Ouya still on schedule for next year, will launch with Jelly Bean and all games will be “effectively free”

Written by: Tony Simons on October 31, 2012.

It’s been a while since we’ve talked about Ouya, the upcoming $99 Android-based gaming console planned to launch next year, but some interesting news trickled down the pipeline a short while ago, so we figured it’d be best to share the status update with you all — especially those of you who backed the Kickstarter and are anxiously awaiting your unit.

The good news is, everything is still on course for launch early next year. There hasn’t been any setbacks yet, so we should get to see if the Ouya is as hot as it sounds within the next few months. Additionally, the folks from Ouya have confirmed that the console will launch with Jelly Bean, though there isn’t any indication as to whether it will be Android 4.1 or Android 4.2, but our guess is probably the latter of the two.

As if the console’s $99 price tag wasn’t already enough of an attraction, all games will be free to download, though developers can still opt to use demo versions, in-game purchases, and advertising to gain monetary support for their hard work — obviously, if developers aren’t going to get paid for the games they put countless hours into developing, the title selection would probably be small enough to kill the device off in a matter of months.

If you’re thinking about developing games for the Ouya, you might want to take a look at their blog post, which outlines a ton of useful information for developers.

Did you back the initial Kickstarter? If not, will you be picking one of these up once they become available? At only $99, I doubt they’ll have any trouble offing these babies.

Source: Ouya

Meet the Author: Tony Simons (1367 Posts)

Tony is a mobile enthusiast with a passion for Android smartphones and tablets. He is the Site Founder and Editor-in-Chief, and can typically be found crashing a public Hangout on Google+.