Ouya to start embedding in other hardware

Ouya has had a somewhat bumpy ride since its launch last year. With multiple revisions to the hardware, controller and internal software, things have improved, and Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman feels that the platform is on solid ground now with over 675 games available and 33,000 developers signed up. In an effort to make Ouya more ubiquitous as a platform, however, Uhrman has revealed that the company is becoming platform agnostic.

"One thing you'll start to see is Ouya on other people's devices," she said. "For us, we'll always have a minimum set of standards so the games will work well on our device as well as others. It's the hardware plus an ecosystem. If you think about the traditional game consoles, they're custom hardware and custom chips. To get those games, you have to buy a box for hundreds of dollars. We've always wanted to open that up. We started with a $99 box, but we always wanted to create a console platform that can live on other people's devices. We just knew it was going to take us a little bit of time to get it ready. Now we think the software is good enough, it's ready to be embedded in other people's devices. We actually started having some of these conversations during CES, and the takeup was so great that we're really jumping into the strategy with both feet this year."

With Apple going strong and potentially looking to Apple TV to expand its gaming horizons, and Amazon strongly rumored to be making its own console push, perhaps Ouya is feeling the pressure. Uhrman doesn't seem concerned, though.

"It wouldn't be a legitimate product category if Amazon or Apple didn't try to compete in it," she said. "We think that there is no better proof to our category that it's worth pursuing than Amazon deciding to go into it. We remain focused on being about games first, and changing the way console gaming works."

The full interview can be read at the [a]listdaily today.