Looking at the Dreamcast lineup for 2013, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Sega’s 15-year-old home video game system had never gone away. Of all the supposedly dead consoles, the Dreamcast is surely the one that looks most alive.

Despite the Dreamcast production lines shutting in 2001, the console’s community is still fervently supporting new titles that continue to release. Two highly successful Kickstarter campaigns last year, for role-playing game Pier Solar HD, and shoot-em-up Redux: Dark Matters, clearly showed that love for the Dreamcast is still strong.

When the Dreamcast first came out in North America in September 1999, it looked like it could change the gaming world.

It was the first 128-bit console, from one of the big three console manufacturers, featuring the first built-in online capabilities, and boasting a launch lineup of big-name titles such as Sonic Adventure, Power Stone, Soul Calibur, and Marvel vs. Capcom. Sales of 500,000 units in its first two weeks led to hardware shortages, and Businessweek magazine heralded the Dreamcast as one of the best products of the year.

Then, just six months later, along came Sony’s PlayStation 2.

The Dreamcast couldn’t compete with the power of the PlayStation brand, as Sony’s new machine — with its built-in DVD player – began a journey that would eventually see sales of 150 million consoles. In contrast, the Dreamcast managed to sell just over 8 million sales during its short lifetime.

Many Dreamcast fans feel cheated by the machine’s premature death in 2001 — a death that saw the once mighty Sega bowing out of the hardware business for good. Those same fans can take some solace, perhaps, in the glut of quality titles still being released for the console in 2013.

2013: The year of the Dreamcast

More than 15 unofficial titles have been released for the Dreamcast since its demise, and 2013 looks set to be the best release year yet, with seven brand-new games either scheduled or already out there.

Sturmwind is the most recent new release for the Dreamcast. The side-scrolling shooter from German developer Duranik came out at the end of April, and it has already been well received by critics and fans.

It’s the first foray into Dreamcast development for brothers Roland and Johannes Graf, who between them make up the Duranik team. Prior to this, the Graf brothers have released games for the Atari Lynx, Jaguar, and Falcon.

So why pick the Dreamcast? “It’s always fun to develop for a console, at least for us,” said Roland Graf. “The other thing is of course the less-crowded market. Everyone is going to iOS or Android these days. These platforms are really drowned with apps of all type. Even if you have a nice game, it’s hard to stand out.”

Being new to the platform, Graf was unsure how many copies they would need to cope with demand. “We estimate around a few thousand units,” he said. “Of course, this is a quite a small number, but the machine has not been in the spotlight for a lot of years. There is certainly still a small but solid fan base that supports the machine, even after all those years.”

That support is more than evident now that Sturmwind has been released. Both the Limited Edition and regular version have already sold out at the website of publisher, RedSpotGames. The same is true at reseller PlayAsia.com.

Sturmwind’s Limited Edition run looks particular impressive, featuring a soundtrack CD, 3D-printed spacecraft, full color manual, and guidebook. It even has a plush toy of one of the bosses available to purchase.

While CD-ROMs for the Dreamcast are much easier to produce than, say, a cartridge-based game, the quality of the Sturmwind physical release is still admirably high. “We had a lot of production issues with our special edition packaging,” Graf said. “This is the reason the game was delayed for several months.”

For Graf, Duranik is only a spare-time project. He leaves the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of Sturmwind entirely in the hands of RedSpotGames. Sega also did its bit to help with Sturmwind’s marketing, though, when PR executive Fabian Doehla appeared on Destructoid Live to unveil and play a demo of the game.

“I think that was just for fun,” says Graf. “They certainly won’t come back and start producing Dreamcast games now. From what we heard, they enjoyed the game.”

Thoughts from a Dreamcast gamer

Jake Smith, “end of level boss” at digital agency JP74 , was a Dreamcast gamer from the very beginning. Importing a Japanese machine before Sega had hit the Western market, Smith talked up the console in the very first issue of Official Dreamcast Magazine (U.K.).

For him, the Dreamcast’s arcade root are all important. “Anyone who played Sega games in the arcades will have a soft spot for the Dreamcast,” says Smith. “Sega Rally, Zombie Revenge, Crazy Taxi, and House of the Dead are highly playable titles, even today. I think it’s the console that closely retained that arcade look and feel in its action games, but it still managed to play host to more absorbing and in-depth games like Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia, and Phantasy Star Online.”

He’s managed to keep on top of most new releases for the console and is impressed with what he’s seen. “Generally, of the ones I’ve played, they hold their ground very well,” he says. “Highly polished, lovely graphics, excellent music, and tight gameplay. Some of them don’t feel they have quite as much depth as officially released titles — an obvious consequence of small dev teams who possibly hold down full-time jobs too.”

“This isn’t a harsh criticism,” says Smith, “as with [2009 RedSpotGames release] Rush Rush Rally Racing, the game concept was decided on because it could be accomplished quickly for a [Hong-Hong-based distributor and retailer] Lik Sang competition in 2006, but the quality of the actual game is high. Then again, some original games, like Toy Commander, weren’t exactly deep!”

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You have to love the game business and the beauty of competition. As Nintendo’s fortunes sink in the video game console business, Ouya’s fortunes are rising with its $15 million in venture funding. It is conceivable that the console business could become a four-horse race.

For years, the oligopoly has been ruled by Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. When one of them got too arrogant, it fell of its perch, and another would step forward to grab the throne. But then Apple came into the business with the iPhone and threw that cycle into disarray. Nintendo ruled the roost when the Wii launched in 2006, but Microsoft cut off its motion-sensing advantage with the launch of Kinect in 2010. And, after selling nearly 100 million Wii consoles, Nintendo came back last fall with the Wii U, the high-definition console with a tablet screen to control it. Nintendo appeared supremely confident just before the Wii U launch.

Against the might of Nintendo, Ouya seemed like an ant. Sure, it had raised $8.6 million in crowdfunding on Kickstarter, but to put out a real game console in lots of retail stores takes a huge investment. It had no credibility even with all of the support from indie game developers who didn’t have the cash to make big-budget console games.

Now the scales may be tipping.

Ouya has been lifted by premiere Silicon Valley venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Mayfield Fund. Both are lending their credibility; Kleiner’s Bing Gordon is joining the Ouya board. Their money will let Ouya make more consoles that will seem like a bargain to console fans — at $99 for the hardware and tons of free-to-try Android games.

If Ouya hits its targets, it may be able to raise more money as it needs it. Julie Uhrman, the chief executive of Ouya, told GamesBeat, “What I love about Bing is that he is not constrained by conventional thinking and is a great supporter of game developers.”

We’re not sure what the valuation was, but Ouya just got a lot more expensive as a potential acquisition. Nintendo should have grabbed it while it had the chance. Nintendo, meanwhile, had its window to sell Wii U game consoles during the last six months. It had a shortage of hits, and the big games from top publishers either didn’t materialize or didn’t sell well. Nintendo generated some good digital revenue through the app store on the Wii U platform, but it hasn’t had a huge breakout hit on that front.

Now the Wii U is dead in the water. Nintendo sold 3.45 million Wii U consoles as of March 31, and since December, Nintendo sold just 390,000 Wii Us. That’s a horrible start for a new game console, and it must be viewed in this context: Apple sold 56 million iPhones and iPads in one quarter.

As Apple was gathering steam, Nintendo was resting on its laurels and watching the money come in from the Wii. It squandered a chance to do something about the situation. Somehow, with the design of its new console, Nintendo whiffed, and it is in the process of moving from No. 1 in consoles sold in a generation to No. 3 or maybe even No. 4.

Apple is being chased by Google’s Android, and Ouya is riding on that wave, too. Console kingmakers Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard appear to be pulling the plug on Wii U versions of their games. Activision Blizzard isn’t making a Wii U version of Call of Duty: Ghosts, and EA isn’t making a Wii U version of Battlefield 4.

Gordon said in an interview this week, “My own take on Nintendo is that the Wii was a spectacular head fake.” But Microsoft’s Kinect and its Xbox Live service have staked out the high end of the game business. Sony, by comparison, “is starting to look like the new Sega of the game business,” Gordon said. That means that it may soon exit hardware, as Sega did with the ill-fated Dreamcast.

Nintendo ruled in cartoon-style 2D games made by game masters like Shigeru Miyamoto, but Nintendo is losing fans of cartoon games to the tablets and smartphones, Gordon said.

“Once you have a tablet, there is not much reason to buy a Nintendo,” Gordon said. “What they have left is the Miyamoto exclusive box. If you want his games, then you spend the $300 on whatever Miyamoto makes. But that’s a box for tens of millions, not hundreds of millions.”

The question now is what should Nintendo do to right its ship. The odds are strong that it will have to be something drastic — something as disruptive as the Wii was. Or something as risky and crazy as buying Ouya. Or one of the many variants of gaming on Android, such as GameStick or Green Throttle Games.

Maybe Nintendo could get rid of hardware and make its software available on all platforms, as EA and Activision are doing. Wherever it goes, it will face competition. And that’s a good thing. It would be nice if Nintendo can find that expanding part of the game market that no one has discovered yet — the blue-ocean strategy that Satoru Iwata, the chief executive of Nintendo, has embraced in the past. In that strategy, it’s best to swim out far into the ocean where no competitors are rather than swim into the red ocean where sharks are feasting and fighting for scraps.

Nintendo will have its chance to be heard at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) trade show in Los Angeles in June. I hope Iwata can figure this out. Otherwise, it will remind me of the words of Kurt Vonnegut from the novel Cat’s Cradle: “Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are ‘it might have been.’”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The first dedicated Android gaming console is finally in the wild. Ouya, the Kickstarted microconsole, is a tiny device that connects to HDTVs and enables gamers to play Android-based titles with a controller.

Crowdfunding backers are getting their systems now, so the folks at Ouya sent one of the units to iFixit, a electronics-repair company, so it could tear it down and take a look inside.

The big news is that tiny device has a simple and sturdy layout that should resist damage from drops. Ouya owners can also replace the fan easily since it is the only moving part that is subject to wear.

“The small cube — and its controller — came apart with little difficulty,” iFixit chief information analyst MIroslav Djuric said in a statement. “Those with long-haired pets will appreciate that it takes about five minutes to pop open and clean out the heatsink and fan. As a result of its disassembility, the Ouya scored a stellar 9 out of 10 on the repairability scale.”

