Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman has confirmed that over 8,000 game devs are coding titles for the $99 Android-powered console, including Square Enix, Double Fine Productions, Tripwire Interactive, Vlambeer, Phil Fish’s Polytron Corporation, and Kim Swift’s Airtight Games.
“The majority of devs so far are experienced devs who’ve never built an Android game before. About 1 out of 5 have never even built a game before.Ouya already has more titles a couple months before launch than any console has ever launched with,” Uhrman told GamesIndustry International last week on the sidelines of GDC 2013.
“[However], what we spent the most amount of time on is the controller. We really want this to be our love letter to gamers. This is one of the pieces of Ouya that evolved a lot based on early supporter feedback.”
According to Uhrman, the console won’t neglect triple-A games, even though the initial wave of titles is likely to be heavily indie-oriented due to the inherent nature of the OS. Indeed, there is always the partnership with OnLine, with the console also supporting 1080p and HD.
“We have a USB port so someone can add an external hard drive, so for games that are heavy you could absolutely use that. We have a max download size of 1.2GB for the first download, but as a developer if you want to add and send additional content from your servers you can,” Uhrman explained.
“[Then again] Ouya offers something different; every gamer has a different expectation depending upon the platform and we believe we’re going to have innovative, creative games and exclusive games to Ouya… We don’t really think it’s an either/or situation, [as] we’re offering something different.”
In related Ouya news, Square Enix recently announced that an Ouya version of Final Fantasy III is now available. According to Explosion.com, FF III Ouya will be based on the 3D version of the game, originally released on Nintendo DS before being ported to PSP, iOS and Android mobile devices.
Nevertheless, Final Fantasy III Ouya won’t be a simple port of the other versions, as controls will be optimized and visuals will be improved, making it (visually) one of the best versions of the game.
