free service allows users to listen to over 70,000 radio stations and two million on-demand programs from around the world, and will add more audio choices following the ClearChannel iHeartRadio announcement late last week and VEVO's partnership confirmation from the start of the month.
Announcements from companies wanting to make games for the service have also appeared throughout the campaign. Game industry veterans who worked on Guitar Hero and Call of Duty formed U4iA, and are making the first-person shooter Offensive Combat. Robert Bowling, another contributor to the Call of Duty fanchise, said that an episodic zombie-apocalyptic title called Human Element will be on the console first, ahead of his company Robotoki's full release in 2015. Square Enix will be making Final Fantasy III a launch title for Ouya, making it the first time gamers can play it on a TV-based console outside of Japan.
At the time of writing, the Kickstarter rests at about $7 million, far higher than its original $950,000 goal, with over 50,000 of the 52,000 backers opting to receive a console. A brown version of the console has been added as a Kickstarter incentive,and will not be available once the pledge-drive ends. This additional color costs an extra $41 over the original $99 console cost.