As for the console’s internals, iFixit listed the make and model of the most important components:

• Two Samsung K4B4G1646B 4Gb DD3 SDRAM modules (2 x 4 Gb for 1GB of total RAM)
• SMSC LAN9500A Hi-Speed USB 2.0 to 10/100 Ethernet Controller
• Texas Instruments TPS659110 Integrated Power Management Unit
• AzureWave AW-NH660 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth 4.0 module, based on Broadcom BCM4330
• Nvidia T33-P-A3 Tegra 3 Multicore CPU
• Kingston KE4CN3K6A 8 GB eMMC
  

For gamers, your biggest concern is that Tegra 3 chip from Nvidia. That’s the most capable version of the Tegra 3. Earlier models, used in Asus’s Transformer Prime tablets, suffered from crashing due to the system’s inability to handle the heat produced by its 1.7 GHz speeds. The T33 can handle much more heat even while running at upwards of 2 GHz.

Ouya is available now to preorder for $99.99. Retailers, like Best Buy and Target, will begin carrying it in July.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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I haven’t been to the Game Developers Conference. I wasn’t invited to the prelaunch. I haven’t even ordered the console (yet), but the intention is pretty clear that I don’t need to have been involved at that level.

Gamers and journalists alike wrongly compare this little box to the giants that Microsoft and Sony consoles are. Ouya is not supposed to be a launch with a triple-A lineup and massive development studio commitment. That’s not the point. In fact, if you look at the current console line-up, those machines didn’t exactly launch with that, either, and it’s only after a several years of wrestling with the formats that are we seeing them really shine.

Nintendo’s Wii U? Sony’s Vita? Nintendo’s 3DS? Current-generation distractions.

Ouya represents a new vertical for the games industry, being dubbed as the microconsole. It’s not a handheld. It’s not a main console. It’s something in between that serves real casual gamers and those now growing up with the likes of the Google Play and iOS App Store ecosystems. Ouya doesn’t even sit with the Steam box, either — that’s something else entirely.

Yes, Ouya’s built on an Android platform and sports a Tegra 3 processor, but that’s more than enough for what its true intentions — a $99 box that can stream movies, play games from a growing catalogue of smaller, simpler games for the TV and allow a new generation of developers to learn and create without a massive monetary or hardware investment.

Ouya doesn’t need to run Far Cry 3 or Crysis or become the cheap platform for World of Warcraft on the TV. Right now, Ouya needs to sort out its own marketing hype and quickly because these conversations and nay-saying are hurting the renaissance movement that could potentially spark:  The return of the bedroom coder.

Do you remember when people were coding and releasing stuff on hacked Super Nintendo cartridges? Or swapping programs they’d made with their mates on a Spectrum typed out from a magazine? Ouya and microconsoles like it can bring that all back again if they remain open enough.

And why not? Gaming and learning about games development is not an art for the elite.

If Apple were to create a console, it would be like Ouya. It would play existing games from the App Store and scale for the TV (your TV and the oft-touted Apple Television, presumably with integration already built-in). The only downside to the Apple ecosystem is that it wouldn’t support homebrew like the Ouya could.

And that will be a deciding factor in this new war. Open development, ease, and — above all — cheap fun.

The war of the microconsole has only just begun.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Ouya isn’t the only Android microconsole storming the market this year. Mobile publisher PlayJam is sending out its GameStick console to Kickstarter backers this month with a wider release planned for this spring.

For the unaware, GameStick is a $79 USB-stick-sized HDMI gaming console that plugs directly into the back of a high-definition television. It supports full HD gaming with its own Android game store that will specialize in titles optimized for the GameStick’s physical controller.

With the gadget finally shipping out to developers, PlayJam prepared an unboxing video for your pleasure:

The video shows off the new developer user interface. PlayJam is nearly finished designing the U.I. It just wants to make a few more tweaks based on user input.

“We are making some last-minute changes to the latest version before we ship it to our Designed By Me Backers for feedback,” PlayJam chief marketing officer Anthony Johnson told GamesBeat. ”These include dropping some of the subtle 3D elements we had previously scoped to increase the real-estate and make it simpler to navigate.”

During the Kickstarter campaign, PlayJam offered up 50 Designed By Me GameStick consoles for people who contributed $300. Those backers will get a chance to provide feedback on the final consumer interface.

The unboxing also briefly shows the APK installer that developers can use to install  any APK (Android application package file) to their GameStick.

Johnson told us that they don’t plan to include the APK installer with the final consumer system, but a third-party solution is bound to pop up on the GameStick app store. This enables GameStick owners to install any Android app (PlayJam approved or not) on their Android microconsole.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Android smartphone hardware revisions happen quickly, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that newer phones already outperform the Ouya microconsole in benchmark tests.

Last week, developer James Coote (designer of Ouya game Executive Star) worked with graphics firm Futuremark to determine the raw capabilities of the Ouya Android console. He posted the results to YouTube, and Futuremark listed the device on its ranked list of mobile hardware.

Ouya stormed the gaming scene with a massively successful Kickstarter in 2012 that raised nearly $8.6 million. With that kind of support, the device is expected to bring even further disruption to the console market and chip away at Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. Its graphical prowess should play a key role in how gamers view it in comparison to the competition.

The 3DMark benchmark measures a device’s hardware and spits out a cumulative number that represents its performance as a whole. Ouya scored a 4,077 — that was enough to land it at 73 on Futuremark’s list of most-powerful Android devices. That puts it ahead of the popular Nexus 7 tablet from Google, which scored a 3,551, but the console couldn’t outperform older tablets like Asus’s Transformer Pad Infinity, which scored a 4,246.

The results speak to Ouya’s aging chipset, which includes an Nvidia Tegra 3 graphics processor, a 1.7 GHz quad-core ARM CPU, and 1GB of memory. Both the Nexus 7 and Asus Transformer Infinity also run the Tegra 3.

But Ouya’s age really shows when compared to more recent handsets.

LG’s Nexus 4 phone, for example, scored more than double the Ouya with a 10,201 on the 3DMark tests. HTC’s One and Samsung’s Galaxy S IV are both even higher than that.

It’s important to keep in mind that benchmarks like 3DMark only measure raw capabilities. It doesn’t take into account real-world factors that can greatly affect a device’s performance in more realistic use cases. Nvidia is especially effective at working with developers to get the most of its hardware.

Also worth noting is that the $99 Ouya is a fraction of the cost of a Galaxy S IV or HTC One.

Finally, it’s not like the microconsole can’t play 3D-intensive games. Most developers build their releases around the most popular hardware — that’s the Nexus 7 and Samsung’s Galaxy S III, which scored a 5,076 on the benchmark. The Ouya can handle just about anything that phone can, so it shouldn’t hurt for software.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The Ouya and the GameStick are like the Deep Impact and Armageddon of Android-based microconsoles. They’re so similar that it might be hard to parse the differences between the two, let alone in an increasingly crowded alternative console market that relies on digital downloads (as opposed to buying games on a disc).

Ouya releases June 4 for $99 and GameStick ships in late April or early May for $79. Both were present at the annual Game Developers Conference last week in San Francisco, where we spent a little time with the miniature devices and their games. But we all know that consoles are more than just their specifications, so here’s what you can expect when you plug in the Ouya and GameStick to your television.

Hover over the gallery below to see the comparison:

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The next generation of household consoles has already started, and boy, are we in for a treat. Not only do we have the big three companies (Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft) fighting for our limited living room space — we have something more interesting as well: Android and Steam.

Xbox 360 (left), Ouya (center), PS3 (right)

In November, Nintendo launched the Wii U with its touch-screen controller, the GamePad, and high-definition graphics. Sony recently announced the successor to the PlayStation 3, and soon we’ll start seeing the next Xbox. Microsoft and Sony are battling it out in the hardware war, each trying to best the other by being stronger, better, and faster. Nintendo stopped playing that game years ago and decided to try a different approach by offering unique gameplay features with motion controls.

Both Microsoft and Sony tackle the premium side of the market, leaving Nintendo with the lower end to conquer. The last time I checked, both the PS3 and Xbox 360 were in the $299 range, with the Wii hitting a ridiculous $99 and the Wii U around $249. This is fantastic news for us gamers. No matter what your allowance is, you’ll find something that works for you. This brings me to my question: where do Android and Steam fit in?

Valve wants to take over your television.

Valve, the creator of Steam, is working hard to bring its popular digital distribution service from millions of computer screens to your living room TV. To do this, Valve introduced a new feature for Steam called Big Picture Mode (BPM). Essentially, this enables gamers to run Steam with a controller in front of a TV rather than a keyboard and mouse. It does this by changing up the user interface. I use BPM fairly often when playing games that are gamepad-enabled, and I quite enjoy it.

Valve has also announced it will be coming out with its own hardware to slap its new software experience on. This technology has been cleverly named the Steam Box. Details are scarce at the moment. What we do know is that Valve wants to make PC gaming easier and more comfortable by presenting a console-like experience. Gabe Newell, the founder of Valve, has said he expects Steam Box prototypes in the next few months.

Valve has kept mum about pricing, which is unfortunate. This is what everyone wants to know. This is the deal breaker. PC gaming can be ridiculously expensive. If Valve is able to bring powerful hardware, a small form-factor, and reasonable pricing together in one happy package, that could mean a massive shift for PC gaming. People wouldn’t dismiss it just because of the price barrier. The need for a monitor, speakers, keyboards, mice, and so forth would be gone. Instead, you plug the device into your TV, and it does the rest.

Ouya controller and the system.

Android is a different beast altogether. It’s the only system that is based as a mobile platform, and now it seems to be steering its way to your television. At least, that’s what the Ouya console is promising: a $99 Android console that hooks up to your TV. It’s a no-frills system. The developers encourage you to mess with it — they want you to get your hands dirty and mod the system. This fact alone will probably lure in much of the modding community. The Ouya may have a strange name and an affordable price, but does it have the games to back it up? A console can’t survive without a strong library. Perhaps with the convenience of a controller at hand, more games like Dead Trigger and Shadowgun will populate the Android marketplace.

Ouya isn’t the only console getting Android games on the big screen. Nvidia recently announced and showed off what it calls Project Shield. It looks very similar to a Xbox 360 controller with a 5-inch HD screen attached to it. Project Shield is backed by some serious horsepower, and it’ll be able to play any game from the Android marketplace as well as stream your Steam library over a Wi-Fi connection. A price and release date have yet to be announced. Nvidia will have to take a close look at its competitors, the Nintendo 3DS and Sony’s PlayStation Vita. The 3DS seems to be priced just right at the $149 mark whereas the Vita is struggling with sales — probably because of its higher $249 price. I’m afraid that Nvidia might have the specs and form factor down but will miss the beat with a too-high price tag to justify buying the slick piece of hardware.

Project Shield in all its glory.

Android is in a unique place right now, and it has the freedom to cover all angles of the market. From the Ouya to Nvidia’s Project Shield, it has the low-end and high-end markets covered. But if Valve can get the right combo of price/performance, we’ll very likely see PC gaming become much more common in the living room. Sony and Microsoft are going to battle for the most horsepower while Nintendo quietly and safely experiments with crazy motion and touch controls. One thing is for sure: we’ve never seen anything quite like this before. These companies and platforms are all fighting a war for our living rooms.

Welcome to the next generation.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, GamesBeat was at the 2013 Game Developer’s Conference, bringing you previews and interviews. Harmonix announced that it is working on three new games. And legendary developer Brenda Romero (formerly Brathwaite) quits the International Games Development Association after the organization threw a party with hired female dancers.

You’ll also find reviews for BioShock Infinite and The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct as well as previews for the Ouya console, Dive Kick, Battlefield 4, Infinite Crisis, and Space Hulk.

Game Developer’s Conference 2013

• In a ‘love letter to gamers,’ Ouya launches its console at a crowded GDC event (video)
• Game designer Brenda Romero quits IGDA following party with hired female dancers
• Women bring down the house at GDC
• YetiZen explains hiring of gamer models, not dancers, for its GDC party
• California’s second lady: Games need to ‘think bigger’ about portrayals of women
• Free-to-play publishers & game developers throw down at GDC

News

• The DeanBeat: Will Battlefield 4 or Puzzle & Dragons reach $1B in revenues?
• Epic launches new content and a title update for Gears of War: Judgment
• Intel in talks to acquire gesture control firm Omek Interactive
• ‘Programmers loathe’ developing games for Android, says Geomeric founder
• Marketing, reviews, and mobile may all determine if your game is a hit or a flop
• Total War series gets a League of Legends-style spin-off
• Playdek nails down $3.8M in funding for more digital board games
• Lab Zero Games ends Skullgirls crowdfunding campaign with $830K
• GameStop: One-third of BioShock Infinite buyers also purchased a Season Pass
• GameStop profits up despite dipping revenues, expects a ‘challenging’ 2013
• 505 Games shoveling Terraria to PlayStation Vita this summer
• A winning wager? Experts see a $20B market for gambling in games
• The Rock Band played on: Harmonix working on 3 new games
• Japanese telecom buys majority stake in Puzzle & Dragons developer GungHo
• Surprise! The Phantom Pain is actually Metal Gear Solid V
• Nintendo demos improvements due in April Wii U update
• Tecmo Koei slices off a few new details about Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z
• EA has a lot riding on Battlefield 4, and it’s stepping up its investment in a big way
• In Africa, devs struggle to create modern games for 3K cultures
• EA sets the stage for Battlefield 4 launch
• Minecraft developer chipping away at April release for Scrolls beta
• Facebook tells developers how to win at games in 2013
• King.com saw its Facebook desktop player numbers blossom after Candy Crush Saga’s mobile launch
• Unity Technologies forms alliance to create better games on Facebook
• Plants vs. Zombies shuffles to Facebook; sequel due in summer
• Sony steps up for indies with funding for PlayStation games
• Kuato teaches kids to code via Hakitzu educational game
• It’s a final fantasy for Square Enix president after restructuring
• Square Enix restructures and sells four free-to-play titles to Sleepy Giant (exclusive)
• PlayStation 3′s Rain may be the next Journey
• EA squashes potential Origin exploit
• Zynga chief information officer takes top job at cloud-storage company
• How The Unfinished Swan moved from student project to PS3 downloadable game
• Game retailers better than movie theaters at enforcing age restrictions
• Zynga flexes its marketing muscle to support third-party partner games
• Facebook updates developers on local currency pricing
• Roku should worry: GameStick adding XBMC media support
• Turbine working with DC Comics on League of Legends-style game
• Epic Games’ alliance with Oculus VR means virtual reality gaming will be coming to you
• Kickstarter campaign begins for a spiritual successor to Ecco the Dolphin (exclusive)
• EA and Insomniac Games will launch Fuse on May 28

Mobile news

• Clash of Clans mobile gamemaker Supercell is raising more than $100M at an $800M valuation
• Casual-game developer Big Fish celebrates 10 years and 2 billion downloads
• App marketing costs fall back to Earth after holiday highs
• Candy Crush Saga developer reveals two new Facebook games
• Fish Out Of Water! is the next mobile addiction from Fruit Ninja’s developers
• The future of mobile graphics: Better, faster, cheaper, & way more 3D
• Fetch wants to help smartphone users find games that they love
• Prepare your panzer: Wargaming is taking World of Tanks mobile
• App Annie reveals massive success for GungHo’s Puzzle & Dragons
• Verizon launches games portal using PlayPhone technology
• Joyride’s voice-activated mobile apps ‘turn cars into starships’
• Com2Us rides the Kakao mobile games wave and expands to the U.S.

Previews

• Ouya looks pretty but lacks killer games so far (preview)
• Space Hulk translates the board game to digital … with changes (preview)
• Infinite Crisis proves that superhuman brawls never get old (preview)
• Battlefield 4 goes for a human feel in the middle of its incredible carnage (preview)
• Divekick and Sportsfriends turn friends and strangers into rivals on the PlayStation 3 (preview)
• Everybody was kung-fu fighting: Age of Wushu comes to America (preview)

Reviews

• BioShock Infinite’s a fascinating ‘what if’ tale of American conservatism with a few flaws (review)
• The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct leaves you feeling empty (review)

Interviews

• Ahoy, transmedia! Warner Bros. sails into digital games (interview)
• Jade Raymond’s growing empire at Ubisoft (interview)
• David Ko sees mobile as critical for Zynga’s comeback in 2013 (interview)

Pieces of Flair

• 10 new Grand Theft Auto V screenshots (gallery)
• Battlefield 4: Check out the first screenshots
• BioShock Infinite guide: The best Vigors and Gear to make Columbia burn
• HarmoKnight: Finding the 5 ‘pinklefs’ and unlocking the secret world

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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As a lifelong player of console games, I’ve cringed watching the industry change this year. Old guard mainstays like THQ are getting hacked apart and sold to the highest bidder while the majority of the industry keeps releasing uninspired sequels. When you consider we’ve been killing the same aliens in Halo for the last 12 years, you begin to feel a bit like Sisyphus — pushing the same boulder up a hill without ever really progressing toward anything.  

This year was supposed to be the year Sony and Microsoft knocked our pants off with earth-shaking console reveals, and so far, the PlayStation 4 just feels like my grandma trying to pitch me on a Zune. “You kids like sharing things, right? We made a whole button for that!”

Then we have the new kid in school. The Fonz to console’s Richie Cunningham: mobile gaming. The market, which is estimated to generate over $9 billion globally in 2013, has come of age. As mobile devices become more technologically advanced, major names like Disney and Electronic Arts have begun to take them seriously while still leaving room for indie success stories like Imangi Studios and its hit series, Temple Run. The writing’s on the wall that our generation will probably see consoles finally pass the torch to mobile.

But how will these two segments interact with each other during the change? How will the transition happen? What’s to become of the developers? What about all that beautiful intellectual property? Here are three things to be aware of as mobile gaming continues to grow.

Mobile should take the IP and run

As we learned from Netflix with House of Cards, great exclusive content can boost consumer interest in a platform. One sad side effect of console developers shutting down is a lot of great games will get lost in the shuffle.

Sure, a lot of the recognizable games will be bought and carry on with a different developer, but not all of them. Nobody, for instance, has picked up the Darksiders franchise since THQ’s collapse. That series, despite its faults, has a lot of potential and room for at least two more sequels.

Larger mobile developers have an opportunity to buy the rights to these games and relaunch them as mobile titles. This would be a great idea for new consoles trying to gain a market share, like Ouya (pictured at top) and Nvidia’s Project Shield. The gameplay lends itself to that type of console, and it comes with a built-in fanbase. Additionally, it gives mobile a chance to offer a home to all the forgotten and neglected console gaming franchises out there.

Console developers can make better use of free-to-play

Ask any gamer on Xbox Live what the most divisive issue in gaming this year is and, after telling you how they slept with your mother, they’ll probably say in-game purchases.

Spearheaded by EA, console developers have seen just how much money there is to be made from free-to-play mobile games and have begun adopting the business model. Now you can buy better guns in Dead Space 3, and Borderlands 2 is constantly rolling out more downloadable content. Whether or not this enhances the game experience, it doesn’t have the same feel as free-to-play on mobile — mainly because it’s not free. When a gamer has already spent $60 on a title, it’s hard not to look greedy when you start asking them to pay for DLC that might keep the game fresh and interesting. It leaves the same bad taste in gamers’ mouths as having to see ads in the Xbox Marketplace even though they’re already paying a monthly subscription fee.

If console developers want to take the freemium model seriously, they need to lower the barrier of entry to their games. Put the price tag closer to $10 and implement pervasive monetization opportunities beyond that. This extends the game’s shelf life. Good freemium models will also help developers earn more revenue off their user base instead of having one big purchase point, which will eventually be lost to a used games market that they have no stake in.

Technology like Ouya might bridge the gap

One of the stand-out stories at South by Southwest (SXSW) this year was Ouya founder Julie Uhrman’s keynote interview, in which she discussed her Android-powered console’s place in the gaming market. It’s easy to imagine Ouya as the chosen child destined to bring balance to the Force. It’s got the body of a console but the brains of Android. It will target players in their living room while delivering mobile-type experiences with free-to-play games.

If Ouya’s low price enables it to gain mass market appeal, it could very well bridge the gap between console and mobile. It also seems like it could attract the right developers to make quality freemium games in the living room.

The big picture is this: History has shown that great games don’t necessarily need specific platforms to exist. Facebook and Apple were both accidental gaming platforms that were responsible for two of biggest trends in gaming this decade: mobile and social. When the chips fall, the developers will go where the gamers are. This is why Microsoft is trying to make the Xbox a home entertainment console as opposed to a gaming console. As smartphones continue to penetrate the market globally, most people will soon be walking around with great games right in their pockets. While smart TVs and PCs will keep traditional gaming alive, mobile is poised to be the apex of the market.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This whole Ouya microconsole thing is starting to shape up into a very impressive platform.

In addition to announcing a March 28 ship date for Kickstarter backers, Ouya revealed today that Portal and Quantum Conundrum designer Kim Swift’s next game is exclusive to the company’s $99.99 Android gaming system.

“We truly feel that this platform will give us the freedom to fully realize the funky, unique game we have in mind,” Swift said in a statement. “Though the title will definitely appeal to core gamers in terms of skill and difficulty, it really has a completely unexpected, imaginative slant that’s totally at home on this console. Expect an official announcement soon!”

Swift previously worked at Valve on games like Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Left 4 Dead 2. In 2009, she left Valve to join developer Airtight Games, where she designed Quantum Conundrum.

Ouya is an Android-gaming console that connects to televisions through an HDMI port. It is an open system that allows users to install any file that they choose, but it also features a curated Ouya games store for titles that are optimized for physical controls.

In June, the console will hit retailers including Target, Best Buy, and GameStop. It’s available for preorder on Amazon and GameStop now.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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We may see four or more new consoles launch in 2013 — two from hardware veterans and two from a couple of small companies looking to disrupt everything.

One of those disruptive consoles, the GameStick, is available for preorder starting today. The Android-based microconsole is the size of a thumb drive and plugs right into a television’s HDMI slot. GameStick costs $79 and begins shipping in April.

GameStick, like its competitor Ouya, started as a Kickstarter campaign. The project raised over $600,000 on the crowdfunding website. PlayJam, the developer behind GameStick, will have to fill its Kickstarter orders first before it can start shipping out preorders made on its website.

“January was a pivotal month for GameStick with the success of the campaign ensuring that we could bring the device to life,” PlayJam chief marketing officer Anthony Johnson said in a statement. “Since the campaign closed, we have received thousands of emails from individuals keen to ensure they remain one of the first to receive the product. By continuing to offer GameStick on preorder, we will be able to maintain momentum ahead of our planned retail activity.”

PlayJam didn’t announce its plans for retail. Retailers like Target and Best Buy will begin selling the Ouya in June. It wouldn’t surprise us to see GameStick follow suit.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The Ouya probably won’t suffer from a shortage of stuff to play.

The Android-based microconsole already has 481 confirmed games, according to the guys over at Ouyaforum. Developers confirmed each title on the list, but it doesn’t include rumored titles like Electronic Art’s Madden NFL 13 or Minecraft.

You should check out Ouyaforum for the full list, but here’s a very small fraction:

• AirMech from Carbon Games
• Double Fine Adventure from Double Fine
• Final Fantasy III from Square Enix
• The Bard’s Tale from inXile
• Wizorb from Tribute Games

For the unaware, Ouya is a small console that runs the Android operating system with proprietary programs on top of the OS. It connects to televisions through an HDMI port, and it comes with a controller. It’s all about bridging the divide between HD gaming on TVs and the distribution system of smartphones.

The system started as a crowdfunding project on Kickstarter, where it raised $8 million. The system costs $100 and begins shipping to project backers in April. It’ll debut at retail in June.

Nearly 500 releases is a lot for a little startup like Ouya. Chances are, most of those titles are already finished Android apps whose developers are simply re-releasing on Ouya. So maybe it’s not quite as impressive as 500 brand new titles, but it’s still a huge number compared to something like the Wii U, which won’t have 500 games for quite some time.

But Ouya has an advantage. It’s an open-source, download-only ecosystem. It’s the same advantage that a Valve-backed “Steam Box” console PC could have over traditional boxes from Sony and Microsoft.

The way people are accessing games is changing, and the Ouya is poised on the edge of that evolution. The Wii U has made strides with its developer-friendly eShop, but it’s not open enough. At least in terms of bringing in scores of anxious developers, because Ouya isn’t Apple, and yet it is attracting development like it is the newest iOS product.

Ouya is attractive to developers because it’s open. Minecraft could have happened on Ouya (read Wired’s Chris Kohler explanation of The Minecraft Test), but it couldn’t have happened on Nintendo’s Wii U. We’ll see if Microsoft and Sony create an environment where Minecraft could have happened on their systems.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Traditionally, console makers like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft aim for five- to seven-year cycles between consoles. A PlayStation 3 purchased 2006 for $500 still has some life in it, and chances are that we’ll see games for the platform for at least the next year or two.

Ouya’s yearly upgrade cycle means that the machine will become obsolete faster than traditional consoles. However, the Ouya will cost $99 at launch, which is far less than the traditional $300 to $500 consumers pay for a new system from Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft. Furthermore, Ouya games will be backward compatible, says Uhrman. Players won’t have to worry about saying goodbye to their old game collections (digital, in this case). Ouya owners’ collections will also be tied to their account, so console upgrades are relatively painless — or at least that’s the plan.

Nvidia has also said that its Project Shield, another Android machine, will get yearly updates, signaling another company that’s changing of pace for the usual console update schedules.

Ouya and Shield are just two of the consoles that will serve as an alternative to traditional machines by Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. Consoles like the Piston (aka the rumored “Steam Box”) are also due for release before the end of the year, making for an increasingly cluttered market for alternative consoles.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Ouya, the Android-based microconsole that captured a wave of financial support on crowdfunding site Kickstarter, is only a few more months away from its retail debut.

Target, Best Buy, Amazon, and GameStop confirmed they will begin selling the TV gaming device in June for $99.99, according to The Wall Street Journal. Amazon and GameStop opened preorders for the system and controllers today. Extra controllers go for $49.99 each.

Ouya is a small console box that connects to HD televisions through an HDMI port. This brings Android gaming to the living room and takes the focus away from touch-screen controls. The device has its own digital distribution store that will curate controller-optimized games.

The creators also promised customers that the system is fully open and hackable. This will allow users to load any Android program that they choose, which could include pirated games and emulators for classic consoles like the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64.

Ouya is the highest grossing gaming-related Kickstarter in the site’s history. The project had a goal of $950,000 and raised more than $8.5 million.

This success suggests a demand from gamers for alternatives to the traditional systems from Nintendo and Microsoft. At the same time, Ouya has its work cut out if it intends to compete against Valve’s PC gaming service Steam and new hardware from Microsoft and Sony by the end of this year.

Via The Verge

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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With the impending launch of the Ouya and the revelation of Nvidia’s “Project Shield” — two Android-based consoles aiming to rope in hardcore gamers by putting a controller in their hands to play mobile software — I’m left wondering if Android, as a platform, will begin suffering an identity crisis as to what type of games it’s best suited to produce.

Android started life firmly in the mobile-touch games camp, following the paradigm Apple set with iOS and the iPhone. By virtue of Android being a more open operating system, it naturally got pulled in multiple directions at once. Some Android games began taking on the look and feel of console titles, especially when Nvidia began sticking its Tegra chips in phones and tablets.

Games like Shadowgun, which really put some console-quality flair on Android thanks to Tegra 3, were fine to play on a touch screen, but they begged for a controller. A few niche products followed that demand, and some Android tablets supported the use of Sony’s PlayStation 3 DualShock controllers as well as some PC gamepads.

Ouya

Ouya, which was announced in 2012 and is due for launch in March, took the next logical step. It created a console box to run Android on your television and handed you its own proprietary controller for running the show.

Project Shield (not its final name, says Nvidia) builds a unified handheld gaming device with a screen that folds into what looks like a close cousin of an Xbox 360 controller. Powered by Nvidia’s newest powerhouse chip, Tegra 4, the handheld becomes its own console controller when you plug the device into your television.

With Tegra 4, Android platforms can build games that look like high-quality PC titles as evidenced by the recent Project Shield demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show this year, which included a game demo of a mobile version of the PC mech shooter Hawken that didn’t appear to compromise much of the full experience. But these console or PC-quality games are going to appear on a platform largely regarded for distributing simple, touch-based mobile games.

Both Ouya and Project Shield address the presence of games with touch controls. Ouya’s controller has a built-in touch pad for players to input finger swipes and gestures during gameplay — the same as they would on a tablet or smartphone. Project Shield’s screen is, for all intents and purposes, a fully functioning 5-inch tablet, capable of running the full Android suite.

But that’s hardly the point.

Shadowgun

If I know one thing about the gaming public, it’s that it needs a product with a strong identity to get interested. Strong identities come via games people really want to play. I don’t see that on Android. It’s always been a little too ubiquitous for its own good, and this is a major obstacle in the games industry, where players and developers tend to put themselves in distinct camps and refuse to budge for long periods of time. Ask anyone who would love to play a console version of Diablo III about it.

I see Ouya and Project Shield as attempts to establish homes for Android gaming and, at the same time, bring it closer to the types of console/PC software to which hardcore gamers are attracted. I don’t know if it will work because the console-quality Android games — largely found in Nvidia’s TegraZone substore — are scant. It’s maybe worth giving the $99 Ouya a go, but Project Shield is a tougher sell if its price point gets too far above $199 (Nvidia hasn’t announced a firm price as of this writing).

More power to Ouya and Nvidia as they venture on, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up with rough drafts in a larger plan to establish Android as a serious gaming platform.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Normally, we video game guys don’t have to work too hard when it comes to covering consumer electronics. We have a few consoles, a few handhelds, maybe a few peripherals here and again, but it’s nothing like crazy world of phones and tablets … or at least it wasn’t.

This year, something happened: We started getting video game consoles from companies other than Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.

These alternative gaming devices, sometimes called microconsoles, come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors. You want to stream your games like Netflix? You can do that. Want to play Android-based games on a tablet with controls built into a handle? That’s a thing. Want Valve’s Steam experience on your television? It’s happening.

But it’s damn hard to keep up with everything. How do they work? What kind of games will they run? How much do they cost? OK — I’m panicking now just thinking about putting all of this information together for you … but I did.

We’ll try to keep this easy. Let’s get started.

Android-based microconsoles

Ouya

Price: $99
Release date: March (preorders)/April (retail)
Website: Ouya.tv

The Ouya is the single biggest reason I’m explaining all of this. When the tiny console box launched on Kickstarter — and raked in over $8 million from backers — it created more questions about the future of gaming than it answered.

Ouya’s basic concept is to bring the open platform of Android gaming to the television. It accomplishes this by providing a cheap box that has the guts of a smartphone but doesn’t rely on touch-screen controls. Instead, it comes with a physical controller with buttons, analog sticks, and everything else that gamers require to rack up a dozen headshots in a first-person shooter.

The console plays Android games, most of which aren’t designed for a controller, so Ouya is also a digital-distribution platform that will showcase original games (and Android games that the developer redesigned for physical controls).

On top of that, Ouya’s creators also promise the device is completely open to hacking. That means emulators and piracy. A good chunk of consumers may get something like Ouya just to play classic Super Nintendo games on one of the many Android emulator apps. A bunch more might get the system and pirate Android games (not that the developers can’t fight that on their level with authentication).

For Ouya to succeed, it will have to build a library of games that convince a portion of the audience to get their software directly through the new microconsole. This is possible.

Ouya is about to ship out to consumers in just a few months. It could easily launch with games like Minecraft Pocket Edition and others that already have full controller support.

The little Android has a few months to prove it’s worth the HDMI input it’s taking up on your television, otherwise people are likely to forget it as the new consoles come pouring down and wash it away.

GameStick

Price: $79
Release date: April
Website: Gamestick.tv

Take everything I wrote about Ouya and apply it to GameStick. It’s nearly all the same, but the GameStick is smaller than Ouya and $20 cheaper.

This thumb-drive-sized HDMI device uses Android. It has smartphone-like components. It comes with a physical controller. It has its own digital distribution platform.

The main difference between Ouya and GameStick is that PlayJam, the company behind this tiny device, is a game developer first. That could mean the GameStick will have better software support.

GameStick’s Kickstarter still has nine days left. So far, 4,240 backers contributed over $450,000.

Android-based tablet-controller hybrids

Project Shield

Price: ?
Release date: Q2 2013
Website: Shield.nvidia.com

Now things start getting weird. We went full hands-on with Nvidia’s Project Shield Android handheld at the Consumer Electronics Show. That’s when we discovered Project Shield is an impressive gaming device with some seriously cool features.

Nvidia’s handheld looks like an Xbox controller with a TV jammed into it. It features the company’s next-gen Tegra 4 processor and a 5-inch touch screen that flips up during gameplay.

It’s another controller-focused take on Android gaming. It has an HDMI port, so gamers can plug it into their televisions and use it just like Ouya. Developers are gonna have a lot of options if they want to make a mobile game that supports physical buttons.

But Project Shield has something Ouya and GameStick do not: The ability to stream games from your PC directly to the portable unit. This doesn’t mean you’ll be playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on the bus, but your PC could feed games to the system if you’re sitting on your couch. In that way, the device is a lot like a Wii U GamePad controller for the PC. Only instead of New Super Mario Bros. U, gamers can tap into their entire Steam libraries.

If Nvidia prices Project Shield competitively, it will take a lot of the oomph out of the impact that the other Android alternatives will have.

Wikipad

Price: $499
Release date: 2013
Website: wikipad.com

Wikipad is the name of the company and the product. The device is a 10-inch Android-based tablet that comes with a game-controller dock. This shell adds analog sticks, face buttons, and shoulder buttons to what is otherwise a pretty standard Android slate. Those controls, however, allow for precision in games from both the Google Play market and the PlayStation Store.

Sony provides a lot of classic PlayStation titles on its Android store, and a system with physical controls is the ideal way to experience them. Only Sony-approved devices can access its store, so hopefully GameStick, Ouya, and Project Shield can get on that list.

Wikipad should have launched its tablet in late 2012, but it delayed it. It still isn’t available, and the tech grows old. Tegra 3 is capable, but Tegra 4 hardware is due out as early as April and will likely blow it away.

Windows-based tablet-controller hybrid

Razer Edge

Price: $999 (base)/$1299 (pro)/$1499 (pro + gamepad)
Release date: Q3 2013
Website: Razerzone.com

OK, enough Android. Perhaps you prefer your console/handheld alternatives to have a PC flavor? Gaming equipment company Razer might have what you need.

It’s called Razer Edge. It’s a 10-inch Windows-based gaming tablet with screaming hardware. The $999 “basic” version starts with a Intel Core i5 1.7 GHz processor that can overclock to 2.6 GHz. It has 4 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD, and a GeForce GT 640M graphics card all packed into something not much bigger than a standard tablet. The $1299 Pro model upgrades the system to a Core i7, 8 GB RAM, and 128 or 256 GB SSD.

A rig with the Edge’s specs can run Skyrim at around medium to high settings. That’s not bad for a portable device.

Add $200 to the price and it comes with a controller dock similar to the Wikipad. Razer Edge also has a keyboard dock for traditional gaming and a living-room dock with a plethora of inputs and outputs. Just like most things on this list, the Razer Edge can connect to your TV, work with wireless controllers, and replace your console.

Valve-approved Windows/Linux-based Steam Box things

Xi3 Piston

Price: $999
Release date: March
Website: Xi3.com

The Steam Box is something much more nebulous than the Xi3 Piston micro PC, but it gives us a good idea of what Valve wants.

Valve is pushing the idea of a TV-connected gaming PC pretty hard. The Xi3 is a result of that. Valve put some money into Xi3 and is definitely experimenting with the company’s hardware. We’ll get into what exactly Valve is doing with the Steam Box as a whole in the very next section, but let’s explain the Piston first.

The Piston is a tiny little powerhouse. It’s a small cube-like device with a 3.2 GHz quad-core processor from AMD that packs the graphic on the same chip. It has 8 GB of RAM and up to 1 TB of storage capacity.

You’re supposed to plug this thing into your TV and run Steam in Big Picture mode, the interface the company designed for television displays, and that’s it. You have a Steam console.

The Steam Box

Price: ?
Release date: ?
Website: ?

Valve is working on a piece of hardware all their own. It is a Linux PC that will plug into your TV, but the company is also inviting others to do the same. If those companies want Valve’s help, Valve will help.

The software giant is going for a three-tiered strategy with the so-called “Steam Box.” Valve chief executive officer Gabe Newell called it a “good, better, and best” model in his interview with The Verge.

The “good” solution involves streaming devices. Not something like OnLive or Netflix that streams the data from some centralized location out to your house, but something that streams the games from your gaming PC to your television. Nvidia revealed a graphics card called Grid that is capable of something like that at CES.

The “better” solution is the one that Valve will release. It has a dedicated CPU and GPU. It doesn’t have a physical-media player. It’s small and quiet. It runs Linux, it has its own controller, and Valve will sell it itself.  It is a lot like the Xi3 Piston.

The “best” solution is the craziest, most expensive rigs you can think of. They have all the bells an whistles. They run big, hot, and loud. They aren’t even really Steam Boxes.

Games-streaming service

OnLive

Price: $99.99
Release date: Available now
Website: Onlive.com

OnLive is still a thing.  In August, GamesBeat reported that OnLive went through restructuring that saw its assets sold to another company. It’s still operational, and users can still play games on the service.

For those that don’t remember, OnLive is Netflix for video games. Gamers can stream full console games, like BioShock or Saints Row: The Third, to their PC, tablet, phone, or television without any serious hardware.

For the television, OnLive released a microconsole that can zap the digital platform right to a television. It works surprisingly well, but it the occasional lag is enough to keep it from fully replacing a dedicated gaming system.

Turns out your phone is already a console

MHL cables

Price: $7.65
Release date: Available now
Website: Monoprice.com

The thing about the Ouya and the GameStick is that they’re just focusing on a feature that your Android smartphone is already completely capable of. The Ouya plugs into your television and is compatible with a physical controller. You can do that with a Nexus 4, Samsung Galaxy S III, or an HTC DNA.

MHL cables allow people to connect a phone to a television HDMI input. Then some Android apps allow players to use a PlayStation 3 or Wii controller to interact with games. It’s a cheap and easy solution that basically amounts to the same thing as Ouya.

Of course, Ouya may encourage more developers to produce controller friendly games, but those titles are compatible with standard Android phones.

Green Throttle Atlas Controller

Price: $44.95
Release date: Early spring 2013
Website: Store.GreenThrottle.com

Green Throttle takes the idea of MHL cables a step further. The company designed its Atlas controller to work with Android phones. It sells the controllers in bundles with the cables required to connect your smartphone to the television.

Green Throttle wants players to use their phones as a console and they want them to use the Atlas to interact with it. The company has its own proprietary digital-download store similar to Ouya and GameStick. With this device, your phone truly is almost no different from either of those dedicated consoles, and it is probably more powerful than at least the GameStick.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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We all speculate about the future. For example, I predict that 2013 is the year we get edible game discs (I never said I was good at it).

But then you have prognosticators like Baird Equity Research analyst Colin Sebastian who get paid to make educated guesses about the future of video games. He sent GamesBeat nine predictions for 2013. I listed them below, along with a comment from GamesBeat:

E3 2013 will be the most important game conference since 2000

What Sebastian says: “Given the fragile state of the console game market, we expect the E3 trade show in June will take on added significance, most likely providing the industry with the first public opportunity to examine next-generation hardware.”

What we say: If the new consoles show up and impress gamers, it will put to bed a lot of the doubts people have about video games. If the new systems disappoint or don’t show up, it will only add to the chorus of critics who claim that Apple is slowly absorbing Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft’s audiences.

New console hardware will borrow from high-end PC components

What Sebastian says: “[The] next-generation console hardware will be largely built from ‘off the shelf’ high-end PC components, along with hybrid physical/digital distribution models, enhanced voice controls, and motion sensing — Kinect integration with every Xbox — and broad multimedia capabilities. Moreover, a PC-based architecture — Intel chips in the case of Xbox — should have a number of advantages over custom-developed silicon.”

What we say: Sebastian thinks this will make the consoles easier for devs to program for, cheaper for consumers, and more flexible for the hardware manufacturers. We’re on board with that prediction because it just makes too much damn sense. Microsoft is obviously the most likely to pursue this strategy.

Console production snags may hamper console launch quantities

What Sebastian says: “Our field checks suggest there may be early production issues with Sony’s PlayStation 4, which, if accurate, could limit unit shipments or regions at launch. While such issues are not necessarily fatal, or even unusual, we continue to believe that Sony needs a strong PS4 launch to counteract positive Xbox momentum. We continue to expect both Sony and Microsoft to host dedicated events before E3 to announce new consoles, with planned launches in October/November, respectively.”

What we say: Most major launches suffer from production snags. While it’s always nice to have a flawless launch, Sony needs to focus first and foremost on the games if it wants to combat Microsoft’s Xbox momentum. If it’s hard to get a PlayStation 4, it won’t matter if a demand for games doesn’t exist.

Challenging revenue trends will continue through this year

What Sebastian says: ”From a revenue perspective, we expect 2013 to mirror the overall challenging operating environment that plagued the console game market since the launch of the iPad. While growth comparisons are ‘easier’ in 2013, we note that increasing consumer anticipation for next-gen consoles may also negatively impact sales and prices on current-gen platforms. In general, we continue to expect top-tier games to sell well — GTA V, Call of Duty, Battlefield — while second-tier and lower-quality titles will struggle to generate meaningful unit volumes.”

What we say: The rich keep getting richer. It’s easy to see gamers sticking with tried-and-true favorites as excitement builds for the next-gen consoles. As soon as Sony and Microsoft reveal the first look at PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 games, this current gen is going to feel pretty old, and people will stop risking money on any game that isn’t a sure thing.

The mobile OS battles shifts to the big screen

What Sebastian says: “After several years of focus on mobile screens and browsers, attention is returning to the living room and ‘big screen gaming’ with the upcoming launches of new consoles from Microsoft and Sony. In addition, and just as important in our view, the proliferation of Internet-connected televisions will allow Apple and Google to make significant inroads into the living room, extending apps to the larger screen format.

“One near-term possibility is that an upgrade to Apple TV will include a [focus on gaming] and encourage other OEMs to accelerate the adoption of Android in their smart TVs. As such, we expect a rapid increase in the number of ‘made for TV’ apps in the coming years. Meanwhile, Ouya, ‘Steam box’ and other new living room gaming platforms are generating some interest in the market, however, we view these as appealing largely to niche audiences.”

What we say: A bunch of studios want at the living room television in a bad way. The number of alternatives to the traditional console (Ouya, GameStick, Steam box) suggest that other companies sense an opportunity to step in and usurp the console manufacturers. It’s impossible to imagine how this’ll shake out, but again, it’s about the games. If developers are doing interesting things on dozen Android-based consoles, gamers are going to check it out.

Tablets and LTE provide another boost to mobile games

What Sebastian says: “Just as smartphones heralded a significant rise in downloads of casual mobile games, there are now a significant number of tablet games in development. With the potential for iOS and Android tablets to become primary gaming platforms and increasingly control the living room experience on connected TVs, we expect that 2013 will also be remembered as the year that tablet games go mainstream. Additionally, we view increasing consumer access to high-speed LTE networks will allow for faster downloads, improved online game-play, and further monetization of users on smart devices.”

What we say: The living room is host to another battle besides the one for the TV. Tablets are fighting for the title of “couch device of choice.” That’s where the tablet battle will continue through 2013 and LTE 4G will have little impact on that.

Digital distribution is nigh, but retail remains relevant

What Sebastian says: ”New consoles and the rise of games for tablets and smart TVs will drive a further shift in industry sales to digital formats and business models [like free-to-play], although we expect that the majority of new console users will still prefer to purchase bigger games on disks. In addition, since console holders remain dependent on retail — and GameStop — for hardware distribution, we expect new platforms to permit used disc sales. As such, the first few years of the new console cycle will likely resemble the current cycle in terms of distribution mix.”

What we say: No, what he said. We will feast on our hats if either Sony or Microsoft go without a disc drive in the next console. On the other hand, we’ll be incredibly disappointed if Microsoft doesn’t start providing every major release on its digital store day-and-date with the retail version.

Nintendo shifts to niche category

What Sebastian says: ”We remain concerned that Nintendo’s innovative Wii U console will lack broad appeal beyond the core Nintendo fan base. Following a somewhat lackluster launch and holiday selling season, Nintendo will need to bring to market major first-party releases [like Zelda] and retain the support of key third-party developers to reduce market share losses. In a negative scenario, Nintendo will be forced to prematurely lower the Wii-U price, and over the course of this cycle, we expect consideration will be given to extending first party franchises to other platforms.”

What we say: Nintendo won’t recapture the unconventional audience that purchased a Wii. That doesn’t mean it can’t succeed. This is a company that made a profit with the Nintendo 64. It’s doubtful Nintendo will even consider developing Mario and Zelda for other platforms within the next five years.

Another high-profile game company will be sold

What Sebastian says: “The sale of Take Two or Vivendi’s stake in Activision are two notable possibilities; however, valuations are also declining among mobile and browser-based game companies, increasing the potential for further take-outs among private companies.”

What we say: If you want to buy Take Two, you better make the offer now. The publisher delayed Grand Theft Auto V, but we doubt that’s going to flop. The mobile sector is chaos, so we agree with Sebastian that someone is gonna buy something among all of that mess.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Correction (12/31/2012 @ 6:45 a.m.):  This article previously read that 52,000 people contributed the $79M. That is not correct. It is actually more than 520,000 backers. Before publishing, we double checked these numbers with Kickstarter. The company’s spokesperson assured us everything was accurate. That was not the case, and we apologize for providing incorrect data.

Original story:

As we punch the clock on 2012, we can safely call it the year of Kickstarter … at least for games.

After developer Double Fine (The Cave, Psychonauts) broke the crowdfunding concept wide open with its hugely successful campaign that raised over $3.45 million to produce a classic-style point-and-click adventure game (tentatively titled Double Fine Adventure), everyone wanted in on the concept. That led to the games category exploding on the site.

If you’re still somehow not aware, Kickstarter is a platform that creators can use to get funding for their projects from a lot of different people in exchange for small rewards, copies of the final product, or simply credit — and not from investors who will get a percentage of ownership in return. Inventors and creative people must pitch Kickstarter users on an idea, and then the public can contribute small (or large) sums of money if they want it to come to fruition.

We contacted Kickstarter, and a spokesperson told us that it was the crowdfunding site’s biggest year ever, and the 520,000 backers who contributed more than $79,000,000 toward game-related projects were a big part of that.

The Android-based Ouya console brings the indie-game concept to hardware. It raised over $8 million on Kickstarter.

Kickstarter in 2012 vs. Kickstarter in 2011

In 2011, Kickstarter only hosted 87 successfully funded video game projects. That number skyrocketed to 255 in 2012 — and that doesn’t even count this month in December.

The number of backers in the game category (which includes video games and tabletop games)  jumped from 45,622 in 2011 to around 52,000 in 2012, and the amount they contributed rose from a measly $3,616,530 in 2011 to nearly $80 million this year. Project creators must have stepped up their backer-reward game.

As popular as video games are on Kickstarter, there were even more board and card games. The site saw 385 tabletop titles successfully reach their funding.

Since Kickstarter launched in 2009, 162,665 people have backed more than one project in the games category.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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In the world of crowdfunding, Kickstarter is king. Most of the biggest successes on the platform involve video games.

Unsurprisingly, a new company is stepping in to act as a new crowdfunding destination exclusively for gaming. GameLaunched, which debuts to the public on New Year’s Day, will begin accepting campaign submissions tomorrow, December 12.

Crowdfunding is a recent development of the web. It’s a way for thousands of individuals to donate a small amount of money each to help bring an idea to fruition. Creators set a funding goal, and they only get the money if the campaign reaches that minimum. Sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo have found great success with this model.

On Kickstarter, projects like the independent Android console Ouya and new games from veteran developers such as Obsidian (the company behind Project Eternity) earned multiple millions from excited backers. GameLaunched obviously took notice and is getting in on that business.

To distinguish itself as a home for gaming projects, GameLaunched is doing a few things slightly differently from the other crowdfunding platforms.

First, the company set up a panel of industry experts that will help select which projects the site will shine a light on. It even plans to have this team do some mentoring for GameLaunched creators.

Second, after a game is fully funded, the developers and designers can use the GameLaunched platform as a store to sell their product. That’s very different from Kickstarter, which has repeatedly stated that it is not a store.

Third, gamification! GameLaunched will award experience points to project backers who can level up and compete on leaderboards. Users can also exchange XP for merchandise.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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In an NPR interview yesterday, Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler seems to suggest that the question of refunds has never been broached, that failed projects which are unable to deliver promised goods are “a bridge that has not yet been crossed.”

That wasn’t a big deal, perhaps when projects were small: some thousands of dollars. But now Kickstarter has raised $289 million for almost 70,000 projects. And some of those projects, like the Ouya gaming console, have raised millions of dollars from tens of thousands of fans.

Unfortunately, not all Kickstarter projects have have been completely above-board.

Tech-Sync Power Systems took $27,000 in pledges before being canceled under odd circumstances. Vere Sandals seemed to be a case where an organization took on backers for one purpose — yes, sandals — and was accused of using the funds for another: starting a retail business. That turned out to be a simple delay. But others, such as the group behind MYTHIC, a nonexistent game from an imaginary team, continue to try to scam the crowdfunding scene.

The good thing?

The internet is very good at detecting and shutting down scams. MYTHIC was canned after raising just under $5,000 of an $80,000 goal. Another scam for a universal video game controller was shut down before getting fully funded. And, since no money is awarded unless a project is fully funded, and the Kickstarter community seems to be pretty good at weeding out bad actors, it’s not clear if a complete scam has ever fully succeeded on the site.

However, that doesn’t mean that all projects always deliver the goods, but most do — even if they’re late.

As Appsblogger’s recent infographic shows, only 25 percent of Kickstarter projects in the Design and Technology categories finish on time. After eight months of delay, at least 75 percent of projects have delivered the goods to their backers. In fact, the more funding they have, the later they deliver.

We’re still working to find out what happens to the remaining 25 percent that haven’t delivered after 8 months or more, but here’s one anecdotal point: Kickstarter told me about one project that delivered two years after completing funding.

So what about that quote? What about the apparent reference to failed projects being an “uncrossed bridge”?

A Kickstarter PR representative told me that “the quote is a mis-hearing.” The “new ground” Strickler is referring to is not failed projects, but whether Kickstarter would get involved in mediating a dispute between a project and its backers.

“Kickstarter would not step in as a mediator,” the Kickstarter representative, who declined to be named, told me. The relationship between a project and its backers is just that: a relationship between those two parties. Kickstarter, he said, simply facilitates the arrangement.

That’s consistent with the Kickstarter terms of service:

All dealings are solely between Users. Kickstarter is under no obligation to become involved in disputes between any Users, or between Users and any third party. This includes, but is not limited to, delivery of goods and services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties, or representations associated with campaigns on the Site. Kickstarter does not oversee the performance or punctuality of projects.

And …

Kickstarter does not offer refunds. A Project Creator is not required to grant a Backer’s request for a refund unless the Project Creator is unable or unwilling to fulfill the reward.

But it does leave a lot of grey area. For example, who would force a “Project Creator” to grant a request for refund, if not Kickstarter?

There’s some room for clarification here, and Kickstarter just published a blog post, attempting to provide it. But, the representative said, the company is still young.

“We’re three years old. In our first year, no one knew about us,” said.

Now that many millions of people have heard about Kickstarter, it will probably have to cross the refund bridge sooner rather than later.

photo credit: ktpupp via photo pin cc

The cafeteria buzzed with excitement. People quickly gathered in groups of four to five, delegating their team captains as they weighed in on the pros and cons of using a wide assortment of mechs — giant mechanical suits equipped with large guns that players use to fight against one another — in the MechWarrior video game universe.

Strange names like Atlas or Jenner popped up in their conversations. Calculated strategies formed out of thin air. Pristine tournament brackets appeared on 42-inch television screens. Thirty-two high-end PC rigs, masquerading as virtual cockpits, lined up on either side of the room, waiting for would-be pilots to command them.

For both the fans and the developers, this was a homecoming.

The MechWarrior franchise hasn’t seen a proper release since 2002. The upcoming free-to-play (F2P) shooter MechWarrior Online, developed by Piranha Games and published by Infinite Game Publishing, changes that. Along with the publisher’s MechWarrior Tactics, the revitalized brand is set to make a big splash in this year. IGP continued its momentum by celebrating with the franchise’s diehard community at the Nvidia campus in Santa Clara, Calif.

Before the mech-blasting began, GamesBeat sat down with Kelly Zmak, the president of the Montreal, Quebec-based IGP, who is one of the key folks responsible for MechWarrior’s sudden comeback. Zmak is an industry veteran: He started at Activision in the mid 1980s, and he worked his way up to various corporate positions, including president of the now-defunct Prototype 2 developer Radical Entertainment.

Dressed in jeans, a black collared shirt, and his trademark cowboy hat, Zmak’s candid answers offer some refreshing insight into not just the future of IGP but for the game industry as a whole.

GamesBeat: Infinite Game Publishing has only been around since last year, right? What’s the history behind the company?

Kelly Zmak: Yeah, since August. The initial efforts actually started almost five years ago now. A group of guys got together — Nick Foster, who’s currently our CEO; Anthony Brown; and a number of other guys got together — and started pitching a concept. It was a free-to-play space [with] a business model based off of, obviously, on a mindset of four or five years ago. And if you think about how the market has so dramatically changed over the last few years — even in my mind, the last year — you know the history of it started with an idea. Like most concepts do.

Source: linkedin.com

Kelly Zmak, the president of IGP.

And then really in April/May of last year, when I got involved in 2011, the ideas had formulated. We had established some good relationships with investors, and we started to really identify the business model and the business plans associated with it. So the history started from just a pretty humble beginning of the ideas and a group of people involved, to evolving last year to a [set] of business models and proposals that we brought to an investment group. The most difficult thing of any idea is actually getting somebody to put some money into it and to give you the opportunity to prove that you can do it.

That was really what we were focused on. I was joking with my wife the other day [that] August 19 is our one-year anniversary of the business, and it’s been a wild year. But that history is actually, like most great starts, just an idea and a group of people that got together and said this is what we want to do.

And back then, it involved MechWarrior. So it’s always really revolved around that IP. It’s evolved and changed and certainly modified and grown as we’ve gone through the years, but it’s been a great humble beginning to a place where we think we’re gonna see some great things over the next few years.

GamesBeat: It seems pretty timely, because even four or five years ago, F2P games weren’t up to the quality that they are now with games like Tribes: Ascend or Blacklight Retribution. Was F2P always in store for the revitalization of the MechWarrior brand?

Zmak: Yeah, it was F2P and really focusing on triple-A [quality]. I’m largely from a retail space. I started in ’85, and consoles have always been kind of my heart and my soul, though I’ve had PC experience throughout the years. I was involved in the original Mech 1. I was involved in Mech 2. I was involved in Mech 3. So I have a lot of history with MechWarrior.

When I came in the organization and saw the license and the IP and saw [Russ Bullock, the president of MWO developer Piranha Games] and his team, I really had an opportunity to dive in to what they were wanting this product to be. And then we worked together to evolve that concept. But it always stayed true to the basic premise that we wanted a F2P model that focused on a core gaming audience. We felt that was a niche market place. We felt that it was a untapped audience.

We believe that the maturity that you see in the F2P market in Korea, you’re gonna see in the North America market. We believe that the success of our key competition clearly demonstrates that there’s a desire among consumers to invest in games that they like and are willing to participate in this process. Really, what we’re talking about is a transition from retail boxed product, where I had to think I knew what the product was going to be when I shipped it.

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The Android-based video game console Ouya successfully completed its funding tonight, raising about $8.6M in total — roughly $7.6M more than its original $950,000 goal.

Ouya, the startup responsible for the project, gained more than 63,000 backers in less than one month. The campaign began on July 10 and earned a Kickstarter record-breaking $2.6M in its first day, hitting the $1M milestone in a little over eight hours.

“We were inspired to build Ouya because we disagree with the people that claim consoles are dead,” Julie Uhrman, chief executive of Ouya, told GamesBeat. “Consoles aren’t dead, but the thinking that has guided the console industry is outdated. It was time to challenge the basic assumptions of the business. The overwhelming enthusiasm we saw from folks like Jay Adelson, founder of Digg; Jawbone founder Hosain Rahman; Flixter founder Joe Greenstein; and [former Microsoft vice president] Ed Fries, combined with support of well-known game developers and the backing from the people who funded us on Kickstarter, proved that we weren’t the only ones ready to rethink the console business.”

Those notable backers include Marcus “Notch” Persson of Minecraft developer Mojang, Robert Bowling of Human Element studio Robotoki, and inXile’s Brian Fargo.

Ouya, which will require developers to use the free-to-play model in some way for all software releases, signed with OnLive to bring hundreds of games on demand to the platform. It also partnered with notable publishers such as Namco Bandai and Square Enix, securing titles like the Japanese Final Fantasy III (a first for home consoles) at launch, and other entertainment companies to incorporate services like Vevo, iHeartRadio, Plex, and XMBC.

In addition, Bowling will release an episodic prequel to Human Element first on the system.

“For me, personally,” said Uhrman, “the Kickstarter experience has been incredibly moving. It’s huge to see people rally behind your idea. I’m eternally grateful to the tens of thousands of people who reached into their wallets to back this project — and those are the folks that actually backed us. I have to assume that there are exponentially more people watching Ouya with interest and rooting us on from the sidelines even if they weren’t able to back us.

“Will we make history? We’ll leave that to the historians. Once the Kickstarter ends, we still have a big job to do.”

Ouya was unable to give us a specific number of units sold during the campaign, but it did provide an early ballpark estimate of more than 60,000 units. The system itself, which is about the size of a Rubik’s cube, supports up to four controllers (each complete with a touch pad) and is hardware hacker-friendly. It launches in March 2013.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The most successful crowdfunded project ever continues to gain steam and announce partnerships.

The creators of Ouya, the Android-based gaming console that has now raised almost $7 million on Kickstarter, announced today that open-source media player and digital entertainment hub XBMC will be integrated into the platform. In addition, the creators of Ouya are working with TuneIn to bring Internet radio — 70,000 stations worth — to the new console platform.

In a blog post on the organization’s Kickstarter page, Ouya calls the addition of the XBMC’s media center “a match made in open-source heaven.”

According to the XBMC announcement, this is not just a quick paste-on addition but a cooperative effort: ”XBMC will be working with Ouya to ensure that XBMC works well on the Ouya platform.”

Almost $7 million raised so far …

The announcements come just days after Ouya announced iHeartRadio was bringing over 1,000 U.S.-based radio stations to Ouya, and that the newest home entertainment center was partnering with music-video platform VEVO to add high-def music videos.

In other words, Ouya is shaping up, on the surface at least, to be a viable competitor in a mature marketplace that includes smart TVs, Xbox, PlayStation, and AppleTV: media hubs and content access points bringing everything that the Internet offers to the biggest screen in your house.

(See interviews with Ouya’s designer, Yves Behar, on stage at GamesBeat, as well as one-on-one with our own Kat Bailey.)

Ouya started with games — and recently brought streaming games platform OnLive to the platform —  but the vision always included more.

“It’s a new kind of game console for the TV that embraces the openness of mobile and Internet platforms,” Julie Uhrman, the founder and chief executive of the company, said just as the project was getting started on Kickstarter.

That statement is proving true now, as Ouya is building a strong stable of partnerships and services to deliver a full-featured media experience.

Once question: Will the end result feel simple, clean, and integrated…or will the conglomeration of different services and interfaces feel artificial and pasted together?

Only time will tell.

Tune-in interface on Android

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best games stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, Zynga is in hot water after allegations of insider trading, Diablo III players top 10 million, and a Konami employee won an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics.

You’ll also find game reviews for Deadlight and the Dark Knight Rises.

Game news:

The DeanBeat: How fast will the shift to huge growth for mobile games happen?

Papo & Yo and 10 other games that feature graffiti

As Sanctuary beckons, Diablo III players top 10M

Konami employee wins Olympic gold medal in gymnastics

Saban Brands buys Zombie Farm iOS gamemaker The Playforge

New online game from Schell lets fans contribute story lines, artwork, music, and more

Twin Engine Labs launches Pentakill app to not suck at League of Legends

Working on generations of game consoles: a developer’s perspective

Bing Rewards earns you Microsoft Points, but not when you use it on an Xbox 360

Why you’re likely to be playing Grand Theft Auto V by March

For Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One, success is measured in DeLoreans and geeked-out fans

Spy vs Spy game creator tells the story of a rerelease nearly 30 years in the making

Oculus launches Kickstarter campaign for virtual reality gaming headset

Leaked pictures of the next Xbox’s developmental kit, codenamed Durango

Nintendo’s Japanese servers struggle to keep up with New Super Mario Bros. 2 digital sales

MMO news:

World of Warcraft loses over one million subscribers in second quarter

Tracking Star Wars: The Old Republic’s declining subscribers

How to engage 200M users: The secrets of MMO storytelling success (exclusive)

With subscribers below 1M, Star Wars: The Old Republic will go free-to-play this fall

Dragons, dinosaurs, and Transformers: RuneScape’s CEO on the future of free to play

Lawsuits:

Nintendo wins Wii patent lawsuit

Zynga stuck in real-life BadNewsVille: more lawsuits, COO demoted

First Zynga insider trading lawsuit filed

SeeYouInCourtVille: law firms investigating Zynga for possible insider trading

End of the quarter news:

As blockbusters keep selling, Activision Blizzard beats Wall Street’s expectations

Sony slashes Vita sales forecast after slow Q1 sales

Despite Star Wars slowdown, analysts aren’t in despair over EA’s performance

EA hits on earnings but misses on revenue target for June quarter

EA hires new CFO as it prepares to announce earnings

Previews:

Pokémon Black and White 2 looks to the past for inspiration (preview)

The Nintendo 3DS XL is the bigger, wiser brother of the 3DS (hands-on impressions)

Reviews:

Deadlight sets a poetic survival-horror tone but stumbles with melodramatic writing (review)

The Dark Knight Rises fails to soar above the mediocrity of licensed games (review)

Interviews: 

Death Rally paves a developer’s path into brave new world of games (interview)

Gamers at Work reveals the risks and emotional complications in entrepreneurship (interview)

Papaya Mobile’s new ad-exchange program could lure new developers to the platform (interview)

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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We haven’t heard much about the non-gaming functionality of the Ouya, the open-source, Android-based console that blew up on Kickstarter. Today we learned that the video-streaming app Vevo will be available on Ouya.

Vevo’s library includes over 50,000 music videos, concerts, and original music programming. It has been available on the Xbox 360 since march. The inclusion of music and video shows that Ouya is responding to requests of its fans, and that any modern game console needs to do more than just play games these days.

“Not only will Vevo and Ouya bring high-definition music video programming back to the TV, we’re turning control over to you,” stated Ouya on the latest update to its Kickstarter page. “Access music videos from your favorite artists like JAY Z, Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber, Shakira, Kings of Leon, The Killers, Big K.R.I.T., Florence + The Machine, John Mayer and P!nk when you want them and where you want them: on your big, shiny television!”

“At Vevo, our mission is to bring high quality music experiences to users wherever and whenever,” said Vevo on the announcement. “We have always strived to embrace new platforms that developers, creative communities and consumers are excited about. Ouya is just that; it’s one of the most exciting new entertainment platforms we’ve seen, and we think it’s a natural fit for Vevo’s premium music videos and original music programming.”

With just one week left, the Ouya Kickstarter has earned more than $6 million, well above its initial $950,000 goal. While already a success in the crowd-funding world, apps like Vevo will go a long way toward making it a hit with consumers.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Cloud gaming platform OnLive announced today that its service will be available pre-installed on the open-source Ouya console when it launches next year.

OnLive streams games to users from its own servers and allows low-end PCs, tablets, and smartphones to run high-definition content (but then again, maybe it doesn’t). Here are some bullet points about how Ouya will use OnLive, according to the cloud service’s blog:

• OnLive will bring hundreds of top-tier games from more than 80 publishers to the Ouya console for play on demand.
• Ouya owners will be able to jump in and play any of these games both at home on their Ouya console and on the go on PCs, Macs, tablets, and phones.
• Instant demos will be available for nearly every game in OnLive’s ever-growing library. Players can experience up to 30 minutes of each game for free before deciding what to buy. If they like a game, they can continue playing where the demo left off.

The Ouya will launch sometime next year at a price point of $99. It’s raised more than $5.5 million on crowdfunding site Kickstarter.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The Human Element episodic prequel will introduce players to a zombie apocalypse and prepare them for the full version of the game launching sometime in 2015.

Robotoki president and former Call of Duty creative strategist Robert Bowling is excited about bringing Human Element to Ouya. So excited, in fact, that he’s pledged $10,000 of his own money on Kickstarter to the company building the console. GamesBeat recently chatted with Bowling about his company’s announcement and new game, and about his departure from triple-A game development.

GamesBeat: Are you at all worried about investing so much money in Ouya?

Robert Bowling: I’m not because this is exactly what I’m excited about. This is the type of stuff that I want to invest in. The stuff that is trying to do something new and innovative. Something that’s going to encourage us as designers to get outside our comfort zone. Because I believe that as much as this is about business — our industry as a business — first and foremost, it’s a creative field. And if we’re not taking these risks, and we’re not taking these leaps, then we’re going to become stagnant. We’re going to become unemotionally invested in what we’re doing, and our products won’t be good.

Could I have made this decision a year ago working on Call of Duty? Possibly not. But this is what being independent, being small, and being nimble is all about. We’re able to make commitments like these and take bigger risks. And what I like about Ouya and what encouraged me to commit to it was the fact that Ouya is different. We’re able to rapidly prototype stuff that’s much more cost-effective and much less risk averse than what we could have ever done committing to some other platform.

GamesBeat: You were formerly creative strategist for Call of Duty at Infinity Ward. Now you’re president of your own studio, Robotoki. Why did you decide to leave and go indie?

Bowling: I worked on Call of Duty for seven years. So it’s a project that I’ve been on since the very early days, and I loved doing it. But the thing is when you’re working on one creative project for that amount of time, and no matter what it is, you’re really creating lists in your head of experiences and characters and moments that you want to deliver and that fit within that universe that you’re creating. But then you’re also creating another list of experiences, moments, characters, and stories that you want to tell that don’t fit that universe for one reason or another. And over time, one of those lists is getting smaller because you’re checking stuff off as you complete them, and one of those lists is getting bigger. And at some point — and that point happened to be earlier this year — that list gets completed. And when that happens, you have to move on. You have to move on and start exploring that other list. The only way to do that for me was to move out on my own and create Robotoki because I needed that extra benefit of being small and nimble. Because what we want to accomplish is riskier.

GamesBeat: Big name publishers are notorious for not taking those kinds of risks.

Bowling: Exactly. And that’s not their job, per se. Their job is to — because they’re public companies that have shareholders — their job is to turn a profit, and they’re legally obligated to do that. That’s why when I formed Robotoki, it was very important to me that, at the beginning, I was self-funding everything. That I was setting up our foundation with my own money and taking that risk off the table for anybody else. That allowed us to really set our foundation on creative principles that were not influenced by the need for outside funding. We don’t plan to do that forever. Obviously, we plan to bring products to market with the help of other partners, but setting that foundation was most important. You don’t have that luxury as a big, public company.

GamesBeat: Tell me a little about Human Element.

Bowling: There are multiple areas that you really have to cover to fully understand Human Element. When we announced it at [the Electronic Entertainment Expo], I was very adamant about saying that we’re not announcing a game. We’re announcing a universe. This is a new intellectual property, and we really want to introduce you to this world that we’re creating. What’s important, what we’re showing with Ouya, what we’re doing on mobile, and what we’re planning for 2015 is an experience that will adapt and change based on the device you’re engaging with. So what we’re doing on mobile is very different from what we’re planning on doing with the at-home experience in 2015, and it will be very different from the episodic content that we’re bringing exclusively to Ouya.

Human Element is a world that takes place 35 years after an event has occurred, and that event is a zombie apocalypse. But this is not a game about zombies. They’re really just a catalyst to kick off these stories of human survival scenarios. What we’re really concerned about is the true threat in this apocalypse, which is that human element. The other survivors are smart and strong enough to compete for what we have, and they have conflicting mentalities and ideals of what the future should be. So that’s what we’re looking at: the physical, but most importantly, the emotional and mental survival of these humans after the fall of society.

GamesBeat: What kind of game will Human Element be? Is it a shooter? An action game?

Bowling: Well, that changes depending on platform. The at-home 2015 experience will be a first-person survival game. There are a lot of very heavy role-playing game elements. By no means would I call it a shooter, nor would I necessarily call it an action game. It’s a first-person survival game, whereas on tablets it will be much more focused on strategy and resource management. It’s not meant to be the same genre or supplement the experience you’re getting at home. It will feed into that experience in terms of sharing supplies and stats benefits, but it’s a very independent experience. Because it’s an episodic game, we’re looking at very unique scenarios that will occur in this world. We’re able to rapidly prototype different experiences and test them out. We can get player feedback from the Ouya community once this launches and let them shape what’s in the future episodes and content.

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If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best games stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, the Xbox 360 is the number-one-selling console for the 18th month in a row, the U.S. Senate considers legalizing online poker,  and a Taiwanese gamer dies after playing Diablo III for 40 hours straight.

You’ll also find a review for Dyad as well as several video interviews with Tapjoy, Ouya designer Yves Béhar, and Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus.

GamesBeat:

The DeanBeat: What GamesBeat 2012 tells us about the road ahead in gaming

Nextpeer gives developers new ways to monetize their games via multiplayer tournaments

The War Z takes zombie-survival into the massively multiplayer arena

Tapjoy keeps looking for creative ways to monetize mobile app users (video interview)

Insomniac Games’ Pokémon-inspired Facebook title, Outernauts, is now in open beta

Startup hopes to fund a Shadowrun MMO through Kickstarter

Ouya designer Yves Béhar talks disruption and design (video interview)

Ubisoft posts strong quarterly results thanks to sales of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

China’s Tencent marches to the West in search of kick-ass games (interviews)

If RuneScape were a country, it’d have the fifth largest population in the world (infographic)

Earnings preview: Game makers to see mixed second quarter

DICE: ‘We’re in one of the best positions’ for Battlefield 4 timing

New Call of Duty: Black Ops II video says games are better than movies while touting Hollywood connection

Estonia accelerator flooded with 122 game startup applications

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD is a decent update to the original but brings along some baggage (review)

Alt-rock legend Beck contributes exclusive tracks to Sound Shapes

U.S. Senate considering legalizing online poker — and cracking down on other Internet gambling

Valve targets Ubuntu Linux operating system for Steam port

I’ve got a bad feeling about this — Star Wars: The Old Republic’s producer leaves BioWare

Pachter on the case for Call of Duty: Black Ops II on the Wii U

Casual game site operator Oberon rebrands itself as Iplay

TransGaming to launch World Poker Tour game for smart TVs

Microsoft veteran starts PeopleFun mobile game startup (exclusive)

Tom Hanks gets into the game-making business

Sony Pictures joins in on the movie-game disruption trend

Free-to-play Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances surpasses 1 million players

Intermittent Uplay outage renders several Ubisoft games unplayable

You can’t un-see these 11 video game box art clichés

Leisure Suit Larry publisher trades up to a new developer (exclusive)

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale’s roster grows by two: Adding Cole MacGrath, Jak and Daxter

Microsoft releasing a $400 Halo 4-themed Xbox 360

Marvel teams up with High Moon Studios for an upcoming game based on Deadpool

Battlefield 4 seemingly revealed by Origin

Puzzler: Match the celebrity voices to the video game characters

Dyad is a psychedelic treat for the senses with gameplay to match (review)

VentureBeat:

6 video game icons acting hilariously out of character

Microsoft: Xbox 360 top-selling console for 18th consecutive month

AMD reports weak second quarter earnings on PC market softness

Another ex-Ensemble mobile game startup, BonusXP, comes out of stealth (exclusive)

BitMonster Games startup unveils a beautiful 3D iPhone game

Zynga’s Mark Pincus discusses how mobile could disrupt the game industry (video interview)

King.com: From tournament gaming to No. 2 on Facebook (video interview)

Taiwanese gamer dies after 40-hour Diablo III session

Applifier launches video ad network to monetize Facebook games

Ouya’s video game console Kickstarter tops $5M raised so far (exclusive interview)

American McGee’s Spicy Horse launches real-time, cross-platform title Crazy Fairies (exclusive)

Zynga designers help Pulitzer Prize winners create social charity game

Mandala adds French touch to social casino games

Teen gamer developers swarm Roblox’s hackathon conference

Penny Arcade says fans can ripoff and remix past comics if it meets Kickstarter goal

Russian hacker finds a way to get in-app purchases for free (updated)

Angry Birds follow-up Amazing Alex tops app charts after just one day

Samsung brings motion-controlled Angry Birds to Smart TVs, announces massive 75″ set

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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We just can’t get enough of Yves Béhar.

The designer of the open-source Ouya console attended last week’s GamesBeat and MobileBeat conferences, and we have the interviews to prove it. And here’s one more, in which Béhar sits down with VentureBeat’s Matt Marshall.

In addition to the Ouya and its record-breaking Kickstarter, Béhar talks about the design philosophies that fed into projects like the Jambox wireless speaker and PayPal Here, a pay-anywhere service going up against Square.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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